LEGO Ninjago Temple Of Airjitzu set 70751 Review

The most important thing to say about the LEGO Ninjago Temple Of Airjitzu is that it's stunningly beautiful. Truly a gorgeous model that I've spent the last few days really enjoying. It was a lovely build and uses some amazing build techniques as well as ingenious use of existing LEGO elements. It's not a simple build and the 14+ suggested age guide is right.

 

Inside the box are a thick instruction booklet, 14 bags numbered 1-13, a bag of base plates and other larger elements, and one loose base plate. The bags feel like they have a relatively small number of elements and sorting for this build is a more simple task than with a lot of sets, despite the massive 2028 pieces.

There is only one sticker sheet, but there are actually a lot of printed elements, including masses of the new printed windows.

The LEGO Ninjago Temple Of Airjitzu set includes 12 minifigures, and it's the first time you've been able to get all 6 Ninjas together in one set. The minifigures are great, with really detailed printed outfits.

These are full time Ninja's, they're always on duty, so they don't need hair.

The Postman, Wu and Dareth are captured beautifully, with real character. The fine printing on their outfits is gorgeous.

Claire, Jesper and Misako are the 3 characters my lads call the 'normal people', and Jesper's outfit especially impresses, complete with his tiny smiley badge!

This is not just a temple, this is a village and the build starts with the two smaller buildings, the Smugglers Market and the Blacksmiths. The Smugglers Market is a gorgeous shop with stock including tiny Ninjago Trading Cards and a great sink which uses the miners pith helmet.

LEGO really has been getting clever recently. The Detectives Office in the modular range is a beautiful example of secrets that can be hidden inside a building, and the Temple Of Airjitzu really reminded me of it. The roof of the Smugglers Market is incredibly clever. The construction not only gives a really smooth shape to the roof, but it can be lifted and rolled out of the way for access to the loft space beneath, where the real smuggled treasure is hidden in easily removed crates. Genius.

The Blacksmiths building has some lovely touches - the fireplace and anvil are great, and the two storeys are separate constructions so the upstairs can be moved to add play value.

Only a rat is hiding under this roof, but the use of SNOT bricks within the wooden posts and the fallen leaves on the roof are both lovely touches. Both unexpected detail which are incredibly pretty and really do add a lot to the overall look and feel of the set.

The main Ninjago Airjitzu Temple does not disappoint in any way. Right from the start you know you have something special, the intricate placement of the various elements in the base level gives a whole side 'switch' which will eventually move just enough to turn on the light brick every time with ease.

We genuinely hadn't seen the shadow theatre before, and it's astounding just how well it works. The lever on the outside edge of the model turns and spins the backlit subject, creating a shadow theatre which is in it's own right gorgeous, and one of the most impressive pieces of LEGO ingenuity I've ever seen.

Above the shadow theatre we have the reception area or 'tea room' with grey tiled floor, and two sliding screen doors.

Above the reception room is the Ninja Training Room and above that Wu's Study, and then the loft space where a box of Cole's belongings are stashed!

Here is where we see the new 'Oriental Style Decoration' on the glass in the windows (which actually is very much 'frosted glass' so awesome for bathroom or office builds), and another completely different way of forming incredibly clever roofing to give a beautiful shape to the finished model.

 

There are a couple more items to build, the Ninja Glider, the connecting bridge (complete with stone dragons), the statue of Sensei Yang and the firework firing cart - which works incredibly well! I'd suggest temporarily exchanging the gorgeous and rarer blue and yellow studs for some more commonplace ones before letting children loose with this.

Alone all of these elements and buildings are lovely, together they are stunning and make a huge model! This really is a genuinely gorgeous set.

 

 

The LEGO Ninjago Temple Of Airjitzu set 70751 has a retail price of £169.99 and is an exclusive whichis only availablefromLEGO online or in LEGO shops. It is a fabulous value LEGO set for that price. The number of elements, the beauty and complexity of the design, and the sheer playability make it well worth every penny.

It's a huge model, so it needs a wide shelf, but it'll be a real talking piece as well as an active LEGO set with the amazing Shadow Theatre to impress allcomers. Not one for the 5 year old to play with, wait until they're 7 or 8, and they won't be able to build it themselves for several years after that.

The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review.