Coming in at the higher end of the January 2022 wave of LEGO NINJAGO sets,
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Theme: LEGO NINJAGO Set name:
Price: £54.99 / $69.99 / €59.99 Pieces: 747 Minifigures: 4
LEGO:
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It’s not often that we are tempted to take out the camera equipment and set it all up midway through building a (relatively) smaller LEGO set here at Brick Fanatics. We do so for the large, fascinating sets that the LEGO Group brings out, where such size and unlimited budget opens up new ideas and ways to use the LEGO brick that we just have to show you. Yet for smaller sets, where budget is a consideration and ‘compromise’ is often part of the design process, it’s a whole lot rarer, and it hopefully goes a long way to explain how impressive and fun
Such are some of the opening steps of constructing this £54.99 / $69.99 / €59.99 set, we just had to snap a few shots. It’s not the most intricate or hardest selection of techniques you’ll find in a LEGO set in 2022, but for how it demonstrates such a fine understanding of both the compatibility of LEGO parts and their combined mechanics,
It’s all for a play mechanic we will come back to, before a coat of organic details covers it up and the dragon before you takes real shape – and size. Mixing dark blue and two shades of green,
The head may be a moulded, printed piece – reflective of the past year’s return to something the theme had otherwise looked to move away from – but it is complemented by any number of smart and interesting uses of LEGO parts across the entire body of the beast. Immediate details such as the claws, saddle and tail catch the eye, but the subtle uses of sloped parts across the legs and the smart way particular colours have been used around the body add the real undercurrent of quality to the model.
Everything about putting together
The wings are locked into an open display position and there’s only one thing you can do from here, and that’s swing them back slightly to another open display position. Other than that, they do not move, because if they did the play feature would likely not be possible.
What was so interesting and exciting in putting together
It’s a play feature designed to perhaps mimic the creature moving its wings in mid-flight and it is like few other LEGO NINJAGO sets before it, which is worthy of praise for how innovative it truly is, but it is also a point of contention, for how something otherwise so fun to hold in the hands and set up for any number of poses is actually quite limiting.
The wings aren't locking into the worst poses, but you don't get a choice in the matter – and that's unusual for a LEGO NINJAGO dragon.
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Four minifigures are included in
The design for each continues the refreshed look of this wave of LEGO NINJAGO, and is evocative of comic book design for how it uses bright and highly contrasting colours.
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Coming in at £54.99 / $69.99 / €59.99 for 747 pieces and four minifigures is about fair for
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--- Summary ---
It’s not a huge criticism nor should it deter anyone from picking up what is probably the best set from the LEGO NINJAGO January 2022 wave, but it ensures that what could have been a perfectly-scored, best-ever dragon is instead ‘only’ really good. Really good is still worth it…
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
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