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Being a fan of the Ninjago theme, and having enjoyed the TV show, I could not pass getting at least some of this year's sets. I started with two of the smaller ones, the Kai Mech, which I chose for its design, and the Warrior Bike, which I picked of the figs and parts. In fact, though the TV show version of the latter is somewhat cool, the actual LEGO bricks version did not stuck me as overly nice. Let's see if building it and having it in my hands made me change my mind. Theme: Ninjago Set name: Warrior Bike Set Number: 70501 Price: 19.99 $, 17.99 £, 19.99 Euro Pieces: 210 (+ 10 extras) Minifigures: 2 Year of release: 2013 Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset The Box Front The box is rectangular, almost three times as big as the Kai Mech one, and sports the new Ninjago style, with a mix of last year's green background and yellow-gold rays originating from the Golden Ninja's aura. LEGO and Ninjago logos dominate the upper part of the front, along with the Golden Ninja himself holding a (golden, of course) katana, which he really has no reason of using given his powers. The middle of the front has a shot of the set in action, with Jay flying around in his jet-pack and the stone warrior shooting missiles at him from the Warrior Bike. The age range and set number info complete this portion for the European version; I expect the North America version to have more writings as usual. In the lower right corner, an eye catching text box, circumfused by golden light, informs us that this is one of the sets from the 'Final Battle' stage of the Ninjago story. As we now know, this battle is not final at all, since a return of the Ninjago theme as been officially announced for 2014. Back The back shows the set's play features: shooting missiles, loading the missiles in the Warrior Bike shooing mechanism, having Jay battle the Stone Warrior after parking his jetpack against a nearby rock. The corners of the back are very interesting as well: the lower left corner sports a 'collect them all' list of the Element Blades, while the lower right one is used by Sensei Wu to advertise the Ninjago site; lastly, if we take a closer look at the upper right corner... We can see the TV show version of the Warrior Bike, which sports different tyres and has a lower, more elongated overall shape. Sides The upper side of the box shows Jay, with name tag, approaching a nameless Stone Warrior, while the mug-shot depicts Jay himself at 1:1 size. The lower side, as we can expect, bears the usual LEGO legal and safety info. Contents Inside Upon opening the box, we find an instructions booklet, a rubber thread, two big hard plastic tyres, two long technic bricks, and four un-numbered bags of parts. As you can see, though most of the bigger parts are either Black or Dark Bley, Red, Blue and Lime accents liven up the set. New pieces New parts included in this small set are: Minifig, Weapon Ice Sword with Jagged Edges and Marbled White Pattern, and most of the minifig parts (more on those later on). Re-coloured parts Re-coloured parts in this set include: Dark Bluish Gray Brick, Round Corner 3 x 3 x 2 Dome Top, Red Propeller 1 Blade 10L with Bar, and Red Tread Large, Non-Technic (36 tread 'links'). Rare parts Parts collectors and MOCers will be interested in the following rare parts also: Red Dinosaur Tail End Section (making its first apparition in this colour after 12 years), and Red Hero Factory Weapon - Claw with Clip (only in a HF set so far). Spare parts The usual mix of spare parts includes a cheese slope, some techinc pins, half pins, bushes and half bushes, a round 1x1 stud, a lever, and, following this year's new weapons tradition, two katana. Minifigures Both minifigures are new in all parts except Jay's head and hood and the Stone Warrior's helmet, which we'll see later on. The new design for the Ninja kimono/suit is just great and is what made me want this set most of all. I love the detail in the torso, and I wanted a blue version to complement the red one from Kai's Mech. The Stone Warrior's armour is equally well designed and quite menacing with its spike-y protrusions. The more I look at his/its(?) face, the more I think he could also work as a clan mate for Darth Maul and Savage Opress in Star Wars MOCs. The two minifigs sport back printing of the torso, but not the heads. I really like how TLG designers went of bigger version of the Ninja elemental symbols on these figs. Here we can see the two warriors all geared up and almost ready for battle. Notice the new armour piece on the Stone Warrior. Though not as protective as most other armours or as eye catching as the skeletons ones, I find this part very nicely designed to fit the Stone Army aesthetics. Furthermore, it helps in widening the warrior's frame and keep the mouthpiece from looking over-sized for him/it. Not really minifig, but minifig-related, the Element Blade. I've read that people tend to dislike the excessive size of these blades. Now, while I can agree they are bigger than what could be reasonable in a real world setting, or even bigger than their TV show counterparts, I still think TLG designers achieved a good compromise between detail level, ease of use and size. In the end, they are not much bigger than a katana, and the hilt takes it almost 1/4 of the total size. Instructions The instructions booklet is nicely thick, and fortunately not divided into part 1 and part 2 like other small sets these days. The cover shows the exact same composition of the front of the box, except for the age range and 'Final Battle' text. The background uses a tan shade that does not distract the eye nor prevents colour or parts' recognition. In this detail shot you can spot what I suppose to be the faded Temple of Light reproduced in the upper right corner of some pages. The parts count cover two pages. Again, you can notice the dominance of Black and Dark Bley, with brighter colours' accents. The last page shows a collection of the Ninjago 2013 sets, with the star of the show, The Temple of Light with its big Golden Mech in the middle. Building Start We start off by building Jay's jet-pack. The design is new, since the other similar vehicles in the Ninjago line (and as far as I can recall, other themes) were different from this one. It uses two golden katana parts as wings and two cones as thrusters. Nothing mind-blowing, buts still a nice effect achieved with few parts. You just have to pay attention when putting it on Jay via the neck bracket: since the jet-pack is so heavy for the minifigure, you'll have to rotate the blades and have them touch the ground to support part of the weight. Now for the main model The Warrior Bike itself starts with a bunch of technic beams and pins connected to few bricks and plates to provide a building surface for the upper part of the model. Here you can see the firing mechanism in place. All revolves around the rubber band and the technic lever serving as a trigger for the (yet to be built) 'firing pin'. With the use of those big dome parts, we build up the bulk of the cockpit and provide good armour for our Stone Warrior driver to stand behind. The big tyres should provide a good propulsion power to this vehicle, though I'm confused as to their use in a tread driven 'bike'. Could this be a '3x3' model? Again, we have a passage where two 4 x 2 plates are used instead of a 8 x 2 one. I suppose we'll have to let is pass this time, though, as there does not seem to be a 8 x 2 Lime plate in the LEGO palette yet. Adding the 'forehead' of the samurai design on the bike, we complete the rear part of the vehicle. Notice the red technic pins: yes, as most will have imagined, those are to be used to connect the tread to this part of the build. And here we have the treaded portion. Not much more than a couple of technic beams supporting the wheels and rubber tread, but TLG designers tried to add as much detail as they could. Nonetheless, this is my least favoured part of the build. By adding the missiles' magazine, we get to the... Finished set ... the complete set, with its two minifigures ready to take on each other and/or zip around on the jet-pack and bike (as soon as the Stone Warrior finds a place to store his/its weapons). Front The bike looks very steam-lined and quite aggressive from the front. I for sure would not want to face one of these, with all its claws, spikes and turning tread. Back As with ho so many LEGO vehicles, this one too suffers from lack of love (and parts) in the rear quarters. the build is sturdy enough, thanks to the techinc parts, but not so good form an aesthetics point of view. Ready, aim, fire! The firing mechanism works pretty smoothly, and I suppose kids will like it. For myself, I've never been a big fan of this kind of play features, so I don't have much to say about it, apart for the fact that I tried it and, no matter how much force or speed I use, the missiles will only go as far as the length of the bike itself. Not really effective in actual combat. Final comments Overall, this is a nice set for its value. The figs are great and the part selection includes some interesting bits. What bugs me is in the aesthetics of the bike, though I recon it is not an easy model to transport in brick form. Design & Colour scheme – 6/10 (TLG designers did their best [apart for the rear quarters] and made a good job in capturing the colour scheme and Stone Army feel; Too bad the shape was distorted in the transition.) Minifig – 10/10 (As with most of these year figs, and the Ninjago figs over time, the design and level of detail are just great.) Parts – 8/10 (A little too much technic for my taste, but some interesting bits are in the mix nonetheless.) Playability – 7/10 (The jet-pack, the bike and the weapons grant for hours of play by children. The limits of the firing mechanism are the main reason I lowered the score here.) Build – 8/10 (Nothing too complex, but some efficient solutions are used, to create the samurai face design and for the jet-pack itself.) Price – 10/10 (20 Euros for 201 pieces plus spare parts is good, especially if you throw in two splendid minifigures and a bunch of really big parts.) Overall: 8.2/10 Very good As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome! If you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:
