Elves

Aira & the Song of the Wind Dragon

A two legged dragon with ombre wings that somehow works better than it has any right to.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 41193 · 2018

Pieces451

Minifigs2

Year2018

Set number41193

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The verdict

I went into this one expecting a cute little companion set and came out genuinely charmed by Cyclo, the wind dragon at its center.

He only has two legs instead of four, which sounds like it should look broken, but the ball and socket joints are small enough to scale him perfectly to the mini dolls and let him twist into poses a lot of bigger dragon builds can't manage. Pair that with a floating music school and a bat shaped airship with a spring shooter, and you've got three distinct builds packed into one box for under forty dollars. This is a set for anyone who loves posable creature builds and doesn't mind a fantasy theme that never got the shelf space it deserved.

Best for: fans of posable dragon and creature builds who want fantasy detail without a huge price tag

The full review

What it is

I'll admit I underestimated this set before I actually got Cyclo built. Two legged dragons are rare in LEGO, and my first thought was that it would look unfinished or awkward standing there. It doesn't. The smaller ball and socket connections give him a fluid, almost bird like posture, and once his transparent wings are attached, angled to catch the light in that soft ombre gradient, he stops looking like a compromise and starts looking like a design choice. He has room on his back for two mini dolls to ride and a slot on his head for the wind diamond piece, so he's built to be played with, not just displayed.

The catch

The rest of the box holds its own too. The bat shaped airship has a spring loaded shooter and a spinning propeller, which is exactly the kind of small mechanical detail that keeps a build from feeling static. The floating music school is the gentlest of the three, done up in white and tan with pops of baby blue and lime green, and it has a hidden chest and a rotating sign that give it a bit of secret detail worth discovering. At 451 pieces for around forty dollars at launch, this held its value well for what you got, three separate scenes in one box rather than one oversized centerpiece.

Who it's for

If you or your builder loves dragons, fantasy critters, or just wants something more posable than the average brick built animal, this is worth tracking down even now that it's retired. Skip it if a two legged silhouette is going to bother you every time you look at the shelf, or if you're chasing Elves specifically for minifigures rather than mini dolls, since this set leans hard into the animal and creature side of the theme.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this one feels like assembling three small stories rather than one long slog. You start with the airship, which goes together quickly and gives you an early mechanical payoff with its shooter and propeller. The music school follows, calmer and more architectural, before the real event: Cyclo. His frame is deceptively simple until you start attaching the wing spars and the ombre panels, at which point the whole thing clicks into a creature that actually holds a pose.

The standout pieces are the transparent wing elements, molded with a gradient that shifts from clear to color, which were fairly new to the Elves line at this point and haven't shown up in many other themes since. The small ball jointed dragon body pieces are also worth calling out, since they're part of what makes Cyclo so much more posable than his bulkier four legged cousins in other themes. Aira and Lumia both come with detailed, high fantasy printing that holds up well against later mini doll releases, and the two smaller figures, Sebastian the bird and Phyll the shadow bat, add character without padding the piece count for no reason.

Fun facts

01Cyclo is one of the few LEGO dragons built with only two legs, a deliberate choice that let designers use smaller ball joints for extra posability.
02The set launched with an RRP of $39.99 and has since been retired, with used and new sealed copies now trading well above that original price.
03The wind diamond slot on Cyclo's head ties into the Elves storyline, where each dragon protects an elemental gem from the Elvendale world.
04Reviewers on Brickset and Brick Insights consistently ranked the ombre clear wing pieces among the best details in the whole Elves theme.