Polar Express Movie 10th Anniversary and still no elves!

Paul:

I too am in the hunt for O gauge size elves.

So far no luck on this end.

George

Folks,

Sorry about the elves, but OGR has a really good story about the 10th Anniversary of the Polar Express in the December issue. Dave Siburn does a fine job in detailing the history of the Lionel sets that is well worth reading.

Boy are you right about elves.  With all the stuff that Lionel makes for the Polar Express line, including articulated figures and animals, why not produce some elves to go along with everything else.

As my fellow Irish persons would say, "Up the elves!"

Ed Boyle

Partner

Special Projects Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine

You only get Elves with the hand car.

You are right about that. The catalog illustration of the handcar shows Elves "propelling" it.

Or are they "propelving" it?

You mean like the Elves shown on the right side here:

http://www.twtrainworx.com/fun_stuff.html

Stu

No Elves, if they did have them they would charge $4.50 each for them just like they do for the caribou. I have been planning the next season for the VMT layout and wanted to do the Polar Express. In the movie there are thousands of caribou and hundreds of elves. Lionel's caribou price 6 for $26.99. It would cost $1.50 at Hobby Lobby to buy 6 HO sized. The price is too much for too little. I am sure the elves would be a similar cost.

Scott Smith

That's pretty much on par MSRP-wise with a 6-pack of deer that's sold by Woodland Scenics and through Scenic Express, for what it's worth.

Well, I think Lionel missed the boat on the Polar Express, with regards to elves and North Pole structures, and yes the price of caribou and wolves is very high and they're kind of generic looking. I'll have to check out Woodland Scenics. However, this is the land of plenty and I've found Dept. 56 structures make for a fantastic looking North Pole (North Pole, Dickens, and Christmas in the City series) and some of Lionel's suburban houses look just like the houses on the boy's street.

As for elves, maybe S-scale figures painted in red and green would work.

Looking forward to the PE article in OGR.

Seems like a good opportunity for someone who does small scale injection molding. I can't believe the We_Honest folks haven't jumped on this- 

Paul:

The North Pole series from D56 has all kinds of elf figures. They are available on the secondary market and many are priced very inexpensively. We are fortunate to have a bunch of these.

Ten years later the truth comes out . . . .There was a product meeting at Lionel and someone said they should make figures of elves.

Neil Young was in the hallway, overheard the comment and said NO ELVIS! 

I have seen big groups of elves on some of the Youtube clips of PE layouts.  This one has them at 1:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjydzxRI1jA  Might want to ask him where he got his.

MTH made at least 1 elf. I have it and it came with a tree and santa figure. I'm not sure if the above video is the same guy, but one of more elaborate PE displays that has the large tree surrounded by elves, that they made from pipe cleaners. I BELIEVE he had several hundred.

I found the video. At 3:18 you see the elves, 205 I BELIEVE was his count.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KCXD22U95I

Must be an Elves Union issue, If you really want elves contact Arttista, sure they can make some up. His sales right here on the forum would probably make it profitable from the start

Well guys,if you need a way to get a 3D printer past the Mrs. this may be it.

Brad

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Might give Arttista a shout out on this, hey you never know.

George

We have the 10Th anny sets in stock. As for the elfs, thats a union issue!

Here is a sample of D56 elves. There are many different variations that are available.

I found these figures at Dollar Tree the other day. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how much effort is involved in converting them to elfs. the oroginal figures are to the left of the ones I already painted. now I'll cut of the base and ice skates.

My guess is D56 produced over 200 different elf figures in all kinds of settings as part of their North Pole series. If anyone wants more elves, you don't have to look very far for them.

I've been looking at the Department 56 elfs and I do like them especially for the variety. I'm one cheap SOB though and am looking to  build a crowd of elfs in a small area between a 24" Christmas tree and  16" clock tower. I'm thinking at an average of 35 cents per figure from the dollar store the extra effort of painting and modifying may make it more cost effective.

I might accumulate enough of the D56 elfs to retire the cheap ones in a few years but for now I'm not finding any good values at the stores near me or online.

Spent about half a rainy Sunday watching football and painting the elfs I picked up at the Dollar Tree store. There are 6 different figurines, by alternating the colors we have some variety while still keeping them some what uniform; which is the effect I want when they're added to the Polar Express Christmas display.

Using acrylic paint allowed us to mold the hats to look more elf like.

Nice job, Matthew.

Dang, I hit the dollar store here this past Saturday and they had nothing like that.

Here's hoping they are just slow to stock for Christmas this year.

Perhaps it's time for a new Christmas carol, "No Elves, No Elves!"

No-o-o El-lves, No-o-o Elves, No Elves....

That's a catchy tune.

But the law of unintended consequences actually worked in my favor in the instance of no elves. After spending $100 for the extra movie characters, a dozen Carabu, 6 wolves and six bunny rabbits, it was kind of a relieve to only spend $10 on 30 elves. The four hours painting them is less than the time I spent shopping for the elves.

Great solution, sooner or later this Forum resolves just about every train related problem.

If only the government so well.  

How many are in each pack?

Dave

Hey Dave, They're part of the "Cobblestone Corners Christmas Village Collection" I bought  "Village Accessory" packs with three figurines in each pack. The ones I chose were of people wearing ice skates. I cut them off at the blades of the skates after I painted them. That way once I molded the hats on the tallest one is maybe a centimeter taller than little girl from the Lionel set. I couldn't find the individual accessory packs on the website but they show samples of them in the pictures of the bulk collection...

http://www.dollartree.com/Cobb...on/p314078/index.pro

 Matthew, did you start out with elves, or turn them into elves? Either way it's off to Dollar Tree tomorrow.

Thanks.

BTW what did you use to mold the hats?

Dave

Charlie, I started out with two different Accessory three packs from the "Cobblestone Collection" The first set is displayed in the second row down next to the blister pack below.

The other set I used contained the three figurines at the bottom of this next picture.

Dave to change the shape of the hats I used acrylic paint out of a tube. While painting the figures the paint on the pallet begins to stiffen when it gets to the right consistency I glob it onto the top of the heads and let it harden some more before I start to mold it. Then I add a drop of water to whats left in the pallet and continue to paint.

On a side not my son has been looking for DVD copy for weeks and can't find it.  Guess I'll have to purchase another one

Brian and Matthew B,

thanks for the photos of available elves and winter people.  

Everyone, thanks for all the ideas!  Jim is right, this is the place to Solve all train problems!

The Polar Express has been a hit with my family since the movie came out.  Our girls were in their early teens at the time.  Actually my wife bought the book a couple of years earlier.

So this summer it was not a hard sell to drive to Ohio to buy a 2012 PE set a Forum member had offered for sale.  I bought a hobo car at Greenberg Monroeville, Pennsylvania in July and a dining car this past Saturday at Greenberg.  I also bought the first set of figures with the conductor, boy, engineer, and beardless fireman.  My oldest daughter is going to fix me up with some doll hair for the beard.

 Now, I said all that to say this.  Yes, at 20 some dollars a pack, the figures can run into a lot of money.  I think I will look for some generic wolves and caribou, but my first priority will be some people.  We are going to setup a Christmas layout the little terrier can't disturb.  ie: on a table in our recently married daughter's vacant room.  My wife has a nice collection of Lemax, Dept 56, and other buildings she inherited from her grandmother.  The thing we need is people.  The ideas on this thread are just the ticket!  The lost then miraculously found PE ticket?  Could be!  ;-)

This was my 5 year old Grandson's favorite movie. I'll have to try to pick up another copy of the DVD as well. As a side note, I went to Dollar Tree today. Now I'm bummed. They are almost sold out of the figures. Maybe they will get some more. I'll have to unpack the ones I already have. At the time I wasn't looking to make elves, but I may have some that will do the job, if they don't get more.

Can't understand the logic of Lionel still not offering elf sets for their ever  increasing Polar Express franchise product line. Caribou, wolves, rabbits and people figures (including pewter) are availabler but no elves? What gives Lionel? Are tooling costs for elves that much of a hindrance to offering them? Since they could be marketed as generic for your Polar Railroad and Chistmas themed train lines with no licensing fees due to Warner Bros., what gives, Lionel? Why discriminate against these little people? And if Lionel's not in the game to produce elves, then this could be a great small niche product for cottage industry folks to do.