To preface this review, I must admit that I have little to no interest in Ninjago whatsoever, and am fairly oblivious in regards to its storyline. However, I am quite appreciative of the designers' efforts to produce imaginative sets, and their ability to deliver shines through in this small but nevertheless fantastic set. I bought it for 4 Euros in a Blokker store in the Netherlands.

Box/Instructions

Jay and his mech come in the standard polybag, nothing we haven't seen before. Lots of legalese, but no parts count (as is standard for European packaging, something I personally find to be a heinous oversight)

Parts

The set officially comes with 54 pieces, along with four spares; Jay's mouthcap, a balljoint, Exo-Force Drone Hand, and a pistol piece.

Now, the main reason that I picked up this set is the pieces, plain and simple. Not only does the set represent a very good deal (7.04 cent per piece), it is by far the easiest and cheapest way for European AFOL's and MOCers to get their hands on the ball- and socket pieces introduced last year. Because some markets on the old continent do not have retail access to the Mixels theme, these parts are hard relatively hard to come by (found in, amongst others, the Chima Legend Beasts and regular sets, which are much more expensive yet include fewer of these particular pieces).

Because of this, I can imagine many are aching to get their hands on this little polybag, something I can not fault them for. Outside of balls and sockets, the mech comes with a nice assortment of medium dark blue and dark blue bricks, the large katana pieces, and the incredibly rare gold clips used for the controls (at the time of writing only available in the expensive Detective's Office and UCS Tumbler). If you buy Lego sets for the parts, you are gonna have a field day with this set.

Minifigures

Included in the packaging is Jay, the blue ninja, in what I believe is his umpteenth iteration. Wearing what I believe to be his 'tournament of elements' robes, he comes with front and back printing on the torso, and with printed legs (his face has just a single, serious print). We've come to expect a lot of fine details on our minifigures in recent years, and this one does not disappoint with what I suspect to be Asian symbols on his tunic and a knot on his belt that continues onto the legs. This does somewhat limit MOCing potential, and I am not a big fan of the bare arms look, but this is simply nitpicking.

The build

The build is quick and painless, but that is par for the course given the 54 (smallish) pieces involved. You start with the model's torso, snap on the arms (which consist of three bricks plus a weapon each), and finally construct the legs. Interestingly enough, the feet are built around a 1 x 2 brick with hole (there's four in the set in total, the other to are used to plug the hip joints into). The reason for this eludes me, although we can utilize this to increase the model's balance by attaching it to a pin in a diorama, allowing for dramatic poses.

The completed model

My closing comment in the build-section should not be taken as proof that the mech has trouble balancing. It is true that one can achieve much more ludicrous poses by exploiting the holes in the feet, but the mech comes with enough posing potential straight out of the bag. Walking poses are no problem, with a bit of patience it can pull off keeping one foot in the air, and only when going for lunging poses does the model really show its limitations. The arms only add to the fun, with the wrists articulating 360 degrees, while the shoulders come fairly close to a 180 degree range on the horizontal plane. Vertically speaking, they reveal the weakness of the socket piece, but this can be somewhat made up for by turning the arm.

Having 8 points of articulation on this scale is quite a feat, which does not include the controls for Jay, which make creative use of the available pieces. They do look like they are situated a bit too low for a minifigure, which can only barely grip them when standing up right, but slightly bending the figure forward helps to mask this minor complaint.

Overall opinion

This set marked my first foray into the Mixel style balls and sockets, and it did not disappoint at all. It is a great deal for its price, includes some nice (and even rare!) pieces useful for MOCing purposes, and provides enough playability on its own for children. The complaints I do have are minor, and not enough to substantially detract from the final score. If you have 4 Euros to spare, I heartily recommend tracking this set down.

Set #30292 Jay Nano Mech: As always Ninjago doesn’t fail to impress with the finer details when it comes to Polybags. This little beauty is a great looking model, solidly built and features much more in the design compared to the Anacondrai Battle Mech. We’ll cover the pros and cons and then discuss overall thoughts.

Pros:

• Model is thick and chunky, really armored up, though most of the armour is in the back section. Uses small balljoint pieces quite well for hip, knee and shoulder joints, and is a decently poseable fun little toy to play with once complete.

• Cheapest set featuring Jay in his Tournament of Element robes, complete with unique hair piece.

• Good price-per-piece ratio.

Cons:

• Does not include a weapon for Jay when not piloting the mech.

• Due to the placement of the arms and lack of elbow joints making them short, ability to attack enemies is hindered. Jay will hit himself in the face with the arms before he can bring the two large golden blades to bear on the Serpentine Cult.

Overall opinion

This set is a really fun little build and makes a nice companion to the larger sets from this sub-theme. I’d recommend tracking it down if you don’t already own it, the inclusion of the small ball joints make it a fairly useful parts pack as well, and roughly the same price as a Mixel.