A small (massive) update.

So there's been a fair bit going on in the worlds of LEGO and Doctor Who lately, and a little Transformers and Star Wars too. Let us begin!

LEGO have a Rivendell set from the Lord of the Rings still on the market, and it's magnificent. There are some fantastic rare elements included and all of the minifigure designs from the original 2012 run of sets have been refreshed. Though not all are the better for it in my opinion, they are of course LEGO-brand product, and we finally get the entire Fellowship of the Ring in a single set. 

A single, £430 set. Yikes. 

While this is yet another set I had to pass on in favour of rent, it does mark a promising future for the LEGO Group (TLG) and the Lord of the Rings. Since this set sold so well (as apparently has the mighty Barad-dûr), the mainline theme stands a high chance of being reintroduced, which would be wonderful to see.

As I missed out on a lot of the originals -  many of which are particularly pricey these days as far as rare minifigures go - I welcome these redesigns in my collection.

That's largely thanks to them being excellently decorated figures (despite the lack of dual-moulded legs, arms and hairpieces back in 2012), and also to LEGO's clever little trick of spacing out the Fellowship of the Ring members across the entire product line. No two members are included in more than one set from the original wave, including variants (with the most desirable version of Frodo - in his trademark dark green cloak from the majority of the first movie - of course being included in the most expensive set he appears in).

These new figures are a mixed bag. Let's start with lone demigod, Gandalf.

While I really like the revised "dress" piece that is no longer one of those harshly square sloped bricks with some printing on it, the new face print just doesn't cut. Thing is, it's a reused head belonging to Ken Wheatley from Jurassic World. This means that compared to the original, it only vaguely looks like Sir Ian McKellen as it's missing a few details (chiefly the age-lines on his cheeks are forehead, and the eyebrows are nowhere near bushy enough). Why the original Gandalf head wasn't reused I've no idea - they objectively struck gold first time.

As they also did with Elrond, Legolas, and Bilbo. I'm not sure why but there seems to be an aversion to printing lines on faces in this set. Elrond doesn't look anywhere near intense enough for Hugo Weaving, and I'm not sure about the new design choice of printing his circlet onto the head, as opposed to moulding it into the hairpiece previously.

Turning to Bormoir, Sean Bean was by no means a young man when filming his role (at 41). To be honest, I don't think either the old or new Boromir face prints are particularly Bean-like, but I'd have to admit that the new one just clinches it over the old. I'm not really a fan of how his eyebrows don't match his hair colour, but the new decoration is a vast improvement and the accessories are beautiful to behold (more on that later). 

Next is Bilbo Baggins; an adequate Ian Holm likeness, but it doesn't look anywhere near old enough for Bilbo as he appears in Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring (FOTR). It looks more like Bilbo when we first see him in the Shire for his eleventy-first (111th) birthday party.

Orlando Bloom, on the other hand, was only 19 when these movies were made, so fair's fair, age-lines don't apply here. However, his well-defined cheekbones were picked out wonderfully on the original Legolas minifigure. And what's with that smirk on the new face? Legolas smirks occasionally but not enough for it to warrant a face print. Not to mention that it's a reused head from young Han Solo. No thanks - old face wins by miles. 

NB: It's important to note that in this case I'm not referring to the face used on the LEGO Dimensions Legolas minifigure, as the upward eyebrows ruin that face for me. The original - used in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit sets - is the winner here.

Gimli looks brilliant, as do the hobbits. The hair colour swap between Sam and Merry feels a little off, but that's only because of the original figures. In the promo shots for the first movie, all of the hobbits' wigs are remarkably similar in colour with the exception of Frodo. And Sam does indeed have the reddest hair of the bunch, with Merry the fairest, so it does make sense. The torso updates to the hobbits are all improvements, with crease details looking more realistic than the originals thanks to the use of dark stone grey over black.