Review Review: 70595 Ultra Stealth Raider

[Bob De Quatre]

Introduction

Ninjago never was my favorite theme, but I must say that as the years pass, it tends to grow on me. I'm not interested in the TV show, but the sets have a nice Sci-Fi vibe that makes me want to get my hand on them! So if I make a mistake or miss some important point in this review, please feel free to correct me.

Thanks TLG for the opportunity to do this review, which will of course only reflect my own opinion.

Set information

Set Name: Ultra Stealth Raider

Set Number: 70595

Number of Pieces: 1093

Theme: Ninjago

Year Release: 06/2016

Prices: £79.99 / $119.99 / €89.99 (Euro prices may vary)

#70595 on Brickset

#70595 on Rebrickable

Quote

The Super Sonic Raider has been reinvented to become the Ultra Stealth Raider and is ready to take on Master Yang, Master Chen and Eyezorai. Jump into the cockpits with the ninja heroes and speed into battle. Swerve the snapping jaw and spring-loaded shooters of the Chenosaurus. Fire back with the awesome tank's twin 6-stud rapid shooters and 2 spring-loaded shooters, then split it into a helijet, a huge bike and 2 tread bikes to ambush the enemy. Detach the golden ninja weapons for one-on-one battles and grab Master Yang's Aeroblade to claim victory!

• Includes 7 minifigures: Cole, Zane, Jay, Kai, Master Chen, Eyezorai and Master Yang.
  
• This set includes the 4-vehicles-in-1 Ultra Stealth Raider and Chenosaurus.
  
• The Ultra Stealth Raider features 2 opening cockpits plus 2 open cockpits, big tracks and wheels, twin 6-stud rapid shooters, 2 spring-loaded shooters, 6 detachable golden ninja swords, 2 golden shurikens, plus a splitting function.
  
• Divide the Raider into a helijet (with foldout wings, 2 golden shurikens, rear prison for a minifigure, and translucent flame elements), a big bike (with both rapid shooters) and 2 tread bikes (each with a spring-loaded shooter).
  
• The Chenosaurus has 2 spring-loaded shooters, a snapping jaw, fully posable joints, a detachable chair and fang detailing.
  
• Weapons include Master Chen's Jade Blade, Master Yang's Aeroblade, an Anacondrai blade, Anacondrai sword, 2 golden sai, 4 golden swords and 2 golden shurikens.
  
• Accessory elements include Master Yang's lantern.
  
• Recreate and role-play epic scenes from the NINJAGO™: Masters of Spinjitzu TV show.
  
• This set offers an age-appropriate building experience for ages 9-14.
  
• Ultra Stealth Raider (full-size) measures over 4” (11cm) high, 14” (38cm) long and 13” (34cm) wide.
  
• Detachable helijet measures over 2” (7cm) high, 9” (24cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide with wings folded in.
  
• Detachable big bike measures over 3” (9cm) high, 12” (33cm) long and 7” (18cm) wide.
  
• Detachable tread bikes each measure over 2” (6cm) high, 7” (20cm) long and 3” (8cm) wide.
  
• The Chenosaurus measures over 6” (17cm) high, 9” (23cm) long and 4” (12cm) wide.
  

Packaging

The front shows the 2016 Ninjago theme with Cole's head in the top right corner and Master Yang's lantern in the lower left corner. All the minifigures included are shown on the bottom.

The back of the box shows the set's play features, the main one being the separation of the Ultra Stealth Raider into 4 different vehicles! Judging by the artwork in the lower left corner, it seems like we'll have to collect 6 blades in the 2016 summer sets, two of them being included here: Master Chen's Jade Blade and Master Yang's Aeroblade.

A side of the box shows all the minifigures we'll get, but strangely Cole and Zane carry swords instead of sais and shurikens. There is also a 1:1 sized Cole.

Content of the box

The box is 2/3 filled with 8 numbered bags, a big tire and a plastic bags containing the instruction booklet and the stickers sheet. There is no cardboard to prevent the stickers sheets to fold, relying on the instructions booklet for this.

The 13 stickers are very detailed and look pretty good.

Instructions booklet

The instructions booklet is pretty thick with 183 pages.

Instructions are clear and easy to follow. The light blue background makes color distinctions easy.

At the end of the booklet, there are a few promotional pages. One shows all the sets for the summer 2016 wave. There is also an ad for the official Ninjago page, and oddly two pages about Lego Technic.

As always at the end: the bill of materials.

Minifigures

The set contains 7 minifigures: Master Yang, Master Chen, Eyezorai, Cole, Zane, Kai and Jay. Their outfit is well detailed and each ninja got his own design. I really like the back printing of masters Yang and Chen! All mifigures have a double printed head, except for Master Yang and Kai who seems to be always angry. Master Yang is awesome. I really like his sand green face, he got a new wizard beard in black and his lantern is wonderfull with the trans-neon green printed head piece.

Interesting parts

This set comes with two obvious interesting and exclusive parts: the two printed #10312 Windscreen 10 x 6 x 3 Bubble Canopy Double Tapered with Square Front Cutout (Now that's a long name!) that only existed with B-Wing printings. The other printed parts include the six #14769 2x2 round tiles in pearl gold printed with each ninja symbol, the #85984 roof tile 1x2x2/3 with the Ninjago control panel pattern and the magnificent #3626 minifig head in trans neon green printed with Master Yang dragon symbol. Speaking of Master Yang, his #10052 wizard beardis new in black. Other interested parts are #85861 1x1 round plate with hole in light bluish grey and #24201 curved Slope 2 x 1 Inverted in light bluish grey and black. We also get a pair of a new ornamental part, that I don't know how to describe, but you know wich it is!

Build

With bag #1 we'll get Master Chen, Cole and Eyezorai. We'll also start to build the Chenosaurus.

With Bag #2 the Chenosaurus is finished!

Bag #3 give us the frame of the Raider.

Bag #4 completes the frame. Lots of stickers applied, but I must admit they look good.

With bag #5 we'll finish the main vehicle of the Raider.

Bag #6 brings Kai's motorcycle.

And bag #7 brings Jay's motorcycle.

The helijet, Zane and Master Yang come in the 8th and last bag.

A few spare parts.

The complete Ultra Stealth Raider. Lots of tiles and curved slopes, totally my kind of build!

The Chenosaurus.

Play features

The main play feature of the set is that the Ultra Stealth Raider divides into 4 different vehicles: a big motorcycle for Cole, a helijet for Zane and two motorcycles with tracks for Kai and Jay. I think that the helijet's wings could have been buffed up. Ninjago sets often use those big blades as wings, but I doubt they generate much lift. Kai and Jay motorcycles are exactly mirrored, each with subtle blue or red touches. The "tank-cycles" roll nicely, but a tender or some kind of suspension would have been a great addition. The big motorcycle is cool, but I'm not fan of making wheels with dishes, a 4 studs wide tire would have been better.

The attachment points for the vehicles work well and are easy to secure. The helijet just slides in and attach to the motorcycle cockpit using a clip.

The helijet's wing deploy by sliding forward the part with the thrusters. On its bottom side, there is a prison cell... Not the best play feature I've seen.

Of course, there are lots of studs shooters! The big motorcycle has two 6 studs barrels, with lots of ammunitions in store. Each tank-cycle has a spring loaded shooter while the Chenosaurus got two.

The Chenosaurus is posable, but could have used some ball joints for his head and tail.

Conclusion

Design: 9/10 - Great designs for all the vehicle. Tiles and curved slopes everywhere! The transformation in 4 vehicle works very well.

Parts: 8/10 - A nice selection of parts. Lots of dishes and curved slopes. Some more printed parts would have been nice.

Build: 8/10 - Not very difficult builds, but rather interesting.

Playability: 9/10 - A great playset. I don't think the Chenosaurus stands a chance if the Raider is played with by a skillful ninja kid.

Minifigs: 8/10 - Very nice minifigs, especially Master Yang.

Price: 7/10 - A good ppp of 0,08€ and 6 minifigs, this set's price is correct.

Overall: 49/60 (82%) - The Ultra Stealth Raider is a great set with a nice selection of minifigures including the 4 ninjas and nasty bad guys! Really enjoyable to build and I guess to play with. Lots of parts that could be put to good uses too!

[Exetrius]

Thanks for the fantastic review! Neat set which doesn't fit in my budget anymore because of all the other Ninjago stuff this year. I'm very happy to see the two new facial expressions on Cole and Yang's amazing torso!

[NotMegalodon]

Great review, and very nice playset! I might get this one, as one of the few Ninjago sets. I'm currently most invested in Nexo Knights.

[PicnicBasketSam]

Really cool looking vehicle, there. Also, I never noticed the ninja's new suits... they look awesome!

[Aanchir]

Good review! I'm looking forward to picking up this set as it has good figures and is a fantastic upgrade to the Ultra Sonic Raider. That's not to say it's flawless. The Ultra Sonic Raider's flyer had more vanes for the wings, which made the upper flier portion feel more flightworthy even if it wasn't so streamlined. Also, the sheer novelty of "ammo belts full of knives" will be missed. But it makes up for all that in my eyes by the fact that it now separates into four vehicles instead of two! The transformation function of the center "bike" module in particular was an amazing surprise. And as a whole, none of the modules feel "incomplete" when separated, compared to the last version of the USR where the lower module was quite bare-bones and insubstantial without the flyer attached.

Out of curiosity, how much space is there in the cockpits of the center bike and flyer modules? Would it be possible to seat two minifigures in each so you could have all six ninja in the vehicle? Or is there only space for the four ninja who come in this set? The windscreens in this set are large, larger even than the windscreens of the original USR which COULD sit all four ninja, so sort of a shame if they didn't take advantage of that. If not, it would be cool for Lloyd and Nya to get their own special vehicle in the future!

The stickers and prints for the new USR look great, incorporating the symbols of all four ninja just as they did on the last version (though the bubble cockpits look like they could use a second coat of white ink). Using the printed tiles from the Airjitzu sets to identify which module goes with which ninja is a nice touch, and the subtle red and blue accents on the two tread-bikes take that even further. All in all, the design feels a lot more advanced and less ramshackle than it did in the past, which makes sense since we haven't seen it in a long time and I'm sure Nya has been tinkering with it in her spare time for the past three seasons!

Another nice feature of the old USR that this one lacks was storage for each ninja's signature weapon. However, the ninja haven't really had their own signature weapons for a few seasons now. I kind of wish they would return to using distinct weapons more often in the sets and show (a sword for Kai, shurikens for Zane, nunchucks for Jay, a scythe for Cole, daggers for Nya, and I guess dual swords for Lloyd). Speaking of weapons, the new design for the villains' weapons in this wave is quite neat and spooky. Nothing so far has really clued us in about what they signify but it really adds to the whole "throwback" feel of this current wave.

The Chenosaurus is clever, and quite nice to get since the Anacondrai faction in the first half of 2015 didn't have a whole lot of vehicles to call their own. The snake motif is kind of lost due to its dinosaur-like gait, which is sort of a shame since Fangpyre Mech in 2012 actually had arms yet still felt more snake-like due to its oversized head and the grafted-on look of its mechanical arms and legs. But it's still a cool and slightly goofy design, which suits Chen nicely. What's really most amazing is that we're finally getting Chen's chair in a set, since it was an iconic part of LEGO Ninjago Season 4 but never appeared in the Tournament of Elements sets. I only have one minor disappointment with that, which is that it would've been really nice if it had stickers on the arm rests to represent all of Chen's beloved buttons!

The ninja's new costumes look fantastic. They're a great throwback to their previous costumes especially their original and ZX suits. The printed sword holders on the back are nice details which go well with their new shoulder armor/sword holder accessory (which, I must say, looks really cool in Silver Metallic and Dark Brown). These are the first versions of the ninja in a while not to use their secondary symbols that appear on the Airjitzu tiles and cockpit patterns in this very set, but I'm not bothered by it. The new face prints for Jay and Cole look great. Now it's just Kai who needs updated face prints!

It's kind of peculiar that Chen is the only character in the entire wave who uses exactly the same design as he did in his original appearance, especially since he's the one character who we SAW transform in the show! Kind of a disappointment that he didn't get a new Anacondrai design with a purple skin tone, since all it would take is new face and torso prints.

Eyezorai looks different than he did in the show. The lack of a mohawk is kind of expected (that was sort of silly that he kept that in the show to begin with), but his outfit is also totally different than the one the human version of him wore. He's also got legs instead of a tail, but I don't mind that as it always seemed odd to me that all the Anacondrai in the sets and show had snake tails, whereas only the generals of the other Serpentine tribes had snake tails. Even though he's lost his leather jacket, he did keep his signature snake-tooth necklace and metal eye, which I appreciate.

And we can't forget Sensei Yang! He and the lantern he carries appear to be very important to this season due to their prominence in promotional materials, along with Sensei Yang's Temple of Airjitzu. Sensei Yang has a special connection with Cole, this story arc's main character, since he's the one who turned Cole into a ghost. I am fairly sure that will be important to this story arc. Yang's design looks slightly different here than it did in his previous appearance in the show, but I think the new design is better, with a cool belt and an ectoplasm trail to really capture his ghostliness. His lantern, including the new tassel element, is a very nice design.

Great review overall! Thank you for showing us this set in such detail!

[KlodsBrik]

That's not a few spareparts compared to a lot of other sets. Not to usefull ones, however not to common.

Thanks for the review great as always.

[Bob De Quatre]

Out of curiosity, how much space is there in the cockpits of the center bike and flyer modules? Would it be possible to seat two minifigures in each so you could have all six ninja in the vehicle? Or is there only space for the four ninja who come in this set? The windscreens in this set are large, larger even than the windscreens of the original USR which COULD sit all four ninja, so sort of a shame if they didn't take advantage of that. If not, it would be cool for Lloyd and Nya to get their own special vehicle in the future!

Forgot to take a picture of the cockpits, but there is room for two minifigures and some clips for the weapons of the "driver".

though the bubble cockpits look like they could use a second coat of white ink

Yes! The white isn't white enough!

[Sr1847]

I think this set is epic it is really cool to see all the similarities between this version and the 2012 ultra sonic raider like how Kai Jay Cole and Zane are all in this set my only complaint would be is that the cockpit pieces aren't on hinges but I can ignore that but overall I love this set

[Staslegomaster]

That's a very detailed review and it surely took you muuuuuch time to write it. But I could never imagine war machines and ninjas. Their buildings are the most interesting things for me. So I hope next you'ii review the new summer temple. As Coal is on the box, it may be Earth Temple. Have a nice day.

[Umbra-Manis]

Great review Bob! I really like this design as an upgrade to the original Ultra Sonic Raider, which only sat two of the ninja. The chenosaurus looks great as well! Now I just to need see if I have the budget for this set this summer.

[Orange Leader]

Thank you for the review! The Stealth Raider looks amazing and comes with great parts. It's a shame TLG can't seem to fix the white printing on transparant or dark opaque bricks and It does not come close to the colour of regular white bricks. However besides that It's a great spiritual succesor to the Ultra Sonic Raider, which I found tempting back then to get. Now I'm a bit tempted by this set after your review.

[Lyichir]

I just finished building this on LDD today and it occurred to me... not only is there space to fit Nya and Lloyd in the center cockpits with Cole and Zane, but you could also replace one of Cole's and one of Zane's printed 2x2 round tiles with the Nya and Lloyd ones from the Airjitzu Battle Grounds set so that all six ninja's icons can be represented!

[LegendsOfNinjago]

I just finished building this on LDD today and it occurred to me... not only is there space to fit Nya and Lloyd in the center cockpits with Cole and Zane, but you could also replace one of Cole's and one of Zane's printed 2x2 round tiles with the Nya and Lloyd ones from the Airjitzu Battle Grounds set so that all six ninja's icons can be represented!

I didn't think about that...I like that idea!

[YellowCorvette]

Thanks for the awesome review. Althrough I'm not a Ninjago fan (I just can't imagine how a ancient-looking ninja will use futuristic vehicles), but the set itself is pretty good.

[DaFokka]

I don't find the Ninjago thema very appealing but this does seem like a nice set. The build seems fun enough an there are a lot of nice Technic parts in there. Most notably the rubber pins with friction on the tracks:

http://brickset.com/parts/6139223

The wide technic track links don't work that well on smooth surfaces. It'd be interesting to see how much friction these parts add.

[gamejutzu]

That's a very detailed review and it surely took you muuuuuch time to write it. But I could never imagine war machines and ninjas. Their buildings are the most interesting things for me. So I hope next you'ii review the new summer temple. As Coal is on the box, it may be Earth Temple. Have a nice day.

The only summer set that looks kind of like a temple, is Airjitzu Battle Grounds, which Cole is not featured in.

Also, remember when we were talking about how Lloyd needs an original outfit?

__

Looking back, I realized the original USR looked like a monster XD

This definitely looks more futuristic and not like something made on a workbench. I like the looks of this one better.

However what I find interesting... Is the pilot of the air vehicle. Isn't Jay supposed to pilot it? After all, he's the closest thing to an air master anyway. He probably has more experience with flying vehicles as well.

Cole's vehicle is looking kind of weird by itself, but what can you do? It looks better than the original after separation though.

This set is the fig hotsptot of this wave, as Kai is exclusive to this set, as well as Cole in normal form, plus Zane's silver armor (i'd rather have his hair though), as well as Jay's hood, Good for anyone who wants just one set.