Review: 30212 Mirkwood Elf Guard

[dj2005]

Title of Set: 30212 Mirkwood Elf Guard

Theme: The Hobbit

Year Released: 2012

Piece Count: 27

Minifigures: 1

Original Price: $4.99 (USD)

Current Prices: BrickLink Price Guide

Further Information: Brickset, Photobucket Album

Deep in the Mirkwood forests, where the light of the sun fails to penetrate the dense canopy, the Silvan Elves reside. Here they are one with the land and keep an ever watchful eye out for the always lurking evil that plagues Middle-earth.

Author's Notes:

30212 Mirkwood Elf Guard is one of two polybag sets released for The Hobbit theme. The other set being Gandalf at Dol Guldur. Set 30212 is a Toys R Us exclusive making it somewhat difficult to get a hold of for some LEGO fans.

Bag:

Front:

Back:

The bag nicely displays the full set, as well as maintaining the color scheme and overall design seen on the packaging of other The Hobbit sets.

Instructions:

As is usual with small sets such as this one, an instructional pamphlet is used rather than an actual booklet. It contains 7 steps that are all easy to follow and has a lovely background that consists of a map-styled drawing with a few phrases sprawled about. There is also an advertisement for the LEGO Club and set 79010.

Minifigure:

The main allure of this set is obviously the Mirkwood elf. His torso features a beautifully printed olive-green tunic that would look great in many types of MOCs and sets. The belt buckle and brooch are in a metallic silver, which adds some flair to the print. His head is double-sided with one side showing a neutral expression and the other showing a warlike/angry expression. The high cheekbones really promote an elvish look.

While the completed minifigure is exclusive to this set, none of the individual pieces that make up the minifigure are unique and they can be found in other sets.

Pieces:

Many of the included pieces in this set are quite useful, partly due to the large amount of brown and green pieces. A couple of my favorites are the red printed mushroom cap and the 6 x 5 dark green plant leaves. Not shown are the accessories as those are in the next category.

Accessories:

An expected amount of accessories are included and are as follows: a dark green hood, translucent green goblet, translucent green gem, reddish brown quiver and reddish brown bow. The hood is only found in one other set - 76005 Daily Bugle Showdown - making it fairly valuable. The bow, which can be considered a long bow or elven bow, is rare as well due to the fact that it is currently only found in 9 other sets, many of which are a part of the Lord of the Rings theme. It is, in my opinion, the best bow that TLG has designed over the years and it provides some much needed variety from the usual bow / crossbow that we tend to see in medieval-styled sets.

Completed Set:

Front:

Right Side:

Back:

Left Side:

With only 27 pieces, a quaint scene is created that is enjoyable on its own but it can also be added to many other sets without looking out of place. For those of you that are curious, the two translucent green 1 x 1 round plates are placed within the barrel as per the instructions. I imagine they are suppose to be some sort of treasure/gems.

Completed with Minifigure:

Being an Elf is Hard Work:

Reviewer's Score:

Playability: 8.3/10 – Taking into account that this is a 27 piece set, I think there is a good deal of playability present. The elf can drink from his goblet, store the gem in the barrel, harvest the mushroom, perch in the tree to act as a parameter guardsmen, etc.

Design: 8.8/10 – The tree is cute and sturdy, and is accompanied by a mushroom to further add atmosphere to the set. The choice of colors works very well and fits in with the mood it wants to adhere to. I would’ve liked to have some kind of target practice area, somewhat like in set 30062 Target Practice. I think a reddish brown or regular brown plate would have made more sense instead of a bluish gray plate, but that would have also detracted from the contrast that the tree currently exudes.

Price: 8.1/10 – For those of us who have a Toys R Us nearby, the $4.99 price tag isn’t all that bad for a licensed polybag that is comprised of useful parts with a great minifigure. Still, I would've much preferred the set to not be exclusive to Toys R Us.

Total: 25.2/30 – I recommend grabbing at least one copy of this set for any Lord of the Rings fan or even any Castle/Medieval fan. The minifigure fits in with many sets and scenes, as do the pieces. Plus, the hood and minifigure's torso are currently only found in one other set.

[GRogall]

Nice review dj2005! I also like this little Polly, it has some great little pieces and not a bad looking figure

The review and pictures are also well done!

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the review. I do own multiples of this set when I saw it at TRU last Thanksgiving. Thankfully they had the BOGO 50% off sale running, so I picked up a few.

The set itself is decent with some useful pieces. The green hood is neat, but I would have preferred Elven hair instead. I would have bought a lot more had it had the hair piece instead of a hood.

I highly recommend it, but probably not at the inflated after-market prices. Especially since you could get basically the same figure in the Barrel Escape set, but with the hair!

[Watchman]

Great review.

Being in the UK my biggest bug bear is that this was a US only release.

Would have loved a few of these.

[Captain Settle]

Great review. Good set with useful pieces, and no flesh on the torso is an added bonus.

[Ragnar_Deerslayer]

Good review! You really highlight the creative potential within the boundaries of the 27 pieces. I'll keep an eye out for the pack next time I'm at Toys R Us!

[BlueberryWaffles]

I still can't find this polybag. I'll look next time I go to TRU to stock up on Minion stuff, but they barely have polybags.

[dj2005]

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the review.

I still can't find this polybag. I'll look next time I go to TRU to stock up on Minion stuff, but they barely have polybags.

Gollum is probably hoarding them all.

[pup]

Great review! I picked up one of these sets when it first came out, and was very happy with it.

Love the mushroom and bottle; and the hood and sans-flesh torso are fantastic. I was delighted to get an elf with hood, as opposed to one with hair/ears, as I convert all my fleshies to yellow. (Anyone interested in a bag of flesh heads and hands?)

[Ace Krampus]

I've never even remotely seen this set. I'm not entirely convinced it actually exists. Haha.

[manoutdoor]

Good set with useful pieces, and no flesh on the torso is an added bonus.

Edited July 14, 2013 by manoutdoor

[Esurient]

This polybag looks great! Great review and pictures! well done!

[bricklayer7]

Does anyone know if these will turn up in the uk ?

[NiL_FisK_Urd]

Too bad this set is only sold in the USA

[The_Chosen_1]

This poly at was extremely popular here in the U.S., and for good reason. It's a fantastic little parts pack with a solid army-builder type of minifigure. If you didn't find one when it was released last year, it's highly unlikely that they can still be found out "in the wild".

[kgyore]

$4.49 for an elf, a tree and the LOTR exclusive bow? You have to be insane not to buy this for this price when elves on the market usually sell for at least $8-10 a pop.

Since i have missed out on the whole series 3 chainmail elf edition, this was my big chance to try to create somewhat of a resemblance of an elf army.

I truly feel for people who did not get the chance to buy this since it is such a deal for today's LOTR LEGO prices. I wish that it wouldn't just have been a polybag set but maybe a starter set since LEGO right now wants so much money for elves in general that it is almost unfair to one's wallet.

Yes, maybe one doesnt get a lot of bricks with this one but they are really useful.

The tree can be a simple addition to your forest because it is a nice stand alone piece. The elf is really cute and although you dont get the elf hairs but the dark green hood is really rare at this point. And there is the afore mentioned LOTR exclusive bow. All in all, it is a deal from a lot of aspects.

[Hive]

Great review for a great set with some amazing and unique parts.

It really annoys me that a stellar little polybag like this one was only released in USA - while we only got the redundant Gandalf polybag. I would have loved a couple of these.

[dj2005]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

$4.49 for an elf, a tree and the LOTR exclusive bow? You have to be insane not to buy this for this price when elves on the market usually sell for at least $8-10 a pop.

Since i have missed out on the whole series 3 chainmail elf edition, this was my big chance to try to create somewhat of a resemblance of an elf army.

I truly feel for people who did not get the chance to buy this since it is such a deal for today's LOTR LEGO prices. I wish that it wouldn't just have been a polybag set but maybe a starter set since LEGO right now wants so much money for elves in general that it is almost unfair to one's wallet.

Yes, maybe one doesnt get a lot of bricks with this one but they are really useful.

The tree can be a simple addition to your forest because it is a nice stand alone piece. The elf is really cute and although you dont get the elf hairs but the dark green hood is really rare at this point. And there is the afore mentioned LOTR exclusive bow. All in all, it is a deal from a lot of aspects.

IIRC, the bow can also be found in a couple Collectable Minifigure sets (Elf and Forest Maiden). But, yes, the bow is definitely a good accessory to have and, IMO, it adds some much needed variety to the selection of bows we have to choose from. Thinking about it, I'll probably add a sentence in the review to describe the bow in more detail.

Great review for a great set with some amazing and unique parts.

It really annoys me that a stellar little polybag like this one was only released in USA - while we only got the redundant Gandalf polybag. I would have loved a couple of these.

It annoys me too. This is why I "only" gave the set a 8.1 in the pricing category, as the exclusivity and seemingly low stock make this set expensive, especially outside of the USA.

[naf]

I just found out about this set, and I'm pretty disappointed that it's nowhere to be found. If this thing was selling so well, why won't TLG make more? I don't mind the occasional collectible like Mr. Gold or the Comic-con figures, but it seems like every licensed theme has these hard to find exclusives that are only available a short time, and a lot of them end up being sold online at ridiculous prices. It's sad to see a company like Lego encouraging this type of collecting. Since this set only came out last summer, and the Mirkwood elves play a prominent role in the 2nd movie, I'm at a loss as to why these aren't being re-released.

[Deathleech]

Since this set only came out last summer, and the Mirkwood elves play a prominent role in the 2nd movie, I'm at a loss as to why these aren't being re-released.

If the rumored second wave Hobbit list is true, it looks like Lego IS releasing an army builder set with more Mirkwood Elves in it. Personally I would rather have those versions anyways if they are in the cool armor seen in the DoS trailer. The Mirkwood Elf polybag, while nice for parts, kinda sucks for the minifigure looking back. The only reason it was so sought after was because it was the only cheap way to get a Middle Earth elf soldier back then. The hood doesn't even match the olive green torso and there are no elf ears or a special helmet to indicate this is even an elf at all. It just has a normal dark green hooded figure.

[naf]

If the rumored second wave Hobbit list is true, it looks like Lego IS releasing an army builder set with more Mirkwood Elves in it. Personally I would rather have those versions anyways if they are in the cool armor seen in the DoS trailer. The Mirkwood Elf polybag, while nice for parts, kinda sucks for the minifigure looking back. The only reason it was so sought after was because it was the only cheap way to get a Middle Earth elf soldier back then. The hood doesn't even match the olive green torso and there are no elf ears or a special helmet to indicate this is even an elf at all. It just has a normal dark green hooded figure.

I liked the figure just as a generic figure for my castle settings, and it's always nice to get foliage pieces. I also liked the green hood. I'll have to keep my eye out for the new mirkwood set.

[Lynx]

Great review of a very neat little set!

I found three of these sets for a reasonable price on eBay and was glad about it. Polybags of non-unique characters could be the only option for LotR army builders - due to the absence of battle packs. Hopefully a Gondor soldier polybag will come along next year!

[Hepitos]

great polybag, but not available in austria :(

Edited September 13, 2013 by Hepitos

[korpen4444]

It just has a normal dark green hooded figure.

Perfect for a purist Green Arrow. Why I want one.