I went back for Toys R Us for this set, it had a good price, and after seeing the reviews and going through the parts list, it was worth it, at least for its parts, despite the few issues I found in it that I will discuss it below.

The set comes in 2 numbered bag and one instruction booklet, however one fun mistake that I made by accident is opening the 2 bags together and mixed the parts together, talking about parts, the unique ones in this set are the top round window frames, 2 treasure chests, 2 barrels in dark brown, 2 muskets and you get a spare one in it (I wish there was a spare one on 70413 The Brick Bounty), 6 pistols, cockpit canopy, 2 long bones, 2 blades in orange color, 3 new style cutlasses, 2 in white and one in gun metallic grey, 2 anchors, 2 small chains in gun metallic grey, 2 fishes in orange color, ninja stars in gold color and you also get a spare pare. There is also the white holder with a skull engraving on the top, 2 axe heads and multi style flames, along side different shapes of plates, bricks and slope pieces.

There are 2 minifigures in this set but non of them has double side printed face:

• Flintlocke: I got to say the most interesting figure in this set, his face has a mean look with a dirty style beard and a mean smile, but all of his beard will be covered once you add the big mustache that changes his look completely, he wears a dark green helmet with no chin cover on it and has a pilot goggles on it that you can flip it up and down and has a dark green epaulet on his shoulder. The printing on his torso is fantastic, its like an early 20th century pilot jacket in a pirate style and has a green scarf printed on it, the arms one of it is in Orange the other is in dark red and has 2 dark brown hands. the back of his torso represents a printing of a parachute bag with the Skybound printed logo on it. The Legs are printed as well to complete the uniform, yet the right leg is in Orange and the left one is in dark brown, the hips are also printed to represent a belt. A very cool minifig.
• Lloyd: He has a serious angry look on his face, but its all covered once you put the hood on his head and nothing but his eyes are visible. The hood comes in black with green molding on the mouth cover and the forehead. His torso is in black with green and gold printing on it and has a printing on his back as well, the arms are in green color and the hands are in black. The legs are in black and also printed to complete the outfit.

Building the set was a bit tricky, you first start building Lloyd's jet pack and then you start with the sky shark. You start building the front body first, then you find yourself building the wing of one of the sides, you then continue building the body of the plane all the way back, then you find yourself back to continue the side of the wing you left, however, the wings could be tricky a little bit if you don't pay attention to the details especially when you add the treasure chests on the sides for its special action feature, and like I was saying about opening the 2 bags and mixing them I found in the end 2 2x4 plates left behind but I managed to figure out where they should have been placed. Still it was not a boring build, it did have nice techniques, the worst part of building it was adding the stickers, they were too many and small.

The complete model is wonderful and very nice to hold and to play with, it looks like the allaiance of Metalbeard and Benny to create a pirate spaceship, unfortunately I Never get the chance to get Benny.

The sides of the jet where you place the window frames with the treasure chests, gives it a look like if they are the engines, even if the chests are used to store dynamites to throw at there enemies, you could even add the fish inside them, it also have some nice details on the sides, I even liked using the anchors and the new cutlasses as part of the wings decoration, As for the rear of the jet is where you add the barrels as an exhaust an the long bones on top to hold the tail of the jet, and let's not to forget the pistols on each side that are not only used as detailing as I thought, but as in the box display, its even used as a feature.

As for its special feature is where you slide the plate backwards where the chains are connected to the treasure chests that opens them and throw whats inside them, but you have to close the chests with you fingers, it is not going to close once you push the plate back forward

The whole thing looks like a pirate spaceship with its mixed colors of browns, blacks grays and dark orange, however, there were few things that I did not like about it:

• You have a great and a wonderful cockpit from the inside, the controlling systems looks amazing, yet when you close the canopy there is a visible gap on the sides that does not look good at all.
• There are nice amount of weaponry the figures are given, but there are no where to place them once you place Flintlocke on the jet and Lloyd flies around with his jet-pack, however, I do have some extra holding clips to place Flitlocke weapons on. As for Lloyd, I have placed 2 1x2 plate with vertical clip on each side of his jet-pack to hold on his weapons.
• The flames on the jet-pack, though it gives it a nice looking feature, but I felt it a bit too much, in my own opinion, but I considered them as a bonus parts for me and replaced them with a single 1x1 round stud in transparent green.

So basically I am stuck with one minor flaw, the others I found a solution for them.

Eventually, the set has grew on in to me, its sturdy and can be held with your own hands, it has nice playability and also I could feel it could be mixed with the normal pirates them that we know. If I am thinking to buy the set again I really don't know if I am going to use it for its parts only, because it has nice parts and also could be used for pirates building mocks, or to create a fleet out of it.

I'm a HUGE fan of the Ninjago series, so when this set was announced, I knew I wanted it.

Parts

This set includes several exclusive pieces. You get a fish in bright orange, a cool moustache, a new mold for fire, and several others.

Minifigures

The real reason I got this set is because it includes an exclusive Lloyd minifigure. A Flintlocke figure only adds to the playability of this stunning set. I'm somewhat disappointed that Lloyd has only one face printing, that being the only print for him in a while.

The build

The build is excellent, and it is very true to the movie. Even so, the jetpack is very disappointing, and the set could very well go without it. The Sky Shark exceeded my expectations, being a sturdy build with an excellent design that more than makes up for the jetpack.

The completed model

There are several special functions to this model, including an opening hatch that drops dynamite or anything you put in it. There is an opening cockpit for Flintlocke, and wings that can be easily detach from the main build, allowing Lloyd to cut or Spinjitzu them off.

Overall opinion

Excellent playability, good deal for your money, I give it 5 out of 5 stars for playability, design, and just plain awesomeness. Also, this is the first Brickset review I've written.

I'm still ironing out the kinks in my lightbox, so some of the pictures here might look a little wonky. Hopefully that doesn't distract from the quality of this set.

Box/Instructions

Nothing really surprising here. The back of the instruction booklet has a checklist for all the Skybound sets, a feature that I think has appeared in other themes and previous Ninjago subthemes.

Parts

The pieces come in 2 numbered bags, and building 1 bag at a time, I forgot to get pictures of interesting pieces from bag 2. Here's some of the ones I thought were pretty cool from Bag 1, though.

A pearl dark grey (or flat silver? not sure which) dart, one of the new upside down bracket pieces in orange, a light bley support strut-thing, pearl gold binoculars, and a 1x2 slope with holes in dark orange. The Djinn blade included houses Kai. I don't think I mentioned the quality of the Djinn blade piece in my previous Skybound review. The trans 1x1 round tile is actually printed with a different expression for each ninja - Jay's tile even has a tiny cut in his eyebrow, just like the real minifigure - which shows incredible attention to detail. The blade's hilt itself, the white piece, looks great and I'm sure MOCers will soon find many applications for its 5 connection points. Off the top of my head, there is also an orange 2x4 tile, 2 short flat silver chains, 2 orange fish (potentially unique to this set), and 4 dark orange 2x3 rounded window frames. In general, there are lots of nice parts in black and various shades of orange and brown.

Minifigures

The set comes with Lloyd in Skybound attire with a pattern common to all the ninjas but in his own unique color, as usual with most subthemes of Ninjago. Flintlocke has a new aviator helmet piece you can see below (compared with a typical crash helmet in white), which looks great; however, I prefer the traditional aviator helmet design, as this one looks too smooth as opposed to the ridges on the original.

Both minifigures look great, and Flintlocke has what I believe to be a brand new print on his face. I really liked this round of Ninjago villains because they weren't the typical ghosts, skeletons, or weird mutant snake-things that dominated earlier themes, but are for the most part human, with a generic steampunk design that not only looks fantastic, but is very usable for MOC's, as opposed to the mutant snake-things that generally looked awful outside of the original theme.

The build

Bag 1 builds Lloyd's drone/jetpack and starts Flintlocke's ship, aka. the Sky Shark. There was one interesting technique used in the drone that I would like to highlight.

The binoculars, at least for me, have always had terrible clutch power, and fall off of my MOC's left and right. The jetpack places a 1x2 bow over the top of the binoculars, so that not only does it look good, but also keeps the binoculars in place. Brilliant. And the completed jetpack:

The variety available in flame pieces is really great these days. I can't imagine making a fire effect look this good a few years ago with those wimpy little neon orange things. The progress in the Sky Shark:

There is a flat space in between the brackets; its purpose will become evident later. The cockpit is a solid design, with plenty of room for Flintlocke. My own problem is the relatively large gap in the windshield, but at the same time, sealing it would have made it look bulky, so it's a decent balance. There are 4 tiles in the cockpit (3 of them sloped) on which stickers with various controls should be placed, but as a MOCer I prefer my pieces stickerless, hence why you don't see any in the picture.

The completed model

Bag 2 finishes off the Sky shark, attaching the wings and finishing off the tail section. I must say, I am surprised (in a good way) with the result.

You can see the back of the jetpack in this picture. The huge air intakes on either side of the cockpit are attached to the aforementioned brackets, and look great. The handles of the treasure chests they encompass are ingeniously covered in the gap between the window frames and their black bars. I'm not sure how I feel about the white sabers attached to the fronts of the wings, as they look excessive, but they at least don't bother me. There are a couple things, though.

The first is evident in the far right of the above picture. The engines, represented by barrels, don't look great (I wouldn't say they're awful). They are attached to bars that stick out of the back, and it looks like a hasty afterthought of a detail. It would have been better for them to be more smoothly integrated into the rest of the build. The second issue is a little bigger.

There is quite a large gap between the fuselage and the wings, due to the use of A-frames to achieve the dramatic wing angle. This is more or less unavoidable, and the big air intakes do a decent job covering them up from above. However, it is a pretty large hole, and definitely keeps this set from being "perfect". Still, near-perfect is a pretty good rating for this set, especially when we haven't even gotten to the best part.

By pulling back on a slide on top of the plane (made of 2 black bows and 2 black grills; in between the fins on the center of this picture), chains force open the treasure chests on each side, revealing an explosive surprise for the unsuspecting ninja. This feature is a ton of fun to play with - almost as fun as swooshing the ship itself. You have to play around with it a few times to get the sweet spot where pulling the slide actually makes the dynamite fall out on both sides. I have found that a lot of times the dynamite will only drop out of one side, or not fall at all. Once you find the correct angle, the feature works beautifully. Bravo, LEGO.

Did I mention orange fish? There's 2 of them. I have no idea what they're for. They're attached to the back of the wings in the build, and the instructions show them being launched out of the chests with the dynamite. But whatever they're for, hey. Orange fish. Don't see that every day in a LEGO set.

Overall opinion

(The above picture shows the set in its totality, including extras)

This set is amazing. From a value standpoint, it is $20 for 221 parts + 17 extras and 2 great figs. It is swooshable, looks fantastic (besides the gap in the wing and the barrel-engines), includes a stellar play feature that never gets old, and is a lot less "silly" than its predecessors (I'm looking at you, mutant snake-things). Having finished this, I now have a serious urge to build the Raid Zeppelin, which I sorted without building first.

But yeah, if you're looking for a steampunk plane for a MOC or diorama, some nice figs, or a parts pack in black and various shades of orange and brown for whatever reason, this is a great place to start.

I haven't bought Ninjago for some time; the 2015 sets didn't do much for me. Ninjago bounces back in 2016 with what might be the best sets sofar. The first one I found was this Sky Shark and I picked it up straight away.

Box/Instructions

The set comes in a nicely designed box that shows the jet in action in the sky. The back of the box of course highlights some play features and also informs me that the set contains no 3 of a series of 7 collectable weapons.

Minifigures

The minifigs are brilliant. Lloyd Garmadon is a black and green Ninja. Torso and legs are both printed in green and gold and his headgear is molded in green and black.

Flintlocke is a pirate captain and possibly my favourite Ninjago enemy figure. Legs and torso are dark red, orange and dark brown with a complex print with silver buckles and the Ninja Pirate logo. He wears dark green epaulets and an aviator's cap and has an enormous moustache.

The build

Building doesn't take very long but could be challenging for young Ninjago fans. It's an interesting build though with many unusual elements. There's a bit of SNOT for the side pods and some Mixel joints for the angles in the nose. The wing angles are done with the A-plates introduced in 2014.

Parts

There's quite a variety of parts on offer here. Some plates and slopes for the basic shape also some unexpected parts such as two treasure chests, half a dozen flintlock pistols, anchors, orange fish and dark brown barrels. There a bunch of pearl-gold pieces for various weapons; ninja stars, a telescope and a chainsaw blade. To top it off there are 3 different flame pieces, all molded in a mix of transparent red and yellow.

The completed model

The shape is more dolphin than shark but Sky Dolphin doesn't quite have the same ring as Sky Shark, does it? The colour scheme is very piratey with browns and black and the metal and orange accents give it a steampunk feel. Flintlocke's appearance with the big moustache and aviator cap helps enforce that look.

It's a very clever design that uses a variety of pirate elements to build a jet fighter that looks like a fish. There's a slider in the middle that, through chain-links, opens the treasure chests that act as bomb hatches. Apart from dropping bombs the jet doesn't have any other play features.

There is however Lloyd with his James-Bond-style jetpack and some large, hard-to-describe weapons and the jet-dolphin is very swooshable.

Overall opinion

This is a very well designed, great looking set. It's got beautiful minifigs and a parts selection that would work for castle, pirate or steampunk. At 220 parts for €20 it's pretty good value too.

My only criticism would be that the jet could have done with one more moving feature and some flames coming out of the engines at the back but that won't stop me from recommending this set to anyone.

A truly fearsome and fun £20 Ninjago villain set. Over the years Ninjago have created some interesting and amazing jets and this carries a different design to the others and is inspired by a pirateship look. I love the classic pirate brown, black and orange colour scheme with hints of grey and the whole Shark look, especially from the top.

The cockpit is fairly tight and compact and features 4 stickered panels with controls and the giant orange blades resemble a nose or beak that seems to make me think of a bird. The body is fairly bird like but still has aspects of many shark types and is represented perfectly through texture on all sides and the tail has metal shark fins attatched to bones over barrels meant to represent small back boosts.The wings are also very interesting, attached to the ship with the A frame in a new brown colour and they fit the colour scheme perfectly and im liking the inclusion of the anchor on the tips.

However thats still not it, the action feature is possibly one of the best hidden features ever. The giant engines that add the main bulk to the build in the front have chests integrated into them. These chests are concealed between orange-brown criss-cross windows and the lids are connected via a steel chain on each side that leads to sliding tile piece camouflaged into the top of the build. When pulled down the chests open and drop dynamite on the ninja, or for a more goofy drop just add the smelly fish pieces clipped onto the back of the wings. Simple Yet effective and you could have plenty of fun with just that feature alone.

In conclusion to this review, I just have to say that this is an amazing build, has a good piece count of over 200 and has no faults as far as im concerned :)