Book Nooks, Balrogs, and Beyond

When The LEGO Group first started releasing The Lord of the Rings sets again in 2023, starting with Rivendell, many LOTR fans met the news with great rejoicing. However, there’s been a lot of concern and criticism from the community about the large size and hefty price tag that has accompanied these sets so far (Brickheadz notwithstanding). As such, 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook marks a refreshing new low price point for the series.

While the Book Nook may not have been quite what many fans had in mind for a LOTR set (I’m still holding out for some smaller army builder packs), it is refreshing to see a set priced under $150 mark.

What excited me most about the set wasn’t the model itself, but the potential it held as a starting point for customization and expansion. With this in mind, I set forth to see what other iconic scenes from Middle Earth I could fit into the book nook format…

Into the Mines of Moria

But first, let’s take a brief look at the Balrog Book Nook!

Overall, I think the set looks pretty good with my collection of Tolkien’s works (and Peter Jackson’s adaptations). It may not look quite as nice as LEGO’s official promotional images, but the set definitely fulfills its core purpose well - decorating and personalizing a book shelf.

I was really impressed with the Balrog itself. Is it perfect? No. But it’s about the best that I would have expected from an official LEGO set. I was also impressed with the Balrog’s articulation, although when it comes to posing the model, he can be a little difficult to balance at times.

I think the frame of the book nook feels like a missed opportunity. While the design isn’t entirely bad, it certainly doesn’t feel substantial enough for the $130 price. And the empty frame feels half-baked, especially compared to models like Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook, which offers more detail and depth in its frame through complete exteriors of a London street.

Now, I won’t get too deep into the nitty-gritty aspects of the set - plenty of other reviewers have already done that. I was really impressed in particular with New Elementary’s coverage of the set, which you can check out here.

Instead, I’m more interested in the fundamental concept that the set puts forth. Framing Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog in the form of a book nook was a fascinating choice, and while I question whether it was the right choice for this set, I thought it would be fun to explore what other scenes could be captured in book nook form.

The Genius of Book-Nooks

10367 Balrog Book Nook is the third book nook set that LEGO has announced recently, following on the heels of 10351 Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook and 76450 Book Nook: Hogwarts Express.

The LEGO fan community also has a rich history with book nook MOCs that serve a similar function to the recent sets. In particular, LEGO photographer Four Bricks Tall has made a number of fun book nooks that I think are worth highlighting.

With LEGO’s own book nooks and many book MOCs as guiding inspiration, I decided to break out of Moria and see what other scenes from Middle Earth I could capture in book-nook form.

A Study in Middle Earth: Erebor

The first step was removing Gandalf and the Balrog from the model. Don’t worry, they had plenty of fun of their own while I tinkered with the rest of the set.

The next step was to return the book nook to a “blank” state: removing the flames, and the nougat and dark tan pieces that gave the build a glowing effect. The result is some nice, generic, dwarven architecture that instantly made me think of Erebor - the home of the dwarves as featured in The Hobbit.

I’ve had this table scrap lying around forever of Thorin’s throne, and thought it might finally be time to put it to good use.

After adding a gold lining to the bridge and some piles of treasure along the sides, the scene looked pretty good. It’s not completely accurate to what we see in the Hobbit films, but it’s a pretty good approximation.

However, I thought it would be fun to stick with a creature theme, showing iconic creatures from Middle Earth. A natural place to start was with Smaug, especially since I already had the architecture for Erebor down.

Now, creatures are not my strong suit, but I’m always up for a challenge, so I set to work on a model of Smaug. I was aiming for roughly minifigure scale, and given the space in the book nook, I obviously wouldn’t be able to build the entire dragon. As such, I settled for the head and a couple of his feet. Below you can see the build process and development of Smaug, starting with the eye assembly and building out from there.

The next step was to fill in the floor of the nook. The bridge setup that the original set utilizes is effective for recreating the showdown between Gandalf and the Balrog, but it’s not very versatile. Of course, I also had to make sure that it could still open up.

Then it was time to test how Smaug would fit into the overall model. Supporting the head against one of the columns ended up being pretty difficult, and while my solution may not be the most elegant, it worked!

And the final step was to fill in the rest of the floor with plenty of gold and treasure! Once again, this was done in such a way as to allow the build to split open.

And here’s the final result in all its glory!

A Study in Middle Earth: Fangorn Forest

I wanted to do one more model, though, just to see how versatile the book nook format truly was. After all, the Erebor model reused most of the architecture from the original set. What if I wanted to create a more organic scene? Could the book nook format be expanded to, say, a forest? This question led me to Fangorn Forest - land of the Ents - as the subject of my next book nook scene.

Once again, I wanted to stick with a creature theme, and the obvious answer in this case was Treebeard. Unfortunately, I didn’t do as good a job at documenting my design process for Treebeard as I did with Smaug, but I once again started with the eyes and nose and built out from there. While the figure is loosely inspired by Treebeard as seen in Peter Jackson’s films, I did take some creative liberties here and there.

After a quick test to figure out placement, I realized that space inside the nook was going to be tight. Treebeard fit within the confines of the book nook, but only just barely. This was going to be tricky.

The next step was filling out the base of the model. Once again, I had to make sure the model would open up, which was more difficult than I expected because of how large Treebeard was.

The most difficult part of the model was turning the pillars into trees. Carefully switching out all of the bley pieces for brown was… tedious, to say the least. Trying to figure out how to make the trees look natural was a challenge due to the very blocky, regular nature of the pillars.

All that was left was to add some finishing touches to the base, including some ferns and mushrooms.

Overall, while space is a bit more tight than I would like, I’m really pleased with how this book nook turned out. I definitely think that the concept could be improved upon, but I’m happy with how I was able to capture a more natural design despite the boxy nature of the book nook.

I also couldn’t resist a photo of the bros chilling together.

The Middle Earth LEGO Olympics

Before I wrap this up, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention an amazing upcoming opportunity to win the Balrog Book Nook for yourself! That’s right, this set, along with plenty of other goodies, are up for grabs in this year’s Middle Earth LEGO Olympics!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics, the annual contest got its start on MOCpages, a now-defunct social media site devoted to the LEGO hobby and MOCing community. It was held annually there for several years, coming to an end in 2017. After that, the contest remained dormant until 2022 when LOTRLUG held a revised version of the contest. The contest follows a tournament setup where builders face off against each other in a series of rounds, each with a unique Middle-earth-based theme, until one contestant emerges victorious.

The contest kicked off on June 16 with a free round, which anyone could participate in. The top 16 entrants in the free round will proceed to the tournament phase of the contest, which consists of 4 rounds. The entrants will be placed on a seeded bracket and will be pitted in 1:1 build-offs with their opponent, with the winner continuing into the next round.

Each round will last 6 days, with the exception of the first and final round which will each last 2 weeks. Each round will have a unique theme, such as “The Shire” or “On the Road” that the competitors will have to build for. Additionally, there will be 1 day of judging between each round to determine who moves on to the next one. The final round will conclude on August 4.

Not only is a copy of 10367 Balrog Book Nook up for grabs, but there will also be two custom trophies inspired by the Smaug and Treebeard models that I built for this article, and a whole host of Lord of the Rings Brickheadz that you can win! And if you don’t have time to compete in the whole tournament, you still have a shot at winning some of these prizes without having to enter every round, so don’t miss out!

You can check out some of the entries from last year below. Otherwise, if you’d like to learn more, you can head over to the LOTRLUG Discord server where the contest is held.

Now, we may be a little biased here at BrickNerd, as I’ve been organizing the contest for the past three years, and Bricknerd is sponsoring the contest and its amazing prize. But just because we’re biased doesn’t mean it’s not a great opportunity, so be sure to check that out!

There and Back Again

Okay, NOW we can wrap this up! My opinions on the Balrog Book Nook are mixed. I think that, as it is, it has a few missed opportunities and doesn’t feel as substantial as a $130 set should. However, I think that the concepts presented in the set have a lot of potential.

Obviously, the book-nook format has a lot of customization possibilities, and while I explored a couple of those here, I’m excited to see what scenes others will recreate using this set as a basic template. I’d also love to see someone take this set and try to turn it into an immersive scene or larger diorama. In fact, I almost went that direction with this article, but decided to explore the book-nook format in the end. So, while the set may not be perfect, I think that it’ll spark some amazing MOCs and customizations in the LEGO community, and I’m excited to see where it goes!

LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook is now available for $130 USD | $150 CA | £110 UK | €120 EU | $200 AU

DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by The LEGO Group. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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