Review: 71704 Kai Fighter
Posted by benbacardi,
Vehicles and aircraft are always popular; LEGO never misses an opportunity to include one where they can - and the Ninjago theme is no different.
As part of this year’s Legacy subtheme, 71704 Kai Fighter is the second version of the fire ninja’s jet, following 2014’s set of the same name. However, it’s a significant upgrade on the design with more than double the pieces than before, as well as double the ninjas and double the enemies.
Minifigures
Four minifigures are included with the set. Our heroes are Kai and Lloyd, two of the most common Ninjago characters. Neither are wearing any headgear, save for a mask; instead, opting for their signature hair.
The leg and torso prints are new for 2020, each appearing only in a handful of sets. They are suitably detailed, wearing traditional sleeveless ninja outfits, with the design continuing nicely from the torso onto the legs. Lloyd is, in fact, an identical minifigure to that found in 71699 Thunder Raider and 71700 Jungle Raider, but Kai’s corresponding torso appears to be unique to this set.
Both include dual expressions; threateningly angry on one side, and a lopsided grin on the other. Despite being specific to each character, the heads are rather common, having been in nearly 60 sets between them over the last three years. That does speak somewhat to the frequency at which Kai and Lloyd appear! Both are equipped with a pair of the usual katana swords.
The enemy in this particular set is a pair of the Overlord’s Nindroid Warriors. These two minifigures are identical, with no printing on their legs, but dual-printed heads, shoulder armour, and an impressive helmet. The helmet and torso only appear in two other sets, and the head in just one other; all new this year. One of the warriors is armed with a single red katana, and the other a combination of an axe and a chainsaw.
The Build
Inside the box, a sticker sheet is provided; not uncommon for a set of this size. I usually build the entire set without applying the stickers, and only apply those that actually enhance the set. In this case, as you’ll see, they were pretty much all needed!
The first build to be completed is a small ground-based missile launcher operated by one of the Nindroid Warriors, built around a single spring shooter. While the design is quite funky (and I like the red, silver, and purple colour scheme), the connection between the shooter and the base is quite flimsy, and can’t actually withstand the pressure required to release the missile; instead of firing, the shooter simply collapses onto the base. This is solved by steading the shooter with your other hand, but a strong connection would have been preferable.
With the second bag, we begin building the main attraction of the set, Kai’s Fighter. As you’ll see in later photos, the fighter comprises two main sections which are joined by a simple but effective technic hinge mechanism.
The front section of the jet, the cockpit, is built first. As usual for these kinds of builds, there is room for a single minifigure (Kai, in this case). Two wings attach by clips to bars on either side of the fuselage, and can therefore be positioned at a wide variety of angles. The wings themselves are new this year, and are new in red. The build comes together relatively quickly, but is fairly interesting.
The rest of the ship is constructed over the next few bags, and once connected together makes a rather impressive display. At 43cm wide and 34cm long, it’s not a small model by any means (making it much trickier to photograph with my usual small setup!)
As is the case with most sets like this, the ship is symmetrical, but it was not repetitive or dull to construct, with some interesting techniques employed to attach subassemblies (such as the air intakes) at unusual angles. A technic frame runs the length of the rear of the ship to provide the hinge functionality, as shown later.
The photo above shows the completed ship in its standard position, but by pushing the rear wings forward, the cockpit hinges down, giving the jet a more aggressive and dynamic profile. It’s not capable of standing up by itself in this configuration, and there is nothing more than friction to lock it in place, but it is certainly quite fun to swoosh around and flip to and from “attack mode”.
Hinging the cockpit down allows the two spring shooters positioned on top of the fighter to clear the fuselage when fired; if pressed when in the standard position, they’ll hit the back of the cockpit.
It’s nice to see these missiles in a colour other than red; trans orange has appeared in significantly fewer sets, and looks fantastic here against the red and black of the ship. It’s unfortunate that the technic pegs are so obvious in grey; it would have been great for them to match in red.
Applying the stickers makes a significant difference to the appearance of the jet. Jagged stylised flames adorn what were previously large bland red expanses, along with Kai’s fire emblem on the rear stabilisers and the spring shooter assembly. The colour scheme is fantastic, with the yellow and gold highlights standing out brilliantly against the red and black.
The rear of the ship is less attractive, as much of the jet’s frame is exposed, with unsightly grey parts and technic assemblies visible.
However, when viewed from most other angles, the ship is attractive and striking, and built in a very sturdy manner. It easily withstands being flown around the room, even rather vigorously by my four-year-old (although the set is aimed at eight plus).
The completed model
Altogether, it’s clear that the jet is the star of the set. It’s a large, imposing rendition of the source material from season 3 of the TV show, and the larger piece count has allowed for a significant improvement upon the previous version.
There is a fair amount of play potential, with two good guys to pitch against two bad guys, but it is a shame there is nowhere for Lloyd in the fighter, or an alternative mini build for him; he does feel a little superfluous to the set.
As mentioned previously, the small missile base for the Nindroid Warriors looks good, but is too flimsy to be particularly functional. It would also not be much of a defence against the aggressive fighter - but perhaps that is the point!
At £34.99 / 39.99€ / $39.99 and just over 500 parts, I feel that the set offers good value for money and provides an impressively large build with a lot of potential for play.
Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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17 comments on this article
First! Also, maybe the technic pins that are so visible are supposed to represent guns?
Once again, some of the best "Space" seems to be coming out of Ninjago. I was just playing a bit of Blazing Lazers and this reminds me of that ship, especially with that angled-down cockpit.
Good review. This is a good set and a massive improvement on the original. It's good to see that even as the Legacy sets start to inch closer to remakes of more recent sets, they still can manage to improve dramatically on the look and function of the originals. The Kai Fighter would not have been my first choice for a Season 3 set remake (since even for Kai that year I much preferred the X-1 Ninja Charger), but I suppose that a set with more room for improvement makes for a better remake!
My only complaint would be the inclusion of Lloyd instead of Zane! New Legacy versions of Kai, Jay, and Cole appear in one set each this year but Lloyd appears in sets with each of them plus a set in which he's the only fig whatsoever! Considering what a huge role Zane played in seasons 3 and 4 of the show, it's hugely disappointing that the Legacy sets based on those seasons seem to have omitted him entirely, especially since the Prime Empire sets from the first half of this year also neglected to give him a new "digi-suit" along with the other five ninja.
Zane is one of my favorite characters so it's pretty disappointing to see him getting the short end of the stick this year. I can only hope that perhaps it's just a fluke, and that next year might include a Legacy version of the season 3 Ninjacopter or the season 4 Titanium Dragon to make up for it!
I’m really pumped about that new “beak” piece. I’ve been wanting something like it since the L and R separate parts first appeared.
I'm not a big fan of this one to be frank. The wing feature is not as dramatic as the original, and the overall design feels rather busy and overdone. This is one of the very few cases where I prefer the original set to the Legacy version.
I really like the grey Technic pins. They remind me of machine guns.
I am not sold on that set, despite my love for Ninjago sets. Maybe it's a difficult shape to recreate or maybe I am more into their dragons :P
Honestly, the original was better. This one just feels really overdesigned. For example, the engine intakes on the original were square and boxy, but they looked amazing and sleek. These ones just look like a mess, with way too many varying angles and unnecessary shaping. The new wing function is also a downgrade, seeing as on the original you could gate them to go all the way back and make an arrow shape. These barely seem to move at all.
You said that the wings were new this year, but didn’t they come in 75135 Obi-wan’s Jedi Interceptor among other sets?
Edit: they may be a slightly different design that I’m just not noticing, but not sure.
The Legacy version of this set is a vast improvement. Personally, I found it one of the weaker sets in one of the weaker waves of the theme/ seasons of the show, so there was potential for improvement. I would’ve liked to see a bit more from the first season- there were none of the distinctive snake vehicles. Something like the Rattlecopter could’ve been an interesting remake.
@Lyichir agreed; Zane does not get enough love. Of the original four Ninja he has the fewest variants and appears in the fewest sets, and Lloyd of course has surpassed him in both. Only Nya is in worse shape, and she at least has the excuse of not becoming a Ninja until the second wave of 2015.
@Slobrojoe said:
"You said that the wings were new this year, but didn’t they come in 75135 Obi-wan’s Jedi Interceptor among other sets?
Edit: they may be a slightly different design that I’m just not noticing, but not sure."
I've just compared the wing pieces from 66547 , from 2016, and 71713 , this year. I can see no difference- same size and shape; the clips look identical. Both have design ID 17979.
The front wing pieces aren't new this year, but the current design ID is. Here's the previous version: https://brickset.com/parts/design-17979
@560heliport said:
" @Slobrojoe said:
"You said that the wings were new this year, but didn’t they come in 75135 Obi-wan’s Jedi Interceptor among other sets?
Edit: they may be a slightly different design that I’m just not noticing, but not sure."
I've just compared the wing pieces from 66547 , from 2016, and 71713 , this year. I can see no difference- same size and shape; the clips look identical. Both have design ID 17979.
"
That’s what I thought. Thanks for the clarification :)
Lloyd's torso is actually new! in the winter wave the ninjagin on his torso and jay's and Cole's had a typo that read manter instead of master. kai's also says master. besides that, I really like the build and the new beak piece is really Cool. I'll definitely buy this set when it comes out in the US
Double the price of the original?
TLG have gone crazy with the RRP's.
Although this is a bigger and better version of the original set, that does not justify such a large increase in the price.
Woud like to see a neo-Classic Space version of this