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Set Review: 70727 X-1 Ninja Charger
 Wednesday, September 17th, 2014 at 8:56pm by Andrew, BZPower News ManagerThe Ninjago Month reviews continue as September progresses. Today I take a look at 70727 X-1 Ninja Charger, one of the sets from the summer wave of LEGO Ninjago sets. Will this set speed its way into your LEGO collection or will it be left spinning its wheels on a store shelf? Check out our text and video reviews to find out for yourself! Presentation
The box bears the same logo as the rest of the 2014 Ninjago sets, with Zane showing off his Nindroid innards. The Charger takes up most of the front, with some attacking Nindroids taking up the rest of the space. In the bottom right, we see the main action feature - the interception bike that pops out of the front of the race car. The back of the box shows off the bike again along with some of the other play features like the spring-loaded missile launcher, and also shows off that this set includes the fourth techno blade. All told, the packaging gets the point across and is sure to stand out on store shelves. Building
This was a really fun build. At its core, there's a lot of Technic construction to make the play features work. The sides of the car also use some SNOT techniques to achieve some nice curves. It's an interesting time and should keep you occupied and engaged. Set Design
This set has quite the variety of pieces. There's a cool 2x2 round tile with the Nindroid logo and a nice minifig backpack with some Technic conncection points. We get a trans-red axe head and a techno blade, as well as gold binoculars and a red 1x1 tooth plate. In addition, there's quite a selection of red slopes, including some nice curved Technic panels. There's also a black windscreen piece, which seems like it would be hard to see through, personally. Finally, we get a black basketball hoop, some sick gold rims, a nice grey grill, and a couple of the new spring-loaded launchers. Quite the variety!
The X-1 Charger is a pretty sweet ride - it's a one-seater sports car with a lot of style. It's got a great color scheme: primarily red with black and gold accents and a little grey and silver thrown in. The designers did a great job blending the different curve slopes to give it a sleek and aerodynamic look. Of course it's got a big engine block too, because you've gotta go fast, and flame decals can only help so much. Speaking of stickers, there's quite a few, but I think they all add to the look of the model, although it'd probably look fine without them if that's more your thing. Overall, it's a nice, sizable model that's easy on the eyes.
In the middle of all those curves and engine is a quick little motor bike. It's a simple model - it has to be to be small enough to fit inside the Charger - but it works. They even managed to use SNOT techniques on the sides to help build it up but keep it narrow. It's not the best motorcycle I've seen, but considering the constraints I'll take it.
Of course this set can't be just about the good guys - the bad guys get a little vehicle too. This 'sawblade spinner' bears some similarities to the Hover Hunter (Check out our review of that here!), but with fewer parts and without the cool action feature. The design is simple and it doesn't feel like a waste of pieces. The color scheme matches that of the other Nindroid vehicles, so it's good to see that consistency. It's clearly not the focus of the set, but it feels like a legitimate addition and not something the designers just tacked on.
We also get a little recon Nindroid, who I would say is a waste of pieces if not for the fact that it does show up in the show. It's a cute little robot, but nothing too amazing. It would be nice if it included a stand so it would look like it's floating. It can't really be balanced without one, which makes it difficult to play with.
This set includes two Nindroids. The first has a flight pack and is wielding a techno blade (which is odd, since the techno blade does not appear in the scene in the TV show in which the Charger appears). The pack is cool, although I'm not sure how well katanas work as wings. The other Nindroid has a big axe. They both have the same headgear and heads, but different torsos with front and back printing. It's an interesting combination between exposed robotic circuitry and ninja robes, but it works.
Finally, we've got Kai, the ninja of fire. He's sporting his rad new hair piece, a bandana, and some cool printed robes with a nice fire motif. He's not exclusive to this set, but it's only appropriate that he's included here since it's his vehicle. He's a ninja and he means business, not much else to say there. Playability
The X-1 Ninja Charger has got a bunch of play features. It has two fold out flick-fire missiles, which work as well as flick-fire missiles do. It also has a fold out turret the can rotate 360 degrees that features the new spring-loaded missile launchers. Finally, the hood opens up to allow the motorcycle to pop out. While it's pretty easy to remove the bike, it is a bit of a pain to get it back in.
The real fun of this set comes when you put all the elements together and start playing. There may be more Nindroids in this set than ninjas, but the X-1 Ninja Charger is more than equipped to take them all on. There's tons of different scenarios you can dream up with these guys, and even more when you combine them with your other Ninjago sets. There's definitely a lot of play value in this set, and the Charger is great to look at on display if playing isn't your thing. Final Thoughts
I really had to reach for some of those cons, because this is a really cool set. For $40 you get 425 pieces including a bunch of uncommon slopes in red and other interesting parts. What's more though, is you get a cool race car with a lot of action features and some bad guys to take on too. While I haven't built too many Ninjago sets, this one is certainly among my favorites. Thanks everyone for reading an watching - I hope you enjoyed my review! If you like this set, and aren't a member of BZPower yet or just recently joined, you can enter our Ninjago New Member Raffle for a chance to win a free copy! We're a little over halfway through Ninjago Month, so keep checking back for more Ninjago and LEGO news and reviews, here on BZPower!
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