Shrunk Slave 1 – LEGO Star Wars, Boba Fett’s Starship (75312)

In this consumerist world we live in I’m usually not bending over backwards to catch special promotions on those “special” days made up by the industry trying to sell you stuff, but then again I enjoy getting a good discount as much as the next guy and not just because of my budget constraints. The very least one can do is keep an eye peeled and hope to make a good catch. I got sort of half-lucky with Boba Fett’s Starship (75312) on this year’s May the 4th event, so let’s see how things turned out.

Pricing and Contents

I’ve had this set on my wishlist for a while, but regrettably it never entered a price range that I found acceptable. After all, I’m not a die-hard Star Wars fan who would pay anything and it really comes down to how much I like a certain vehicle from the show and how affordable it is.

The crux of course is that of course Boba Fett’s Spaceship or Slave 1 as it was known in the good old days (and I’ll keep calling it that because I honestly think it’s kinda stupid that they are trying to be overly correct here and avoiding the word slave entirely even if it doesn’t bear any relationship to current day politics) has always been a popular ship due to its unique and distinct appearance. Because it basically sold itself and everybody wanted it, anyway, retailers could ask for relatively high prices. That and of course the The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett series have boosted that demand even further. In fact this really thwarted my plans to purchase the 20th Anniversary Edition Slave 1 (75243) because it was equally coveted by fans the world all over and prices never dropped to a level I would consider sensible (me missing out on a few special promotions I just didn’t catch notwithstanding). Arguably a case of bad timing, even if just coincidental.

With all that in mind I was actually glad I was able to obtain this package for 35 Euro down from a recommended price of 50 Euro. As mentioned already I consider myself only half-lucky because there was a slightly better price that day at only 32 Euro. I was just going back and forth way too long and my inner struggle prevented me from clicking that button. Come back an hour later and the price was higher again already. You really can’t flinch with Amazon‘s fluctuating prices and them adapting to competitor’s pricing almost in realtime.

Was it worth it? The answer may not surprise you: While I’m okay with those 35 Euro, I still feel the set is seriously overpriced. The model turns out tiny and one really has a hard time believing it actually uses the 593 pieces as advertised. From the exterior it feels more like there are only 250 elements, with the real point once again being that many other parts used are 1 x 1 and 1 x 2 items hidden underneath what’s actually visible. Not just that, but also many of the bits constituting the surface and the underside structure are equally small. With only a few exceptions you barely build any volume and just don’t get this satisfaction of working on what should be a relatively bulky model and making notable progress with each building step.

That being said, I can’t help but feel that this is a 30 Euro model, after all, even if you perhaps had to throw on a 5 Euro premium because it’s licensed Star Wars. The original 50 Euro are simply beyond any reason and LEGO just exploit the fans’ hunger for these products. If worse came to worse I’d really not have bothered and simply foregone buying it at all. It’s just not worth it.

The Minifigures

With the vessel being more or less exclusively inhabited by a single occupant it’s only natural that there wouldn’t be too many minifigures bar the occasional person hitching a ride when an opportunity presents itself. That is of course not counting the poor people travelling as frozen Carbonite blocks below decks. Not having seen the series due to not having a Disney+ subscription I have no idea if and when Boba Fett and Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) cross paths, I only know that it happens eventually.

The Mando figure is just the standard version with the cape you find in several other sets. Boba was an exclusive new version for this set when it came out last year but has since made a second appearance in Boba Fett’s Throne Room (75326). It’s considerably different from older versions not just because it uses a black torso as the base, but being ignorant of the actual story I can’t tell you much about the specific whys and hows. That said, both figures are overall pretty nice with lavish prints and certainly have some collector value as well.

The Model

The actual model is based on the simpler design of the Slave 1 from the ill-fated and ill-conceived Betrayal at Cloud City (75222) in the now deceased Master Builder Series. Back then I found the whole concept of a play-oriented yet expensive set in the vein of a dumbed-down and simplified UCS series more than a bit perplexing (or more to the point just another of those LEGO brain farts where you wonder what they were smoking when approving this), but the way this vehicle was built struck me as efficient and desirable as a separate affordable set. Of course things often take a while and I’d almost given up hope of ever seeing this come to fruition, but alas here we are. even better, they really took the time to refine and enhance the concept, including using a few newer and different parts. That way they also made sure that the one in the Cloud City retains its exclusivity and people who bought this expensive mess aren’t too upset.

An iconic shape such as this is of course immediately recognizable in any form and that is pretty much the case here as well. However, and this seems to be a general rule with this ship, the smaller the scale the less compact it looks. Where the original version in the movies was pretty smooth and the various surfaces blended, the smaller models tend to look more separated, not just because of the limitations of brick-built designs. This is also apparent here with the “handle” (upper hull) feeling plugged on to the bottom rather than transitioning elegantly. In particular the front section and the housings for the wing mechanisms feel a bit too small and not voluminous enough. It’s not the end of the world, but worth mentioning.

The tail/ aft boom overall appears just a bit too short and could have benefited from being extended one or two rows of studs. It’s not that the proportions aren’t correct or LEGO somehow got it wrong, it’s more a visual thing where the “scale effect” makes it look a bit too stubby. This is also owing to the overall small size that makes it look more like a toy than the imposing ship it otherwise is. Let’s not forget, that it just has around 24 studs overall length, not even fully covering a 32 x 32 base plate.

There are a handful of functional details like the cargo ramp under which you could actually place the “Carbonite” block as represented by a 1 x 2 x 6 brick and of course you can open the cockpit to place Boba inside, but neither does offer much details beyond that. The wings use a similar approach as their counterparts on the larger variants of this spacecraft, meaning they’re built from a bunch of balanced out round corner plates and wedge plates attached to a Technic axle so they swivel automatically and stay horizontal in every position. To represent the slightly rusty mechanism LEGO even produced this piece in Dark Orange exclusively for this set.

The singular side build in this set is a little push tractor/ servicing vehicle with a ladder and it also doubles as a stand to present the model in a upright position. I was hugely skeptical about this solution, mostly because the tractor is very lightweight but much to my surprise this works quite decently. Of course you still should not try to intentionally tip over the model, but it’s more than serviceable for presentation on the shelf and easy to handle for kids as well. It does not use any pins or such and rather just some simple slide-in trickery so you basically can’t do anything wrong. Also note the „Carbonite“ block – without stickers, of course.

The upright position looks a bit odd, mostly because it exposes the hollowness of the interior unfavorably. In this position also even the slightest misalignment of the guns, which are rather flimsily constructed from black light saber hilts and some other pieces, immediately becomes noticeable. You should be careful with them, anyway, as they use a less than ideal way of being attached. Instead of a proper axle or bar they’re plugged onto this “hook” style plate‘s bar element. While it kind of works it’s one of those things that I would try to avoid and look for other solutions.

The undersides have some nice texture and even some pieces to emulate thruster outlets, but once you look at it, you also see the most annoying problem of this whole set: The various small plates and how everything is pieced together. This isn’t so much of an issue once it’s finished, but it really tries your patience during assembly. There’s basically only a single layer of plates and the bricks for the shaping are almost immediately on top, however often in such a fashion that they often only connect by two or even single studs. I found this a massive source of frustration that only gets better once you have finished the red socket.

One final thing: The set is apparently (also) aimed at children and to that effect it has a handle based on an L-shaped Technic liftarm so the model can be swooshed around and held easily without risking breaking anything off when grabbing it elsewhere. The caveat here is that the handle tends to get stuck in the recess on occasion and is difficult to push out even when tipping on the opposite end as intended. You may want to have an eye on that and show your children how to do it right or else they may constantly bug you about it. If you are not interested in this functionality you could just leave it out and shim over the hole, but this would require some major changes (using larger/ different plates to close the gaps) early on in the construction process.

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Concluding Thoughts

The model isn’t bad by any means and in an odd way quite appealing. It hits the right balance between looking realistic enough, but also being playable. Still, the out-of-this-world pricing is really what puts me off. LEGO seem bent on deterring a certain part of their customers while raking in the big bucks from the other half of the Star Wars fan crowd with UCS sets and all that and that is on some level sad. Sets like this one clearly prove that the designers have the will and abilities to produce more than acceptable models, it just always seems they’re being sidelined by overriding managerial decisions in favor of squeezing out every last penny from customers.

This dichotomy also makes it hard to really recommend this set from the bottom of my heart. As already written, if there wouldn’t have been a good price I’d just passed on this. You can bet that due to the popularity there will be another Slave 1 in the not too distant future and it might even be an updated re-issue of the UCS version from 2015 or at least something more in line with the 20th anniversary version which will be more attractive to serious collectors and adults. You can save your money for the day when they come out. Completists on the other hand will no doubt want to add this to their line-up no matter what and it should also work well for children.

For me as so often it likely will end up being a short journey where soon enough I’ll dismantle the model and scalp the parts, of which it has quite a few unique ones and that’s just fine. At the same time I can think of other ways to spend those 35 Euro and unfortunate as it is, this set also has not done anything to change my mind about LEGO Star Wars being one big scam, so this will likely be my only such review for quite a while again until the next good opportunity may arise come Amazon‘s Prime Day in November…

Best of the Year? – LEGO Creator 3in1, Pirate Ship (31109)

Good things come to those that wait, they say, and indeed the LEGO Creator 3in1 Pirate Ship (31109) could be considered a nice reward for those who appreciate its qualities and can muster the patience.

A Clarification: Barracuda Bay vs. Pirate Ship

Full disclosure: I’m anything but an “old salt” and don’t particularly care for anything that has to do with pirates or that old-timey exploration of the oceans with sail ships. I enjoy some films, but that’s about it. Still, I simply like nice and interesting LEGO sets, so even I got jazzed when last year the Pirates of Barracuda Bay proposal was chosen as a winner on LEGO Ideas. I was really looking forward to the set – that is the way it was originally designed. Unfortunately all that hope was in vain.

LEGO completely screwed things up and instead of taking this as an opportunity to revive the theme with well-designed contemporary sets, all they could think of is pandering to people who wanted to relive their nostalgia for the 1990s when allegedly everything was better in the LEGO universe (which of course is utter nonsense). As a result we got what we got: Something that is almost a full remake of the 1989 Black Seas Barracuda (6285). Yes, it’s been modernized in some areas and yes, it has some extra stuff thrown in, but ultimately I was completely turned off by how it turned out from the ugly retro packaging and color scheme to the many, many large specific molds being used instead of building things up from separate smaller elements.

On the other hand only a few weeks after the announcement the regular sets for the first half of 2020 were announced and lo and behold, they had another sail ship in the Creator 3in1 series with a pirate-y twist and that appealed much more to my tastes. It only would take some time to actually get my hands on it.

The Price was right (at last)

I got my box thanks to Amazon‘s Prime Day after having had my eyes on it for a while. In my little world I have to be very cost-conscious and therefore always patiently bide my time until the price is right, but when it only cost around 55 Euro it became a no-brainer. Pardon the language, but that’s really ridiculously cheap for a set of this size and complexity and makes around 4 Cent per part at overall 1260 parts. In fairness however, even the original MSRP of 99 Euro isn’t that outrageous and makes for an 8 Cent average per piece, which in this day and age is a good value in the LEGO world, especially once you consider that while there are many small elements, there’s also quite a few large ones, making for a healthy mix that gives you the impression that the price of the set is fair and justified.

Now things would be fine and dandy, but lately I seem to have a bit of bad luck with Amazon using inadequate and poor packaging, so my box arrived quite mangled despite being packed inside another box, which was also damaged. This went as far as the seals being broken and one of the sides being torn open and I was almost ready to open a customer support case and request an immediate replacement. I was seriously frustrated, but decided to give this a try after all, as I knew that all the hoopla with the substitution not only was extra work on my end, but simply didn’t sit well with my environmental consciousness, even more so knowing that Amazon would most likely simply trash the damaged product and it would end up in a blast furnace instead of repackaging it and selling as B grade. Still, I was on the verge and in my world that means a lot.

Contents Overview

The package is filled to the brim as you would expect from a set with this parts count. The bulk of the pieces thankfully indeed goes towards building the ship, with only a handful of extras being included, all of which have some thematic relation to the ship itself. Others may prefer it differently, but I quite like that I didn’t have to chew endless side builds like it’s common with many Friends and Star Wars sets or as it was even the case with the Camper Van (31108). It makes the whole experience a lot more satisfying and doesn’t give you that ugly feeling that a set may have intentionally padded out/ fluffed up with pointless extras just to justify an increase in price.

Minifigures and Extras

A pirate ship needs its crew and as you would expect, we get a bunch of them, but a very tiny bunch at that. Only a captain, an “officer” and one sailor plus a skeleton really isn’t that much and all things considered perhaps really not enough. This set could have easily done with five, seven or nine minifigures, as effectively you can’t even man the two cannons let alone actually have sailors climbing the masts and going about their daily business.

The figures themselves are done well enough and I’m sure many people who actually bought the Pirates of Barracuda Bay (21322) will buy this set just to get them in addition or take them off your hands for a good price, if you feel so inclined. The regular blue torsos aren’t necessarily my favorite color as it always kinda looks like worker stuff and historically it would probably be more correct if they were Dark Blue or Black. I’m also slightly bothered by the prints being a bit transparent and the colors not popping enough therefore. This becomes very apparent with the sailor’s tank top next to the officer’s stripe undershirt.

One point of criticism that has to be spelled out is the inclusion of only two cannons when even in its default configuration the model already has provision for four positions (two on either side) and a “real” version of such a ship would have even more. It’s not the end of the world, but once again makes you feel that some higher-up in the chain at LEGO was cutting corners when approving this.

On a small side note, the barrel in Reddish Brown is the first in my collection (I have several ones in Dark Brown and other colors), which surprised me somewhat, but when I sifted through the respective Bricklink page it dawned on me that LEGO actually hadn’t done this item in this color for almost eight years, so it was not much of a surprise, given that I only even got into the hobby much later and never had one of those older sets.

Shark Time!

As you know from my blathering on about it and one of my MOCs I have an innate, yet strangely inexplicable love for creatures of the deep, even though the real experience would scare the heck out of me most likely. That’s why I just like the inclusion of yet another shark and I have to say this little build is excellent despite only consistent of a handful of pieces! It hits all the right beats with the creature being cute, yet having believable proportions and I even kept it around. It’s smiling at me from the shelf next to my computer as I’m writing this article.

The Ship at large

While for a LEGO set the ship is pretty large and with its style pretends it would be an imperial war ship, large exploration cruiser or some such thing, I think it’s actually more of a small barge or galley cruising near the coast lines only a few days at a time. Of course there are simply limitations how large you can build stuff with bricks to begin with plus the rise cost associated with adding more pieces, so naturally this is more of a compromise in the sense of capturing the overall feeling and spirit instead of portraying any exact original. That doesn’t exclude that some such ship existed, but I wouldn’t know about that.

Regardless of it’s “smallness” the model is quite a chunky affair if you’re not used to building such relatively large sets. It will of course be small fires to the more wealthy that buy and build those UCS level sets for 300 Euro and more regularly. You can guess in which camp I fall, both financially as well as how much space I have in my flat to actually keep such large models around. 😉 With this model (or any sail ship for that matter) in particular the height quickly becomes an issue with almost 40 cm. The length mustn’t be underestimated, either, as it’s also more than 45 cm.

As you can see, the sails are built from pieces and not made from vinyl foil or cloth, which if you look around on the Internet is one of the most divisive aspects of this model. It makes sense when you consider that some of those parts would be used for the alternate builds, but understandably it looks rather heavy and inelegant. As an side effect this also affects the masts, which tend to feel very “bendy” under the extra weight.

This is one of those situations where I understand that they wanted to keep the logic and integrity of the 3in1 series with everything actually being built from bricks, but similar to my regrets/ complaints about the lack of actual molded animals in the series, I feel that they could have thrown in real cloth pieces here, even if they were just optional. it would have elevated the model and I think most people wouldn’t have minded those extra three Euro it might have cost.

A similar point could be made about the “wire” elements, where especially the ones along the middle of the ship don’t look quite convincing. Perhaps including some threaded yarn would have been better. I’m at least glad, though, that they didn’t do a Friends on this one where those items always seem to come only in Lavender. On that note – one of the positive things about this set is that it actually gives you a wealth of elements in “sensible” colors such as Reddish Brown and Red.

While most of them are not new or exclusive, you will be hard-pressed to find some of them in such large quantities elsewhere like the large arc/ bow pieces, which are now complemented by their smaller brothers that actually are available in this color for the first time. Combined with a good number of Black pieces and even some more rare Pearl Gold ones like the 1 x 1 plates that could offer incentive enough to get the set just as a parts source.

The Captain’s Cabin

Pretty much the only significant build outside the ship’s hull itself is the captain’s cabin, also representing the aft deck. This is a clever little piece of engineering as quite some effort was made to capture the angled faces while still making sure that everything closes up properly. It uses different hinge types, tiles for a smooth surface and several small elements of stoppers. The genius here is that it feels all organic and not too obviously aimed at making the mechanics work. Still, of course I can’t deny that some of those things would be even easier and incidentally also more robust if LEGO actually got over themselves and introduced slopes with studs on the angled faces like e.g. Mega Construx uses them.

   

The interior does the trick if you hang on to that story of this being only for short journeys (but it still lacks a bunk bed at least then), but otherwise feels pretty barren. Granted, there isn’t too much space inside, but i feel that there still would have been room enough to add a few extras here and there, be that a small shelf with some bottles, more map tiles, perhaps even a small sextant, compass and telescope. It definitely doesn’t feel like the captain was ready to take to the seas on short notice and everything was left unprepared.

 

Not “Deck”-ed out

I already mentioned my grievances about the cannons, so here we are having a look at the actual mid-ship section. Externally it captures all the typical trappings such as the blinds on the gun ports, the layered structure of the hull’s planks as well as the various transition to the rear and front “houses” using slopes and a few decorative elements.

The insides on the other hand are just an empty hole, which looks even worse if you don’t install any of the cannons. This typically is the busiest part of the ship with ammunition depots, storage compartments and accommodations for the crew, but nothing of the sort is present, making this rather lame. My point here specifically is that they could have included some extra barrels and bottles, possibly some hammocks, but at the very least they could have included a central table with some stools and food elements so a feasting scene could be set up.

 

In my view this would also have added a bit of extra play value, more than the cannons even, perhaps. Not to stretch this out ad nauseam, but in light of this also the shortness of firing power becomes even more visible. There would have been plenty of room to have smaller guns on poles on the upper deck, some rifle stands or something like that that would be readily at hand for close-up fights.

 

This also extends to the front bow deck, where yet another small cannon could have been set up for self defense or a harpoon for occasional hunting of larger fish. the bow also gives away the game, as it looks a bit too stubby and rounded for an actual ship. Don’t get me wrong – it’s more than adequate, but it should have been possible to make this a bit more pointed using curved slopes and not arcs. I also wouldn’t have minded the figurehead being entirely gold.

Building is Fun (or is it)?

One thing you should prepare yourself for is that the building process can stretch out quite a bit and is not always fun. After starting out quickly with some large plates and inverted slopes on the first layer of the central section you soon move on to some finicky procedures involving lots of small elements or building individual small modules using cool, but somewhat tedious and confusing SNOT techniques.

For instance many of the underpinnings of the arc sections used on the front and aft contours do not consist of large bricks but rather staggered arrays of plates to make things look angled. This can get at times pretty long in the tooth and feel like you are not making any progress. The same is true for the many 1 x 1 elements used everywhere to add decorations. That is to say you need to take your time and if you tend to lose concentration quickly may want to build this in multiple sessions. Even I totally underestimated this factor and spent almost five hours on what i expected would be finished in three (I’m a slow builder, so that was already generous with safety margin).

Structurally you can’t do much wrong, as due to the modular nature and those segments being held together with pins and overlapping plates/ tiles interlocking with brackets and regular studs, the main hull is extremely stable. This also forces you to obey a certain build order, as you need to complete some of the models first before being able to move on. If you have someone to help you these steps can even and split up among different people, but only up to a certain point.

Spatial orientation is also facilitated by the internals using a color coding system with Yellow and Blue designating the front and aft connection points and Red and Green signalling that port vs. starboard thing almost like on real ships. Thankfully none of that peeks through when viewed from the outside, so the overall beauty of the model isn’t spoiled.

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Concluding Thoughts

I very much enjoyed this set within the few criticisms I have laid out despite totally not being the naval type. To me it’s easily the best LEGO set of the year: It’s reasonably large and complex, but not excessively crazy like those expensive 3000 and more pieces sets, has some interesting building techniques, nice and useful parts and just looks good when finished. Getting there is not always the most pleasurable ride, but perfectly manageable even if you’re not super experienced. You just need to take a calm and meditative approach and not be in a rush.

In addition, though I haven’t actually built them yet, the B and C alternate models also seem nice and tie in with the pirate/ treasure hunt theme with a skull island and a port tavern, so you could find yourself buying three sets eventually and still getting something new and useful out of it. That doesn’t happen every day and with special sales happening left and right at this time of the year you have a real chance of making this work even if you have a limited budget. I definitely recommend trying to buy at least one set and giving it a whirl. In this crazy time it will make a nice distraction from the bad things happening around us.

Rider on the Storm – Stormbringer Dragon (70652)

Within my limited options I’m trying to live as environmentally and socially conscious as I can and part of that is not ordering every bit of toilet paper online and having underpaid people deliver my stuff. On the other hand of course I have to be cost aware out of necessity, so I can’t entirely avoid making a good catch on Amazon every now and then. Naturally, last week was Prime Day and the offer they had on the Stormbringer Dragon (70652) was ultimately too good to pass up.

As you know from this article, I’m a bit wary of dragon models due to the many hinge and joint parts left over after disassembling the models and using the rest of the pieces for other builds. That’s why I had this set somewhere on my virtual wishlist, but not very high at the top. When the price dropped to 24 Euro on that magical day the math started to add up, though – it was the threshold where I would effectively only pay for the “good” parts and would not regret ditching the rest and burying it deep in one of my storage boxes later. Or in other words: In my mind this was the point where the joints and hinges were included “free”. With that said, the original 40 Euro price just doesn’t feel right and had this special offer not come my way, I’d simply let it be.

The set itself was released last year already and reflects the dragon hunter/ diesel gang theme that was current back then. Somehow this never fully took off and unlike other themes that had a longer lifespan it was already superseded by Forbidden Spinjitsu and Legacy this year. You can still buy the sets, yes, but I’d wager by the end of the year most of them will be pulled. Anyway, the one thing I particularly liked about this were the pale-faced gang members. The set includes two of them plus the usual color-themed figure associated with each dragon, i.e. Jay, the blue ninja and his companion Zane.

As a gimmick and sort of a cheap marketing ploy to get people to buy more sets there was also this golden armor thing with separate pieces in each box. This one contains the shoulder harness and a dragon hilt for the bone sword. The harness is nicely presented on an anvil-like pedestal with a piece of rock underneath, making for a lovely little side build and an interesting little eye catcher for presenting the stuff on your shelf or showcase.

To my surprise the dragon turned out larger than I had estimated based on photos and videos. It’s by no means as long as the green dragon from the movie, but still a sizable beast. I blame the misleading perception mostly on two factors: One, the dragon is overall very thin/ slender or even scrawny and two, the head is relatively tiny. If it wasn’t for the various spikes and protrusions, it could almost pass as a normal lizard. Photographing it from certain angles furthers this impression even more.

The skinny nature of the creature can of course be attributed to its somewhat barebones design. Only a minimum number of pieces have been used to cover up the various joint and hinge elements and most of them are flat pieces that don’t add volume like curved slopes and wedges would. Even the central trunk/ spine element is more or less just two studs wide all the way with some decorative bits attached to the sides to give the idea of scales. I like that they shaped it like a cat’s back, though, giving it a nice aggressive stance.

The head and neck part are a bit of a weird thing. The front looks very bird-like and with some printed 1 x 4 bricks used to represent the eyes is quite interesting, but then you stare at this gaping stair-stepped area at the back of the head. Even if you give credit to the fact that they may just have wanted to keep the neck thin by not adding further slopes for a gradual transition it just looks weird. It’s like someone carved out a perfectly rectangular piece with a chainsaw.

The decorative bits don’t really do much to disguise this. Arguably the head has been constructed upside down even, as of course the spine transitions into the upper skull, not the lower jaw, the need to integrate the arrow shooters notwithstanding. Dunno, it’s one of those things where I understand the limitations and it’s actually also cool on some level that for once the arrows really do come out of the mouth, but at the same time I can’t shake the feeling of possibly a better solution having been feasible.

The reason I ultimately decided to take the plunge are of course the many Dark Blue and Blue pieces one can never have enough of. The duck beak wedges are perhaps not the most useful, but the many curved slopes and even the shield-shaped tiles definitely are. I also think I might have an idea for the wings/ flaps one day. interestingly, I also didn’t realize I don’t have any of those small horns in Bright Light Orange yet and only ones in regular Yellow. Funny how one stumbles upon new discoveries even in the most mundane sets sometimes.

With the design aspects talked about sufficiently, we need to have a word about the play value. As I wrote in that other article, I don’t think these long and slinky dragons are particularly safe for children under a specific age ore more specific a certain size where they would have sufficiently long enough arms and larger hands to actually hold the moving parts in check without gouging their eyes. Conversely some force is required to overcome the resistance and friction of the joints to be able to pose the model. The latter is very limited due to the rigid construction of the legs without knee joints, so basically the only way to get a stable position is to always move the legs in pairs and have the dragon stand flat.

I wouldn’t say this is a particularly outstanding model, but overall it’s okay. For the price I got it it’s perfectly acceptable, though likely that in itself is a statement. Amazon aren’t known for having the lowest LEGO prices here in Germany (thankfully there’s some good alternatives) and them firing this out as Prime bait likely means they were sitting on a large stockpile that didn’t sell that well. With that in mind you likely only will truly enjoy it if you are a Ninjago nerd, generally have a thing for dragons or like me are always on the lookout for good parts sources that don’t break the bank…