The set is kind of average and the Hobbit trilogy is pretty bad. But this set makes me forgive the whole affair and I smile. I don't know why, but I do.

@JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle.

@JtheMonk
Sucks man, some of these parts can go for crazy expensive prices nowadays.

Hey, a Random Set of the Day I actually own!

@unslipped said:
" @SmilingCyclops said:
" @JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle."

Yep, same with me with 70806 when I tried to rebuild it last year. Had to order replacement pieces from Bricklink…"

And me with 71006. I actually ended up getting replacement pieces via Lego, which is good - at least they are replacing known faulty parts.

After my parents divorced both my mom and my dad got me this set on separate occasions. I think one of them even gave me it twice.

@ra226 said:
"I was always amused that this set came with two One-Ring-To-Rule-Them-Alls."

Some even had 3 I believe but all sets had at least 2 rings

@ra226 said:
"I was always amused that this set came with two One-Ring-To-Rule-Them-Alls."

When you think about it, Sauron’s downfall was not making 2 rings. Had Gollum still had a ring, Frodo would have never made it to Mt Doom, and even if he had, he would have walked out still carrying the ring. Makes me wonder if Lego is perhaps a servant of Sauron.

Anyways, this is the first RSOTD that I own two copies of, so technically I have 4 one-ring-to-rule-them-all’s from this set alone.

@chrisaw said:
" @unslipped said:
" @SmilingCyclops said:
" @JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle."

Yep, same with me with 70806 when I tried to rebuild it last year. Had to order replacement pieces from Bricklink…"

And me with 71006. I actually ended up getting replacement pieces via Lego, which is good - at least they are replacing known faulty parts."

I recently rebuilt my 75059. Dozens of brown pieces broke apart. Really annoying :-(

Does anybody know if these problems are resolved with current products, or should I expect that my new sets will also have broken brown pieces in 8 years from now?

Very precious.

nasty sneaky little hobbitses

Man, I still have the movie wallpapers on my computer...

The Hobbit and LOTR sets came out 10 years ago. Man I feel old.

I like this set by the way. Does a 'ring pop-out function' make sense? Not really. Is it nice to get a smaller Tolkien set? Yeah!!!

@greenhorn said:
" @chrisaw said:
" @unslipped said:
" @SmilingCyclops said:
" @JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle."

Yep, same with me with 70806 when I tried to rebuild it last year. Had to order replacement pieces from Bricklink…"

And me with 71006. I actually ended up getting replacement pieces via Lego, which is good - at least they are replacing known faulty parts."

I recently rebuilt my 75059. Dozens of brown pieces broke apart. Really annoying :-(
"

Now you're worrying me, I have 3 of them (2 still sealed) and all of lotr and hobbit sets...

@greenhorn:
It's a known problem, impacting dark-red and reddish-brown for sure (and maybe dark-brown?). TLG announced a few years back that they had investigated what was going on, figured out the problem, initiated a solution, and waited a bit to say anything so they could be sure the fix actually worked. If you believe them, anything from at least 2019 on should be fine. If you don't believe them, as some people have indicated, then I'm not sure what to tell you. Unfortunately, I have not seen any clear information on what span of years actually is affected by this problem.

@biffuz said:
" @greenhorn said:
" @chrisaw said:
" @unslipped said:
" @SmilingCyclops said:
" @JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle."

Yep, same with me with 70806 when I tried to rebuild it last year. Had to order replacement pieces from Bricklink…"

And me with 71006 . I actually ended up getting replacement pieces via Lego, which is good - at least they are replacing known faulty parts."

I recently rebuilt my 75059 . Dozens of brown pieces broke apart. Really annoying :-(
"

Now you're worrying me, I have 3 of them (2 still sealed) and all of lotr and hobbit sets..."

I'm right there with you. Just did some renovation and completed a 7662 that I was able to snag 90% complete.

I experienced some issues (as I have in sets up to 2017). The good news is that 98% of them seem fine the bad news is that bad ones can just be pulled apart with a laughably small amount of force. It is quite worrying when the replacement cost for some of the big rare pieces is $15-20 per part!!

Still, very happy to get another MTT. Epic set!

I haven't tried to get Lego to replace them other than a gold tire rim on a Ninjago set from 2016 that cracked its Technic axle.

@PurpleDave said:
" @greenhorn:
It's a known problem, impacting dark-red and reddish-brown for sure (and maybe dark-brown?). TLG announced a few years back that they had investigated what was going on, figured out the problem, initiated a solution, and waited a bit to say anything so they could be sure the fix actually worked. If you believe them, anything from at least 2019 on should be fine. If you don't believe them, as some people have indicated, then I'm not sure what to tell you. Unfortunately, I have not seen any clear information on what span of years actually is affected by this problem."

I can tell you for certain it goes back to the red-brown before the current red brown. I have parts from the early Star Wars sets that have crumbled and cracked apart. But I also have newer red-brown (and dark red, of course) that have fallen apart. My brother has parts from various boats that have done the same thing. But he also has an original Black Seas Barracuda from when we were kids and all those parts are fine.

I have a few of the dark brown parts, but I haven’t tried rebuilding anything to see if they’re brittle or not.

It seems to take years for the brittleness to set in, as I didn’t have these problems in the early days of building MOCs, where I worked with my brown a lot more (Geonosis Starfighter and MTT) circa 2003-2005.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"After my parents divorced both my mom and my dad got me this set on separate occasions. I think one of them even gave me it twice. "

Parents are discombobulated idiots! Now that I am one, I know this to be an inescapable fact.

@peterlmorris:
I’ve not previously heard of this being a problem with old-brown, nor have I ever experienced it myself. I did recently pull a 6x8 plate out of an open copy of 7598 and, just for the sake of curiosity, snapped it in half as easily as a saltine cracker.

Pleased to see this RSotD. I picked up the LEGO The Hobbit video game recently for a fiver, and it's great to live in that world for a bit...

I never realized this wasn't called "riddles in the dark". Missed opportunity if you ask me.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @biffuz said:
" @greenhorn said:
" @chrisaw said:
" @unslipped said:
" @SmilingCyclops said:
" @JtheMonk said:
"Rebuilt this recently and a lot of the brown pieces shattered. First time that ever happened to me with Lego."

That happened to me with 10223 when I built it, maybe 8 years after its release. I think whatever they were doing with dark reddish brown around then made it unusually brittle."

Yep, same with me with 70806 when I tried to rebuild it last year. Had to order replacement pieces from Bricklink…"

And me with 71006 . I actually ended up getting replacement pieces via Lego, which is good - at least they are replacing known faulty parts."

I recently rebuilt my 75059 . Dozens of brown pieces broke apart. Really annoying :-(
"

Now you're worrying me, I have 3 of them (2 still sealed) and all of lotr and hobbit sets..."

I'm right there with you. Just did some renovation and completed a 7662 that I was able to snag 90% complete.

I experienced some issues (as I have in sets up to 2017). The good news is that 98% of them seem fine the bad news is that bad ones can just be pulled apart with a laughably small amount of force. It is quite worrying when the replacement cost for some of the big rare pieces is $15-20 per part!!

Still, very happy to get another MTT. Epic set!

I haven't tried to get Lego to replace them other than a gold tire rim on a Ninjago set from 2016 that cracked its Technic axle."

This went from irritating to terrifying, because I have a built Simpsons house and Sandcrawler sitting within an 8 foot radius. They're like time bombs now.

"Random" indeed, Huwbot--looks like this one was prescient!

@iamkevinwill:
Don’t expect to finish that game! You know, because the developer never finished that game. *rassinfrassin*

Nope, not bitter. Not bitter at all.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"After my parents divorced both my mom and my dad got me this set on separate occasions. I think one of them even gave me it twice. "

Could have been worse, you could have gotten a desk set instead... (Dead Poets Society, anyone?)

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since LOTR!