Hobbit and LOTR Lego Sets with Gandalf

The Gandalf Arrives Lego set (set number 9469) shown here is one of the smaller sets available but it is one of my favorites as I keep it displayed in front of my amazing Lego Hobbit Home which it works with beautifully.

There are a number of Lego sets that feature the great Middle Earth wizard, Gandalf. This one is based on the movie The Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf arrives in the Shire to celebrate the 111st birthday of Bilbo Baggins.

Gandalf rides into Hobbiton with his small wooden cart pulled by a horse where he is met by a very excited Hobbit called Frodo Baggins who runs down the country lane to greet him.

After Frodo cheekily admonishes the great Wizard for being late, Gandalf utters his famous line that he is never late or early but that he arrives precisely when he means to. Then they share a great laugh together. It's a great scene from the movie and especially as it is light and playful and not at all indicative of the horrors yet to come. Lego did a great job encapsulating this moment into a wonderful little set.

The really brilliant thing about this piece is that you can use it to re-enact the scene above from The Fellowship of the Ring which is an older LOTR movie or you can use it along with the newer 2012 Hobbit movie when Gandalf arrives to visit Bilbo Baggins in his younger years as a Hobbit. Ideally you'd need the An Unexpected Gathering Lego set as well to play this to perfection.

Battle at the Black Gate features Gandalf in his white and more powerful guise. This is a bigger set with 656 pieces and it includes 5 minifigures including the wizard himself: Aragorn, 2 Mordor Orcs and a really awesome looking Mouth of Sauron with his black horse and a Giant Eagle. This is an awesome set and fantastic for acting out some pivotal scenes from The Lord of the Rings books too.

Currently, this appears to be the only way of getting the White version of this powerful sorcerer unless you want to buy him as an individual fig which could easily set you back around 1/5th of the price of this set - so it actually works out much better value to get the whole pack than to get him as one single figure. This is an awesome set anyway and the very cool Mouth of Sauron is a really good reason to get it on its own - nevermind all the other fab elements.

This is a great medium to large sized Hobbit set with almost 800 pieces included. I especially like the 6 minifigs in this one which have Azog, Radagast the Brown and the Grey Gandalf which is a little different since he doesn't come with a hat but has his long hair flowing at the back instead. In some sets like the Arrive one, he actually has a bald head under the hat - so the hair is a cool feature!

This one is a great action and play set based on The Desolation of Smaug movie. I like the rather dark and gloomy Dol Guldur fortress theme and the fact that you get lots of fun features like traps, catapults, opening doors and things that move. I feel it is more of a play set than a display one and kids who don't want to just look at a set once built should enjoy this.

I have a number of sets but, as a collector, Bilbo Baggins home is my favorite of all. It works amazingly well with the small horse and cart set shown at the top of this page and you can re-enact all the goings on in Hobbiton. I have mine displayed with the wizard inscribing the rune on Bilbo's round front door.

This one's a joy to build and the back is handily cut away for easy play access and, if you had the display space, you could also build on to the back and create more rooms. That's something I'd love to do with mine. I'm also keen to extend the garden out the front as well. Kids needing action may find this a little boring but collectors will mostly enjoy its charm.

With over 2000 pieces this awesome set will take a while to build and perhaps that is why, in part, it is recommended for ages 14 and over. The Tower of Orthanc as seen in The Lord of the Rings movies is where Saruman and Grima Wormtongue hang out and get up to mischief and they are included in this as figures. It measures over 28 inches tall once made, so you need the vertical height to display this one although since it is tall and narrow, you don't need so much shelf or table space at the base.

The very cool addition to the tower is Treebeard. Who can forget that giant talking and walking tree. It looks like they have done a fab job of making him too. You can re-enact Treebeard getting revenge on the evil sorcerer by flooding and trapping him in the tower. Oh and the rescue of Gandalf from the top of the building by the Great Eagle.

If you're on the hunt for smaller sets with this cool wizard, there are a couple to look out for and they make great little gifts or stocking stuffers for a fan. I have the Wizard Battle one because it was a good way, and inexpensive way, of getting hold of Saruman the Sorcerer. 

The other great thing about this little set is that it also has the evil Eye of Sauron. That's a very good addition. This one happens to work brilliantly along with the Tower of Orthanc which is Saruman's tower. This is where good and evil battle it out with the two wizards using their magic.

Unfortunately Gandalf loses out and ends up trapped at the top of the tower but we have to remember that this is when he is in his gray and less powerful guise. When he is reborn as the white version, he's much more powerful. I hope you've enjoyed reading my wizzles page today, thanks for your visit. You should find some Lego that's really caught your imagination. Have fun constructing it!

Apart from the charming small horse and cart set which I've talked about above, there are other available playsets that include this character to collect. These are as follows:

• LOTR #79005 The Wizard Battle
• Hobbit #30213 Gandalf at Dol Guldur
• LOTR #79007 Battle at The Black Gate
• Hobbit #79010 The Goblin King Battle
• Hobbit #79003 An Unexpected Gathering
• Hobbit #79014 Dol Guldur Battle Building Kit
• LOTR #10237 The Tower of Orthanc