Review: 30427 Ice Tank
Posted by TheBrickPal,
All six secret ninja pilot massive machines to repel Garmadon’s forces from their city in The LEGO NINJAGO Movie. Jay and Zane’s are the only ones not to be robotic suits in nature, as Jay pilots a large aircraft and Zane drives an impressive tank. The latter is represented in the first wave’s 70616 Ice Tank, but a micro-scale polybag version also exists in 30427!
I have been very eager to take a look at the tank’s younger brother, and am pleased to report that the vehicle’s unique design translates quite well to a small form.
The Completed Model
The Ice Tank is built using just 71 pieces, but mighty for its low part count. It is mostly white, in addition to some grey and of course trans-blue for a suitably chilly color scheme.
The main cockpit area is based on a black gun piece that allows it to be assembled at all angles. It closely matches its source material, with the six-shooter energy cannon represented by a single white lightsaber hilt. This has been a slightly common piece, in production since 2013, and is a reasonable approximation of the Ice Tank’s main offensive weapon.
There are thirty link pieces used in total to build the treads that are so prominent on the model. The only other sets that they have appeared in are five Technic ones since 2012, so are quite rare and may very well be the biggest reason to buy this set. All snapped together they look great, and allow the tank to roll around hard surfaces easily for play opportunities.
The rotating ice canister from the regular set and movie exist here - though of course with no interior detail, and the inability to spin. However, I think it looks good enough, and definitely adds a lot to the model in appearance.
The Ice Tank is perhaps best known for its unusual geometric shell that angles up and meets at a point on the back. It is created nicely here, with some grilles to represent greebling found on the full-sized version, and some angled plates. There is an evident lack of flags like the larger set and movie versions suggest, but would be difficult to replicate at this tiny scale, so I understand the exclusion of them here.
Verdict
This is a delightful little set! As far as I’m concerned, the Ice Tank has been rendered almost perfectly. As there are many design cues on its larger sibling that prove challenging to replicate at such a scale, what has been achieved by the designer is no small feat.
Furthermore, the sheer quality of this, as well as the other ‘micro mechs’, 30379 Quake Mech and 30428 Green Ninja Mech Dragon, should encourage fans to collect all three and assemble their own micro Secret Ninja Force. I can only hope that the Fire Mech, Water Strider and Lightning Jet will be produced next - as well as maybe Garma Mecha Man - to make the greatest micro battle NINJAGO City has ever seen!
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.
Thanks to Huw for the photos.
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12 comments on this article
I Love this set so much! Instead of buying all of the large sets I just bought the three ploybags and then made the fire mech, water strider, lightning jet, and garma mecha man for my collection. At this scale they are much easier to play with and display!
Love these little guys. A week before the movie came out, the Lego stores had a VIP instore build event for a micro fire mech. Good stuff!
I do not generally care for microbuilds, but this one is pretty impressive. Gotta say they did a pretty great job with this one
I snagged this one early. Shaping is great but I have to say the color scheme is so bland it barely stayed together a week. It just looked boring sitting on my desk. The Quake Mech was far more impressive to me.
Fire Mech had a freebie build at the Lego Store a few weeks ago. It wasn't quite up to par with a polybag, but it was close.
There's a different green dragon build at Barnes and Noble next weekend. Very different from the poly.
Just got the quake mech, now I just need the other two polys!
I enjoy LEGO mini-builds. I love collecting the Star Wars ones. This one of the Ice Tank is excellent. I'm very interested in buying the polybags of the Ninjago micro mechs.
I bought this for the tracks, but actually it was a pretty good build - I really enjoyed it. I would like to get another for the tracks also, but they are not cheap on ebay. Does anyone know how else you can get one?
I want all of these mini builds to display!
Hm, I can easily see how that ice canister could be made to spin with a turntable. Although I suppose as a microbuild a play feature like that would be useless.
great review, although the large crack down the middle is a little upsetting.
great review!