Summary

The bulkiest of the Ninja vehicles, and by piece count also the biggest. And frankly, also the most bad-*** looking of all. Although not my personal favourite (that is the Green Ninja Mech Dragon), it is the most impressive of them all. It is also one of the more expensive Ninja vehicles (only the Ice Tank is more expensive), but IMHO still delivers quite a bit of ban-for-buck. It is good for some 2,5 to 3 hours of building fun. The colour scheme is nice, and the designer has done an OK job at covering up the bright bricks used for the inner structure. If I had to choose between the bigger Ninja Mechs (Fire Mech, Ice Tank and this one), this one would be the one to get IMHO. It has a nice complement of minifigs, some nice play features, is great to move around and looks great in display.

Build experience

The build is great fun, and fairly easy. There are only 12 stickers, which is a low number for a Ninjago Movie set of this size. None of them is hard to apply, as all but one are to be put on straight/flat surfaces.

One starts with building the core of the body; in this phase, just as later, quite a few flashy colours (blue, white, yellow, red) are used in the core structure, colours that clash with the overall colour scheme. The construction is easy, only attaching the two rotating cogs (connecting the 'shoulders' to the body) is a bit tricky as the four Technic pins need to be lined up properly with the holes in the Technic bricks.

Interesting is how SNOT technique is used to create the floor for Cole to stand on and 'drive' the vehicles. Likewise, the way the glass front screen is clamped in is an interesting (and effective) design choice. Note BTW that the vinyl records used by Cole to steer the mech are prints.

Building the legs to connect the massive wheel is easy, though attaching the wheel properly can be a bit more difficult. It is important to put the wheel in the correct way (facing forward), and the construction of the rims is somewhat tricky (it is easy to squeeze in the rim decoration into the red disc, which is not supposed to happen). The stand is quite nicely integrated in the overall build.

Due to the subject and the design many of the building is a mirror image of the other side, though never to the point where it becomes tedious.

Minifigures

Five minifigures are included: Cole, Lady Iron Dragon (aka Misako), Crusher, Mike the Spike and Fred Finley. As the minifigures are not included in the Brickset/Bricklink database yet, so my interpretation of their uniqueness might be off.

Cole, also found in Destiny's Bounty (70618). He comes with a war hammer, the arms with cuff print, and double face print. The ninja mask is a two part piece (as introduced in 2017).

Lady Iron Dragon also found in Piranha attack (70629); I have compared both figures, and I cannot spot a difference. The strengths (armour print on body, cloth piece, quiver and shoulder guard and the helmet (with hair)) and weaknesses (black background seeping through through the yellow face print are identical.

Crusher and Mike the Spike (the Shark Army bad guys included in this set are unique but look eerily similar to Crusty (found in Lightning Jet (70614)) and Shark Army Gunner / Charlie (Manta Ray bomber (70614), Green Ninja Mech Dragon (70612) and Ninjago City (70620) respectively. The main difference between the two included thugs and their likenesses is the face print; Crusher's oxygen tank (?) also slightly differs from Crusty's tank. Crusher has an alternate face-print as well, and his head gear is of the soft plastic variety.

Fred Finley seems to be truly unique (not jet listed in the database), and is a nice rendition of a TV reporter. There is no alternate face (the face print itself is great, IMHO), and the print is only on the torso (front and a little in the back).

The build

Overall you end up with a big mech that is easy to handle and move around. The size of the single wheel is massive, and due to that, when held up straight the fixed stand does not impede moving the mech around too much. One has to tilt the mech quite a bit to the side before the stand catches.

Most of the support structure (and the bright off-colour bricks) are nicely covered up. Unfortunately this does not hold true for the attachment of the body to the legs, where the bright yellow bricks stand out in the overall brown/grey/gold colour scheme. I wish Lego had used other colours here. The looks of the mech are somewhat in between robotic (Fire Mech style) and traditional Japanese Samurai armour (the helmet decoration, the armour under the cabin, and on the legs. Even the hands and lower arms somewhat resemble gauntlets. The lower arms can only be moved up and down, but the 'shoulders' can be moved up. Hidden inside the shoulders are four flick-missiles (as if resembling sound waves).

To me, the mech also somewhat looks like a boxer, ready to punch and knock out Shark Army vehicles. At the same time (with the flickfire launcher covered up, one could see this mech serving as a stage for a DJ at a dance party (including lights).

Overall, the designer IMHO has done a great job on this set.

Play vs Display

IMHO the Quake Mech strikes a nice balance between play and display. It is big, and has the looks to be used as a display piece (though due to its overall colour scheme, it might mostly 'disappear' when displayed against a darker background.

The Quake Mech has good rideability, and is easy to handle. The flickfire missile launchers are the most important play-feature. The hands can effectively hold minifigs), and it is fairly easy to put in a Ninja in the cabin (unfortunately there seems to be no place to store Cole's war hammer). The five minifigs included make it a nice play set.

The verdict

A great set, and IMHO clearly the best of the big Ninja vehicles (Quake Mech, Ice Tank, Fire Mech) in the Ninjago Movie line, and to me the second best of them all (trailing the Green Ninja Mech Dragon). The price per part ratio is excellent, and this is also backed up by the looks of the set (although I was surprised that it contains over 1200 pieces). The minifigures are nice, but not a true strength of this set. Lady Iron Dragon (aka Misako) is IMHO the most appealing of the minifigs, but can be found in the much cheaper and even more excellent Piranha attack. Fred Finley is nice, but IMHO is not a compelling reason to buy this set. IMHO the decision to buy this set should be based on the merits of the Quake Mech itself, of which it has enough.

Just finished building this over the past weekend and it was such a fun and great build. My biggest issue is always the locking technic pins. The wheel is massive and this stands up great on it's own!! The way it goes together was great, very sturdy and very impressive and fun to build. The 5 minifigures that come along with it are fun with their fish weapons and the Thor type hammer as well as the bow and arrow female chararcter.

It feels solid enough to play with, the only thing being the banners held on the back with the Quake logo and gorilla that I see falling off.

Adding fingers to it made it feel so much more lifelike. Now if it only had a weapon to hold in it's hand.

There are launchable "speaker" rockets under each shoulder compartment for more playability as well...

Enjoy the build

I did 2 livestreams on my channel as well.

BuiltfromBricks

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