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71824 Sora's Dragon Spinjitsu Spinner LEGO Review - Ninjago, 2025




TL;DR:

  • Original Price:  $9.99
  • Pieces: 56
  • Minifigure(s): Sora, Dragonian Warrior, Dragon "critter"
  • Sticker Sheet: No
  • Pros: Great minifig and interesting new pieces
  • Cons: Price, piece count

 




 

Assembly: 

 Leftover Pieces


  • Interesting Pieces:
    • Dragon Spinjitsu parts (spinner and launcher) are interesting new builds; it's fascinating how many different ways Lego has devised of getting minifigures to spin (Spinjitsu with the rip cord, Spinjitsu Slam, Dragon Power sphere holders) and this is a particularly elegant little solution—an 8L axle pushes the spinner along the track, its teeth catching on the track's and setting it spinning, with a smooth depression in the bottom allowing the spinner to rotate freely as it's launched. The problem with these is that I haven't yet found any use for them beyond their original purpose.

    • Dragon Spinjitsu effect looks better in print than IRL (the translucency renders the details of the face hard to read); it also looks good in the solid gold used in 71826, for example. I had hoped that these would be good additions to a building façade, but they aren't built to attach securely to bricks: a 1-stud width brick or tile fits inside it, but the it would need to be 6.5 studs long to hold the piece in place (possibly an opportunity for SNOT building). The backside also has some unsightly holes, meaning that the pieces can only be faced one way. I'd seen the gold versions of these pieces used in 71826 as very nice arched decoration on the temple, but it turns out that they are simply rested on top of some tiles (see step 43). These will also take some experimenting to be able to find a way to use them for different purposes.
 
  • Pain Points: The interesting pieces that I got the set for ended up being almost useless, as noted above. They look cool, but so far I haven't seen any way to repurpose them. Hopefully New Elementary will do a thinkpiece on them soon (as they did for the Dragon Power sphere holder sets), or I'll have the time to devote to trying different permutations

The best things about this set are the Dragon Guard minifigure and the little dragon critter. Otherwise, overall it feels like a rough draft of a set, without the polish and story that even the Dragon Power sets managed (with roughly the same part count).

This set is the cheapest way to get the guard (the other set he's in retails for $24.99) and I love the way his face looks: perfect for dragonfolk without needing a molded head (for example, the VIDIYO ones). His helmet, on the other hand, is rather clunky: the top piece doesn't stay secure atop a minifigure head, and its eyeholes aren't placed so the minifigure can see out of them; the neck bracket is also immobile, meaning that the cool-from-a-distance helmet is actually immobile.

The dragon critter (because that's what BrickLink calls the body, and it's neither really a minifigure nor a brickbuilt) is cute, and a new scale, larger than the mini dragonlet that came with the tiefling sorcerer, but smaller than more brickbuilt dragons in other sets. The downside with this one, however, is that the corners of the 1x1 clip stick out from the body and break the silhouette.

I'm glad I got the set, for those figures alone, and the possibility of finding some use for the special pieces. I might keep an eye out for another, just to have a second dragon guard, but only if I can find it on sale.

Score (out of 5 🧱):

  • Price: 🧱
  • Process: 🧱
  • Presentation: 🧱🧱
  • Play: 🧱🧱🧱
  • Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱
  • Total: 🧱🧱 

Lego Instructions: here

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