LEGO Elves 2018

[Digger of Bricks]

I've been pondering...

...understandably, Lego wouldn't wish launch any new Action/Adventure theme during the first half of 2019 alongside the release of The Lego Movie 2. But, what about for the second half of the year? The absence of the Elves and Nexo Knights themes has left an awfully big hole, and I hope they don't leave it empty for the remainder of the year (or worse yet, fill it in with a licensed line). 

Do you @Falconfan1414 perhaps know if there's anything new on the horizon as far as an all-new in-house playtheme for Summer 2019? 

[Falconfan1414]

12 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

I've been pondering...

...understandably, Lego wouldn't wish launch any new Action/Adventure theme during the first half of 2019 alongside the release of The Lego Movie 2. But, what about for the second half of the year? The absence of the Elves and Nexo Knights themes has left an awfully big hole, and I hope they don't leave it empty for the remainder of the year (or worse yet, fill it in with a licensed line). 

Do you @Falconfan1414 perhaps know if there's anything new on the horizon as far as an all-new in-house playtheme for Summer 2019? 

I haven’t heard anything about a new in house theme yet but that doesn’t mean one isn’t coming. But that being said I would be surprised if there was a new Big Bang introduced in the summer

[Aanchir]

3 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Lego Elves always annoyed me. It had so many cool concepts but it was bogged down by another concept that was garbage or poorly implemented

…So which concepts were "cool" and which was "garbage or poorly implemented", pray tell?

[jemm13]

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

…So which concepts were "cool" and which was "garbage or poorly implemented", pray tell?

I believe he's referring to the dolls, which I understand wholeheartedly. Elves has been the first fully fantasy in-house theme for a while, and the use of dolls instead of minifigures brings down the customization and the applicability of the characters to mocs. Plus the molds they use for the sets aren't the best, kind of repetitive, and I bet not many like some or all of the designs for them. I can understand why some would be fans of the dolls, but I feel there's a lack of range to them. I feel that the character designs would have been great on minifigures, giving us more options to style our characters with, especially since many of the characters have rather unique designs. They could have even used flesh colored minifigures for the line to appeal to the style of a fully produced cartoon or used the regular yellow to expand on the range of minifigure themes available for people who like to moc in minifigure yellow as we have a serious lack of elf parts in the color (as the ears are super important).

For cool, the idea of the elves theme in general is a great one, having a more colorful fantasy world for them that isn't just regular forests and more down-to-earth colors of lines like Castle. They have a more Sylvan/fey quality that's very appealing, and the sets give a great range of colors in great quantity. Plus more dragons are always neat, but I think some just don't like the direction they took with their design (usually the head mold). I'm also not a fan of the short guys, are they gremlins? It's just my personal preference, but I feel they could have been done better differently.

[Digger of Bricks]

6 hours ago, Falconfan1414 said:

I haven’t heard anything about a new in house theme yet but that doesn’t mean one isn’t coming. 

Alright, thanks! 

6 hours ago, Falconfan1414 said:

But that being said I would be surprised if there was a new Big Bang introduced in the summer

Yeah, I too would find the introduction of a "Big Bang" theme in particular unlikely during the summer; but, a smaller scaled action/adventure theme introduced then wouldn't be out of the question. Back in 2014, Ultra Agents was launched in May of that year, so that's something we could hope for! 

[x105Black]

10 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Lego Elves always annoyed me. It had so many cool concepts but it was bogged down by another concept that was garbage or poorly implemented

A lot of very cool concepts like fantasy, dragons, and colorful sets.  A lot of garbage like minidolls, brick-built creatures, and tramp stamp tattoos.

My opinion, anyways.

[Thedarkmaster2]

7 hours ago, Aanchir said:

…So which concepts were "cool" and which was "garbage or poorly implemented", pray tell?

Okay So the color choices were amazing! As were the builds for the dragons and other animals (Except the turtle.. it was kinda limited)

 

The Poorly implemented stuff was the Minidolls which... Just are inferior versions of Minifigures. They lack hand articulation. Also man the villains were terrible! Like the only good one was the goblin king/ Are you telling me that the non articulated Bats or Goblins are somehow supposed to be good? Sorry but no. Let's just say hypothetically you still wanted the villains to not be too scary for girls... You could have just put regular minigifures. They would still stick out and be less scary...

[Way_Dark]

Didn't find if anyone posted this before, but there was a video of Lego catalog for the first half of 2019 & Elves wasn't mentioned among the themes, it was in Polish, now it's unavailable. Here's another one video look through the catalog. I guess it could count as an official close of the theme(  

 

[Aanchir]

On 12/23/2018 at 7:23 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Okay So the color choices were amazing! As were the builds for the dragons and other animals (Except the turtle.. it was kinda limited)

The Poorly implemented stuff was the Minidolls which... Just are inferior versions of Minifigures. They lack hand articulation. Also man the villains were terrible! Like the only good one was the goblin king/ Are you telling me that the non articulated Bats or Goblins are somehow supposed to be good? Sorry but no. Let's just say hypothetically you still wanted the villains to not be too scary for girls... You could have just put regular minigifures. They would still stick out and be less scary...

I enjoyed the Elves theme's goblins and bats (and carnivorous plants, dragons, spiders, etc) just as much as I enjoyed similar small, mischievous villains from minifigure-based themes: the Scurriers, Globlins, and Bricksets from Nexo Knights, the Rock Monsters and Lava Monsters from Power Miners, the alien clingers from Alien Conquest, the Skreemers from Ninjago, or Slimer and the other non-humanoid ghosts from Ghostbusters. Just using regular minifigures or mini-dolls in place of those baddies would have felt downright boring compared to the uniqueness brought by foes with less "human" looking designs. What's more, each of the final three years had a really brilliantly designed main villain leading their respective factions: Ragana Shadowflame in 2016, Cronan Darkroot in 2017, and Noctura the shapeshifting elf witch in 2018.

The idea that mini-dolls are "just inferior versions of minifigures" is extremely narrow-minded. A person with different preferences could make just as strong an argument that the mini-doll is superior to the minifigure, based on some of the advantages like those I listed here. But overall, which is "better" is purely subjective and entirely dependent on which figure design's strengths and weaknesses you assign more or less value. Even some of the supposed advantages of the minifigure aren't nearly as consistent as people make them out to be — for example, most mini-dolls with floor-length gowns or mermaid tails have BETTER articulation below the waist than their minifigure equivalents. And many mini-dolls can turn their heads or reach their arms above their heads better than a minifigure with a similar hairstyle, whose chunky torso and angled shoulders tend to impede that sort of movement.

Personally, I don't have any overall preference between these two figure styles, any more than between brick built figures or CCBS buildable figures. I think what type of figure is most suitable can vary according to the needs of a particular theme. Elves, with the gorgeous, lifelike character designs used in so much of its marketing, definitely felt like it gained much more from the use of the mini-doll than it lost, and I would even go so far as to say that themes like Exo-Force and Avatar: The Last Airbender with similarly anime-inspired character designs might have also been preferable with mini-dolls than with minifigures (which in both cases reflected neither the design standards of other themes at the time, nor the more lifelike character designs that inspired them).

Edited December 26, 2018 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

I liked Elves concept for the most part, especially the focus on actual buildings/trees over vehicles, but I am also a person that might have thought different if it were a Minifig theme instead. 

To this date, I haven't bought any minidoll sets, and while TLM2 started to mix them, it still might keep me from buying any of the sets with the minidolls in it. (but I also don't buy any licensed theme with pink-skin minifigs)

I even think many of the Friends sets, houses/shops have great ideas/builds, but the different style of dolls, animals and stickers make me think twice.

 

Maybe it's my nostalgia to older style LEGO, after having a 15 year dark age, that causes me only buy certain sets. Even some of the early 2000s yellow minifig faces look a bit bad to me.

Edited December 27, 2018 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

On 12/27/2018 at 10:24 AM, TeriXeri said:

Maybe it's my nostalgia to older style LEGO, after having a 15 year dark age, that causes me only buy certain sets. Even some of the early 2000s yellow minifig faces look a bit bad to me.

Frankly, even as somebody who generally prefers modern design standards over older ones, I feel like the late 90s and early 2000s were a definite low point for minifigure design. LEGO finally broke free of the "two dots and a smile" face template in the mid 90s, but were slow to adopt consistent new standards — thus, there was all kinds of weird stuff like Time Cruisers figures with a weird cartoon aesthetic not shared with any other themes, Wild West figures that looked like racist caricatures with exaggerated squinty eyes and bulging noses, UFO and Insectoids figures cluttered with needlessly chaotic detail, Queen Leonora from Knights' Kingdom with her preposterously exaggerated chest and hourglass waist, Adventurers Dino Island and Orient Expedition figures whose eyes had inconsistent shapes or placement, Alpha Team Mission Deep Sea figures who had weird eye colors that didn't contrast well with their yellow skin, and figures from themes like Racers and Sports that didn't seem to stick to any one consistent style at all.

Not to mention that even with the number of elements expanding out of control and costing LEGO loads of money, the variety of minifigure hairstyles at that time remained astonishingly limited. Even in 2006 there had only been 20 minifigure hair pieces introduced to date, with 50% of those introduced for Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Batman characters.

In general I think minifigure designs have greatly improved since the 2010 edition of the minifigure style guide, which standardized things somewhat while still leaving plenty of room for expressiveness and variety.

[Velouria]

The thing here is, as far as I'm concerned, the assumption that minifigs are inherently superior. They are not, we just think they are because they are familiar and nostalgic. I'm actually old enough to have seen the first- the faceless, unmovable torso and leg part ones, and later the ones with movable legs and arms and printed yellow faces. Hated them. Just so blocky, poorly proportioned, stupid vapid expression, no personality, and the simple fact that the first ones were by default male. A lot has changed since then, there is a lot of diversity now, but I'm still no fan of the minifig design. I actually think minidolls are an improvement, because they are more humanoid, and have more personality, and the fact that they are by default female. These were made for me. It's probably my XX chromosome at work?

Edited December 29, 2018 by Velouria

[TeriXeri]

17 hours ago, Velouria said:

The thing here is, as far as I'm concerned, the assumption that minifigs are inherently superior. They are not, we just think they are because they are familiar and nostalgic. I'm actually old enough to have seen the first- the faceless, unmovable torso and leg part ones, and later the ones with movable legs and arms and printed yellow faces. Hated them. Just so blocky, poorly proportioned, stupid vapid expression, no personality, and the simple fact that the first ones were by default male. A lot has changed since then, there is a lot of diversity now, but I'm still no fan of the minifig design. I actually think minidolls are an improvement, because they are more humanoid, and have more personality, and the fact that they are by default female. These were made for me. It's probably my XX chromosome at work?

I had some sets in my home as a kid that had those huge people built out of bricks(produced 1974-1978)

Also some of those no face/arms/legs figures (produced 1974-1977)

A lot certainly changed the next 40 years from that, even so, I think those pre-Minifig sets were more LEGO like then the "dollhouse" versions of Scala or Bellvile.

On the other hand, I think Minidolls are a great improvement from what Scala or Bellvile tried to be, sets certainly came closer to minifig scale, and TLM2 even mixed some sets.

 

I was in a dark age from 2001-2016 so a lot changed since, and like I said before, many of the older yellow minifig face expressions were just bad in my eyes as well, especially things like the 2001-2004 Racers... 

At that point LEGO itself was in some sort of crisis, no town/city theme for a few years, beside remakes.

Overall like @Aanchir said, faces improved a lot after 2010/2011. 

 

I just don't like to mix the 2 types of figures, just like I prefer standard yellow faces to flesh colored ones(not counting aliens/robots/monsters from LEGO's own themes), but that's just my opinion.

As long as City/Creator 3in1 makes some shops/houses I'm fine with just minifigs for now. But I do admit that I really like the builds within the Elves/Friends themes.

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by TeriXeri

[Velouria]

Yes, the bigfigs, had those too. They were very creative because they were part buildable. I liked those. Scala and Belville were disasters. And the minidoll- it would sure be nice if they were more posable, but I like the way they look just fine.

[panagliamp]

Today i bought for the second time the 41190 emily jones and the eagle getaway set.I bought the set before about a year ago.In my nearby store there are still 4 sets i have and this was the cheapest one and i wanted to buy it.I think this is my last set of the theme and that makes me sad.I don't understand why lego did this to us.Even from this set you had to see that this will not have a bad end.I want lego elves back.Doe anyone else feel so?

[Lego David]

8 hours ago, panagliamp said:

Today i bought for the second time the 41190 emily jones and the eagle getaway set.I bought the set before about a year ago.In my nearby store there are still 4 sets i have and this was the cheapest one and i wanted to buy it.I think this is my last set of the theme and that makes me sad.I don't understand why lego did this to us.Even from this set you had to see that this will not have a bad end.I want lego elves back.Doe anyone else feel so?

I would personally have had it continue than just be canceled so suddenly with no replacement...

[Dannylonglegs]

I gotta say I'm really sad to see the Elves theme go. It's one of my all time favorite Lego Themes, honestly. Even though I prefer minifigures, the Minidolls have their own merits and they work better for this theme than minifigures would have. What I especially love about the Elves theme is the unique and cohesive world they created. The Elves had architectural quirks that distinguished their buildings from those of other themes, and so did the Goblins. Each prt of Elvendale seemed to have its own atmosphere. And the characters were all well thought out and decently fleshed out. It's probably the first time I've felt this much love for a theme since I was a kid, or Atlantis. 

I loved the unique colour schemes and building styles from this theme. The designers clearly had fun. I loved that all the villains had unique rock colours. Light lavender for Ragana, light lime green for Cronan and the Goblins, and light aqua for Nocturna. Really sold the faerie antagonist feeling. 

It's to the point that I plan to Bricklink some of the sets I missed now that I know there won't be more. and I'll certainly plan to make a large Elves MOC at some point. 

the last wave especially hit all my buttons: shapeshifting evil Bat-themed witch? A return of Teal? Yes please. 

the theme overall made me super nostalgic for when I was young and my best friend and I used to look for fairies in the unmowed lot behind my house.

~Insectoid Aristocrat 

[Peppermint_M]

I am personally sketching out a continuation, bouncing ideas off my sister and gathering parts for builds. It does mean that I have been getting some -cough- custom minidolls. 

[Dannylonglegs]

5 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

I am personally sketching out a continuation, bouncing ideas off my sister and gathering parts for builds. It does mean that I have been getting some -cough- custom minidolls. 

Omg!  I'd love to see them. 

I've wondered about custom Friends/Elves figures before. Is it possible to remove/replace their arms as is the case with minifigures? 

my plans are to eventually host an "Elves" themed mafia game and if I could make a pure-black, or mostly black Minidoll that would be perfect.

edit: oh wait I actually did remove their arms once when I was younger so I could make a multi-armed Insectoid Friend

~Insectoid Aristocrat

Edited March 19, 2019 by Dannylonglegs
Remembered some weird stuff I did when I was younger

[BenA]

On 3/18/2019 at 6:12 PM, Dannylonglegs said:

I gotta say I'm really sad to see the Elves theme go...    ...I'll certainly plan to make a large Elves MOC at some point

Us too, on both counts. Like others we love the colours and would even go as far as to say it was the Elves theme and associated minidolls that got my daughter into Lego. We'll be happy if the Elves theme lives on here, and in that spirit, here's a sneak peek of our current work-in-progress...

Taken us ages to get to this point and it'll be a while before it's finished 

Edited March 26, 2019 by BenA
Added some more thoughts

[Peppermint_M]

Good grief! That is a WIP?

I applaud your work and greatly look forward to the final MOC!

[BenA]

Haha, thanks very much. It's about half done, if we do everything we want to! We have plans for a goblin village, and perhaps the dragon sanctuary as well... will depend if my bank balance can take the bricklink hit! 

[Fenghuang0296]

4 hours ago, BenA said:

Haha, thanks very much. It's about half done, if we do everything we want to! We have plans for a goblin village, and perhaps the dragon sanctuary as well... will depend if my bank balance can take the bricklink hit! 

That looks brilliant! 

I missed most of the first two years of Elves, the mini-dolls were a turn-off for a while, but I got some of the third-year stuff on a heavy discount with the intent to integrate it into a large role fantasy layout . . that's been shelved for now due to space limitations, but I still have a half-finished Goblin Village setup in a cupboard. If you do a goblin village of your own to add to that, might I suggest putting an incarnation of Rosalyn's hideout nearby it? 

[Dannylonglegs]

5 hours ago, BenA said:

Us too, on both counts. Like others we love the colours and would even go as far as to say it was the Elves theme and associated minidolls that got my daughter into Lego. We'll be happy if the Elves theme lives on here, and in that spirit, here's a sneak peek of our current work-in-progress...

Taken us ages to get to this point and it'll be a while before it's finished 

 

Omigosh! Aaaah! That's marvelous! I love it! What a beautiful display! That's totally along the lines of what I was thinking.

Elves is similarly meaningful to me because it launched around the time I was coming to terms with accepting myself as a queer woman and my now-girlfriend bought me one of the sets before we started dating. I keep Rosalyn's dragon, Sapphire, which she got me, by my bed now because of her  

 

~Insectoid Aristocrat 

[BenA]

14 hours ago, Dannylonglegs said:

I keep Rosalyn's dragon, Sapphire, which she got me, by my bed now because of her

That's lovely! I'm really glad you found that happiness (and Lego Elves )

15 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

might I suggest putting an incarnation of Rosalyn's hideout nearby it? 

Great idea! Our idea for the goblin village at the moment is to have it inside a mountain, with the Dragon Sanctuary on top. Nothing if not ambitious! The healing hideout could go nicely near the entrance to the mountain...