Barnes and Noble have a number of Mid 2012 Lego sets available for Pre order in their website at the moment – including the first waves of both Lord Of the Rings and Super Hero Marvel sets.

Although these sets are not due to be released until May and July this year, on the Barnes and Noble site you can pre-order the sets at 10% off the expected retail price and with awesome shipping options, worldwide.

I purchased a total of eight sets, including the largest set from each theme – Helms Deep from LOTR and Quinjet from Marvel Super Heroes. The total shipping to Australia for these eight sets was $57!

Now these are Pre-orders we are talking about so there are no guarantees that B&N will deliver, but if it comes through I will be very satisfied!

And if you are wondering about the contents of each set, Huw from the awesome blog Brickset attended the London Toy Fair last week and was able to see (but not photograph) each set.

I have taken the liberty of using his descriptions below but you can check out his full report here.

Sets up on Barnes and Noble for Pre- order include:

Lord Of The Rings

• 9469, Gandalf Arrives
• 9470, Shelob Attacks
• 9471, Uruk-Hai Army
• 9472, Attack on Weathertop
• 9474, The Battle of Helm’s Deep
• 9473, The Mines of Moria
• 9476, The Orc Forge

Set Descriptions

9469, Gandalf Arrives: 2 minifigs: Gandalf and Frodo, Gandalf on horse and cart with fireworks and snake in the back. I think the price was £9.99.

9470, Shelob Attacks: 3 minifigs: Frodo, Samwise and Gollom! Gollum looked great, hunched over with movable arms, a bit like skeleton arms but different. Shelob the spider looks fantastic and scary!

9471, Uruk-Hai Army: 6 minifigs: Eomer, Rohan soldier and 4 Urak-Hai. The set consists of a small section of wall, a horse with moving legs and a small siege machine. The wall can be joined to the Helms Deep castle, apparently, so this will make a great battle pack to extend the castle and build your armies.

9472, Attack on Weathertop: 5 minifigs: Frodo, Merry, Aragorn and two Ringwaiths on horseback. The set builds a small section of Weathertop with spiral staircase and ruins at the top.

9473, The Mines of Moria: 7 minifigs: Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, a cave troll and two Moria orcs. The set builds a selection of sub-assemblies for mine walls, doors, pedestals etc.

9474, The Battle of Helm’s Deep: 8 minifigs: Gimli, King Theoden, Haldir, Aragorn and 4 Urak-Hai warriors. The castle itself is fairly substantial, complete with the ‘side door’ used to gain entry

9476, The Orc Forge: 5 orcs with a forge, various metalworking tools and weapons.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes

• 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle
• 6868 Hulk’s Hellcarrier Breakout
• 6867 Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape
• 6866 Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown

The following report is from another great Lego blog FBTB.

6865 Captain America’s Avenging Cycle … this was the only set on display to feature Captain America, who was sat astride a motorbike.  The rest of the set was missing, because Marvel had asked Lego not to show it, because it would spoil part of the movie?!  Anyway, there’s another un-named minifigure and vehicle … one can only assume it’s an enemy of some sort.  Priced at £11.99, so a bargain whatever!

6866 Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown … Comes with Wolverine, Magneto and Deadpool … the figs were all pretty amazing.  Wolverine has normal hands holding the claw pieces, rather than anything moulded like the collectable minifig boxer, as we feared.  I can’t actually remember the vehicles included in the set, sorry!  Priced at £19.99.

6867 Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape … Comes with Loki, Hawkeye and Ironman.  Hawkeye is driving a jeep type vehicle with Loki in the flatbed at the back … he comes with a custom headpiece and staff and the “Cosmic Cube” (a 1 x1 clear brick!).  I spent most of my time drooling over the Ironman figure, which was brilliant.  My fears over the head being too large were instantly eased and I was amazed to see that the front of the helmet lifts up to reveal whichever of the double sided printed head you’ve got facing forward.  Priced at £19.99, this set is a must buy purely for that fig!!

6868 Hulk’s Hellcarrier Breakout … I think this was Bruce Banner’s lab?  Not sure … but anyway, the set comes with Hulk, Hawkeye, Loki and Thor.  The Hulk figure was pretty damn cool, articulated and I liked the fact the head was in the shape of a normal Lego minifig head, albeit it bigger to be in scale.  The Hawkeye figure seemed to have a new bow & arrow type weapon.  Priced at £49.99

6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle … A pretty substantial set, with the Quinjet being pretty large, very sturdy and eminently swooshable.  Quite a bit of play features (moveable wings, cockpit, pop out undercarriage thingy) and minfigures Black Widow, Ironman, Thor and Loki.  Priced at £69.99, I think … although I don’t seem to have written the price down!

Check out the Barnes And Noble Lego Pre-Orders here.