71775: Nya’s Samurai X MECH Set Review

One of the traditions of the LEGO® NINJAGO theme is mechs. Regardless of their size, the mech has evolved over the lifetime of the NINJAGO series. One of the larger of the new sets is another mech, this time owned by the fallen ninja Nya. During the events of the Seabound series, Nya sacrifices herself to save NINJAGO City. How she returns will be revealed during the upcoming new season of the TV show, but it appears Nya has once again taken up the mantle of Samurai X. Before becoming the elemental master of Water, Nya was the mysterious Samurai X. Now the return of this old ally of the ninja has inspired a large mech. How does it compare to the previous mech and the rest of the new NINJAGO sets? Here’s my early review of Nya’s Samurai X MECH.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

Product Details

Kids aged 10 and up can relive thrilling action from the NINJAGO®: Crystallized TV series with Nya’s Samurai X MECH (71775). The toy playset includes an impressive mech, featuring posable knees, arms, legs and hips; 2 swords; 2 spring-loaded shooters; and a cockpit for Nya.

A premium building set to wow friends
This impressive set is crammed with 8 minifigures: Samurai X Nya, Golden Jay, Master Wu, Oni Garmadon, Lil’ Nelson, General Pythor, The Mechanic and Vengestone Warrior. Many of theseare exclusive, never-seen-before models, all primed to play out exciting battles!

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: Nya’s Samurai X MECH
  • Set Number: 71775
  • Pieces: 1003
  • RRP: £99.99/$119.99/109.99€
  • Number of Bags: Bags x 8 + golden weapons
  • Stickers: Sheet x 1
  • Minifigures: Samurai X Nya, Golden Jay, Master Wu, Oni Garmadon, Lil’ Nelson, General Pythor, The Mechanic & Vengestone Warrior
  • Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
  • Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Release from June 1st

71775

Instruction booklet cover exciting? No. Does it affect the build? No. Are there any stickers? Yes. Sorry to sound flippant but the backlash the instructions are getting is a little overblown. Yes, the cover is unexciting and I would prefer it if the product render was switched out for the key art instead. But it really has zero effect on the build experience. Now onto the build.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

The set features two buildable elements including the Mech and crystalized creature. The build begins with this minion of the Crystal King. It’s a little hard to place exactly what the creature is. It’s a little dragon-like, even using a similar head to the one featured in some of the Golden Dragon vehicles. Obviously, recoloured to match the black and pink crystal colouring of the Vengestone Army. The crystal connection includes two large transparent pink blades and a few of the crystal shards blades used as weapons across the wave of sets. It’s not your usual looking dragon, but it has enough dragon-like features to be considered one.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

The rest of the build focuses solely on the Samurai X Mech. These huge humanoid-like robots have evolved greatly, especially in recent years, with the LEGO Design Teams going to great lengths to improve upon the basic design. This has seen a keen focus on the legs. A great pair of legs, not only allows the mech to stand but depending on its points of articulation, also offers the ability to be posed.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

The legs are the last things added to the mech, the build begins with the body. This includes a hidden area in which a minifigure can be placed. Lifting up the section beneath the head reveals the mech control hub. This is nicely incorporated into the build so it’s not obvious it’s there. The front section of the mech features a large X emblem. Its use of red elements as well as its placement on the mech, certainly makes it stand out. The red ties back to the original design of the Samurai. In the past Samurai X used a number of colour schemes including red, black and gold as well as switching out red for a darker blue. The blue used for the mech is much brighter than usual. But comparing it to Nya’s new Samurai X guise shows it matches her new appearance. For once, the dark pieces are used for most of the joints, work in the mech’s favour and so they don’t stand out like a sore thumb.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

The mech has plenty of points of articulation, the arms can be moved at the shoulders, elbows and hands. With the legs being ‘bendable’ at the waist, knees and feet. Although the knees have an impressive range of movement, the feet really restrict movement of their range. The ball joints on the feet have limited movement due to the nature of the part. However, I do like the use of the FORMA rubber plugs to give the feet a little more grip.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

Both arms are holding large bladed swords and are topped with large shoulder plates, which hide a pair of bolt firing bricks. They feel a little chunky and it’s tricky to actually know how they should sit against the set. In some images here, I’ve places the bolts the opposite round, just so I have used the little flap to partly cover them and stop any misfiring. Although that part of the mech feels a little awkward, I quite like the effort gone into making sure the whole mech is finished off nicely. The back might not have much going on but it has been fully covered.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

There’s an impressive line-up of minifigures featured in this set, with many of them exclusive. They obviously include a mixture of good and bad guys. The Council of the Crystal King has seen the return of many past villains, with two features in this set. General Pythor is one of the ninja’s oldest adversaries. His minifigures include two unique elements – the large snake-like head and in place of legs a snake tail. These are combined with the Vengestone Army torso, seemingly used for almost all the bad guys in this way. Pythor is also wearing the transparent pink crystal shoulder armour. The Mechanic is a more recent foe, first appearing in season 6 and popping up at various points since then. This only physical appearance has been in the NINJAGO City Gardens set. Since being an actual minifigure, his appearance has been tweaked to move the Nindroid parts retrofitted into his hat, into print detail on the face. This outfit is the standard one worn by most of the bad folk. This removes any reference to The Mechanic’s robotic upgrades. The villains are joined by a Vengestone Warrior. Although these all use the same new headpiece and bodies, I really do like the flashes of transparent pieces used to create them.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

One of the least exciting minifigures is Jay, he’s wearing his standard ninja robes here and although he may seem out of place compared to the other included characters, it’s nice to have him reunited with Nya. As mentioned above, Nya was lost in the last season of the TV show, but obviously returns due to her appearance in this set. However, she’s using her past Samurai X alias. Her overall appearance is similar to past versions with the same helmet and face-covering used, but her outfit is more like her ninja robes, using a mixture of a brighter blue and gold trim. She’s joined by Nelson. Once dubbed an honorary ninja for the day, Lil’ Nelson has appeared in a couple of sets but often uses generic parts. This is the first time his minifigure is largely made up of new or unique parts. So he has his own face for the first time, he also uses a recoloured version of the Hidden Side hood piece.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

The Spinjitzu Brothers are back and seemingly fighting on the same side. Master Wu only appears in one set in this new wave and he’s donned a piece of the dragon armour, introduced in the Dragon Hunter sets. Admittedly he looks a little odd without his beard, but the rest of the minifigure has all the usual mix of white robes and golden hat. So you can tell it’s him. He’s joined by Lord Garmadon. NINJAGO fans will know, that Garmadon is often up to no good, but his placement of the box puts him fighting alongside the good guys. He’s not in this normal form of having four arms. Instead, he’s in standard form and is wearing a menacing-looking Oni Mask.

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

71775: Nya's Samurai X MECH Set Review

Review Round-up

It’s a decent enough set, with some nice features. It has a nice range of movement, but it feels slightly let down by the limits of the feet. One of the most important things is the fact that Nya has a set, solely focused on her. In my opinion, one of the sore points of the NINJAGO theme is the focus on just a couple of characters. One of the most exciting things about this set has to be the line-up of minifigures, especially as most of them are unique to this set. 

For

+ Great line-up of minifigures
+ Imposing looking mech
+ Layering of elements gives the entire mech a great finish

Against

– Feet joints limit posing options

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.

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Author: Adam White

Howdy I'm Adam, The editor of BricksFanz.com - your go to source for the latest LEGO news, reviews and much, much more. Some of you may know me from other LEGO sites so you'll know I have a good experience of the LEGO community and a deep, passionate commitment to all things LEGO. I specialize in seeking out the latest LEGO news and products, as well as being an expert on all things LEGO gaming. So welcome to BricksFanz - Fuelling Your LEGO Lifestyle.

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