LEGO Ninjago #9442 Jay's Storm Fighter Review

Theme: Ninjago
Name: Jay's Storm Fighter
S/N: #9442
Year: 2012

Pieces: 242

Minifig: 2
Price: RM109.90, SGD39.90, USD24.99, GBP19.99

 

Box

The new theme for Ninjago is green and is right to promote the coming green ninja. The front of the box contains the serial number and give a little sneak peek on the playability of this fighter. The top side of the box shows Jay ZX in his 1:1 scale while the back introduce the villain, shows the weapons, and playability of the set.

Content

The box comes with two bag of bricks, a instruction book and a sticker sheet. The good thing of a big box is that you do not have to totally dismantle the set and rebuild them again when you are about to play with them.

To view the instructions, kindly click HERE.

Accessories

The set comes with the following weapons: golden Fangpyre staff, snake sword and two golden ninja serrated blades.

Minifigs

Is cool to get Snappa and Jay ZX but Jay ZX looks incomplete without the shoulder guard on. Anyway both minifigs got both side of their torso printed and their leg printed too.

Snake Staff Shrine

There's nothing much to describe about this shrine. It comes with two torches and the pathway is too narrow for a minifigs to pass through. Here's picture of Jay and the shrine.

Jay's Storm Fighter

The fighter do not have much playability other than converting it to different mode and opening cockpit and also some malfunction (will explain it later). However, it is cool in design on both mode and there are a few of new parts that you can get from here.

 

The cockpit comes with one controller in the middle and the windscreen can open and close. The cockpit suppose to be able to fit Jay with shoulder guard on but I think if a katana is placed behind, it can no longer fit. I suppose this is the reason for TLG to not provide us with the shoulder guard.

 

to make the fighter looks more realistic, different color of lights (I suppose) has been added on both side of the wings. Also the new pieces has been placed to add some details to the fighter.

 

There is a button for you to push to change the fighter to wing attack mode. At the back of the fighter will have a rubber ring that hold the wings. Here is where the malfunction comes in. The grip of the bricks are too strong and if failed to open automatically after you pushed the button. As such, I take out the rubber ring.

Here's a shot of the wing attack mode:

And here's the two shots that I try to make the fighter looks cool. Not sure if I manage to pull that trick. (^^)

Extra pieces

As usual, here's the extra parts that has been enclosed to us by TLG just in case we loose them.

Completed model

This theme once again has been stick with a reasonable price tag. This set is not all bad, there are some good point like cool design and new pieces and is actually targeted for a younger age group which want cool fighter. Anyway, is a reasonably priced set and you should get one if you have extra funds.

Playability: 4/10 As explained above, not much playability here

Building experience: 6/10 Quite a simple build but there are some technique to learnt from

Parts: 7/10 Some useful new parts been added and a lot of tan and blue color here.

Value for money: 7/10 Is consider reasonable and we can easily get 10% off from our retail.

Overall: 6/10 One way to get Snappa minifigs, plus new parts at an affordable price.

LEGO Ninjago #9440 Venomari Shrine Review

Theme: Ninjago
Name: Venomari Shrine
S/N: #9440
Year: 2012

Pieces: 86

Minifig: 1
Price: RM39.90, SGD15.90, USD6.99, GBP5.99

Box

Somehow I find this set interesting, maybe the lime green box art attracted my attention. As for this, I import this with my friend and the front of the box show the number of parts as well instead of just name, serial number and a nice box art. The top side of the box shows the minifigs actual scale and the back of the box shows the playability and the staff to be collected.

Content

This set here gives you the feel that the inside is fully stuffed with content when you carry it and in fact the space inside is fully utilize. You found yourself with a big instruction book, two bags of bricks, a plate and a card to join LEGO Club.

To view the instructions, please click HERE.

Accessories

We get a golden Venomari staff and a katana. The golden Venomari staff needs to be add with a translucent green printed round piece to separate them from each other. That is the part that makes them different from each other.

Animals

Two new green snake were given, I think they are the cobra and the are very nice.

Minifigs

It comes with Zane ZX, a very cool minifigs. The torso is printed both front and back and the leg are printed as well. A pretty detailed minifigs I would say. The new shoulder guard are cool too, it can hold two katana at the back of it.

Venomari Shrine

The good news here is that all the parts are printed no stickers needed to add the details. Although this thing here do not have much playability other than holding the golden Venomari staff and catapulting the cobras, it actually do looks great. The golden Venomari staff was actually attached to a black droid arm.

As you can see, the tail of the snakes are places on top the black plank and by hitting the plank downwards at the back it will force the snake up and send it flying. Simple but effective, it really sends the snake a bit far from what I snap here (I move the snake closer so you can get bigger pictures).

Extra pieces

Here's the picture on the leftovers after the assembling process. You got that extra printed parts, but the printing is a little bit off.

Completed model

A really nice set at an affordable price I would say. This thing got cleared off from the shelf pretty quick too. nice minifig, nice accessories and nice new snakes. Plus printed parts too!

Playability: 5/10 I cannot complain about it when it looks so nice.

Building experience: 4/10 I do not expect to learn much from this small set.

Parts: 8/10 Nice lime green translucent parts and some new parts.

Value for money: 8/10 A very very reasonable price I would say considering the new minifig, snakes and staff.

Overall: 6/10 A must get whether you are a fans or not.

LEGO Star Wars #8087 TIE Defender Review

Theme: Star Wars
Name: TIE Defender
S/N: #8087
Year: 2010

Pieces: 304

Minifig: 2
Price: RM379.90, SGD-, USD49.99, GBP39.99

Box

Here's a review of an old set which I finally gets my hand on at a pretty good price (in my opinion).  The front of the box art shows the name of the set, and even the minifigs that were included. The top side of the box shows the actual scale of the minifigs while the back are some advertisement of other Star Wars set and the playability of this set.

Content

Inside this big box were three bags of bricks and a instruction book. You can see that the size of the box is way too big for the content.

To view the instructions, please visit HERE.

Accessory

A blaster were included, and I suppose this is for the Storm Trooper.

Minifigs

Storm Trooper is really nothing new back then but now it has become some antique as the new torso for the Storm Trooper came in this year. For the Imperial Pilot this is really something rare back then and you can only get it in this set, but now you can get this minifigs in a plenty of sets. Both this minifigs has blank head stud and the Imperial Pilot only printed in the front.

TIE Defender

To be frank this fighter is an easy build and it took less than an hour to be completed. Is not really a good fighter but I think you can use the parts to MOC a TIE Interceptor. I would is a simple build for this one as the steps are repetitive especially the wing parts which you can build 6 at one go.

Moving to the cockpit, it was rather small and I have no idea why they are not providing normal bricks but instead the bricks with one with stud on the one of the side. Quite troublesome to attach the minifigs. Also the windscreen can be open and close.

Moving to the playability, one of it is the LEGO Star Wars all time favorite playability, the flick-fire missiles. Every single wings on this TIE Defender has one missile install on it. As a result this fighter carries six (6) missiles with it to war.

Next and the final playability is the rotating wings of the TIE Defender. But adding up all these wings, is quite heavy too and if you can see the side view on top, the top wing bend down a little bit. So far the bricks are able to grip it very well and the wings are strongly attached to the cockpit.

Here's the small details added at the back of the fighter, the engine.

Extra pieces

Here are some of the parts that are left for future replacement, if any of them got lost or damaged.

Completed model

My opinion on this set is that the set is not a good a set especially at that price in our local market. It just don't worth RM379.90 since there are only two minifigs and lacking of playability. In addition it took a short time to complete it and the Imperial Pilot now is no longer rare. The pros is that the parts can be use to MOC a TIE Interceptor. Get the set if you can find it lower than RM300.

Playability: 4/10 For such a big set, I think the playbility is a bit low.

Building experience: 2/10 Is a simple build, you learn no new building technique.

Parts: 6/10 Good for TIE Interceptor MOC and a number of plates.

Value for money: 2/10 The price here is so so unreasonable.

Overall: 3/10 Only grab it if you were to MOC TIE Interceptor with your parts or you can find a good deal or you are a TIE lover.