LEGO Elves 2018

[FortNerd]

52 minutes ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

Does anyone know where the complete back story so far is for Elves? I am interested in being able to ‘join the dots’ on how all the sets hang together in Elvendale. I have watch almost all of the Episodes (8) for the TV show but there feels like gaps missing. Like where is Ragana and Nocturna in this story so far....?

Lego.com has an interactive map where you can see the 2015, 2016 and 2017 areas together. It's unknown where the new map will fit in there, but i doubt they'll abandon the rule.

 

Also, regarding best set - I have no idea how it happened but I somehow forgot to mention Dragon Queen's Rescue. Everyone seems to be praising Ragana's castle, and rightly so, but the Dragon Queen herself is simply beautiful, plus you get a castle with a decent amount of floor space, interesting terrain shaping and two action features.

[rodiziorobs]

I did also like the Queen Dragon Rescue, but I didn't appreciate the selection of characters; the minidolls and the animal weren't enough to edge out Ragana, Jynx, and the hoods and capes for the familiar characters in that set. I know, its a picky thing. I also wished they could have included knees for the dragon 

[sousmarineuse]

Yes, the choice  is difficult. 

My favorite one is sanctuary tied with secret market. Dragons with playable places are good stuff for me. 

Imo, dragon queen is wonderful but the castle a little bit empty. 

And the worth, still in my opinion, is Ragana Castle. Good looking, but breaks all the time and bed isn't playable (my daughter cried soooo much because she could not put Ragana in her bed!) . And I'm still waiting for a real black dragon, not only a top of castle head. Too much frustration in this set  

I didn't buy green Cronan's sets. 

And not yet the new wave (will be on sale in march in Europe) 

Edited January 13, 2018 by sousmarineuse
My daughter

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

As I have only really noticed this Theme in the last couple of weeks I am behind in sets... Now that I have actually taken a look at Elves I have seen there is wonderful sets with great design, techniques, parts and colours. So far Ragana’s Castle is the ‘pride of the fleet’ however I am looking forwards to a delivery of Crystal Mine and Rosalyn’s Hideout. :)  Goblin village is also filled with character.

[Lyichir]

3 hours ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

Does anyone know where the complete back story so far is for Elves? I am interested in being able to ‘join the dots’ on how all the sets hang together in Elvendale. I have watch almost all of the Episodes (8) for the TV show but there feels like gaps missing. Like where is Ragana and Nocturna in this story so far....?

The eight episodes on Netflix only really tell last year's story. For the rest, you'll have to watch the older mini-movies and webisodes, which are available to watch on Lego.com, sorted by year (click See All by where each year is listed to get to the full list of videos): https://www.lego.com/en-us/elves/videos

The mini-movies tell most of the main story, so it's probably best to start there. The webisodes tend to be shorter character pieces that have a minimal impact on the overall plot but help to flesh out the world and characters (including some elements from the sets that may have gotten glossed over in the mini-movies).

[Fenghuang0296]

5 hours ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

Does anyone know where the complete back story so far is for Elves? I am interested in being able to ‘join the dots’ on how all the sets hang together in Elvendale. I have watch almost all of the Episodes (8) for the TV show but there feels like gaps missing. Like where is Ragana and Nocturna in this story so far....?

Not all the Elves animations are part of the Netflix series. In 2015, they released a 22-minute TV spot, like what they did with the Atlantic theme way back when, that told the story of how, shortly after her grandmother died, Emily Jones inherited a magical necklace from her grandmother. Spoilers follow, or you could go online and watch the series.

Spoiler

Problem is, when she put it on, it transported her to the magical land of Elvendale, where she met, um, I think it was Naida and Farren. Research uncovers an ancient map detailing the locations of four magic keys that, together, unlock a portal leading back to Emily's world. Enlisting Aira and Azari's aid, the five seek out and retrieve the magical keys, before journeying to Skya's castle to use the key set to unlock her portal. But Skya doesn't particularly want to allow that, and they spend a fair amount of time arguing, until it is revealed that Skya is actually Emily's great-aunt, and her grandmother was once an elf who made herself human and went to live in the human world to guard the portal between worlds. Eventually, they argue Skya down, and she accepts Emily as a relative and grants her permission to us even the portal whenever she likes.

Then, in 2016, because of how successful it had already been, they created two more episodes, entitled 'Dragons to Save, Time to be Brave - Parts 1 & 2'.

Spoiler

This year's events kicked off when Naida witnessed a strange elf she didn't recognise attacking a pair of dragons; one of whom she was mind-controlling, the other chained up, and stealing the five eggs of the chained one. Naida somehow managed to rescue four of the eggs, and fled to find her friends. Around now, Emily popped in for a visit to Elvendale, just in time to hear Naida's explanation. The five Elves seek out Tidus, an expert on dragonology and owner of the Dragon School, who explains that the actions of an evil elf named Ragana have thrown the balance of the relationship between Elves and Dragons out of whack - and that baby dragons can only survive for so long without their mother. He gives them an hourglass, telling them to turn it over when the eggs start hatching, as it marks the amount of time they will have to return the babies to their mother. Since Ragana is holding the mother hostage, the Elves set out on a journey to rescue her, first visiting the Starlight Inn to retrieve a magical map . . I've forgotten the rest of it, but it ended how you'd expect; Ragana defeated, the babies returned to their mother, and the rift between Elves and dragons healed. 

People really should watch those two specials before the Netflix series, because it makes a lot more sense that way. I do hope they decide to put them on Netflix at some point, because lots of people wouldn't know to look for them.

[muddyknees]

They also kind of retold the intro story a few times....some of the shorts repeated themselves. I think there were at least 3 different shorts on how Sophie arrived in Elvendale. With all the changes in animation style and whatnot it was rather apparent that they didn't have a unified vision of how to move forward with the show. A bit unfortunate, because they could have easily turned it into a real going concern....proper branding and marketing can genuinely ensure greater success for a franchise, or product line. They really chopped up the story and mangled it quite badly. Some things got repeated, some got left out. Definitely could have been better handled.

[Lyichir]

14 hours ago, muddyknees said:

They also kind of retold the intro story a few times....some of the shorts repeated themselves. I think there were at least 3 different shorts on how Sophie arrived in Elvendale. With all the changes in animation style and whatnot it was rather apparent that they didn't have a unified vision of how to move forward with the show. A bit unfortunate, because they could have easily turned it into a real going concern....proper branding and marketing can genuinely ensure greater success for a franchise, or product line. They really chopped up the story and mangled it quite badly. Some things got repeated, some got left out. Definitely could have been better handled.

I don't think that's as big an issue as you make it out to be. I remember being a Bionicle fan back in the day, and oftentimes you got much more dramatically different (and often visually or even narratively inconsistent) stories between the comics, games, chapter books and movies. The Elves webisodes from last year (and presumably this year's webisodes as well) are a lot simpler, basically telling condensed versions of the story along with minor side-stories like the ones in the earlier webisodes.

I think part of the choice to adopt a different style was less a lack of a "unified vision" so much as acknowledging that not all Elves fans would have Netflix, and that the webisodes would have to be on a different schedule and budget than the Netflix series. Those concerns may have also influenced the shift to a mini-doll based art style for the webisodes, since it'd help them to look more like their own thing compared to the earlier webisodes, which if they had continued in that more naturalistic style would have felt like a sub-par version of the more fluid, detailed animation in the Netflix series.

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

On 1/13/2018 at 6:23 PM, Lyichir said:

The eight episodes on Netflix only really tell last year's story. For the rest, you'll have to watch the older mini-movies and webisodes, which are available to watch on Lego.com, sorted by year (click See All by where each year is listed to get to the full list of videos): https://www.lego.com/en-us/elves/videos

The mini-movies tell most of the main story, so it's probably best to start there. The webisodes tend to be shorter character pieces that have a minimal impact on the overall plot but help to flesh out the world and characters (including some elements from the sets that may have gotten glossed over in the mini-movies).

Thanks for that. One set of episodes from 2017 did seem odd.

I am almost through all the Mini Movies. I have to say that finding all of them is not easy and I think that whoever is doing the job of overseeing the theme in terms of continuity, access to media, creative direction and marketing needs to centralise the content and make things easier to find. The animation has certainly improved with the Netflix series. Improved a lot.

On 1/13/2018 at 8:44 PM, muddyknees said:

They also kind of retold the intro story a few times....some of the shorts repeated themselves. I think there were at least 3 different shorts on how Sophie arrived in Elvendale. With all the changes in animation style and whatnot it was rather apparent that they didn't have a unified vision of how to move forward with the show. A bit unfortunate, because they could have easily turned it into a real going concern....proper branding and marketing can genuinely ensure greater success for a franchise, or product line. They really chopped up the story and mangled it quite badly. Some things got repeated, some got left out. Definitely could have been better handled.

I agree with you muddyknees. It feels like the Elves theme is lacking in a unified marketed approach and lacks somewhat in creative control. The sets are excellent, the back story is fine and the newer animation is top quality but I think things need to be better organised. Maybe someone should do a DK book to document the Theme? 

On 1/14/2018 at 11:10 AM, Lyichir said:

I don't think that's as big an issue as you make it out to be. I remember being a Bionicle fan back in the day, and oftentimes you got much more dramatically different (and often visually or even narratively inconsistent) stories between the comics, games, chapter books and movies. The Elves webisodes from last year (and presumably this year's webisodes as well) are a lot simpler, basically telling condensed versions of the story along with minor side-stories like the ones in the earlier webisodes.

I think part of the choice to adopt a different style was less a lack of a "unified vision" so much as acknowledging that not all Elves fans would have Netflix, and that the webisodes would have to be on a different schedule and budget than the Netflix series. Those concerns may have also influenced the shift to a mini-doll based art style for the webisodes, since it'd help them to look more like their own thing compared to the earlier webisodes, which if they had continued in that more naturalistic style would have felt like a sub-par version of the more fluid, detailed animation in the Netflix series.

I agree that the varied approach to how they have made the back story available (Netflix, lego.com animation series, mini-dollish webisodes etc) can be to try to appeal to different groups and try different styles but I still think it should be centrally discovered at lego.com/elves. I am a fan of the Netflix animation by a long way but I can see that this would conflict if they ever made a LEGO Elves movie (which I think would be epic).

The webisodes I have not done yet. I have seen a few listed on lego.com but they seem to be only certain numbers. Where can I see a complete list of the webisodes?

[Aanchir]

1 hour ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

Thanks for that. One set of episodes from 2017 did seem odd.

I am almost through all the Mini Movies. I have to say that finding all of them is not easy and I think that whoever is doing the job of overseeing the theme in terms of continuity, access to media, creative direction and marketing needs to centralise the content and make things easier to find. The animation has certainly improved with the Netflix series. Improved a lot.

I agree with you muddyknees. It feels like the Elves theme is lacking in a unified marketed approach and lacks somewhat in creative control. The sets are excellent, the back story is fine and the newer animation is top quality but I think things need to be better organised. Maybe someone should do a DK book to document the Theme? 

I agree that the varied approach to how they have made the back story available (Netflix, lego.com animation series, mini-dollish webisodes etc) can be to try to appeal to different groups and try different styles but I still think it should be centrally discovered at lego.com/elves. I am a fan of the Netflix animation by a long way but I can see that this would conflict if they ever made a LEGO Elves movie (which I think would be epic).

The webisodes I have not done yet. I have seen a few listed on lego.com but they seem to be only certain numbers. Where can I see a complete list of the webisodes?

LEGO has a playlist on YouTube, but I’m not sure if it’s for all countries? Worth a shot though.

 

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

47 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

LEGO has a playlist on YouTube, but I’m not sure if it’s for all countries? Worth a shot though.

 

Cheers, I will take look.

[Bentonton]

Greetings from Hong Kong, I haven’t posted in a while.

Despite the fact that the Summer 2017 sets were available here before anywhere else, the 2018 sets still aren’t here. ?

But as I’ve just moved, I don’t have space for the sets yet anyway, and all my sets are in boxes at the moment.

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

19 hours ago, Bentonton said:

Greetings from Hong Kong, I haven’t posted in a while.

Despite the fact that the Summer 2017 sets were available here before anywhere else, the 2018 sets still aren’t here. ?

But as I’ve just moved, I don’t have space for the sets yet anyway, and all my sets are in boxes at the moment.

We are still waiting in Europe for the 2018 sets as well so you are not alone.

I am going to have to fight it out with my two daughters to get hold of Noctura. :)

[Pisces no Aphrodite]

2 hours ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

We are still waiting in Europe for the 2018 sets as well so you are not alone.

We are only in the mid of February( somewhere).

[Fenghuang0296]

23 hours ago, Bentonton said:

Greetings from Hong Kong, I haven’t posted in a while.

Despite the fact that the Summer 2017 sets were available here before anywhere else, the 2018 sets still aren’t here. ?

 

3 hours ago, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

We are still waiting in Europe for the 2018 sets as well so you are not alone.

I can confirm from down under that they haven't shown up here either, mates. :P

[rodiziorobs]

None of the Walmarts in my area have had them, and I'm in the US. So, even though they have showed up in some places here already, it's not 100%.

[TheGlynreaper]

I guess we in europe have to wait until march for the set releases

other than 3 of the very first year sets I have every single one so far the only ones I havnt got are the bakery , waterfall/sauna and crystal hollow

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

6 hours ago, TheGlynreaper said:

I guess we in europe have to wait until march for the set releases

other than 3 of the very first year sets I have every single one so far the only ones I havnt got are the bakery , waterfall/sauna and crystal hollow

Nice work on set collection. I only just started looking at the Elves theme properly 2 months ago. Now I have a very expensive long Bricklink Wanted List.... :) I can’t believe I missed how cool this theme is. 

In Sweden I know I can get sets on 1st of March, which I believe is when Sweden will be getting shipments. It takes a couple of months to drive them from our neighbour Denmark. ;)

[Killian]

On 1/13/2018 at 4:38 PM, DungeonsAndFlagons said:

As I have only really noticed this Theme in the last couple of weeks I am behind in sets... Now that I have actually taken a look at Elves I have seen there is wonderful sets with great design, techniques, parts and colours. So far Ragana’s Castle is the ‘pride of the fleet’ however I am looking forwards to a delivery of Crystal Mine and Rosalyn’s Hideout. :)  Goblin village is also filled with character.

Yeah, I bought multiples of Ragana's Castle and the Goblin Village so I could expand them. Also did the same with Cronan's Castle so I could make it taller

[FortNerd]

People who saw the retailer catalogue with summer releases - where are you? :D

[Fenghuang0296]

2 hours ago, FortNerd said:

People who saw the retailer catalogue with summer releases - where are you? :D

Right here. I only just downloaded it this morning to get closer pictures of the summer Ninjago and City releases (Ninjago is awesome, but with the exception of one or two things that might be good for my Winter Village City is a let-down) but I've seen the catalogue and downloaded it to my iBooks app. 

Contrary to expectations, there's only gonna be two summer sets; one with Emily (I think it's Emily, though I guess it might be Sophie), Noctura and two bats (couldn't tell which ones), plus Lumia in her wolf form and Noctura's carriage, which is smaller than it looked in the cinematic trailer we saw a while back. (Which is good, because it keeps the price down, and it still looks fine in my opinion.)

The second one is the Elvenstar Treehouse, which looks like a pretty nice building to act as a base of operations for the Elves, includes Lumia, Azari, and someone I think is Naida, but something looks weird about her - I can't quite tell, but it gives me hope that we might see some kind of 'corrupted Naida' mini-doll. There's also two bats (again, can't tell which ones) and some kind of blue animal, looks like one of the bears from Goblin King's Evil Dragon from last year. As for the build, the Treehouse looks great, and I'm noticing a brown spiral staircase which MOCers will love. There's also the Shadow World portal, which looks great, and some kind of brick-built giant bat, which looks somewhat plain, but these are prelims so it's probably not the final version. 

[FortNerd]

31 minutes ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Right here. I only just downloaded it this morning to get closer pictures of the summer Ninjago and City releases (Ninjago is awesome, but with the exception of one or two things that might be good for my Winter Village City is a let-down) but I've seen the catalogue and downloaded it to my iBooks app. 

Contrary to expectations, there's only gonna be two summer sets; one with Emily (I think it's Emily, though I guess it might be Sophie), Noctura and two bats (couldn't tell which ones), plus Lumia in her wolf form and Noctura's carriage, which is smaller than it looked in the cinematic trailer we saw a while back. (Which is good, because it keeps the price down, and it still looks fine in my opinion.)

The second one is the Elvenstar Treehouse, which looks like a pretty nice building to act as a base of operations for the Elves, includes Lumia, Azari, and someone I think is Naida, but something looks weird about her - I can't quite tell, but it gives me hope that we might see some kind of 'corrupted Naida' mini-doll. There's also two bats (again, can't tell which ones) and some kind of blue animal, looks like one of the bears from Goblin King's Evil Dragon from last year. As for the build, the Treehouse looks great, and I'm noticing a brown spiral staircase which MOCers will love. There's also the Shadow World portal, which looks great, and some kind of brick-built giant bat, which looks somewhat plain, but these are prelims so it's probably not the final version. 

I've seen the catalogue now, and I have to say I'm a bit surprised that the carriage & wolf turned out to be one set, and there is no larger chunk of Shadow World terrain as I predicted.

The Elvenstar tree is pure beauty. Naida looks like regular Naida to me. I am F***ING ANGRY that once again there is no Farran and it's a TREEHOUSE SET. I don't get the weird bat creature, its proportions are a bit ridiculous. I guess they wanted to use the wings from Noctura's tower one more time.

[Fenghuang0296]

7 minutes ago, FortNerd said:

I've seen the catalogue now, and I have to say I'm a bit surprised that the carriage & wolf turned out to be one set, and there is no larger chunk of Shadow World terrain as I predicted.

The Elvenstar tree is pure beauty. Naida looks like regular Naida to me. I am F***ING ANGRY that once again there is no Farran and it's a TREEHOUSE SET. I don't get the weird bat creature, its proportions are a bit ridiculous. I guess they wanted to use the wings from Noctura's tower one more time.

Yeah, I hear that. This is the second year that Farren's been exclusive to a single large set. I really hope that this is something that ends in 2019. And the combination of the carriage and wolf surprised me too . . now I'll just have to drop money on something I don't want much to get the wolf. -.-

Edited January 20, 2018 by Feng-huang0296

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

2 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Right here. I only just downloaded it this morning to get closer pictures of the summer Ninjago and City releases (Ninjago is awesome, but with the exception of one or two things that might be good for my Winter Village City is a let-down) but I've seen the catalogue and downloaded it to my iBooks app. 

Contrary to expectations, there's only gonna be two summer sets; one with Emily (I think it's Emily, though I guess it might be Sophie), Noctura and two bats (couldn't tell which ones), plus Lumia in her wolf form and Noctura's carriage, which is smaller than it looked in the cinematic trailer we saw a while back. (Which is good, because it keeps the price down, and it still looks fine in my opinion.)

The second one is the Elvenstar Treehouse, which looks like a pretty nice building to act as a base of operations for the Elves, includes Lumia, Azari, and someone I think is Naida, but something looks weird about her - I can't quite tell, but it gives me hope that we might see some kind of 'corrupted Naida' mini-doll. There's also two bats (again, can't tell which ones) and some kind of blue animal, looks like one of the bears from Goblin King's Evil Dragon from last year. As for the build, the Treehouse looks great, and I'm noticing a brown spiral staircase which MOCers will love. There's also the Shadow World portal, which looks great, and some kind of brick-built giant bat, which looks somewhat plain, but these are prelims so it's probably not the final version. 

My 1HY 2018 catalogue (online) does not show the sets you are talking about Where are you guys seeing these later sets? Can i get a link? Or have a missed a page on the new catalogue?

Edited January 20, 2018 by DungeonsAndFlagons

[Dr.Cogg]

Its in the commercial, just pause some of the scenes to see them.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Dr.Cogg