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27 April 2020

LEGO® Trolls World Tour: the new parts

Posted by Admin
It's hard to ignore LEGO® Trolls, and in fact there are a lot of interesting things going on with the parts from this new 2020 theme. To kick our coverage off, Jonas Kramm examines the new, recoloured and printed elements (and foam ones!) to be found in four of the sets from this theme.

Glitter and bright colours! The new series of LEGO® sets dedicated to DreamWorks’ Trolls World Tour movie are here. To the adult eye they might seem a bit crazy, but we got them anyway… to investigate in true New Elementary fashion by seeing what new pieces and colours they bring and how those might be used.


The LEGO Trolls World Tour range launched in January with seven sets and one polybag.
I got these four to take a detailed look at:

  • 41251 Poppy’s Pod: 103 pieces for US$19.99, 19.99€
  • 41252 Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Adventure: 250 pieces for $29.99, 34.99€
  • 41254 Volcano Rock City Concert: 387 pieces for $39.99, 39.99€
  • 41255 Pop Village Celebration: 380 pieces for $49.99, 49.99€

New Moulds in LEGO Trolls World Tour


Pods

Here at New Elementary we're fascinated by all the "pod" elements being introduced by LEGO this year and the Trolls pods are perhaps the most interesting of the bunch.

The biggest and most obvious new mould in the Trolls theme are the pod halves (65253), which come in three different transparent colours:

  • Transparent Medium Reddish Violet/ Trans-Dark Pink (6293287) in 41251 Poppy’s Pod
  • Transparent Light Blue/ Trans-Light Blue (6286436) and Transparent Bright Bluish Violet/ Trans-Purple (6290583) in 41255 Pop Village Celebration

Even though the colour names are ‘transparent’, the pieces aren’t – you can’t really see through them. The exterior surface feels different than usual and appears more dim.


Two halves make a complete pod which has a 8x8 round footprint that extends to 10x10 on the bulgiest section. The hinges then add one more module in width to each side, making it 12 modules wide. The height up to the studs on the top is 10 bricks, with the central loop for hanging further extending the height for a bit under five plates. A 1x1 Round Brick will fit sideways through the hole, but there is no friction.

On the inside are two legal ways to connect bricks. First option is to place something on the 2x2 round projection in the pod’s upper half; something 2x2 round looks best. There is space for something 2.5 plates in diameter before it hits the edge of the pod.

Secondly, the bottom of the pod is completely studless but there are intakes on the back to fit the new 2x6 Bracket (64570) precisely; a technique we already saw in the LEGO Friends Play Cubes.


The pod halves come loose in the boxes without any kind of protection, so some of them have little scratches. Hard to photograph though.

Leaf Pins


For the hinges on the side of the pod, another new mould has been made: a 3L pin with a leaf on one end (6287531|37429).


Unlike the already existing 3L Technic Pin (6558), this one has no ring and you can easily push it through. It has precisely the right amount of friction to connect the halves securely, but can still be pulled out without requiring much strength.

The pin only comes in Bright Yellowish Green/ Lime and appears two times in 41251 Poppy’s Pod and four times in 41255 Pop Village Celebration.

Big Balloon

Similar to the small balloon hulls (18969), which have been around since 2015, the LEGO Trolls set 41252 Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Adventure introduces a new larger balloon hull piece in Bright Purple/ Dark Pink (6287522|65783), four of which can form one big balloon.




Each piece has three connection points: 3.18mm handlebars at the top and the bottom and and integrated 2X2 round brick in the middle with studs on the convex side and tubes on the concave side. A Technic axle fits through the centre.


Accessory Bag

To decorate the Trolls sets there is a new ‘family mould’ of accessories (65468) that comes in the bigger sets, featuring a variety of different small pieces:

  • 3x Cupcakes
  • 2x Flowers
  • 2x Heart-shaped sunglasses
  • 1x Decorative heart
  • 1x Small guitar
  • 1x Quaver
  • 1x Treble Clef

Most interesting in my opinion are the new musical notation elements, the note and the clef, which both can connect to a stud and will be great for decoration.


I also like the change to the cupcake (shown on the left), making it slightly taller than the one from the Friends theme and adding a stud on top, so that elements placed there do not fall out.


The accessory bag comes in three different colours:

  • Medium Azure (6287932) in the polybag 30555 and the sets 41251, 41252 and 41256
  • Bright Yellow/ Yellow (6292969) in the sets 41253 and 41255
  • Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (6292984) only in set 41254 Volcano Rock City Concert

Figures




There are also several new moulds created for the Trolls, but I won’t go into detail for each of them. The most important thing to know is that the Trolls are based on normal minfigure torsos and short legs (some moulded in two different colours). For the heads, the figures got new elements which have four studs on top to attach the hair pieces. So the heads are at least a bit in System and provide building opportunities.

The legs, hands and arms might be especially interesting for collectors of monochrome figures!



Here are some examples of how different characters from the four sets can be taken apart:



For Poppy, the main character, a new skirt piece (65753) has been made. It is compatible with the normal minifigure and looks like it could be reused in MOCs for different things, thanks to its simplicity.


Unfortunately the underside doesn’t quite fit 1x2 elements. It comes in Medium Blue (6287512) and Dark Turquoise/ Bright Bluish Green (6286829), as well as Bright Yellow/ Yellow (6286838) in LEGO Trolls set 41253 which is not part of this review but will feature in another Trolls article soon on New Elementary.

Foam Elements

With the Trolls sets LEGO also introduces new foam elements that don’t seem to have much to do with LEGO System. The only way to ‘connect’ them is to put a 1x1 Brick in the square hole and lock it from the top and the bottom.



Last time LEGO used foam pieces in an excessive way was in the Scala line around the year 2000 and it didn’t work out too well, although I’ve managed to integrate some into MOCs in the past! My hope is that they keep it to these few decorative uses in the Trolls line only. Admittedly, compared to the foam pieces from back then, the new ones have a much better quality and feel good. Also they come already cut out without any leftovers.

The foam pieces try to replicate the plastic colours Bright Reddish Violet/ Magenta, Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange and Medium Lilac/ Dark Purple.

Recoloured pieces in LEGO Trolls World Tour

If you are a fan of the bright colours often (erroneously) referred to as “Friends colours”, the new pieces from the Trolls sets are right up your alley.

Colour ID 107, better known as Dark Turquoise, Bright Bluish Green or Teal gets some fresh bits. The decorations on the four Cockpit W/ Bow 3X6X1 (6292810|35299) in the balloon set are luckily just stickers so the pieces keep their usability. Also new with the Trolls sets is the basic Brick 2X2 Round (6290502|6143). More new pieces in that colour are Cylinder Quarter 4X4X6 (6290540|30562), Brick Arch 1X6 (6290541|92950) and Brick Arch 1X5X4 (6290562|14395).



Fairly new and not yet mentioned on this site is that the popular Limb Element now comes in Lavender (6097450|2417).

Also available in Lavender are the Roller Coaster Track Curve (6290515|25061) and the Plate 6X6 W. Bow (6278352|6003).

The Plate 3X3, Heart (6294357|39613) is available in Bright Green now. So is the Elephant Tail/Trunk in Bright Yellowish Green/ Lime (6293392|28959).


Aside from the balloon pieces mentioned before, another piece new to Bright Purple/ Dark Pink is the Dish 8X8 (6292812|3961), shown here to the right of Round Tile 8X8 in Aqua/ Light Aqua (6296857|6177) that comes with 41255 Pop Village Celebration.


Spread across the sets are some new colour variations of the Lightning Bolt element in Transparent Bright Bluish Violet/ Trans-Purple (6294681), Transparent Red/ Trans-Red (6294682), Transparent Medium Reddish Violet/ Trans-Dark Pink (6294987) and Warm Gold/ Pearl Gold (6294353).


Last, but not least these colour variations of smaller pieces are also new:

  • Wind-Up Key in White (6294949|29979)
  • Egg in Medium Lavender (6296851|24946)
  • Microphone in Bright Reddish Violet/ Magenta (6257777|18740), which gets used in four of the seven sets from the Trolls World Tour series
  • Electric Guitar in Bright Purple/ Dark Pink (6293332|11640)

Decorated Elements in LEGO Trolls 

New printed decorations are primarily limited to the figures. For surfaces on bricks it is mostly stickers that get used, some of them coming with some fancy-looking effects.



The exception is 41251 Poppy’s Pod which, having a 4+ age mark, has no stickers and only printed elements instead. Therefore the price per piece is comparatively high.


The prints included are:

  • A new book cover (6294245)
  • Happy Tile 1X2 (6294249)
  • Tile 2X3 with map (6294264)
  • Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange Tile 2X2 Round with face (6294265), which gets reused in 41255 Pop Village Celebration too
  • Tile 2X2 Round in Bright Yellow/ Yellow with flower decoration (6294250)
  • Street sign with lollipop pattern (6294239)


Also there is face printed on a Spring Yellowish Green/ Yellowish Green Double Sphere 2X2X1 2/3, W/ Knob (6294257).

41255 Pop Village Celebration includes two new colours for the piece 3X3X1 1/3 Dome Top in Bright Reddish Violet/ Magenta (6294784) and Bright Yellowish Green/ Lime (6294786), and so in this case it is unfortunate that they are printed. Hopefully other sets will make use of undecorated versions. Exclusively in set 41252 Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Adventure is this Bright Purple/ Dark Pink Dish 6X6 (6294392).

Non-existent parts in LEGO Trolls 

When looking at the pictures of the Trolls sets when they were first released, to scan for new elements, I spotted something in set 41252 Poppy's Air Balloon Adventure: on the bars of the balloon are 1x1 Round Plates with Hole in various colours, as decoration. On the bar at the front is one in Lavender, a colour that the piece doesn't exist in as yet.



Suspiciously, on the three other bars these plates were Bright Purple/ Dark Pink, so I was curious to find out the truth when I got my copy of the set. Unfortunately it must have been an error with the product images as we're not getting that piece in that colour; instead it is indeed only Dark Pink. But it does make me wonder how things like this happen. Did they use the wrong colour in the model or did the mistake happen while doing the image editing?

Conclusion

All these LEGO Trolls sets sell for a rather high price per piece, as is usual with licensed themes, so I probably wouldn’t have bought them without any discount. But they do reveal a lot of new pieces, another probable reason for the cost.


The minfigure pieces are specialised and unusual, but taking them apart definitely increases the usability. If one of the pieces inspires you for a building idea or you are in general a fan of the brighter colours, it might be worth picking up a set or buying the interesting bits loosely.

Next time here on New Elementary I will rip all the sets apart and see what can be done with the bricks. Are they worthwhile for alt-builds?



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8 comments:

  1. The "foam" is not the foam of Scala. It is made of felt.

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    1. Indeed, I think this is probably just a wording issue as Jonas has made some great mocs in the past using Scala foam and now the Troll felt - no worries.

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  2. The spring yellowish green head seems like a throwback to Homemaker figures!

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad someone else thought this too!

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  3. Wow, really interesting article. I just might get one of these sets just to see what I can build.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. I looked at the cupcakes and also wondered that the ones from the Friends have 11 segments and the new ones have 12 segments...

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    Replies
    1. ooh good spot. My presumption is that they therefore neededa bit more space in the central area for the stud...?

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