LEGO Minas Tirith livestream reveals more set details and features
More 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith details have been revealed in a new livestream, as the LEGO Icons set’s designer discussed its development.
The LEGO Icons Middle-earth collection expands once again next month with the arrival of 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith. Additional details of what fans can expect from the upcoming fantasy build have been revealed in a recent livestream event (which you can rewatch here), with Senior Model Designer François Zapf and the LEGO Icons design team on hand to talk more about the creation of the White City.
“With big models like this, you start with the face, the focal point” François explained, “and in this case it was the gates at the front, That was the first thing I designed when I was asked to come up with this set. My idea behind it was to design them as small as possible, but still being able to have Gandalf on his horse [Shadowfax] ride through them.”
Assembling 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith wasn’t a one-person job though, with such a massive model requiring contributions from other members of the LEGO Icons team in order to complete the build.
“A set like this, you can’t work on it alone,” said François. “There’s an entire team working on it. I was the lead designer on this one and I also got help from all the other designers on the team, especially Mike Psiaki, who was a co-designer on this set.”
Mike Psiaki had previously worked on 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, so it certainly made a lot of sense to employ his creative talents on yet another huge Middle-earth model.
During the development of 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith, the LEGO Icons team took a unique approach to the structure, combining both minifigure and microscale builds in order to create one cohesive whole.
“With this mixed scale approach, we had some challenges as to how you can display minifigures on it,” François elaborated. “There’s also a lot in the movie happening at the top and the bottom, so we colour-coded the ground. Anything that is in sand, that’s where you can display minifigures.
“Of course, nothing’s preventing you from placing them all around the model – it just breaks the illusion and feels like there’s a giant on the walls. Another forced perspective trick we used is, if you place a minifigure on top and peek through the gap, you have the illusion that [the set) is way bigger than it is in reality.”
11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith is launching first for Insiders on June 1, 2026, then everyone else gets a shot from June 4. The LEGO Icons set will be priced at £579.99 / €649.99 / $649.99 and comes with a free 40893 The Lord of the Rings: Grond GWP from June 1-7, while stocks last.
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