(Written by Geneva – gid617)
The LEGO Ninjago theme has been in lots of places—including underground caverns, high mountaintops, cities on stilts—and the heroes have battled lots of enemies—like stone warriors, skeletons, and even ghosts—so it’s no surprise to find the ninja underwater fighting snakes with flippers on! The latest wave of LEGO Ninjago sets is five sets big: #71756 LEGO Ninjago Hydro Bounty, #71755 LEGO Ninjago Temple of the Endless Sea, #71754 LEGO Ninjago Water Dragon, #71752 LEGO Ninjago Ninja Sub Speeder, and #71750 LEGO Ninjago Lloyd’s Hydro Mech.
The season these sets are based on is only now airing in some parts of the world (see: LEGO Ninjago New Season Seabound Trailer & More!), but I watched it quite a while ago. It’s closely tied into the last season; the ninja spend Seabound trying (and failing) to keep an important amulet out of the hands of the leader of the undersea serpents, who needs it to resurrect a large snake (sound familiar?). Lots of the action of the season takes place underwater, so the ninja are equipped with diving gear.
The oxygen tank on the back is a new rubbery piece. I was surprised to see that it’s one piece with a belt!
The bad guys this season are some of the coolest snakes yet. This is the full collection, from one copy of each set. I love the black and teal color scheme and their leader, Kalmaar, looks suitably ferocious.
Now let’s take a look at the sets! We’ll start with the ninja’s vehicles. These all make use of a new windshield designed for this season. It has a little bit of a steampunk flair and keeps the vehicles looking like they belong to one season despite the variety of colors and sizes.
These vehicles are the #71756 LEGO Ninjago Hydro Bounty, #71752 LEGO Ninjago Ninja Sub Speeder (the big blue sub), and #71750 LEGO Ninjago Lloyd’s Hydro Mech, plus four little subs. The little subs are adorable, though I wish there were a blue one for Nya instead of a green one for Lloyd, who already has a mech. Speaking of Lloyd’s mech, that vehicle is strangely cool with its asymmetry and is every bit as poseable as you’d expect.
The Ninja Sub Speeder makes use of the classic rotating wheel function to change from a car into a submarine. I’m not sold on the forty-five-degree angle of the back wheels—I would rather all four wheels turn down—but the racecar look is very cool.
Next, let’s take a look at the Hydro Bounty. Although it is the odd one out among the vehicles because it’s built at a less chunky scale, the Bounty is a magnificent submarine and the perfect size to swoosh around in one hand. It can comfortably house two little subs under the long blue canopy.
The Hydro Bounty has a very cool function; pulling a tab at the back makes the white fins on each side open up. I can’t say I’m sure what this does from a practical perspective—bring the sub to a quick stop? knock enemies out of the way?—but it’s fun to play with!
Not only that, but the front of the Bounty comes off and transforms into a mech. I appreciate the engineering that went into this function, but I don’t admire the mech. It looks awkward and unmaneuverable.
Enough of the ninja—let’s see who they’re fighting! #71755 LEGO Ninjago Temple of the Endless Sea is the main bad guy set of this wave, and not only does it include the temple, but it also includes the sea serpent Kalmaar is trying to awaken.
This set is packed with detail and is just as interesting around the back as in front. A lot of the details reference a kind of sunken city/Atlantis motif, like the tilted pillars. The sections are attached with a single clip and bar connection each, so they’re easy to reorder if you want to change up the look of the temple.
The temple is not much bigger than the Hydro Bounty. No wonder the snakes were scared when the Bounty appeared in their waters!
This set includes water Nya for a facedown between her and the reawakened sea serpent!
Unfortunately, the sea serpent doesn’t have much articulation, but its head can be opened, with the top jaw bending upwards and then returning to rest when released (unlike most LEGO dragons, whose bottom jaw moves).
We’ve now come to the last set of the wave—the #71754 LEGO Ninjago Water Dragon. This is the dragon that eventually defeats the sea serpent and restores peace. As you can see, the dragon is much larger than the serpent, but it’s not beefier and so they look like worthy opponents.
The water dragon’s wings are made of cloth, not the usual plastic material. They remind me of butterfly wings, and I’ve already made a mental note to try them out in that capacity sometime!
This dragon is super easy to hold and play with. It also has a unique wing function, with the axles used to hold the cloth wing moving up and down when you press the blue technic pieces where my thumb is.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the water dragon much—and something about its wing shape still looks weird to me—but that long swooshy tail is a ton of fun and I do love the colors.
To sum up, within the Seabound wave of underwater sets there’s a good mix of creatures and vehicles, plus the large temple that all the action revolves around. The Hydro Bounty is easily one of my favorite Ninjago vehicles, and even the set I was least interested in, the Water Dragon, is fun to swoosh around. (Yes… even as an adult, swooshability is important to me…) And as you’d expect from Ninjago sets, there are loads of play functions in each set.
My favorite set of the wave is the #71756 LEGO Ninjago Hydro Bounty, though if you’re just looking to dabble instead of going for the flagship, #71752 LEGO Ninjago Ninja Sub Speeder is also a great set. The other Seabound sets, the #71750 LEGO Ninjago Lloyd’s Hydro Mech, #71754 LEGO Ninjago Water Dragon, and #71755 LEGO Ninjago Temple of the Endless Sea are also worth a try. You can find them all in the LEGO Ninjago section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How does this wave of Ninjago sets compare to previous ones in your opinion? What do you think about Nya’s water dragon and the new cloth wings? Do you agree that it’s important to be able to swoosh a LEGO vehicle around?
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