LEGO NINJAGO 71858 Four Weapons Blacksmith revealed!

I feel like, if it's a blacksmith shop, where the future ninja of Fire forges stuff with fire...maybe the Elemental Master of Earth wasn't the most logical choice? Even the Master of Water makes more sense. I got the first one just for the sword. I could maybe see myself buying this one for the set, though. But I can't figure out how this set isn't at least 1500pcs.

THIS is the Ninjago I LOVE!!!!

Wait, so they cared enough to re-create Nya's old pre-TLNM look, and Wu, Ray, and Maya all look accurate, but Kai still has to look like a dumbass? Seriously? Really lazy, LEGO. (I assume they destroyed the mold for Kai's old hair, but that really wasn't necessary, especially if they were planning on releasing more Legacy sets. Plus, the mold has seen uses elsewhere.)

I've always wanted to like the Legacy sets over the years, but always including the "updated" (read: ported from TLNM) minifigs has made them all a no-go for me. Something tells me these 15th anniversary sets will be no different. Sadly, the line just won't end....

Oh, the blacksmith shop looks nice. $100 for a small box is a pass for me, though. I continue to wish I hadn't missed 70627....

Wow, there are some funky brick-gymnastics going in this gem of a set, including the central column on the verandah that's built entirely studs-down!

Dang Ninjago is 15 already?

Man. I already know I’m old, so I don’t feel any older. But holy cow.

I will continue to point out that Chima did not, in fact, replace Ninjago. I’m on record doubting that would happen. You can find it in my Flickr photostream. But to be fair I didn’t predict it would become more popular than GI Joe, either.

Very nice set, will get on sale!

It looks a little small for the price, but still very nice. I'll definitely consider picking this up when it comes out.

Is blacksmith not the Monkie Kid’s new job since they cancelled his series?

Oh wow...That Nya looks so close to the original in 2172: Nya, just more updated in the printing :)

Oh now I feel old.

Cute set, but is that really 1200 pieces?

Hey look a closed off building that can be opened and played with! Who would have thought that is possible with LEGO? But it looks like little value for money when compared to 70627. That one was much cooler and had cool functions incorporated. I'm glad they changed the figure prints, but I hate the "collect all 7" exclusive minifigs thing. In the end you'll probably spend 1000 bucks for all anniversary sets.

Why does Wu look so angry?

@nushae said:
"Nice, but not at that price :/"

It has over 1200 pieces so price isn't that bad.

@Norikins said:
"Why does Wu look so angry?"

Well, as the setting and the Kai and Nya figs are based on the pilot, his expression is probably in response to Kai being a complete jerk to him.

I’m guessing these anniversary figures are going to be placed somewhat randomly, like the Star Wars figs from last year. I do have to wonder what the rest of the figures are going to be. I’m assuming one is the long awaited First Spinjitzu Master, but if so there’s a few too many Serpentine War Elemental Masters for the remaining slots there are in the series.

I also am conflicted on this one. I like the full detailed building, but am disappointed about the size to price ratio. Nevertheless, it will be a great sale pickup.

I'd want to add this to the city docks in some way, but it's an expensive addition, not sure it's worth nearly £90.

I hope that "don't walk"-sign is a print and not a sticker, but I'm not holding up hope. If it is a print, I have a lot of use for it. Mostly, my ancient eyes just can't make out whether or not it's a sticker on these images, that's just the way it is.

@Norikins said:
"Why does Wu look so angry?"

He's not angry, he's disappointed AND angry. For a proper furious face, we'll need a closer look at the Master of Earth - there's something about that face that just speaks to me, y'know?

Instant buy.
Edit : But I don't see the 1200+ pieces... And thus I am a bit surprised with the price. But still will get it eventually.

BrickLink gonna be raking it in with the elemental masters collection…

Love it... will wait for a deep discount, the price is crazy

I imagine that there are lots of small parts used in that snot built base. Also tge roof has quite a rew thin parts next to each other.

The main interest for me is the master torso. That looks good for Middle Earth dwarves so I'll buy when on PAB.

Am I the only on who doesn't see how we go from the roof in the first picture to the roof in the back version on the box??

@FlatSixLego said:
"Am I the only on who doesn't see how we go from the roof in the first picture to the roof in the back version on the box??"
There's apparently a middle section you can take out.

@FlatSixLego said:
"Am I the only on who doesn't see how we go from the roof in the first picture to the roof in the back version on the box??"
The hinge is in the middle of the back wall as you face the building, not the middle of the left wall.

@Crux said:
"I hope that "don't walk"-sign is a print and not a sticker, but I'm not holding up hope. If it is a print, I have a lot of use for it. Mostly, my ancient eyes just can't make out whether or not it's a sticker on these images, that's just the way it is."

There's no evidence of a sticker edge in that image, even though there's clearly three stickers in the panel to the left. If it is a sticker, there _should_ be some sort of outline visible at full zoom. My bigger concern is that they screwed up the print, possibly intentionally. The red should be printed over the black, but the problem there is the black is absolutely going to show through the red, which is probably why they printed black over red.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Crux said:
"I hope that "don't walk"-sign is a print and not a sticker, but I'm not holding up hope. If it is a print, I have a lot of use for it. Mostly, my ancient eyes just can't make out whether or not it's a sticker on these images, that's just the way it is."

There's no evidence of a sticker edge in that image, even though there's clearly three stickers in the panel to the left. If it is a sticker, there _should_ be some sort of outline visible at full zoom. My bigger concern is that they screwed up the print, possibly intentionally. The red should be printed over the black, but the problem there is the black is absolutely going to show through the red, which is probably why they printed black over red."
I can see what appears to be a sticker edge at full magnification. You can tell by the corners that it’s not just shadowing on the tile. The sticker’s corners are slightly more rounded than the tile’s.

With a lot of folks here, looks great, figs are cool (I know next to nothing about Ninjago and the story but I like some of the sets), but can't justify at that price. $80, maybe.

@Zander said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Crux said:
"I hope that "don't walk"-sign is a print and not a sticker, but I'm not holding up hope. If it is a print, I have a lot of use for it. Mostly, my ancient eyes just can't make out whether or not it's a sticker on these images, that's just the way it is."

There's no evidence of a sticker edge in that image, even though there's clearly three stickers in the panel to the left. If it is a sticker, there _should_ be some sort of outline visible at full zoom. My bigger concern is that they screwed up the print, possibly intentionally. The red should be printed over the black, but the problem there is the black is absolutely going to show through the red, which is probably why they printed black over red."
I can see what appears to be a sticker edge at full magnification. You can tell by the corners that it’s not just shadowing on the tile. The sticker’s corners are slightly more rounded than the tile’s.

"

Thank you. Also, boo. Boo to stickers, boo. Behold my Resting Earth Master Face.

@TheOtherMike said:
"You know a line's been around for a while when the first sets in said line had only four digits in their set numbers."

928 ftw!

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Why does the Master of Earth have an updated recolor of 2012 Gimli's torso?

https://brickset.com/parts/6023554/mini-upper-part-no-2079"

I think that is due to tv show reusing a lot of existing print and pieces to create the characters that don’t appear physically in the set, which was a case with the old elemental master of earth that first appeared in the show in 2015, and was never made into a physical Lego figure until now.

Yay, this workshop might just be a good fit for my world.

I don't have any trouble seeing 1200+ pieces here: every section is built up from lots of parts. Yes, at first glance it's small for the price and piece count, but there's a lot of detail.

@560heliport said:
"I don't have any trouble seeing 1200+ pieces here: every section is built up from lots of parts. Yes, at first glance it's small for the price and piece count, but there's a lot of detail."

A good example of that detail is the floor of the blacksmith portion of the interior. I'm not sure if I love how extra it is or not!

It's so small... wanted to love it but there's just nothing worthwhile inside. The building from 70627 was better. Also that set was 80$ and included a large dragon!

Nice to see the good old Blacksmith shop come back, but I shall always miss Kai's old rubbery hair

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Why does the Master of Earth have an updated recolor of 2012 Gimli's torso?

https://brickset.com/parts/6023554/mini-upper-part-no-2079"

Not the exact same but the og design from the show was probably derived from gimli's 2012ish figure :/

@SearchlightRG said:
"Nice to get War Ray and the Master of Earth. A preview for a graphic novel coming out next year revealed that his name is actually Benton, unless that’s an error."

Hell yeah

@Zander said:
"I can see what appears to be a sticker edge at full magnification. You can tell by the corners that it’s not just shadowing on the tile. The sticker’s corners are slightly more rounded than the tile’s."

In the left panel, you can see dark lines on the near edges indicating shadow caused by the sticker edge. No such line is visible in the right panel. But now that I’ve got the brightness turned all the way up, I can see a color mismatch, with the area where a sticker would go in a faint shade of grey, and the border surrounding the sticker more white. So, maybe?

@ALegoFan:
Kai didn’t have any hair in the first Ninjago blacksmith shop. He just had his standard red Ninja outfit. And I just realized that’s not the set I bought to get the fancy dragon sword, because they hadn’t made that either, at that time. I got it in 2254.

This is a set I was really looking forward to and… they absolutely flopped it! This looks so awful! And how on earth is that really 1200 pieces!

I could build a better one easily, and if you all want to see me try this comment has to get 30 likes. If it does subscribe to my Bricks and Bros, YouTube channel and sit back and wait for the vid. I will blow your mind. : )

@Vesperas said:
"More and more, I've noticed them using stacked 1x1 plates in order to build what could've just been a 1x1 brick,"

I’ve never built a set where they stacked 3x unmodified 1x1 plates of the same color, though I’ve resorted to doing that for a MOC when olive-green plates beat olive-green bricks to market.

"or using two 1x3 plates to create what could've been a 1x6 plate."

1x3 plates are harder to come by, and can be more valuable than 1x6 plates.

"It's incredibly easy to inflate piece counts when you do this. I'm assuming it's probably cheaper for Lego to do this and it makes the piece count look more impressive than it really is. It doesn't really add much value for the buyer though."

It’s cheaper if the smaller part exists in that color, but the larger part would require burning a “frame” to get into production. Doing so would require eliminating another color change, or a new print.

"It's also something that I don't remember seeing often in old sets. They usually attempted to use the best existing piece for the situation, not just any piece."

They also lost money. Twice. To the point that Mattel made an earnest attempt to buy the company.

"Given the prevalence of this, I've just started subtracting around 15% from part counts to determine what it probably should be."

Do you build MOCs, or just stock sets?

@PurpleDave said:
" @Vesperas said:
"More and more, I've noticed them using stacked 1x1 plates in order to build what could've just been a 1x1 brick,"

I’ve never built a set where they stacked 3x unmodified 1x1 plates of the same color, though I’ve resorted to doing that for a MOC when olive-green plates beat olive-green bricks to market.

"or using two 1x3 plates to create what could've been a 1x6 plate."

1x3 plates are harder to come by, and can be more valuable than 1x6 plates.

"It's incredibly easy to inflate piece counts when you do this. I'm assuming it's probably cheaper for Lego to do this and it makes the piece count look more impressive than it really is. It doesn't really add much value for the buyer though."

It’s cheaper if the smaller part exists in that color, but the larger part would require burning a “frame” to get into production. Doing so would require eliminating another color change, or a new print.

"It's also something that I don't remember seeing often in old sets. They usually attempted to use the best existing piece for the situation, not just any piece."

They also lost money. Twice. To the point that Mattel made an earnest attempt to buy the company.

"Given the prevalence of this, I've just started subtracting around 15% from part counts to determine what it probably should be."

Do you build MOCs, or just stock sets?"

Using multiple small parts instead of one larger part also simplifies packing the sets- if a set already has e.g. white 1x4 plates, but not a 1x8, then using two 1x4s is easier, if the build allows.
I think more smaller plates are more useful: 1x2 plates can be stacked to make a 1x2 brick, side by side for a 2x2 pkate, or end to end for 1x whatever plates. Of course it doesn't always work.

Beautiful looking set with a beautiful price per piece!!

That price is atrocious, and while I do like it I feel like the roof looks kind of off. I have no idea where all the pieces went.

Btw, this should have cost 90€ acc. to the initial retailer listing, now rounded up to 100€ because 2026 price increase was needed for poor struggling LEGO Group. :(

I’m not a Ninjago fan but that’s a great looking set- are fan designs (BLDP) having a mild influence? A very welcome design direction
-more like this please.

@560heliport said:
"Using multiple small parts instead of one larger part also simplifies packing the sets- if a set already has e.g. white 1x4 plates, but not a 1x8, then using two 1x4s is easier, if the build allows.
I think more smaller plates are more useful: 1x2 plates can be stacked to make a 1x2 brick, side by side for a 2x2 pkate, or end to end for 1x whatever plates. Of course it doesn't always work. "

What I’ve heard is that set designers are expressly forbidden from just stacking plates when they can use bricks instead. It’s okay if they need to fill in with two plates to work a modified plate in, or to get an off-color stripe in the design, but not to just avoid using a brick. I have, however, seen 1x1 Technic bricks turned sideways and used as regular 1x1 bricks (7784), or 1x6 plates with unsupported ends (21005), both times because those were parts that were needed in one spot, and could be made to work in other places without killing the parts budget.

@jkb said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"You know a line's been around for a while when the first sets in said line had only four digits in their set numbers."

928 ftw!"

I mean, yeah, that's one of the all-time greats, but Classic Space hasn't been a currently-running theme for decades. I mean, even when Lego switched to five-digit numbers, it was still more than two decades in the rear-view mirror. It's been a long time since there were Space sets that were their own in-house theme (as opposed to licensed themes or last year's cross-theme branding) on shelves.

@PurpleDave said:
" @560heliport said:
"Using multiple small parts instead of one larger part also simplifies packing the sets- if a set already has e.g. white 1x4 plates, but not a 1x8, then using two 1x4s is easier, if the build allows.
I think more smaller plates are more useful: 1x2 plates can be stacked to make a 1x2 brick, side by side for a 2x2 pkate, or end to end for 1x whatever plates. Of course it doesn't always work. "

What I’ve heard is that set designers are expressly forbidden from just stacking plates when they can use bricks instead. It’s okay if they need to fill in with two plates to work a modified plate in, or to get an off-color stripe in the design, but not to just avoid using a brick. I have, however, seen 1x1 Technic bricks turned sideways and used as regular 1x1 bricks (7784), or 1x6 plates with unsupported ends (21005), both times because those were parts that were needed in one spot, and could be made to work in other places without killing the parts budget."

A part choice that fascinated me is in 75337 AT-TE. In the rear part of the upper hull, there are two Tan/Brick Yellow 1x5 plates. They are hidden once that section is finished, and they're just filling up space- they could be any combination of plates that would fit in a 2x5 footprint, but the designers chose two 1x5 plates- which are otherwise not present in that set in any color. So, why were they chosen?

@PurpleDave said:
"I’ve never built a set where they stacked 3x unmodified 1x1 plates of the same color, though I’ve resorted to doing that for a MOC when olive-green plates beat olive-green bricks to market."

I'm fairly sure I've seen this recently but I can't recall where, so you might be right about a normal brick. However, there are still several instances of something similar in 10332 - Medieval Town Square, 10333 - Barad-dûr and 10320 - Eldorado Fortress, where instead of using a 1x1x2/3 modified brick, they'll just stack two 1x1 plates of the same color. It might be forgivable if the same sets didn't also include said 1x1x2/3 bricks of the same color elsewhere in the build. It seems to be a fairly obvious attempt to inflate part counts.

Again, in Barad-dûr, there are also several places where things are just built in entirely nonsensical or part intensive ways, like instead of just using a dark orange 1x4 or 1x6 plate, they'll place two or three dark orange 1x2 plates right next to each other. The set has 1x4 and 1x6 plates elsewhere, in some cases even right next to the 1x2's where you're asked to do this, so the only reason I can imagine why they're doing this is also to inflate piece counts.

I also recall several instances in recent sets that involved creating 1x1 bricks using a 1x1 plate, 1x1 round plate and another 1x1 plate, or placing several 1x1 round plates next to each other instead of using a single plate for no apparent reason (since it would end up being hidden anyway), as well as just building assemblies in nonsensical ways, such as some of the things seen in 10365 or 10332.

@PurpleDave said:
"1x3 plates are harder to come by, and can be more valuable than 1x6 plates."

True, but it really depends on the plate. It also depends on what you're using it for. Usually, I'd probably rather have a 1x5 plate than a 1x2 and 1x3 plate, or a 1x8 plate than four 1x2 plates, but maybe that's just me.

@PurpleDave said:
"It’s cheaper if the smaller part exists in that color, but the larger part would require burning a “frame” to get into production. Doing so would require eliminating another color change, or a new print."

Some of the new parts are undeniably useful, like the new arches from Lion Knight's Castle. I'm not at all convinced that this is really an issue for what I'm talking about though. Practically every set these days features either a new mold or new colors, and as before, sometimes sets will feature both the best part that should've been used and the cheaper alternative.

@PurpleDave said:
"They also lost money. Twice. To the point that Mattel made an earnest attempt to buy the company."

Is this really relevant now though? Maybe I'm old school but I'm sure I'm not the only one. I recall reading a review Huw posted some time ago where he stated he had started to become jaded due to all of the new, highly specialized parts constantly being released.

@PurpleDave said:
"Do you build MOCs, or just stock sets?"

I do both. What I especially like is modding existing sets, primarily Castle, Pirates and fantasy stuff. I've always loved fantasy, legends and world history, especially from those centuries.

I know people have their own preferences when it comes to detail but I've always preferred clean, detailed and aesthetically pleasing builds that use the best part over just any part (assuming it's possible).

@Vesperas:
I’ve also heard they aren’t supposed to use an Apollo stud in cases where a regular 1x1 round plate would work, so they may have a similar restriction regarding the 1x1x2/3 brick-plate-thing. And if they do, it could potentially restrict them to just the specific instances within a set where it’s needed, and not allow for eliminating inefficient sortation. I haven’t built any of the plate examples you cited, so I can’t speak referring potential reasons they would have done that, except to say that I’ve sometimes made changes to a digital MOC design that I only realized resulted in similar goofiness once I started the physical assembly. The plate/round plate/plate example, however, is just another example of using a stack of plates to fit a modified plate (round) into the stack so it’s functionally or aesthetically different from a 1x1 brick.

Look up 1x plates on OPAB, and you’ll see that 1x5 plates cost almost as much as 1x10 plates, when most of the range has costs that scale with size. Yes, it’d be great to get these more often, but again there’s probably some sort of imposed restriction, or simply an assumption that they aren’t needed that often, that resulted in them anticipating low enough use that they expected to destroy the mold before it reached the end of its service life, hence front-loading the cost of the mold on any usage of that part. And by making it more expensive to work in a parts budget, they may have discouraged its use even if it’s not specifically prohibited.

It’s relevant that they had two really bad years almost consecutively, because the reaction to that double loss has heavily informed the way they changed how they do business. In the 1900’s, anyone could make any mold, even if it was fairly redundant (like three nearly-identical umbrellas that had incompatible connectivity). Now, they have to get it approved by their lead designer, and actually designed by a department that has been tasked with making sure the result is as universally useful as possible. They have self-imposed restrictions on how many part designs can be actively available, how many colors they can produce parts in, and how many elements they can stock. Molds that aren’t expected to be used within the next five years are destroyed, because it costs as much to maintain them over that span of time as it does to make a brand new mold to replace them. Some molds require use of a more expensive plastic because they need the extra strength, even if you can’t visually tell that it’s not the plastic you were expecting. Others may look like they’re molded from a single plastic, when in fact they are dual-molded in two very different plastics that happen to be the same color. They’ve realized they had parts (like fiber optics) that cost more to produce than the sets they were included in sold for.

There’s so much going on behind the scenes that AFOLs simply aren’t aware of, which can have unexpected impacts on how sets are designed, and all the average Bricksetter sees is that TLG is trying to fleece them. And there are so many internal rules that have been imposed solely as a way to safeguard against once again getting in a situation where the company ends up losing money.

And the reason I asked about MOCs is because the complaints you made sound like what I hear from AFOLs who don’t build MOCs, or build MOCs that look like sets from the 1900’s. Most of the people in my club get excited about new small parts because they open up new possibilities for MOC design. One guy in my club builds skyscrapers that are taller than 8’, primarily using 1x2 bricks.

Looks really nice, sucks that to have a fully fleshed out small house the cost has to be so high.

It looks great, and my kids are really into Ninjago. It’s too bad the bean counters got to this theme. Hopefully we will see a heavy discount.

@SearchlightRG said:
"Nice to get War Ray and the Master of Earth. A preview for a graphic novel coming out next year revealed that his name is actually Benton, unless that’s an error."

Excellent, love it! You ever watched 90s TV show Due South? Wonderful series , and the main character is called Benton Frasier

Ray : What’s your first name anyway ? I mean I can’t keep calling you Frasier
Benton: Benton
Ray: so what’s your first name ?
Benton: Benton
Ray: Do you even have a first name?

I GASPED out loud when I saw that price. What is going on

Nice wee easter egg to 2111 with the weapons :)

@PurpleDave said:
"One guy in my club builds skyscrapers that are taller than 8’, primarily using 1x2 bricks."

That's rad, as is your wealth of LEGO knowledge. Thanks for sharing.

As much i totally love the design and all, the price tag on this makes my eyes water for what it is so i will pass on it for now and wait until the price drops. For that same price range there are sets which offer much more value for money, both in size and pieces. Although it wholeheartedly agree this is a brilliant set for the 15th anniversary, I'm afraid I'll just wait for the instructions to be available and then build it with the existing pieces i have at home.

A beautiful set to celebrate a forgettable show.

What I'm looking forward to is nostalgia sets for the cinematic Lego movies.