The Shanghai Surprise (3050) is a LEGO Castle (Ninja) set which came out in 1999. It comes with 3 minifigs and 104 pieces. This set does include no decals and there're no mistakes in the instructions and no missing pieces.


Minifigures:

Red Ninja: The red ninja comes with a red suit with red pants, red arms, a black belt and a red mask. On his torso you can see a knife and a nice printing for his armor. The ninja has a black katana and under his mask you can see his face, which has a gray headband on it. We got 2 red ninjas in total in this set.

Ninja Shogun: The ninja shogun comes with a black helmet which has a golden piece on the top. He also has black legs which are printed, dark gray armor, a gray katana, a pistol and a white suit underneath his armor. On his face you can see a serious look of that minifig.

Shanghai Surprise:

The Shanghai surprise is a very nice set to build, and it is really fun to play with. We get a seat for the shogun and there's a flag on each side which looks really nice. On the bottom, you also get two seats for the red ninjas and behind the seats is a treasure chest with some gold and some gems in it. In the front of the seats is a brown box which has a nice ceiling on the top. Of course, you can also hide your treasure there if you want. On each side of the box you can see a spear. On the front of the box is a very nice lantern and a grill which has a chain on it. The chain has a little raft which is a nice addition to this model. You also get some paddles as well. All in all, I think this is a nice set to play with, and I love the design of that boat. I also like the way LEGO designed the cover of the box and the instructions.

Ideas:

This set also comes with 3 ideas which you can build with the pieces of this set. There're no instructions for those models, but you can build them from the pictures on my website.

Positive:

Great pieces which you can use for brickfilms or MOC's
Minifig
Great army builder
No stickers
Ideas which you can build with the pieces of this set
Gold and gems
Nice flag pieces


Negative:

Not many play features


All in all, this set is a great model and I would recommend you to get this. You can find this set on eBay, BrickLink and Amazon for sure. Here is the link where you can check out the full gallery I made for this set on my website: www.klokriecher.de

Videos I made of this set:

Stopmotion

Review

Speed Build

This was one of my favourite themes and I wish I had been older when it came out so I could have bought more of it.

Box/Instructions

I didn't keep the box for this one because I was a kid when my parents gave it to me, but I did keep the instructions. It's just one short booklet and there are no parts boxes, but with the number of pieces, this isn't a problem.

Parts

The parts in this set are mostly black, tan, and blue. There is nothing really of note except for the flags and the four oars that are included.

Minifigures

You get three with this set: the shogun and two red ninjas. Ignoring the historical error of having ninja (who were assassins) and samurai (who were honourable warriors) working together, these figures are great.

The shogun is the best figure. He comes with a black helmet with gold antlers, and I particularly like the historical accuracy of this bit. His face has an expression of intent and control, perfect for a samurai. He also comes with a grey armour piece, a pistol and a grey katana. His torso has detailed printing on the front that is also fairly accurate. It shows the inner and outer clothes, on the outer layer there are two printed dragons. There is also a sort of belt with something (a knife?) tucked into it. There are also gold patches printed on the top of the legs, representing armour.

The two ninjas are identical. They are dressed head to toe in red. Their masks have an attachment on the back for their swords and only reveal their eyes. Their torsos are printed on the front with robes, gold armour peeking out from underneath the robes, and a shuriken and knife is tucked into them. Aside from red being an impractical colour for a ninja, they look really nice.

The build

The build is quick and easy. It is a small model and there are no complex steps.

The completed model

This is one set that will always be a favourite of mine. The colours look really nice together and the ship is a good size for the number of pieces. The docking platform is a little silly, I kept dragging it around by accident.On the boat you get a treasure chest that slides out as well as a black riffle. Also, there is a hidden crate with jewels.

Summary

This set is excellent for adults and children. It is fun to play with and looks great as a display piece. I really wish I had more of the sets from this theme. Many of them (including this one) are excellent and in my opinion the old theme is overall better than the new theme, though I will admit that the new theme does have some nice sets (I just don't think ninjas should be fighting skeletons or wearing chinese hats). To sum it up, I strongly recommend this set.

This set is a piece of work for Lego. I like the armor piece for the samurai. Since I never had ninjas, the minifigs were pretty cool. This is a nice set and it is really fun to play with. 5 out of 5 for a fun set.

I got this set for Christmas '02.I was really hoping for one of the new castles,but this is really good to. This set has 2 red ninjas,1 dragon samurai,3 gems,and one black flintlock. One good thing about this set is it is great for two types of Lego fans; Pirate and Ninja. It is very well constructed. It is also very attractive with the black up arches in the back and intimidating with the spears in the front.I really can't fault this set except it is a bit un-realistic in the fact that there are ninjas for gaurds. A real samurai would have samurais for gaurds. But the ninja idea is preety cool to.

It was very pleasant to see LEGO do the Oriental theme and Ninja. For Castle, it was a build move away from the constant Western Europe Castles and sets.

So this set was gotten for the Minifigures of Samurai and 2 Red Ninja, the chain, and chest with jewels and coins.

It really is a nice little boat design though. There's a place for it moor and dock at. Though I do have to question why there's Ninja's with the Samurai as Guards and not more Samurai figures.