makoy

Welcome! I always photograph my sets when I build them anyway so the only thing I need to invest time is writing the words. Now I hunting for a new set to review soon. Btw, I'm curious how can you miss the olive green canoes. They are the first thing that captured my attention here because they are half as long as the airship.

I almost bought another set to complete fully enclose the building but as I mentioned it's really more cost effective to just BL them. Except for the printed windows, all the parts are quite common... I think. I didn't have a hard time finding them 2 months ago.

The only way to access the interior is to remove each floor. I reduced the clutch power of each floor by reducing the number of studs attached to each level so that it is easier to remove again in the future. It's mainly for display so I don't need to access the interior that often.

Like this? The Legendary Pink Fireball by Grantmasters, on Flickr

Here are the pictures @Kevii23 - @gamejutzu mine is now closed off :)

The quick way to modify this into 1 enclosed building is by getting 2 of this set and just mirror half of the building but you'll end up not using too many parts. I just bought the parts I need from Bricklink. All the parts I used to enclose the building costed less than 1/5 the price of the set. However, I don't like the red ornaments on the roof so I also modified them. Overall, the additional parts needed for this modification costed around 1/4 the price of the set. Each floor has 'hole' in the middle for future light setup which I'll probably do when I'm done creating the additional foliage and landscape for this. In the meantime, here are the pictures: Front view Back view 3/4 profile view - right 3/4 profile view - left

Since the Day of the Departed season (2H 2016)

You're welcome. I like anything with Ninja and Samurai references (that includes Star Wars)

Following my previous NINJAGO review, let’s take a look at another interesting set from The Hands of Time season. Let’s dive right in my 5th Reviewers Academy review, set number 70623 - Destiny’s Shadow. Overview Name: 70623 - Destiny’s Shadow Theme: LEGO System / NINJAGO / The Hands of Time Year: 2017 (1H) Pieces: 346 Minifigures: 3 Price: USD 29.99 / EUR 29.99 / GBP 24.99 / SGD 39.99 / MYR 129.90 Resources: Brickset and Bricklink Introduction If you have been reading my post in the Ninjago topics, I have been sharing that I prefer playsets over vehicles. Occasionally I do make exceptions such as this. I was not supposed to buy this one but I ended up buying this set anyway. Why? Read more to find out. When I first heard the name “Destiny’s Shadow” I can’t help but relate the set to the Destiny’s Bounty. First thing that came to my mind is that it must be smaller because it’s only a shadow. Apparently all these are true because if you look at the front box art you’ll think it is just a scaled down Destiny’s Bounty without sails. At the back of the box, we see Lloyd and Cole teaming up to fight Vermin, the only Vermillion soldier included in the set. What’s striking about this set is the inclusion of 2 olive green canoes that appears detachable from the main boat. I’ll talk more about that later on. At the side we see the common stuff like the minifigures included -- Vermin (villain), Lloyd, Cole and a frog. There is also the “money shot” and an small logo of LEGO Life promoting the new app for kids. Let's do the unboxing! Inside the box, there are 3 numbered plastic bags, 2 plastic cutout sheets, 2 olive green canoes, 2 instruction booklets and... *drum roll*... no sticker sheets. Yes, what you see is not a mistake… there are indeed an extra plastic sheet of the cut-out wings. Build Here is the preview of the booklet and how each bag contributes to the build. Bag #1 contents We’re off to a great start because we are not even on the 5th step of building and we already have an interesting part such as this 2x2 wedge in bluish dark grey. Few steps later we complete the hoverboard used by Vermin. Of all the Ninjago hoverboards I’ve seen and built I think this is one of the better ones. The details provided by the iron ingots and copper Uruk-hai swords make this hoverboard very sharp and edgy. The remaining steps make the hull of the boat if you can even call it a boat. Ok, it is a flying boat or an airship just like the Destiny's Bounty. We also get Cole with the Pause Time Blade. I’ll spend more time on minifigures later. Notice that here are angled plates and ball joints used to construct the stern. Right from the first bag we are greeted with seemingly simple but not-so-basic building techniques. Bag #2 content In bag #2, the wheel holder is used with the Exo-force robot arms to achieve the angle needed for the bow of the airship. I have not built all LEGO sets ever created (I don’t think anybody has) but this is the first time I see robot arms and wheel holder combination to attach something in an angle. The warm gold [BL: pearl gold] hoses are held by 4 pairs of clips in an odd way that the hoses form a shape of a bowling pin or sexy soda bottle. On the sides of the airship, the titanium metallic [BL: pearl dark grey] elbow pieces, which others affectionately called macaroni pieces, give the airship a very industrial look and steam-punky vibe. Moving on, hold your breathe because we are opening the last bag... Bag #3 contents Bag #3 adds the wing frames. The wings are attached using the ball joints to the stern. You’ll find out later why it has to be connect with ball joints. You can see the back of the wing frame here. It seems that the wings are smaller than what I saw in the TV series. Also, due to how the plastic wings are fastened to the wing frames with those holes, the already curvy wings curves even more than it should be. The build is already complete at this point. What you see above is the boat mode of Destiny’s Shadow with its wings retracted. Attach the 2 olive green canoes on the sides, expand the wings and you get the flight mode of Destiny’s Shadow. The 2 reddish brown oars for the canoes are attached in front for easy access. I prefer this mode but I really wish those puny little wings on the side are slightly bigger/wider, sharper and less floppy. Remember the ball joints? The wings can be expanded by pushing the yellowish orange protruding part below the engines. Both wings will extend as both wings are attached to the central mechanism with ball joints. Consequently, when you push one wing inwards the other one also retracts back. Notice the solar-panel looking tiles on top of the black wedges? Those are all printed. Remember, there are no stickers in this set. It does look like a proper airship when viewed by the side profile but I love the back view even more. Just look at the big pearl gold jet engine with purple accent. I like big boats and I cannot lie; You other brothers can't deny! Frankly, I was expecting this set to be smaller as the pictures online and even the box art does not give justice to the product in real-life. I find that almost all angles are camera-friendly. It is narrow and slender, and the pearl gold pneumatic hose creates a very unusual curve that makes this airship “sexy” for the lack of a better term. The build is very enjoyable but not free of criticism. Apart from the wings, the other gripe I have on this set is that there isn’t enough firm parts to hold this airship to swoosh it around with one hand. The reddish brown 2x4 tile at the stern doesn’t help either because the moment your hands get a little bit oily those tiles get very slippery. So, you need to pay extra attention to support the weight of the airship below or you’ll find this crashing on the floor. One more thing before I proceed to the next segment -- the official description mentioned about “Lloyd’s compass”. I’m 100% sure there is no compass accessory in this set. I double confirmed it. Maybe when they mentioned compass, they meant the green frog pointing at the north direction? Hey Lloyd I think your compass is a little bit cranky. I think you need to feed it first. Here are the extra parts not used on the build after following the instruction booklet thoroughly. Parts This set is also not shy of new parts. For me, the stand-out parts here are the 2 olive green canoes and macaroni elbow pieces. I won’t go through all the new parts but here are my remarks for the notable ones. The 2 olive green canoes are outstanding. Olive green is not my favourite colour in LEGO colour palette but it is starting to climb up the list of my desired part colour. I think this will be a great fit with the upcoming City sub-theme Jungle if you wish to add some river scene. Fun fact: Don't you know that the first ever LEGO canoe was released in the Islanders sub-theme of Pirates I back in the mid-90'. It came in classic (bright) red colour. The macaroni piece looks great in pearl dark grey and you get 4 of them! If you need to make solar panels the 1x2 trans-black printed tile is very handy. The pearl gold hose which is 16 studs-long is also found in this set for the first time. Having new gold part is always welcome. The new Vermillion sword with the jagged blade is great to have for sci-fi weaponry. There is also 1 stray medium nougat [BL: medium dark flesh] 2x2 round plate that ended up in this set. At the time of writing this review, only this set and 70904 Clayface Splat Attack uses this part. Minifigures Just like what I mentioned in my review of 70621 The Vermillion Attack, the level of detail in this wave of Ninjago minifigures are top-notch. Both Cole and Lloyd wear tabi-boots as the printing extends all the way to the tip of minifigures legs. The tabi boots are more obvious on Cole since he has a dark bluish grey legs. Cole has a black shoulder pads armour but Lloyd does not have it. I am sure the only reason why Lloyd does not have that armour is to differentiate the Lloyd minifigure in the Iron Doom set. Fortunately the black shoulder pads are common enough that it is easy enough to ‘upgrade’ the minifigure with the additional armour. Remove the armours and headgears and you’ll see that Lloyd continues to be the odd one out because he does not have an alternate face print. Conclusion Hold tight Cole, we’ll do a barrel roll! I think that the design of this airship is brilliant even though it appears odd at first sight. As I build it, I find some creative and uncommon building techniques such as the use of wheel holder plates to put angled parts at the bow, as well as the ball joint mechanism used in the wings expansion at the stern. The major factor that attracted me to this set is the price. Even though I initially wanted to skip this, the set is right there at the sweet spot that it does not makes sense for me to give it a pass. It is very easy to dismiss because it looks awkward. I don't know if you can consider this airship steam-punk or diesel-punk. If you ignore the canoes, this is basically a Ninjago version of Star Wars Desert Skiff which is not something you can brag about. Upon building it -- I start to appreciate the design aesthetics more. Piece by piece it became more attractive. It’s like the girl you find awkward and nerdy in school and once you learn how beautiful she is beyond the surface, you suddenly realize how great she is inside out. Finally, if It helps in your buying decision, it's good to know that this airship enjoyed a respectable amount of time in The Hands of Time season. TWO Olive green canoes FTW! Review summary Playability: 8/10 - Fun is written all over it but needs extra care while swooshing Design / Building Experience: 8/10 - Eccentric design that translates to enjoyable build Minifigures: 9/10 - Great minifigures; wish that Lloyd has an armour and alternate face print too Price / Value for money: 9/10 - In terms of parts per piece this is the 2nd best value of all the Hands of Time sets. Also, this is like a 3-in-1 boat set because you get 2 olive green canoes! Overall: 8.5/10 - An excellent attempt to offer a down-sized airship with interesting parts to boot; however, I wish that the wings are more rigid and slightly bigger too. Thanks for reading. As always, wubba lubba dub dub.

@Kevii23 I'm a little behind by a few days but take a look. What you see below should be more than enough to enclose the whole Airjitzu Temple. P.S. - I forgot to include few dark red bricks in the picture

Olive green and dark tan! Great colour combo. Without using Google, that's how I recall Triceratops too. Great job using the clip and t-piece for the joints.

I imagine the creature as being more menacing... but great interpretation. Now I need to get this music out of my head again...

I used to buy from Amazon US and I'm not aware that Amazon is already putting this information for LEGO. Country of Origin or COO is very important for import/export sales because depending on where the finished product originated, it may or may not have additional tariff. However, as I have already explained above, even if the product came from Mexico it does not mean that the entire supply chain cycle is in Mexico. Nevertheless, COO gives you an indicator where the final quality check and packaging took place.

Those plush toys got my attention. Too bad only Nya and Kai...

Nah. You asked for it. I thank you. I think I need to watch Saturday Night Fever to add to my movie list references.

I tried to be consistent with the look and feel of the original build so I feel that putting that brown slope is necessary. There is no need to take apart the actual hammer first. You do have to remove the two 2x2 round plates and the dark brown 1x2 plate under the "fractured rock" piece of the lower arm. If you will use the pieces from the other six-studs rapid shooter you can do some substitution for the plate pieces used to achieve about the same result. Fore me, it is just easier to get the parts from the hammer fist without moving around too many pieces.

Thanks! So true. It does give more expressive gestures. I'm happy with the result.

Yup. None. All from the set.

Here's what you can do from all the parts of "mud splat" build with some other parts from the hammer fist hand. You can do alternation so that you can use the parts from the other six-studs rapid shooter but the reason I chose the hammer fist hand is because I need two 2x2 round plates and it's easier to dismantle those from the hammer fist. I made the hands more robust Pictures provided below on how to construct it. Dude, where's my car? Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's.... Mama Mia! The Dark Knight Rises All Dogs Go to Heaven Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 You can see that there is a "gap" on figure 1 that makes the hand a little bit hollow inside. On its own it is already better than the v1 I created but you can make it more robust if you put 2 additional bricks and 1 more plate to form the "palm" and reinforce the structure. Figure 2 shows a stack of three 1x1 round plates that has no firm attachment. That particular part has no clutch power right at that edge but it can hold them together once firmly put in place. If you're looking for the set review, you can check the link below -- Thanks for reading. As always, wubba lubba dub dub.

Should have rallied more users to vote for Voltron then

Still no confirmed schedule for English?

When you say "on the street" you mean someone close to retail and not insider info from here at EB, right?

Thanks. I also fancy this set being useful in medieval fantasy. If TLG also release a recolour of this armour in tan or dark tan then we can make a terracotta army. I think the added bulk is exaggerated but not too much. It's on par with other "bulk" armours.

I have to sacrifice the build quality for what it is. It is not as solid as it looks. It's hollow because I need to remove the six-studs rapid shooter... so if tilt the hand upwards, it would look Clayface is scooping something.

You're welcome. I like the Vermillion armour too so it's nice to show it in different angles.