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Set Review: 70746 Condrai Copter Attack
 Thursday, May 28th, 2015 at 2:01am by Jason, BZPower ReporterLet's take a look at the winter wave of Ninjago sets with 70746 Condrai Copter Attack. In addition to the cool snake-themed aircraft, it comes with the new orange ninja Skylor. Read or watch the set review by BZPower Reporter Xccj to see if this set is worth sinking your teeth into!
Presentation
The front of the box shows the conflict already in progress. Here we get the new orange female ninja fleeing from the main villain Master Chen and his henchman Eyezor in the Condrai Copter. The back shows off some of the copter's features, as well as some character artwork and an advertisement for a new game. The set is $29.99 USD and contains 311 pieces. Building
The build isn't overly complex, although you do spend a bit of time adding all the little details. There are a few stickers to apply, including a long narrow one, which can be tricky to line up. Set DesignNow that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
There are 311 pieces here, including a fair amount of extras. For $29.99, it's a decent value, although a lot of the pieces are fairly small for decoration. The main colors you get here are dark tan and purple, with some black and gray filling it out too. Among the more interesting parts are the dark tan wedges, purple plates, curved slopes, and wedges, tan inverted tiles, and the net.
The minifigures here are great, although it doesn't contain any of the standard Ninjago cast, which is a bit unusual. Filling in for the Ninjas is Skylor, who is unique to this set. She is set up against Master Chen, the main villain, and his henchman Eyezor. Chen does come in another set, 70749, where he comes with a cape, but this is the cheapest way to get him. Eyezor is also exclusive. Skylor is a welcomed addition since she brings in another female character and a new ninja color all at once! She's also a fairly important character in the television show, although you don't quite know who's side she's on for a while. She has a new outfit in orange, or light yellowish orange, or Keetongu orange, whatever you want to call it. The headgear is the standard design, but now it's in a new color and has a symbol printed on it, which seems to be the new standard for ninja headgear. Skylor has a double sided face; one is happy, but the other is angry with a mask covering her eyes. The second face looks particularly cool underneath her head gear. She also wears a quiver and comes armed with a crossbow. Master Chen is the mastermind of the Tournament of Elements, and the primary antagonist for this wave of Ninjago sets, and he still has a few other secrets up his sleeves too. He has his own headgear, which is an intricate snake design that fits easily over a minifig head. He does have some nice robe printing, complete with an Anacondrai symbol printed on his back, showing off his favorite Serpentine tribe. He does come armed with a Wolverine claw, but I don't remember him ever really using it in the show. He seemed to be more into pressing buttons. Eyezor is one of Chen's henchmen, and a punkier one at that with his black Mohawk, which has only appeared a few times in Collectible Minifigure packs. Eyezor may get his name from his replacement eye, as seen on his head, which also includes a snake tattoo. He has cool torso printing, complete with a snake emblem on his back. He also wields the new tan and purple sword, which has a cool snake head design in the hilt. The sword appears in a few other sets, but it's cool nonetheless.
The first build is Skylor's Glider. It's a fairly simple design, but it's built on a tri-plate, which gives the wings some interesting angles. It has a jet on the back, and Skylor can use it to fly around. And she's going to need it too.
The Condrai Copter is the main focus of this set. It's a two-seated flying machine with a snake-motif. However, it's a little hard to call it a helicopter. It does have two jets on the wings and one on the tail, so it's not inconceivable that it could fly. The wings are built onto joints, allowing them to be raised for flying mode of lowered for landing mode. Chen and Eyezor fit comfortable in the cockpit, which leaves a fair amount of room for them to even carry weapons while seated. There are a lot of details packed into this vehicle. We saw a lot of snake-head designs back in 2012 with the original Serpentine, but they make a comeback here. The neat thing about the Condrai Copter is that stickers are used on the dark tan wedges for eyes, but it's very subtle. There's a lot of white spike and bones placed across the craft, including a neat use of the skeleton torsos on the head and tail. However, when viewed from the bottom or back, it looks a little empty, which is a bit of a shame. The dark tan with purple highlights is an interesting color scheme. I don't think it's the best combination, but it's used often in the winter wave, so at least it's consistent. Playability
The Condrai Copter has a couple of neat play features. First of all, it allows for an easy grip, making it very swooshable, which is important for any flying vehicle. The main function is that when you push the lever on the back, a net shoots out of the "mouth." Net-launching mechanisms tend to be underwhelming, in my opinion, and this one doesn't really improve upon it, since the net doesn't tend to get launched far. The net can also be difficult to stuff back in, although it makes it seem like you're making the snake head eat the net. Finally, two flick fire missiles are built into the wings. Since those pieces normally have holes in them, this seems like a last-minute add on to the copter, but at least they're not aimed directly into the cockpit. There's plenty of play value to be had when you have the Condrai Copter chase after Skylor's Glider, which does recreate a scene from the television show. And better yet, the Condrai Copter shows up quite a bit on the show, so it's not a one-and-done vehicle. Final Thoughts
This set does a good job at capturing the theme of the 2015 winter Ninjago sets, with the Ninjas against the snake-obsessed villains. You get three great figs, including a new orange female ninja and the main baddie and his henchman. While the Condrai Copter is hardly a helicopter, it has its own unique design that pulls off the snake look and is fun to swoosh around, even if its net launcher is lackluster. It's at a fairly affordable price, and has a decent build with plenty of good pieces, so I don't think it will disappoint the casual Ninjago fan. The major fans will surely need this for Skylor and Chen! Thanks again for reading and / or watching this BZPower set review. Please like and subscribe to our Youtube channel, and come back for more future set reviews, including Ninjago!
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