Review: 71841 Dragonian Storm Village
Posted by CapnRex101,
71841 Dragonian Storm Village includes a great selection of minifigures, three of which are only available here. Notable among them are Morro, returning from the Possession range, as well as the enigmatic Rogue, whose blue garb is rather familiar!
By contrast, the village itself seems surprisingly lacking in substance, relative to other location-based NINJAGO sets produced lately, such as 71818 Tournament Battle Arena. I hope the minifigures are sufficient to counterbalance any weaknesses of the model.
Summary
71841 Dragonian Storm Village, 305 pieces.
£34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 | 11.5p/13.1c/13.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Morro and Rogue are essential for NINJAGO fans, but the model is pretty mediocre
- Exceptional minifigures
- Good character mix for play
- Fun bridge-collapse function
- Storm Village is small, for the price
- Spinner feels unnecessary
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
The ninja are heavily armoured for Dragons Rising season three and Zane is only found here wearing this attire, as opposed to his shirtless or giant figures! The white, light bluish grey and medium azure colours look lovely and there is plenty of intricate detail, as usual, particularly on the torso and the straps over Zane's shoulders.
Metallic gold is an odd colour for the Elemental Master of Ice, although those highlights match the other ninja, including Nya. Her pearl dark grey and dark azure colours are appealing and I like the symbols on the reverse of each figure, with minor differences between them to suit the characters and their elemental powers, so Nya's emblem features waves to denote water.
In addition, the ninja include a new mask element, while their shoulder armour and sheath has not appeared in black before. I like how the swords are stored on this piece and Zane is armed with one of the new Prismatic Blades, found in several of this year's NINJAGO sets.
Good though the ninja look, the next two minifigures are even better. Rogue wears a new hat, usefully topped with a stud and hiding the character's identity, along with a bandana. However, the lightning bolt details on the minifigure's robes provide a definite clue, as does the Ninjargon letter 'J' on their back. The letters 'R' and 'J' also appear on tassels on the front of the torso.
Morro debuted almost ten years ago, as the chief antagonist in the Possession season. This minifigure retains certain features of the original design, including its sickly green colours and the distinct dragon-shaped clasp on the torso. However, the standard of detail has significantly improved on the whole, especially on the figure's legs and back, where Ninjargon letters read 'Morro'.
Also, I prefer the use of a spring yellowish green head to the original trans-neon green, as this colour shows facial details more clearly. The character's ghostly appearance has not been lost though, now represented by a trans-bright green arm. Rogue's head is interesting too, instantly recognisable as Jay, despite his unusually severe expression. The lightning-based swords are another giveaway!
This set focuses on their village, hence two Dragonians are included. The first is a Dragonian Scout, distinguished by a dark tan mohawk and tusk-like lower teeth, while the accompanying Dragonian Warrior wears a dark red helmet to complete his dragon-inspired design. The pearl dark grey shoulder armour features sculpted teeth around the jaw and works perfectly with the helmet, although it looks fine on the scout too.
The printed armour on the torso and legs is highly detailed as well, but maybe another colour could have been used to differentiate these villains from the Vermillion more clearly. However, the dragon mounted on the warrior's probably suffices in that regard and looks superb, nestled against the shoulder armour and helmet. A second small dragon is also supplied.
The Completed Model
Before moving to the village itself, I should first acknowledge this unusual spinner. A 2x2 slider on the underside does allow the assembly to spin reasonably well and there is room for pair of characters to stand on top, as shown in official images. However, I wonder whether this actually represents the titular storm, with the blades intended to knock over minifigures like a tornado.
Either way, this is a decent addition for play and the dual-moulded purple and trans-pink blade elements are interesting, also found on 71832 Thunderfang Dragon of Chaos. Even so, I think the spinner's parts could have been put to better use improving the village.
Unfortunately, I think those improvements are needed. The titular Storm Village captures some nice details across the front, but is actually little more than a façade, which reminds me of early NINJAGO sets like 2254 Mountain Shrine or the Spinjitzu battle arenas. Leaving open space for minifigures makes sense, but 71818 Tournament Battle Arena is a much better example of this format.
There are some appealing features though, such as this carved face. Its angular style and the red eyes look excellent and I like the teeth, although it seems as though there should be some kind of function here. The area behind is a prison, so perhaps the mouth could have opened for access, or the whole face collapsed to free trapped minifigures.
Speaking of trapped figures, the cage on the left is nicely constructed. Similar cages are often designed around 2x2 parabolic rings, but they continue to look good and have space to hold a minifigure inside. The use of sand green and reddish brown is effective, suggesting the cage is made of natural materials.
A weapons rack is found on the other side, which are another standard feature for sets of this kind. There is only one extra sword provided, but the characters are already equipped with an impressive variety of weapons.
Above we find two Dragonians banners flanking a bridge, with a decorative gate looming over the whole village. I appreciate the consistency between this structure and the shrine in 71832 Thunderfang Dragon of Chaos, which shares the same colours and spikes on each side. Two lanterns and a Dragonian mask are also welcome additions.
I would approach bridges built using track elements with trepidation in NINJAGO, as they tend to collapse suddenly! This one is no exception, activated by pulling the red plunger on the side. These functions are always enjoyable and work well, although they are usually even better with a longer bridge.
Anyone on the bridge will drop into the dungeon below, joining an unlucky skeleton. There are no other details inside though, which is a shame. I was not expecting much, but a basic bench, some chains or maybe accessories to give the skeleton an identity would have sufficed.
A flexible cable is attached beside the dungeon, allowing minifigures to climb to different levels of the village. Like so much of the model, this feature is adequate, but there was clear potential for more. A few rugged steps to reach the bridge would have been nice, making the location feel more like a proper village and introducing extra scenery.
Overall
Minifigures are undoubtedly the focus of 71841 Dragonian Storm Village and the set excels in that regard. Morro and Rogue are particularly exciting, as highly desirable characters and well-executed figures, while Zane is exclusive too. These three alone will be enough to tempt many NINJAGO fans, I am sure.
As expected, the Storm Village is lacklustre by comparison. I like the collapsable bridge and a few details, like the stickered banners, but the design seems rather dated overall. The price of £34.99, $39.99 or €39.99 is evidently influenced significantly by the six minifigures, but I would still expect a more substantial model for a set costing this amount.
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18 comments on this article
'Rogue' ;) ;) ;)
I'm happy that Morro is back tho
I like this. It doesn't even seem too bad for $39.99; I know the parts count is low but many pieces are big.
Rogue looks amazing and I like that there are adequate pieces to have both Dragonians get the wings If only there were a battle pack for them! I wasn't planning to get much from this wave but I think this one will be finding its way home.
Totally agree with the review. Cool minifigs, weird build.
Nexo Knights want their season one villains back. That said, loved the look back then and love it now.
I don't know the exact rules of how Brickset categorises the minifigures, but i am really confused as to why this Jay minifigure has its name as "Rogue" and is categorised together with Rouge from X-Men and a random Minecraft skin. Same goes for the "Evil Jay" from last year.
It's not like in the case of the Ice Emperor, where we weren't suposed to know his true identity. We obviously know that Rouge is Jay with memory loss. This really annoys me when I'm trying to look up my collection of Jay suits.
Nice figures. That's it. Too bad more wasn't done to make this dark location better. I expect more of modern Ninjago, e.g., 71819, 71818. They could really use some dark locations that have more developed builds.
This seems like a throwback to old Ninjago. Too bad the price isn't.
@DarthBrickus said:
"Nexo Knights want their season one villains back. That said, loved the look back then and love it now. "
I see you are a man of culture just like me. Best original LEGO villains of all time.
I bought this set for my 8 year old son for his birthday and he LOVES it. I'm actually impressed as well...7 minifigures (yes, we count skeletons as minifigs in our house) and some nifty play features for $40 is a solid buy IMHO. I do agree that the dungeon/jail could have used a bit of fleshing out but still there is a good deal of play with this set. And @CapnRex101 , you're right in that these minifigures are detailed very very well. Thank you for the solid review :)
I want this just for the minifigure. One of the best minifigure line ups in a Ninjago set ever, in my opinion.
It seems that getting less for more money is a new NINJAGO standard.
While this may be dragon-esque and stormy, “village” is a bit of a stretch.
-How do I do a film called "The Old Mill" when I don't have an old mill?
-Well, first you've got to change the title.
Something that would increase the buildings value, for me, it would be if one could combine all the side builds from the other sets to become more like a village.
@CapnRex101 I don’t suppose Lego is particularly concerned about these guys looking too much like the Vermillion. After all, they haven’t touched the concept in nearly eight years, and it seems doubtful that they ever will again.
@Garyslaw Brickset doesn’t determine what Lego chooses to name various minifigures.
Per the usual, villain-centric builds in Ninjago tend to suffer. I’m guessing most of the bad guy budget for this wave went to Thunderfang.
Yeah build is weak, but this IS litteraly aminifig pack and I am really ok with that price for 7 figs and 2 minidragons.
Looks like a level from Doom II
@legodachi said:
"Looks like a level from Doom II"
I wish Lego could make Doom sets.
I think it's a good playset for kids, certainly I would have liked it quite a lot as a kid; and I think its also reasonably nice enough for collectors. Definitely would be nicer at 29.99 or even 34.99 but maybe those days are long gone.
I bought two of these sets on discount, and I plan to combine parts from both sets into a larger Village build whenever Season 3 releases and I will have more source material to build off of.
By the way, the Ninja's pauldron elements are not new in black and have previously appeared on Evil Jay from 71818.