Yes, LEGO originally tried the thing we all expected from the Balrog book nook

The LEGO designer behind 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook has confirmed that the initial concept for the set looked a lot more like you first imagined it would.

When rumours of a Lord of the Rings book nook inspired by Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog at Khazad-dûm first started floating around, there were a couple of different paths we thought the LEGO Group might have taken. One of those was just as in the finished set, with a fully brick-built, standalone Balrog that can detach from the wider surroundings. But it wasn’t the only one.

Perhaps the most obvious route for such a book nook, and maybe the one that we all secretly feared, was creating an impression of the Balrog along the back ‘wall’, whether protruding out, as a relief pattern (not unlike LEGO Art’s Great Wave and Sunflowers sets) or as a straightforward two-dimensional design. The build could then use forced perspective to place Gandalf at the other end of the bridge of Khazad-dûm.

According to LEGO designer François Zapf, that was indeed the approach that was originally on the cards for 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook.

“In the first concept, the Balrog was built into the background in the wall, so it wasn’t a full figure that you can detach and play with,” François explained to DuckBricks. “During the design process we had to change this because we thought, ‘It’s super-cool to have a Balrog, it would be a shame not to have a big figure out of it.’ And that was the biggest challenge, because everything here was designed around the wings.”

Those foil wings were originally designed for (and previously exclusive to) last year’s 40693 The Lord of the Rings: Fell Beast. “It was a challenge to design because when [the book nook] is closed, it’s folding the wings,” François told Tiago Catarino. “In order not to damage the foil, we had to come up with a Technic solution, so it bends and it’s not damaging the foil wings.

“We also [had to find] a good way of just putting the Balrog in and out without too many manipulations. So you just have to lock it with two Technic axles, and then you tuck the tip of the wings into the columns. That’s pretty much it.”

The end result is a standalone Balrog figure – the first of its kind beyond the BrickHeadz theme – that could easily be removed from the book nook and placed in a wider custom Khazad-dûm build. That may be the preference for those fans not entirely satisfied by the format of 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook, which is the cheapest LEGO The Lord of the Rings set since 2013 – but still doesn’t quite fulfil the desire for Middle-earth playsets.

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10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook launches June 1 for £109.99 / $129.99 / €119.99. Head here for a complete list of LEGO sets making their debut this weekend.

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