For Cole he may be the leader of the NinjaGo Ninjas the 1 that he really love is his dragon Rocky.

So when he heard the his lovable Earth Defense Dragon was hibernating he felt sad, but somehow his Golden Scythe can do wonders and did that Scythe do?

Well it transform into a off road 4X4 truck type dune buggy, he calls it the Tread Assault.

So if the Fangpyres ever want a off road racing battle, well they're think twice because this Earth type vehicle squished these snakes to the curb.

Box/Instructions

The box is a good-looking overview of the set. It tells you which minifigs and Serpentine staffs are in the set. The Instructions are easy to follow.

Parts

The parts in this set are outstanding. Golden spikes everywhere! I especially like the black blades and the spinner crowns on the wheels.

Minifigures

General Skales is definitely the minifig that made me buy this set. He has a cool new rubber tail piece, and also a neat-looking headpiece. Cole ZX is the standard, but still very cool. Finally, the half-minifig of the mini-snake is a nice new addition to the 2012 Ninjago sets.

The build

The build was a good, long build of about 25 minutes. With all the working parts to this set, it was especially fun to put together.

The completed model

The completed model is a slick, reversible vehicle that will add a whole other level of fun to
Ninjago battles!

Summary

A great set, that will be a good addition to your collection.

LEGO Ninjago set 9444 Cole's Tread Assault remembers the episode where the Ninjago Cole wants to recover the scepter of gold from Hypnobrai General of the tribe of snakes Hyponbrai: Skales, who tries to use his brain power to stop it. Cole, counterattacks hypnotic powers with Cole's Tread Assaul t vehicle Launching the rock shooter and ninja bladesoff-road using ninja blades.

The set 9444 is sold in a box of medium size but not too thick, and consists of:

• Cole's tread assault
• Minifig Cole
• Minifig of Skales
• A scepter Hypnobrai

and is aimed to an audience of at least eight years old, in this case I think we can safely say that even children with a year younger and a bit of experience with the LEGO bricks (if anything, helped by an adult for the bottom the terrain consists mainly of LEGO Tecnic pieces) are able to assemble and play without running into problems.

In the box there are three envelopes containing the brick and two booklets, following the scheme proposed by LEGO to assembly the set, you begin to build the two minifigs Cole with armor and Skales with the scepter, then start the construction of the lower part of the off-road.

Here the assembly get a bit more complicated, because you have to create mechanisms that allow the rotation of the rock shooter and the rotation of the cockpit and you have to be careful because you feel you are creating a set LEGO Tecnic rather than one Ninjago. Complete these parts with the frame to support that integrates also the supports for the wheels, you passes to the assembly of the lower part or if you want the second top face (since the off-road can be completely rotated 180 degrees along the longitudinal plane) installing various green brick; then you continue installing the rubber band for the opening of the six wings of the tread assault and the completion of the front structure. Reached this point you switches to the second instruction booklet that begins with the realization of the mechanism that, by means of levers operated from the rear of the vehicle, allows the opening of the blades of the terrain (exploiting the rubber band previously installed to return in the position of rest ). To complete the vehicle remains to install the three pairs of blades (side, center and rear) and the two pairs of wheels.

In total, the time spent by a boy of 8-10 years old is around 40-45 minutes and then extensively in the time required by medium sets.

A closer look at the tread assault, you notice that the choice to have the chance to overturn the carrying out two top surfaces is a strong limit on the design of the vehicle. For the realization of the cockpit was choose a limited height that leads to insert the minifigs of COLE in a relaxed position without the control command; in addition, the side having green surface appears made too much simple, almost approximate and without personality losing any type of comparison with the black surface.

On the other hand, in the set there are many gold parts (much sought), blades of all types and also two crowns used usually for the spinner, as well as the minifigs of Skales is present only also in the 9446 set.

Even in the case of this set is known a high lack of proportion between the minifigs and the off-road, but this appears to be a guideline of the whole Ninjago series.

After completing the assembly I find it useful to report:

PRO

• Very attractive design of the vehicle.
• System of levers which allows the opening of the black blades.
• Rock shooter.
• Various special gold parts.

AGAINST

• Cockpit sacrificed with very little natural arrangement of the minifig and away from the controls.
• Second surface (the green one) realized with little personality.
• Absence of a system for shock absorbers
• Lack of proportion between the minifig and off-road.

Conclusions

I find the set 9444 very interesting for the solution adopted in the implementation in the opening mechanism of the black blades. In addition, together with the set 9449, they are the only set with vehicle moved on wheels made for the NINJA in the Ninjago series, so cannot miss in private collection.

Overall Rating

Good

Here you can find the complete review with all the photos:

http://brickreview.blogspot.it/2012/11/lego-9444-il-fuoristrada-di-cole.html

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