Inside the minds of LEGO 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr's designers

LEGO Icons 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr may be massive, but the designers had more creative freedom than expected when making it.

During a recent interview with Brick Fanatics, members of the design team behind 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr took us behind the scenes on what it was like to design such a massive and iconic set, specifically when working with an IP partner. You might expect that the iconic nature of the franchise and the Eye of Sauron specifically meant a lot of feedback, but it would seem that this wasn't quite the case.

"It's a very similar process, you still get some sort of reference material that the license partner can provide," explained designer Antica Bracanov. "For this one, it was mostly the exterior that they could show us. But then we had a lot of fun with the interior because there was no reference for that.

"We did still have check-ins with them, just to make sure that they're okay with what we want to show. We had a lot of freedom there. We were super happy because they loved our ideas pretty much right away."

Licensed LEGO sets likely have more stringent requirements to keep in mind during the design process. Despite this, it appears that Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products was happy for the LEGO Group's team to take the lead and lean into their knowledge of the franchise.

That mindset is especially apparent through the set's interior, which is rife with references and unexpected details that don't necessarily correlate to the tower seen in the movies. There's even a sign that Sauron is a LEGO enthusiast.

"One of the first things we were talking about was what kind of stories we wanted to tell in the interior and then that determined what rooms we were going to make," continued Bracanov.

"With these little humour elements, it's a compromise like this is a darker space but we still did want to brighten up a little bit with these details that when you stumble upon them, they're funny.

"There's a little carrot in the dining area for example. So they have a vegetarian option on the menu. It's not obvious right away, but when you see it, it's funny."

Beyond the contents of 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr's build, the reference material was sometimes crucial for some of the included minifigures, though the LEGO designers had to get creative to fill in any gaps occasionally.

"We had a few characters that we could clearly get reference material for and also within the movie scenes that we could see what type of armour they are wearing," stated Bracanov.

"That's mostly the green orcs, they have like different distinctive armour with a lot of spikes and points and the other orcs were more part of Gothmog's army. They were a bit hard to see within the battle scenes and we had to freeze frame a lot to see what they were wearing."

"We saw with a reference material that we had that they were patched together with different types of armour and pieces. So we just took the silhouettes of them and then added our imagination to it.

"Luckily, I did not do everything alone. So I had the help of Georgie who was one of the original designers of the Lord of the Rings minifigures in the original lineup and a colleague of mine within the LEGO Icons team – Nathan – who also did some amazing design work on on some other minifigures."

Together, the team of LEGO designers have recreated the iconic tower for the first time officially and physically complete with the debut minifigure of Sauron. You can find out more about the massive model by reading our in-depth review.

10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr launches on June 1 for LEGO Insiders or June 4 widely for £399.99 / $459.99 / €459.99 and there's a free 40693 The Lord of the Rings: Fell Beast gift-with-purchase available until June 7 or while stocks last.

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