This is my favourite set ever since I saw pictures of it. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The building experience was wonderful. It took me around 6-8 hours to build, and I enjoyed every second. The different levels were separated into white boxes so it was easy to tell which level you were building. Great playability when you are done!

We, my wife and I, own multiple modular buildings but this has been my favorite by far. I love the design elements and the colors. The contrasting layers of old city to modern. The minifigs that came with the set allowing us to set multiple scenes all on the same exterior of the build. One of my favorite parts is in the seafood restaurant where you can flip the grill to have a raw crab get cooked.

Amazing doesn’t quite do this set justice. It is a vast dense, fully populated world unto itself. An AFOL targeted Ninjago set that threads the needle between Licensed playset and the AFOL’s beloved Modular buildings. And make no mistake, this is essentially a Modular building. It is a Corner module that uses the standard modular connection points and 32x32 baseplate. It’s only discrepancy is the lack of adjoining sidewalks. Which is easily overcome.

Ninjago City is at present the tallest official building in your out of the box Lego cityscape, towering over even the Modular Town Hall. It’s a 4 story building with rooftop restaurant. With the rooftop “Dragon Gate” crest extending another 2 stories above that. At 4867 pieces it is one of the largest sets Lego ever released, and will take most builders 10-12 hours to complete. Be warned this is an adult level build suggested for ages 16+. There are a ton of unusual build techniques, and assemblies may be fragile or finicky until completed and locked in place. Younger builders will require help. Also be aware that this is largely a display set, and one that will pretty much stay in place once built. It is not a robust play environment. The city is huge and weighs a great deal. It is covered head to tow in small decorative texturing and detail that will quickly start shedding parts under heavy play. The Height and Weight both require that you give some thought to where you will put it once completed. If like me you display your modular buildings on a shelf, make sure that shelf can handle the added weight and has enough overhead clearance.

Packaging - it comes in the standard Ninjago Movie style packaging in a box about the same size as the Death Star. Huge and Thick. You need two hands to pick it up or carry it. Inside you will find 2 large white boxes for steps 1-6 and 7-10 a number of loose bags for 11-16, 3 thick squarebound books and 2 full pages of stickers.

Instructions - The instructions are three thick squarebound books. The set itself is broken down into three main areas. The Old City (levels 1 and 2), Street Level (levels 3 and 4) and the rooftop Upper City (the roof and Dragon Gate). You have one book for each. And each section has 1-6 sub builds via numbered bags and sub component modules. The first pages of each book includes detailed information and pictures about the area of the city, it’s place in the movie and a description of each Minifigure character found in that area. Each books opening is distinct and unique, so each of the three instruction books begins with its own travelogue. It’s remarkable how nice that is. Each of these is further repeated in English, French and Spanish (at least for the North American version).

Parts - Holy Cow Batman! The shear amount of unique, distinct, rare, desireable or just plain cool or unusual parts in this set is staggering. Most truly large Lego sets tend to have a fairly unifying color pallet. Tower Bridhe, Taj Mahal, Milenium Falcon, Death Star, etc. But Ninjago City is effectively a dozen sub builds or buildings, each with it’s own distinct color Pallet. And each littered with colorful detail and greebling. At 4867 parts for $299 it also has one of the best Prince per piece ratios ever. You will have to study the parts list just to determine the shear magnitude of interesting stuff in this box. The only other set in its class parts wise is the Modular Assembly Square.

Build - it’s a deep, long satisfying build experience. 10-12 hours Total. But nicely segmented in small manageable sub builds, so you never have more than three part bags open at once. Even better each step largely corresponds to a distinct and complete modular sub build. Once you get past tiling the baseplate there is no tedium. Each shop is its own fully independent sub assembly. As you complete each step (or two for the larger bits) you simply add it to the growing city for safekeeping.

Layout - Ninjago City is a layered build using the template of the Lego Modular series. It is effectively 3 interconnected towers rising to a common roofline. And built above water or a canal. One tower is the cities public elevator that reaches all 5 floors. The Bottom most level houses the cities canal, the charging room for the maintenance robot sweep. A nice stone work bridge, the cities public telephone and a fish market. There is also a small canal boat with a fisherman. Level 2 houses a Tea Shop And small traditional Asian room/apartment. Level 3 has the broad elevated sidewalk. The central shop is a Crab Restaurant with a working crab cooking grill. Next to it is Doomsday Comics run by Mother Doomsday, Ninjago’s “comic shop guy.” It is a small but dense store with the most recent issues of Starfarer comics, a full new set of Ninjago cards (sadly stickers on tiles) 6 different colored microfigs, and an upper shelf of interesting artifacts. Also on level three against the elevator tower is a changeable movie poster and storage for three extra posters. Level 4 is dominated by a large airy boutique that sells a variety of clothing and sporting goods. Next to it is an abandoned building under construction that has been consumed by a sprawling overgrown cherry tree that hangs out the side of the building. The blooming tree is a really neat build and gives a nice splash of color. Level 5 is the rooftop Sushi Restaurant with working Sushi conveyor train, L-loyd and Misako’s small 1 room apartment (bunk beds!) and a public toilet housed in the base of the Dragon Gate. Above level 5 is just the remainder of the decorative Dragon Gate And Ninjago Cities assorted broadcast towers and beacons. Also on level 5 are some decorative sea creature signage with a nice squid and puffer fish. Both really creative mini builds.

Minifigs - the set includes an awesome 19 minifigs. But your appreciation of them will vary. 3 of them are clothes manikins. 2 on display in the boutique, wearing training gi’s, and one LLoyd’s hidden Green Ninja suit with a black head. The only other uniformed Ninjago characters we jet are Jay in Ninja gear and one generic shark army thug. Every other figure is a largely named civilian character. LLoyd and Misako in civilian garb. The standout figure of Mother Doomsday in Galidor t shirt. And a host of other named Ninjago civilians. Each with full bio in the instruction manuals. They range from the delightful, such as the fisherman with back slung Asian straw hat to a few that feel like padding and leftovers, such as the police office, shark thug and Jay. Even with 19 figures oddly the city feels a bit unpopulated. It’s that big. You will want the small 70607 Ninjago City Chase And 70629 Piranha Attack for the extra civilian figs and details to add a bit more population. Surprisingly for a Ninjago set the ONLY weapons in this set are Jay’s flail and the thugs fish weapon. Any other weapons included are used architecturally, such as the copper colored Orc swords as vanes on the tower.

Styling/Setting - This May be important to more traditionalist modular collectors. While more or less a Modular Style And Compatible Building it isn’t in the early 20th century Steam/Diesel Transition era that the others are. It’s more of a sort of Cyberpunk styling. An old city area built upon with modernity. Think Blade Runner or Big Hero 6’s Sanfransokyo. It has a nice “Asiatown” vibe to it. But it has a lot of neon flares. Weirdly with that said, it actually looks pretty good up against the new 10620 Downtown Diner. It’s worth noting that while this is a Corner modular set, the backside is fully complete, and is not ugly. All buildings are fully walled and there is lots of interest in the rear. You get a good look at the void space and bridges down to the detailed water filled canal.

Value - Absolutely Amazing! This is one of those sets, like the now classic and insanely expensive aftermarket Monster Fighters Haunted House, or the Ghostbusters Firehouse that you will regret letting get away. It is a stunning addition to any LEGO City display. Adds just a touch of future fantasy into the mix. And rumor is it will be getting an Associated set “Ninjago City Docks” in June.

Summary

Overall this set is massive, and for me was a three day project. Just building the set using the numerous different construction techniques was a lot of fun. For example, there are 6 different techniques used for the black roofs alone. It makes for an awesome display model, and as such is definitely worth the money. The stickers are an integral part of the build - just take your time with them.

Build experience

This set has a lot of stickers, and - unfortunately for some - many of these are very important to the overall look of the set, and cannot be left out. If you take their time and with Windex and a knife/box cutter you can get very good results. Added benefit - since a number of stickers are printed on a clear backing - they take care of fingerprints as well as (grease)stains on clear parts.The only caveat is that you have to make sure to squeeze out the liquid, especially when applying the stickers on a white coloured piece; otherwise the background might become light blueish - which happened to me with the white bars on the railing. However, elsewhere (with the sushi bar signs, the danger sign) there were no issues at all.

Before buying this set I watched the Brickvault build stream, and as Mike and Jack pointed out, it seems the designers have gone to town on this one, and decided to show off what was possible in construction techniques and in colours. According to them the designers also adopted a number of techniques used in numerous MOCs created by the Lego community. When building the set the variety of techniques used seemed to confirm that assessment.

The most tedious part of the whole build could easily be the covering of the ground plate with trans-blue 2x1 tiles. But in the way the designers have broken up this part of the construction in the manual and the pattern one is supposed to lay, even that is manageable.

The whole structure is modular - three main floors, and each floor also divided into separate modules. After having constructed the foundation (bag 1 through 3), you by and large build module for module (or two modules at a time at most), rather than building on the floor as a whole. This allows for subdividing the build, something which for me was necessary to enjoy it (spread it out over 3 days).

There are quite a few pieces per bag (17 bags, usually three bags per number) totaling almost 4900 pieces), and one has to keep concentrated for most of the time. That said, building it was a joy. And even the stickers were. In fact, I am looking forward to the moment I have to rebuild this set again (after taking it apart first).

Minifigs

One gets numerous citizens, Lloyd and and Kai in civilian clothes, and Jay in Ninja suit (with weapon). Lloyd's suit is available as well, Kai's is not. Nia and Master Wu are not in this set. Only one Shark Army thug is included. Personally I like the variety of minifigs in this set, as well as their prints. Many different hairstyles and faces are provided. I would have loved to see Severin Black's brother included as Sushi Chef - especially since the sushi restaurant is in the open on the roof top and includes a movable sushi display as a play-feature.

If you want to, you can actually dress up two minifigs in the judogi for sale in the general store (the blue store). There are also a number of hats (and helmets) that are part of the general store inventory that can of course be used for dressing up minifigs.

In total there are 15 minifigs, 1 buildable minifig (Sweep), and the Green Ninja suit, and two judogis (the latter three apparently count as minifigs). All together though, the minifigs easily 'disappear' when spread out over Ninjago City as a whole (and occupying the various modules).

The build

As this set is apparently the third largest Lego set (in parts number) created so far, the Ninjago City is massive. The footprint is not big (same base plate as a Lego modular, and indeed it has the corresponding connecting points), but it makes up for that in bulk and height. Each floor has its own eye-catcher: the puffer fish, the cherry blossom, the crab and the bridge.

As stated above, the subdivision into different modules is logical and well thought out - and a necessity if you want to put minifigs inside. Each module has its own character, colour and building technique (especially the roofs and windows) and details to make it unique, and there is something to see and look for everywhere. The whole structure can be taken apart in this manner:

1) Ground floor (Old City): fishmonger and Sweep's storage fixed to base-plate, the tea-room and residence/hotel room are each separate modules.

2) Middle floor (The Street): The Crab shack, bottom of the comic book store and the bottom half of the elevator are fixed to the base of the middle floor. To top of the comic book store, the unfinished building with cherry tree, the general store and the top section of the elevator are all separate modules that can be taken off.

3) Top floor (The High Rise): The sushi bar is one section, Misako and Lloyd's residence, the toilet (bottom of green 'tower') and the top of the 'green tower') are all separate modules.

There are four major play-features: the ATM, the sushi bar, the elevator and the crab-BBQ.

My personal favourites are the tea-parlour in the Old City (above the fish monger on the ground level) and Misako and Lloyd's home (in the top right corner). I like the tea-parlour for its cleanliness, while it is simply astonishing what the designers have been able to cram into Misako's and Lloyd's residence. That yellow 10 x 10 stud creation above the cherry tree alone is a full bag (bag 14).

Usually, when putting a module in the first time it requires some jiggling to have them fall into place smoothly. Thereafter it comes easily.

The things I do not like about this set are minor, and almost nit-picking:

1) I do not like the one stud wide gap between the money storage of the ATM and the comic-book store.

2) The top of the gray lattice corner column (upon which the middle floor rests) has a smooth black tile on top. I would have liked a 2x2- with-stud-in-the-middle there, since it would have fixed that column to the top floor. Now it is loose, and could be bent/snapped when picking up the set.

Playability vs Displayability

Ninjago City is first and foremost a display piece. Yes, it has some play features, but to make use of many of the elements, the building has to be taken apart. And even then, the comic book store for instance is so crammed with stuff that it is difficult to get minifigures placed in there without knocking stuff of shelves.

Some elements are also rather delicate (most notably the puffer fish) and easily come apart. It sheer size and weight inhibit its use primarily for play as well.

Verdict

This is an awesome set, and just as the rest of the Ninjago Movie line, tremendous value for money - though it is a lot of money. If you buy the set as a display piece, you cannot go wrong, and it is of such quality that it can easily be the center piece of your Lego collection. It is varied, and has a lot to offer in styles and building techniques. Whether that style is to your taste is something personal.

Whether it can beat the new Destiny's Bounty (70618) in bang-for-buck is up for debate, especially if you have to pay full price for this set. Being the lucky owner of both sets, I am still undecided myself.

If you do not mind the stickers, Ninjago City is a set definitely worth saving for, and especially if you can find a deal, do not hesitate to pick it up. Hours of building fun are guaranteed.

INTRODUCTION

This has to be my favorite LEGO set of all time!! It is the fourth largest LEGO set ever and the biggest Ninjago set released.

DESCRIPTION

This set had 4867 pieces and 16 bags made up of 3 smaller bags. It is 2 feet tall and it has 5 floors. So, the 'Old World' part 1, consists of an awesome stone bridge, ancient walkway, a fish market and a charging station for the maintenance bot sweep...oh...and a public telephone. The 'Old World' part 2, has an apartment and a small restaurant, I like to pretend these structures are a hotel. Moving on to the 'Street Level', it has 4 interchangeable billboards, an awesome working crab oven, a working ATM and an amazing comic book shop. Next up are 'The High rises', it has an intricate cherry blossom tree, a sweet department store and a cover for the elevator which travels through all 5 levels. Finally, 'The Roof' contains Lloyd and Misako's apartment, one of my favorite structures in the city. 'The Roof' also has a awesome working sushi wheel type of restaurant, a nice build for a squid and an awesome build for a puffer fish and last but not least a bathroom.

OPINION

THE GOOD... about 99.9% is truly amazing, my favorite features are the fantastic working crab oven, Lloyd and Misako's magnificent apartment and the extremely great comic book shop. THE BAD... for the 0.1% I only wish this set came with 3 additional chunks of the city but that would mean that this set would cost around $1200!

EPILOGUE

I highly recommend this set, plus the price to part ratio is great. Amazing Build, great to play with. I would buy this set right away.