Out of all the Ninjago packs, I decided to choose this one due to the abilities it provided. [insert cliche "was it the right choice?" question to hook readers]

Box/Instructions

The box is nicely designed to stand out on the shelf, although it does blend in with all of the similar Dimensions boxes. Perhaps a different background color for each character would be better.

Parts

This set has very few notable parts to me, with the most interesting perhaps being the golden 2x2 round tile.

Minifigures

Zane here is in his Titanium Ninja form, which looks great. His head has two sides, one with a blue HUD and an eyepiece, and another with the more humanoid silver faceplate and uncovered eyes. While the former looks better under the hood, the latter looks better uncovered. His body is nicely patterned with his robes, and there's a power core on his back. He comes with his traditional shurikens, making his katana-holding shoulder armor seem a bit pointless.

The build

The build for the NinjaCopeter is pretty good, with the central turbine incorporated pretty nicely.

The completed model

The NinjaCopter itself looks okay, and is recognizable as Cyrus Borg's vehicle, now owned by Zane. However, I think it might have looked that much better if they had recolored the valve wheels in pearl gold to match the giant turbine in the middle, both from the show and the full-sized set.

Gameplay

I chose Zane because he seemed to be one of the more useful ninja. His abilities are to use acrobatic objects, activate Spinjitzu switches which require the extra centrifugal force to push down, and use stealth and X-ray vision. While he doesn't have anything else, he's still good to have for the aforementioned abilities. Like the other ninja, Zane has a Spinjitzu meter which increases after defeating enemies, similarly to the Chima character's CHI meters. Using Spinjitzu in combat tosses enemies around, and in this case, freezes them and breaks them apart. In this way, the meter can be kept at a stable fullness, as combat fills it up and its best use is...in combat! However, I have found the frozen enemies to be a bit buggy, sometimes being stuck in ice instead of shattering like they're supposed to.

The Ninja-Copter is fairly basic, not too special, but it does have the basic flying vehicle abilities.

The Ninjago Adventure World he granted me access to is nice, with some important characters and locations featured. The world seems mostly patterned on the early show and the Tournament of Elements arc, featuring Master Chen's arena (which must be restored), a village area, some caves, a large volcano, the Valley of Despair (the Skullkin's home), and the mountain monastery/dojo.

Overall opinion

I think this pack is a good choice for Wave 1, even if you get the other ninja, since he has some useful abilities for puzzle-solving.

Set #71217 Fun Pack Zane: This first batch of Fun Pack reviews I’ve written has featured a lot of Ninjago characters, Zane is a pretty popular figure too so getting the Titanium Ninja in such a cheap set is a huge plus and a big draw for this pack.

Packaging

It’s the same fun pack packaging… I should really just start omitting this section from reviews, but as a slightly OCD reviewer I tend to want to keep everything uniform looking. Ah well, it’s a pretty good shot of Zane on the front of the box for this set.

Parts

Nothing uncommon in this set, the parts are all fairly common with exception the toy tags and honestly these packs are mostly similar to Polybags in piece count and model design so they don’t really make for decent parts packs if you’re looking to MOC something.

Minifigures

Zane: The Titanium Ninja himself with a print that is identical the version found in the larger Titanium Dragon set, it’s a very impressive print though, I really like the look of the Gi he’s wearing and the facial expression is very inspired. His accessories include two golden ninja stars.

The build

NinjaCopter: Building this model is really fun, it’s a great little version of the NinjaCopter. Fast and simple build of a very fun model to play with.

Glaciator: This model looks odd, but it’s pretty interesting and the build is fast and simple enough to follow along with.

Freeze Fighter: This third build works and is again a very fast and simple build, each model works with enough variety to make each design really stand out compared to some of the other Ninja vehicles.

The completed model

NinjaCopter: A fun and enjoyable model to play with on and off the toy tag. The physical model differs from the digital model only slightly, mostly where the cockpit is concerned because the digital model requires space for a Minifigure.

Glaciator: This physical model is fun looking too, but as with most of the builds the digital model cheats a lot. It uses mostly similar parts, however a few are clearly altered and the propellers use different parts altogether as well as attachment points.

Freeze Fighter: This model isn’t too bad, the digital model seems to get rid of the flag pieces as wings and isn’t a perfect match, but you can safely see what it’s trying to be. All three of the models are really fun too when detached from the toy tags, great to swish around or display on their own.

The Digital Content

The Adventure World: Here we go once again to the Ninjago Adventure world, fortunately there’s only two more Fun Packs that unlock this particular adventure world to discuss so we won’t have to keep repeating this information. I believe Ninjago and DC Comics Super Hero World are the two most numerous packs for unlocking their respective Adventure Worlds.

Character & Vehicle Abilities: As a ninja master of Spinjitzu Zane’s abilities naturally include the Acrobat, Spinjitzu and Stealth abilities, unique to him are three abilities, he can Dive, use X-Ray Vision and trigger Batarang switches with the Boomerang ability.

All three vehicles fly, they can activate Flight Cargo Hooks or Flight Docks, each upgrade adds a new ability, the Glaciator has a Special Attack while the Freeze Fighter can destroy Gold LEGO Objects, which is odd for an ice shooting ninja master to be able to do.

Overall opinion

Zane has some good abilities and is a strong contender for one of the best packs to get in order to unlock the Ninjago Adventure world. In fact I feel is one you need to get because I don’t think Superman can use his X-Ray vision while under water, whereas Zane can, he can also use X-Ray vision while performing Stealth which I think cropped up once or twice during game play. There’s some nice interaction dialogue between him and other characters too, so he’s all around really a good pack to get if you’re not trying to get every single pack from the game.