The Samurai Mech was one of my best purchases!  At first, on the box it looks like it has a round, clear dome, but instead has four round corners that make up for the top of the helmet. Of course Minifigs are half the reason I buy sets (with Bionicle and most Creator sets as an exception.) And the minifigs included are great. On most ocasions I don't like stickers, but these gave it astonishing detail and they have a new texture! The build was more fun than it usualy is, since I had Samurai X move the bricks to make her "build" it in her spare time. Once completed, it is truly a sight to behold and looks better than on the box! The playability is realy good because it has so many moving parts and it comes with a little catapult! With that I can safly conclude that this set is definatly worth every cent!

This is a fun set that is very enjoyable to put together - apart from the legs there is minimal repitition in the build (and the legs are a mirror image anyway), and the range of techniques employed often has you wondering how it's all going to come together until the last minute.
There are no printed parts (outside of the minifigs and accessories) in this set, and there are 11 stickers to apply. I don't usually apply stickers to parts, but in this case i did as they really enhanced the model and (with the exception of the waist skirt) did not limit the reuse of the parts too much.
The finished model is great and has a real old-style Japanese robot vibe to it. The range of motion on the model is great - the waist turns, the legs move backwards and forwards and the feet rotate, as well as having ball articulation at the shoulders and elbows. In addition, the "helmet" flips up to reveal Samurai X's cockpit - although the space in there is pretty spartan and cramped. (My first mod was to give her a printed control panel and back rest!) For all the articulation, the model remains quite stable in a variety of poses.

One thing that did annoy me a little about the design is that the arms seemed rather short and the upper arms were a bit spindly. But i'm sure that can be fixed with a bit of modding. ;)

Facing off against this behemoth of a mech is... 2 dwarf snake-people in a catapault?! Hardly seems fair, does it? xD The catapult makes use of the half-barrel/tub peice to fling the minifigs and while it does it's job ok, it's nothing to write home about.

Talking of minifigs, this set has some brilliant ones. Samurai X has to be one of my all-time favourite figs, with a new redesigned samurai helmet with face gaurd and dark pearl samurai armour. The body printing underneath the armour is exquisite too, showing a dark red breastplate with gold pheonix insignia and leg armour printing as well. She has no hand weapon to carry, but with the mech, she doesn't really need one.
The two snake people in the set are called Aytar and Snike - Aytar is the black spiky one and seems to be the leader, as he is carrying the special tooth blade that Samurai X is trying to wrest from him on the box art. His moulded head is fantastic and sits directly onto the torso piece. Snike is the orange one and has the more conventional minifig head and headpeice. His face is cool but rather creepy, and the headpiece has a small tail that runs down his back. Both snake people have scaly double-sided torso prints that suit the characters well.

Parts-wise, this set is brilliant - i don't think i have ever seen as many new peices (or old parts in new colours) as in this set. This is a list of noteworthy mentions:

3 x dark bley 2x2 tiles with studs (inverted tiles - crazy cool!)
7 x tan(!) brackets 1x2 - 2x2 downwards bracket
3 x light bley brackets 1x2 - 2x2 upwards(!) bracket
5 x light bley brackets 1x2 - 1x2 downwards bracket (also seen in LOTR sets)
3 x dark bley brackets 1x2 - 1x2 upwards bracket (also seeen in LOTR sets)
2 x train cowcatchers (innovative use for the shoulder armour)
1 x gold spinner top
4 x 1x2 black plates with triple bar ends (a super useful peice)
1 x black wedge plate 4 x 6 with 2x2 cutout (new part to me)
4 x black quarter dome peices
1 x black 2x2 technic brick modified with 2 (!) rotation joint sockets
4 x dark red panels 1x2x2 with window cutout
2 x dark red curved slope 4x1 double no studs
24(!) x dark red cheese slopes
6 x 2x3 dark red plates
11 x pearl gold 1x1 round tiles (yum!)
9 x pearl gold 1x2 grille peices
2 x dark tan brick bricks

I'm sure there are other unusual parts in there, but this was just what stood out to me.
In all, you get about 450 parts in this set, which is a pretty great parts/dollar ratio in itself, but to get 90 brilliant parts in that mix is verrry nice thank you! :D (If you are a member of a LUG then this would be a great set for partsies)

In summation, this is a great set that i would recommend to anyone. The design is inventive and surprising, the minifigs are great and the parts list is outstanding. Ninjago as a line is rather hit or miss for me, but when LEGO gets it right, it comes up with some truly awesome sets - this is certainly one of them.

I Love The Samurai Mech Set! The Balance Is Not The Best, But The Rare Pieces In This Set Are Pretty Super! Lastly the Value for Money Is Pretty Super too.I would HIGHLY recommend Getting This Great set!

-Daninu12345

Parts

This set comes with quite nice parts. You've got a lot of articulations, such as ball joints, technic joints which click into each others, clips and more, some particularly interesting pieces includes 4 3x3x2 curved black pieces to form the head of the mech, a large silver blade (which unfortunately was already bent, straight from a sealed box), what I think is a spinner crown in gold, a pirate cannon and 2 large pieces which are normally used at the front of trains. The set also contain a noticeable amount of dark red.

Minifigures

Minifigures are ok. 3 isn't a lot for a set of this size.

Bytar has a torsos with printing on both side, but legs are plain, the details are ok but far from spectacular. The head is molded in a hard plastic and has many colors and details, though mine came with a defect, the left eye isn't properly printed and appears orange instead of yellow with no pupil.

Snike comes in a nice orange color. It has prints on both side of the torso, but not on the legs. The details are on par with Bytar, but look a bit better imo. The head is very detailed with fangs, large yellow eyes and visible scales aboves the eyes. The "hat" is made of hard plastic and is nicely detailed with gray markings to look like scales.

Nya has prints on both side of the torso and on legs, it is nicely detailed, better than on the snakes and represents some kind of armour. She also has a double sided face. A half smile on one side, and an angry face on the other. She doesn't wear make-up on the angry side. she comes with a nice metallic armour which hides most of the prints.

The build

A slightly complicated build which uses many technics. Lots of SNOT. Quite a bit of technic. You'll be building in all directions. Gets slightly confusing at times.

Playability

The models has articulations at the ankles, shoulders, feet, hands and claws. the shoulder pads, jetpacks, robe, and few other bits can also move, and the torso can rotate 360. The head comes down so that Nya can enter the cockpit. Overall it offers nice posability.

However, there are so many moving bit that it is hard to touch it without messing anything up. I find the ball joints are harder to articulate the way you want than the technic clicky joints, also, the ball joints in the feet are slightly weak, though they will hold the mech, provided it is perfectly balanced. The shoulder pads and the robe get in the way of the arms and legs. Also the cannon can't aim towards the ground or the cannon ball will fall, not good when you fight ground opponents...

The catapult seems very superfluous, since the snakes have no projectiles other than themselves which sounds a pretty stupid strategy (though it worked in the show), but it still comes with few good pieces, like mason bricks and a large brown bucket. I found the catapult matches very well with "Enter the serpent"

This is hard to rate, this model offers a lot, but I feel it's a bit hard to play with, unless you just want to mess it up.

The completed model

A great looking model, standing about 25cm tall. looks great from most angles, though the back is a bit lackluster and seems to be missing a few pieces to make it look complete. Articulating it correctly is quite a bit of a challenge, and messing it up is easy, but if you get it in the right pose, and don't touch it anymore it'll look great.

I'm not really a fan of ninjago sets so this is only the second one I have purchased. I bought it at London Drugs at 20% off , making it $ 39.99 cnd + tax which is the price that it should have been originally.

Pros

• Excellent selection of parts
• Solid design
• Colourful
• Not too many stickers
• At $ 40 dollars the value is very good
  
• Not a single flick fire missile
• Samurai minifig is pretty neat
• It's made by mark stafford

Cons

• The mask is difficult to put on the samurai helmet
• Cockpit is cramped making it difficult to put the minifig
• Could have used a few plates on the back to cover bare studs
• The top section of the arms is pretty skinny but this is forgivable because they are covered by the shoulders
  
• Catapult is slightly unstable

50 dollars makes this a bit on the pricey side but it is most definitely worth it regardless of the cost. Its proof that mark Stafford is arguably one of Lego's best set designers and certainly knows how to make a good mech.
I don't think i'm ever going to take this set apart , its just too good.