Season three of the Nexo Knights theme brings us some very interesting sets, new forbidden powers, and new villains. Ruina's Lock and Roller brings all of those elements to the table.

The box is a regular $20 box size, with some great art work for the set. On the top and front of the box it shows the minifigures that come in the set, and a new forbidden power. On the left side of the box it shows the Nexo power and forbidden power that come in the set, and their names. The back of the box shows us the play features of the set. The box also advertises the "Combine your powers" feature, which we see in the new Nexo power blind bags and the battle suit knights.

The minifigures here are great. Aaron Fox gets new printing for his armor, and a new armor add on price. His visor for his helmet is translucent orange than grey this time around. He uses the same bow shooter piece from last year, but with new pieces added on the side. Queen Halbert is now in armor, and she uses the armor piece used for the Kings artillery, but in gold. She doesn't get a helmet, but she does use the same hair she had last year, which is the general Leia Organa hair, but in dark brown. Her weapon is a mace, similar to her daughter Macy's mace. Last but not least, Ruina, has a black dress that looks like it's out up with lightning and purple. Her hair piece is Bellatrix Lastranges hair from Harry Potter, but in a baby blue color. Her weapon is a staff with a purple translucent round jumper piece with purple lightning printed on it, and the new lightning piece.

The build is very interesting, it wasn't too simple but it wasn't that hard either. It took me about a half an hour to build.

The Lock and Roller is like a Castle horse and buggy, but instead of that we get a very strange creature on wheels pulling a jail cell for Queen Halbert to be put in, and I like it. The creature in the front looks very cool, and the claws look very menacing. The back part of the Lock and Roller had the jail cell, which is my favorite part of the set. The cell door is on the back, and on the front is an ugly rock price in translucent light blue, which is regularly used for ice. The escape feature works very well and I didn't expect this vehicle to have the escape feature but it does and I really like it.

Overall I really like the set, it's a cool vehicle that will bring nostalgia to castle fans. It's a really good value for the amount of pieces you get, the new pieces, and the two new exclusive minifigures, and the new Aaron. If you see this in stores I would definitely recommend that you pick it up.

Set # 70349 Ruina’s Lock & Roller: With season three of Nexo Knights a new breed of monsters was introduced. The Rock Monsters are an interesting change of creature, but they have resulted in a muted colour scheme overall for this year’s releases and that just doesn’t sit well with most people. Everyone has brought this up and I tend to agree, the dark purple colours are less impressive compared to the more vibrant looking brighter reds and oranges of the Lava Monsters from year one.

Do the sets still hold up though? Well for this first review of a Season Three set I’ll try to do my best to let you know.

Box/Instructions

Box: There aren’t enough changes to the box design for a second year of Nexo Knights sets. Every year LEGO Ninjago changed up the design, the same for Legends of Chima. Aside from altering the artwork on the packaging to promote the new line-wide gimmick the rest of the design is pretty much identical to the first year’s sets. Pretty disappointing honestly.

Instructions: A single manual is used, there are no numbered bags with this set so you’ll have to separate all the pieces before starting the build. You’ll still find all of the App promotions in the back and a new year two checklist for Minifigures and a nice action shot of all the sets, but no images of all the sets in their boxes to look over.

Parts

A small number of purple pieces here in that rich purple colour that isn’t fairly common. Most of the rest are your standard blacks and stone grey parts. I wouldn’t recommend this set for parts honestly, most of them can be found fairly commonly, but if you wanted that Forbidden Power without buying the set Bricklink is definitely worth looking over.

Minifigures

Aaron: We’ve discussed Aaron quite a lot in the previous reviews, he hasn’t changed much. His crossbow this time is the least built up with only two orange spear tips sticking out of the side, a rather odd design choice for the power he uses in this set to enhance his weapon. Only one Aaron features the buildable spare bolt storage element on the back of his armour, which is a bit unfortunate as that leaves his spare bolts lying around to be lost.

Queen Halbert: For her second Minifigure Queen Halbert is given a suit of armour to join her daughter Macy and the Knights in battle. She even has a mace similar in design to her daughter’s.

The torso is double-sided and her legs are golden in colour just like her armour, her chest symbol is a dragon, not the lion emblem of the Halbert family crest. Her head and hair is the same as the previous release, while her armour is a similar pattern to Macy’s. This queen is no mere damsel in distress, she’s ready to join the Knights in battle to protect her lands.

Ruina: This is a Rock Monster, she’s quite powerful looking and has a very impressive design with dark black being highlighted with purple and lightning blue elements. What’s truly intriguing is the re-use of Bellatrix Lestrange’s hair piece, here in a very light blue colour.

I feel that Ruina is the most interesting looking monster from the second year of sets. She’s the best out of the others in my opinion and looks great as a new villain. Her head is double-sided with two expressions, smiling smugly on one side and growling in anger on the other. Her accessory is a buildable weapon that reminds me of a scythe, the blade is a bolt of lightning or energy and the swirly radar dish print seen with Cosmic Boy is re-used here.

Gorilla Roar Nexo Power: Here’s a great looking Nexo Power element, a gorilla head is printed on a green shield piece, this is great for fans of Chima the piece can be used for Gorilla Tribe MOCs. I believe it enhances his strength or weapon’s strength as the case may be, but I don’t play the App so don’t quote me on that.

Wrecking Wrath Forbidden Power: Printed on a purple shield element the Forbidden Powers are printed upside down from standard Nexo Powers. I don’t know what this power does in-game, but I do know it is part of the play feature of the set here allowing Aaron to shoot the shield to bust open the prison carriage to let the Queen escape.

The build

This build starts out first by making a small two-wheeled rock monster thing that tows the prison chariot behind it, of course this is after you’ve made the three Minifigures and their weapons.

The first portion of the build is pretty quick and uses Technic parts in the construction to hold the wheels on. Fairly standard stuff, though building up the detail work and the stone monster looking front with claws is pretty fun.

The prison chariot Ruina uses to transport the queen is build up with massive wheels on the end and a few familiar elements to make caged walls. It’s a fairly standard build that doesn’t involve too much troubling spots, though you’ll have to take care when you get to the play feature portion of the build, expect it to flop around until you finish everything up if you jostle the parts too much. Overall a satisfying and fun build.

The completed model

Ruina’s Lock & Roller: This is a great vehicle, it is a bit more muted compared to the Lava Monster vehicles, but I love the overall aesthetic and colour combination of this set. I find it to be the best model out of the current year’s worth of Nexo Knights sets which is why I chose to buy it for my first set of this year.

The small two-wheeled gargoyle looking bike that pulls the prison carriage is fast, low to the ground and fun to drive around. The use of purple flippers for ears is great, and it’s a rare colour for that part to boot.

The prison carriage rests on two massive wheels with a small wheel underneath to stabilize it when not attached to Ruina’s two-wheeled vehicle. It’s a solid, beefy looking prison transport that wouldn’t look out of place in an ordinary Castle display. The muted purple, black and stone grey colouring helps on that front.

The play feature is very minimal as well, with a little slide-open compartment underneath triggered by hitting the Forbidden Power acting as a standard on Ruina’s Nexo Shield.

Overall opinion

A really great set and the best offering in my opinion from year two at the moment. I’d solidly recommend it as a decent companion set for the first year creatures. Ruina looks like a very menacing unique villain and could be a counterpart to Queen Halbert as a perfect foil for the royal to fight. Strongly recommended.

Nexo Knights return in 2017 delivering a new color scheme, new baddies, and new designs for our heroes. Today we will look at Ruina's Lock and Roller. Does it deliver on the color and fun that similar sets did in year one of Nexo Knights? Let's dive in!

Packaging and Parts:

We get the usual fare for this theme but the new cooler colors definitely give off a different vibe. Certainly it feels darker and to me, at least, it is lacking in the same pep as last year's line for this theme. Regardless, the action looks pretty good.

For parts we get some nice colors in grays, purples and even sky blue. We also get a very nice new hair piece in a very light sky blue tone.

Inside we will find a manual, 3 bags, two large wheel pieces and best of all no stickers.

Your spare parts should look like this when you are done.

Minifigures:

We get a total of 3 figures in this set and in usual form they look stunning. LEGO seems to up their game every year with regards to printing and color combinations. All three figures sport a face on either side of their head and their accessories sure look like a step up from last year. Still for Aaron I think I liked last year's armor and prints a bit better, while the new one is sleeker in some sense it doesn't look as knightly to me.

The queen also is very well dressed for a fight and fits in just great with the king we got last year.

The highlight though in many regards is Ruina, in particular her new head piece. It is made of the same plastic as any other LEGO which makes taking it off a chore but wow is it detailed! Plus she looks really angry which is fitting for a villain.

Their equipment is pretty fun, again I think Ruina's gear steals the show here.

The Completed Model:

Once you are done building this set you will have three fun figures and a very imposing prison carriage. The carriage is pulled by a possessed creature of some kind. I think these are the new rock monsters for this year but it looks like a lightning dragon to me with the ears and the detailing on its claws.

The color combinations work better than I thought they would and it is a lot of fun to roll this thing about a carpeted surface. The hard plastic on the wheels, sadly, means it will not get good traction on hard surfaces. Still it makes for a fun display piece also if you don't mind the color scheme.

We get one play feature with this set and it involves knocking over the banner on the carriage, which activates a trap door beneath the prison compartment. Sadly, Aaron's bolt is too weak to do this despite being the heavier type of projectile. In addition the trap door is too small to allow a fully girt character to escape from below. It is a good attempt but it just doesn't work well enough in routine gameplay to make it that much fun. It is actually more fun to roll it back and forth than to fiddle with the trap door mechanism.

Overall:

After watching my children play with this thing I can attest that it is super fun to have and will enrich your collection. This even more so if you missed out on last year's Infernox set which also came with the queen. This queen has the added advantage of pairing extremely well with last year's king figure which also came clad in golden armor.

But therein lies another gripe I have with the set. It is basically the Infernox set all over again. If you got it, you saved the queen last year. Now we are doing it again. In my display I have the queen saving Aaron cause that seems more fitting to me. Last year the queen was not dressed for combat but this time she is and she still got caught?

That did knock it down a bit for me but still despite those two gripes if you or your children are into this line of LEGO then they will love the figures and rolling the carriage about really is entertaining.

So when I first saw this set in stores I fell in love with it: great minifigures, great build, great parts. What could be bad about this set?

so I'm not a nexo knights fan but this set caught my eye immediately. Mainly because of the build but the minifigures are also really well done.

The build of this set was unique, not a helicopter or a 4-wheeled vehicle. This set offers a stone beast carrying prison and the main play feature is that you hit the "forbidden nexo power" and the floor opens and the prisoner falls out of "ruina's lock and roller". This play feature works really well and smooth. The build is also quite detailed for a €20 set!

the minifigures are really great!

aaron looks as always really cool and he's always nice to get.

the Queen was the minifigure that I was most looking forward to because I have the king from last year and I was hoping they would look great together on display. Ruina is my favorite villain of nexo knights because I love both facial expressions on her.

overall this is an awesome set and worth buying even if you're not a nexo kights fan!