Elven Minifigures (Part One---)

Officially the elven archer comes with an emerald green cape not the brown as shown in the picture.

 CMF Series 3 - Elven Archer

This very particular minifigure was responsible for dragging me into Lego CMF mania.

When Lego Group first introduced the collectable minifigures in blinded packets, I was not so interested having them. For MYR 17.00 or MYR 18.00 per packet (at that time), I thought it was a little bit pricey to collect 16 minifigures to complete a serie and personally I saw them as average ordinary minifigures, a remake of nostalgic characters from Castle and City themes.

In short words, I just ignored the Series 1 and Series 2.

January 2011, the Series 3 came out in lime-green packets. Before that nettizens of AFols were discussing and posted pictures of them, eagerly and making wishlist of what they are going to hunt from the Series 3. For myself, I was aiming for the Ace Pilot and like most of other collectors - - - the Elf.

As expected, the Elf became the most popular ones in the series. To make it harder to grab hold of it, there were only three elves in a box of sixty packets. Adding collectors that were making elven army out there, it was a very fat chance to have even a single elf archer.

What so special about this elf minifigure?

My opinion is elves had never been represented in Lego. I was born in 80's. So after 30 years, this was the first elf ever seen in Lego production. Actually it was its hairpiece with pointed ears that make the elf's identity. Just put in on any other minifigure, and voila!--- we just 'elfed' the minifigure :)

Another attraction of this elven archer is the first ever made longbow. We have seen the short bow of brown and  black in Castle or Western themes but this time it gave me an initial plan to have longbow men in my Castle theme army.

More over, that time the price had been lowered to MYR 9.90 per packet, I was hunting for the elf but to no avail until I gave up of my ambitious dream of having a squadron of longbow men in my collection.

I jumped off the wagon of CMF mania after I had a few Ace Pilots and some Samurais. I had to wait a few months after the hot pursuit by other collectors had cooled down when finally I had my first elf in an unexpected attempt.

 I spent about half an hour on one lazy afternoon molesting 100 green packets while waiting for my wife at Toys r Us. Lady Luck must be joking with me when I got the elf at the 100th packet that I inspected. If I were give up at the half way, I might not found it because I myself did not put any hope finding this very elusive minifigure in the first place.

Details & Accessories

The elf appears in colors of the woods - mainly brown and green. Both torso and legs (including hips) were printed at the front side only with silvery scaly decoration, suggesting that the minifigure is wearing some kind of scale mail body armor. The sleeves are olive green and the hairpiece is light tan with its pointy ears painted yellow to match the headpiece color. For MYR10.00 price, the elf is a luxury as it comes with three accessories - the green cape, reddish brown longbow and an oval shield printed with an insignia of a stag head.

Elven archer, spear man and sword man.

Personally I think the combination of longbow and the shield is impractical. The elf needs to use both hands to shoot arrow with its longbow. And where does he keep his quiver of arrows?

As my own creation (MOC), I have replaced the headpiece and hands with flesh color as elves are pale. For archer class, I added a brown quiver to match its longbow. If he is using shield, a sword or a spear may look appropriate to match with but then he is now an elf guard or sword man (elf?).

At one point I succeeded collecting 13 elven minifigures. In the end, I've decided to keep just three and let other collectors to have them to complete their set. 

A mint in packet elf mini figure nowadays is valued at MYR40.00 after market price here in Kuala Lumpur at this time written.

It is a rare sight for an elf in human city but as everybody is busy, no one will notice somebody else ears weather they are normal or pointy.

Lego Mini Figures Series 3 and Series 4

"Yabusame"

( by Little Brick Man)

My snow heart warrior,
I have this heartache
To see you choose to decide
Which one is faster
The horse, the arrow
or this short lives of ours...

geisha love samurai.forever.

My beautiful sakura,
In this short life of ours
We choose to live either with honour or love
Without it
We just like melted snow
Crushed under the horse's feet.

The Black Falcons

Lego Castle theme attracts me with its castles, knights and horses. After all, it's about medieval times full of adventures and mystery although it did not represent actual history.

"The Black Falcons" is the name given by Lego fans for Lego Castle sets that featured a crest with a black and white bird against a black and white background, split down the middle, with a blue or gold border. Mini-figures that have the bird emblem on their chest often come with black helmets, blue torsos with black sleeves and black legs; sometimes with red hips. Several sets have mini-figures with gray helmets and gray legs though.

Compared to other Castle Classic themes like Crusaders ( with Lion crest ) and Black Knights ( with Dragon Crest ), I favoured Black Falcons the most for its black and blue colour combination; which for me, it represents law enforcer; something more like police force during medieval era. Perhaps you had seen the movie about King Arthur starring Sean Connery and Richard Gere? I think the title is 'First Knight' but that movie was several years ahead since The Black Falcons sets were produced within year 1984 - 1992.

I used to divide my Black Falcons mini-figures into 3 groups based on type of helmet they're wearing ; neck-protector as Guard (infantry) - usually armed with spear or halberd, chin-guard as Archer or Crossbowman - equipped with bow and quiver or crossbow, and lastly grill helmet as Knight which wield lance, shield and short sword as secondary weapon.

Left: Guards (foot soldier) , mid : Archer with red hips, right :Knight with breastplate torso and yellow feather on its grill helmet.

As far as I remember, the one and only castle I ever had was set 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress (1986) but I only had it in 1989 - the most expensive Lego set my dad ever bought for me. The construction of the castle was quite complicated for a 9-year boy like me so my brother helped me to build it. The unique characteristic of the castle were its octagonal corner pieces and the yellow Tudor wall. The set included with 2 Guards, 2 Archers, 2 knights and 2 horses ( 1 white, 1 black).

Today's price for this 24-year old set ? Up to USD 1,380.00 for mint in sealed box (MISB) set.