Lego’s New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Set Decides What Shall and Shall Not Pass Your Bookshelf

Ever since Lego returned to making annual Lord of the Rings set, the company has gone big, with high price, high-parts-count sets that bring bits of Middle-earth to life on as grand a scale as possible. Its next one, however, is a little different.

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We already got our annual big Lord of the Rings set this year with the release of The Shire, but Lego is bringing Lord of the Rings into another of its toy lines with today’s announcement of a buildable book nook recreating Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog in Moria from Fellowship of the Rings.

Following on in the vein of the Sherlock Holmes book nook revealed last month, the $130, 1201-piece Lord of the Rings set can either be displayed entirely unfurled, or folded up into a compacted version of the iconic scene that can be easily slotted into a book shelf (presumably one you’ve stuffed with plenty of Tolkien tomes).

Lego Lord of the Rings Balrog Book Nook © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego © Lego

The Balrog Book Book includes, of course, a minifigure of Gandalf wielding his sword and staff, as well as a brick-built Balrog, which comes with a recreation of its flame whip as well as massive wings that unfurl outwards when the set is folded out, framed by columns of fire. And, of course, on the front of the set whether it’s in the folded or unfolded configuration is a brick printed with Gandalf’s legendary “You shall not pass!” quote from the scene, guaranteeing you doing your best Ian McKellen impression whenever you look at it.

It’s an unusual move for Lego to bring Lord of the Rings to some of its other product lines after it’s spent the past few years exclusively treating it as a yearly one-off, and hopefully a sign that we might see more of Middle-earth than just one massively pricey set each year. An architecture set of Minas Tirith? An buildable art piece replicating the painting in Rivendell of Sauron and Isildur’s battle? What about a botanicals set of the White Tree of Gondor, or a bundle of athelas? Hell, I can’t be the only one thinking that the fellowship sailing past the Argonath might have made just as good as a book nook idea as Moria, honestly!

It might not be a return to the full-throated Lord of the Rings line that some fans might have wished for, but it lets us hope–even if it’s just a fool’s hope–that we might start seeing Lord of the Rings pop up on Lego shelves a little more regularly.

The Lego Lord of the Rings Balrog Book Nook is available to pre-order now, ahead of a release on June 1.

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