Set Review ➟ 71818 LEGO® Ninjago Dragons Rising™ Tournament Battle Arena
Great jumping grashoppers! There’s a lot going on here!
Let’s get started with the minifigures. The set includes six. Note that there are no duplicate figures in this set and the companion set 71814 Tournament Temple City. Kai and Wolf Mask Warrior figures are identical to those found in set 71822 Source Dragon of Motion. Sora, Cinder, Evil Jay, and Tox are, so far, unique to this set.
First is Kai. He has a three-and-a-half-meter-long double-bladed weapon which should prove unwieldy but long enough to keep any opponent at a distance. He has a new torso and legs. The kitana holder is also new and that will get a close-up look below.
Sora also has a new torso and legs.
Cinder has a new torso and shoulder armor. His right arm and head are transparent black.
Wolf Mask Warrior has some giant magical wolf claws coming off his back to complement the regular wolf claws in his hands. He looks pretty awesome, but you have to find the small sweet spot in the balance for this figure to have any chance of standing because those red claws make him extremely top heavy. The warrior’s torso and legs are new designs.
Evil Jay with new designs on the torso and legs.
Tox debuts as a minifigure. The figure has a new head and torso with a hair piece coming over from the Friends line and legs previously seen in the Stuntz sets.
On to the arena! There are a few stickers for decoration.
The arena is composed of four sections: a weapons wall, the combat floor, a large stone sensei statue at the top of some steps, and a raised drum platform. The four modules join into one via technic pin-and-hole connections. This scheme allows for multiple configurations of the arena both in this set and when attached to set 71814 Tournament Temple City.
The first section is a weapons wall. It holds a selection of standard weapons which pale in comparison to the exotic weapons most of the combatants have. The wall has an additional pin-and-hole connector on the back side.
The second section is the combat floor and features has two raised disc platforms to which figures get attached. The platforms rock side-to-side and are controlled by knobs on the sides of the platform. This allows for a kind of sideways slap fight between opponents.
On the third section a large drum sits centered on a raised platform. Stairs on either side lead to mallets at the tops of the stairs. There is a lever on the back side of the platform that, when pulled, causes the drum to roll off the platform. If the lever is pulled aggressively, the drum can become sufficiently airborne to reach the combat floor.
The fourth section features a semi-large stone sensei statue sitting buddha-like on a platform at the top of stairs above the combat floor. One of Sensei’s hands holds a small golden dragon and the other holds a scroll. There is a slider on the back side of the platform which causes the steps to collapse.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administriva Section
All the head pieces in the set are part number 3274 save Kai who is reusing a part 3626 that originally appeared in 2017.
It will be interesting to see what LEGO calls these things, but for the moment I’m calling them magical claw extenders. The part number is 5500. The wide end has three bar sections arranged on a curve. The narrow end has a hollow bar.
Evil Jay has new colored headwear, part 4910.
The Wolf Mask now in Purple and Red; last wave Dark Blue and Azure. Part 4919.
Here is a comparison of the newer and older mohawk hair pieces.
Kai and Evil Jay sport a new kitana-holder/shoulder armor piece number 5501. Jay in black and Kai in pearl gold.
Cinder’s new shoulder armor piece number 5309 in flat silver. The dark line extending from the neck hole down the front is not a split, it is just colorant.
Here’s a look at Cinder’s sword. This part was released in the previous Ninjago wave.
New piece 5502 dragon.
Curved panel in a new color, red.
Summary
The build is interesting with all the various traps and contraptions, the set is handsome and offers plenty of potential options with six combatants ready to face off against each other in the tournament. The modular scheme of the base allows for multiple configurations of the arena. The set is absolutely dense with post-assembly play value. Recommended.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.
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