LEGO Minas Tirith’s GWP was the obvious choice for a promotional set
The LEGO Icons designer behind the creation of 40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond has revealed exactly why the set was the ideal candidate for a GWP.
The massive 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith will launch next month, with the LEGO Icons build also accompanied by its own unique 307-piece GWP. In a recent livestream event, the designer behind the promotional set revealed why the model was the ideal choice for a GWP and how the brick-built battering ram even connects to the original LEGO The Lord of the Rings theme.
“We wanted to include part of the battle,” said LEGO designer Pedro Cabral dos Santos, referring to the epic Siege of Minas Tirith. “So, the most obvious thing was Grond, the battering ram, as it’s the main weapon the bad guys bring into the battle. It just made sense. It goes physically with the main model and it’s a bit of a contrast between good and evil too.”
As is often the case, 40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond was created after work had begun on 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith, but with plenty of communication and collaboration between the designers of both models.
“François [Zapf] (the project lead) started on the main set way before and I joined when he was midway through,” Pedro explained. “When he was done with the front gate and the walls, that’s when I started scaling the [GWP] model.”
A closer look at 40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond reveals a functional grey ram with the face of a snarling wolf, a section of the build that uses some very familiar elements, in order to capture its dynamic look.
“There are a lot of parts that I’m really happy with,” said Pedro. “The flames coming out of the mouth, the details on the eyes where I used espresso plates, and the claws as well. We’re also using this [black] element for the nose, which is from Speed Champions.”
In addition to the battering ram itself, 40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond also comes with two orc minifigures, one repurposed from an existing Middle-earth set and the other tapping into the designer’s passion for the original LEGO The Lord of the Rings theme.
“We have an orc with a sword and a helmet that has been reused from the Barad-dûr set,” said Pedro, referring to the fearsome armoured character with red arms that appeared in 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr, “and this orc archer has a new face deco that we made specifically for this set.
“I asked the graphic designer to give it a bit of the old look of the orcs we made 15 years ago, with piercings and gnarly teeth, to give a bit of a nostalgic touch as well. I played with those minifigures a lot when I was a kid!”
40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond will be available for free with all purchases of 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith from June 1-7, while stocks last. The 8,278-piece LEGO Icons set is priced at £579.99 / €649.99 / $649.99 and releases exclusively for Insiders on June 1, 2026, with wider availability for everyone else from June 4.
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