Review: 41173 Elvendale School of Dragons

Welcome to Elvendale School of Dragons! Meet the Dragon Trainer, the water elf named Tidus Stormsurfer. Currently, the only student he has is Miku, but he will soon have some more baby dragons to train since the trust has recently restored between Elves and Dragons…

This set was provided by the AFOL Relations & Programs team (AR&P) of The LEGO Group for the purpose of sharing set details with fans.
Opinions provided here solely reflect those of our reviewer. 
Photographs are property of Friends Bricks and are not directed by TLG in any fashion.

Box Front
What a mesmerizing artwork for the background!


Box Back
Images show fun scenes featuring the moveable parts and functions


Box Top




Box Contents: 1 Booklet, 2 Bags, 1 Sticker Sheet, 1 Plastic Sheet of Banners & 1 16cm Outer Cable.

Here’s what you get in Bag 1.


The small bag contains these smaller, light-weight pieces. The hourglass is probably the most exciting item here.


Introducing Tidus Stormsurfer! 

He is shown here holding the hourglass. I was hoping he could grasp its neck, but that does not seem to work. 
Also, just in case you are wondering, the pink contents remain still even if the hourglass is flipped upside down. 

The dark, handsome Tidus is basically a recolored version of Farran with different print designs. 


There is currently only one hair mold for Elvendale boys, so Farran, Tidus and Johnny Baker all share the same spiky wig even though none of them have that hairstyle in the Elves animated series. 


Now let’s build the school!

Shown above: Building Steps #5, #8 and #12. 


And Building Steps #14 and #34.

At Building Step 43, all the necessary pieces from Bag 1 have been put in place, and this is what the school looks like at this point.



Bag 2 Contains Miku and a mini shooter. The lovely iron fence is currently made especially for the Elves theme.


The small bag in Bag 2 gives you 4 jelly cookies! 

We have gotten plenty of LEGO chocolate chip cookies since 2014, but these jelly cookies are still quite rare. Heartlake Supermarket also carries these new cookies. 

Here’s Miku, appearing for the second time in an official set.


Bag 2 starts with building of the three toadstools that serve as seats for baby dragon students.

Some nice details are also added: the bell, school crest and banners. 

The counter serves as Tidus’ office with his clear mug and quill. There’s also something that appears to be a computer monitor, but I don’t know if such things are used in Elvendale. Whatever it is, the pictorial information seems to be telling you to flip the hourglass when a dragon egg gets hatched. 

At Building Step 62, the roof sections get attached. Elvendale building structures typically feature these interesting roofs not seen in Heartlake City. 

When the large tree is complete, the zip line gets attached.


The cookie shooter is quite cool. When the gray piece is pressed down, the shooter spits out the cookie. 

It has also been included in 41120 Adventure Camp Archery in LEGO Friends. It's a fun playable item, but a rather ugly-looking thing for a mini-doll to hold in my opinion.

Building Step 76 completes the school. When the blackboard is set up, the school is finally open!

The illustration on the blackboard shows how Miku should go down the zip line, jump off and fly. 

She already knows how to fly, but she can learn to do it better!



The back side features the two steps that lead up to where the zip line begins as well as the comfy little cave for Miku.


Now see her fly down the vine. Tidus is about to shoot a cookie high up in the air so she will fly after it!


While Tidus is busy with his office work, Miku sneaks upstairs and eats all of his favorite jelly cookies! 


This is a scene from Episode 2: Dragons to Save, Time to Be Brave where Tidus gives the hourglass to our heroes.


Once the peace gets restored in Elvendale, Tidus can teach a class full of baby dragons!

But young Merina seems to want to join them…


Next to the large dragon, the school seems a bit too small. Maybe the dragon school is more like a dragon kindergarten.

So other than flying, what else do these dragons learn?

Apparently, they have to be taught not to eat people!!

See what’s shown on the blackboard in a scene from the show: people = not meant for eating; go for cookies instead!

LEGO Elves is a theme mainly aimed at girls, but it is obvious that TLG is hoping to attract some male fans as well. This is the second Elves set featuring a male mini-doll alone, and the evil character to conquer as well as the large dragons might be quite appealing to some people who had no prior interest in mini-doll sets. 

Initially I had mixed feelings about those exact areas: dragons and an evil enemy sounded too much like another boy-oriented theme, and something I had absolutely no interest in. 

But this year’s Elves sets have turned out to be quite attractive to my eyes, and I have even grown to like those dragons very much. In fact, I can hardly wait to get all the large dragons as well as the babies! 

Can Elves be the theme that will finally overcome the challenge TLG has faced for a long time? Have they finally created a theme both boys and girls can find cool? I am certainly optimistic about it!