Having come late to the MCU party (yeah, we’re slow. I was working crazy hours for not all that much money at my previous job up until this time last year, and movies were a stretch in both time and cash), it’s only been relatively recently that I’ve actually seen Thor: The Dark World.
And having fussed about not being able to build any MCU MOCs because of lacking the ‘figs, this is actually a fairly good film to build from because TLG didn’t release any sets from it. Aside from Thor himself, and Loki of course, I don’t need any more official ‘figs than that, because there really aren’t any.
(Okay, there might be an Erik Selvig in some set somewhere as well. Give me a break).
In short, anything I can produce has almost as good a claim to being the definitive LEGO version as anyone else’s, especially where the Dark Elves are concerned.
I admit the Dark Elves weren’t the most interesting villains in the MCU. Their motivations are opaque and nearly nonsensical (wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to put your people in stasis until the heat death of the universe if you hate light and other races that much?), and they’re more like an embodied force of nature than an actual villain.
But then, no-one watching a superhero movie ought to be analysing the plot for plausibility. By design and nature they’re grandiose right up to the point of absurdity, otherwise what’s the point? It becomes “Quick! To the Bat-lobbying committee!”
But I do have to say that of all of the hardware of the MCU (especially its spacegoing parts), it’s the Dark Elves’ stuff that most grabs my attention.
Quinjet? Quinjets are nice, but to this day I can’t build anything like a Quinjet I’m actually pleased with. I’ve tried Blacktron I, NCS and Futuron versions, and apparently I suck at building Quinjets. The Asgardians have a pleasing mix of high technology and Dark Age trappings (way better than Nexo Knights). The Milano is a lovely iconic ship. But as far as I’m concerned the Dark Elf Harrow kicks some serious butt as a ship, and I love the tall, imposing form of their capital ships as well.
As I’ve said before in the past, I’m an absolute sucker for vertically-oriented ships, though I don’t often build them because of the difficulties of displaying them. But I just had to try building a Harrow.
Scaled down some for the purpose of buildability (something that TLG do all the time), this is my version of the Dark Elves’ starfighter/dropship. I went with a red bubble canopy to represent that fiery glowing area at the front of the ship, but I’m still not sure whether that was supposed to be part of the drive system, a viewport area or a weapon system.
The rest of the ship isn’t totally movie-accurate either. I think the original is a little taller, more pointed at the back and slightly slimmer in the body. But on the whole I’m satisfied with it. Any more height would have redoubled the structural weakness of any ship of this sort of shape built in LEGO bricks, and there was no realistic way to make it narrower and still able to seat a pilot. You can tell what it is, and there aren’t any better versions out there that I can find. I’ve looked.
One of the things that surprised me about it was how fragile it isn’t. I was expecting something shaped like this to end up as the sort of creation that wobbles if you look at it funny and falls apart if you breathe at it wrong, but it’s actually way sturdier than I’d anticipated. The only real area of structural dubiousness is where the wing attaches to the cockpit, and I couldn’t think of a way to get more clutch power there without compromising the ship’s appearance. You can even swoosh it (gently) if you hold onto it by the wing rather than the cockpit.
Probably the most challenging part of this creation was making the pilot.
Obviously, since TLG skipped The Dark World for sets (and they weren’t the only toy company to give the second Thor film short shrift. My theory is that Marvel Studios were being stingy with licenses for it in order to get more merchandising attention for the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie), there isn’t a Dark Elf minifigure. Not even Malekith.
I’m actually okay with that since I’m in the same boat as everyone else, at least as far as purist customs go. I have to try and make one of my own design.
My stock of suitable minifigures isn’t that large, and at least for this build I’m using what little I already possess rather than trying to purchase or acquire the perfect elements. I have an idea for a follow-up to this build, a Dark Elf Battle Pack, for which I might go ahead and acquire the parts, but for this, I’m keeping with what I’ve got.
I’ve used Garmadon’s torso and some plain black legs, as they look reasonably like the Dark Elves’ outfits, but I think once my son’s finished with Darth Maul I’ll use that torso and legs instead. There are options for the body of the ‘fig. It’s the head and headgear that are the real challenge.
There is a LEGO head printing that looks pretty close to those mask helmets: the old Gasgano head from the first Star Wars Episode I Mos Espa Podrace set. Those heads are old, rare and expensive, though, and even if I had one they wouldn’t be a good choice for something you might want a fair-sized legion of. And like I said, for this build I was just going with stuff I already had.
In the end I went with Palpatine from the Darth Vader Transformation set, but I’m not especially happy with it. For general use it has the advantage of being plentiful, recent and cheap, but it’s not especially accurate in either the eyes or the expression. Luminara Unduli wouldn’t be a bad choice, but then the disadvantage is you either have to make all your elves female or modify the eyes with paint or a Sharpie (and a very steady hand). It may come to that if and when I make the Battle Pack, but for now, Palpatine. Palpatine is probably a better colour anyway.
When I built the Harrow, I elected to use one of the old Castle helmets for the pilot, but after that I wondered if there wasn’t a better way of doing it and started playing around with my stock of elements. It turns out that you can wedge the samurai chin guard visor element onto the aviator cap element in a raised position, and end up with something that gives the effect of the long Dark Elf ears they appear to have.
Alas, this won’t fit in the cockpit of the Harrow, but if I make the Battle Pack that’s the way I’m doing my Dark Elves. Stay posted on that score.
I’m actually tempted to add in some yellow stripes and swap out the windscreen element to modify this into a Blacktron vessel. I’d probably want to add some visible guns and engines if I did that, though.
Anyway, here’s my Dark Elf Harrow, single-pilot version. I hope you like it.
Square Feet 