Review: 40705 Micro NINJAGO City Gardens
Posted by CapnRex101,71741 NINJAGO City Gardens is my favourite of the NINJAGO City range, featuring an attractive combination of colourful buildings. That should translate neatly to a microscale design, as even subtler details are easily highlighted with areas of vibrant colour.
40705 Micro NINJAGO City Gardens is certainly very detailed and shows incredible attention to the minifigure-scale model, as expected for the microscale series.
Summary
40705 Micro NINJAGO City Gardens , 376 pieces.
NINJAGO City Gardens looks stunning at microscale, with many accurate details
- Colourful buildings look superb
- Superb standard of detail
- Links with previous sets
- Fragile in places
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box and Contents
This is the largest of the four Micro NINJAGO City sets, containing 376 pieces, spread across eight numbered bags. Many of those elements are tiny, evidently, but this set feels reasonably substantial because of its many pieces, nonetheless.
The Completed Model
The most successful microscale models tend to be those focusing on certain bold features of their subject and 40705 Micro NINJAGO City Gardens is no exception. The tree, the museum and the geometric tower are each eye-catching features of 71741 NINJAGO City Gardens and all three are included here, with accurate proportions between them.
The tower in particular looks superb, as 1x1 plates are angled to approximate the hexagonal windows on the original structure. Additionally, the ice cream shop and the sand blue column underneath are instantly recognisable and I love how the column is constructed with brackets, leaving room for the walkway to pass behind this pillar.
Impressive detail continues on the back, where black elements form staircases and balconies, as well as an awning on the ground level. The greenery across the base also looks lovely and extends to the attached temple, which provides a stark contrast with the towering city complex to match 71741 NINJAGO City Gardens.
Although tiny, this rendition of the temple captures its shape well. Four columns and two small bridges are included, with a nanofigure representing the statue of Zane outside. Similarly, I am pleased with the correctly-coloured billboards placed along the walkways, even though a few of them are rather fragile.
That is partly because the lime green advertising board and the balcony above are designed for easy removal, so you can connect NINJAGO City Gardens to NINJAGO City Docks without the temple in between. I am surprised the designer managed to retain this feature from the original set, although linking everything, including the temple, arguably works better at this scale.
I think the ensemble looks excellent together, reflecting the busy appearance of the larger sets, without becoming too chaotic. Additionally, like the previous sets in this series, this one hides a fun detail inside. Rather than a printed tile, the museum contains a white 1x1 round tile with bar, which I believe represents the dragon skeleton from the original model.
Overall
I was impressed with the previous two Micro NINJAGO City sets, but exactly like their bigger counterparts, 40705 Micro NINJAGO City Gardens is my favourite so far. The model includes numerous recognisable details from the original set, ranging from the main buildings to smaller signs and foliage growing around the base.
Certain details are fragile and only secured via one stud, but that is common when building at such a small scale. Otherwise, the 'price' of 2300 Insiders points feels fair to me, equivalent to about £15, $20 or €15 in discount vouchers. I only hope the launch of this series does not mean the end of the minifigure-scale NINJAGO City range.
Thanks to Huw for the photos in this review.
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14 comments on this article
Am I the only one thinking the Docks set looks just a little too small?
@merman said:
"Am I the only one thinking the Docks set looks just a little too small?"
At full size, the issue is the same. However, the majority of the Ninjago City sets are truly ENORMOUS, and the Docks are simply overshadowed by large towers when all connected.
The docks to me are meant to be like suburbs, whereas the other sets are clearly central-downtown. By putting the docks at the end, with a cluster of the others together, it looks like a much more realistic skyline that progressively gets smaller.
I knew it was bigger based on piece count, but I was surprised the box was bigger than both the main City set and the Docks. I thought it made sense that the Docks were "cheaper" points-wise than the main City set, but am definitely surprised that the Gardens and Docks are the same points-wise. Good value on the points here.
Thanks for the review!
I bought and build the first two and look forward to add this one.
These sets are so cute!
Especially when they are together.
Just a jumbled mess. Just like the bigger version.
If you show this to a non AFOL/Visitors of this site, they will think it's a random pile of bricks or a "house" a 6 years old made.
Hoping for a full series of Micro Modulars next!
@sjr60 said:
"Hoping for a full series of Micro Modulars next!"
Yes, 10230 is long overdue for an update.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @sjr60 said:
"Hoping for a full series of Micro Modulars next!"
Yes, 10230 is long overdue for an update."
Indeed, with the 20th modular coming soon, what better time for a remake!
Very satisfied with this one indeed, I like Ninjago but not to the point of collecting city, this collection is very nice, can't wait to finish it with the market
Awwww, so cute.
This was delivered earlier today, I have all 4 now, I just need to build them.