Pictorial Review: 2507 Fire Temple

paanjang16

Global Moderator
Hero Member

Karma: +22/-0

Offline

Posts: 601

Awards

Pictorial Review: 2507 Fire Temple

« on: September 03, 2011, 11:40:11 PM »

Lord Garmadon has finally found the sacred fire temple and its golden sword! In a desperate attempt to defend the dragon sword, Kai together with Sensei Wu awaken the mighty fire dragon! Will the dragon be able to fend off Lord Garmadon and his skeletal army?

Set Name: Fire Temple
Theme: Ninjago
Year of released: Summer 2011
Number of pieces: 1180
Price: RM 749.90
Minifigures: 7

Links

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=2507-1
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=2507-1

Box

The front of the box shows battle scene between Lord Garmadon and his skeletal army against the ninjas. The artwork is covered in bright colors and really stands out. I like the background artwork as it looks like it has been hand painted instead of computer generated graphics. The background also has some fine details like the pagoda, a river running in the right hand corner as well as cherry blossom trees with flowers.

The back also have the amazing box art like the front and shows the play features of the set. The temple is shown to have split in half with the fire dragon welcoming those at the front door. All around the fire temple are minifigures in dueling with each other where they appear to have been 'copied and pasted' into position. There is no way those minifigures are able to stand on roof without falling off.

The box of the box shows the entire cast of the set. Everyone appears to be armed with a weapon, even Sensei Wu with his 'walking' stick. Samukai volunteers to be in the 1:1 scale box this time around

Since this is a flagship set for the Ninjago line, the box is huge! The size of the box is similar to the box used for the Shuttle Adventure and Mobile Crane set.

Instructions

There are 3 instruction booklets which come with this set. To my disappointment, all 3 was bend when I let the contents out Sad

Although it is the similar size to the Shuttle Discovery and the fact it is a flagship set, the instructions was not shrink-wrapped with a hard cardboard piece. All 3 instructions uses the same artwork as the box.

In book 1 there appears to be some mis-coloration in the instructions. Look at the middle round 1x1 piece in step 7, is there an orange 1x1 round piece there? Checking the parts list yield no such piece but a large amount of gold 1x1 round pieces.

Then a few steps down the color is actually that of orange yellow which is similar to the wings of the dragon. Once again, there is no such piece. Thankfully the rest of the instructions are not as confusing the last few steps shown although sometimes I wonder if it is my eyes or the instructions Rolleyes

Parts

There is are 10 bags numbered 1 to 7 together with an unnumbered bag for the dragon's head. Bright fiery colors are prominent in the first 2 bags while red and black are more common as the build progress.

Bag 1

Bag 1 contains parts for the 1st half of the dragon, the minifigures as well as the accessories. TLG is very generous with the weapons as every minifigure has a minimum of 1 weapon each. The only limit is how many each minifigure can carry; not a problem for Samukai it seems. For parts we get a variety of slopes, hinges and plates in eye catching bright colors such as maroon, orange and yellow.

Bag 2

Bag 2 contains parts for the 2nd half of the dragon. We get the same pieces used for the right wing as well as additional pieces for the legs, head and tail. There is a large number of maroon cheese slopes in this bag.

Bag 3

Bag 3 contains parts for the fire temple foundation. Opening up Bag 3 revealed lots of brown colored parts such as the 1x4 modified log brick, 1x2 modified log brick, 2x2 rounded bricks, 1x6 tile and 2x4 bricks. Also included are a huge number of 1x2 2x2 black brackets which is very useful in SNOT construction. The 2 paper bags is for the rubber bands for the key feature of this set. There are some Technic parts included such as the Technic brick with holes, double friction pin and friction pin with towball.

Bag 4

Bag 4 contains some Technic parts as wells as tan plates for the construction of the temple platform. Also included are some 2x2 tiles for the flooring.

Bag 5

Bag 5 contain parts for the ground floor walls and roof. We now can see in its full glory arguably the best printed pieces made by TLG where we get a pair of trans-clear glass windows with printed dragon motif. Then we get another batch of weapons to be used as ornaments and lots of 1x2 log bricks for the walls and pillars. Lots of plates, brackets and hinges to be used for the angled roof. There is also a large number of black brick arch 1x3x2 to support the roof.

A closer look at the printed windows shows that TLG went out all to make it stand out. I liked the fact the dragon is well designed right down to the number of claws, scales and head. The design of the dragon is based upon the Chinese dragon where it has as serpent like appearance and lacking any wings. Although it does not have wings, since it is a mythical creature it can fly among clouds as depicted by the background of the window.

Bag 6

Bag 6 has parts for the upper level of the fire temple and reveals yet another printed window pieces. It has an almost similar part composition as the ground floor with a selection of parts for the angled roof and walls. I like the bright red rounded arch pieces used to create a circular archway.

A close-up of the printed window pieces in Bag 6. I like how they design it to look like a paper wall from a traditional Japanese building with the wooden outlines. I do not know what the Japanese charactors is supposed to be, can anyone explain to me what it says?

Bag 7

The final bag contains parts for the dragon sword platform and 2 other structures by the side of the fire temple. Some notable pieces include the pink rounded 1x1 plate, green plant pieces and the large reddish brown arch 1x12x3.

Minifigures

Below is the line-up of the Ninjas from left to right: Zane, Sensei Wu, Nya and Kai-DX.

For reasons only TLG would know, I felt it is odd that TLG would include Zane in this set. He does not serve any purpose other than to boost the figure count in this large flagship set. Anyway he comes in the standard Zane ninja printed torso and legs like his spinner set. Apparently he left his Ice Dragon and his dragon suit somewhere.

Sensei Wu comes with a black torso and legs with black robe printing and Japanese characters printed on the left side. Also included is his conical hat and beard. Nya meanwhile has a red torso and legs with printed dress motif. Her printed torso and legs are similar to the one used in her spinner set and in the Lord Garmadon's fortress set.

Kai-DX comes with a torso and legs with a printed fire dragon motif. The dragon is shown spitting out fire and its tail is on flames. I applaud TLG for making the dragon motif extremely detailed; you can see they managed to print the teeth, eyes and claws of the dragon onto such as small area such as a minifigure's torso. This is not the only set where Kai-DX appears as Kai-DX also appears in 2 other sets such as Mountain Shrine and Nuckal's ATV.

Only Sensei Wu and Kai-DX have back printing. Sensie Wu have a large dragon printing on the back of his torso while Kai-DX have his name printed with a face of some sort. Somehow Sensei Wu's dragon is looking to the left while the on the printed windows is looking to the right. Of all the ninjas, only Nya have a dual printed head.

A close-up view of the Ninjas minus their headgear. One of the ninja's head has a scratch near their left eye which I assumed it belongs to Zane since the instructions never mentioned which Ninja is supposed to have it. Without the beard Sensei Wu looks very frail and old. I am wondering what does the Japanese characters on Sensei Wu's robe say?

Onto the bad guys of this set; from left to right. Krusha, Samukai and Lord Garmadon. Unlike the other skeleton grunts, both Krusha and Samukai have oversized heads with distinct features. Both skeletons have a printed torso with the 'skull' logo. Samukai have an additional printed part at his hip and his mouth can open. Samukai is the only one which has 4 hands which later proved to be his downfall when he carried to many weapons at the same time.

Lord Garmadon only have a printed torso that features a black samurai armor. He wears a samurai hat with a bone on his head and has a evil gin on his face. As evil as his face is, the Ninjas are not afraid of him.

Looking from the back, all features no back printing. Krusha has a giant samurai helmet as well as wearing some shoulder armor. Samukai sports a large backbone to support his large skeleton body and 4 arms. I do feel that Lord Garmadon should have some sort of back printing since he is the leader of the villains.

Weapons

Ninjago is a theme packed with weapons and this set does not disappoint. The key weapon here is the dragon sword which is part of the features of the fire temple. Other gold weapons include the golden staff, shuriken, nun-chuck and golden swords. This is the only set with all 4 golden weapons. In addition to the golden weapons we have Lord Garmadon's staff, Krusha's axe, Sensei's Wu's stick, swords, spear and daggers. Apparently Nya lost her gold daggers somewhere and had to settle for regular daggers in this set.

Build

You start off with the minifigures and their weapons. Samukai and Krunsha needs some assembly as their hands, legs and head are all separate pieces. Then we proceed with the main body of the fire dragon as shown in the picture below. The build uses 4 Technic rotational joints with pinhole for the legs and wings.

Next up is the right wing for the dragon. The build is similar to that of the ice dragon with the big difference being the Technic rotational joint used to mate the wing to the dragon. The 6 hinge plates are used to sandwiched the long wings plates, allowing the wing to open while at the same time form a strong joint. Once the wing is assembled, it is attached to the main body.

The head portion is simple; it starts with the 'ball launching' mechanism and followed by the 'seat' where the pilot is placed. It is here that the beautiful dragon head is assembled and mated to the main body.

Building the left wing is similar to the right wing earlier. Basically it is a mirror of the right wing. This is followed by the tail of the dragon.

Lastly, we build the legs of the dragon. Like the wings, the instructions tell you to build 1 side of the leg first before you build the other half.

Like all buildings, TLG has taken a modular approach to build the fire temple. You start of with the lower portion of the building and slowly move up to the roof. In this case, we start off with the foundation of the fire temple. It is during this build that the heart of the 'splitting' mechanism is assembled. It would be better if TLG would give us the large blue baseplate since the temple is clearly build on water and the high price this set commands but alas, we have to settle with blue 2x8 plates instead.

Once the foundation is complete, it is time to build the platform where the upper portion of the fire temple will rest. Two Technic dollies are build at the same time and later attached into the foundation of the fire temple. I like the fact that the Technic components are used to literally hold up the platform and the entire structure while at the same time remain discreet enough so that it is not obvious.

Now that the foundation and ground floor platform is done, it is time to build up the walls, windows and roof for the ground floor. During this build angled bracket pieces are used to build the angled roof.

The build of the 1st floor is similar to the build of the ground floor but with less pieces. It is during this build that the rounded archway at the front is built.

Once the main temple is built, it is time to built the other support structures. Below is the build process of the dragon sword platform and the activation trigger for the temple's splitting mechanism. Noticed how the usage of Technic pieces are hidden under the regular bricks.

The build for the sword holders are fairly straight forward. The blue plates is used to indicate that the entire platform is build over water.

The drum platform is also a straight forward build.

To be continued in next post. This post already have more than 20,000 characters lol Shocked


« Last Edit: September 03, 2011, 11:52:46 PM by paanjang16 »	Logged

paanjang16

Global Moderator
Hero Member

Karma: +22/-0

Offline

Posts: 601

Awards

Re: Pictorial Review: 2507 Fire Temple

« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2011, 11:57:01 PM »

Fire Dragon

Behold the fire dragon! It looks extremely menacing with its fierce head and bright fiery colors such as yellow, orange and maroon. It is larger and contain more parts than the Ice Dragon which came out earlier this year. All of the problems which plagued the Ice Dragon has been fixed somewhat in this iteration. I wonder how does Zane feel when his dragon is compared to this dragon?

This time around the 'Dragon God' pole is securely attached to the back of the fire dragon by using a hinge piece instead of relying on the clutching power of a single stud in the Ice Dragon. This makes the pole more secure and the pole will not detach itself.

Since the Fire Dragon is larger, a more secure cockpit is constructed between the head and the body. Kai-DX can now command his dragon within the safety of the cockpit which has handle bars on the front and sides. Instead of controlling the dragon with a brindle like Zane's dragon, Kai-DX controls his dragon from the cockpit by holding the handle bars. The ball which is launched from the dragon's mouth has a flame pattern on it. The ball is also used in some sets in the Villain Factory theme.

The Fire Dragon's wings are larger and has 4 wings compared to 3 wings of the Ice Dragon. The joints between the wings is still using the hinge piece similar to the Ice Dragon. The wings are mated to the main body using the Technic rotational joints. This Technic joints allow the wings to rotate fully and extend while at the same time remain in position when posing. The claws are fully poseble as well.

Spreading the Fire Dragon's wings shows just how awesome the Fire Dragon is. There is enough friction in the hinge pieces to allow the wings to remain fully spread out and pose majestically. The combo picture below shows the wings folded up and fully extended.

Another view of the Fire Dragon with its wings spread out. The legs of the fire Dragon is also attached to the main body using the Technic rotational piece and can hold up the entire weight of the dragon even though the dragon is posed with its wings fully opened. The dragon can stand up on its legs without any support.

The tail can is also poseble since it is using the 1x4 bricks with hinges. In my opinion the tail is just the right size since it does not affect the balance of the whole dragon. The cheese pieces are used to create the spikes on the tail.

The legs can be moved back to allow the Fire Dragon to be pose in flight mode. The entire dragon is extremely swooshable and all the parts will remain in position although taking a few hard turns thanks to the usage of the Technic rotational joints.

Another view of the dragon when it is standing on the ground with its wings closed. Due to how the neck is assembled, it is quite impossible to pose in such a way where the body is bending downwards and the head is level with the ground unless I make some adjustments to the neck. Also the head cannot look directly down due to how the head is connected to the Bionicle Towball piece.

Fire Temple

The picture below shows the fully completed Fire Temple. The design of the Fire Temple is heavily influenced by Japanese architecture especially with the bright red walls and angled roofs. The size of the main building of the Fire Temple is as large as a modular building although it does not have a similar piece count as its modular counterpart.

There are 2 support buildings on the left and on the right of the main building which feature a sword display and a ceremonial drum. Unlike the dragon sword platform at the center which is firmly attached to the front of the Fire Temple, the other 2 structures are like an extra buildings so that the Fire Temple does not feel so empty. Both are independent of the main building and there is no connection between them. They cannot be placed right at the side of the main temple otherwise the entire Fire Temple will hit them when the building splits into 2. It would be better if a little more effort is used to somehow connect the 2 buildings with the main building.

The exterior of the Fire Temple is similar on both sides. On the ground floor we can find the printed window with the dragon motif as well as a green dragon statue at both corners. I like how the brown bricks with log pattern are used to create the wooden pillars and foundation. This creates an authentic temple that looks as though it is made out of wood. Also the window panels and railings are bright red which matches perfectly with the brown pillars.

At the center is the platform where the dragon sword is placed. It appears that the dragon sword is protected by fire from all directions and one must step over the fire to take it.

The angled roof is well designed and follows closely with the traditional Japanese architecture. At the tip of the roof corner is a flame.

The light green circular plate marks the point to reset the Fire Temple back into its original position after the splitting action is activated. It is better to push the entire structure at this point as pushing at any other place will not reset the platform to its original position properly. The attention to detail to in the foundation of the building is clearly evident here; notice the bracket piece being used so that the tile can be installed to produce a SNOT effect? Also the brown bricks with log features to show the foundations is made out of wood like a real temple? Once again the Technic parts necessary for the splitting action to work are well hidden inside the foundation.

The ground floor interior features a dining and training area. Some parts of the floor is tiled to give the impression it is covered with cushion for the occupants to sit or to break their fall when training. A spear and a sword ornament is used to decorate the room. There are 2 gold swords over the entrance. I do not know if those gold swords are meant as traps or meant as decorations. Although the floor splits into 2, there is no visible gap between the 2 halfs of the floor when the temple is joined together.

The 1st floor unfortunately does not feature any floor but instead is a huge void over the ground floor. I feel this is a wasted space as they could have at least added more plates to make it a floor. Even with the additional plates there is still room for the Fire Dragon to put its head through the circular archway. Once again, there is no visible gap between the 2 halfs of the building although the entire building splits into 2 at the center.

The top roof features the bright red circle and sloping roof section. The circle shall follow the right side of the building when the building splits into 2. Gold cheese slopes are used to the complete the tip of the roofs.

Below is the side view of the Fire Temple. The back is extremely bare and open but such a large space is required to place the Fire Dragon as I will explain in the next few pictures. If I could afford a few more Fire temples, maybe I can build a fully covered structure

The Fire Dragon stands on top of the fixed platform located at the back of the Fire Temple. The platform is stable enough for the dragon to stand on even when the dragon have its wings fully extended. The Fire Dragon's head and neck is able to fit through the circular archway even if TLG could have added an additional floor on the first floor. The wings will have to rotated near vertical so that its hands does not touch the building. Some adjustment to the legs and tail is required to ensure the dragon is balanced when standing on the platform.

A view from the rear of the Fire Temple with the Fire Dragon in position.

A close-up of 1 of the support structures. The red arch with the sloped roof looks like it has been taken straight out of a place in Japan. The sword holder has 3 swords in different color, grey, black and gold. Could it be a newbie starts with a gray sword and ultimately obtains the skills required to wield a golden sword? As you can see, the entire structure appears to be over water thanks to the blue plates at the bottom. I would feel it is better than TLG have just given a few blue baseplates instead as the blue plates looks inadequate. I like how TLG used the pink rounded 1x1 plate as cherry blossom flowers on the tree. However I felt it is odd that the tree is growing over the bridge.

The other support structure meanwhile has a similar arch and tree with the big difference being the drum holder with 2 drum sticks. The drum can be lifted off the stand and is held in place by gold cheese slopes.

Video of play feature

I have uploaded a video showing the play feature of the Fire Temple. As you can see, the Fire Temple splits into half very fluidly and fast. Pushing the light green rounded plate at either side of the Fire Temple will reset the mechanism.
http://youtu.be/MyqVgpssnjI

The video shows how to place in position the Fire Dragon onto its designated platform. The Fire Dragon remains stable although the splitting mechanism is activated.
http://youtu.be/I6Jp1l5LyLw

Another view I took when building the Fire temple to show how the mechanism works. By pulling the Dragon Sword holder it lifts the trigger and thus releasing the platforms. The platforms which are under tension due to the rubber bands is then pulled by the rubber band to split the building in half.
http://youtu.be/4PKMEg96Rzg

Conclusion

Design: 9/10 The design of the Fire Temple is top-notch and stayed true to its source material. Almost every part of the Fire Temple shows the influence of Japanese architecture from the angled roof, wooden walls to the red arches and dragon motifs on the windows. The Fire Dragon is also well designed with its bright eye catching colors and large wingspan.

Playability: 9/10 The Fire Dragon is rugged and parts does not fall off even though it is flown about. The Technic joints allow the Dragon to pose in various positions without the need for additional support which is an added plus for those who want to just display it. The Fire Temple at the same time has good playability with its splitting into 2 action and large interior where ninjas can be training or resting inside the Fire Temple.

Parts: 10/10 The list of weapons included is enough to keep both the Ninjas and Skeletons well armed in time to come. This set is also the only set where all 4 Golden weapons can be found in a single set. I like the large collection of brown log parts which as shown throughout the build useful for building wooden structures. Other parts of interest is the hinges and bracket pieces which is useful for SNOT construction. Lastly the printed window pieces with dragon motifs makes this a very worthy parts pack.

Minifigures: 9/10 It is extremely uncommon to see so many minifigures to be included especially for such as large set. The minifigures included are the key characters in the Ninjago theme. However all 7 minifigures can be found in other cheaper sets. I still find that Zane is out of place in this. I am sure Nya, Kai-DX and Sensei Wu is able to hold back Lord Garmadon and his 2 henchmen. But since we get an additional minifigure, I am not complaining.

Price: 7/10 At RM 749.90 it is the most expensive set in the Ninjago line and has a high RM to part ratio. Those who only want the Fire Temple or Fire Dragon separately would be hard pressed to shell out the dough to purchase this set. Add to the fact large flagships sets are usually in small quantities here, it is very unlikely the price will drop.

Overall: 9/10 A definite must buy for Ninjago fans. This is the only set which contain the awesome Fire Dragon as well as the printed windows with the dragon motifs. On top of that we get a well designed Fire Temple, all the Golden weapons and minifigures like Samukai.