Review: 71703 Storm Fighter Battle
Posted by benbacardi,The Ninjago Legacy subtheme, introduced last year, is a reimagining of some of the earlier sets released in the Ninjago line nearly ten years ago.
71703 Storm Fighter Battle is a 4+ set aimed at younger builders, and contains two of our ninja heroes to pitch in battle against a member of the Serpentine race, the antagonists first introduced in the original TV series.
Minifigures
Two heroes are included - Jay, the Blue Ninja, Master of Lightning, and Kai, the Red Ninja, Master of Fire. There's nothing unique about the figures, but their outfits look excellent and the printing includes an impressive level of detail. It's hard to see how these could be improved upon.
They both feature dual expressions; happy grins on one side, and serious “don't mess with us” frowns on the other. The eyes and eyebrows of the latter look particularly impressive beneath their ninja head coverings.
Ninja wouldn't be ninja without some weaponry - Jay is equipped with a dagger and Kai with a throwing star and a blade on a chain. This is a pair that I certainly wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of!
Their opponent in the battle, a member of the Serpentine race, is Lasha. He's appeared in this design in numerous previous sets, and as with the ninjas, his printing is impressively detailed, from the scales on his legs to the scar where his left eye once was.
The head is only printed on one side, but the rear is covered by the snake headpiece, which, along with the vibrant lime green, completes his look as a member of the scaly underworld. He's equipped with a short curved dagger.
The Build
For the build, I handed over to my daughter, who has recently turned four, and is therefore (for the first time!) the targeted age. The box contained three bags, three instruction manuals, and three loose parts.
While the manuals are numbered one to three, it's clear that they could be built in any order, or even in parallel if you were building with a friend (or two.) Each bag is predominantly one colour, one for each of the included minifigures. My daughter, preferring to do things “properly” (she must take after me) went for bag one first.
This was Jay’s bag. It contained the minifigure, and everything needed for the titular Storm Fighter. This jet has been the subject of a number of previous sets, although never this juniorised. The base of the fighter is a single moulded piece, and each step in the instructions places one or, at most, two pieces. My daughter was able to build the entire model herself, of which she was very proud.
The completed jet looks fantastic. It's simple, but this is a 4+ set, and the finished aircraft is very swooshable. There are no stickers, so all decorative elements are printed. The fire on the plane’s vertical stabilisers looks impressive, and the circular blades on each wing accurately portray the previous more advanced versions.
The wings can open and close thanks to a pair of click hinges, and a couple of golden daggers are hidden in a compartment at the front of the cockpit. My daughter loved the “secret” aspect, telling me they were put there to be kept safe and to “stop them getting stolen.”
My only complaint is the angle at which Jay must lie in order for the cockpit to close. It's far too relaxed a position for flying a fighter jet, but my daughter wasn't bothered by it at all. She was too busy flying the jet around the room, which is the main point I suppose!
Bag two contains mostly lime green parts to build Lasha’s battle vehicle to fight Jay’s Storm Fighter. Once again, my daughter was able to build almost the entire model unaided.
The finished vehicle is simple, but looks fantastic. It looks like a hybrid between a snake and a scorpion, with printed eyes and scales above sharp teeth at the front, and a poised stinger at the rear. Protruding from the mouth is a large missile, which can be shot (with quite some force) by pressing a red button behind the driving seat.
The missile and launcher are actually brand new parts. The launcher is the size of a 2x6x2 brick, excluding the red launch button which sticks out the back. It resembles the current flick fire missile launchers, but on a larger scale.
The missile itself has a solid rubber tip, and about two thirds of the shaft fit into the launcher, stopping with a click at the hilt.
Compared to the previous missile launcher, this fits well with system, rather than Technic, sets, and can easily be integrated into the heart of a build due to its profile as a standard brick. This is in contrast to the Technic launcher, the design of which only allows for connections on the bottom. Both are shown next to each other below. The launch button has an axle hole, to which you could connect a more elaborate mechanism to launch the missile from a different part of the build, should you wish. I will be interested to see how else designers and AFOLs will integrate this new part into their models!
Back to the vehicle; the lime green colour scheme matches Lasha perfectly, and gives the vehicle a vibrant, dangerous, look. Two free-standing flames are provided as a target for the missile, and are relatively easy to knock over (even for a four-year-old.)
The final bag completes the build with a temple and jail cell. Given the colour scheme, this is clearly Kai’s domain. Two flags stand out the front, flanking a podium on which an intricate golden sword stands.
For a simple build, the temple comes across as very ornate, with a few gold details that stand out very well against the red and black. The printed tile with a dragon emblem that sits atop the temple door finishes the build nicely.
Inside the temple is a crate containing more throwing stars for Kai, and a small jail cell. I'm not sure why one would be present in a traditional oriental temple, but it certainly adds to the play features here! There's room inside to fit Lasha once the battle is over (assuming, of course, that the good guys win.) My daughter was even vigilant enough to secure the cell with Kai’s chain, to ensure there was no escape.
The Completed Model
All together, the individual models look fantastic. The three colours really stand out, and while this is clearly not intended as a display piece, the set is very enticing for play.
With three distinct aspects to the set, there is enough to keep one child entertained, or even three children controlling a minifigure each. Jay’s Storm Fighter is a lot of fun to fly around, and the missile shooter on Lasha’s buggy is something the kids will want to shoot over and over again. One improvement would be if the jet were to have some form of weapon with which to fight back, such as a flick-fire missile; but children's imagination is often more than enough!
At £24.99 / $29.99 / 29.99€, it seems like a relatively high price for only 165 pieces and a “basic” build. But this is a set aimed at getting early LEGO fans into building, and the play potential in the finished set is enough for me to recommend this to anybody shopping for the younger children in their life. My two will certainly have fun (once they stop fighting over who gets to fire Lasha’s missile!)
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
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17 comments on this article
An excellent review, and one, I'm sure, will influence parents to get this set for their young master builders.
Just for the record, Jay's weapon isn't a dagger, it's a sai, which is traditionally used in Asian cultures, particularly the Japanese island Okinawa. They are still used today, but are blunt and used for arresting people. It surprises me that there aren't two of them but three of them because sai are twin blades. Maybe one was a spare piece?
Also, the throwing star is called a shurikan.
The weapon choice surprises me, since long-range weapons are Zane's favourite (bow and arrow, shurikans), chained weapons are Jay's favourite weapons (swinging mace, nunchucks) and Kai likes up-close weapons (swords). Furthermore, the set doesn't even include 1 katana, which all the ninja like.
@Slobrojoe said:
"Just for the record, Jay's weapon isn't a dagger, it's a sai, which is traditionally used in Asian cultures, particularly the Japanese island Okinawa.
Also, the throwing star is called a shurikan. "
Thank you! I didn't trust my research skills not to get the names horribly wrong, so I plumped for something as generic as I could.
@benbacardi said:
" @Slobrojoe said:
"Just for the record, Jay's weapon isn't a dagger, it's a sai, which is traditionally used in Asian cultures, particularly the Japanese island Okinawa.
Also, the throwing star is called a shurikan. "
Thank you! I didn't trust my research skills not to get the names horribly wrong, so I plumped first something as generic as I could.
"
No problem :)
I love it when a reviewer is helped by someone from the actual target market, always adds a good perspective!
The sai is a part you often get an "extra" of, along with katanas, lightsaber hilts, etc. I have so many spare lightsaber hilts! I got a hundred or so Transparent Light Blue blades (4M bars) from PAB just so I can arm a massive Jedi Army someday. (Jedi Bob is lonely). That new missile launcher looks like a great improvement- much easier to add to a System build.
This is another great +4 set!
I'm in love in new launcher! Its SO MUCH MORE usefull!
Kai: Ninjago’s answer to Batman.
Excellent review!
I always prefer pilots to be more upright too! Nice to hear what your kids thought as well.
The new launcher looks to be much more useful than the old one, thanks for the side by side comparison, it's good to see that detail.
I doubt a lot of afols will attempt to use the shooters, they have always been exceedingly difficult to add into builds, and look out of place. The projectiles from the older launchers had potentially useful connection points, but the new ones are lacking in that department.
Better then a stud shooter however, those are instantly removed from all my sets.
Nothing too exciting about this model to me… but I suppose that's mostly because it's pretty much just a "beginner-level" version of stuff we've seen more impressive versions of in sets with an older target age.
What stands out most about the actual builds, to me, is that this is the first set in a while that's had any Serpentine vehicles. Most of the Ninjago Legacy sets at the theme's usual 7+/8+/9+ building level focus overwhelmingly on the "good guy" vehicles and dragons over "bad guy" ones. And while I'm usually fine with that choice, since I tend to find the ninja vehicles more impressive and memorable than the enemy vehicles anyhow, it's nice to have this sort of set out there as an option for younger kids who missed out on these factions before!
Regardless, I hope in the future we might see some Ninjago 4+ sets that are a little more visually impressive in spite of their simplicity. 43180-1 certainly shows that you can make a really substantial-looking build with plenty of role play potential even at this level of complexity.
Side note — I was just speculating with some friends in a Discord chat server about whether there's a reason this sticks out so far from the launcher instead of just having a shorter dart, and I wonder if they might use that front part as an attachment point for plastic foil wings, kind of like the ones on the Ninjago "Dragon Master" fliers: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Ninjago/subtheme-Dragon-Masters
@Yorick said:
"I doubt a lot of afols will attempt to use the shooters, they have always been exceedingly difficult to add into builds, and look out of place. The projectiles from the older launchers had potentially useful connection points, but the new ones are lacking in that department."
I don't feel like this new shooter will be any less useful to AFOLs than the older, more Technic-based ones. The launcher itself is a more compact size and shape, rather than having Technic half-beams sticking out of the bottom or a sensitive trigger sticking out of the top. I know that both fo those aspects of the old shooter have been a hindrance to me when trying to squeeze it into tight spaces, like the arm of a mech or under the hood/bonnet of a spy car.
It's true that while the old ammo had more connection points, but I rarely used them for anything but shooter ammo anyhow, so the extra Technic pin and axle holes made little difference to me. It goes without saying that AFOLs who are more into display models than stuff with playable action features won't be using this part much, but that's to be expected with most shooter pieces.
The F-16 fighter's seat is reclined 30° to reduce the effects of G forces on the pilot.
Lego should have made another vehicle instead. We already got a storm fighter in the same sub theme last year. They should probably have for example, Cole's tread assault.
And why the heck is Kai holding the shuriken of ice?!
@Slobrojoe said:
"An excellent review, and one, I'm sure, will influence parents to get this set for their young master builders.
Just for the record, Jay's weapon isn't a dagger, it's a sai, which is traditionally used in Asian cultures, particularly the Japanese island Okinawa. They are still used today, but are blunt and used for arresting people. It surprises me that there aren't two of them but three of them because sai are twin blades. Maybe one was a spare piece?
Also, the throwing star is called a shurikan.
The weapon choice surprises me, since long-range weapons are Zane's favourite (bow and arrow, shurikans), chained weapons are Jay's favourite weapons (swinging mace, nunchucks) and Kai likes up-close weapons (swords). Furthermore, the set doesn't even include 1 katana, which all the ninja like."
True, at least is has the sword of fire
Honestly looks a bit sloppy even for a beginner.
Lasha again? Seriously?
@benbacardi
This review confused me because I have looked through the legacy 2020 sets and this set was not there! I just rechecked and it is an error as this set is not under the Legacy sub-theme in the system.
Great set!