Customer Reviews

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Chess Set

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fine purchase if you really love Lord of the Rings and have to collect every last bit of memorabilia, but for the rest of us this set fails to impress or match up to what it could be. The first problem is the board is almost cooler than the actual pieces. The pieces themselves are made of a very light flexible plastic that come bent out of shape right out of the box. Also some of the pieces on the Ogres (bishops) on Sauron's side are too big for the board. You have to turn the pieces sideways to fit for play.
To be fair this item doesn't cost all that much and it does last as a fun novelty for a while to entertain your friends. However, if you're interested in a quality chess set look someplace online. Amazon[.com] doesn't make available any serious collector chess sets. They have got plenty of all in one sets if you don't care what you buy.

....i found out that the pieces were not metal, but smelly plastic. i guess i should have known that by looking at the price, but i was fooled by the pictures.

A good attempt at a LotR chess set, but with some design shortcomings:

1. Gandalf is the king, not Aragorn. And here i thought The Return of the King was about Aragorn...

2. No Legolas, Gimli, Faramir, Eomer, or Eowyn. Instead, we get Sam as the pawn and Frodo as the bishop. A little more variety wouldn't hurt.

3. The forces of Evil have Orc pieces as the pawns and rooks. Again, a little more variety wouldn't hurt.

4. The top-heavy cave troll (who, for some unknown reason, is NOT the rook) likes to fall over and knock down the surrounding pieces. My offense really suffers, since i don't move my bishop anymore.

5. Why oh why is the Nazgul the queen and not a knight?

Conclusion: a decent game of chess but the pieces needed to be designed better. Maybe they'll make a redesigned version after The Return of the King is in theaters.

This chess set looks great in pictures, but it's awful in person. The board is cardboard (like a Monopoly board), and for storage, you get a cheap, soft, molded plastic casing (that the pieces fit into), and this slides into a cardboard sheath. My other complaint is that the silver pieces are all good guys, and the gold pieces are all bad guys. In regular chess, there isn't a good side and a bad side, so I don't understand the company's choices for chess men. Don't buy this until you see it in person, because it isn't worth it.

I keep reading these reviews ripping this set apart. Honestly what did you think you were getting for [this price]$ ? If you want a really awsome set, then pay your 500$ to Noble Collection and get that one.

This set is:

Good looking:

Detail is good
Pieces are well made and fun to look at

Durable:
Treat it well, and it will last fine. The pieces are great, and even though the board is fold out it looks really nice.

Easy to play:
Only the most uncoordinated will have a problem moving the pieces around. The cave troll is not the problem other reviewers suggest.

I ordered this particular set because the picture looked like it had a wooden board but when it came it have the cheep cardboard folding board. Now I realize it is not an expensive set but the pictures of other sets (which turn out to be the same one)showed that they had the flat board. To take a picture that is deceptive is poor business. Will I keep it yes because it is what my child asked for as a gift for Christmas, but I was very disappointed in this sites deceptive picture.

i was so disappointed with the quality of this game. the board is a folded piece of cardboard and in the pictures it looked like a real board with some depth to it. the figures are very light weight material also...

I love of the Lord of the Rings but I was a bit disappointed with this chess set.

For one thing: How come the rooks are not towers? They could have used the The White Tower of Gondor and the enemy's Black Tower of Mordor or Isengard's Tower.

The ringraith should not have been made the queen but rather the knight. Also Arwen should have been made a knight because she was on the horse with Frodo in the movie. I'm not sure who the black queen should be since there are no females on the dark side in the Fellowship of the ring. However they could have used the female giant spider named Shelob from the Return of the King.

The trolls as bishops are big and difficult to move.

I think the goblins as pawns and the hobbits as pawns were cool.

I think the pieces all look fine. I just wish they had used a few different pieces and maybe have the troll bishops be smaller.

The over all Look of the set was nice. The main problem, however, is that the seven "Fellowship" characters were not all present. Four important characters were missing. The Elf "Legolas", "Pippin" and "Mary" the two best friends of Frodo, and the dwarf "Gimli" all were forgotten. A complete disappointment. And the pawns are all in the same image of "Sam", Frodo's side-kick, in which place they could put other Hobbits. Particularly "Bilbo" the Hobbit that started it all. If your going to call the set "The Fellowship of the Ring", the least you can do is have the complete Fellowship. For the price of this set, I'm disappointed in the quality and authentisity. If the Other chess set wasn't outragiously expensive, or the price of this set was more appropriate for the quality, then I'd be more satisfied.

While the Lord of the Rings chess set is unarguably pretty, it is clearly not designed with playability in mind. The pieces are not particularly well-fitted to the board, making it difficult to see what's going on and also to move the pieces without knocking any of them over. The blackb bishops (trolls) in particular are a problem, as they can't even fit on their starting squares properly due to hitting the pieces next to them. If you're a LotR fan who must have all the merchandise, then by all means get this, but it shouldn't be your only chess set.

I must admit I had some fun with this game too! Of course there has to be a set of good guys and a set of bad guys! That's what the movie's all about! The items seem to be metallic paint coated plastic pieces. The board is just an average folding board in a traditional checker/chess set. But it does have a cool map of middle earth on it. And extra room on two sides (to store your enemy's chess pieces).

My brother, who's 9 and knows how to play chess really loved it! Some drawbacks.... the Gold knights ARE too big! They barely fit in their squares from the starting set up. Silver (good guys) pawns and bishops look quite similar! You have to pay close attention to tell them apart!

This is a good game! Unfortunately, for most, this isn't an "ultimate collector's set". [Hopefully that will be out in a short time?! With real metal pieces?! We hope! ;) ]