Since Tyler launched his very first LEGO LOTR Prancing Pony custom set, LEGO Lord of the Ring fans have been clamoring for more similar custom LEGO LOTR wishlist sets from our master builder. This time, another iconic scene from The Fellowship of the Ring is now captured in LEGO bricks – the cliffhanging, edge-of-your-seat, tear-jerking Bridge of Khazad Dum scene, complete, with a brick-built version of the monstrous Balrog, as well as minifigures of Gandalf and Frodo Baggins, and of course the Bridge of Khazad Dum itself. This and much more are perfectly captured in this custom LEGO Lord of the Rings Balrog build.
First off (and quite obviously, the one that we want to dive in first since this is our favorite part) we have the brick-built model of the Balrog. Among the 12 sets that LEGO officially made under the Lord of the Rings theme, I certainly hope that this is the 13th one. As of to date, we only have Balrog in his digital form in LEGO Lord of the Rings video game which was released in back 2012, so it’s kind of sad that we never got to see him as an official LEGO set. But thanks to Tyler, we can have this legendary monster built, and hopefully (fingers crossed), LEGO will take notice.
Tyler’s custom LEGO LOTR Balrog may not be at minifigure scale as seen in the video game, but given that it comes as a part of the overall Bridge of Khazad Dum custom set, it is scaled in such a way similar to how LEGO may actually design it. It is also neatly articulated using a lot of ball joints for the legs and arms. The Balrog’s wings are even mounted on ball joints as well, so it can be posed upward or downward including the skeletal parts of its wings for a more accurate and menacing look.
The headpiece of Tyler’s Balrog MOC is also an impressive build on its own. From its mean-looking horns to Tyler’s use of trans-orange pieces for the rest of its head and torso, this build captures the hellish character of this unholy beast from Moria.
But perhaps the best reason that Tyler has for this choice of pieces, which also happens to be one of the set’s best play feature, in my opinion, is his inclusion of a light brick inside the Balrog. The light brick is activated with a touch of a button that Tyler cleverly added at the back of the Balrog’s head. I can’t just put into words how nice this play feature is, especially when you turn off the light brick inside a room – the Balrog’s fiery demeanor simply stands out.
Of course last but not the least, we have the actual Bridge of Khazad Dum from the LOTR – The Fellowship of the Ring, which is also scaled down so as to look like an actual LEGO set. If you remember this scene in the film, the bridge begins with a relatively small entrance (as far as the size of the Balrog is concerned), that narrows down to a very slim and restricted pathway. On the bridge, you have Gandalf in his classic ‘you shall not pass!’ pose, while at the other end of the bridge is Frodo holding the One Ring in his minifig hand.
The bridge also comes with neat play features and movable parts, one of which being is the ‘collapsible’ archway which the Balrog knocks down as charges his way towards Gandalf, while the latter shouts his ever-famous battle cry.
Now if you still remember this part of the film, the highlight of this scene is when the Balrog advances to attack and Gandalf causes the middle portion of the bridge to collapse taking the Balrog with it. Tyler once again impressively added a play feature where this middle portion of the bridge collapses by a push of a button at the other end, sending the Balrog hurling downwards the abyss. Then we have Gandalf (when things seem to be a walk in the park) falling and barely catching on at the edge of the bridge where he hangs on and eventually falls into the chasm together with the Balrog.
This is one custom LEGO LOTR set that is simply packed with cool, and accurate play features as closely as you can see in the film. Here’s Tyler with his own thoughts on this latest addition to our LEGO LOTR wishlist.
The good thing is we can have our try on this custom LEGO Lord of the Rings Balrog set and build your own using Tyler’s building instruction which you can find over at BuildBetterBricks.com. For a minimal fee, you can simply download a digital copy of its building instructions in pdf format (a total of 87 pages) plus a Stud.io file so you can easily import the files over at Bricklink. If you want more LEGO LOTR custom sets to be added to your wishlist, simply share to us (either via the comments section below, or thru our Facebook and Twitter page) your most favorite Lord of the Rings scene and will see what brick-building wizardry our master builder Tyler can come up with it.
