(Written by Geneva – gid617)
Fifteen years ago, the very first frame of Ninjago’s very first episode, “Way of the Ninja”, opened with a view of the Four Weapons Blacksmith shop where a young Kai and Nya encountered Sensei Wu for the first time. Four episodes later, the pilot series closed where it began, with the ninja celebrating their victory in front of the shop. So for long-time fans of the series, Four Weapons is one of the most iconic locations in Ninjago lore, setting the tone for the show and defining the backstory of several of the series’ key characters. Yet we got fourteen years of Ninjago sets without seeing even an attempt at a show-accurate version of the blacksmith’s shop.
But with the return of the Legacy subtheme for Ninjago’s fifteenth anniversary, we’ve finally gotten the blacksmith’s shop this theme deserves. Designed with wonderful attention to detail, #71858 LEGO Ninjago Four Weapons Blacksmith 15th Anniversary is not only a beautiful set and a great building experience, it is also impressively accurate to the show and full of fun references to Ninjago lore. It’s priced well too; with 1,259 pieces and an impressive six minifigures, $99 USD feels very reasonable for this quintessential Ninjago set.
Like all LEGO sets, the Four Weapons Blacksmith is designed not just for a cool final result, but also for a great building experience along the way. It’s a very dense, parts-heavy set, which means that it doesn’t come together as quickly as some; but the resulting detail is well worth the time spent. Some highlights include the ingenious solution for the window and the lovely floor pattern.
While not a huge set, the Blacksmith feels very substantial with four enclosed sides and a bit of landscaping around each edge adding some color. The roof with its dark brown stripes looks great and you can’t beat the magnificent Four Weapons sign.
There’s no chimney, but at least there are these grill tiles around back allowing the smoke from the forge to escape. There’s also a fun “No Playing” sign that harks back to one of Lloyd Garmadon’s escapades before he was the green ninja.
The entire set opens up and the central segment of the roof is removable for easy interior access. Inside, the Four Weapons Blacksmith abounds with easter eggs, including the wall telephone that shows up in the background of the show. One of my favorite bits is the inclusion of the same weapons that came in Kai and Nya’s original spinners. I remember finding those weapons a little bland when I got the spinners fifteen years ago, but now it brings back so many fun memories to see them again.
This set includes six minifigures; most of them are updated versions of previous outfits, but we finally see Kai in a brand new blacksmith’s apron! Ray’s updated torso is awesome too. There’s a special edition 15th Anniversary figure included as well; the Master of Earth. It feels a little odd for him to show up in this particular set, but he’s got a sweet grey kimono and I’m not complaining.
One super fun feature of this set is the falling sign. In the show, the map to the golden weapons is hidden behind Four Weapons’ sign; here, it can be revealed by pushing a technic axle which pops the sign off the storefront.
Now that we’ve built and explored the set a bit, it’s time to recreate some scenes! For the first scene, I warmed a katana up in my air fryer and twisted it out of shape. Cool it off, and—presto!
Sensei Wu makes his appearance next, beside a phone of a debatable color. I would have called it sand green myself, but the designer settled on azure, which is certainly a more exciting color for the part. It’s fun to see even such a trivial detail represented; no stone has been left unturned to make this the definitive Four Weapons shop.
But of course, you better be prepared to buy something if you come here… “The shop is called Four Weapons, not For Browsing.”
Later, Kai makes use of some of his own samurai armor to fight off the invading skeletons; Nya joins him with the line, “And what, let you have all the fun?”
One last thing I was really excited to see in this set—finally, we get a micro version of Kai’s spinner card. This was the quintessential Ninjago card back in the day and though I’m not obsessed with Ninjago cards as I once was, it’s still so much fun to have a miniature version of the most iconic card.
In sum, I’ve had tons of fun already building and exploring the Four Weapons Blacksmith 15th Anniversary set, and it’s safe to say that so will every Ninjago fan. It’s a beautiful display piece with lots of play potential as well. The set designer’s love for Ninjago shines in every detail—for some great additional insight into the design process I recommend checking out Senior LEGO Model Designer Leeo Chi Wing’s Instagram Page.
Four Weapons goes all the way back to the rural Ninjago that we saw in the pilot episodes; no high-tech robots or billboard-covered city towers here. So even if you aren’t into the average Ninjago set, this one merits a second look; the colors are well chosen, details are crisp, and techniques are ingenious. You can find the set at the LEGO Ninjago section of the online LEGO shop.
What do you think? Had you been hoping for a proper Four Weapons Blacksmith shop someday? Does this set finally fill that gap? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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