Mini review: 30212 Mirkwood Elf Guard
Posted by Huw,
While you're waiting for me to review the last boxed Hobbit set, Attack of the Wargs, I thought I'd take a quick look at 30212 Mirkwood Elf Guard, which I now have in my possession thanks to DaveBey.
It's one of the better polybags to have been released recently, for two reasons. Firstly, the minifig is excellent. It's generic which means you can never have enough of them, and it features a piece in a new colour: the dark green cloak hood. It would have been better had it come with a dark green cloak as well, but I guess that would have increased the price too much for a polybag.
Secondly, the parts that make up the tree are all good and useful. Polybags with vehicles in them are all wheels, axles and tyres and not much else, but this one is full of useful slopes, arches, a plant limb and a mushroom top, as you can see from the parts list.
If you're in the US, and you haven't done so already, get on over to TRU and snap some up while you can.
Here's the elf in all his glory.
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30 comments on this article
Thanksalot! I'd love to have this poly! :)
Looking forward to receiving my traded-for and purchased polys from the USA - this will be ideal to base a "Robin of Sherwood" character on!
Where does the trans green stud go?
Doesn't the Gandalf polybag have a cloak?
@tensor: This is just a guess, but perhaps it goes in the middle of the mushroom?
@tensor and cjg it's a little green jewel, not a stud. nice little review. Thanks. You can get a dark green cape from the quidditch match set on the Slytherin players and from the series 3 CMF Elf guy. Good to know that Lego are more frequently using the wine glass piece- in lots of the Hobbit and LOTR sets, as well as a few Monster fighters sets I think.
There's a trans green 1x1 plate in the barrel.
I thought they meant the green thing at the base of the tree
I think we both meant the green stud in the parts list.
alcohol is a Lego no-no as much as violence is. Meaning that it really isn't. lol
I love this set, might be the only LotR set I buy. Is it $4 or $5 at TRU?
Can't wait to get my hand on it in Canada... Whenever it will be :(
A pretty nice polybag, though I really wish they'd given him a cloak too since the hood looks so awkward and incomplete without one.
Huw, if you have the CMF Elf (or Eomer from the Uruk-hai Army set), could you let this Mirkwood elf borrow that cloak and take a photo of it? Just so we can see how much more awesome he'd look with a cloak.
@CCC- He is the guardian of the mead, har har!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no cloak currently that can be used with the quiver*, so it's one or the other.
Though there should be!
@petitetoilon: Yes, the Gandalf polybag includes a (gray) cloak.
Some of the film concept art for the Mirkwwod Elves shows them with hoods on their tunics and they're not wearing cloaks so looks like the poly bag's correct.
@tensor the quiver can be worn over a cape.
Is it a unique head on it? Can't think of a minifig with the same one. But its a damn good polybag anyway, would probably turn up in a Sun promotion next year.
@blounty23
Doh, hmm, ok, I'm with Huw then, where's the cloak?
Great little poly and great review!
Got one at my local TRU (Rego Mall, Queens). They had a ton of them last Friday if anyone is interested in getting a few.
I picked up 4 of these and 4 Gandalf bags at my local TRU and they honored the BOGO offer for all of them!
I picked up a couple of these for a CA Brickset user that wanted them for his kids, but he never got back to me. Anyone from across the pond need some?
Anyone spot these in the Midwest? Are they even going to be avaible for regular sale or are they going to be promos? Also my TRU has Gandalf free with $25+ of LEGO games...
Midwest is unfortunately a very broad term. I'm in Nebraska and we are considered the Midwest also, but so is Ohio... Anyway, we had tons here in SE Nebraska, but they were all gone the other night I went in. Luckily I picked some up for the BOGO sale to soften the price.
LEGO doesn't want modern day violence or alcohol, but more ancient times it is okay. Just look at castle and pirate themes in general. They always have mead and killing folk with their broadswords or muskets. And the Barrel Escape set has one of the Elves looking sloshed with multiple bottles laying on the floor and giant barrels of wine. So there ya go..
I hadn't considered putting the cloak on and then the quiver. That actually makes more sense since I'm pretty sure Legolas had the cloak on underneath the quiver anyway...granted the elf hair doesn't help anything. Time for a new quiver mold for LOTR??? But I think they didn't include the cloak in this set is because they did include a quiver. Can't give away too much to people ya know. But the dark green hood, as cool and rare as it is, doesn't really fit in with the rest of the figure. I'd almost want an olive green hood or a dark brown hood to go with the torso coloring. That might look better than a random dark green hood. But as stated above, maybe it is more movie accurate having the hood on the tunic than a cloak. I can't help but wonder why it wouldn't be olive green as I said then. But an Elven hairpiece would have made this polybag significantly better, even if not movie accurate. I like what AC did on Eurobricks and put the dark green hood on the CMF Elves and switched the CMF Elves to the Mirkwood body. It actually looked perfect.
I have been to TRU quite a few times the last few weeks and I was never able to locate this. I found plenty of Gandalfs though :(
I'm hoping this particular polybag makes it to the UK soon. Ho-hum...
Anyway, it occurred to me that a custom elf blending elements of this guy with the S3 collectible elf would make for a truly great elf, if not one that was movie-accurate. I'm not surprised that pictures of various degrees of mash-up between the two elves are starting to appear on the web.
Personally, I'd use the head and hands from this guy combined with the torso, arms and legs of the S3 elf and that would be just about right! You could still fit the quiver over the cloak like the S3 elf, but in conjunction with the hood from the Mirkwood elf. What would be great is the ability to pick up LotR/Hobbit elf hair-pieces from BrickLink at sensible prices a few months down the road. Alternatively, if anyone could find an acrylic paint to match the tone and finish of Lego ABS in light flesh then it would be possible to make the hair-piece from the S3 elf match the fleshie heads!
Just looked at AC's pic on Eurobricks -- that's *exactly* what I had in mind! :o)
I'm just like @legodad42, got a half dozen there last week, probably pass by to day, want to snatch up a gandalf if they got them in
@Sethro3, Midwest as in eastern North Dakota.
I hope my TRU doesn't miss out on some great polys AGAIN…
I never saw this anywhere in Minnesota. Maybe they will sell another run of it? Boo