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2018 LEGO Elves sets are still full of magic!

by Thita (admin) on February 26, 2018

At the beginning of the year, LEGO released a series of new sets under the LEGO Elves collection that we haven’t talked about yet. LEGO Elves is well known for its beautiful color-scheme, interesting accessories, and magical creatures. Even though the 2018 LEGO Elves wave is small with only five sets, it does not disappoint; we get plenty of new creatures and accessories to play with and collect. So, let’s take a closer look. 🙂

All of the 2018 LEGO Elves sets are modest in both size and price. The colors are an interesting mix of black and other dark colors (representing the villainess Noctura, and her bat minions) and the purples, blues, fiery colors, and gold for the elves. One very interesting feature of this wave of LEGO Elves sets is that instead of just dragons, we get a whole selection of brick-built magical creatures; Lumia the eagle (who assists Emily Jones on her adventures), Cory the Guardian Water Turtle, Rowan the Guardian Fire Lion, Cyclo the Guardian Wind Dragon, and Liska the Guardian Earth Fox.

Amongst the creatures, the eagle is the most realistic, but that’s because it supposed to be a real eagle. It has some cleverly built details and looks excellent overall. The turtle has a beautiful watery color-scheme with aqua, azure, and translucent-blue. The lion is decorated with lots of fiery pieces. Both the turtle and the lion come with new, nicely moulded heads, and printed facial features. The dragon is similar to the previously released LEGO Elves dragons, but on a smaller scale. And, last but not least, is the magic fox in shades of green and purple, and sporting a peacock-like tail.

Each of the sets includes one or two bat minions as well; cute little creatures with grumpy faces and translucent wings and ears. I’m so going to collect all of them! Other adorable animals include a re-colored baby turtle and bird, and the new type of spider (well, maybe that one is not so adorable).

There are so many unique accessories, it’s hard to list them all! We get the usual little bits of flowers, crystals, gems, flames, etc., but there are new pieces as well. The flowers are the new type of 1×1 round plates with petals, and there is also a new type of diamond piece attached to the forehead of the Guardians, as well as to Noctura’s tower. Notice that the sections representing Noctura’s dark powers include not just black, but also the recently resurrected teal color. I should also mention that many of the pieces are printed!

As far as the mini-dolls, they are beautiful as usual. The elves wear clothing to represent their elemental colors with delicate designs. Emily wears regular human clothes with cute red sneakers and her magical amulet. And Noctura is absolutely gorgeous (I have noticed that the evil mini-dolls in the LEGO Elves line always look exceptionally pretty.) Below is a short description of all five of the new sets.

➡ #41190 LEGO ELVES EMILY JONES & THE EAGLE GETAWAY: Seek the magic within to recover the stolen magical diary page with Emily Jones and Lumia the eagle! This thrilling LEGO Elves set features a fully posable and buildable eagle figure with space for a mini-doll figure, cave with rotating treasure chest and upside-down bed for the bat, plus a ledge with a bat glider with disc shooter. Includes an Emily Jones mini-doll figure plus Vespe the shadow bat and spider figures. 142 pieces. Price: $14.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #41191 LEGO ELVES NAIDA & THE WATER TURTLE AMBUSH: Seek the magic within to help Naida protect the Elemental Guardian creature! This exciting LEGO Elves building toy features a large buildable water turtle with movable head and legs, and space for a mini-doll figure, plus a small island with disc shooter and a boat with chain shooter and space for a bat. Includes a Naida mini-doll figure plus Furi the shadow bat and Calypso the baby turtle figures. 205 pieces. Price: $19.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #41192 LEGO ELVES AZARI & THE FIRE LION CAPTURE: Seek the magic within to help Azari and the Guardian Fire Lion face the shadow bats! This thrilling LEGO Elves construction toy features a buildable magic fire lion with movable legs, wings and tail, opening jaw and space for a mini-doll figure. There’s also a bat capture vehicle with raising chain pole, catapult and detachable small glider, plus a small bat cave with opening spiderweb door, 2 bat beds and additional accessories. Includes an Azari mini-doll figure plus Vespe and Molo shadow bat figures and a spider figure. 360 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #41193 LEGO ELVES AIRA & THE SONG OF THE WIND DRAGON: Seek the magic within to help Aira, Lumia and the Guardian Wind Dragon face the shadow bat! This amazing LEGO Elves toy for girls and boys features a fully posable and buildable wind dragon with transparent wings and space for 2 mini-doll figures. The set also includes a bat airship with shooting function and spinning propeller, and a ‘floating’ island music school with opening entrance door, hidden chest and rotating sign. Includes Aira and Lumia mini-doll figures, plus Sebastian the bird and Phyll the shadow bat figures. 451 pieces. Price: $39.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #41194 LEGO ELVES NOCTURA’S TOWER & THE EARTH FOX: Seek the magic within to help Farran free the Guardian Earth Fox and then together face Noctura and her evil shadow bats! This fantastic LEGO Elves creative play set features a fully posable and buildable earth fox with opening jaw and movable legs, head and translucent tail, plus a 2-level tower with opening translucent bat wings, moving head, spiderweb trap/door, disc shooter, space for the 4 Elemental ‘diamonds’ and additional accessories. Includes Farran and Noctura mini-doll figures, plus Molo and Hippo shadow bat figures and a spider figure. 646 pieces. Price: $59.99 – BUY HERE

There is some worry amongst fans of the LEGO Elves line that the collection might be discontinued in the near future, based on the fact that no LEGO Elves sets were displayed at any of the recent toy fairs. I hope that’s not true, and there are at least a couple of other sets coming later this year, but whatever the future holds for LEGO Elves, it has been definitely one of the most beautiful LEGO collections ever released. And, the 2018 LEGO Elves collection shows that LEGO Elves still has its magic.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Elves line? Have you been collecting the sets and characters? Which one is your favorite amongst the 2018 LEGO Elves sets? Feel free to share your thoughts and own review in the comment section below! 😉

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LEGO robots & mechs by Chobbybots

by Thita (admin) on February 24, 2018

in Useful Resources

Building LEGO robots and mech-suits has been a favorite pastime of many LEGO fans. Robots and mechs combine the mobility of the human body, the power of machines, and the sophistication of technology. And, they are a perfect match for LEGO. In fact, LEGO themselves released lots of robots and mechs through the years; the LEGO Exo-Force, LEGO Bionicle, LEGO Hero Factory, and LEGO Mixels collection from the past, and many of the recent LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Nexo Knights, and other sets and themes offer plenty of examples for building LEGO robots and mechs. 🙂

In fact, if you want to start out with mech-building, the best way to begin is to select an official LEGO set that includes a robot or mech that you like, and use that as a template for your own designs. First, you may just customize the original set by adding some additional details, changing out colors, or modifying some functions. As you become more familiar with the building techniques required to build robots and mechs, it will become easier to build your own models from scratch.

Buying official LEGO sets with bots and mech has another great benefit; you will accumulate a good selection of parts to build your own robots. Pieces for joint movement, mechanical details, tools, weapons, and all kinds of greebly bits all help to make an awesome mech. Once you tried out a few sets and have a decent selection of robot-building parts, you can also look at what other LEGO fans are working on, and get ideas and inspiration from their models.

One LEGO fan who consistently builds excellent LEGO robots and mechs goes by the name Chubbybots. He not only build excellent mechs himself, but also share instructions and tutorials for many of his designs. I particularly like that he offers alternate builds for official LEGO sets. This means that if you own that set, you will be able to build the alternate design without much difficulty or the need of extra parts.

For example, Chubbybots offers instructions for turning the #70612 LEGO Ninjago Movie Green Ninja Mech Dragon into a mech suit for Lloyd. And there are alternate instructions for many of the other LEGO Ninjago and The LEGO Ninjago Movie sets as well. LEGO Nexo Knights is another theme that Chubbybots often uses for alternate builds. And several LEGO Creator, LEGO Mixels, and LEGO Super Heroes sets also get a makeover.

Chubbybots mostly shares instructions via his YouTube channel, where you can watch tutorials, and follow along with the building steps for alternate models and other custom projects. Chubbybots is also very active on flickr and Facebook (just follow the links), where he shares many other robot and mech models, instructions, and tutorials. In the playlist below, I’m including some of the tutorials, so you get a sense of what they look like.

Building along with another LEGO fan who is an expert at mech-building can greatly increase your skills and accelerate your learning. Once you copy a few of their models, you will be well on your way to start building your own designs. Again, you can just start by picking a custom model that you like, and use that as a template to begin with. Pretty soon, you will be able to build your own bots and mechs without following instructions.

As far as currently available sets that would be great as starters for robot and mech building, I would recommend taking a look at The LEGO Ninjago Movie collection. Sets like the #70613 LEGO Ninjago Movie Garma Mecha Man, the #70615 LEGO Ninjago Movie Fire Mech, and the #70632 LEGO Ninjago Movie Quake Mech would be great options. Also, you may look at sets like the #70920 LEGO Batman Movie Egghead Mech Food Fight, the #76077 LEGO Super Heroes Iron Man Detroit Steel Strikes, the #76097 LEGO Super Heroes Lex Luthor Mech Takedown as mechs that could be repurposed for your own designs. As long as the parts are good for bots and mechs, it doesn’t matter what theme they come from. Also, almost all of the LEGO Nexo Knights sets come with some kind of mech.

What do you think? Do you like to build LEGO robots and mechs? Did you find any interesting designs from Chobbybots that you would like to try out? What other tools and resources do you use for building mechs? Feel free to share your own tips and tricks in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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2018 LEGO Elves sets are still full of magic!

LEGO robots & mechs by Chobbybots

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