Summary

I bought this set because I liked the looks of the car. It possesses the same aggressive looks as the Katana speed boat, only now on wheels and in green. The build itself was a whole lot of fun. It makes great use of Technic to build up the frame of the car as well as making the Gatling-gun stud shooters work. There is also a fair number of stickers, included a number of transparent stickers that need to be applied to the canopy - any mistakes are therefore highly visible. Most of the Technic (and off colour structural pieces) are nicely hidden in the end. The car is quite heavy (especially in the rear), and wide. It handles fine. The in thing to be careful about is not pushing down the trigger-button in the rear by accident, as it will trigger the stud shooters. I like the minifigures - Nia, Lloyd and Ultra Violet. Ultra Violet's dirt bike is simple but effective, and the target to be chased by Lloyd in his Nightcrawler.

Overall, IMHO this is a good set, with good to great value for money and quite a bit of play and display value.

Build experience

The total build took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes at a leisurely place. There is quite a bit of Technic used from the very start. The Technic is used to create a solid frame for the car, and a lot is used in the mechanism operating the stud shooters. IMHO the designer has done a brilliant job, not only in hiding the ugly structure, but also in combining shapes and angles of the various pieces. This was - in many ways - one of the more fun builds I have done recently, especially when building up the back of the vehicle (bags 3 and 4). Also, very effective use is made of studs-on-the-side technique to tie the various sections into a solid and sturdy whole.

The stickers are the tricky part. There are quite a few of them, but the most problematic for many will be the fact that quite a few are on transparent film. The most tricky are the three stickers that need to be applied on the transparent canopy. Thanks to Windex and patience it came out fine, IMHO, but I think that a printed canopy would have been better. The 2x2 round piece with Lloyd's logo was printed.

There were few pieces that stood out to me as being special, though some of them might be in fairly rare colours (especially the lime green).

What made it fun was how separately built sections combined to come together and being integrated into the very nice vehicle it is. The given age range is 9-14 years old, and on this occasion I think the build would be somewhat challenging for 9 year olds and younger, even with adults taking care of the stickers.

Minifigures

There are three minifugures included in this set, and all three of them are - so far - unique. Nia and Lloyd are the 'good guys', and Ultra Violet the one 'bad guy' (or actually bad woman).

Lloyd's torso is printed on the front and back. The torso print is continued nicely on the front of the legs. He has a logo on the back, and on the front he has a kimono style print. His Ninja mask is a two piece mask, which covers a head with two face prints. He is armed with two oriental style swords.

Nia is IMHO a more special figure than then Lloyd. She has a front and back torso print. Her print seems is different in style than Lloyd, as if it is a band of cloth wrapped around her body. As a result, her logo on the back is broken up (well printed!). She wears cloth armour protecting the legs. Her two piece mask covers the a face with two face prints. She is the most heavily armed: a double scabbard with one sided shoulder armour and a staff/spear/trident. I really like that weapon, more so than the spear with which she is armed in many other sets.

Ultra Violet is the Sons of Garmodon minifigure in this set. She has an awesome print (black, gray and purple) on the front and back of the torso, similar in style to other SOG minifigs. It is continued nicely on the front of the legs. She wears some kind of shoulder armour, and one of the Oni-masks. She only has a single face print. Her weapon is a very nice mace; the mace is made up with trans-violet/pink pyramid pieces, which might be unique (I am not sure).

The build

Ultra Violet's dirt bike is a very simple build, but effective.

Lloyd's Nightcrawler is massive, and looks really good. It seems a bit inspired by modern sportscars, as well as endurance racers (vehicles racing in the 24 hours of Le Mans). Arguably the designer could have tried to minimize the gap between the sidewall and the canopy a bit better, but the Nexo Knight swords cover it reasonably well. The mechanism needed for the operation of the stud-shooters is covered well, with two pieces that look like shoulder armour. I really like the colour combination of lime green and darker green. The stickers IMHO look good; a nice touch is that one of the canopy stickers seems to refer to Ultra Violet's dirt bike. One of the gears of the shooting mechanism is visible when the stud-shooters are not engaged, but I am OK with it. Without too much fantasy it can be seen as part of the engine or an air intake.

Play vs display

IMHO th Nightcrawle is a nice play set; who does not like to race around with a big car. That said, on hard surfaces it is a difficult to turn (the wide rubber provides too much friction). Also, the studshooters are triggered by the turning back wheels (when triggered), therefore, when driving fast, the studshooters will shoot the studs rather quickly. Lloyd fits easily in the cockpit, and there are two clips for his swords.

The Nightcrawler can IMHO also be used as a display piece. It is big enough, IMHO the looks are good enough, and the ugly structure holding the vehicle together is covered nicely. It would even form a nice pair with the Kai's Katana.

The verdict

Overall, I think this is a very good set, well worth the price. The car is big, looks great, and works fine for play. I had fun building the car, which also took up quite a nice bit of time. The stickers are nice, and not too bad. The minifigures are OK (Lloyd) to good (Ultra Violet), with nice weapons. Overall I think it is a set that offers good value for money at RRP.

I ordered this set as soon as it came out. My first impressions were about the sheer size of the car. Without further ado on to the review!

Minifigures:

The set comes with three figures, Master Lloyd, Nya, and UltraVoilet. Master Lloyd comes with two of the new swords from the Ninjago Movie, and overall is my favorite version of the character yet. Nya comes with a lot of gear in this set. She still has the armor/skirt fabric element on her legs from the movie, and wears a Skybound sheath with two silver Katana in it. Her main weapon is a long spear. My opinion on this spear is that it looks cool but is to long to be easy to use. Overall a great figure as well. Finally for the Sons Of Garmadon they get Ultra Voilet. She has a very happy smiley face for some reason despite wearing the Oni Mask of Hatred. Her printing fits the high standard of recent figures. The Oni Mask of Hatred looks really evil and does its job well. However I was sad to learn that a figure cannot hold the mask at all. She wears a newer amor piece that has two studs on the back, so building rocket boosters/a glider for her is possible(assuming you have the bricks to do so)

Build:

This was the best $40 LEGO set build ever. It took a couple of hours to finish. As the build progressed I was eagerly waiting to be done so I could drive it around. It gets a little repetitive when you build the shooter arms and the side panels but really its not that bad compared to other sets. The stickers included are really not a big deal other then the Canopy stickers those are annoying.

The Completed Model:

First let's talk about the small Bike for Ultraviolet. It's the basic motorcycle setup with a purple body and the new red Katana on the rear. These serve as a sort of kickstand to allow it to stand upright better. There is a small sticker on the front with the S.O.G logo on it. Overall a simple Bike that does its job to provide the Nightcrawler with something to chase. On to the Nightcrawler itself:

The first thing I noticed is the sheer size of the car, its way bigger then you would expect. So sure you pay $40 for a car but its a HUGE car. From the front view it looks great however the one bad part about that view is that a gear is kinda exposed. Inside the Cockpit there is a large space for Master Lloyd to sit and clips for his swords. Not only is there a steering wheel, there is also a speedometer. That area looks really good. Moving further back, There is a button that when you press down the twin 6 shot stud shooters on either side lift up, and that exposed gear from before engages with a whole system to allow for the play feature. When the button is pressed you can push the car forward and the shooters start firing! So you can place the bike in front of the car, push the button drive forward and wreck the bike in a flurry of studs flying all over. They fire faster the faster you drive, so when you go at high speed you can empty your load VERY fast. However I urge caution as its easy to lose your ammo. So think before you fire. Also if you just push the button while stationary after driving you may find a single stud fires. On the very back there is a folding panel that covers the gears. However I found that Nya can stand there if you close it with her in the way she can stand there and see forward. Turning the car on a hard surface is hard as the rubber hates it. On carpet though it can turn fine.

Overall:

This set is great. If you saw the season 8 trailer with this car in it and thought that it was the greatest thing ever then you will love it. If you see a boring vehicle then you should pass.

The Build:

It's a pretty basic Lego system build for the majority of the car. There is some technic building in the back for the shooters, but other than that, it's a standard build. For people concerned with stickers, most of them are relatively easy to put on, but the two on the cockpit can be difficult, as they are clear-backed stickers getting put on a clear piece. However, I think that you could leave them off if you wish.

Minifigures:

Three minifigures are included: Lloyd Garmadon, Nya, and Ultraviolet. The two ninja are based off of their Ninjago Movie designs, using the same faces and molds for the head wraps.

This is the same Lloyd minifigure from 70643 Temple of Resurrection, only this figure does not have an armor piece to hold katanas, presumably to fit inside the Nightcrawler. There is nice detailing that adds texture on both the torso and legs. Overall, I think this is a good figure.

This version of Nya is exclusive to this set, and this minifigure also has nice detailing on the torso and legs. Unlike Lloyd, she does have an armor piece, as well as a built up weapon. I think this is also a nice figure.

This Ultraviolet is also exclusive to this set, and she wears the Oni Mask of Hatred. The figure is pretty good and looks menacing when standing next to a regular minifugure, mostly because of the armor and Oni mask. I think the printing on the mask is done well, and this is another good figure.

The Completed Model:

This set included a car for Lloyd and a bike for Ultraviolet. Ultraviolet's bike can stand up on its own, but it leans to one side. I think this is fine, but it is very difficult to get it to balance straight up, especially with Ultraviolet's weapon in her hand.

The Nightcrawler is a large car, and I think it looks good. It uses green as the main color, with gold and lime green as accents. I think the vehicle looks good in the front, but I also think there is too much lime green in the back. The stud shooters in the back also detract from the sleek look of the vehicle as well. However, despite this, I think the car looks fantastic, especially when viewed straight from the front. Something that I also appreciate about the set is that there are clips where Lloyd's dao blades can be held. This is something that is sometimes not done on sets, so I appreciate that the designer took thr time to add this into the set.

The main action feature of this set is to hold down on a button, which raise the stud shooter and fire studs when the car is pushed. I think this is cool when firing the studs, but they are easily lost, and it will take more time to pick them up and reload them than to actually fire them off. Fortunately, there are twelve spare studs in case some get lost. Still, the firing is impressive, and the vehicle looks even better, in my opinion, when the barrels are raised.

Overall:

I think this set is great! The car looks good on display, the minifigures are good, and even Ultraviolet's bike provides some balance between the ninja and the Sons of Garmadon.

I think this set is priced well, but the price-to-part ratio can be deceiving, as 24 of the 552 parts are studs for the stud shooters.

This set definitely appeals to kids more than adults, and I think the target audience will enjoy it. The stud shooter feature is impressive, and a battle can be made between good vs. evil, even though Ultraviolet only gets a small bike. Many play scenarios can be made. It's a nice looking car, and it is definitely one of the more impressive Sons of Garmadon sets. I would therefore recommend this set to kids, as the set includes great minfigures and builds that will allow them to make various play scenarios.

This is one of the best Lego cars that I have ever seen. The minifigures are appropriate for the set, and the car itself is really cool looking. The bike for Ultra-Violet is a standard Lego motorcycle, but it works well. The car is weaponed with a twin 6-stud shooter, which looks cool enough. The only problem I have with this system is that the activation trigger can be easily activated if you are not being careful with it, and the studs can go everywhere if you drive fast enough.

Build Experience

It took me about an hour and a half to build this set when I first got it. It was fun to build, and the most challenging part for me to build was the shooter system, but I got it in the end. The motorcycle for Ultra-Violet took me about 30 seconds to put together.

Final Construction

The final build looks really cool, functions well and is a great vehicle for Lloyd. If you pair it up with the other ninja (and Samurai) vehicles from the Sons of Garmadon wave, you really get a great selection of vehicles, even if Jay, Cole, and Nya do not get any vehicles for this wave. The bike for Ultra-Violet looks really good when combined with all the other bikes for this wave, including the other small bikes from Katana V11 and S.O.G Headquarters.

Overall thoughts

This set is a great set if you have the money for it. I got this set with the money that my mother leant me, along with Katana V11 and Street Race of Snake Jaguar, and I instantly thanked her for it when I finished building it.

That will wrap up my review of this set.