Following an early reveal of LEGO Icons 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire, many fans may be wondering what’s next for the Middle-earth theme.
Tolkien fans got a surprise first look yesterday at 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire, with the LEGO Icons set yet to be officially revealed in full. An image of the model appeared on a designer signing event page for the build, although that’s since been taken down.
10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire represents the completion of a trilogy of LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets, following on from 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell in 2023 and 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr last year, with the latter and upcoming models teased in previous releases.
A stickered map element in 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell featured images of Barad-dûr, plus Isengard and Minas Tirith, while a slightly revised map in 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr included hints regarding the Shire and Bilbo Baggins.
We’ve previously speculated on potential future LEGO The Lord of the Rings releases, with Minas Tirith being one possible candidate for a brick-built Middle-earth location. However, the LEGO Icons designers decided to go in a different direction with 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire, one that’s already proving somewhat divisive among passionate fans.
That may be easy to understand, given the scale of the two previous LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets when compared to the upcoming 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire. However, as we know from previous interviews with the LEGO Icons design team, their approach to crafting such models tends to be distinct and completely different from what’s come before.
That approach also makes sense then it comes to the size and cost of large LEGO The Lord of the Rings releases. Many fans may have felt priced out by 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell and 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr, with what we'd assume to be a much lower piece count for 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire potentially making the model more affordable.
Then there’s the challenge of recreating a location such as Minas Tirith in LEGO form, with the capital of Gondor being huge in scale and mostly white. 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr offered up a primarily black and much smaller version of Sauron’s tower, albeit one that could be vertically extended if builders had enough pieces, and featured grey accents and lava sections.
That same design approach could also be applied to Minas Tirith, as the monochromatic city is so vast that the only way to make such a model achievable would be to break up the location’s primarily white exterior and reduce its scale accordingly.
However, if the maps in previous LEGO The Lord of the Rings releases are anything to go by, any potential future releases in the series might head off in another direction altogether. For instance, both map elements also feature Isengard, with the fortress home of the wizard Saruman previously recreated in 2013’s 10237 The Tower of Orthanc.
Having said that, the LEGO Icons design team may ultimately decide that yet another brick-built tower isn’t the way to move forward with the series and an altogether different location might be chosen.
It’s worth noting that potential hints as to the future direction of more LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets might well be hidden away within 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire. While no images of the interior of the model have been released so far, the inclusion of yet another map may hold clues as to where the LEGO The Lord of the Rings adventure could be heading off to next.
Of course, that all remains pure speculation on our part, so for now we’ll just have to wait and see what the future has in store for possible LEGO Middle-earth releases once 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire is officially revealed in full.
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