LEGO Ninjago #9448 Samurai Mech Review

Theme: Ninjago
Name: Samurai Mech
S/N: #9448
Year: 2012
Pieces: 452
Minifig: 3
Price: RM229.90, USD39.99, GBP29.99

Box

Here's the damaged box of Samurai Mech and the front shows us the box art of all the things that is included in the set while the top side of the box shows us all the character that are included together with a picture of Samurai X in one to one scale. The back of the box describe the playability, and show us the fang blade that comes in this set.

Content

The mech is separated into three bags of bricks and each bags assemble the different part of the mech. The instruction were separated into two books and a sticker sheet were included.

Accessories

The set comes with only two weapon for the use of the snakes and in this set we get Constrictai fang blade. Is just the color and the print that are different.

Minifigs

Samurai X, Snike and Bytar are included in this set. All of them have their torso printed on both side and I very much like the prints on Samurai X. Snike headgear are printed with scales which makes it looks more detail and look like what they should be.

Samurai X torso was finely print so do the leg, it seems like it was inner layer of armor sort of things while the back of her is printed with her logo. The mouth cover in the headgear are detachable while the horn in her helmet are actuallt made from the new pail handle.

Bytar on the hand also is a dwarf snake or a young snake (shorter leg). His head is a a new mold from LEGO and is not a headgear. The head was finely printed and painted too, especially the spikes. To add more details, the fang was made too and Bytar lost one of his eyes. He do seems bulky too.

Catapult

There is nothing much to explain about this, and as you can see at the back of the box, it was use to catapult the snake. The modified wall brick is included in this to add a little details to the catapult and it look suitable for ambush.

Samurai Mech

Most of the playability in this set is built in this samurai mech. The mech is not really good looking but the designer sure tries his best to incorporate as much details of a samurai as possible into this mech. But first, let us view the image of the mechs from different angle:

Starting from the top of the mech is the helmet or the head of the samurai mech. Horns and emblem were made at the helmet of the samurai mech, and it can be open and close. But it will be move as a whole big chunk as the jetpack and flag were installed under the same place. We can call it the roof that covers Samurai X too.

The open and close machanism was solely supported but this part. I can said the the helmet of this mech do hold some weight and attached with it helmet are the flag (need to put sticker on it) and the jet pack (if I recall right, this Samurai fly).

The cockpit is very small and thanks to the slope piece, the armor of Samurai X somehow get in the way and there are no space left in between Samurai X helmet and the roof.

There is also a cover to the cockpit to protect Samurai X while riding on this Samurai Mech. I suppose this act as the mouth cover of the Samurai Mech? It can be open and close to clearly reveal Samurai X.

The shoulder armor of the Samurai Mech, clearly it is made from the train part are flexible too or adjustable according to the height of the hand can be raised and it definitely has its limit too. Attached to it are cannons, just a different of cannon on two different side.

You can fire the cannon on the right and a translucent blue piece was included as the ammo. Both cannons are adjustable too. The are of Mecha One (Exo-Force antagonist) has been put into a good use it seems.

Moving the arms of the Samurai Mech, on the right there are claws and they are movable. On the left are just normal one with the blade been attached to the fingers. Both side of the hand are able to carries the massive blade for the mech. Cheese slope piece are purposely added on the arms to created the details for the samurai hand guard.

The torso of the Samurai Mech can be twisted too, but a very limited one. Also added on the torso of the mech are the spinner crown and slopes parts on both side to add in the detail of samurai armor.

The legs of this mech have a very limited movement, however, it is very detailed. The joint of the leg with the base can hardly support the weight of this mech. The grip of the ball joint are not tight enough to support the weight. The slopes parts been added to signify the leg guard of the samurai. while at the side of the leg you can see the gear like parts from Bionicle to add more mech personality into it. The other round grey thing might be the exhaust system?

Some shot of the samurai mech. . . 

Extra pieces

There are quite a number of parts that are leftover. . .

Completed model

To those that like mecha can just snap this one up. I can see there are really samurai element in this mech. But somehow, I don't really like the design especially when the leg is too short and the head is too big but there is definitely a sense of samurai in it

Playability: 8/10 Poseable mech with all sort of functions and details added inside.

Building experience: 6/10 A good build, and you can learn to build your own samurai.

Parts: 6/10 A lot of small parts hardly get rare parts in here.

Value for money: 5/10 The price is so so, around 50sen per piece.

Overall: 6/10 A lot of red parts included here and is one of a way to get Samurai X and Bytar.