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LEGO Ninjago City review & Modular Buildings

While the official release of LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City was the 1st of September, LEGO VIP members had early access to the set starting in mid-August. This is the largest LEGO Ninjago set to date, and one of the most interesting LEGO sets of all time. LEGO fans, who already had a chance to build Ninjago City, have been raving about the great building experience and fantastic details and play-features. So let’s take a closer look, and also check out how the set fits with the LEGO Modular Buildings. 🙂

To begin, here is the official description of the set: Enjoy endless role-play fun in Ninjago City, a hugely-detailed 3-level model connected by a sliding elevator. Level 1 features a traditional fish market, house, a bridge over a stream, and a fishing boat. The second level has a modern fashion store, comic book store, crab restaurant with ‘crab-grilling’ function and cash-dispensing ATM. The vertical city is topped off with Lloyd Garmadon and Misako’s apartment, a rooftop sushi bar with sushi conveyor belt, and a radio tower. This action-packed set from The LEGO Ninjago Movie also includes 16 minifigures: Jay, Kai and Lloyd Garmadon (each with new-for-August-2017 high school outfit decoration), Green Ninja Suit, Misako, Jamanakai Villager, Sally, Ivy Walker, Konrad, Severin Black, Tommy, Guy, Juno, Mother Doomsday, Shark Army Gunner and Officer Noonan, plus Sweep the maintenance robot. Ninjago City measures over 24” (63cm) high, 12” (31cm) wide and 16” (42cm) deep. 4,867 pieces. Price: $299.99 – BUY HERE

As you can see, #70620 LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City is like a very busy Chinatown with little shops, hidden passages, and surprising details everywhere. But there is a method to the madness, and the model actually breaks down to three distinct levels that can be separated the same way as the LEGO Modular Buildings, with each level lifting off for easy play.

Level 1 features a bridge, sewer outlet, stream with translucent-blue and translucent-green water elements, sliding elevator with room for a minifigure, traditional fish market with fish and crab elements, house with dining room and bedroom with sliding screen doors and foldout ‘solar panels’, Sweep the maintenance robot’s service station with assorted tool elements, and a taxi stand with telephone element.

Level 2 features a modern fashion store with 2 mannequins and assorted Ninjago product elements, a construction site with a bonsai tree, a comic book store with brick-built sign, cashier desk, comic book stand with assorted elements including collectible Ninjago training cards, a crab restaurant with brick-built crab entrance sign and oven with ‘crab-grilling’ function, a cash-dispensing ATM, 15 bank note elements (ATM can dispense up to 13), and a movie poster display stand with 4 interchangeable movie poster elements.

And Level 3 features a radio tower, modern rooftop sushi bar with sushi conveyor belt function and brick-built food, bathroom with sliding door, and brick-built puffer fish and squid sculptures, Lloyd Garmadon and Misako’s apartment with an opening window, bunk bed, kitchen unit and attic space for the Green Ninja Suit minifigure.

As #70620 LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City comes with almost 5K pieces, expect this to be a very long build – somewhere around 10-12 hours. It is best to break up building large sets like this to several days, so you can really savor the experience and appreciate the building techniques without getting too tired. The parts are broken up numbered bags, so you don’t have to dump everything out at the same time and risk loosing small parts. Clear off a large table (or some floor space if you are a floor builder like me), put on your favorite music or audio-book, and enjoy the process!

And now the burning question many LEGO fans have; how does Ninjago City fits together with the LEGO Modular Buildings? The set sits on a 32×32 stud baseplate just like the Modulars, it comes with the standard LEGO Technic brick and pin connectors as attachment points to the LEGO Modular Buildings, and it does look similar in size. So it should fit, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that Ninjago City can easily connect to the LEGO Modular Buildings as a corner structure with the above-mentioned standard connection points. And no, in the sense that the elevated sidewalk and small canal don’t really line up with anything that comes with the LEGO Modular Buildings. This section would need some creative rework to make it blend in realistically. Also, as you will see in the video below, Ninjago City is very-very tall. Much taller than any of the LEGO Modular Buildings. You may be okay with this, or you may want to modify the structure, so it doesn’t tower over the other buildings so significantly.

In the video-player below, I have included three videos for you, which should help you decide if you would like to add this set to your collection. The first one is a full tour and review of the set by JANGBRICKS. In the second video, JANG shows you in more detail how the set fits together with the LEGO Modular Buildings, and the third video is a speed-build of the set, which can be helpful if you are curious about how certain building-techniques are done, and how the whole set comes together.

#70620 LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City is definitely a phenomenal and very interesting set. You may consider displaying it separately, or with some creativity, you can also add it to your LEGO Modular Buildings collection. I’m sure LEGO fans will be working on ideas and solutions in the upcoming months, so keep an eye out for some interesting customizations.

As you have seen in the video-review above, Ninjago City comes with 16 minifigures: Jay, Kai and Lloyd Garmadon (each with new-for-August-2017 high school outfit decoration), Green Ninja Suit, Misako, Jamanakai Villager, Sally, Ivy Walker, Konrad, Severin Black, Tommy, Guy, Juno, Mother Doomsday, Shark Army Gunner and Officer Noonan, plus Sweep the maintenance robot. Note that pretty much all of these minifigs are very useful in a wide variety of settings. A wonderful line-up all in all!

I would also like to address the price of the set; 4,867 pieces for $299.99 is only 6 cents/piece. That’s the lowest we have ever seen on a newly released set! Even if you don’t care for the building, just for the parts and minifigs the set is totally worth it. In fact, the entire collection related to The LEGO Ninjago Movie has an unusually low price, with exceptionally great sets. You can find them all under the LEGO Ninjago Movie section of the Online LEGO Shop.

So what do you think? Are you excited about the #70620 LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City? And are you planning to get it? Do you think it fits well with the LEGO Modular Buildings? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

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{ 19 comments… add one }
  • legoed19 September 3, 2017, 12:39 PM

    This set reminds me of Kowloon walled city, which I always thought would be a great idea for a lego building. I think on this occasion though, I would like to make a move rather than this set. Definitely very cool though.

    • admin September 3, 2017, 4:13 PM

      I had to look up Kowloon. Very interesting, and definitely looks like the set could have been inspired by it. Always learning something new! 😀

      • Håkan September 3, 2017, 5:06 PM

        Dang, that’s insane!

        I saw the dark sci-fi satire film Dredd, where Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson attempt to take down a local mob boss in an overpopulated housing complex. Seems the film could have been inspired by the Kowloon, among other things.

        Its violence and weirdness would have me advising some viewer discretion, though. But it beats the overproduced campy 1995 Stallone attempt, anyway…

        • admin September 3, 2017, 9:07 PM

          These living conditions are so fascinating. I don’t think I could ever live so cramped, or that humans are even meant to live like this. It can’t be healthy! 😕

          • Håkan September 4, 2017, 3:02 PM

            Apparently, the Kowloon was basically run by the triad, and police and authorities were afraid to even enter the area. The triad earned their money on drug trafficking and other illicit activities, but got on the good foot with the inhabitants by offering rudimentary cleaning services and healthcare, though, and the locals seem to often have fond memories of the area, due to the close-knit communities and many talented culinary services.

            But yeah, cramped areas are, in general, a sure way for bacteria and germs to spread and mutate quickly…

            Speaking of Judge Dredd – before the 2012 Dredd movie, I used to think that the only real Judge Dredd movie (despite not having anything to do with the franchise) was Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop. Viewer discretion advised on that film as well, however…

            • Håkan September 12, 2017, 8:11 PM

              And now I saw another similar movie, “The Raid – Redemption”, an Indonesian-American co-production from 2011. Pretty gritty, but pretty good. Some claim that it inspired the “Dredd” film one year later, but it might be a coincidence.

              Viewer discretion is advised, in this case, as well…

  • PrashBricks III September 3, 2017, 12:41 PM

    What’s the price? Is it cheeper with a VIP card?

    • Håkan September 3, 2017, 1:22 PM

      $299.99 , as stated in the article.

      It likely won’t be any cheaper with a VIP card, but at least you’d get some VIP points for later purchases…

      Probably nothing for me, anyway. I neither have the money, time or space to spend on something like this, at the meantime…

      • Håkan September 3, 2017, 2:38 PM

        Or, I haven’t really used my VIP card in an advanced manner, but my impression was that direct discounts were quite rare, and what you mostly got were VIP points that could be used for later purchases, and occasionally the possibility to buy high-profile sets before non-VIP members…

        • admin September 3, 2017, 4:14 PM

          Yes, that is correct. VIP Points and early access to new sets are pretty much the two perks that come with VIP membership. I was reading that LEGO is offering triple VIP points in Europe right now! 😀

          • SLS September 3, 2017, 6:48 PM

            x3 (=15%) only on Star Wars sets (The Last Jedi included).
            Ended 47min ago though.

            • admin September 3, 2017, 9:06 PM

              Oh, it already ended? I forgot you guys were ahead of time! 😀

  • Legostuff71 September 3, 2017, 7:18 PM

    I am having second thoughts on the NINJAGO city , it looks to busy to me and I guess that’s just a city in General. So, on my early, early Christmas list, would be the Assembly square and the old fishing shop. Now this my change from time to time ,but, I figure I can get the small/medium sets on my own. It’s the big and expensive ones I have trouble with ( financially).

    • admin September 3, 2017, 9:09 PM

      I know what you mean about Ninjago City, and while I got the set and plan to build it, I’m also planning to alter it quite a bit. My favorite part is the little yellow apartment sticking out at the top. Assembly Square and the Old Fishing Store are very good choices. I think you would be very happy with either or both. 🙂

  • Legostuff71 September 3, 2017, 9:23 PM

    I wonder if there’s a way to take apart each shop/ living space and separate building out of them? Like the sushi restaurant make it into another building. Just a thought.

    • Håkan September 4, 2017, 3:18 PM

      It seems the different storeys are built separately, but disconnecting the different shops and areas from each other might require some customization…

      But the 70620 instructions seem to be freely available on the Lego website, so you can download a PDF and analyze it at home before you’d buy the set, anyway…

  • jjava October 28, 2017, 6:29 AM

    This is now my favorite set. The build was just awesome from start to finish. So much detail, so many interesting building techniques. There was never a dull moment. And it is even more massive than I had anticipated.

    • admin October 28, 2017, 11:06 AM

      So many LEGO fans say the exact same thing why they enjoy this set so much. LEGO designers really did a fantastic job with this one!

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