LEGO Hobbit 79018 The Lonely Mountain

My 4 year old son got the dragon from the Lego Castle series on his birthday almost a year ago, and his 2 year old brother Martin has been coveting it ever since. Instead of getting Martin an indistinguishable dragon, I decided to get this dragon set for him for Christmas.It worked perfectly. As soon as the wrapping was off, even before the box was open, the 4 year old said, "I think Martin wants to share." Then he said, "Martin, do you want to play with my castle?" The 4 year old and his older sister have never offered to include Martin in their play before. And Martin loved the dragon!The dragon, Smaug, is magnificent. The wing membranes are a high quality rubber rather than plastic, allowing the wings to be posed in several positions from folded to fully open. The wings fit into the body in a built in shoulder joint, so there are no small hinge pieces to get lost. The jaws open and close, and the tail, which is composed of three pieces, is somewhat poseable as well. True to the movie, the wings have claws, and the dragon has no forelegs, only hind legs. The lack of forelegs means it can be difficult to find poses where the dragon balances properly, but with care, they can be found.Best of all, because all of the key pieces are large, the dragon is a toy I feel comfortable letting a smart 2 year old play with - supervised, of course - without worrying about its becoming broken before the day is out.The treasure was also a big attraction for our kids. The set came with two spare rings, for a total of three, and sis was soon offering to trade some of her Lego gems for a ring for her Lego princesses. The 4 year old also wanted a ring. This still left a ring, gems, weapons, and such for the original set. Speaking of weapons, the set has about twice as many weapons as figures, which should help delay the inevitable shortages when the itty bitty weapons get lost.The set includes five minifigs - Bilbo, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, and Kili. The figures have shorter than usual leg pieces so that their overall height is shorter than Lego human figures. They also have hair and armor very true to the movies, making them individually very identifiable. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the standard Lego figures, with the exception of the ones in the Disney sets which have a more realistic shape, but these look just like dwarves ought to look! The only down side is that the shorter leg pieces lack hinges, so the legs can't swing as in regular Lego minifigs, but to tell the truth, I've never actually seen the kids use that feature in their play.The set is rounded out by Lego arrangements for three parts of the inside of the Lonely Mountain: a blacksmith and mining setup, a dais and throne setup, and a small treasure setup that includes cleverly hidden locations for small treasure pieces, which may incidentally help prevent those small pieces from getting lost when not in use. The dais and throne setup can be linked to the smithy and mining setup in a hinged arrangement; when linked together, they are a total of 17 or 18 inches wide.As usual for more recent Lego sets, the pieces are divided into numbered bags for ease of assembly, along with some unnumbered bags which in this set contain various dragon parts. Within each numbered bag is a smaller bag containing the small parts to help prevent them from being lost. The contents of the bags are as follows:Bag 1: Balin and Bilbo; the small treasure setup which is built to look like a mound of "gold", with hidden compartments for gems, spare weapons, spare rings, and such; and, of course, the dragon Smaug.Bag 2: The smithy level of the smith and mining setup, with a gem cutting room and a vault, and an anvil, tools and armor in the smithy.Bag 3: Dwalin and the upper, mining, level of the smith and mining setup, including an overhead rail for a travelling bucket.Bag 4: The machinery for mining level of the smith and mining setup, consisting mostly of a travelling suspended bucket arrangement for treasure, and a catapult.Bag 5: Fili and Kili and the dais for the throne.Bag 6: The throne itself and the columns and overhead arrangement that go around the throne.This is an expensive set, so it may be worthwhile to shop around a bit to find the best price. That said, if you like Lego and are a fan of the Hobbit movies, or even just of dragons and treasure, this set is a must have!

I got this set for my birthday and was SO happy!!! Smaug is possibly the coolest thing ever in toys. His armour is like tenfold [plastic] shields, his teeth are [lego] swords, his claws [lego] spears, the shock of his tail is a [plastic] thunderbolt, and his wings a [rubbery] hurricane!It was such a fun set to build, too.And! it comes with FILI, Kili, Dwalin, Balin, and Bilbo!

This set is awesome beyond words!!!!! I got this set for Christmas . Smaug is huge!!! Once I opened it, I went straight to my room,& the first thing I put together was smaug! My mom was surprised at how big he was!! it also comes with 3 rings of power!!! I am 10 years old & this set is one of my favorites!!

This was a complete scam - do not buy this!!! The box had been opened and the contents were replaced with random LEGOs that had nothing to do with this set and toy parts were thrown in: a plastic dragon toy (not LEGO) and two parts of a pirate ship. Rip-off!!! Beware and DO NOT BUY this.

Great set and it made a wonderful Christmas gift. It arrived on time several days before the holiday and was a compete surprise. The kit was built quickly in about an hour but the child has had lots of fun playing with it in addition to building it. The coolest part is Smaug. The dragon has fabric articulated wings. Very cool.

Smaug is good, but for what I paid, seems like there should be more. Why should you have to buy another set to get a figure of the great Thorin Oakenshield?

This was a great set. My son liked the size of Smaug. He enjoyed the building process. He is 10 and would describe the challenge of building it as medium. He did lose interest in the set rather quickly but has continued to play with the dragon.

Got this before the recent price increase,and have to say it's worth it with the very nicely detailed minifgures, great play-design of the entire set with good details (includes an arkhenstone!) that pay attention to play.Smaug himself is huge and lives up to his titles and is almost completey posable. The rubber wings along with solid plastic claws,tail, neck, legs and mouth are movable to some degree.Shame the set wasn't solid green with gold marbling like in the movie.