To go along with the full Winter Village set this year, LEGO has released a companion set: LEGO 40746 Santa’s Delivery Truck contains 224 pieces and 1 minifigure, and will be available October 1st for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. In the past, there have been gift-with-purchase sets that compliment the Winter Village in general, or go directly with the main set for the year – sometimes even two bonus sets, one in October and one in November. However, I don’t recall a complementary model like this that pairs directly with the Winter Village set and is separately available for purchase. Is it worth adding it to your list? Let’s take a look!
Tag Archives: Elves
LEGO Icons 10339 Santa’s Post Office – Santa would like a word [Review]
It’s turned to fall in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s a chill in the air and the leaves are turning depending on where you are, and it’s time for Halloween decor… just kidding, of course, it’s time for Christmas stuff already. There’s a Winter Village Multiverse developing between the human world and the North Pole/Santa/Elves world, and this year we get another addition to the the Santa side of the portal. LEGO Icons 10339 Santa’s Post Office contains 1,440 pieces and 5 minifigures and will be available October 4th for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99. LEGO Insiders will have early access starting October 1st. You might think, oh, of course, Santa probably gets more mail than anyone else in the world, there must be a huge facility to process it! Read on to learn the alleged truth about Santa’s mail.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Dragonfly in the sky, you can go twice as high!
If you’re an elf in need of transit options, you should check out this LEGO build by Ted Andes! Do you ever have one of those projects where its entire reason for being is just a tiny part of the whole? This huge Dragonfly Outpost diorama was built by Ted as a display to show off the dragonfly craft in the top left corner! Let’s take a look at some details! the gold water pump to the right of the main pillar has a faucet made from an inverted genie’s lamp. All of those lovely wings used on the bug-thopter and the roof of the main area are from a single ant-man set from 2015. Those safety rails on the upper deck are actually a relatively common tube (though it does seem like the elves could use a few more of them!) An up-and-coming part is the leaf used for some of the bird’s tails. Since its introduction in 2023, it’s been used in a variety of sets and colors and I expect we’ll see more of it in the future! And speaking of those birds, I wonder if they make good omelets too?
Friendship takes flight
A mother and daughter are transported to the sky on an elven airship bursting with the colors of the seasons in this fantastic LEGO model from builder Josh Parkinson. He blends inspiration from the colors and parts Friends, Elves, and Dreamzzz lines with a dragon figurehead from the Ninjago Water Dragon, and a mysterious power source built from an illuminated Trolls pod. I love the forest foliage spilling over the deck, the cozy captain’s cabin, and especially that azure figurehead! Josh’s ship captures the whimsy and imagination of LEGO’s modern era. Now, what was the Elvish word for “Friend,” again? I feel like that might come in handy on a quest…
These elves literally turn the tide of battle
In the realms of fantasy, it seems like there’s always a horde of orcs taking on a band of elves somewhere. And in this Tolkien-inspired LEGO scene by Graham Gidman, these two groups are at it once again. But this time the battle appears to be more fluid than normal, and I mean that literally! There’s a rush of trans-clear bricks about to knock those orcs right off the bridge. But the shaping of this “water” is only one part of Graham’s brick-built mastery on display in this scene. The smooth white curves of the Elvish architecture feel perfectly at home here, projecting a regal tone. And every bit of plant life dotting the rocky landscape is inspired. But my favorite detail in the whole scene has got to be the darker shade of tan used on the waterlogged portion of the bridge. It’s quite the excellent, and easy-to-miss, detail that sets this build apart!
Forcing new LEGO perspectives on Christmas
Builder Josh Parkinson has become quite the LEGO master of juxtaposing the near and far. I was wowed by his technique in the Doctor Strange vignette he made last year. And his powers of forced perspective have only grown since then, as is evident in this beautiful North Pole scene. Josh continues to astound with his ability to make minifigure habitats, six of them in total making up the two interiors seen here. But I’m also quite impressed with his snow layering on the roofs, trees, and distant hills. When combined with the backlighting at the build’s horizon, the whole scene pops, giving “the luster of midday to objects below.”
Sink your teeth into this gorgeous architecture
When the Forest Elves need weapons and armor, they come to this forge crafted by gGh0st. With vertical and horizontal tooth plates galore, the building itself almost looks like it’s wearing scale armor. Not only is the result beautiful to look at, but I bet it makes any orc armies think twice about invading.
Keeping watch over the colorful terrain
There are so many bright pops of pigment in this goblin outpost LEGO scene by Carter Witz. Terrain of lime and yellowish green is dotted with golden flowers and trees sporting pink leaves, standing in stark contrast to the brilliant blue of the cascading waterfall and rich brown of the gobbos’ watchtower. The palette is incredibly immersive, reminding me heavily of the Elves theme from years ago. And amid the colorful scene, Carter sneaks in some terrific designs with the round concrete foundations of the outpost, the cute cave entrance on the left, and the craggy textures of exposed rocks utilizing studs in all directions. The use of slopes and exposed studs in trans-clear throughout the waterfall is a real triumph, too. I can almost hear the rushing water as it cascades down the goblins’ hill!
Nostalgic little mushroom home
This LEGO creation by Jonas Kramm really reminds me of the Smurf toys I used to have as a kid. It is simply amazing. Jonas was inspired by the Forest Elf minifigure and I can totally understand why. It is by far one of the cutest minifigures ever produced by LEGO and it goes along with this creation wonderfully. This model features a big mushroom which is used as the elf’s home. The vibrant blue color used for the door and the windows is a nice contrast to the red mushroom cap. It even comes with white scales.
Next to the mushroom home there is a smaller mushroom growing. (Maybe it’ll be someone’s home in the near future.) This little mushroom features the plate with crown leaf as the skirt of the mushroom. Jonas’ eye for detail is truly remarkable. I do have to admit that we featured the snail build before, but it goes along great with this creation and I understand why it was included as it is still a wonderful build. Using the foot plate in trans clear is a smart way to mimic snail slime. I want at least half a dozen of these, preferably with different hood colours and little blue minifigures.
These elves give the old shoemaker the boot
Builder Lego_nuts has cobbled together yet another stunning LEGO model, this one direct from the pages of a Brothers Grimm classic: The Elves and the Shoemaker. It’s good to see their expressive figure design from this Van Gogh piece reused here for the shoemaker and his wife. Putting the humans in this scale both makes for some adorable minifigure-scale elves, but it also allows for such magnificent detail in the rest of the build. You can see the scraps of cloth strewn throughout the workshop, all of the official parts from a LEGO set. And there’s the intricate nature of the sewing machine and grandfather clock, excellent builds just on their own. But what really gets me most about this design are the 19 different shoe designs hiding throughout it!
And in case you’ve already started counting the shoes, there are technically 21 unique shoe styles, not 19. You can see the shoes worn by the shoemaker and his wife in this accompanying video, even though they’re not visible in the final photo. In the video, they walk through all the components of the build, from heel to toe.
The return of LEGO Elves?
I wish.
That’s why I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) along with my friend Tom Loftus decided to take a break from our usual spaceships and build something fantastical. Our usual greys became pinks and lavenders, our usual mechanical greebling became wild, organic foliage. Tom wanted to build a tree, I wanted to replicate some of Scotland’s coastal cliffs. Combined with recent plants in wild colours and the release of the Acorn Boy and Night Protector in the recent Collectable Minifigure Series, our collab build became an homage to LEGO Elves.
We are fans of the bygone LEGO Elves theme which ran from 2015 to 2018. Its signature look was bright colours, cute dragons, and wonderful characters with elemental powers and matching outfits, albeit they were the less favourable minidolls. In short, it was a Tolkien-esque fantasy version of LEGO Friends. Despite there being an established lore (which I admit I’m unfamiliar with), Tom and I decided to make something original, but with a similar aesthetic.
Read more about this LEGO Elves collab!
All your baseplates are belong to us
When I was a kid, LEGO’s raised baseplates were among the coolest parts in my budding collection. But as I grew as a builder, I found myself using them less and less. It’s quite difficult to incorporate a the simplistic features of a raised baseplate into great, detailed model, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at this fantasy tower by Eyrezer. Hiding at the core of this diorama is the massive light yellowish green baseplate from a mid-2000’s Belville set. Combined with whimsical architecture and that huge onion dome from the Raya sets, this elven manor is glorious. See if you can spot all the other innovative parts uses, like the umbrella top, numerous hairpieces, leaf sprues, and even Bionicle statue.
Check out a few other times skilled builders have incorporated raised baseplates.