pikafunk

hmmm why am i not excited......... especially iron man. you guys are absolutely right. these are movie tie in minifigs, not marvel/ dc comic minifigs. at least the old batman minifigs had much more similarity.

thanks for clariying the details... i found that it was fragile during the build. it is much more stable when it is complete. indeed you are right, the technic parts provide stability. but i admit i m rather clumsy when it comes to smaller parts. i still found some smaller parts/details to dislodge easily after it is complete. hope that helps...

Thank you for reading this review. (I apologise for the poor photography, I did not do well this time.) (This will be photo-intensive as I will try to show the build progress of the set.) 2508 Blacksmith's Shop Ages 7-14 189 parts 2 Minifigs Release: August 2011 (US),June 2011 (Germany and Spain) Rating 4/5 on ninjago.lego.com Price US $19.99 / € 19.99 Background information: This seems to be a mid-sized set and is probably supposed to one of the small/mid-priced sets of the Ninjago range. It really reminds me of the Blacksmith Attack from the Kingdoms range. Do you suppose one inspired the other? 2 Minifigs in that set too, with a selection of weapons, movable areas and the usual parts of a blacksmith shop. In the Ninjago story, Kai was nothing more than a simple village blacksmith, and the shop is run by himself with the help of Nya, his sister. Lord Garmadon launches an attack on his shop, in attempts to steal the map hidden by Kai's father in the shop. This map reveals the locations of the golden weapons which are scattered in various locations of the world. However, brother and sister manage to fight off the onslaught with the weapons in the blacksmith shop. Sensei Wu then appears, explains the truth to Kai, and then recruits him into the Ninjago team. And so the story begins.... Here's the front of the box. Looks fun. The back shows 2 movable areas of the set. The back wall of the shop rotates, and the roof flips upwards. In comparison, here's 6918 Blacksmith Attack (picture from lego.com). The side of the box shows 2 Minifigs, Kai and Kruncha, along with a new map tile. <sorry about the overexposure> A close up of the rotating wall feature shown on the box. It says "Hidden weapons rack". The box is opened by pressing on tabs on the side. But I decided to cut it instead. So here's the contents. 4 un-numbered bags, one small light tan baseplate, and 1 instruction booklet. The cover of the instructions look the same as the box. The instructions tell you to sort the parts in colours. Here's how the parts look like. Some interesting parts to note for AFOLS who like rare parts: dark brown (not reddish brown. also thanks to Aanchir for the clarification) arches, pearl gold fences, pearl silver spear. A closer look at the map tile. It does has close resemblance to the map in the Ninjago story. <sorry about the poor photography> Here are the Minifigs, regular Kai and Kruncha. Here's how it would look like halfway through the build. The back wall is done. The fences are used as a sword rack. This is quite creative of the designer. It allows you to easily remove the swords for play, but it also means they could fall out easily as they are not snapped fit into a clip or something like that. The wall rotates. The other side is the regular blacksmith shop wall. There's an axe, which is supposed to represent a mallet, and a turkey drumstick, which I guess should be a club or maybe a sack? Anyone here knows? In the corner is a dish filled with water, I presume for cooling off weapons during the blacksmithing process. It is very interesting in that it is created by a dish placed upon a modified brick with an arm (left dislodged to show the parts). Be careful with the parts! They crumble easily! As I found out halfway. The build is not very stable, especially for clumsy builders like me. It is a small set, so certain parts are held only by one or two studs. I used too much force when inserting the technic pins into the long arm. You can see the interior details of the shop. There's an anvil and a kiln as well. During the build, you have to be very careful when following the instructions. It does not show very well which way to rotate the part and you may have to end up retracing certain steps if you get it wrong. (happened to me!) Here's the roof completed. Snap on the roof and you are done. I like that the chimney is made of a container/rubbish bin. Greenery and white lanterns are characteristic of Ninjago sets. The set is not a very long build. Here's a closeup of the roof hinge for Technic lovers. The brown log modified bricks keep the roof from bending backwards beyond 90 degrees. A photo showing the underside of the roof. In the story, the shop has a lot of concealed weapons which Kai and Nya use to fight off the skeletons. The right clip holds a spear but the left clip is empty? But the box shows the left clip holding a sword, which the instructions omit. I had to sacrifice it from Kruncha, otherwise it would look incomplete. I wish the set provided one more sword. In comparison, adding the sword makes it look much better. Something else I noticed: the box art shows Kai carrying the Fire Dragon Sword. Well, I wish they really did include it. The back view. Best friends forever??? The blacksmith set looks really good incorporated with the Fire Temple!! (top right corner) A few shots of the back pages of the manual follow. Here's a teaser for the Fire Temple. A teaser page for the soon to be released 2254 Mountain Shrine. It contains a rocky shrine, Kai on a spinner, and a skeleton bowling pin (the same from Skeleton Bowling). It seems to be a spinner set for play rather than for display. Of course, 2012 seems to have a Reptilian theme. SCORES! The Build: 6/10 I did enjoy building it, it has very fun details. But it requires delicate hands and some measure of care to ensure things do not come apart midbuild. Not recommended for younger children. Displayability: 6/10 It looks good, but I thought that it could have been better. In comparison, the Kingdoms Blacksmith Attack looks better. I am guessing looks were sacrificed to allow for the movable mechanisms. Stability: 8/10 It is quite stable after the set is complete though. Playability: 7/10 The moving parts are really quite fun and unique for this set. Overall score: 7/10 It does have the regular features of a Ninjago set and fun movable parts. It would be appealing to AFOLS who like weapons. I wish it had a Minifig of Kai in the original blacksmith clothes, as the battle took place before Kai became a ninja. It would not be my first choice for a Ninjago set, but it is a good addition to your collection. Thank you again for reading this review. -

thanks guys for your comments... if im not wrong, the Ninjas turn into their DX version when they activate their powers with their respective golden weapons and awaken/ride their own dragon. When that happens, their clothes change and the golden dragon is seen on their torso. Too bad Zane is just plain Zane in this set. Only Kai is DX in this set...

WOW thanks for the review but THANK YOU for that MOC girl woohoo its creative

hey looks good. to embed a photo, just click on this square icon next to the smiley when u write your post, and paste the link to your photo in the popup. (if u havent already know yet....) good use of the 2 sets i like it

looks good. i love old planes!

Thank you for reading this review. (This will be photo-intensive as I will try to show the build progress of the set.) 2507 Fire Temple Ages 8-14 1180 parts 7 Minifigs Release August 2011 Price US $124.99 / € 119.99 Background information: This has got to be the largest Ninjago set to date. It is also probably the flagship Ninjago set. The Ninjago series has been progressively building up towards this set, which is sort of the finale set. If you remember the Pharoah's Quest series, each set gives you a golden artifact, and you need to buy all of the sets to get all the artifacts. For Ninjago, you need to collect the various sets to collect all the golden weapons. If you watched the DVD, this ties in with the storyline where the ninjas' full powers will be unleashed if they have all the golden weapons. This is the first set from which you can obtain the Fire Dragon Sword from the story. (Edit: seems that you can get it from the upcoming set 2254 Mountain Shrine too. Thanks to White Cat for the heads up!) I used to think that the pearl gold katana was it, but this is the actual Dragon Sword. Lego making a new mold just for this purpose. Another thing Ninjago fans are crazy about is the appearance of Sensei Wu in a brand new black robe! This is not a Spinjitzu set, which creates an arena for you to play spinners with. This is a playable set, something like the castle/kingdoms/old ninja sets style, with a main building and certain movable parts/features. Here is one side of the box. The artwork at the top shows Sensei Wu in black robes. The set contains the Fire Dragon (Kai's dragon), which is almost like the red version of the Ice Dragon, and a Japanese-style temple. The temple has moving parts (more on that later). The dragon can spread its wings and spits a fireball (similar to the Ice Dragon or the shooting mechanism in Battle Arena). The other side shows that the set is quite playable. The side shows the Minifigs. Sensei Wu (black robes), Kai DX, regular Zane, Nya with grey daggers instead of gold in the spinner set, the baddies would be Lord Garmadon with the blue lightning staff, Krucha and Samukai. You need to break 2 sticky tabs on the side to open the box (not the kind where you have to press a tab in). Here's the contents. Bags numbered 1 to 7, 3 books of instructions, and separately sealed parts for the dragon's head. There are no stickers!! The instructions tell you that completing Bag 1 gives you all the Minifigs, the Fire Dragon Sword, and half of the Fire Dragon. Bag 1 contains the usual bags within a bag kind of style. Opening it gives you 2 smaller bags and separately sealed skeleton Minifig parts. The parts look like this. When you finish the Minifigs, here's what you get. The Dragon Sword is pretty special. Here's another view, showing Kai DX and Zane with ninja wraps off, and Sensei Wu's back view. Samukai's mouth opens as it is fastened with a Lego hinge. A close up of Sensei Wu. The hat and head are the same. The beard is soft rubber instead of hard plastic. He carries the reddish brown staff, but I wish they gave him a different and less boring weapon instead. Golden Japanese (or Chinese?? I am not sure) characters adorn the front. I am unable to make sense of the characters. Can anyone help? But it looks good. The back shows a golden dragon motif, which is really very impressive Minifig design. A closer look at the Fire Dragon Sword. The detailing is impressive for a Minifig Weapon. After progressing a bit into the build of the dragon, I noticed the medley of colours. Yellow + Dark Yellow + Orange. Looks great. The completed dragon torso. The completed right wing. The golden claws look great. You can spread the wing. Note that the feathers are really helicopter rotors in a different colour. Haha! And here's what you get at the end of Bag 1. Bag 2 gives you the rest of the dragon. A bag within a bag. You will need the dragon head parts too. Here's what's in the bags. There's a flag piece which says "Dragon God" in Japanese. Here's the completed dragon's head. Mid-build. It is starting to look like the Ice Dragon but in a different colour scheme. The Fire Dragon is thus complete. It looks majestic in this colour. 2 bags of number 3 will give you the base of the temple. It will include some rubber bands for the temple mechanism. The following will show the various stages of the build. Note the rubber bands. End of bags 3. Not very exciting for this part in my view. But it gets much better. Bag 4 gives the next layer of the temple and some of the interior features. Here's a look at the parts. You need to build 2 of the grey setups which form the movable mechanism of the temple. The tan platform will become the dragon's perch which will be shown again at the end. At this point, note that the mechanism allows the temple to be split right in the middle. This shows the features of the interior. Flames spew inside the Fire Temple as well. The temple grows vertically as you proceed to Bags 5. 2 bags with one smaller one within. Here's the parts. There are 2 pairs of window panes. Each pair put together make up the image of the golden dragon. This is similar to the dragon on Sensei Wu's robe. Here is how it looks like, mid-build. After you finish Bags 5, the temple is looking very good. 2 green dragon statues guard the entrance. Bag 6 will allow you to complete the rest of the main part of the temple. You will find 2 smaller bags inside the big bag. The contents look like that. When you finish all the parts, you get the main section of the temple, with a large hole at the top. Flames spew at the corners of the temple. My gripe is that the corners of the roof move about too easily, as they are attached only by a small plate hinge. Otherwise, it is pretty impressive. The style of the temple vertex is very similar to that found in the Spinjitzu Dojo and Battle Arena sets. The wall lamps are also identical. I like how the sets have a common style. Bag 7 will give you 3 sections to add to the main section of the temple. 2 bags within a big bag for 7. When you are done with the first section, it creates a pedestal of fire for the Fire Dragon Sword. The mechanism allows the pedestal to rotate. You will need to attach this section to the middle of the temple. This section is placed on the right of the main section of the temple and is not directly attached. The Japanese drum is a nice touch. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a Lego depiction of a Sakura/Cherry Blossom tree, and it is in bloom, with pink flowers amongst the leaves. Bamboo is prevalent in most of the Ninjago sets. I removed the drum to show that it sits on 4 pearl gold wedges and a modified plate with a vertical bar, which goes into the hole of the drum. This is quite ingenious. The left section of the temple is also not directly attached to the main section. It has a rack of katanas in 3 different colours and a Sakura tree for the left side. The swords are not held by clips this time, but are slotted in the small gap which is created when 2 modified log bricks are placed side by side. Very ingenious. Put everything together and the set is complete. The Fire Dragon sits on the platform shown earlier, and its head sticks out of the hole on top of the temple. Cute and scary at the same time. Kai goes up the steps and pulls upward on the Fire Dragon Sword... The temple splits into two, and the Fire Dragon is awakened! (The rubber bands in the structure of the temple cause the 2 halves to spring open!) Kai DX rides the Fire Dragon, which rains fireballs on the enemies, and Lord Garmadon is defeated!! Here's a view of the temple from the back. The dragon has left, so the platform on which it rests upon is visible. The details on the interior are a nice touch. The temple will click shut when you are finished playing and push both halves of the temple back together. I have discovered that the temple crumbles into pieces if you try doing it by pushing at other parts of the temple other than the 2 green spots on each side. SCORES! The Build: 8/10 Building the dragon was fun. It gets a little boring at the base of the temple, but gets exciting again as the temple ascends. Putting the sections together, adding the final touches, and finally placing the dragon in the temple would be the climax of the build. Displayability: 9/10 This set looks really good on a tabletop. I love the colour scheme. The dragon looks really majestic. Stability: 5/10 There is no baseplate, which is typical for a Ninjago set. Some parts crumble easily, especially when you are removing or replacing the dragon, which might be a problem for younger or clumsier owners. But it manages to stay intact. I wish the parts would stay together more securely. Playability: 9/10 A dragon emerging from a temple which splits into half. Now that's exciting! Overall score: 8/10 Definitely buy it. It is the flagship set of the Ninjago series, and it is really fun too. Plus you get Sensei Wu in black robes and the Fire Dragon Sword! Thank you again for reading this review. -

starting to get confused with the Ninjago sets this really looks like a Chinese dragon not too sure.... Ninjago seems to be a mix of Japanese and Chinese mythology what do you guys think?

looks good !

Thank you for reading this review. 2519 Skeleton Bowling Ages 7-14 371 parts 7 Minifigs Released 2011 Box size (cm) 28 x 25.8 x 6.1 Weighs 531 grams 29.99 USD on Lego Shop@Home, "Exclusive & Hard to Find" Category (correct as on 4 July 2011) Rating 4.7/5 on Lego Shop@Home Background information: This is quite a small set, and is also supposed to be a Ninjago spinner kind of arena, like the Spinjitzu Dojo or Battle Arena sets, but smaller. However, you do not go against a rival fighter, but rather topple as many skeletons as possible. I suppose you play it 2 players, and take turns knocking skeletons down. You then keep track of the score on the scoreboard. 7 minifigs are included, Jay DX and 6 light tan skeletons, which I will talk about more later. (thanks to Horizon for the name correction) Sorry about the small pictures, as I am trying to avoid long loading times. Here are is how the box looks like. This is supposed to be Special Edition, as indicated by the yellow strip on the side of the box. From what I've heard it is not available in some places. But it was available on the Shop@Home website. <Front cover> The back cover seems pretty similar, except for a closer look on Zane DX, and the spinner. <Back cover> The box opens by pressing on the thumbflap piece on the side, which is common nowadays, but I decided to cut it instead. Here's everything in the box. 3 bags, a sticker sheet, 2 long flexible tubes, a Ninjago spinner and instrutions. Close up of the stickers. 8 of them, all identical. The Japanese Kanji words literally mean "No surrender" or "Never give up". Or is that Chinese? Sorry I do not know... Here's the contents of Bag 1. Minifig parts and others. And you are supposed to build these with the parts. Jay DX wears the dragon outfit and carries a black katana with a square guard. The spinner is pearl gold and red. The skeletons/bowling pins are tan skeletons on a red round plate. I presume the skeletons are wooden practice dummies for Jay to practice Spinjitzu on. Here's what you get when you finish Bag 1. (Green plate is my own.) Here's Bag 2. There's a bag within a bag, a style typical of Lego. And here's the respective contents from each of the bags. With the contents you will be building the base structure of the bowling arena. Some interesting parts in Bag 2. There's a couple of modified plates with studs on the side. The green hinges will be part of the midline hinge of the whole setup. The following are a few photos of the build in progress for Bag 2. Something interesting for AFOLs who like rarer bricks. There are 2 grey curved top bricks with 2 studs on top in the set. So here's Bags 1 and 2 completed with leftover parts so far. When you open Bag 3, you will find 2 smaller bags inside. Here are the respective contents from each bag. There are a few interesting parts in Bag 3. There are 4 long modified plate/slopes (only 3 shown here), a scoring wheel, and a red modified round brick, which will become the knob for you to turn the scoring wheel. With all the parts, you will finish the rest of the arena. The few photos which follow will show the build progress. The set was rotated to show the build on the back. You can see that the top adornments are similar in style to the Spinjitzu Dojo and Battle Arena sets. The set is almost complete. Weapons are added to finish the decor. I feel it to be a waste of good weapons which should be in the hands of Ninjas! The final touch is to place the parts from Bag 1 onto the structure. The midline hinge mechanism allows you to adjust the width of it. And it's finished! Leftovers at the end: Jay DX, to battle! Off with their wooden heads! "Errr.... what happened....." "Sayonara!!" Personally, I found it to be a waste to have 5 tan-coloured skeletons without matching tan skull heads. Lego had made white, black, green-black skeletons, and modified ones like Bonezai and so on. I suppose they are meant to be wooden skeleton dummies. I do not like playing the Spinjitzu game, but it is probably a hit with some kids. There are no instructions, so I guess that this set is meant to be placed beside the Spinjitzu arena/rink which you can buy, then play Spinjitzu with the minifigs and spinners within the rink. If you look at the sides of the build, there are technic pins, similar to the Modular sets. Although not mentioned in the instructions, you can connect a few sets together to line the Spinjitzu rink, or even make a full circle (or even connect it to a Modular set??? Haha!) SCORES! Displayability: 7/10 Looks okay, suitable for display as makes for good background with the minifigs as the foreground. Swooshability: 0/10 Certainly not! There is no baseplate either to keep the stuff stationary. But it is not meant to be swooshed. Playability: 8/10 If you or your kids like the Spinjitzu game... Overall score: 7/10 Looks good overall, and complements the other Ninjago sets well. Not bad for its price, a few interesting parts, and you get Jay DX, which isn't that common compared to the other DX minifigs. Buy it if you have a bit of extra cash. Thank you again for reading this review. -