Set Review ➟ LEGO® Ninjago Dragons Rising 71856 Jay’s Transforming Car
To quote Deep Purple: Ooh, it’s a killing machine / It’s got everything / Like a driving power / Big fat tires and everything. That is Jay’s Transforming Car. But let us note right away that the transforming is between states of car. It does not turn into an Optimus Prime robot or anything like that.
The front end of the car can rotate 360 degrees and each 180 reveals a different design, and for the sake of the review I will refer to the two versions as “car mode” and “dragon mode”.
Car mode.
Turning front end.
Dragon mode.
The connection assembly between the cockpit and the front end is built substantially with technic parts and is relatively firm and quite stable. That is to note that you have to manually turn the front over; it is not prone to being spun loosely. Clips on the front of the car, more obvious in car mode, provide weapon storage.
Car mode.
Dragon mode.
In car mode, the front wheels lift the midsection higher off the ground. In dragon mode, the midsection is lower allowing contact with hidden wheels behind the side-attached gold spiky wheels. When the car is moved in dragon mode the spiky wheels spin and when in car mode they do not. The spiky wheels do stick out just far enough past the wheels to hit a minifigure when passing by.
Car mode.
Side spinner raised.
Dragon mode.
Side spinner lowered.
The cockpit allows for two riders.
In addition to the flip-over front end are some back end features. Pin-and-hole connections are provided at the rear for a portable bolt shooter weapon and a crate of knives. The weapon and crate attach and detach independently, snugly, and connection points are not interchangeable. With the crate attached and shooter detached a third figure can ride attached to the top of the crate. And, yes, that includes Kai with the dragon form tail attached.
Rear without attachments.
Rear with crate attached.
Tail with crate and weapon attached.
Weapon and crate.
Weapon and crate.
The weapon can further attach to the small environment piece.
The set does have some stickers.
Minifigures
The set contains five minifigures: Dragon Form Kai, Jay, Nya, Loyalist Leader and Earth Monster. Loyalist Leader’s hood has droopy bits in the front that prevent the hood from being turned side-to-side and restricts arm movement upward. Shoulder pads on Kai and Earth Monster limit upward positioning of arms. Earth Monster’s hat doubles as claws, and of course the claws are super heavy so the arms can’t be lifted without Earth Monster falling over unless his feet are attached to a plate or brick.
Dragon Form Jay is exclusive to this set, at least so far.
Kai.
Jay.
Nya.
Loyalist Leader.
Earth Monster.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
All heads are 3274 except Nya who is still using a 3626.
Aside from minifigure parts, there is one printed piece in the set, a 2x2 round tile for Loyalist Leader’s staff. I believe this is the first appearance of wheel 56145 in bright light yellow.
Summary
This is a sturdy vehicle with interesting build, fun styling, and good play value in the transforming front end, detachable crate and bolt-shooter weapon elements, and potential to seat three figures. Side spinning elements when the vehicle is in dragon mode add to the fun. Parts do not want to fall off, attachments are not loose, and minifigure selection is good. Recommended.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.
33702