Picked up this set to finish off the first wave of Skybound (minus a couple very evasive polybags). Before buying/building this set, I thought I was getting it just to complete the theme. Now that I've finished it, I think it's a much stronger set in person than in pictures, as is usually the case.

Box/Instructions

The contents of the box are pretty straightforward, with 4 bags (numbered 1-4), Dogshank in her own separate bag, a small sticker sheet and a single (thankfully) instruction booklet.

Parts

This set is a treasure trove of rare/interesting parts that are not clearly included from the main pictures. The tan 2x4 tile is covered with a sticker that appears to be instructions for defending against the Tiger Widow. The tan prickly bush on the palm tree is only in one other set (Samurai X Cave Chaos); Dogshank is unique to this set; The dark brown tentacle/palm tree trunk is only in one other set (Temple of Airjitzu); the dark brown 2x2 round pillar bricks are also only in that set and this one; dark brown lightsaber handles in 2 others; green whip in this set and Jokerland; the dark green triangular sign in this set and Kanan's Speeder Bike; the medium blue corner plates only in this set and Heartlake Private Jet; dark flesh minifig heads unique to this set; the dark red claw and the Lloyd Djinn blade each only in other set; sand green 1x1 plate w/ clip only in 2 other sets; pearl gold pan in 2 other sets; pearl gold minifig head in 2 other sets; the list goes on. In total there's at least 15 pieces here that can only be found in 4 or fewer other sets. Asajj Ventress' lightsaber handles also appear here - Tiger Widow Island is the only non-SW set to include them.

So yeah, this set is a pretty fantastic way to get a lot of pieces that only show up in much pricier sets.

Minifigures

Dogshank is my first bigfig, and man, these guys are gigantic. I'm not sure how helpful Sensei Wu's coconuts will be in taking her down. Dogshank's anchor weapon is a little messy; replacing the hammer with a normal bar and removing the dark tan tooth should clean it up a little.

Dogshank also comes with two brickbuilt flags that are attached to her back. I think these stick out a little bit too much, but from the front it is not noticeable at all.

Nya also makes an appearance here in a new outfit, different from the one in Ninja Bike Chase. Nya on the left is from the latter set; the Nya on the right is included in this one. The right Nya makes another appearance in Lighthouse Siege, but the next set to include her, Samurai X Cave Chaos, returns to the design on the left. I'm guessing there's a story element for these changes. Whatever the reason for the two designs, I personally like the one on the right a lot better. Her head is the same on both.

The build

This build was a lot of fun, due to a number of ingenious techniques. The first involved some inverted building via technic parts to construct Sensei Wu's balloon. The mini island with the palm tree is built on a drill piece, which again involved technic to create a stable, yet very good looking structure. The new A-frames are used in the main island to create the angled base for the main structure. The main structure uses some sort of technic pneumatic piece and megaphones to create smaller and smaller pillars. My only real complaint is the Tiger Widow. Not to be pedantic, but the spider should have 8 legs, and only has 6 here. Its head also just looks really strange. The use of the pearl gold piece for its jaws doesn't really work very well. The abdomen, though, uses a samurai helmet very well to create an organic, round shape.

The completed model

As you can see from the lighting above, I had some trouble fitting this in my photo setup. The island is much larger than I expected; overall, the whole build feels like a scaled down City of Stiix from the previous wave. Dogshank is too big to go anywhere on the set other than the floor, which must make for an interesting game of hot lava monster. Without flags, Dogshank can almost fit in the cave beneath the temple, to give you an idea of scale. Speaking of the cave...the stone statue face thing looks suitably menacing, using pearl gold wings very effectively to create eyes. There is a lever in the back that you can open and close the jaws with which is fun to play with.

There's not much of an interior. The bicorne hat + mustache combination makes an appearance here again; not sure if that is some sort of running joke in the show. The round tile on the left is stickered with a map; I left the right one blank, as mentioned earlier. The lantern is a speckled trans-green cone, which looks very good. Even better, the lantern is balanced on a bar between some cheese wedges, enabling it to swing, and just adding a lot of life to the interior in general. For the price I think the interior could have been a little larger, especially with the building occupying such a prominent place on the island.

Overall opinion

The set in its entirety, with a veritable army of extra pieces. In the end, I'm really happy with this set. It looks fantastic, and I appreciate the use of medium azure and palm leaves to give the island a tropical feel. Really my only major gripes are the design of the spider, and how difficult it is to pose Sqiffy's glider or Sensei Wu's balloon due to a lack of attachment points. The island itself fits very nicely with the rest of the Ninjago sets, and provides some sort of base or defense against the overwhelming number of pirate forces. If you're looking for a nice display piece, or a whole lot of useful and rare parts, this is definitely a set you should consider.

Almost every Ninjago set is a vehicle, dragon, or ship. It is great to finally get a place to battle with your team.

Box/Instructions

The set comes in a regular box and has good instructions.

Parts

There are many great pieces in this set. There is a trans yellow cone that has glitter in it, a new bigfig, and many of the new suds with a hole in the center in light bluish grey. There is only one print, which is the window piece and everything else is stickers. There are two BURP pieces included. I don't like them, but understand that they are necessary to keep the parts count (and price) down.

Minifigures

There are four minifigures and a big fig.

Wu- a nice figure with new torso printing for 2016

Nya- Nya is in her Airjitzu suit. This is the only set of wave 1 to have this. She has new torso and leg prints for 2016

Ghost Cole- this is the only set of wave 1 to include a ghost Cole minifigure. The head is double sided and is in a grey color. His torso and leg prints are also new for 2016 and are included in other sets of the wave.

Pirate- the sky pirate included has been in other sets of the wave and has all new prints for 2016.

Dogshank- the new bigfig in the set is Dogshank. It is the first female bigfig and is very well done in my opinion.

The build

The build was very good.

The completed model

The island itself is very well done. I especially like how it uses ball joints to connect the sections. There are also good play features that drop coconuts on the Pirates. The skull can open up to reveal an underwater cave.

Wu's hot air balloon is a nice little build. However, wu can't wear his usual hat in the balloon because it is too big. The set does include a flying helmet for him though.

The spider is a fun build with different building techniques. Unfortunately, it only has six legs and not eight.

The pirate in the set gets a nice hang glider that attaches to his back with the new backpack adapter from 2015.

Lastly, we get the sword of souls, which is possessing Lloyd. The green 1x1 round tile is printed to look like Lloyd.

Overall opinion

To be honest, I wish more sets were like this. We get a lot of weapons and vehicles, but nowhere to fight. I hope we get more sets like this that have good play and display. The minifigures are really great and getting another bigfig is also great.

Overall 5 bricks : Another great Ninjago set, this time of the Skybound subtheme. The last 2 years I started to like the Ninjago theme more and more since they surprised us with great new subthemes with several new enemy factions and great new buildings. Being a Castle fan my interest is now more for Ninjago instead of the, in my opinion disappointing, Nexo Knights and the lack of new Castle sets. This set offers again a nice building with a bridge and a hidden entrance, new mini figures including a Giant and a great variety of parts and for me several new parts. The only small point of criticism might be the price of €50,00 which I consider a bit high but in the end it is worth it.

Building 5 bricks : Simply a pleasure to built this set, nothing really too difficult but fun to do. Starting with the figures and the small Sensei Wu aircraft. After that the bridge and the small spider which leads us to the bottom rock part of the small building. Then you connect it to the bridge and you come to the first floor with a small table in it. The great designed roof hides a trap from which you can drop coconuts (great thought !!) with all nice accessories on it. Then you get to the lovely paraglider, also a great design with new parts. Next is the hidden opening on the rock floor entrance and several nice tree and other green parts to make the result look great !!

Parts 5 bricks : All real great mini figures, Lego is smart here because the Ninjago figures get new torso's for every new subtheme which makes it a very expensive hobby. The Giant figure Dogshank is great too of course. Great weapons and a load of small accessories and green parts. The set offers nothing but great parts, a nice surprise was for me the medium Azure color for the water parts. All parts and mini figures are more than useful in every MOC and theme. The 5 bricks here are more than deserved.

Playability 5 bricks : What is to say here, a great building with hidden traps, 2 opposite factions and even 2 aircrafts. This is what playing with Lego is all about. Double the fun is that you can add this set easily to a Pirate lay out without using the Ninjago characters.

Value 4 bricks : Maybe a bit overpriced since this is not a licensed theme, my thoughts go more to €40,00 but in the end, like said before, I think it is definitely worth it !! I can surely recommend it for every type of Lego fan.

It is hard to look at Tiger Widow Island without drawing a comparison to the previous Enter the Serpent set, which it largely ressembles. It is a moderately large backdrop playset. It is colorful with some gorgeous details. But it's play value is mostly where you can put the figs and a few crude play gimmicks that will entertain for a few minutes. Really it is all about the figs. And the nice Asian theme display backdrop.

Box/Instructions - The box art shows a nice dynamic scene of Nya and Ghost Cole fighting Dogshank and Squiffy while Sensei woo lobs coconuts at the Tiger Widow Spider from his little balloon. The manual is a single square bound small book. The set has a small sticker sheet.

Minifigs - The figs are where this set shines. It is one of the centerpieces of teh Air Pirates waves.

Nya - in her Dark Red Ninja of Water outfit. Front back and leg printing with the newer single shoulder armor with parallel scabbards. She has a single face.

Ghost Cole - A gorgeously printed Cole. Front/Back Legs. Gold single shoulder armor. Sand Green Ghost Head with two faces. Scowling and Smiling.

Sensei Wu with Flying Helmet - Sensei Wu in one of his nicer white robe variants. Front/Back Leg printing. A nice detailed black and gold design. Single face. Leather flying helmet with Goggles and his straw hat.

Squiffy - Bandana's Sky Pirate wielding dual flintlocks. He is a base orange and green figure. Distinct in his arms and legs are each a different color plastic. Arms are yellow and orange. Legs are brown and orange. He has a nice little built flyer. His pistols double as control handles for his flyer. This figure would also work well in a Pirate MOC or display.

DogShank - A stunning Big Fig and the Centerpiece of the set. She is roughly the same size as common Big Figs such as Thanos and the Hulk. With Gorgeous Orange and Green colors. She has spiked armor on one shoulder and attachment points for a pair of pirate flags on her shoulders. Her weapon is an anchor on a chain.

Tiger Widow Spider - I hesitate to put this under figures as it is a wholly brick built monster. And honestly it is rather disapointing. Compared to spiders such as we got in the LotR and Hobbit lines this guy is small and kind of crude. But he does use some great parts including a black Samurai Helmet with Gold crap pincer crest. I just wish he was bigger and scarier.

Parts - The set has some nice parts to it with lots of greenery. 2 Silver Ice Cream Cones, Some Azure Blue plates. A nice printed Asian Window panel etc.

Model/Build - The main build is slowly building up the island. From the narrow palm tree spire to the lower cave to the Asian Temple atop it to finally the moving skull entrance to the cave. Overall it looks stunning. With lots of flowing greenery and contrasting colors. And a few clevel build technics. There are tone of neat little subsections that would look great displayed with or incorporated into a larger scene such as the Temple of Airjitsu. But as a stand alone there just isn't really a lot to do. There are a few features, such as the Palm Tree falls over. You can drop Coconuts. Etc. But really the main purpose here is to give a backdrop to display your figs.

Overall - It's a nice set. But you will mainly want it for Dogshank who is exclusive. It looks nice, but the main monster, the Tiger Widow is under whelming bordering on pathetic. The set itself is a gorgeous display backdrop. And makes a great parts pack for Asian or Island themed creations. I would look for this one on discount if you can.

The Ninjago theme has interested me more and more over the past year or so by producing sets with fantasy fiction meets mild Steampunk-inspired vibe – this was one of the more subtle, but both the small powered balloon and the ‘floating sky islands’ visual aesthetic of the main model was enough to pull me in. That it also seems to be a descendent of the Pirate Islanders theme from the mid 90s just added to its appeal.

Box/Instructions

The instructions are straightforward and run through the 85 steps (plus sub-builds) in a single booklet. The box art is a standard eye-catching action shot showing some kind of pitched battle across the islands, with the back showing off the kinetically exciting play features with the help of some useful arrows.

Parts

What surprised me most looking at the parts list is that, for a relatively small model, it contains a huge variety of different bricks across a wide colour palette. With over 50% of the piece count consisting of unique elements (not counting different colours), you get a lot of different parts though none are in any great quantity. There is naturally a lot of grey in both dark and light variety, along with green and brown plates for the ‘natural’ features, and then red and black for the temple itself and smaller one-stud gold parts for decorative elements. There are even a few pieces in rare colours such as minifig heads in nougat (doubling as coconuts here), and small corner wedge plates in medium azur.

Minifigures

As usual minifigs aren’t really my thing, so I’ve had to research the stories behind them. First, and most obviously, is the first female bigfig, Dogshank. This is a visually striking character whose hunched posture gives the impression of a powerful body. However, as with other bigfigs, this comes at the expense of pose-ability as only her arms and wrists are jointed to allow movement, and her hands don’t really grip the hammer element particularly well which impacts playability as her main weapon is an anchor tied to a hammer. The other villain is the peculiarly named ‘Squiffy’ who has appropriately piratical features (eye patch, lackadaisical approach to shaving) and fantastically detailed torso and leg printing.

The ‘good guys’ are represented by female ninja Nya and ‘Ghost Cole’ – the latter sporting a mildly unpleasant sand green head which looks more like it is undergoing decomposition than taking on a spectral vibe. As with Squiffy, both feature astonishingly detailed and vibrant printing on the torso and legs with the design flowing between the two without obvious mismatch. Ninjago chief Sensei Wu gets an all-white aviator outfit complete with goggles and leather flying helmet and similarly detailed torso printing, though it is mostly obscured by his beard.

The build

The first build (after Dogshank is assembled) is the little steampunk-ish balloon which, though simple to construct, cleverly uses a minimal number of pieces to create a very stable and swooshable model thanks to the Technic elements that form the core.Next up is the first part of the islands – an initially freestanding rocky outcrop, with a large conical element usually used for large drills cleverly pressed into use as the main supporting ‘trunk’. Again, Technic pieces are used to provide a solid core while maintaining an almost unbalanced top-heavy appearance.

Bag two builds the larger main island, along with what I assume to be the Tiger Widow spider. The latter is built around a parabolic ring centre for the body, and the model is by necessity full of clever connections to allow for a high degree of poseability. One such example is the combination of a tooth piece, a 1x1 round plate, an orange minifig head and a samurai helmet, which together create the nasty-looking sting. The main bit of the island makes use of ball and socket joints to mount bricks sideways for the jaw-like rocks that protrude from the front, an obvious but effective technique.

Bag three adds the temple perched atop the main island. There isn’t much of interest, though a ceiling lamp on a pole suspended by a cradle made of cheese slopes is both clever and blindingly simple. The protruding robot arms which give the corners of the roofs a decorative flourish are an OCD sufferers nightmare as arranging them all to match in both alignment and elevation is a challenge!

Finally, bag four adds a palm tree and glider to the set, as well the top of the ‘mouth’ that forms the hidden tunnel at the base of the island. The approach to the palm tree is clever – using a curved piece for the trunk lends it a stylised appearance which sits well with the rest of the set, as well as tying it into a similar tree design in the 70751 Temple of Airjitzu. Additionally, the upside down pale bush sitting directly under the leaves is a great looking addition and I’d be happy to see these techniques used for palm trees in any future Pirate or tropical sets that come along. The glider is fairly uninteresting and, though using gun elements for the handlebars is clever, they are only attached to the hands of the minifig. As soon as the wings are spread out into ‘gliding position’, it looks like the chap flying is just particularly incompetent at firearms handling…

The completed model

The final result is a colourful and well balanced model, and surprisingly the primarily grey rock of the bottom half doesn’t dominate the set. A thin layer of green foliage on top helps, and the temple structure, with the ‘wooden’ brown and black tones, contrasts nicely with vertical red posts which decrease in width up the structure, drawing your eye upwards. The ornate gold ‘greebling’ is effective, even when the structure is topped off with an upended golden frying pan.

The spider is great and in common with all Lego spiders, is impressionist rather than accurate, but no less unsettling for that. What it lacks in the requisite number of legs it makes up for in the use of clever and compact design. Conversely I didn’t find the glider particularly interesting and it’s not really suitable for display thanks to the angle that the wings are forced to be in to make it look good. However, it really bumps up the playability of the set (this is in the Skybound sub-theme!) and I don’t doubt that a kid of the target age would have great fun with it, though not necessarily be particularly inspired. In contrast the little balloon looks great – compact, and with clever parts usage.

As could be expected with a set of this size, the play features are limited but effective, even if two of them revolve around removing pins – one allowing coconuts to rain down from the temple and the other causing the palm tree to collapse. You can also open up the mouth of the cave with a lever concealed at the back of the set, allowing access to a water cavern (though no boat is included and both air vehicles are too bulky to enter. Maybe it’s the lair of an aquatic Tiger Widow spider?). The whole thing is very solid and can be picked up by just the large island, without the rest of it feeling like it will drop off. The wooden walkway up from the tiny landing stage is mounted on a ball joint, providing a degree of poseability but with enough friction to keep it in place. Dogshank does tend to overpower the set and looks a bit awkward wherever she is placed, but does offer good play value if you like your action of the 'Hulk smash' variety.

Overall opinion

The word I keep coming back to with this set is stylised. The tiny balloon airship, the spider, the rocky ‘drill’ piece which narrows at the bottom giving an off-kilter look, the exaggeratedly curved yet graceful palm, the unmistakably ‘Eastern’ influenced temple, and the dragon’s head entrance to the cavern underneath – all of these provide a setting that is both recognisable yet still removed from the ‘real’ world. The play features are a little basic, but they fit the suggested ‘battle’ narrative and the build is varied with some clever techniques. The final result has a visual aesthetic markedly different from other sets Lego produces at the moment which, in my opinion, elevates this above the average Ninjago set.