Of the four LEGO The Hobbit 2014 sets released this winter, the best-selling set (and the one with the most hype) out the quartet is surprisingly the second-smallest of LEGO’s Desolation of Smaug offerings. You won’t find any Dwarfs, Hobbits, or Wizards here–but you will find the best LEGO Hobbit army-builder set ever! Purchased online for below cost with free shipping, I’m excited to review the very popular (and tough to find in stores) LEGO Mirkwood Elf Army 79012!

The Right:

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies have some of the most grandiose battles and armies ever seen on film in them. It can be tough to recreate that kind of spectacle with LEGO Hobbit minifigures, as there isn’t any way to purchase LEGO The Hobbit minifigures individually (such as the beloved LEGO Minifigures Series blind bags). But LEGO has taken pity on army-builders with their latest wave of LEGO The Hobbit sets, giving us one of the best troop-builder sets ever: the LEGO 79012 The Hobbit Mirkwood Elf Army.

The Mirkwood Elf Army LEGO set consists of six minifigures (seven if you count the Warg), a plethora of weapons and accessories, and a cool Elven forest outpost. The set was an easy build and took me about an hour to complete, although I’m a slow builder–other LEGO collectors can probably build the set significantly faster than I did.

First, let me talk about the main portion of the set: the Elven Wall. I was afraid that the Elven structure was just going to be “filler” in this set to up the set’s price, but it’s actually a well-executed and valuable portion of the LEGO Mirkwood Elf Army set.

The Elven Wall features a rotating tree with launcher, a lookout tower and a cute little detachable weapons rack. The Weapons Rack doesn’t hold that many weapons, but it’s still very nice to have the storage for some weapons rather than risking losing them having them just lying around.

The Orc Ladder that comes with the set is also totally fun. I love being able to have the Gundabad Orc minifigures scaled the walls, only to be repelled by the Elf minifigures! (Yes, I’m a dork. Forgive me.)

The best feature of the wall, however, is that it’s flexible–meaning you can bend the segments of wall however you like and combine it with other Elven structures for tons of expansion fun! Considering how many people will want multiples of this set, it as wonderful of LEGO to design the Elven wall to be so customizable.

The one named character in this set is the Elvenking, Thranduil (or as I like to call him, “King Jerk”). I was not a fan of King Thranduil in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug movie, as he was a total loser. This minifigure represents Thranduil nicely with either an angry/yelling face or a stern/arrogant face. With his fancy printed body and cloak, the LEGO Thranduil minifigure looks exquisite. Thranduil comes with a fancy Elven longsword to battle with.

Along with Thranduil, you get three other LEGO Elves minifigures in this set: two LEGO Elf Archer minifigures and one LEGO Mirkwood Elf minifigure. The hooded LEGO Elven Archers are exclusive to this set, and as you get two of them, you can quickly army-build by buying a few Mirkwood Elf Army sets. The Elven Archers also have reversible heads to help differentiate your troops. The Elven Archers include bows, while the Mirkwood Elf minifigure gets an Elven blade.

While you only get two LEGO Gundabad Orc minifigures with 79012 LEGO Mirkwood Elf Army, both look intimidating and are well-done. You get one Orc Sword and one black spear to equip your Gundabad Orcs with.

Not only are the LEGO Gundabad Orcs and Elves fantastic, but they come with a veritable treasure trove of accessories! You get armor to give one of the Gundabad Orc minifigures a promotion, a pair of Elven quivers, a gem and two LEGO Elf Shields. The Elven Shields are particularly nice, with an ornate design printed onto the front of them. The Shields can be handheld or hang on the exterior of the Elven Wall.

The Brown Warg figure is exclusive to this LEGO Mirkwood Elf Army set, and looks great. I was looking past the Warg to the army-builder Elves and Gundabad Orcs minifigures, but I really enjoy the generic brown Warg in this set.

As you’d expect, the LEGO Warg has an articulated jaw and can either have a saddle on or be saddle-less (with an extra 2×1 LEGO brick to fill the saddle’s spot). The armor-wearing Gundabad Orc looks terrifying fearsome riding on the Warg!

The Wrong:

I was contemplating complaining about the fact that this set goes a hair over my 10 cents per piece “sweet spot” for LEGO sets, but really, I’d only be doing that for the purpose of filling “The Wrong” with something. $29.99 for a LEGO set with 276 pieces and seven figures is totally fair in my eyes. Honestly, I’ve got no complaints about this set.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The 79012 LEGO Hobbit Mirkwood Elf Army set was released at the end of 2013, but has been one of the toughest Hobbit sets to find at retail thus far. Amazon stocks the LEGO Mirkwood Elf army set for below retail price and eligible for free shipping, so I ordered online rather than driving around town looking for this set.

Overall: It doesn’t happen very often, but I legitimately have no qualms with the LEGO Mirkwood Elf Army 79012 set. To get six minifigures and a Warg and a terrific Elven structure for 30 dollars is exemplary. The LEGO Elf wall will look even better when you put several of them side-by-side to create a much bigger and more imposing wall! While there’s one unique minifigure in this set (Thranduil) you probably won’t feel the need to have multiples of, this is still among the best LEGO army builder sets I can remember. An excellent all-around offering from LEGO, and easily one of my favorite LEGO 2014 sets so far.