Pretty snazzy for only a few moments of screen time.
TL;DR:
- Original Price: $54.99
- Pieces: 387
- Minifigure(s): Jay, Kai dragon form, Loyalist leader (Dr. LaRow), Earth monster, Nya
- Sticker Sheet: Yes
- Pros: Some interesting build techniques and pieces, and of course the only set that has Kai's dragon form
- Cons: The way the hood drags when in "battle mode" is unfortunate
Assembly:
Bag #1 - Jay, Kai dragon form, Loyalist leader, palm tree, gear box, missile launcher
Bag #2 - Car cockpit
Bag #3 - Earth monster, car chassis
Bag #4 - Nya, remainder of car
Leftover Pieces
- Interesting Steps:
- 40: I always appreciate when pieces join together in unexpected ways, like the way the cut corner of the blue 4x4 wedge fits into the angle of the black 1x2 wedge tile.
- Interesting Techniques:
- The use of stacked round plates and cones to look like shock absorbers is simple and effective, using a little bit of texture detail to represent something that could easily have been much more complex, especially since they're partially hidden by a lot of other elements in the final build.
- The use of a 1x1 round with bar (light bluish grey) as a gear shifter is another great little detail.
- Interesting Pieces:
- The "Red Bracket 1 x 6 - 2 x 6 Inverted with 1 x 4 Cutout" is an interesting piece, reminiscent of the "shortcut" pieces used to bulk out 4+ sets (like the Crimson Firehawk). This could easily have been replaced by six 2x4 brackets, but then there wouldn't be as much free floor space in the cockpit area.
- This gear and joint pin pair, called "Light Bluish Gray Technic, Gear 12 Tooth Bevel with Large Rotation Joint Pin Hole and Axle Holes" and "Light Bluish Gray Technic Large Rotation Joint Pin with Axle Hole" by Bricklink. These unusual pieces fit together to allow the front half to rotate, but stiffly so as not to flop about.
- Though they're just used as decoration, the driving ring extension (called "Light Bluish Gray Technic Driving Ring Extension with 8 Teeth Inside and Outside" on the above link) pieces are indeed interesting, and I could see them used perhaps in a gear-shifting capacity, since the teeth on the crown mesh with the teeth on the underside, but only loosely.
- These 5x2 wedge pieces are used in a lot of the Speed Champion sets, but this is the first set that has them in blue.
- Pain Points:
- It's worth mentioning that the lowered stance of the rotated front end (as described below) actually turns the blue hood into a skid plate, so much so that the front wheels barely touch the ground in that position. Depending on what surface you run it on, this does somewhat endanger the sticker and finish on those hood pieces. Even a plate less of height would have made a difference.
- Play Features:
- The gear box and missile launcher can be mounted on the back of the car.
- When the front of the car is rotated from the normal blue side to the "battle mode" dragon side, this lowers the vehicle's stance enough that the little 14mm tires attached to the undersides of the pearl gold spinner crowns also touch the ground so they start turning too. These elements are a nice callback to early Ninjago, having been in use in sets since 2012. I appreciate the simplicity of this technique, not needing fancy gear trains or anything elaborate to set things in motion.
- Naturally the missile launcher launches missiles, and the car can roll around in either regular or "battle mode" position.
• Overall: I'm glad that they included a little scenery build, though the gear box and missile launcher are a little narratively uncertain. Having watched the latest season, it's also interesting that the closest thing to having those elements actually appear in the show is the fact that Nya has to build this car from the wreckage of several vehicles, so a little of the "build it yourself" aspect does carry through. Otherwise, however, they seem to be needless complications to beef up what would otherwise have been an anemic first bag.
On that note, I've mentioned before how nice it is when the minifigs are distributed more evenly across the bags of a set; I know it's a minor thing, but with four bags and five minifigs, it shouldn't have been too hard to have only two minifigs in the first bag so the currently minifig-less second bag could have one of its own. Perhaps having Jay and Nya in the first bag would make more sense, since they're responsible for the existence in the show of the car in the first place. Then the evil misguided doctor and the earth monster could show up in the second and third bags—antagonists for the two heroes—with dragon form Kai being the very red cherry on top in the fourth bag. For a show (and, indeed, a company) that is so strongly focused on narrative, it seems that sometimes the build process gets a little left out of that planning.
Speaking of the show, it's interesting that we get a whole set devoted to a vehicle that only has a few minutes on screen, and doesn't seem to be that crucial to later, as-yet-unreleased, episodes (the way the Destiny's Bounty has been). Even the car's namesake transformation is given a blink-and-you'll-miss-it call out, when Jay teases Nya, "Aren't you glad I made you build a battle mode?" or something to that effect; I actually had to rewind the episode because I had missed it. My guess is that the popularity (real or perceived) of vehicle builds with the target audience that led to the decision to have this non-key vehicle be a full set, or possibly the fact that these sets have to be designed and approved months or years ahead of any episodes, and often the story can change a great deal in that time. A good example of this is the Ninja Vehicle Tree House: Zane's helicopter does make a brief appearance, but the eponymous tree house doesn't show up at all, unless it's meant to represent the tree houses that the acorn-shaped Acona live in as they serve the Arc Dragon of Life in the Whispering Wood (according to Fandom, this is the case, but the set bears hardly a passing resemblance to the structure in the show).
The minifigures are fine, with both non-dragony ninjas having their dragon-scale gi outfits from the end of the first half of season 4; the antagonists are the same as in other sets. The star, of course, is dragon form Kai, who according to BrickEconomy is worth nearly half the set's value all on his own. One has to wonder what things would be like if Lego sold a "battle pack" like in the old days, containing all six dragon form ninjas, in addition to having them be part of various sets. Naturally, this would reduce the price of the dragon form ninjas on the resale market, and would probably reduce the sales of the sets, but it might also make them more approachable for LEGO and Ninjago fans who didn't have the funds to drop $55 on a set just for a single minifigure. As it is, it reminds me a bit of Wonka bars, how people would buy them just to get at the potential golden tickets inside, and not caring a fig for the chocolate itself.
I did notice that the Jay and Lloyd dragon forms are available in separate paper bags...but they seem to have been released only as promotional items with the German NINJAGO Magazine 2026 Issues 138 and 139, which seems to be yet another instance of the regional divisions that have made things so difficult for Monkie Kid fans, to cite a personal example.
In summary, it wasn't the worst set, but wasn't the best. The styling on the car itself was cool (and nicely draconic in both forms) and the build had some unusual parts and fun techniques. While I'm not the biggest fan of cars, it wasn't an awful set, though the side builds were rather unimpressive. Of course, getting one of the most valuable (for now) of the dragon form minifigs did sweeten the deal, but I have a feeling I'll be disassembling this set for parts. I might call this one "for car lovers and dragon-form-collection-completionists only," since it doesn't have much to offer beyond that.
Score (out of 5 🧱):
- Price: 🧱🧱
- Process: 🧱🧱🧱
- Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Play: 🧱🧱🧱
- Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Total: 🧱🧱🧱
Lego Instructions: here
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