Review: 71837 NINJAGO City Workshops - Part #1 - Minifigures
Posted by CapnRex101,
With the arrival of four microscale NINJAGO City sets last year, I was concerned the full-size series may be complete. Fortunately not though, as 71837 NINJAGO City Workshops expands the metropolis further and focuses on an industrial area of the city.
This model is smaller than earlier NINJAGO City sets, containing 3244 pieces and ten minifigures, plus a brick-built character, which is fewer than usual. However, most of the included minifigures are excellent and the likes of Harumi, Twitchy Tim and Dorama are certainly exciting for NINJAGO fans.
As expected for the NINJAGO City series, there is plenty to explore, so part one of our review focuses on the minifigures.
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box and Contents
Sets of this size have recently been classified as 18+ in most themes, but NINJAGO retains its normal maximum age recommendation of 14+. The box therefore matches previous NINJAGO City sets, albeit with mainly industrial buildings and chimneys in the background, instead of the skyscrapers on 71741 NINJAGO City Gardens and 71799 NINJAGO City Markets' boxes.
Inside are 27 numbered bags, two instructions manuals and three sticker sheets. Stickers are an unfortunate necessity of this range, adding plenty of small details and references wherever possible. 84 stickers are supplied in total, although several of them are optional decorations for the mech. Even so, there are a few designs that should probably have been printed, including an awkward sticker on a curved window.
Minifigures
Ten minifigures are included, so fewer than normal for these sets. There are some interesting characters though, beginning with Zane, whose shirtless minifigure earlier appeared in 71827 Zane's Battle Suit Mech and features impressive mechanical detail on the torso. However, this version uses an uncommon smiling face instead of the serious design found in the mech.
P.I.X.A.L. finally returns in Dragons Rising season three and is already available in three sets, between 71834 Zane's Ultra Combiner Mech, 71836 Arc Dragon of Focus and now here. The white, lavender and purple colour scheme looks brilliant, with red highlights on her Samurai X symbol and hands. Similarly, the pearl gold shoulder armour works nicely, alongside the silver hair piece.
I love P.I.X.A.L.'s masked alternative face and she is clearly ready for battle, equipped with a golden sword. Zane, meanwhile, comes with a pair of scissors and their purpose will become apparent later, when we visit his apartment.
NINJAGO City sets provide a rare opportunity to include characters from older seasons of the animated series, missed from the original wave of sets for those seasons. Harumi is a superb example, as her casual garb from the Sons of Garmadon arc finally arrives here and recreates her animated appearance exactly, other than lacking of printed legs, which is disappointing.
Nevertheless, this is an excellent minifigure. I love the mirrored colours and patterns between this minifigure and Harumi's formal attire in 70643 Temple of Resurrection, as well as the dual-moulded hair component. Twitchy Tim is a perfect addition too, as a major character from The Island and one planned to appear in a cancelled accessory pack back in 2021.
Twitchy's jacket is very detailed and includes his pins from the animated series, plus an eagle symbol on his back. Additionally, the character's hair element is effective and I like his worried expression, understandable for someone struck by lightning twelve times! Harumi's alternative face is equally suitable, revealing her true personality.
Dr. LaRow and Dorama, meanwhile, are two newer characters, introduced in Dragons Rising. LaRow is the chief scientist for the Kingdom of Imperium, hence the angular decoration on her uniform, matching the likes of Empress Beatrix. The minifigure should really have included dual-moulded legs, but I still like the design overall and her unusual glasses in particular.
Maybe more interesting is Dorama, another of Empress Beatrix's allies and a stage performer, as his flamboyant clothing suggests! Despite lacking the sparkly finish shown onscreen, I think lavender is a good choice for this minifigure, with some nice details on the torso. The enormous hat and shoulder pads look splendid too, ensuring Dorama stands out from the crowd.
The minifigure's confident expression suits Dorama and he comes with a golden cane, used to absorb energy in the animated series. A stickered computer interface is supplied for Dr. LaRow, displaying her own name in Ninjargon.
Dorama believes himself to be a talented performer, but engineering seems to be his greatest skill. The mechanised Dorama's Puppet is among his creations, a robot deployed against the ninja in both seasons of Dragons Rising released to date. The onscreen version was far bigger and I would be interested in a larger figure, although this scale suits the confines of NINJAGO City.
The use of stickers is disappointing, as I always favour printed parts on characters likely to be handled during play. The designs look excellent though, especially the unnerving tear beneath the puppet's right eye! Also, the figure is reasonably articulated, although the hip joints are only able to swing back and forth, so could definitely be improved.
Dragons Rising season three introduces the Dragonians, a dragon-based species serving the Forbidden Five. It seems not all Dragonians are evil though, as a Dragonian Tourist appears here, re-using a torso from LEGO City. This is a lovely idea, similar to the returning Monkie Kid villains in 80054 Megapolis City, although a more memorable villainous faction would be even better, such as a Skulkin tourist.
The final three minifigures are unnamed, which is quite unusual, even for generic residents of NINJAGO City. The box identifies a role for each character though and this is the owner of the mech model shop. The dual-moulded hat and hair piece has earlier appeared in DREAMZzz in these colours and looks superb, as does the colourful torso, normally seen in City sets.
The same can be said for the restaurant worker and the mechanic. These minifigures are fine, but elements created specifically for NINJAGO would be far better. The mechanic in particular deserved a new torso, as a pivotal character for NINJAGO City Workshops. However, the high-visibility jacket, printed legs and dual-moulded headgear are effective.
Similarly, the restaurant worker's torso is very generic and seems like a missed opportunity for something referential, like Racer Seven's BIONICLE-inspired torso from 71799 NINJAGO City Markets. On that basis, these residents of the city are quite underwhelming, but they suffice to populate the model.
Overall
Though there are some outstanding characters included, I find the minifigure selection here a little underwhelming. The generic minifigures in particular are mediocre, lacking the NINJAGO-specific elements used for the likes of Christina and the Tea Vendor in other sets. However, the named characters are fantastic, as expected, especially Harumi and Dorama.
Of course, the true strength of NINJAGO City sets tends to be the actual buildings and 71837 NINJAGO City Workshops is no exception. Part two of our review is available here.
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26 comments on this article
Still wish it was actually a crossroads set like the leaks said. A Frohicky (hope I spelt that right) would've been amazing!!
Nice review.
Is Brickset slow for anybody else, or is it just me? I keep getting timeout error messages...
I think I'll buy the Harumi minifig. SOG is arguably my favourite series, and Rumi is such a good villain. Loving the picture of 71821 Cole's Dragon Titan Mech on the window, and the billboard advert for the Ninja Castle subtheme!
@Murdoch17 said:
"Nice review.
Is Brickset slow for anybody else, or is it just me? I keep getting timeout error messages..."
I'm not getting timeouts, but mine is taking a long time to load and post comments etc.
@Murdoch17 said:
"Nice review.
Is Brickset slow for anybody else, or is it just me? I keep getting timeout error messages..."
I thought it was down.
I think this set would look great with the mech replaced with Cole's Titan Dragon Mech 71821. Any chance of a photo of the two sets together.
I like this set, but I don't like that you can't preorder it, unlike the van Gogh, although I can't understand why it's not available for preorder.
My birthday will be spent ordering instead of building at this rate...
@Murdoch17 said:
"Nice review.
Is Brickset slow for anybody else, or is it just me? I keep getting timeout error messages..."
The only issue I'm having is a lousy update, I would presume from Google. I used to be able to read an article's comments. Later I could come back and refresh the page to view the new comments that have been posted. It would keep me in the same position, so I would know what was new. Now whenever I reload the tab it puts me at the start of the article. For small discussions it isn't too big of a deal. But for the bigger ones like reveals, it's a pain. I have posted and been reading far less because of it.
If there is anyone who knows a setting to tweak, I'm all ears.
I still think Dorama looks like a more detailed version of Mr. X, of the Lego Stunt Rally game. Aside from the similar moustache, colour schemes based around shades of purple, and top hats, he even uses a similar looking cane with a gem on top (albeit different colour). All he needs is a mask and cape to complete the resemblance...
https://brickstobytes.org/media/pages/games/lego-stunt-rally/various-development-images/48cf15ee29-1654808319/large-purple-x-jpg-5d52612128cc2f471ebfe9f3625e1596-800x800-crop.jpg
That said, I'm still most interested, out of this set, in sticker 31 from that sheet; pleased to see classic Ninja got some love! That's a piece to go on my Bricklink list...
@Murdoch17 said:
"Nice review.
Is Brickset slow for anybody else, or is it just me? I keep getting timeout error messages..."
I had this for about the last two days. Site not loading at all or extremely slowly.
Seems fine again now though.
Nice overview! I can't say I mind the simplicity of the unnamed characters in this set — even without any new prints, I feel they fit their roles and the setting pretty nicely, at least as much so as many of the generic citizens in earlier sets. The Dragonian Tourist in particular is a very fun way to make one of these crowd-filler characters feel specific to the world of Ninjago without needing new prints (and the cooler colors of their jacket complement their red scales very nicely).
While the Zane and P.I.X.A.L. minifigs may be shared with other sets, they are a bit more distinctive than the generic ninja minifigs that came in some of the earlier Ninjago City sets. And Zane's shirtless design seems to be somewhat recontextualized by the laundry drying rack outside his apartment — perhaps some of his typical ninja clothes are still in the wash? On that note, a laundromat would be a fun property to include in a future Ninjago City set or MOC…
Twitchy Tim, casual Harumi, Dorama, and Dr. LaRow all look great, despite their lack of leg printing, and it's very fun to finally get physical minifigs of these four. It's a nice touch that all of them besides Dorama have dual expressions. One fun detail you didn't call out is that the eagle insignia and pins on Twitchy Tim's jacket reference Jake Raines's flight jacket from LEGO Pharaoh's Quest! https://brickset.com/minifigs/pha001
Dorama's puppet is one of those sorts of animated Ninja adversaries I would have never expected to see in a set, even at a reduced scale like this. But the brick-built version here is instantly recognizable, and its simple limbs nicely evoke that kind of clunky marionette-like way it moves in the show! So it definitely meets my expectations in that regard.
Looking forward to the rest of your review!
Does anyone feel like the design of this set (at least aesthetically) is a bit of hot mess? There were really beautiful and dramatic architectural elements on the preceding sets — blocks of color, bold shapes, dramatic whimsy — all to offset (and yet complement) more intimate and integrated details of a finer grain size. This set, visually, is slew of details, without that same kind of balance. Where are my eyes drawn? Where do they get break?! ...kind like everything was thrown at the wall, and unfortunately, everything stuck. The comparison of the polished photography on the box vs. the reality in the photo of this BrickSet review emphasizes this point even more.
Great to get Harumi in her casual clothes, as that's what she wears for most of the season.
Seems even Ninjago is now prone to the minifigure selection shrinking of larger sets that ravished licensed themes over the last few years (X-Men: The X-Mansion 76294 is an pinnacle example.)
Still kinda surprised at the lack of figs in this one. As you said, the included big name figs are awesome, and I’ll be glad to finally have a Pixel minifig, but I feel like some more could have easily been included. Some Nindroids, Zane’s father, Echo Zane. I’m not sure if this set includes the falcon but it should. Just a few more characters more relevant to Zane and Pixel would have been nice.
@BennaMN said:
"Does anyone feel like the design of this set (at least aesthetically) is a bit of hot mess? There were really beautiful and dramatic architectural elements on the preceding sets — blocks of color, bold shapes, dramatic whimsy — all to offset (and yet complement) more intimate and integrated details of a finer grain size. This set, visually, is slew of details, without that same kind of balance. Where are my eyes drawn? Where do they get break?! ...kind like everything was thrown at the wall, and unfortunately, everything stuck. The comparison of the polished photography on the box vs. the reality in the photo of this BrickSet review emphasizes this point even more."
I personally don't think so. The darker hues of the lower levels work as a nice subdued backdrop for the mech, and the bold colors of Dorama's theatre, the "Ninpla" store, and the crane up top draw the eye and finish off the skyline nicely.
@Lyichir said:
" @BennaMN said:
"Does anyone feel like the design of this set (at least aesthetically) is a bit of hot mess? There were really beautiful and dramatic architectural elements on the preceding sets — blocks of color, bold shapes, dramatic whimsy — all to offset (and yet complement) more intimate and integrated details of a finer grain size. This set, visually, is slew of details, without that same kind of balance. Where are my eyes drawn? Where do they get break?! ...kind like everything was thrown at the wall, and unfortunately, everything stuck. The comparison of the polished photography on the box vs. the reality in the photo of this BrickSet review emphasizes this point even more."
I personally don't think so. The darker hues of the lower levels work as a nice subdued backdrop for the mech, and the bold colors of Dorama's theatre, the "Ninpla" store, and the crane up top draw the eye and finish off the skyline nicely."
There’s also the fact that this is pretty obviously an industrial area in-universe, so it’s natural for it to have a differing aesthetic.
The reuse of City parts is a bit disappointing, but it’s pretty common for minor characters in Ninjago sets. It’s also a shame Tim doesn’t have his torn sleeves from the show.
I will gladly read the review of the build and reevaluate my impressions of the set. So far I have been very disappointed in this, and the figures analysis didn't change that.
Well, that brick-built Puppet character is pure nightmare fuel.
A missed opportunity to make another masterpiece.
I don't think that the adherence to an industrial aesthetic is a good excuse for not having designed something more extraordinary.
Do you remeber apocalipseburg?
@BennaMN said:
"Does anyone feel like the design of this set (at least aesthetically) is a bit of hot mess? There were really beautiful and dramatic architectural elements on the preceding sets — blocks of color, bold shapes, dramatic whimsy — all to offset (and yet complement) more intimate and integrated details of a finer grain size. This set, visually, is slew of details, without that same kind of balance. Where are my eyes drawn? Where do they get break?! ...kind like everything was thrown at the wall, and unfortunately, everything stuck. The comparison of the polished photography on the box vs. the reality in the photo of this BrickSet review emphasizes this point even more."
I'm happy that Ninjago City is still getting sets.
Yet, it may be dying a slow death with this small, mediocre set with a group of small, mediocre minifigs.
As a Lego SW fan, this is a well-worn path for me. It's sad to see it happen to an in-house IP like Ninjago, and sadder to see the decline from the incredible high of the Ninjago Movie sets.
It would seem that the only theme that really gets Lego's attention these days seems to be the line of Benjamins.
The figures are so weak, but thats nothing new for "new Lego Standard".
Its a huge shame the puppet is all wrong, Dr LaRow non printed hair, Harumi legs should be printed and Dorama without sparkles AND wrong color is just...Not worth it.
BTW please include the shots from the series if you do a review.
I don't care that Dorama isn't purple with sparkles, in and of itself it's a great figure and 100% goes on my shortlist of 'Best Minifigures of 2025'.
Do any of you build these on MILS plates?
@Jdrewg said:
"Do any of you build these on MILS plates? "
No, to rebuild my modulars and Ninjago City on MILS plates would be too expensive at this point, and for too little reward. I see their benefit, just not enough.
@Jdrewg said:
"Do any of you build these on MILS plates? "
I feel like MILS would offer little benefit for these since they're designed with water extending to the edge of the baseplate instead of curbs that imply a lowered road like typical modulars. If you wanted to extend the water you could do so pretty easily with regular plates and baseplates.