[REVIEW] 70590 Airjitzu Battle Grounds

[Exetrius]

Hi all,

I present to you my second review here on EB! I want to apologize in advance for the poor quality of certain photos in this review and for the lack of play feature shots. Other than that, I won't be very elaborate in my writing, the pictures will partly do the talk anyway. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the review!

Name: 70590 Airjitzu Battle Grounds

Theme: LEGO Ninjago

Piece count: 666

Minifigs: 5

Year released: 2016

Retail price: USA $59.99 UK £49.99 GER €59.99

The box

Contents

Included are five numbered bags, two instruction manuals, and two loose ripcords and Airjitzu flyer propellers. No sticker sheet, only prints! Unfortunately, my instruction booklets were both wrinkled.

Bag contents

From left to right: top row are piles of bags 1, 2 and the parts that came loose in the box, bottom row are bags 3,4 and 5. Especially the amount of brown and tan surprised me here. There are hardly any bricks to see here with a colour that does not fit the colour scheme of the final build, which is really nice!

Interesting parts

All of the parts above only come in four sets or less, the exclusive ones for this set being the Dark Azure propeller and the printed 2x2 tiles with Lloyd's and Nya's symbol. I left out the exclusive minifigure parts, but we will get to these in just a moment.

Spares & brick separator

I'm taking some liberty here to express my utmost gratitude to the designer(s) of the brick separator, it works fantastic and has saved both my bricks and my fingers many times!

Minifigures

The good guy side gets Lloyd and Nya, both in their Airjitzu robes and exclusive to this set. Lloyd's outfit features bright and dark green energy patterns, golden emblems on front and back and golden sparks on his face. Nya's Airjitzu version is quite unique, as she has a beautiful water phoenix on the front in dark blue, shiny metallic azure and white, against a dark red base colour (whereas all the others get a black one. Her signature symbol on the front and her eyes too are golden. Her dark red 2012 ninja hood is exclusive. Neither of the two figures comes with a secondary face and neither has a weapon.

Overall, I am very pleased to add this version of Nya to my collection and Lloyd fits in well with the others. A minor issue that I have is that Lloyds face here does not quite resemble his regular face, something that isn't the case for any of the other ninja's Airjitzu variants, in my opinion. Now, let's bring in the bad guys!

Three antagonists are include here, from left to right are Martin, Sensei Yang and Chris. Martin and Chris are in fact identical, only their weapons are different. They wear old school ninja hoods, which are recoloured in Light Bluish Grey here, exclusive to this set. I like the statue details on the face and the torso, featuring cracks and thorns. It's a nice figure that I don't mind getting two of. Yang is a great figure as well. The other set he comes in is the Ultra Stealth Raider, which is much more expensive, but in return he does not come with his lantern in this set. His white robes are very elegant and on the back of the torso is a combination of two symbols that have been previously associated with Sensei Wu, interestingly enough.

The completed model

I found the build enjoyable, although it was a tad repetitive at some points, most notably the flyer launchers. The end result looks good on display and can be easily broken apart and rearranged, the individual modules are fine individually, in my opinion. My favorite part of the scenery has got to be the blue and tan house, I love the 'ghost town' air that it has, as well as the weapons on the rack.

The amount of specialized parts is minimal and even the pieces hidden away in the construction have colours that fit the colour scheme. Where I expected bright yellow, blue or green, I found grey, brown and tan instead, something I hope to encounter more often in the future!

Play features

Admittedly I haven't taken enough pictures of the play features, but the box art shows them off very clearly. Both features that can knock your figures off the roofs work well and I had some fun with them, the 'stairs slide' (don't really know how I'm supposed to call that) is another neatly integrated function that works does a good job as what it's intended to do. As you can see on the picture above, You can take out the pillars and use them as regular hand-held Airjitzu flyer launchers. However, I am not really sure if I like the side launchers. I couldn't try launching both at the same time, but with one it does not always go as it should. Sometimes it maintains it's angle after the slide (which is neat, by the way) and hits the ground, after which it spins out of control. Nevertheless, even if this does not go smoothly most of the time, the other play features are good alternatives.

My verdict

Compared to other structure-based Ninjago sets, this one may not be spectacular, but I'd say it's somewhere between 'good' and 'great'. A nice looking model, a desirable selection of minifigs, a very useful assortment of parts and some fun play features are enough reason for me to recommend this set to other Ninjago fans and fans of the more traditional ninja theme as well.

Thank you for reading my review, feel free to share your thoughts about it and the set below! Have a nice day!

[gamejutzu]

The airjitzu versions of the ninja are not outsfits, and they aren't suits. They're meant to simulate what the ninja look like when they preform airjitzu.

Also, Lloyd's face is indeed resembling his faces in other sets, like his original face, and he also makes that face in the TV show.

Good review overall though, and I liked how you posed stuff as well.

[Mr Greeble]

Very nice helpful review. I really like Nya's airjitsu suit.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Mr Greeble

[BrickCurve]

Thanks for the review! Those 1 x 3 slopes in sand green are nice, almost enough for me to by the set, almost but not quite.

Edited July 14, 2016 by BrickCurve

[Aanchir]

This set looks incredible! I love the new faces for Lloyd and Nya, and their Airjitzu designs in general! I think they definitely fit the characters' established face designs, just with new expressions.

The architecture in this set is fantastic and would look really great alongside the Temple of Airjitzu, especially since even the colors are coordinated. :) The statues that Yang's students possess also echo the Sensei Yang statue in front of the Temple of Airjitzu, albeit with much greater detail.

There's all kinds of great play value here too, from two styles of Airjitzu launcher to the first version of the classic cartoon "stairs that turn into a slide" trap that I've ever seen in an official set! Overall, I can't wait to add this set to my collection!

[PicnicBasketSam]

Contrary to what the text says, Chris and Martin are not identical--they have different faces, and slightly different torso prints. (one has red details on it, the other orange) I'm surprised you didn't point that out, Aanchir.

[SuperSith]

Contrary to what the text says, Chris and Martin are not identical--they have different faces, and slightly different torso prints. (one has red details on it, the other orange) I'm surprised you didn't point that out, Aanchir.

I think the torsos look different because of the lighting, and I think Martin & Chris have the same double sided head.

[Exetrius]

I think the torsos look different because of the lighting, and I think Martin & Chris have the same double sided head.

You are right, it has copper (shiny) printing, the lighting makes them look different. The heads are identical.

[SuperSith]

I really like the design of Airjitzu Nya. I might just have to buy her minifigure on Bricklink sometime.

[gamejutzu]

Very nice helpful review. I really like Nya's airjitsu suit.

*in exasperated voice* But... They're not suits...

I know that it really doesn't matter, but there are like 3 times the ninja powered up. And there'll probably be more. They don't put on an outfit that doesn't even look like an outfit...

[samurai-turtle]

Chris & Martin? I wonder if their last name is Kratt?

[Exetrius]

*in exasperated voice* But... They're not suits...

I know that it really doesn't matter, but there are like 3 times the ninja powered up. And there'll probably be more. They don't put on an outfit that doesn't even look like an outfit...

Would you say that they are.. eh... naked!? To me, they look like black gi's, robes, outfits, garbs, whatever you call them, with their arms exposed. In NRG variation they were clearly a kind of elemental entity, but here I'm doubtful.

[gamejutzu]

Would you say that they are.. eh... naked!? To me, they look like black gi's, robes, outfits, garbs, whatever you call them, with their arms exposed. In NRG variation they were clearly a kind of elemental entity, but here I'm doubtful.

Well, they had their outfits on, its just that they're now covered with this energy so that shows instead. After this mode of theirs deactivates, there back in their visible outfits.

What I mean is, they don't change their outfits and wear new ones to achieve this look. You also say that they're black robes but I'm doubtful of that myself. LEGO does a fantastic job of making outfit designs. If this was an actual outfit, there would be at least some indicator that this is clothing, unless it is a full bodysuit like the superhero minifigures, which I doubt. There are no gi lines, nothing is overlapping, and there isn't even a "collar", which is seen in many suits, most noticeably Zane ZX.

Edited July 16, 2016 by gamejutzu

[MontyPython]

I hoped someone will make a review of this set, ad it looks very interesting to me. Thanks for a great review!

[Exetrius]

I hoped someone will make a review of this set, ad it looks very interesting to me. Thanks for a great review!

You're welcome!