LEGO Elves 2018 – Final roundup

Today is #ElvesDay

After having a look at all the creatures (the Eagle, the Turtle, the Lion, the Fox, the Wyvern, the Wolf and the Bat) from the new LEGO Elves sets, it’s time to have a look at what these sets contain. For this week’s #ElvesDay, we’re having a look at the minidolls, the small bats acting as the main bad guy gal’s minions, and one of the buildings included in the set.

The Minidolls

The major characters all come with an updated minidoll. Apart from Faran which always look a bit plain to me, the new outfits are nice even though the old ones were already great.

Lumia is by far one the best-looking of the new minidolls. I love the white outfit contrasting with the dark skin tone.

These new sets also include my favorite evil elf so far, Noctura. She has a completely black arm and a naked flesh-colored arm. She also wears a Batman-like cap with the amazing soft cape fabric LEGO has been using for the past few years, with one side black and the other teal.

The Little Bats

Each set also comes with one or two very cute little bats that act as Noctura’s minions. Together they make a nice family of bad guys (or bat guys?).

The buildings

Some of the sets also come with very nice buildings, particularly the music school from 41193 and the tree house from 41196.

LEGO Elves usually has some very nice buildings, but I had never photographed any before. Taking sets outside is risky, between it breaking down during transport or losing parts outside, it’s something I’m not comfortable with. But like photographing the large creatures, the change of scale is a nice challenge for any minifigure or minidoll photographer.

Conclusion

So far photographing LEGO Elves, either Dragons, other mythical creatures or minidolls has been a lot of fun. The brick built creatures are a  great challenge for minifig photographers because of the different scale. They also offer a lot of posability with all the ball joints and are a great change from minifigs.

Minidolls, on the other hand, have less movement than minifigs. They can’t walk and often look weird when sitting. The arms are also hard to pose realistically, and so there’s rarely any other option than having minidolls simply standing up. A bit more than a year ago, minidolls would have been the last LEGO toy I would have wanted to photograph. But now I usually have at least two small boxes of toys in my backpack: one with minifigures and one with Elves minidolls. Although it’s very frustrating, I’ve fallen in love with the challenge of photographing minidolls.

Although my wallet wasn’t too happy about it, I really like that all of the sets from this year come with a nice brick-built creature. Some of them aren’t as interesting or fun to photograph as others, but there are a couple (like the Eagle, the Turtle and the Wolf) that I will continue to photograph.

If you decide to start photographing toys from LEGO Elves, may it be minidolls, creatures, or builds, be sure to join any Wednesday #ElvesDay on social media!

Maëlick

Sharing the Adventures in The North of my Plastic Friends.