Elves 2015

[Dorayaki]

It would be nice to see more different kinds of legendary species introduced via this theme, however, as long as elves are the main characters of this theme, it's difficult to imagine that LEGO would like to introduce more parts for non-protagonists human-like creatures in this theme, excluding mermaid minidolls introduced by Disney.

Of course, we could see new species in Chima and Ninjago so perhaps Elves could do. But it may be abit controversial if the minidoll range begin to introduce exclusive creatures that minifigures can't have.

[Peppermint_M]

It depends on which school of folktale you ascribe to, but Faeries or the Fae Folk can differ between the typically tiny Tinkerbelle pixie types to Oberon and Titania who are human sized or the Seeley and Unseely courts of fae who are man-or-more sized. (Think The Green Knight who was hale and tall, or the Lady of the Lake who appeared as a beautiful woman).

Elves could glean more races from these sorts of tales.

Really there are a lot of things that an Elf or Elves can be too. Icelandic elves are diminutive if you take into account that their churches are large rocks. The elves as popular culture sees them are the Help Santa flavour or Tolkien's earthbound angel super-entities. Original guts'n'all stories presented Elves as quite scary creatures who stole children away or worse (Read some Discworld, though it is rather the extreme end of the scale so as to be polar opposite to Middle Earth Elves)

[Aanchir]

I think we'll see more fantasy creatures as the theme goes on. That's already becoming apparent, in fact — the animals from the first wave of sets are mostly just uniquely colored and patterned Earth creatures, while the second wave introduces three pegasi and a dragon!

As for other fantasy races of characters, hmm, hard to say. Mermaids are probably a pretty safe bet. More diminutive races like pixies or dwarves would be hard without introducing a whole new mini-doll torso and legs, though that might be a worthwhile thing to do eventually anyway just so girls' themes can include child characters. So I wouldn't rule them out.

And while I don't expect to see "ugly" creatures like orcs, ogres, or trolls (no offense to any trolls reading this), the possibility of malicious races like "dark elves" in the future can't be ruled out. There's no reason girls can't appreciate dark and eerie characters as much as bright and cheery ones, and even marketers who have traditionally been behind the curve are finally starting to pick up on that. Just look at Mattel's "Monster High" dolls. Even if they're still fairly prissy (they ARE fashion dolls), their dark and supernatural theme would be more than enough to send the kind of conservative parents who raised a stink about Harry Potter running for the hills.

[Dorayaki]

In darves' case, it should relate to minifigure's counterpart characters like Gimli. Short legs should be one of the most common part for toy figures, which is also useful for kiddy charcters. Friends also failed in not introducing any kind of physical child character despite those younger Heartlake residents do exist in the storytelling.

I think LEGO is able to introduce some generic dwarves. Though, if it's Snow White's case, the Disney characters might all need original head molds to represent their clumsiness.

If we refer trolls to non-minidoll figures, we may actually just reuse the version of Castle with new and cuter prints. Dark elves would be very appealing to me if LEGO could face and deal with making beautiful or sophisticated villain characters.

[Blondie-Wan]

Very cool! But LEGO has been uploading the first episode broken up into six sections on their YouTube in some languages, so I'm a bit worried that "eleven clips" might just mean the episode we've seen plus the five character videos. Either way, I have my fingers crossed for brand-new videos to start showing up soon!

I watched that first episode a few days ago, as noted, and enjoyed it, but it seems to have disappeared from the Elves site shortly after that; I don't know what's going on there. It's still on YouTube, though.

I also decided I wanted to know more about the music in the show (speaking of which, Aanchir, you mentioned an MP3 download a while ago, but I can't find that, either; what was it? Any chance I could get it?), and I looked up info on the song "If You Dare to Believe", and found the site for composer-performer Chris Hoyer, wherein it states here:

In the meantime, amongst a lot of other gigs, Chris has been very busy writing, composing, producing, mixing and mastering the new Official “Lego Elves Song” – official title: “If You Dare To Believe”. The song is part of Lego’s new TV show, in six episodes, “Lego Elves”, which will be released in March 2015.

So... five more episodes! - well, unless this also refers to the broken-up segments of the full episode we've seen, of course, but I don't think that would be the case. Moreover, in response to a YouTube commenter on the music video who asked "Is there only 1 episode?????" LEGO itself replied, "For now.. You'll have to wait for the 2nd ;)"

Five episodes? That's essentially a feature film's worth of Elves-mation.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[OmShanti]

Sounds exciting. I hope there are more episodes. The new Lego Digital magazines are up at Lego.com. There's Elves features in both the Red Brick and Yellow Brick magazines. Make your own Elf Medallion (Red Brick), Elves Poster and An Adventure with Azari to find the Fire key (Yellow Brick).

[Blondie-Wan]

I think we'll see more fantasy creatures as the theme goes on. That's already becoming apparent, in fact — the animals from the first wave of sets are mostly just uniquely colored and patterned Earth creatures, while the second wave introduces three pegasi and a dragon!

As for other fantasy races of characters, hmm, hard to say. Mermaids are probably a pretty safe bet.

They do specifically mention mermaids in the one episode we've gotten of the show, after all, and LEGO already has a minidoll mermaid tail element thanks to Disney Princess. I think you're right - mermaids are extremely likely to turn up in this theme, if it continues beyond summer.

[K4kitty]

So I've finally gotten around to ordering another two Treehouse sets - am guessing I will need to bricklink a few parts but I'll see how I go!

Yeah I made a comment on Chris Hoyer's facebook page about how much I loved the song, and he 'friended' me!

[Aanchir]

In darves' case, it should relate to minifigure's counterpart characters like Gimli. Short legs should be one of the most common part for toy figures, which is also useful for kiddy charcters. Friends also failed in not introducing any kind of physical child character despite those younger Heartlake residents do exist in the storytelling.

I think LEGO is able to introduce some generic dwarves. Though, if it's Snow White's case, the Disney characters might all need original head molds to represent their clumsiness.

If we refer trolls to non-minidoll figures, we may actually just reuse the version of Castle with new and cuter prints. Dark elves would be very appealing to me if LEGO could face and deal with making beautiful or sophisticated villain characters.

Short legs would definitely be important to mini-doll children, but I think you might want other changes too, like shorter arms. Mini-dolls are more lifelike than minifigures by default, after all, and that might mean that proportional inconsistencies between the legs and the rest of the body could be more jarring than they are with minifigures (and even minifigures are helped by the curved implied joint portion of the short legs being recessed into the torso, so the overall length of the body from neck to crotch is shorter than on a regular-size fig).

On the other hand, I do think that child characters could share the same torso regardless of sex, which would help keep the cost of new molds down. And dwarf characters could perhaps afford to be a little bit more oddly-proportioned than child characters, so arm length might not be so big an issue for them as for actual human children.

I should try drawing some child/dwarf mini-doll designs, actually... I certainly know my way around a pencil and a pad of graph paper.

[Blondie-Wan]

With Friends having clearly become one of TLG's most important, "core" themes, I can fully see it eventually getting additional leg and torso molds to represent children and so on (it already uses different molds for different types of clothing, for male and female bodies and for adult and teenaged female bodies, after all). Whether it happens in time for Elves to make use of them, though, or whether Elves will even have need of them, is up in the air.

One thing I could see is a totally new, much smaller figure type - perhaps a single-piece, non-articulated one - being introduced to go with the minidolls, something that is to minidolls as the minifigure trophy is to traditional minifigures. It could be used in Friends to represent dolls / action figures, or in a theme like Elves, here, to represent actual fairies. They have already created at least one totally new figure for this theme, after all - the baby dragon - in addition to the multiple new elf-eared hair elements.

_______________________________

Could the initial post in the thread be edited to include the Azari polybag and the summer sets?

Edited May 1, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[girlontheleft]

Did anyone else spot this already?

http://www.nick.com/legoelves/

Although I'd like to know if there are any plans for the Elves special to air in Canada...

[Lordofdragonss]

They have already created at least one totally new figure for this theme, after all - the baby dragon - in addition to the multiple new elf-eared hair elements.

Yup, we've get Fox, Dragon and Owl. I'm sure we will get normal-colored owl and fox in Forest related-Friends theme next year.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Lordofdragonss

[OmShanti]

Did anyone else spot this already?

http://www.nick.com/legoelves/

Although I'd like to know if there are any plans for the Elves special to air in Canada...

Yes. I saw this back in March and thought the Elves was going to air on Nick, but Disney picked it up instead.

[Lyichir]

My next Elves review is live on The New Elementary! Figured it would be worth sharing in case anyone's interested in what 41074 Azari and the Magical Bakery has to offer.

[Velouria]

Thank you so much for that!

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Yup, we've get Fox, Dragon and Owl. I'm sure we will get normal-colored owl and fox in Forest related-Friends theme next year.

What sets are those in? I have not seen them.

[Aanchir]

What sets are those in? I have not seen them.

Flamy the Fox comes in 41074, the dragon comes in 41077, and the owl comes in 41078. The bit about differently colored owl and fox in next year's Friends sets is currently just speculation, but I agree that it's not unlikely given that they're not strictly fantasy creatures, and it would give the LEGO Friends designers an opportunity to introduce two new animals without introducing entirely new molds.

[Aanchir]

A lot of people in other topics are talking about the summer set pics and listings that are showing up on bestbuy.ca, and I thought it'd be good to share that that includes LEGO Elves listings!

Not a whole lot of new information, but there is some: namely, Skyra's owl is named Nascha and the dragon is named Miku. Also, the play scenario for the Pegasus Sleigh set differs from that in the show (naturally, because the dragon's mouth doesn't actually open, nor could it fit the key if it did). In the set, the key can be hidden on a hook in the cave. Finally, on a strange note, Skyra doesn't appear to have a last name.

[girlontheleft]

It looks like the Nick site has updated, with all the video segments One of the video segments and several preview clips. I'm watching them now!

http://www.nick.com/legoelves/

Edited May 11, 2015 by girlontheleft

[Aanchir]

It looks like the Nick site has updated, with all the video segments One of the video segments and several preview clips. I'm watching them now!

http://www.nick.com/legoelves/

Additionally, the "Characters" link tells us a bit about the abilities of each type of elf. And the "Explore Elvendale" link gives info on a lot of locations, including the Sky Castle. There are lots of great images on this site as well. Thanks for the tip!

[Velouria]

Shame that Nick won't let visitors from abroad see this page..

[Aanchir]

Shame that Nick won't let visitors from abroad see this page..

Shoot, I didn't realize that this site is region-locked. Well, I guess the least I can do is copy and paste some of the interesting information that isn't on the main LEGO Elves website:

When Emily falls through the portal she discovers Elvendale, a fantastical world full of magical beings, elves and animals that live in harmony with each other.

Elves are born with the magic of the elements: fire, earth, wind, and water.

Fire Elves tend to live in places that are warm, like near lava. They have the special ability to generate fire, but they cannot throw fireballs and need natural resources like wood to keep a fire going.

Earth Elves like to live in places where plants can grow and thrive. An Earth Elf may be able to track down the rarest herbs in Elvendale by using magic, but he cannot magically heal people without remedies.

Wind Elves live closer to the mountains—they love great heights but don’t want to live too far away from friends. A Wind Elf may be able to use the wind to carry her for a very short distance but she will never have the power to just fly.

Water Elves live by the water. They might have a houseboat or stay where dolphin friends are nearby. They may manipulate water in many ways, but they cannot make it magically appear out of nowhere—or keep it contained for a long time.

Skyra, Guardian of the Portal

She is the Wind Elf of the mythological five sisters that brought magic into the elven world. Her magic is incredibly strong but not as strong as her mind. She can do anything she sets her mind to and is very world wise. She is modest and hides how powerful and smart she really is. She is one of the oldest elves in the world – and perhaps the strongest.

Delphia the Dolphin

She makes her home in Naida’s Spa, but Delphia, as is the case with all dolphins, has a world of knowledge to share with Emily and the Elves. This wise and fun loving friend plays a big part in helping them get started on their journey to find the four keys.

Johnny Baker

Deep in the forest lives Johnny Baker. This funny young fellow is always busy working at his Magical Bakery. It has the only hot lava fueled oven in Elvendale. When Emily and the Elves stop in, he’s cooking up the most delicious breads and treats and he’s eager to have them try his creations.

Miss Spry

She may be a small squirrel but her personality is larger than life. Miss Spry guards the key at the Crystal Hollow and is one protective animal. She’ll do just about anything to keep intruders away. But Farran learns she’s open to bargaining when he offers her a very accommodating deal.

Sky Castle

On the highest mountain in the great mountain range of Actan lies the stunning Sky Castle. It is here the Sky Queen lives guarding the magic portal. It’s truly impressive with grand halls and high towers. No one has visited the castle in many years and it’s said to be cursed by a magical spell.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Aanchir

[Hythonia]

It's very cool that Skyra is confirmed as the Air Sister. I wonder if we'll see Earth, Fire, or Water members of the Five Sisters. It'd be cool if one of them ended up being evil, though I guess one could argue that was the plot of Skyra, who was kind of shady morally until Emily came around.

[Vampirerichard]

Shame that Nick won't let visitors from abroad see this page..

I'm from the Netherands and had the same problem, but when you click on the link again the Elves site should appear.

Did anybody else notice 'The Forest of Deep Secrets' at the bottom of the map (in the background on the Explore Elvendale page whan you scroll all the way down) I can't remember seeing it anywhere else.

[OmShanti]

It's cool that you were able to view the site. Seems unfair to prevent certain regions from viewing it. I did notice the forest. If I remember correctly, someone said it was also seen in the unite the magic app (hidden object game).

Lots of fun new info and images on this site.