Review: LEGO 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell

February 23, 2023 | 37

I’m honoured that I can finally share my comprehensive review of one of THE most anticipated LEGO sets ever – 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell!

After a 10 year hiatus, LEGO Lord of the Rings is back in the most epic form, with a stunning 6,167-piece build of Rivendell, or Imladris as it is otherwise known in Sindarin.

Without sounding too hyperbolic – this is one of the best LEGO sets that I’ve ever put together, and as a massive fan of Lord of the Rings, this truly was a dream come true, partly because Lord of the Rings has returned to LEGO, but also because I never would’ve imagined a retail LEGO Lord of the Rings would ever look like this, and pack so much LEGO goodness in it.

10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell will be released on 5 March 2023 via LEGO VIP Early Access, ahead of a general release of 8 March 2023 and will be available exclusively from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store.

See below for regional pricing and product pages

• 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell [US] – US$499.99 
• 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell [AUS]  – AU$799.99 
• 10316 The Lord of the Rings:Rivendell [UK] – £429.99 
• 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell [EU] – €499.99
• 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell [CA] – CAD$669.99 

Without getting too hasty, let’s jump into my review of 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell! It’s a long one, so strap in!

If you’re picking up Rivendell, please consider using the affiliate links in the post as I may receive a small commission with each purchase that goes a long way in helping support the work I do on the blog

Special thanks to LEGO for sending this review copy over.

10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell Set Details

Set Name: The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell
Set number: 10316
Pieces: 6,167
Retail Price: US$499.99 / £429.99 / AU$799.99 / €499.99 / CAD$669.99
Theme: LEGO Icons
Release Date: 5 March 2023 (VIP early access) / 8 March 2023 (general release)
Design Team: Ashwin Visser, Senior Graphic Designer, Mike Psiaki, Design Master, Wes Talbott, Design Master, Chris Perron, Lead Designer, Djordje Djordjevic, Madison O’Neil, Senior Graphic Designers

Preface

This review is going to be exceptionally biased because I am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s trilogy were incredibly important parts of my childhood and teenage years, and to this day, I make it a point to either re-read the trilogy or The Silmarillion, or rewatch the Extended Trilogy once a year.

Naturally, I am also a big fan of LEGO Lord of the Rings, and when the theme was officially announced, I made it a point to collect every single set released, even though at the time, I didn’t have a lot of disposable income and my LEGO budget isn’t as big as it is today.

LEGO Lord of the Rings reviews have been part of the blog since the very early days, and some of my earliest LEGO reviews from 2012 were 9470 Shelob Attacks, 9469 Gandalf Arrives and 9472 Attack on Weathertop (they’re pretty cringe and I should re-review them with better photography), and I also count 10237 The Tower of Orthanc as one of my favourite LEGO sets ever – which has now been supplanted by 10316 Rivendell.

Building 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell

Here’s a look at the instructions for 10316 Lord of the Rings Rivendell, which appear in the new stark white format. There are 3 booklets, and each booklet has these wireframe designs of the set, with the corresponding sections highlighted.

As you can tell, this is also a Build Together LEGO set, which means that you could share this build with up to 2 other people, and I built it over the course of a few nights together with my wife, while re-watching the extended editions of the movies of course.

We did build at a leisurely pace, but I estimate about 8-10 hours in total for seasoned LEGO builders.

Like most LEGO Icons sets, you get an introduction to Rivendell, and the design team. It truly took an entire fellowship of LEGO designers who brought Rivendell to life such as: Ashwin Visser, Senior Graphic Designer, Michael Psiaki, Design Master, Wes Talbott, Design Master, Chris Perron, Lead Designer, Djordje Djordjevic, Madison O’Neil, Senior Graphic Designers.

Each section corresponds to The Tower, The Council Ring, and The River Forge and Armoury, with each opening page giving a rough outline of the build, and key minifigures contained in the set.

There’s also a lovely timeline of LEGO Lord of the Rings sets, which you may fondly remember from 2012 and 2013.

Here’s a look at the two sticker sheets included – I scanned them so that you can properly appreciate the incredible artwork, design and illustrations that went into these.

The build was utterly phenomenal, and just enjoyable from the very first bag, to the last numbered bag (49). It had everything you could ask for in a minifigure-scale set – from intricate architectural details on the structure, to landscaping and tree-building, and even plenty of fun great tile-work.

You’re building upwards, you’re building height, you’re building sideways, you’re playing with geometry – it has it all.

The sheer variety and incredible never-before-seen techniques employed will last with me a long time, and in many ways, it reminded me of building 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle (also co-designed by Mike Psiaki), but a more refined, and polished version.

This is a really special set build-wise and in so many parts, you could really tell that LEGO’s very best design talent worked on this. It felt like they were showing off at times just what incredible things are possible with LEGO.

The completed model: 10316 Rivendell

And here is the completed model – where you merge all 3 sections together. As you build Rivendell, it really dawns upon you just how hugely majestic the set is.

It’s a beautiful display model and ticks all the boxes – it’s got height, an interesting silhouette and shape, and masterfully blends colour, sharp lines and organic curves to make this a feast for the eyes.

One really remarkable feature of the set is that it looks great from nearly every vantage point and angle, as there’s always something to catch your eye.

Here’s a look at the 3 sections, which can be separated to allow it to act as standalone displays which is handy if you don’t have space to display the connected Rivendell.

The first booklet has you assembling the tower, the second the Gazebo/Armoury/Smith section and the third and final one has you putting the Council Ring and main structure together, which is a fun way to mix up the builds as you go from Castle-like structure, nature, landscaping and trees (and a sick Gazebo), to a blend of both in the final and most awe-inspiring section.

But before we get into each section, let’s take a look at the minifigures.

10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell Minifigures

A whopping 15 minifigures are included (21 if you count the grey statues) in the set, and most importantly includes all nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring in the set.

To have this many named minifigures in a set feels unprecedented, especially characters that are as sought-after as Lord of the Rings minifigures. Buying the older Fellowship of the Ring minifigures on the secondary market would cost you as much as the set itself.

Although with the release of Rivendell, I expect secondhand market values of the older figures to cool off slightly.

We also get Gloin, Gimli’s father, Arwen, Elrond, old Bilbo Baggins and 2 Elven smiths.

Here’s a look at the Hobbits in the set. From left to right, we have Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry), and Peregrin Took (Pippin) representing the Shire.

It’s great to get an older version of Bilbo, who is now ageing normally after having surrendered the Ring. Frodo of course, comes with the shiny One Ring, and the other Hobbits have accessories matching their personas.

The one notable innovation that really elevates the look of The Hobbits are their new dual-moulded short legs, which really emphasise their bare feet. Oh, and paper capes also make a return, which feels right. Just like it was in 2013.

Here’s a look at their back prints and dual-sided heads, with the most notable one being Bilbo’s scary face, which till this day scares the crap out of me every time I watch The Fellowship of the Ring, even though I know it’s coming.

Next up we have the “warriors”, Gimli son of Gloin, Aragorn II Elessar, Boromir and Legolas Greenleaf, representing the races of Dwarves, Men and Elves.

They all look incredibly good, reminiscent of their 2012/2013 versions with the exception of Legolas who reuses young Han Solo’s head, and doesn’t quite look like Orlando Bloom. Aragorn, and Boromir are pretty good albeit sporting slightly identical facial hair.

Here’s a look at their back prints and alternate faces. I feel like Aragorn is a little too expressive, and would’ve benefited from a slightly more noble/royal expression.

For the next named characters, we have Arwen, Gandalf the Grey and Elrond Halfeleven. Arwen is dressed in her white Elven dress, complete with the Evenstar on her neck, and Gandalf just looks like the old grey Wizard we all love, and Elrond is in his dark red robes.

LEGO have completely revamped the Elven wigs, and are now dual-moulded with soft rubber material for the hair, and hard plastic for the ears, which avoids many of the shoddy print bleed that plagued the previous Elven Ear wigs.

Here’s a look at their back prints and alternate faces. Elrond looks like someone dropped a nasty fart in his home, which is coincidentally the same look a disapproving father would give when he spots a boy that he doesn’t want his daughter dating.

And lastly, we have 2 unnamed Elves, one of which is a smith, and the other blonde one whom you can pretend is Glorfindel.

In truth, they’re probably meant to represent the Elven smiths who were forging Anduril in Return of the King, or the Elven randos in the Council of the Ring.

Here’s a look at their dual-sided heads and back prints. Unfortunatelt Gloin doesn’t have an alternate face print.

There are some really great minifigure innovations introduced – namely sitting Hobbits. As small legs can’t bend, LEGO have officially introduced using headlight bricks bricks and 1×1 studs to allow Bilbo and Frodo to sit, while also unintentionally giving them some big booty cheeks.

For minifigures like Gandalf and Elrond with dresses/skirts, we also get these printed slopes so that they too can properly sit at the Council of the Ring. Ingenious and I’m glad the designers put so much thought into this.

Here’s a look at the Elven statue minifigures. There are 6 and I forgot to include one in this shot unfortunately. They all have the same heads, which have dual-sided face prints, one a slightly happier version, and one subtle frowing one (2 right most ones).

And here’s their back prints. Unfortunately the statues only have regular grey hairpieces without ears.

LEGO have gone to town with introducing new weapon moulds, and you get an entire bag full of these awesome new weapons, all of which are made of pearl silver.

Most excitingly, Gimli has new super-accurate axes. Oh, and for the first time, his beard has also been redesigned so it compatible with a hairpiece that can fall down the back.

Boromir and Aragorn have new swords. Boromir’s printed shield is also nice.

We also get a bunch of these new Elven blades which look awesome.

And most importantly, the broken blade Narsil which was used by Isildur to cut the ring of Sauron’s hand.

The Tower

Here’s a look at the Tower, which also contains two Bilbo’s upper level room and a library on the ground floor.

The base of the Tower houses these Elven statues.

From the side, you can also appreciate these gorgeous arched windows and doors, which just fit perfectly into the recesses.

There’s a library on the ground floor.

And on the upper level is the room where Frodo recovers after being stabbed by the Morgul Blade wielded by the Wringwraiths as they flee Weathertop. Here’s a look at the bed, and the cool Elf statue on the bedhead.

Of course you can re-recreate the Hobbits celebrating Frodo getting healed and waking up on the bed!

There’s also a chest in the room containing Sting, the Elven dagger that Bilbo passes on to Frodo, as well as a stickered tile of Bilbo’s Mithril shirt. I wish this was an alternate torso, but a stickered tile is okay I guess. It was nice of them to add this reference in.

Of course, this is also the perfect place to re-create Bilbo’s scary face scene as he’s tempted by the Ring.

Gazebo, Smith and Armoury

Here’s a look at the second section, which contains a more natural slice of Rivendell, with a stone bridge, wonderfully ornate gazebo and an Elven smith and armoury.

I really enjoyed the landscaping build here, and there’s even a lovely waterfall, complete with white spray that gives the build some much needed space to breathe.

Behind the waterfall lies a frog! Cute! Oh and these mushrooms and toadstools also glow in the dark with is nice.

The stone bridge and Gazebo allow you to re-enact tender moments between Aragorn and Arwen as they wrestle with their forbidden love affair.

Elrond is clearly unimpressed by his daughter’s choice of (mortal) men.

The Gazebo was one of the most enjoyable parts of the build for me, and I was blown away by its ingeniously intricate design, making great use of these curled leaf elements, which come in white for the first time ever, and simple life preservers and tusks to create the roof.

The entire structure is made possibly by geometry, with the use of hexagons to create the base as well as the roof. After all, Hexagons are the Bestagons.

This is truly masterful LEGO engineering, used to create such a beautiful and eye-catching feature of Rivendell.

Over on the other side of this section is the Smith for the Elves to forge blades.

And underneath the Gazebo is a cavern that doubles up as an armoury where spare weapons are stored. I really like the simple grindstone used to sharpen blades.

The Council Ring

The third and largest section is the Council Ring, which also contains the larger portion of Elrond’s fancy home.

Throughout the outside, we get plenty of these new fern elements, which are an exciting new LEGO plant introduced – they work well upright or upside down and add so much to the build. LEGO MOCers are undoubtedly going to go nuts over these very cool looking plants, and you get 48 of them in the set.

There’s a small pathway/bridge that leads you to the gazebo, and I like the use of fallen yellow leaves. The gap/chasm between it and the a little unsightly, but I do like the roots of the large tree peeking out.

There’s a small pavilion with a pointy tiled roof here with some really neat Elven architecture on show. I really love that each structure has its own unique look, and apart from distinguishing elements like the tiled roof, they each feel different from each other and special in their own way.

There’s a table with some Lembas (Elven waybread) that Merry and Pippin need no excuse to dig into.

There’s also this fantastic new tree design making its debut here. It’s tall and narrow, and affixed to the building, but I love how vibrant it looks, as well as its sharp spear-like shape.

The interiors are dominated by these beautiful new printed tiles, which have a leaf pattern and subtle colours to mark their orientation. Be careful here and make sure you align them correctly. The Nexo shield and 2×2 pointed star combination is also beautiful, and I am so glad that the set makes very generous use of these new tiles.

On the ground floor are various desks with maps and diagrams of notable places in Middle Earth. I especially like the heavy emphasis on Barad-Dur in Mordor. Perhaps this is a teaser of more LEGO Lord of the Rings sets? Lord knows Orthanc needs a companion tower.

There’s also this telescope, one of Elrond’s prized artifacts.

On the upper level is a small mezzanine level with plenty of awesome references. The main attraction here is the statue holding the Shards of Narsil, bits of Isildur’s sword used to slice the ring of Sauron’s hand.

Of course this is the perfect place to re-create the scene of Boromir being curious, inspecting Narsil, accidentally cutting his hand, and awkwardly dropping one of the most sacred historical artifacts on the ground before Aragorn has to come in and clean up after Boromir.

Throughout the building, there are also these lovely stickers of various portraits and paintings that depict historical events of Middle Earth. We have Earendil (Elrond’s dad) who bravely sailed to Valinor to petition the Gods (Valar) to help overthrow Morgoth, Celebrimbor forging the Great Rings, a painting of Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor Ost-in-Edhil (based on an Alan Lee painting), and of course this massive painting of Isildur and Sauron.

Note: thanks to CM and everyone for pointing this out!

I really want a Sauron minifigure, and this design was adapted from LEGO Dimensions where Sauron was portrayed but sadly, was never made into a minifigure. This was always a huge missing piece of LEGO Lord of the Rings, and now that it’s back, I have hope that we’ll finally get a Sauron minifigure.

Here’s a look at the array of tiles that decorate the roof. The colours chosen are masterful and this really gives it an aesthetic boost thanks to the near-endless repetitive tiles.

I was initially afraid that this would be a very repetitive step, but it was much easier than expected, as in the instructions, you’re told to use a plate to align the tiles neatly.

Here’s a look at the courtyard where the Council of the Ring takes place.

The tree is gorgeous and takes up a dominant spot visually in this section, nicely overlooking the Council of the Ring. The leaves, which combine two shades of green and yellow perfectly mimic the rustic aesthetic of Rivendell.

The council can also be removed, so if you’re really short on space, you can display it on its own, as sort of a mini diorama.

The council is the hero and focal point of the entire build, and where most of the action takes place in Rivendell. It’s one of the most vivid parts of the Fellowship of the Ring as the council debates the best way to destroy the One Ring.

This is also where Gimli finds out that his axes are no match for the One Ring to rule them all.

All characters can sit down at the council, which is really nice as it allows you to re-create the Council scenes with little to no compromises.

And of course, one of the most clever parts usage ever – the use of sausages and a popsicle fort the chairs. The chairs seats are flat tiles, so minifigures tend to slide off when you’re arranging them which is slightly annoying.

And yes, Boromir does have his “one does not simply walk into Mordor” face!

Oh and one of my favourite parts of the set – hidden beneath the Council, directly under the pedestal holding the One Ring is a small brick-built Eye of Sauron!

“Gandalf, the enemy is moving. Sauron’s forces are massing in the east — his eye is fixed on Rivendell“

And the backdrop has more of these lovely Elven architectural details on show.

Truly a breath-taking scene.

Comparison with other sets

Just to illustrate how majestic and large Rivendell is compared to its contemporaries, here’s Rivendell right next to 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle, which I consider to be the pinnacle of Castle Design.

Rivendell is US$100 more than the Lion Knights’ Castle, which I consider quite large, but it completely blows it out of the water in terms of width, size and use of colours.

And here it is next to Orthanc and Helms Deep, one of my most-prized LEGO sets I have on display.

It feels so right and despite it looking comically large, actually fits in really well with other LEGO Lord of the Rings sets to display, and have I mentioned how happy I am that LEGO Lord of the Rings is back?

What I liked:

• Near-zero compromises
• An epic take on LEGO Lord of the Rings
• Contains the entire fellowship and more
• Gorgeous colours blended with an eye-catching silhouette
• Such a fun and engaging build

What I didn’t like: 

• Some reused minifigure heads are a little lazy

Final Thoughts:

10316 Rivendell is a dream come true, and to me, as close as you can get to a perfect set to me. It’s an awe-inspiring, epic LEGO set that is well worth the US$500 asking price as it delivers unmatched detail that you’d want from an expensive, massive LEGO Lord of the Rings set.

Words and even photos can’t quite do the set justice – it’s a stunning display model, which just oozes display presence and is a joy to look at from every angle. I love the versatility when it comes to displaying it, as a whole or as separate sections.

The minifigures are outstanding, especially as you get the Fellowship in a Box and more. With razor-sharp prints, new accessories, new hairpieces and so much more, you can really tell that no expense has been spared with this set.

Except maybe the reused face print in the case of Legolas which doesn’t really work for me.

This is a genre-defining set for LEGO, and what a way to announce that LEGO Lord of the Rings is back. It’s simply inconceivable to imagine a set like this being released 10 years ago, but now with LEGO firmly having their eye on adult fans, this truly feels like the right time to bring an IP like Lord of the Rings back.

This has become one of my favourite LEGO sets of all time, and if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, or simply want a stunning display model that is sheer unadulterated joy to build, I can heartily recommend 10316 Rivendell.

10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell is one of those sets you save for, and splurge on and simply enjoy LEGO at its absolute finest. An undeniable masterpiece.

Build [5] – Build was fun, with so many ingenious techniques and varied sections
Real Value [4] – It’s expensive, but well-priced considering its size, sheer number of elements and minifigures included
Innovation [5] – Some really insane build techniques on show, as well as masterful use of colour
Coolness [5] – Rivendell speaks for itself – it’s one of the most epic LEGO sets yet
Keepability [5] – This set will go on permanent display in my home.

Rating and score: 5/5 ★★★★★

Thanks for reading this review of 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell! It will be available exclusively from LEGO.com on 5 March 2023 for LEGO VIPs, ahead of an 8 March 2023 release.

What do you think of 10316 Rivendell? Have you ever imagined LEGO would create a set like this and will you be picking it up?

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