Compare These Sets

[legitimatealex]

7037 Tower Raid vs 9471 Uruk-Hai Army

7037 Tower Raid

$29.99
364 Pieces
5 Minifigs


9471 Uruk-Hai Army
257 Pieces
6 Minifigs


I just can't wrap my mind around it. I think Tower Raid is the best set I've ever gotten (Siege tower going up against a tower, 5 minifigs, armored and equipped, huge wheels, dark metallic bricks and all a super menacing look, battering ram,extendable platform to get into the tower and wall that falls over after being battered) and compared to it's $30 equivalent today I'm just wondering what the heck happened. Uruk-Hai Army is a bit of a wall section against a...What does that thing even shoot, blades? Grappling Hooks? I can see that the main draw is the minifigures, but Tower Raid has one less minifigure and more than a 100 more pieces.

I know this is coming off of a gripe but I'm just lost as to how this can be considered attractive to get. If it's an army builder, its too expensive by $18. If it's for the pieces, I'm not sure what they're supposed to be. If its for the playability, I'm going to call you a liar. What's the allure of this set at this price point?

[lego the hutt]

Licensed theme sets are almost always going to be pricier than the equivalent standard Lego theme sets. I'm not sure of the exact numbers of the cost of licensing fees but it does cost LEGO extra to produce these sets.

The fact that it has characters from LotR makes the Urak-hai Set much more desirable to me personally. I'm sure others feel the same.

Not to mention that the set you mention is 3 years old. Inflation isn't huge in 3 years but it does account for something.

[dr_spock]

One set appeals to a fan of the LOTR books or movies. The other set does not.

[SpaceViking]

Uruk-Hai also has the new pose-able horse, which is worth at least a minifig (or two), at will lower the piece count comparison.

[Buttmunch]

Yeah, the older set is definately a better value, but unforutunately most of the LotR sets are overpriced. Weathertop is really a $50 set in my eyes, not $60. Helms Deep isn't quite worth $130, but still probably over a $100. Its a big set, but would have probably been worth the price tag if this set had been included with it. I appreciate being able to buy a smaller priced set and army build easier than buying $130 sets, but they could have easily just had it included that wall in the Helms Deep set.

But I do have to agree you get more figures and the cool new horse as well in the LotR set. I figure most licensed figures are worth $5 each (minifigure series ones are $3 right?), so even then, you could see the wall, horse and catapult being free that way. So its not a terrible value, but you certainly seem to have gotten a more impressive set with the older set.

But I'm sure we'll see some seige towers to go along with a Minas Tirith soon enough.

[hatcher]

Cmparing a licenced theme verus an original theme is like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, the tower raid has more parts, but its not licenced. The licensing fees, the new molds (which I've heard can cost upwards of $250000 to make) all conspire to drive the price up. Not much we can do but wait for a sale.

[legohunter]

Not to say comparing with LotR set, 7037 Tower Raid was a way better set than any sets from Kingdoms series in terms of price. We could see how 7037 Tower Raid was downgraded to 7948 Outpost Attack. Too bad, I never owned this set due to my dark age, and price is ridiculous at fee-bay nowaday.

BTW, the troll siege machine was so cool. Very nice design.

[Deathleech]

Considering the Uruk-hai Army set has an extra minifigure and a horse, on top of being a license, I think they are somewhat comparable. Also, like others have pointed out, Tower Raid was an amazing deal when it was released.

All these things add up and I don't really see most of the new LotR sets being bad deals at all. A couple do seem a little high for what you get, but all in all the price per piece is right around 10 cents which is pretty good for a licensed set with soo many new pieces.

[legitimatealex]

The reasoning posted here by various members have led me to the conclusion that LEGO should stop with the licenses already...

So the consensus appears to be that this set is justified in its price because:

1. It's licensed
2. It has new pieces
3. These new pieces require new molds
4. Inflation (maybe, but with a 3 year difference I'm not sure I'd grant that one)

Is the solution to better values per dollar (or whatever monetary unit you'd like) to not have so many licensed themes? Wait it out until the molds pay for themselves and then it will be cheaper?

No one has yet to mention that the LOTR set is still boring and highly priced for an army builder, even if it does have quite a few minifigures. In the past, LEGO kept their army builders at a much lower price with only 4 minifigures (see SW sets.)

[lego the hutt]

The reasoning posted here by various members have led me to the conclusion that LEGO should stop with the licenses already...

So the consensus appears to be that this set is justified in its price because:

1. It's licensed
2. It has new pieces
3. These new pieces require new molds
4. Inflation (maybe, but with a 3 year difference I'm not sure I'd grant that one)

Is the solution to better values per dollar (or whatever monetary unit you'd like) to not have so many licensed themes? Wait it out until the molds pay for themselves and then it will be cheaper?

No one has yet to mention that the LOTR set is still boring and highly priced for an army builder, even if it does have quite a few minifigures. In the past, LEGO kept their army builders at a much lower price with only 4 minifigures (see SW sets.)

Some of the reasons you listed are exactly why it is in LEGO's best interest to continue to make licensed theme sets. LEGO is a company like any other, giving us the best value per dollar is not the goal. They would not sell anywhere near the same amount of sets if these weren't based on LotR.

Personally I would not be buying this set if it were made with standard yellow minifigs. That is the same reason I will not be going out of my way to purchase the other Tower Raid set you compared it to (even if it was MSRP).

I am an adult LotR fan who first read the Hobbit in the mid eighties and the trilogy a few years later...and multiple times since then. That is why these sets interest me.

I disagree with your assessment that the LotR sets are boring. I do agree with you that this set is expensive when compared to standard army building sets like have been produced in other licensed themes.

The reason for why this set is the army builder set is that the castle wall piece from this set attaches to the Helms Deep set. There are people who will want to increase their wall tenfold to make a giant Helms Deep display. The high minifig count combined with the wall addition makes this more than a army builder set. It is an army AND castle builder set, thus the higher cost when compared to other battlepacks that have a smaller quantity of bricks.

[ncbarrett]

The reasoning posted here by various members have led me to the conclusion that LEGO should stop with the licenses already...

licensed themes have become TLC bread and butter that allow them to make original themes like Alien Conquest and Monster Hunters.

If you want new castle sets, then you'll have to wait awhile for LotR to end.
If you want knights for army building get the new Kingdoms chess set.
less than $2 a figure.

If you want the other pieces that are in the LotR sets, wait for clearance, they will end up there eventually.

[sadowsk1]

Cmparing a licenced theme verus an original theme is like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, the tower raid has more parts, but its not licenced. The licensing fees, the new molds (which I've heard can cost upwards of $250000 to make) all conspire to drive the price up. Not much we can do but wait for a sale.

I've heard that it costs a lot to make new molds, but it seems like they are making a lot of new molds lately and I wonder if they haven't come up with a cheaper way to make them.

[Deathleech]

Lego the Hutt is right. The extra price they pay for a license makes up for itself ten fold with all the branding and fans that come with it. Look at their Star Wars theme for example. They have done other alien/space related themes before, but do you think any of them have been a fraction as successful as their Star Wars have been? Not hardly. People easily recognize huge licenses and are more likely to buy them even if they are slightly higher priced.

[vynsane]

It is an army AND castle builder set, thus the higher cost when compared to other battlepacks that have a smaller quantity of bricks.

The retail cost is obviously influenced by the cost of the license as well as the perceived revenue that LEGO sees can be achieved. That said, the above is probably the most important point - it's not just a 'section of wall, a few figures and a cart', it's an add-on to the already impressive Helm's Deep set. You can bet there will be a lot of LotR fans out there gobbling these up to build their ranks as well as their fortifications.

That said, it's not being compared to battlepacks that have a smaller quantity of bricks - it's being compared to a very similar set that has a larger quantity of bricks. Sure, it's a few years old, but it's still comparable. To compare the "Uruk-hai Army" set to, say, a Star Wars battlepack is more appropriate. In this respect, "Uruk-Hai Army" wins the value war, hands-down, against the "Mandalorian Battlepack" which includes four Mandolorians and a total of 68 pieces for $12.

[lego the hutt]

... it's not being compared to battlepacks that have a smaller quantity of bricks - it's being compared to a very similar set that has a larger quantity of bricks. Sure, it's a few years old, but it's still comparable. To compare the "Uruk-hai Army" set to, say, a Star Wars battlepack is more appropriate. In this respect, "Uruk-Hai Army" wins the value war, hands-down, against the "Mandalorian Battlepack" which includes four Mandolorians and a total of 68 pieces for $12.

It was being compared to battlepacks later in the thread as well as the Tower Raid set originally ...battlepacks would be the army builder sets that the OP was referring to with this comment:

No one has yet to mention that the LOTR set is still boring and highly priced for an army builder, even if it does have quite a few minifigures. In the past, LEGO kept their army builders at a much lower price with only 4 minifigures (see SW sets.)

But I think we both agree, I just wanted to clarify what I was replying to when I mentioned it being compared to an army builder set. My personal feeling is that this set compares quite favorably to both the Tower Raid set as well as other "army builder" sets.

[Deathleech]

I totally agree that this set is an army builder as well as a fortification/castle builder. My only issue is, after about the second to third wall it really starts to be too much. The wall starts getting too long and starts looking really redundant. However, while you only really need 2-3 walls, you could easily get more sets than that just for the Uruk-Hai. For this reason I wish they would of done this set as well as an actual army builder set with 4 figures and a really small prop at the 12-16 dollar price range.

[lego the hutt]

One issue that has been brought up about the Uruk-hai Army set acting as an army builder is that you get a named minifig in Eomer. As an army builder set it probably would have been better to make him a normal rider of rohan. Or even a second rohan soldier...but then you wouldn't have the horse.

I feel like there was a missed opportunity by LEGO to offer an option to build a rider of rohan army here. But I guess only 1 Rider of Rohan fig in place of Eomer wouldn't have been very satisfactory to those wanting to build a rider of rohan army. Maybe 3 orcs instead of 4 and 2 normal type riders of rohan would have been better...but then you would get 2 horses and that ends up being more than the current set offers without getting a rohan soldier. I see why they would want to make sure you got the archer type rohan soldier to line the walls of Helms Deep. Hopefully in the future we will see a set that contains normal riders of rohan.

That being said I really like Eomer's printing detail on the fig. Especially the helm. It's awesome!

[Ice]

Today if you want a set that size (even if its not licensed), you will have to pay $39.99. All of the good old $29.99 sets are gone. If its licensed, I bet you they'll put it in a bigger box and try to sell it for $49.99. Its sad, but LEGO inflation is very high.

Compare these 2 Naboo Starfighter sets. One is $29.99 while the other is $49.99. I mean, its hard to even imagine that they're charging $20 more for pretty much the same thing.

[Brickbuilder0937]

... the new molds (which I've heard can cost upwards of $250000 to make)

The only mold that ever cost $250,000 was the one that made the dice for the "LEGO Games" line (it made the inner plastic piece and then the outer rubber in a two step process in the same mold). Most molds cost only $100,000 or less, which is still a lot.

[Aragorn]

Uruk-hai army all the way.