The Hobbit Lego - Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin

Lego have announced that The Hobbit Lego sets will be available in late 2012. 

The Hobbit Lego range will tie in with the Hobbit movies that Peter Jackson is making. The first Hobbit Movie, The Unexpected Journey is due for release in December 2012 and the Lego Hobbit range will appear at around the same time. 

The image is from the Lord of the Rings Lego range which is due out in summer 2012. It's Frodo Baggins, the nephew of Bilbo Baggins who rather unexpectedly has quite an adventure in The Hobbit. 

Let's see what we can work out about the Hobbit Lego sets. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the movie is due out of December 14th 2012. So we expect that The Hobbit Lego sets will be released in time for Christmas. 

We'll all want to reenact scenes from the movie as soon as possible!

The Hobbit Lego range ties in with the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. So we can expect the Lego sets to reflect key scenes from the movie which will probably correspond to the book, but there may be differences. 

I think we're pretty safe in assuming that we'll get a Bilbo Baggins hobbit minifigure in The Hobbit Lego range. 

We can get some idea what he's likely to look like from the Lego Lord of the Rings promotional images.

That's Bilbo's nephew Frodo in the picture with the One Ring. It is during The Hobbit that the One Ring first comes into the possession of Bilbo Baggins. 

And a Gandalf the Grey minifigure will likely be included as that minifigure will already be available in Lego LOTR. See the image above to get a preview of Gandalf the Grey. 

Gollum is another character that already exists for the Lord of the Rings Lego. You can see him below with other evil characters from the LOTR. 

Orcs also appear in The Hobbit so we may well see Orc minifigures in The Hobbit sets. 

There's not really any information available about the Lego Hobbit sets yet, so I'm going say what I'd like to see. 

There just has to be a Lego Bag-End - Bilbo Baggins hobbit hole in The Hill. Bag-End is a key location for the Lord of the Rings too, and it isn't as one of the initial Lego LOTR sets (yet.) Hopefully this is because it will be one of the first sets in the Lego LOTR range. I want a hobbit hole with a big round door. This set would include Bilbo and a few dwarves to start the collection. 

Lego Rivendell is another location that we haven't seen in Lego LOTR yet. I'd love to see the beautiful Rivendell in Lego form. But it's not that key a location in The Hobbit. Maybe we'll see Rivendell in the LOTR range. Bilbo and friends will still be able to visit!

Lego Gollum's Cave. Surely we'll get a Lego Gollum's Cave? This is where Bilbo first encounters Gollum after finding the ring. "What's it got in its pocketses?" 

Lego Mirkwood Giant Spiders. Actually I don't want to see the Mirkwood Giant Spiders in Lego form, but my boys do. They are descended from Shelob who appears in the Lego Shelob Attacks LOTR set. 

Lego Smaug's Lair. You can't leave out the dragon! Yes, we'd like to see a Lego Smaug's Lair with the dragon sleeping on top of his treasure, and then waking up when Bilbo and friends appear on the scene. The cover illustration on our copy of the hobbit shows Smaug as a red dragon. We don't know what Peter Jackson has done with Smaug yet, but we do know he'll have Benedict Cumberbatch's voice in the movie.