71829 Lloyd's Green Forest Dragon LEGO Review - Ninjago, 2025

Three different types of dragon in one box!

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $19.99
• Pieces: 128
• Minifigure(s): Lloyd, Dragonian Scout, Baby dragonx
• Sticker Sheet: No
• Pros: Dragons and minifigs (and a dragon minifig!)
• Cons: No landscape elements, limited flexibility

Assembly: 

Bag #1 - Lloyd, dragon torso, head & tail

Bag #2 - Dragonian scout, baby dragon, dragon wings & saddle

 Leftover Pieces

• Interesting Steps:
• 25: This step has us attach perpendicular handles to the ends of the whips to make reins for the dragon. The attachment point can be a bit fragile, but they definitely look distinctive.

• 44: The 1x2 clip holds both the 5L bar with handle and the pearl gold claw, making them appear as though they're one piece (imagine how much more impressive this would be with matching colors).

• Interesting Techniques:
• The feet are simple but sturdy, with two forward claws clipped to a pneumatic T-piece, and a heel claw held in a clip.

• Interesting Pieces:
• 8x2x2 inverted double slope, which forms the core of the dragon's torso. It's a good way to add strength without overmuch bulk or mass.

• The dragon's head is a single piece, with a Technic pin hole as only attachment point; there isn't even option for a brick-built articulated jaw as in The Dragon of Life.

• The printed dragon banner tile is a work of art in itself, I'll definitely be putting this up on a minifigure-scale wall in a future build.

• The wing pieces (created for the Ninjago: Dragons Rising seasons 3 and 4 sets) have a bar on the leading edge for a clip-on claw.

• Pain Points:
• The wing pieces look great, but are bulky and inflexible. To make up for it, the rest of the dragon is pretty well designed in terms of flexibility (though it should be noted that the leg pieces are joined at the hips by a one-directional click-hinge, which severely limits their movement as well).

• Overall:  This is a great set for the price, effectively giving you four characters, one of which is also a very animated vehicle (so to speak). There are some creative build techniques and interesting pieces, but also plenty of straightforward approaches (like the ball and socket joints on the dragon's tail and neck). It also looks good, as most of the modern Ninjago sets do.

While I don't need another copy of the Lloyd—even with an exclusive printing, there's so many variants of the ninjas in these sets—I'm always happy to get another Dragonian. And the baby dragon is appropriately super cute. However, the lack of any sort of set piece, landscape, or building, prevents this from being a top-tier set. I could imagine that a price increase of $5 would easily have covered a side-build, like the temple in the Nine-Headed Beast set, for example. 

That aside, it's still a great value, and was fun to build. I'd definitely recommend picking one up while they're still available at LEGO.com (or waiting to see if you can get lucky and snag one when it gets discounted but before it's out of stock).

Score (out of 5 🧱):

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

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

Lego Instructions: here