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    Discuss This Story ReviewSunday, January 9th, 2022 at 3:14am by Jason, BZPower Reporter

    Okay, it may be 2022, but there were still some 2021 sets on the backlog that are ready for a review. Today BZPower Reporter Xccj looks at a Ninjago Legacy set, 71753 Fire Dragon Attack, to see how this stacks up against other Ninjago Dragons. Read on for some pictures and thoughts on the set, or check out the Instagram story

    Presentation
    From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

    Image of Box Front Image of Box Back Image of Contents

    This Legacy set hails from the very first year of Ninjago, when it was just a simple band of Ninjas fighting skeletons with cool rides. Of course, the Ninjas ended up making some cool friends to give them an edge; the dragons. The Fire Dragon has been featured in a lot of sets in various forms, so it is not too surprising to see it being remade here. And, of course, the legacy sets came with Golden Ninjas, with Golden Nya being the highlight fig here. The set sold for $49.99 USD with 563 pieces. And it's been sold out on LEGO.com for months, so availability may be a bit sparse. But I got this one as a present, so it's time to take a closer look at it.

    Building
    Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

    Image of Build 1 Image of Build 2 Image of Build 3 Image of Build 4

    Components
    What kinds of interesting pieces are included with the set? What are the minifigures like?

    Image of Figs

    Honestly, none of the pieces jumped out to me as must haves; it felt like a very general collection. Of course, the dragon head and cloth wings are unique, so there might be some appeal for those. Primarily, you have a lot of red, dark red, and flame yellow orange / Keetongu orange parts building him up. A healthy amount of slopes are included, and a lot of parts with angles in them. One bit of the build that I was impressed about is the clever use of angle pieces, from the bulging chest to the leg and arm detailing. It was fun during the build to see it all come together.

    Of course, the real draw for me was the figs. (Gotta collect all them gold ninjas.) In addition to Golden Nya, you get legacy suit Kai and Zane (both reused figs) and one Skeleton Skulkin. Nya steals the show with the gold outfit with azure highlights and water designs on it. I realize now this is where her hairpiece first came out, and it is excellent. Kai and Zane are repeats, but I do like how they incorporated dragon designs into their robes. They both have their classic legacy weapons; the Fire Swords and Ice Shuriken. I'm actually surprised that Skulkin seems to use most of the same molds from the original skeletons back in 2011; the only big change is they went back to classic skeleton feet, and the shoulder armor is standard now.

    Set Design
    Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

    Image of Dragon 1 Image of Dragon 2 Image of Dragon 3 Image of Dragon 4 Image of Full Set Image of Dragon 5

    However, the final product leaves a little bit to be desired. The Fire Dragon is difficult to display and it all comes down to the build of the arms / wings. They have a click joint at the shoulders, and then a long solid section that the felt wings attach to, and then a balljoint on the wrist. The angling of the arm and the lack of movement means it's very cumbersome to get into position. True, the wings can fold in or out, but the lengthy arm and limited motion of the shoulder restrict the possibility of most poses. The best options are to keep the wings fully spread out (for flying mode) or hunched over; anything in between looks awkward. Flying mode looks good and the dragon is somewhat swooshable, but the wings are wide and take up a lot of space, making display difficult. The legs don't help matters much, given that there's no knee joint (pretty standard) or ankle joint (a bit unusual) so their only motion is at the hips, and they don't offer a wide range of motion to help with stability. (The tail, being made of Mixel joints, works just fine.)

    Overall, I don't feel like this is the best dragon design. I'm not quite sold on the thicc chest; it was fun to build but looks a bit off with the long neck. The colors work together quite well, and the cloth wings look amazing and really give this dragon a fiery appearance. In a few poses, he looks pretty good, but playability is limited with the wonky articulation. A tough sell for this guy.

    Final Thoughts
    Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

    Pros
    What's to like?

    • Useful pieces
    • Golden Nya fig
    • Enjoyable building techniques used
    • Good colors

    Cons
    What's not to like?

    • Awkward to pose
    • Other figs repeats

    Honestly, unless you're after the figs or parts, this dragon is probably one you could pass up on. The build is fun but the final product is problematic. Still, the red pieces are useful, and better to get this full dragon and Nya than try to find her separately. (Bricklink is showing her going for an average of $17, which is 34% the cost of the set. Yeah, better value to just buy the full thing.) Of course, availability for this isn't the best, but some retailers might have it, and technically it's currently only listed as "Temporarily Sold Out" on Lego.com, so you might still have a chance to pick this one up.

    Discuss This Story

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