Random set of the day: Barrel Escape
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 79004 Barrel Escape, released during 2012. It's one of 9 The Hobbit sets produced that year. It contains 334 pieces and 5 minifigs, and its retail price was US$39.99/£39.99.
It's owned by 6,831 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
93 likes
37 comments on this article
What are the Barrels escaping from?
So what's the purpose of a wine cellar for Elves if they metabolize alcohol with minimal effect? This is during the time when all the separate races divided again, so is it really high proof stuff, or are they secretly selling it?
@MCLegoboy said: "So what's the purpose of a wine cellar for Elves if they metabolize alcohol with minimal effect? This is during the time when all the separate races divided again, so is it really high proof stuff, or are they secretly selling it?"
Hmm. Good thinking.
I'm sure there's some kind of Tolkein-lore explanation, but I'd never considered that.
Or maybe the, "alcohol doesn't affect us!" was just a story that the elves told, so nobody would notice they were permanently hammered like an old nail.
@Zordboy said:
"Hmm. Good thinking.
I'm sure there's some kind of Tolkein-lore explanation, but I'd never considered that.
Or maybe the, "alcohol doesn't affect us!" was just a story that the elves told, so nobody would notice they were permanently hammered like an old nail. "
Legolas is just so drunk, he's suddenly incredible because he has no inhibitions about his skill. "I feel a tingling. I think it's effecting me!" Yeah, you're not fooling anybody now. The Elves are like the robots in Futurama. They need alcohol to function.
First Hobbit set and first set from the non-exclusive five-digit sets era?
I remember when ToysRUs mistakenly set up some discounts that stacked and discounted the price to 25.50 USD.
Hobbit trilogy stank. But the sets were cool, including this one. Don't regret getting most of them, primarily for the Dwarves.
I used to play The Hobbit text adventure game on my Apple //c computer. I got stuck at the barrels part of the story and could never get past it. That may be what soured me on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Not a fan of those movies.
@Miyakan said:
"What are the Barrels escaping from?"
Some say they have an old YouTuber as a rival.
I was so glad to get some of those big barrels, as I never got any of the Wild West sets. I still remember using he extra glaive from this set to give Loki from 6869 a more movie-accurate spear. I was rather amused to see Lego use the same piece for his spear in 76152.
Are the Hobbit films a decade old already? Neat! Just shows how dried up we are on TLotR sets right now...
@GSR_MataNui said:
"Are the Hobbit films a decade old already? Neat! Just shows how dried up we are on TLotR sets right now... "
According to several rumors, we will not have to wait much longer for a set or two. There is supposedly a D2C coming early next year. There is a running Eurobricks topic on it.
Hey, this set had a beer keg before the Bro Thor set!
Always regretted not getting this set. I like it! Only substantial one I bought was Bilbo’s home at Bag End. And some little polybags.
“C’mon, Bilbo, we’re hopping in barrels to escape!”
“But there are three of us, and you’ve only prepped two barrels!”
And so endeth our story.
@MCLegoboy:
If we ever meet in real life, remind me to show you my impression of a drunk man walking during an earthquake.
@BillingsBrix:
More likely it’s a wine cask.
I'm afraid to open and build this set because of all that BROWN!
@MCLegoboy said:
"So what's the purpose of a wine cellar for Elves if they metabolize alcohol with minimal effect? This is during the time when all the separate races divided again, so is it really high proof stuff, or are they secretly selling it?"
They still enjoy drinking the stuff. Besides which, some Middle-earth alcohol is potent enough to send even elves to sleep. That very fact is how Bilbo is able to smuggle the Dwarves out through the wine cellars in the first place.
I was really hoping the new Amazon show would revive the LOTR line, although the show itself produced very little set worthy content. However, if OT Star Wars can get produced 45 years after the first movie came out, Lord of the Rings shouldn’t have any problem selling either.
@Harmonious_Building said:
"Hobbit trilogy stank. But the sets were cool, including this one. Don't regret getting most of them, primarily for the Dwarves. "
I recently re-watched them and I was unfairly harsh when they came out. Sure they had to bloat them a bit to make three films (I think they could’ve been 2 good ones). But they are fun, and could never be both as serious as the LOTR trilogy and stay faithful to the silliness of the book. In my opinion they should be watched in the order of the books, Hobbit then LOTR.
@SearchlightRG:
Like Rocket Fuel brand malt liquor?
@alfred_the_buttler:
Amazon is not part of the WB LotR/Hobbit license. That’s not to say a popular show run by the competition couldn’t help drive sales based on the New Line films, just that they wouldn’t be based on the streaming series in any way.
Consider this scenario. They had the general Marvel license, which gave them the MCU and the entire comic book back-catalog to draw from. They didn’t have any licensing rights to Fox movies (and indeed, Disney was actively killing any attempted merchandising deals as a way to bully Fox into selling the film rights back to them). So, consider if they’d produced 6866 with the specific intent to piggyback on a film they’d heard Fox was producing, only to find out after sets hit stores how raunchy the first Deadpool flick was. That’s a PR nightmare, and when you’re not actually in the room, the only way to control it is to not attempt to use a new unaffiliated series as a springboard to relaunch a theme you have the license for. You wait until the first season has ended, and at least you have a fair idea of what you’re getting yourselves into, both in terms of how well the content meshes with your corporate values, and if it’s not going to be another Galidor-caliber flop. I haven’t watched any of it, but it sounds like it’s a better fit for them than GoT/HotD would have been, and it’s successful, even if HotD spanked it in terms of viewer numbers. Now is probably a good time to bring out a set to test the waters, and see if a giant octopus is going to jump out and nom you. Maybe a wider theme will follow if the first set sells well.
Glad to see this pop up here as the very first hobbit/lotr random set of the day! I bought all 26 sets in one huge lot back in 2019 when prices were still somewhat reasonable. Now this stuff is worth more than double what it was then, and I wouldn't be able to afford them anymore. Very happy I got them all, the builds are enjoyable and the minifigs are some of the best that LEGO ever made!
@BillingsBrix said:
"Hey, this set had a beer keg before the Bro Thor set!"
Set 1584 from 1988 was the first to have a been keg.
@Harmonious_Building said:
"Hobbit trilogy stank. But the sets were cool, including this one. Don't regret getting most of them, primarily for the Dwarves. "
That’s a bit harsh - I really enjoyed the first part, but stretching the rest of the story out over two films was a greedy mistake. Perhaps if they ended the first earlier and made the rest of the story into a part 2 it would have worked really well.
As it is part 3 is pretty tedious at best, there’s only so much CGI battle simulation anyone can take!
I enjoyed the Hobbit films for what they were. They weren't without issues, but the book didn't exactly hold up for me either. And being compared to the LotRs is tough; those films were so perfect they were never going to be topped.
I remember the fun thing about this set is that it came out with the wave for the first movie despite the fact that it was from a scene in the second movie, because at the time they were designing the sets there were only supposed to be two movies. Then they split were into three movies but LEGO already had plans set in stone for the sets, so instead they got some awkward "sneak peak" status. It was kind of funny at the time.
Funny how this is RSotD just when Honest Trailers had reminded us how bad the barrel escape in the film is. This set, however, is perfect and captures the spirit of the book well! I have four or five big, brown barrels in total and I've got them all stacked in this set.
I wish the Tolkienverse sets weren't so incredibly expensive on the aftermarket. I didn't have the funds at the time and I wasn't and still am not big into licensed themes. But I wouldn't mind owning one or something.
This set for example is fun.
Book version of this scene: Bilbo quietly and invisibly steals the keys from the Captain of the Guard, smuggling his dwarf friends into barrels and rafting them downriver before anyone ever realised anything is wrong.
Movie version of this scene: LOOK, BOUNCING DWARVES! Legolas jumping off their heads! Lots of orcs that are just everywhere now despite having just made a point about how impregnable the place was! Everyone knows what’s happened but no one does anything to stop it despite it being their jobs!
First Middle Earth Set? Pretty fun playset, and one that I hope to find.
The book is far superior to the trilogy films, but this set is absolutely spot on to the book or film material. It's perfect.
@Jackthenipper:
I remember watching a special feature on the Hobbit trilogy where they discussed why it was a trilogy. With LotR, the text was so dense and meandered so much that they had to pare it down to the essential core story, and get rid of all the touristy side trips (I’m looking at you, Tom Bombadil). With The Hobbit, there was almost zero character development in the original text, being essentially a children’s story. To make it a compelling story for the big screen, they had to create character development, which takes time. They also needed to more clearly tie it in to the world presented in the LotR films, so pulling in a bunch of material from the appendices helped with that. At some point, they were probably left with a choice between rushing it through two films, or stretching it out to fill three, and I don’t think either option is a clear win.
@J0rgen:
This is a trick that has been mentioned regarding the TV series “How I Met Your Mother,” but it works just as well for the Hobbit movies. Consider that what we’re seeing is not as it actually happened, but how the main character narrated the story in a later retelling. Bilbo wrote his own accounting of the events in the book that he gives to Frodo in Rivendell, which then gets passed on to Samwise at the harbor. It may have tons of embellishments that were added intentionally to spice up the story. Remember, this is a guy who used the One Ring to vanish in front of a large unsuspecting crowd at the conclusion of the speech he gave at his own 111th birthday party.
THE set with a drunk elf!
One of the elves has a faceprint depicting a massive hang-over from binging. I thought that was just so hilarious.
Love this set. Wonderful minifigs.
@PurpleDave said:
"I haven’t watched any of it, but it sounds like it’s a better fit for them than GoT/HotD would have been, and it’s successful, even if HotD spanked it in terms of viewer numbers. Now is probably a good time to bring out a set to test the waters, and see if a giant octopus is going to jump out and nom you. Maybe a wider theme will follow if the first set sells well."
HoTD was good. But Middle Earth is absolutely my favorite fictional (?) world, and I thought that the Amazon series was amazing. I've rewatched it several times already and will continue to do so for ages to come. It wasn't perfect, but don't mind the haters.
@Zordboy said:
" @MCLegoboy said: "So what's the purpose of a wine cellar for Elves if they metabolize alcohol with minimal effect? This is during the time when all the separate races divided again, so is it really high proof stuff, or are they secretly selling it?"
Hmm. Good thinking.
I'm sure there's some kind of Tolkein-lore explanation, but I'd never considered that.
Or maybe the, "alcohol doesn't affect us!" was just a story that the elves told, so nobody would notice they were permanently hammered like an old nail. "
Pretty it’s just for trading with lake town and other in the book.
@ForestMenOfEndor:
Aside from the unavoidably obvious complaints, the big one I remember reading is that it just doesn’t involve any story material people were actually wanting to see. The Silmarillion could make a good series, but Chris Tolkien refused to sell the film rights because he got all bent out of shape over the New Line movies.
Anyways, if it comes out on physical media, I’ll consider buying it, but I’m not going to rent it from a streaming service.
@PurpleDave said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor:
Aside from the unavoidably obvious complaints, the big one I remember reading is that it just doesn’t involve any story material people were actually wanting to see. The Silmarillion could make a good series, but Chris Tolkien refused to sell the film rights because he got all bent out of shape over the New Line movies.
Anyways, if it comes out on physical media, I’ll consider buying it, but I’m not going to rent it from a streaming service."
The Amazon series uses some material from The Silmarillion. However, the idea of tackling a work that spans hundreds-thousands of years (and Tolkien himself never really nailed down how many) is understandably daunting.
I also really enjoyed The Rings of Power, weird West Country proto hobbit Lenny Henry aside, and secretly hoped it would morf, somehow, into Lego form, so thanks for setting that one straight guys ....
PS I bought this set, and most other Middle Earth sets when they came out and still love them all.
I thought this was easily the weakest of the large LOTR/Hobbit setss. The figs were great, but the rest was just a bunch of random parts + barrels. Didn't buy it, don't regret it.
What's the scoop on new LOTR sets?? This is news to me! Excited.