One of the only location-based sets in the upcoming LEGO® NINJAGO Crystalized wave is that of the Crystal King Temple. This mysterious regal realm is packed with traps and features the throne of the Crystal King. This menacing new enemy has caused ripples throughout the world of NINJAGO. With crystal infused weaponry and the return of some familiar foe from past battles. The set features a crystalized temple and 6 minifigures including an exclusive version of the Crystal King. Ahead of its official release on June 1st, here’s my review offset 71771: The Crystal King Temple.
Product Details
The Crystal King Temple (71771) playset lets kids aged 8 and up relive their favorite scenes from the NINJAGO®: Crystallized TV series. The temple is packed with cool features and functions, including The Crystal King’s throne, a floating prison and several traps.
A playset to enchant passionate ninja fans
The Crystal Temple includes 6 minifigures for ninja fans to play out action-packed adventures. There are 4 exclusive ninja minifigures: Cole, Zane, Kai and Jay, plus an exclusive Crystal King minifigure with 4 arms, and a Vengestone Guard with crystal armor.
A fun digital experience for LEGO® builders
The playset comes with interactive digital building instructions to make the building experience even more fun. Available in the free LEGO Building Instructions app for use on smartphones and tablets, the zoom and rotate tools help you visualize the model as you build. Builders can also save their progress at any point on the app.
- Set Name: The Crystal King Temple
- Set Number: 71771
- Pieces: 703
- RRP: £69.99/$79.99/79.99€
- Number of Bags: Bags x 5 + golden weapons
- Stickers: Sheet x 1
- Minifigures: Cole, Zane, Kai, Jay, Crystal King plus a Vengestone Guard
- Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
- Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Release from June 1st
The set is split across 5 bags and also includes a bag of golden weapons, most of which actually get used throughout the build. There’s also a small sticker sheet, which adds some unusual details to different aspects of the build. Of course, there’s also the instruction booklet, if the minimal cover you’ll only look at when building the set offends so much, you’ll also be able to access the digital instructions of the LEGO Instructions App, once the set is released on June 1st.
Once you’ve recovered from having to briefly look at the cover of the instructions, the set is split into two buildable sections. Both create the Crystal King Temple, although they don’t actually physically connected together. The first section you build is a rocky path of steps. It’s a fairly simple build, but I do like the combination of grey and sandy brown elements to give the steps a bit of texture. They also hide a couple of traps including unstable steps, rams and crystal blades. These all guard the golden weapons dotted around the temple. At the end of the treacherous stairs is a gate-like structure. This is very indicative of a Shinto gate often found in Japan.
The second section of the temple is much larger and is crafted from two sections. From what we’ve seen on the box art and a small selection of clips attached to Season 15, the realm in which the Crystal Temple sits seems to have a bit of an Avatar’s Pandora vibe to it. So much of the landscape is made up of floating rocky outcrops. This has been built into the set in a couple of impressive ways. For example, the top section of the temple is attached to the base by a pair of very unusual transparent Technic beams. Obvious there are very few Technic sets which would require the use of bright pink transparent beams. So these are quite cool. The other neat feature is a tensegrity prison. You’ll most likely great the craze of creating ‘floating’ structures with LEGO elements which took social media by storm a couple of years ago. The same technique is employed to make a small enclosure float from the central part of the tower. I believe it is the first official use of tensegrity in a LEGO set and although it’s not as impressive as some of the much larger fans built structures, I still thought it was cool to include it.
As cool as those two aspects of the tower are, it’s also home to a slightly less impressive build technique. The bottom half of the tower has quite a few upsidedown areas of bricks. The idea is to attach the top half of the temple, however, the connection isn’t as flush as usual and any pressure from connecting the top section can cause the bottom part to slightly come apart. So when you build the set you’ll be faced with a slight gap between both sections. Despite this, it’s securely connected via the parts in the middle of the structure. It’s only natural to try and get both halves to be flush, however, you won’t get them so.
Sitting atop the tower is another of those Shinto-style gates, which frame the throne of the Crystal King. The combination of black and gold elements along with the large pink shards give it an imposing look. I also like the use of curved flat tiles which top the gate structure. The set also includes a small flying crystal creature, although small, it’s a great little build.
As a larger set, it features 6 minifigures including 4 of the ninja and 2 villains. The ninja featured in the set includes Kai, Jay, Cole and Zane who are all wearing their updated but standard ninja robes. Although the standard outfits are a little less exciting than the Golden Dragon variants, the updated design and printed detail are nicely done. I particularly like Cole and Zane’s outfits due to the use of two contrasting colours. Unusually, they don’t have any other weapons beyond a sword. However, there are a number of golden weapons spread throughout the temple.
The set includes a great version of the Crystal King. He appears in different forms across a few sets, in the version featured here he has four arms in a similar fashion to Garmadon. However, despite this, the character doesn’t appear to be a version of Garmadon, instead, he has a similar appearance to the Overlord. Lifting up the Oni-style mask reveals a face which is remarkably similar to the Overlord. I guess the TV series will fully reveal what exactly is going on with the Crystal King and all the returning villains. The Vengestone Army seems to be made up of very similar-looking minions. The Crystal King’s foot soldiers all use the same dragon-like head, this is a single piece and not a hood which slips over a standard minifigure head. The detailing on the torso and legs is impressive, I especially like the use of transparent pieces used for parts of the minifigure, including shoulder armour.
Review Round-up
For me, this is a mixed set, on one hand, it has some great parts and of course, minifigures plus some interesting build features. But on the other hand, it was a little annoying to build in places. The good certainly outweighs the bad overall and it’s nice to have a NINJAGO set which attempts to offer something different.
For
+ Features some interesting elements
+ Great selection of minifigures
+ Tensegrity structure was a surprise
Against
– Joining the two sections of the platform is a little annoying
Coming June 1st: UKIrelandUSCanadaGermanyDenmarkAustraliaNew Zealand
This set was provided to BricksFanz by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing a set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
