When I first heard the rumors that LEGO was going to release a Lord of the Rings Council of Elrond set this year, immediately I started having visions of a huge, sprawling LEGO Rivendell set dancing in my head (about the size of the newly announced LEGO Star Wars Ewok Village). When I actually had the opportunity to see the actual LEGO Council of Elrond set at Toy Fair 2013 and saw how dinky it was, my heart broke. But now that I’ve had a chance to build the LEGO Lord of the Rings Council of Elrond 79006, I have to admit that while it may not be epic, it does have its charms…

The Right:

Rivendell is a setting that I really feared LEGO would pass over as a whole. While it’s one of the most gorgeous places seen in the Lord of the Rings movies, it’s also one of the most passive–there’s really no “action” to speak of that happens in Rivendell. So I was altogether thrilled to see LEGO produce a Rivendell set at all, even if it is a small LEGO Council of Elrond set like this one.

The build itself takes less than an hour, and is a very quick and simple construction. LEGO 79006 The Council of Elrond is a nice, relaxing break after a busy day. LEGO has divided the pieces into two numbered bags to make construction even easier, but I wanted at least a hint of a challenge, so I poured both bags together into one pile of 243 pieces.

The LEGO The Council of Elrond 79006 set is fairly small, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to it being bad. Quite the contrary, in fact. Every single brick that goes into the construction of the LEGO Council of Elrond brings something worthwhile to the set–there’s no filler here at all. My favorite portion of the entire structure here is probably the roof on the archway–the assortment of tan, green and gold sloped bricks that make up the “shingles” of the roof add an authentic Rivendell feel to this set, despite the set being relatively small.

The autumnal orange and green colored bricks chosen for the foliage on the trees is absolutely perfect, and LEGO has somehow managed to pack all of the aesthetic and style of elven architecture into something as unassuming as an archway.

The stickers for Elvish designs on them that you place on the swiveling chairs go a long way to making the chairs seem like real Elven ones (though I’d have preferred printed bricks), and the metallic One Ring atop the table in the center of the set draws your eye to it as the focal point of the scene. The table itself is so simply designed, yet shaped in such a way that it feels authentically Elven. It just works.

You get four minifigures with 79006 LEGO Lord of the Rings The Council of Elrond: Arwen, Elrond, Frodo and Gimli. The two exclusive figures to this set are of course the Elrond and Arwen minifigures, and both are superb. The hairpieces for both are ideal, and I love the crown Elrond is sporting. Elrond also comes with a nice cape that’s gold on the interior and crimson on the exterior–it looks regal, and really completes the LEGO Elrond minifigure.

All four figures feature reversible heads and printing on the backs of their torsos. Frodo has a pretty cute worried face and an angry face, Arwen has a serene face and a perturbed face, Gimli has some pretty neutral faces, and Elrond has a terrific scowling face and an uncharacteristic smiling face. All of the minifigures have at least one face that suits the character’s personality perfectly (Elrond’s scowl is my favorite), and I appreciate the effort LEGO put into the designs on the backs of the figures. Perfectly good minifigures here.

The Wrong:

Rivendell is a pretty tranquil place, but evidently LEGO didn’t think that was a good enough selling point for the Council of Elrond LEGO set. There’s a crazy catapulting action built into the set, meant to represent the scene in the movie where the Eye of Sauron flashes for a quarter-second and launches Gimli away from the One Ring. If you forgot about this scene, you’re not the only one–everyone I’ve shown the set to so far has asked what’s up with the Eye of Sauron catapult action. The action feature feels really unnecessary to me, and it also disrupts the aesthetic of the floor. I would have much preferred that they just left this out entirely–I really don’t think anyone would have minded at all. And on a related subject…

I can understanding including a Frodo minifigure, since he’s not included anywhere else in the Summer 2013 LEGO Lords of the Rings sets. But yet another Gimli?! REALLY? We don’t need more Gimli minifigures, LEGO. Sorry. I know Gimli is here because he’s the one who hits the One Ring and thus causes the Eye of Sauron catapulting action feature of this set, but, well… I hate that action feature, and I’d have been much happier with a new LEGO Boromir minifigure instead. With three members of the Fellowship of the Ring (Boromir, Pippin, and Merry) all only having one release each so far, any of them would have been an immensely better selling-point for this set than yet another Gimli.

Finally, I was less than thrilled with the price per piece of this set. At 243 pieces for $29.99, the LEGO 79006 ends up being more than 12 cents per brick–a little bit on the expensive side for this theme. For that price, LEGO could have at least given us a few printed bricks to replace the four decal stickers. I’ll pay it because I love Rivendell and I wanted the Elrond and Arwen minifigures, but this set feels more like a $24.99 set to me than a $30 set.

The Ridiculous:

I don’t have the luxury of having a “Ridiculous” section to my LEGO reviews very often, but this time I actually do. LEGO has actually released a set where the central feature of the set is three chairs–and none of the minifigures can sit in the chairs without being modified. The LEGO Frodo and Gimli minifigures both have the minifigure short legs and can only stand on the chairs, while the LEGO Arwen minifigure can’t sit on any of the chairs because she’s using the dress mold.

That leaves only the Elrond minifigure, and to maintain his accuracy, he should always be wearing his cape–which prohibits him for being able to sit on one of the chairs. And thus, we have a “Council of Elrond” set in which a maximum of one out of four minifigures that come with the set can use its central feature, and that’s only when you take off his cape. Ridiculous, LEGO. =P

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I ordered my LEGO Council of Elrond 79006 set off Amazon and got it for $29.99 with free shipping and no sales tax. The only other places I’ve seen the set thus far are Toys R Us and official LEGO Stores, but Toys R Us is charging an inflated price and I was too cheap to pay the $3 sales tax at my local LEGO Store. These should hit other retail stores in the United States by the end the of July.

Overall: LEGO set out to make a little chunk of Rivendell with this 79006 LEGO Lord of the Rings The Council of Elrond set, and they’ve achieved just that. The Council of Elrond LEGO set creates the atmosphere and feeling of Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings movies, despite being comprised of less than 250 bricks. Would I prefer a 2,000 piece $200+ LEGO Rivendell? Sure–but it’s very unlikely anything like that is in the cards right now.

While I think it may be a tad overpriced, the minifigure selection could be improved (please, LEGO–no more Gimlis), and the action feature is unnecessary, this is still a fine looking little slice of Rivendell. It’s not a perfect set at all, but I can give the LEGO Lord of the Rings Council of Rivendell 79006 a solid recommendation.