I've got this set. Love it so much. Super nostalgic for the Pilot Season Ninjago sets. This was my favourite of the dragons I owned. It was and still is quite unique.

I loved this guy. I remember this was a day-one purchase. I liked how different he was, to the other flight-capable dragons, and I loved how it just looked like an Australian frill-neck.

J: "They're running away!"
C: "Huh. Guess they didn't want a second round of these fellas! Good thing they didn't check out the merchandise in the back!" *Eyes widen* "...Uh... guys?"
Z: "Didn't Sensei say there was a guardian protecting the weapon?"
C: "That's not... what I think it is, is it?"
J: "You mean a dragon?"
K: "Well it sure looks like a dragon to me...."
All: "RUUUNNN!!!"

@PurpleDave said:
"It's gotta be rough. Dragon of Fire? Wings. Dragon of Ice? Wings. Dragon of Lightning? Wings. Dragon of Green? Wings. Dragon of Ground. No wings."
Which is odd, because Rocky very clearly had wings, prominently displayed in his very first appearance. I guess they really wanted the dragons in the sets to be distinguishable, because, aside from the head mold, this model looks almost nothing like Rocky in the show. That was one thing that bothered me about early Ninjago sets: they were very much loose approximations of the source material, rather than accurate reproductions. Not that I dislike the early sets - even Rocky here is still quite cool - but that's why I had a lot of hope for the Legacy sets, and why I've been so consistently disappointed in them.

That dragon head deserves a majestic body. This is not bad, but in 15 years so much has changed.

I still have a sealed one. I’m blown away by how much they go for on BrickLink.

Great looking set. Bought this off eBay for really cheap, but it's missing one of its balls. :(

Those back legs look so busted.

I've owned this one briefly. The swinging tail was fun but the static legs really disappointed me. Static legs in general really feel like the designers being too stifled by restrictions or just not looking for a good solution enough. Especially on a model on this size it felt not needed.

To be fair, it seems that it was just the back legs. The front legs just had a strange L shape between the joints.

The dragon looked good though. The twin flags, frill and Slave I chunky slope parts help a lot. Wyplash is fun with the worm coming from the side of his head.

cole: "im cole and im not afraid of anything on this world" jay: "except dragons" cole: "dragons arent from this world"

@TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of.

@JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Yeah, as a Technic guy, that doesn't feel at all weird to me!

@JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…

Are those dragon eggs? The unique head and jaw with built in teeth probably inflated the price for the number of pieces. The camera angle highlights the bulky front and shoulders, with the clever use of airplane tails, but hides the very thin skeletal body when viewed from above.

@PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…"

For years I've mostly just collected Harry Potter, Icons and some Ideas. I have Harry Potter sets with 4xxx, 5xxx, 10xxx, 3xxxx, 4xxxx, and 7xxxx numbers... Funnily enough it didn't really occur to me for ages that they purposefully grouped set numbers together for other themes!

@PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…"

In 2003 (Lego's own "dark ages") they removed Technic and Duplo branding from the boxes, but the sets were clearly still part of those themes, so I wouldn't consider them "broken themes". In 2004 the boxes were right back to normal, presumably after riots with pitchforks and torches.

@PurpleDave said:
"It's gotta be rough. Dragon of Fire? Wings. Dragon of Ice? Wings. Dragon of Lightning? Wings. Dragon of Green? Wings. Dragon of Ground. No wings."

A dragon of purest green.

@ambr said:
"Are those dragon eggs? The unique head and jaw with built in teeth probably inflated the price for the number of pieces. The camera angle highlights the bulky front and shoulders, with the clever use of airplane tails, but hides the very thin skeletal body when viewed from above."

More likely rocks or some kind of “Earth Power Blasts”-there’s a launcher built into the dragon’s mouth.

@Joce1275 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…"

For years I've mostly just collected Harry Potter, Icons and some Ideas. I have Harry Potter sets with 4xxx, 5xxx, 10xxx, 3xxxx, 4xxxx, and 7xxxx numbers... Funnily enough it didn't really occur to me for ages that they purposefully grouped set numbers together for other themes!"

They did, and still do, but it gets messy. Polybags have their own number block, CMFs have their own number block, GWPs have their own number block, and then themes have their own number block for stuff that doesn’t fall into one of the other categories. I don’t know when they started doing this, but themes would eventually get close to running out of numbers, and they’d shift everything to a new block, which left lots of straggler numbers. When numbers got skipped for part design numbers, someone eventually started going though and filling them in with current new parts, but this doesn’t happen with set numbers. Once they decided to switch to 4-digit numbers, they fully abandoned the 3-digit range, and same thing when they switched from 4-digit to 5-digit. No fair starting the set number with one or more zeros, either.

@JavaBrix said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…"

In 2003 (Lego's own "dark ages") they removed Technic and Duplo branding from the boxes, but the sets were clearly still part of those themes, so I wouldn't consider them "broken themes". In 2004 the boxes were right back to normal, presumably after riots with pitchforks and torches."

But the only Technic-style sets produced at that time were Bionicle or Star Wars. They fully stopped making Technic sets that didn’t fall within a story-based theme. And when they realized their error, they started back up with a single reissued set of rather modest size. The parts hadn’t gone away, but the theme had. Duplo was kinda the same way, with all Duplo parts being used in IP-based sets, but no generic un-themed sets during that period.

@PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Except Technically, neither of those are unbroken themes. Technic and Duplo got debranded for a bit around 25 years ago, and Town got replaced by Jack Stone for a bit. Unless you’re trying to claim that Jack Stone _is_ part of Town/City…"

In 2003 (Lego's own "dark ages") they removed Technic and Duplo branding from the boxes, but the sets were clearly still part of those themes, so I wouldn't consider them "broken themes". In 2004 the boxes were right back to normal, presumably after riots with pitchforks and torches."

But the only Technic-style sets produced at that time were Bionicle or Star Wars. They fully stopped making Technic sets that didn’t fall within a story-based theme. And when they realized their error, they started back up with a single reissued set of rather modest size. The parts hadn’t gone away, but the theme had. Duplo was kinda the same way, with all Duplo parts being used in IP-based sets, but no generic un-themed sets during that period."

8441, 8451, 8453, 8454, and 8455 have entered the chat.

@JavaBrix said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running."

Fun fact: Technic goes back to 3 digits, plus Town which is the predecessor of City. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of."

Allow me to rephrase. It's a bit weird seeing a four digit set number for a set from a theme that's still running and doesn't date back at least as far as my childhood. And one theme being a predecessor to another theme doesn't necessarily make them the same theme. The old Ninja subtheme of Castle could be viewed as a predecessor to Ninjago, for instance.

@JavaBrix:
You have to go back a bit earlier. In 2001, 8429, 8430, and 8431 were the only three Technic sets released, but they were all reissues of 8812 (1994), 8417 (1998), and 8460 (1995). Then late 2002, that last one was again reissued as 8438. The five you linked to are all in Creator/Designer boxes. It's been several years now, and I don't remember what site I was looking on, but none of those showed up under the Technic theme, probably because nothing was being marketed under that theme when they were released. And that's where things got messy. 21344 is a train set, but it's not a Train set, because the Train theme branding has been abandoned. Train sets have been mostly rolled into City (itself technically a distinct theme from Town and World City, even if AFOLs treat World City and City as subthemes of Town). Sets that include trains outside of the City theme have instead been released as Creator, Creator Expert, 18+, Lone Ranger, Ideas, etc.

@Freddy_Hodson said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"It's gotta be rough. Dragon of Fire? Wings. Dragon of Ice? Wings. Dragon of Lightning? Wings. Dragon of Green? Wings. Dragon of Ground. No wings."

A dragon of purest green."

Hmm, Soylent is green, and so is Data's bottle of booze. I think we're getting closer to identifying La-Loyd's elemental power, and I'm growing concerned that it's not very family-friendly.