Iria

The Road. It's so depressing.

To Kill a Mockingbird. First time I'd seen it. A classic, but still depressing.

Spammers would then post in already created threads (which they sometimes do, albeit very very rarely.)

I haven't noticed as much spam lately (or it could be that I'm not up as late and am missing the spam waves). In any case, thank you to the Mods & Admin for obliterating the spam threads, as well as keeping the forum running smoothly! This is definitely one of the most civil forums I have seen. That is hilarious advice. I'm going to go outside and look for a healthy bird pronto.

New environments would be great. Ocean/underwater with mermaids would be easy to do and fitting to the theme. I'd love to see a desert-themed elves set too. We could still see an airship if the Elves visited a sky/cloud based land. We could easily get a variety of landscapes in a wave since the Elves are adventurers.

Jurassic Park.

Deadpool.

All around great designs! Nice colour combos. That adult ram is especially impressive.

Very nice. I love seeing your Chima-animals. This one could fit right into a mythology moc, just as well as it could sit as a statue in front of a modern bank or something.

Cool idea! The red ninja just sitting in the middle of the plant is hilarious. I agree that having different flower/foliage for each ninja is the way to go. I wasn't sure if the yellow plant was actually a plant (my brain went to fire hydrant). Maybe sticking something like yellow horns or claws out of the small flower pieces would make it more plant like?

Wow. Great work. That trunk and bark look so complex. The texture and curves are perfect.

Very nice style. The colours do work surprisingly well. I really like pipe work that wraps around.

If I had to choose between watching a movie and reading a book, I'll probably watch the movie. Not solely because I'm lazy (although I am pretty lazy, but because I'm more of a visual person than a language person. I enjoy great cinematography and 'feeling' the movie. Ie.I'm not allowed to watch Jurassic Park or Inception unless I'm the only one at home, because their soundtracks will literally shake the entire house's walls. I love that and I don't even watch films at particularly high volume. I think it's easier to debate that the epic sized stories are better as a book than a movie, because it's just not possible to fully capture the entire story in 2-3 hours. Chunks of the story line will have to be lost unfortunately. Here are some stories I've both read and watched: Contact - I first saw this film as a kid and I loved it. Rewatched it several times again as an adult and read Carl Sagan's original book recently. They are very close in quality, but with some key differences at the end and fewer characters in the film. I like the portrayal of the main character in the movie more. If you absolutely hate romance, the book is probably the way to go. For me, the movie wins out just barely, but I'll probably read/watch them both again. Marathon Man - The movie actually very very closely follows the book. It just misses a bit of background on a character near the start. The movie has a different, and in my opinion, more satisfying ending. The movie just barely surpasses the book, based on the change at the end. Wizard of Oz - I cannot stand the 1939 movie and most musicals in general so the movie loses out big time for me. People seem to not know that L. Frank Baum wrote just over a dozen Oz books, not just one. The books often had a slightly darker tone to them, which is characteristic of many childrens books in the 1800s (think of fables and the often dark nursery rhymes of old). Return to Oz - based on the second and third Oz books. I love this movie adaptation of the two L. Frank Baum Oz books. Definitely different from the books since it is merging two together. Super underappreciated film, despite being closer in tone than the famous Garland version. Jurassic Park - I haven't read this yet, but I purchased the book last week. I've heard excellent things about it so I look forwards to reading it. I'm expecting greater insights into the science.

What are your thoughts about the dragons? For those of you who’ve purchased the sets with dragons, what do you think of them? Do you plan on trying to get all of them, or would you rather avoid them altogether? Do you like/hate them as much as you thought you would? Which is your favourite so far? I wasn’t really a fan when they were first announced, but after buying the Secret Market set with the earth dragon, I’ve warmed up to them. I’ve even bought the Water Dragon Adventure afterwards. I think Thorne (green) is much easier to put into ‘normal’ poses, like sitting/laying/standing/walking and looks more natural than Merina (blue). Merina was trickier to pose because she was a shorter torso combined with a longer neck. I think her design works better with more dramatic poses. I've been impressed with their durability and playability. I've knocked them off the table a couple times and they've held together perfectly. I decided against putting on the stickers. I’m undecided whether I will pick up the summer sets that have dragons. Partly because getting all the summer sets would be pricey, and partly because I don’t know if it’s worth having a collection of dragons. I do like all the Elves brick built structures this summer, dragons notwithstanding. If you have any of the dragons, especially the new ones, let us know what you think.

Hmm, looks to be just the North American sites experiencing this. Guessing it's because all the Mixels are sold out here, so maybe the site operators think it's just better to remove the Mixels section so people don't click on it and are directed to an empty product section. No need to have the webpage up if there's no stock until Sept/Oct when series 9 is released.

That makes sense regarding big sets for Christmas. I did a tally in my head and even with fewer sets during the summer, the total is just so much more than spring this year. It's great that the theme is expanding the number of large sets available. It would be nice to get a couple more cheaper sets, as they tend to run out the fastest, leaving limited options for families/AFOLs on a budget. Nexo Knights, for example, has a better price distribution of sets coming out this summer (I realize it's a bit difficult to compare Elves with many other themes, since it's likely still catering to a smaller consumer population, but still).

Ouch. That crystal mine is expensive for the piece count. The other sets are in the range for what I expected. Still what an expensive wave of sets! Quality looks excellent though.

Thank you for the review and taking so many photos! They Elves Lego team really improved on last year's castle and addressed it's issues regarding playability and making it look good on the back. Ragana's living space is really well done and so detailed. I feel the colour scheme works really well for this set and is so much more vibrant than the spring ones this year. I'm definitely looking forward to picking this one up this summer. That's a great point! No way would have I been able to collect so many as a kid.

Just finished The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle). Picked up 'The Flight of the Silvers' out of a bargain pile. So far I hate all the characters and the writing style is a little bland.

You're right. I was referring to the wait from summer to spring. I was off by a month then. 7 months still feels long. I had thought larger themes, like Friends, had three waves. But it must be all the polybags that are spread out throughout the year that mistakenly gave that impression.

It wouldn't actually surprise me if LEGO had developed a third wave of sets for this year given how well the theme is developing (waiting ~8months between waves is a long time). However I wouldn't make any predictions based on that image - it doesn't even use the word 'sets', it just refers to Elves and then look for the LEGO club magazine in September. So it just sounds more like the magazine will have a bigger focus on Elves during that month. Maybe comics or a continuation of the story line or better look into the world of Elvendale.

Jurassic Park.

Procrastinating on paper revisions again. Instead I've been catching up on watching episodes of Gotham. Penguin's father looked so familiar... then I found out that Paul Reubens also played Penguin's father in the early 90s Batman Returns movie. Amazing.

Impressive group shot! That lava mountain is also a great way to showcase the demonic hierarchy.