Each of the six ninjas have a vehicle in the Lego Ninjago Movie and this is Lloyd’s. Lego often makes dragons and they vary in quality but this is one of my favourites.

The Minifigures

Lloyd: Lloyd wears the two piece headgear from The Lego Ninjago Movie. He has green eyes, an expression of concentration on one side of his head and a smile on the other. His torso looks fantastic; the pattern of black diamonds on his black robe can be seen when you hold it up to the light. His robe has a green trim and gold details with a symbol on the back of his body. His arms are printed too, with more black diamonds and green trim. His legs are wrapped in green bands and he carries a curved sword with a gold tassel.

Wu: This is another great minifigure. Wu wears his tan conical hat, and has a white beard. He only has a single focused expression. His torso is plain but appropriate with a red symbol on the back and detailed clasps on the front. Unusually, he wears a cloth skirt piece over his legs, which has a print that continues the pattern of clasps from his torso, to nice effect. His tan legs are plain besides the feet which have sandals printed on them, but as the skirt covers his legs the lack of print is appropriate. He carries a wooden staff.

Garmadon: The Lego Ninjago Movie version of Garmadon looks very imposing. This figure’s black helmet has a new mould with “V” shaped horns on it, and his face has red eyes and a grin. He wears a cape over his shoulder armour which drapes down his front in two pieces. Garmadon's extra pair of arms are attached to a new armour piece. This piece features silver highlights and blue tassels. The simple body print shows grey ribs and a blue belt. The belt print continues to his legs. He is equipped with four silver katanas which he wields simultaneously.

Charlie: The last (and least interesting) figure in this set is Charlie, a shark army thug. He wears a dark blue knitted cap and has a badly shaven face. His torso and legs have a print showing a harness, belt, and knee pads. He carries a fish spike weapon.

The side build

This set comes with the Ultimate Weapon…..... a life-sized laser pointer! This is mainly built with technic pins and connectors but it uses some cool pieces in interesting ways; an inkwell as a handle, a life saving ring as the keychain attachment and a lightsaber blade as the beam emitting from it.

The set

This robotic dragon is one of the most impressive of the six ninja vehicles, and the colour scheme of sand green and gold looks awesome. One of the most important parts of a pose able creature is the articulation. The head is attached with a ratcheted joint that can turn side to side and rotate 360 degrees but it cannot move up and down. The neck is also articulated giving the much-needed “up and down” motion. The front and back legs also have ratcheted joints that allow forward-backwards and in-out motion. The feet are on ball joints which rotate in all directions. An interesting technique is used to give motion to the middle of the body. The torso is built in two halves, connected with a technic pin. Rubber technic joints on either side of the pivot allow the body to move side to side but not excessively. The tail is my least favourite part of the set. An action feature lets you turn a gear so the tail waves side to side. While I like the inclusion of an action feature, the tail has no friction so it curls around the body naturally and can’t be posed otherwise. I would instead use Mixel style ball joints which can be posed in any position although the action feature wouldn’t work.

The dragon is very well detailed. The head uses a combination of two techniques. The lower jaw and the snout are individual parts but the rest of the head is built up. I like the use of soup bowls with transparent green minifigure heads as eyes. Gold bananas are used for eye details as well. A green book piece is used as a control panel on the neck where Lloyd sits. I appreciate the inclusion of a small clip to store Lloyds weapon on the side of the neck. Black spines run down the dragons back which can be angled individually. Gold stud shooters are attached to the dragons front legs.

While this is one of the cheapest and smallest vehicles out of the six Ninjago Movie ninja vehicles, the 544 parts are used to good effect and it looks, and plays, like a much larger set. $90 aud is a great price, especially considering the minifigures Wu and Garmadon and the fairly rare sand green colour scheme. I definitely recommend this set.

Summary

This is one of those sets that I find difficult not to gush about. The Green Ninja Mech Dragon was the first of the Ninjago Movie sets I got - well before I saw the movie itself. As soon as the initial picks came out, it pretty much shot to the top of my wishlist - and boy, did it not disappoint. Being in the lucky position to have all Ninjago Movie Ninja Mechs in my collection, I would say this is the best of them all overall (close to the Quake Mech), and IMHO by far the best value for money. IMHO it is in the top three of Ninjago Movie stes (with Ninjago City and Destiny's Bounty). It actually makes for a very nice model even as a standalone, without any of the minifigures placed to it. Even at RRP it has good value for money, but if you can get it on a discount, go get it.

Build experience

The build was a whole lot of fun. Yes, it includes a considerable amount of stickers (as with all Ninjago Movie Sets), but they definitely add to the looks - and break up the sand green bulk. There are numerous unusual part - common parts in unusual colours (mostly sand green), as well as things like golden bananas and the snout and lower jaw of the dragon's head. I guess sand green droid arms are a rarity as well.

The construction sequence is logical, and not that difficult at all. Although there are a number of similar assemblies - and numerous spikes to be added - at no point the build becomes monotonous. Younger children should be able to build this dragon, though adults will come in handy with the application of the stickers.

The designer has used great techniques, en made interesting use of various parts especially in the construction for the head of the dragon. Golden banana eye-lids, toilet-bowl eyes, scythe-eyebrows... rubber Technic pieces for the articulation of the back, and a nice HUD for Lloyd. There is quite a bit of SNOT used as well.

Building the dragon was good for something like 90 minutes or so of building fun.

The minifigures

There are four minifigures included in this set, and if there is anything to nit-pick about, this is it. Only one of the four minifigures is unique (Garmadon in armour and robe), and none of them stand out (Loyd is found in 4 sets, Charlie/Shark Army Gunner in 3, and Master Wu in 2). This is the cheapest set to get Lloyd though, Wu and Charlie cheaper sets exist. The Garmadon is nice, and frankly this is the Garmadon I like most from those in the regular Ninjago Movie Sets. Garmadon can be armed with the Ultimate Weapon.

The build

I love a good dragon, and IMHO this could well be the best looking dragon of all the dragons within the Ninjago range. The articulation is awesome, and helped by a technic pin at the beginning of the tail. The tail can actually be used as a weapon - presumably as with a real life dragon. Overall, articulation is good to superb. The head itself cannot be moved up or down (only left to right), while the neck can only be moved up or down, due to the use of ratchet joints.

The engines are nicely hidden inside the body (when not used), though one needs to move the front legs forward to create the room needed to fold them in or out. All spikes can be moved (almost as if to give one the opportunity to depict the mood of the dragon by their position). A very nice addition is that there is a storage for Lloyd's sword. The winglets are okay. Personally I think the colour scheme very well chosen. The face of the dragon itself is almost expressive. The many joints allow for a lot of flexibility, and quite a few different poses. There is also decent flexibility in the legs, with the use of hip and ankle joints. The rubber technic pieces force the back back into a straight position, but allow flexibility during play.

Play vs Display

In my opinion this is one of those sets that has equal play and display value - and both are great. The dragon has great swooshability, two well integrated stud-shooters, the flexible tail, and nice movement in the body make sure of that. It is easy to see children flying the dragon around (as I have seen my nephews do). The one negative (arguably) is that the only adversarial element in the set is are the two minifigures. There is no Shark Army vehicle or other object included. At the same time the dragon is big enough and has enough character that it can also stand alone as a display piece.

The verdict

In general, I think this dragon a set that should appeal to a very wide audience: people loving dragons and other Lego animals, those liking unusual machines and the fans of Ninjago and the Ninjago Movie. IMHO this is one of the best sets within the whole Ninjago Movie range, and by far the best in the 30-100 euro's segment in bang-for-buck. To me it is the best of all the Ninja mechs in the series, being in the lucky position to be able to compare them all in real life. If having to choose one Ninja Mech, for me this would be the one to get. The strength of the kit is the dragon itself - beautiful in colour, great looks, well designed, fun to build with some unusual pieces, and creative use of what pieces do exist. Although a mech, I think the dragon very life-like, and full of character. At RRP it is already worth it, and if it can be found on a discount, I would highly recommend getting this one.

I am probably sand green's biggest fan. I also really like dragons, and gold, and Garmadon, and the Mech Dragon in the movie, so I just had to have this set, since it contained all of the above! The reason I like Ninjago is because of the dragons and the Asian-styled architecture. This set combines a little of both. It is an Asian-style dragon( the kind with long tendrils and no wings)! But lets see if it lives up to expectations...

Minifigures:

There are four minifigures in this set:

• the green Ninja: I prefer the black-with-(elemental color) versions of the ninja rather than the solid-color variations, and this is one of the better ones. There's just enough green and gold details to stand out, yet not be too much. There is some lovely subtle black scales printed everywhere, even on the arms. The best is the new two-piece mask, which is slightly loose-fitting, but the versatility makes up for it. Definitely one of the best Lloyds yet.
• Sensei Wu: Unfortunately Master Wu is rather disappointing. The details are nice, especially the red design on the back, but the skirt/robe thing does not work well. It leaves some large gaps and is very hard to get on straight. Other than that, he's a fine minifig, but the cloth robe let me down.
• Garmadon: Is awesome. His extra-arms torso would normally leave gaps, but his dark blue robe covers those, and his decorated helmet is to be admired. His weapon is the laser pointer, a most delightful brick-built human accessory! definitely my favorite Garmadon figure.
• Shark army gunner: A common minifig, but he is a very good figure. Lots of detail, nice coloring, and he carries a FISH WEAPON! What could possibly be better than a fish weapon?!? Well, maybe a sand green fish weapon ;). Now THAT would be awesome!

Parts:

The Mech Dragon has many awesome rare parts, obviously sand green, but several others too. I have listed all the rare (under a dozen sets) parts, and some that piqued my interest:

• 1 of black 2x2 technic brick w/ front fork, a very peculiar piece I've never seen before.
• 9 of black rubber spine, which are the spikes running down the back.
• 2 of black 2x2 inverted dome
• 2 of dark grey 1x2 plate w/ ball cup long, rare in this color.
• 1 of dark grey life bouy w/ stud, representing the key ring on the laser ponter.
• 2 of earth green 1x2 inverted curved slope. surprisingly, there are quite a few earth green elements in this set. I didn't even know it had any! They are used on the underside of the mech.
• 2 of earth green 2x2 plate w/ technic ring
• 2 of earth green 4x4 inveted slope, 45° and 18°, so far exclusive to this set.
• 2 of trans. neon-green minifigure head, for those monochrome minifigure nuts.
• 9 of gold 2x2 plate
• 2 of gold design element w/ shaft, used as curled whiskers.
• 2 of gold banana, yes, two GOLD BANANAS!!!
• 10 of gold bar w/ hole 3.2mm, appearing for the first time in gold.
• 6 of gold 2x2 plate w/ click hinge, also a first time in gold.

I put the sand green pieces in a separate list.

• 10 of sand green 1x3 plate. There are several other generic sand green plates in this set as well, but I won't go into depth.
• 10 of sand green 2x2x2/3 curved slope
• 6 of sand green 1x3 curved slope
• 3 of sand green small skeleton arm, including the spare.
• 2 of sand green wedge flag w/ 2 clips
• 2 of sand green 1x2 "cheese grater" slope
• 6 pairs of sand green 2x4 slope, 45° and 18°, left and right,
• 2 of sand green 1x4 curved slope
• 2 of sand green 3x4x3 panel w/ 2 bars, which can only be found elsewhere in 70620 NINJAGO city.
• 8 of sand green 1x2x2/3 curved slope

Now we come to the best part... the new molds!

• The first new mold is dragon upper jaw. It's a very nice design, with flared nostrils, teeth, a 3.2mm hole on each side, and a single technic hole at the back. I am glad Lego finally decided to make a generic dragon head mold that can be used for any dragon, unlike Ninjago and elves dragon heads before it.
• The second new mold is dragon lower jaw. It also is very good design, with teeth and some flares on each side. The only connections are two hollow studs near the front of the jaw, and a 2x2 plate at the back. Let's hope we soon see these elements in more colors!

I almost forgot, there is one printed piece: a trans. green book cover, printed with black control panel designs. That has got to be the best use for a book element ever! The spine is actually a bar, which is attached to the skeleton arms mentioned earlier.

Certainly you could buy the Mech Dragon simply for the parts!

Build:

Opening the box (aaahh, sweet Billund air) reveals 4 bags numbered 1 - 4 accordingly. The box wasn't stuffed full, and unfortunately the 2 instruction booklets (75 pages and 63 pages respectively) were folded. I really hate folded instructions. Luckily, the sticker sheet (15 stickers) came out unscathed. Only the control panel sticker need be applied, the mech dragon looks fine without the rest.

• Bag 1: builds part of the body, which is a lovely blend of technic and system.
• Bag 2: builds the other part of the body (there is a connection between the two that uses rubber bands to give it a bit of spring), and the front legs.
• Bag 3: builds the tail and back legs. we will talk more about the tail later.
• Bag 4: finishes the build with the neck and head. This was the most fun part, as there were some interesting bits here, and the giant size of the set becomes apparent

Overall an awesome build, not to complicated, but enough to keep you interested all the way.

Completed Model:

It's beautiful. The Chinese-style dragon was a great choice, and who knew sand green, gold, and black would look so lovely... I particularly love the head, the gold eyebrows and whiskers are just so genius. But the best part is the eyes. They are actually angled froward slightly because they are attached to upside-down minifigure handlebars!!! The jet engines are hid very well behind hinged panels, and the spines run continually down the back. But what really surprised me was how gigantic it was! Fully 60 centimeters long, about 10 studs longer than Destiny's Bounty! It is an amazing set, I only have two complaints.

1. As usual with Ninjago dragons, the legs are terrible. There is not enough sand green, and too many colorful elements are exposed. But they are better than most Ninjago dragon legs, and I found them relatively easy to modify with some pieces from my collection.

2. Here we come to the tail. Actually, it's not all that bad. There is a gear at the base that swipes the tail from side to side as a weapon, which is pretty much the only real function this set has. The downside is that the tail won't stay straight when you pose or fly it, rather it bumps against the sides of the mech dragon. This is very frustrating as I really wanted to swoosh the mech dragon around the room, and it is very hard to modify, due to the weight.

So there are some problems, but they are not as bad as they could be. The legs are certainly better than many other Ninjago dragons, and the tail serves as cool play function, though ironically being ultimately detrimental to play.

Overall Opinion:

In spite of some shortcomings, this is definitely one of the best Ninjago Dragons ever! In fact, let me name all the amazing Lego dragons out there.... no, don't get me started. We'll be here for a week. Anyway, the point is that this dragon is great! The title is the best summary of this set. It's huge, it's sand green and gold, it has two awesome new molds, many awesome parts, and it comes with the movie's two main characters. What more could you want? I would absolutely recommend 70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon!

This dragon is probably the coolest looking beast that LEGO has ever released, thus far. It is an asian styled dragon, thus it has no big wings like the european styled dragon.

Although it does no have the same range of articulation as its smaller brother (30428), it still offers a lot of poses and ways to animate it. Especially the black horns, that go from its neck till the end of its tail, and the small wings attached to his shoulders enable you to give the dragon some form of expression like anger or calmness.

There is just one let down and that is the head-neck region. The neck goes up a bunch of clicks but only one click down. You can actually improve the model and exchange the golden 2x2 tile with two 1x1 studs from spare parts so it moves two clicks down, enough to reach the ground with its nose.

You can rotate the head and move it from left to right, it can not look up or down. The mouth can be opened but I would have liked to see the lower jaw being attached a bit closer to the skull so it doesn't look too goofy if you open it up very widely. The tongue and whiskers look just awesome and can be used for even more expressions.

The torso is shock absorbed by some rubber pieces, keeping the dragon's sleek silhouette intact during flying. You could take those rubber pieces out if you want to achieve a certain pose where the torso needs to bend to one way or another. The rest of the model is very sturdy, nothing falls off, resulting in a very high swoosh factor. Don't forget to bring up the thrusters during flying! ;)

There are three main play features built into this set:

• You can throw Garmadon and his minion away by swinging the dragon's tail back and fourth, the mechanic works very well but the tail tends to lean to either side while standing still, so you better lower his back as much as possible so that the tail stays in position.
• Fight between the minifigs, Garmadon vs. Master Wu and Lloyd.
• Flying mode, see above.

Besides these, you can also grab minifigs with his head or claws and fire the dragon's stud shooters (meh). Talking of minifigs, they are all very good and each of them comes with their own signature weapon. It's sad that we don't get Lloyds hair piece, though. Also, I don't get the ultimate ultimate weapon.. its too heavy for minifigs and they can barely hold it straight.

The build was a lot of fun, although there are no new building techniques used, it is great to see the dragon come to life. The color scheme is fantastic, gold and black goes so well with sand green which is the most dominant color in this set. The whole model consists of 11 parts:

• 2 torso parts
• 4 legs
• 3 tail parts
• 1 neck
• 1 head

Everything is connected by simple ball joints or rotation joint balls (vert./horiz.) for more solid connections.

Overall I am very pleased by how this set turned out, It is worth its price but I would love to see someone to come up with a way to move the head around more freely, let me know if you found a good solution for that.

The set does not come with a stand, I built one on my own to be able to display it in flying mode.

Pre-Release Thoughts

As a huge Ninjago fan, I felt it was my duty to buy all the sets from TLNM. I had to start somewhere, so this was the first TLNM set I bought. I loved the building experience and had a lot of fun playing with the dragon. Now I'm posting my review for others to see.

Build Experience

I was a fairly young kid when I built this thing, so I don't quite remember much of it. I remember having a fun time building it, as with most other sets. Nothing really stands out from this experience, but it was fun nonetheless.

Model

The dragon is quite large. It is obviously scaled down from the movie, but even with this smaller version, it retains its important features. The head has a clever integration of pre-made parts and brick-building. The neck is quite pose-able, although I would like some more movement from side to side. The cockpit is located on the neck, with the trans-green control panel standing out. The dragon's chest isn't too bulky or too thin. It is sturdy enough to hold on to, but not large enough so that a kid cannot hold it. There are thrusters located on the sides, giving the dragon a “mech-like” feeling. Spikes are placed all over this dragon, which are certainly serving their purpose of making the dragon look intimidating. The middle section of the dragon slims down as it goes towards the tail, making it the best place to hold the dragon. The tail has a swinging feature, which wasn't as overdone at the time it was released as it is now, so I'll forgive this set. The tail doesn't stand out much, but it can be a cool action feature for young kids to play with.

Minifigures

There are few minifigures in this set. The standout is Lord Garmadon with a new cloth piece covering his torso and legs. Lloyd has a great ninja suit on, mixing black and green. Master Wu comes in this set as well, although he lacks the arm printing present in TLNM. One of Garmadon's goons is here too, with a weird fish spear weapon.

Value

The value of the Green Ninja Mech Dragon is about average. You get around 50 dollars worth of things and not much more.

Pros

• Fun play features
• Good colours
• Useful sand green parts
• Good for kids

Cons

• Lots of stickers
• Mostly common figures

Overall

I collected this set a couple of years ago and I still like it. It's a fairly average LEGO set, but it means a lot to me because of TLNM. It is a good set, but I could recommend you some better things. I would recommend it to you if you really like sand green or dragons. I'm sure some people would get a real kick out of this.

- Christmaskingcool