We’re pleased to bring you our second LEGO Elves Dragons review! Last week, we reviewed 41176 The Secret Marketplace. This week, I am reviewing 41172 The Water Dragon Adventure, provided by LEGO. This set has 212 pieces and is expected to retail for $19.99 when it debuts in March.
The water dragon is medium azure and lavender, with plenty of curved slopes in both 1X2 and 2X2 sizes. The set comes with a number of the modified 1×1 veritcal tooth piece in medium azure, used as scales on the dragon’s limbs. She has a magenta and purple ribbon on her head, made using the Friends bow piece and a purple flipper.
The new head piece is printed, with lavender/medium azure eyes and a decorative motif to match Naida, the water elf. This is the only printed piece for the dragon; the set comes with stickers to add embellishments to the dragon’s chest, feet, and tail.
I really appreciate that the dragon’s limbs are intentionally shaped liked limbs. They’re organic looking, which lends itself well to the overall design. It makes her look more like a sculpted toy or action figure while still looking decidedly like LEGO. It reminded me a lot of the dragons from LEGO’s Vikings theme: a build I can pose and play with that is far less limited than the dragons included with Ninjago, which feel a bit stunted.
I adore the dragon. I think she’s well designed for the price point and quite articulated, allowing plenty of play with the finished model. I would have preferred an elbow joint, allowing for three points of articulation for the legs, but I understand with the size how this might not have been feasible.
The secondary model is a water feature. I was significantly less impressed with this. When building the dragon, I could see the model take shape, and understood where it was going. The terrain feature felt shapeless while I was building it. I’m not overly impressed with the finished model, either. It has a small medium azure catapult to fling things at the dragon, and a hidey-hole to store the binoculars. I would have rather seen this as a much smaller build with more parts devoted to the dragon, such as adding more points of articulation for her neck and legs.
Overall, I recommend the set. You will get great pieces for the cost of the set, and the dragon herself is wonderfully designed.