Member review of the week: Journey to the Skull Dungeons
Posted by Huw,
One of the ideas posted in our new suggestion box last week was to publish some of the best user reviews on the home page, which I think is a great idea, both to give good reviews more exposure and to encourage more people to write them.
So, once a week, on #MembersMonday, I'll take a look at those submitted the week before and choose one to publish here. First up, then, is a review of one of this year's Ninjago sets by Green_Bricks:
A hidden gem amongst the summer 2020 releases
I actually stumbled upon 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons by chance; I keep my eye on a few select themes when pictures are leaked every wave, and usually discard the rest, so I had no idea this set existed until it caught my eye on a toy store’s online product page. With all that in mind, I nabbed it when it went for 20% off at Argos in the UK recently, during their unprecedented clearance season recently.
All I can say is that, especially for the price I paid, it’s an amazing set by all metrics, and an absolute bargain.
Building experience
There was quite a lot of variety with this set, with the two main sections being the zigzagging pathway and the clifftop hideaway of sorts. There were quite a few nice orange pieces, including translucent orange for the lava, so opening each new bag was a surprise of its own. There were no ground breaking techniques to find here, but I liked building the rockwork and the stone steps that led up to it.
There were minimal stickers, which were mostly related to the board game aspect of this model, so I kept quite a few of them off, leading to a pleasingly non-stressful experience! The only gripe I had was that I couldn’t really spread out the building process, which I like to do with my sets, by doing something else in between bags. The set does contain 3 numbered bags, but when I finished bag 2, the model felt quite flimsy, so I felt I had to open up bag 3 to finish off that section, rather than leaving it for an hour or two. That’s quite a personal complaint, so I’ll let you decide if that ruins the process for you.
Completed model
Despite predominantly being a play set, this set looks fantastic. From the desired angle, the rockwork looks fairly realistic for the limited number of pieces the designers were restricted to. Details like the embers heating up a cauldron work well, and the general look of the natural environment is convincing and realistic.
The way the lava flows through the gaps in the rocks looks great. My point is that, if you bought this model purely as a display piece, you wouldn’t be disappointed. The fact that it functions as a board game is a bonus to someone like me; I don’t plan on playing it myself, but who knows, if we go into a second lock down, it’s ready and waiting!
Minifigures
Jay, Lloyd & Nya - the 3 ninjas here look fantastic, and were one of the main things that caught my eye in the first place for this set. Pieces with multiple colours have clear, defined lines between them, and the attention to detail with the chest and shoulder armour is a nice touch. All 3 ninjas have the same, beautiful dragon printed shield (I cannot wait to utilise those in a MOC!), along with double-sided faces with happy and serious expressions (again, great for the MOC builders).
Lloyd and Nya both have decent accessories, with a sword and a spear between them, but Jay’s flail, or ‘spiky ball on a chain’ as known by me in the Google search for its name, is fantastic. Overall, the hero minifigures here are incredible, and as someone who has Lloyd as his profile picture on Instagram, it’s great to get another version.
Murt - without knowing quite how to explain it, if Murt was a word, it would perfectly describe the appearance of this character. He’s like the barbarian of Ninjago, with an axe for chopping and a bare, muscled chest for fighting. His facial expression with the 2 teeth poking out is hilarious, and reminds me of my cat! Bricklink tells me that his hair has featured in multiple sets, but it’s certainly new to me, and is again perfectly fitting for a brutish villain character. I didn’t really give this figure any consideration when I bought this set, but now that I own him, he’s definitely one of my favourite minifigures that I’ve purchased in a set recently.
The 3 Ps
- Price - I already spoiled this point, but for £24.99 retail price, this is a bargain in my eyes, and getting it for £20 made it even better. Great price to part ratio, and a fitting volume of stuff in the final product
- Playability - Having a board game in a LEGO set might be the epitome of playability! Features include a cage to trap minifigures in, which can be raised and lowered with a crank at the back, the exploding rockwork which is triggered by a lever embedded into the rocky steps, and the fact that Murt has his own little bedroom at the back of the set. Lots of potential for play here overall
- Parts - the translucent orange and regular orange parts are both welcome inclusions, as are all the dark grey rock pieces (most of my slopes are light grey, so maybe this set will get torn down for parts eventually!). You also get half a dozen 2x2 plates with only one row of studs, which I might also nab for MOCs down the line. You could probably also get some value out of this set as a reseller, as it contains a Big Ugly Rock Piece (which I love because LEGO fans call it a BURP!) along with a very precisely moulded spinner, some lovely green flame pieces, and a beautifully moulded sword which is exclusive to this wave of sets. Lots of value to be seen here
Conclusion
I’m not even a Ninjago fan particularly, and I have plenty of praise for this set. I’ve given most aspects of it a 5 in my rating above, which seems a little extreme for such a small set, but realistically, it has very few faults. Obviously, if you’re someone who collects direct to consumer sets and displays them proudly in an office behind a glass cabinet front, something this small won’t meet your needs, but if you’re someone who just wants a break from everything going on in the world and needs to unwind for an hour, this is the perfect set; you get a fun build and a neat little model at the end!
If you'd like us to feature your review here, get writing!
114 likes
16 comments on this article
This is a great feature, hopefully it will have a positive effect on the number of reviews written.
I think one strong element of this set also comes from it working well if you have older skeleton mini figures. They fit right into the dungeon setting!
Thanks for implementing this feature, i suggested this as I thought it would be great to see more users opinions on sets and get them seen by more people.
Great first review :)
Its indeed a great set. Would be perfect if instead of Lloyd it had one more Orc
Might buy this for use with LEGO Pirates sets. It has a similar design esthetic. Possibly exchange out the orange bricks and plates for blue ones.
Thanks for sharing; I was a bit confused at first to see my own review on the homepage! And good idea for a new feature; can't wait to see what gets suggested in the future.
Great new feature! Excellent sets at lower price points don't get enough attention, and featuring quality reviews may bring to the forefront low cost sets that are sometimes overlooked, if not on someone's radar (i.e. in a theme to which someone may not be paying attention).
Thanks go to Green_Bricks for the wonderful review, to those who submitted the new idea, and to Huw for implementing what was proposed!
Both of the playsets from this Ninjago wave a SO nice
Excellent idea. While the Brickset regulars do a great job of reviews, week in, week out, it's a pleasant change to read a review from a different author.
Might dust off the keyboard and start submitting a few myself...
A really great review. I appreciated the comments on price and play ability. Showed the reviewer did research by citing how often pieces had been used in the past. I particularly liked pointing out the pieces the reviewer though about for MOCs as that is often how I approach a set. I think the shields are going to be great. Oddly the grey ones are available from lego.com, but not the gold ones.
Nice review and a nice new feature, I picked up 71722 Skull Sorcerors Dungeon and 71721 Skull sorcerors Dragon in the same Argos sale (30% off) and may just need to pick this one up to add to the dungeon.
The lava and stone effects are much better than the ones in, say, the LotR 9476 Orc Forge or the awful Hobbit 79010 Goblin King Battle. I know it's silly, but using swords as bars in the gibbet here is so much cleverer than the similar gibbets in the Hobbit 79014 Dol Guldur Battle set!
Originally I wasn't really interested in this set, but once Amazon had it on sale for 15.59 Euro, I simply couldn't resist. Even if I use it only as a parts pack, it is a great bargain, and if I decide to build it anyway, I now know it's also a great little set in its own right.
It’s nice that Hero Nya is available in multiple sets, after Digi Nya only showed up in one.
Because of the fact that it contacts a BURP, I am delighted.
First of all, great writeup!
In my opinion, in an era of sets that don't match up to their pricetag in terms of price-per-part ratios or builds, this is exactly the opposite at only $30. For that price, you've 400 parts (so, already, a great PPP ratio), 4 minifigures (rare in a $30 set), plenty of useful parts (including a few big ones like BURPs) that tend to run up the price per part, and a quite striking build that combines with others in the range to form a boardgame and an even nicer display when put together.
While Ninjago has not interested me outside a few polybags I've picked up when my Walmart used to only carry polys around Easter and Christmas, this may be one I might have to pick up. In my opinion, this is one of the best sets of 2020, as it ticks many boxes. Great build, great price, great parts ratio and content. And when discounted on top of that already great price--it's a no brainer.