Here is my review on Ninjago Dragons Rising 71818 Tournament Battle Arena:
THE GOOD:
Looks surprisingly great on its own.
Great building experience.
Lots of play features especially compared to sets released in recent times.
Excellent minifigures.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
Feel like $10 too expensive in RRP.
Statue's beard can fell of quite easily depending on how to hold it.
This is another great addition to the NInjago Dragons Rising theme. Driven by the looks and the minifigures included, I couldn't pass up a 20% off deal. Turns out it has a great building experience, due to the unique shape and look it provides a more refreshing experience than more common sets. It also looks great on its own, while being a play set it also feel very completed and has no issues on displaying on a table. Moreover, this is one of the recent sets that exceeds expectation in terms of play features. The Taiko build is great and the dropping mechanism works well. Then we have the statue that looks great with stairs that can transform into slope. Although I ended up making the beard to fell off due to the way I initially handle it. And of course being an arena, having feature to allow 2 minifigures to fight is brilliant. The minifigures selection is great and all are excellent. Sora has one of the most interesting hair piece recently, and this is the first set outside friends to get the green mohawk. The world mask warrior also has great effect parts and looks menacing but given it's weight it does make the minifigure hard to stand on his own. In the end, I really like the set and would recommend to anyone who is looking for some fund. Do try find the best deals though as the RRP does feel $10NZD too expensive.