LEGO Sauron's Helmet took its lead from Star Wars in all ways but one

LEGO 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet's designer walked LEGO Fan Media through the details of the set, including its inspirations.

LEGO Icons designer Jae Won Lee presented 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet to LEGO Fan Media in Billund last year, as you can see in full in our most recent YouTube video. He offered first-hand insights into the upcoming set. At first glance, it's obvious that it's similar to previous LEGO helmets across themes like Star Wars and Marvel, but those similarities carry through under the surface of the set too.

Sticking to the top-level aesthetics, the brick-built base and plaque are seemingly identical to those that came before in other themes. Jae pointed out that the plaque combines the LEGO Group's logo with the IP logo to keep the same unified style throughout the models.

Indeed, even the size of 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet was determined by those that are already on shelves.

"11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet works well in a collection with the other helmet series," explained Jae. "The size and proportions were very important [to keep the same] between the other collections. It's almost the same scale as the other helmets, so it will look very nice to display them all at once."

While the actual helmet in the upcoming set is all-new, when placing 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet, LEGO fans will likely find some familiarity with previous builds, if they've built other brick-based helmets before.

"The base has the same structure as the Star Wars helmets," noted Jae. "This set has a lot of different panels and parts on the sides, so we just changed some of the structure inside and put them all together to combine the right connections with the right angles."

That being said, not everything is the same – and the major change is a welcome one. Despite being priced similarly to the other LEGO helmets, 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet features a minifigure. Not just any minifigure, either, but one that was previously exclusive to 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr.

That marks quite the change, and is sure to make 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet even more tempting for LOTR fans.

LEGO Icons 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet is available to pre-order now ahead of its release on March 1, retailing at £64.99 / $69.99 / €74.99.

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