Review: 70671 Lloyd's Journey
Posted by CapnRex101,
NINJAGO focuses upon two new locations during season eleven, those being the Never-Realm and the Desert of Doom. 70671 Lloyd's Journey takes place within the bitter Never-Realm and includes an interesting new wolf piece which has inspired significant attention.
Moreover, two fantastic minifigures are included beside an unusual outpost structure. This seems to capture the architectural style of the Never-Realm, incorporating four dark red shields and medium azure spikes that decorate the exterior of 70678 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor too.
Minifigures
The ninja frequently update their attire and the new Lloyd Garmadon minifigure looks superb, wearing an intricately detailed green robe with dark green highlights. I love the leather pauldron printed over his right shoulder and this is decorated with the NINJAGO character for 'L' which identifies its owner. Lloyd also features worn kneepads and a tousled hair piece from The LEGO NINJAGO Movie.
Moreover, the minifigure wears a new scabbard accessory. This element features some lovely textured detail and offers room for a katana. Its pearl dark grey colour also looks marvellous, contrasting with Lloyd's colourful attire. He carries a wooden torch and his standard dao is included too, albeit now cast in pearl gold and frozen within a 2x2 round brick!
Blizzard Samurai inhabit the Never-Realm and this set therefore contains a Blizzard Warrior, wearing dark red armour which looks absolutely fantastic. I like the dual-moulded trans-light blue highlights and those on the chest armour are particularly impressive in my opinion as the ice crystals appear irregular while ice on the helmet forms a horned crest.
Similar designs are printed beneath the chest armour and continue onto the legs. The aqua highlights look superb and match the Blizzard Warrior's unusual skin tone. He appears somewhat reminiscent of the White Walkers from Game of Thrones, featuring wrinkles alongside petrifying pale blue eyes! This minifigure is armed with a medium azure katana which has not appeared in this colour before.
Lloyd is accompanied by a mysterious lupine creature which looks fantastic, featuring intricate moulded detail and three tails. These have inspired comparisons with kitsune, supernatural foxes from Japanese folklore that can take human form. The red highlights are excellent and I like the stripes across the face of this animal, reflecting its connection with Akita from 70768 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor.
The articulation is limited which is unfortunate, although the position of the legs appears reasonably natural and you can raise or lower the head. Furthermore, two studs enable minifigures to ride on its back but I think this majestic wolf seems more like a travelling companion than an animal that carries passengers, especially given its apparent ability to transform into a human!
The Completed Model
Lloyd's destination within the Never-Realm is currently unknown, although his target here seems to be the pearl gold sword which is frozen in a 2x2 round brick. This accessory slots nicely into the brick and looks impressive, including a golden tassel on the pommel. The neighbouring fortification is fairly small but includes delightful detail, especially around the roof where four dark red shields are attached using clips.
The walls are equally detailed, including two decorative shuriken beside frozen spikes. A stud shooting crossbow is mounted on top of the outpost and clips are also provided for some accessories. However, the interior is completely empty which is disappointing. A simple table or an armoury would have been welcome here but the space is easily adaptable.
Overall
Figures are frequently the highlight of smaller NINJAGO sets and this example is no exception. Lloyd and the Blizzard Warrior are both brilliant, although they are available elsewhere. The brand new wolf, on the other hand, is exclusive and looks absolutely fantastic in my opinion, striking a perfect balance between ferocious and adorable design.
The fortress outpost is attractive too, incorporating several appealing elements and corresponding with the larger 70678 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor. The price of £12.99 or $14.99 feels rather expensive to me, although the unique wolf justifies that price to some extent. I would therefore recommend 70671 Lloyd's Journey to any NINJAGO fan and look forward to learning more about the role of this animal in the animated series.
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.
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23 comments on this article
Ninjago line creates some of the coolest things! That creature is super cool!
must-buy for that wolf! the samurai is pretty sweet, too
Getting very strong Okami vibes from the wolf...
I absolutely need that wolf!
Also, why is there a link to the Moon Lander review on one character in the fourth paragraph?
The dual molded parts look fantastic.
This might be tempting enough for me to buy.
White walker, Ghost?
$15?! That’s at *best* a tenner set, maybe even less. I’m not paying that much for a Wolf I’ll be able to buy for a fraction of the price in a few months ._.
Very good review! I like this set! I already have Lloyd's Titan Mech which Is AMAZING!
By the way, the wolf itself Is Akita
@Kalking: Big, pre-assembled, specially printed and molded animals like this, are expensive — always have been. Just compare the prices of 6012-1 and 6023-1, which came out in the same theme in the same year. The one with the horse has considerably fewer pieces, but costs more than 50% more.
I'm definitely buying this set for the kitsune.
And I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks the villains, this time around, seem to take strong inspiration from the White Walkers. It definitely feels like the Ninjago team are dealing with the Army of the Dead, this year ... but given how Ninjago has enchanted magical weapons and giant dragons like dogs have fleas, I think they'll be a match for them.
I also just realised that Lloyd is the only Lego character in history to have green printed eyes. Is that true? I know Bruce Banner (in the Infinity War toyline) had green eyes in one his alternate expressions (understandable, given his alter ego), but Lloyd would pre-date him, wouldn't he?
Wow that samurai looks uncannily like Gurenki from Ultraman Orb.
Ninjago: Shadows Die Twice?
With the split tail, that wolf creature could easily be substituted for a Vulpix/Alolan Vulpix just by repainting it orange or fully white. Might have to get this just to see how it would look repainted.
My 4 year old is a Lloyd collector so this looks like a magnificent addition, plus the wolf!
Its all cool and great. But Am I only one who noticed lack of articulation on the fox?
Lego is cheaping obce again.
I never understood why mamooth had no lwg articulation, later testrall and now stag and fox...
Great set, thanks for the great review, I'll try to pick it up if I see it on the shelves!
@lordofdragonss: The reason for this is the same as why the camels in the Prince of Persia sets had no articulation. Animal molds like this are expensive, and the more articulation they have, the more new molds they need.
As such, LEGO can’t easily justify molds as articulated as the current horses, bears, and big cats except when they know they’ll be using those molds across several different sets. It’s not “cheaping out” — if anything, the trend in recent years has been towards MORE articulation, MORE new molds, and MORE printing than classic LEGO animals, just not for animal molds that are only likely to appear in one or two sets in the immediate future.
@Zordboy: Cam from the Alpha Team: Mission Deep Sea sets had green eyes in 2002!
The structure reminds me of the Ninja Training Outpost set from the first year of Ninjago.
Is the outpost here designed to connect up with the bigger castle model? Lego have done that before, so I'm wondering if thats what those clips coming out the structure's sides are for
@Brickalili - I also wondered that but could not find any reference to connection between this set and 70678-1 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor online. Furthermore, official images of the larger castle show no obvious connection points for this outpost.
Honestly, whilst this set is great..
I can't help but feel for the cost it might have been nice to get an extra Samurai thrown in to army-build. Whilst I understand that the cost is down to the new wolf/kitsune mould, for £13 one more figure might have been really cool.