This is a bit of a downside to the entire line of sets based on The LEGO Ninjago Movie. There are good ideas, but the realization is in decline, the fault of a blatant simplification of the vehicles, probably to ensure them a certain solidity and to contain the selling price.

The and 70611 Water Strider does not escape this adaptation as a rule to obtain a solid product intended for the youngest and we also end up with a machine that looks from afar to that of the film but which is in fact only an economic reinterpretation of the thing . The result: a box of less than 500 pieces, with 4 minifigs and a reasonable retail price of € 39.99.

As the official description of the set indicates, the cockpit rotates 360 °. Which does not add much knowing that the vehicle is symmetrical. The cockpit cannot be tilted, even slightly, it remains horizontal on its axis of rotation.

The canopy is not equipped with a fixing and opening system, it must be removed to place Nya in the cockpit of this "Hydro-climber". Too bad. This canopy does not have any blue reflection in the LEGO version. The part is quite simply transparent, which is a little detrimental to the visual cohesion of the whole. Re-damage.

At the front, a rotating cannon ejects round 1x1 pieces thanks to the mechanism located at the rear under the cockpit. It's fun and rather well integrated even if to vary the angles of fire it will be necessary to play with the angles of the legs, the cockpit not being orientable. And that's it, it's the only gun available. The other weapons placed around the cockpit only have an aesthetic function.

Before starting to build the machine, I could already see myself making him take the "memorable fighting poses"praised by the description of the set to stage it. I'm a little disappointed, the four legs are well endowed with a joint at the" knees ", but they are connected to the central axis in a fixed way. take the pose seen in the trailer of the film by raising the top of the legs of the machine as much as possible.

This somewhat rigid spider which seems to have escaped the late range Ultra Agents is here accompanied by four minifigs including two ninjas: Nya, Kai, Puffer and a Shark Army Thug. By the way, a small jet-ski would have been of good quality to give the two villains something to escape and optimize the gameplay.

Nya is supplied with her skirt (or her kusazuri), also simplified for the occasion. The prop is in two colors in the film, it's totally gray here. Kai is similar to the set version 70615 Fire Mech.

Nothing special from the bad guys. The polycarbonate visor integrated into the Puffer helmet is nice, you can remove the helmet without keeping the design of the visor on the head of the manifig.

In the end, we also see here that LEGO has taken liberties in adapting the machine from the film. Nothing prohibitive for the young audience who are the target of these sets, but we are still in the rough. This Water Strider isn't an exact representation of the film version mechanically and aesthetically and (I said this before) it's a real shame.

I'm not totally convinced by this set, the machine lacks mobility and the spider effect is not fully achievable with the proposed structure. The more creative will not fail to modify the system of fixing of the legs around the central axis to correct the problem.

Note: We do as usual, you have until Aug 8, 2017 to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.
If I do not get a response from him to my request for contact details before August 20, a new winner will be drawn.

On to a series of articles on the different sets based on The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

As usual, I will not describe to you by the menu what you see, I will just give you my humble opinion on each of these boxes. I will do so while tempering my ardor as an old collector, I am not necessarily the target of these products.

We start with the reference 70615 Fire Mech (Fire Armor in French) which for the modest sum of 74.99 € will allow you to assemble the mech of Kai accompanied by six minifigs.

Depending on your generation, you will see in this set influences from the Gundam, Transformers, Pacific Rim or even Power Rangers universes. Or a futuristic red robot-firefighter which here doesn't launch water but is equipped with flamethrower guns. Paradoxical.

As much to tell you right away, as you might expect, the LEGO version is not 100% faithful to the one in the film, seen in the trailer.

LEGO has integrated additional stickers to dress the thing and in the process simplified the construction especially at the level of certain joints. Too bad for a product based on a film itself based on a range of products even if in the end the robot willingly does without most of these stickers without undergoing major aesthetic degradation.

By the way, LEGO could consider offering stickers on a transparent background, especially for those that cover a large area, to avoid slight differences in color between the background color of the sticker and the color of the part on which it is must be applied.

The difference between the film model and the LEGO version is particularly obvious in the joints of the robot's arms. On the LEGO version, it is minimum service, which can be understood in view of the audience of young destructive fans targeted by this box.

Another very important point to note for all those who would consider reproducing the action of the film with their robot-fireman-arsonist, there is no articulation in the knees despite the dressing of the latter which could suggest the opposite.

So hard to get some epic poses to this mech red which remains a little stiff on its legs. It will take play on the joints of the feet to give it allure on the shelf in the bedroom of the young LEGO fan.

The two cylinders that feed the weapons of this robot are dressed in large stickers on a gray background that are difficult to place correctly with such a large area and the roundness of the part which serves as a support which does not help matters ... Visually, it is however very successful.

The two Japanese banners find it difficult to hold in place during handling, but the robot does very well if necessary. The set is compact, solid and easy to handle without too much breakage.

LEGO has provided two disc launchers integrated into the robot's arms and these flaming discs are also pad printed. And that's all. No missile launcher concealed in the forearms. It's a shame, the action is limited.

As for the minifigs, it's rather generous: This set of 944 pieces allows you to obtain the young ninjas Kai and Zane, Lauren, Henry, Hammer Head and Jelly. We will have to wait to see the film to judge the importance of certain secondary characters and therefore the interest of their minifig versions. Two ninjas in a set, it's not so bad, other boxes do less well.

Pad printing side, it's clean. The minifigs are successful. The two half-spheres that come to be placed around Jelly's head are well designed. They fit together perfectly and LEGO has even provided a small notch to separate them. The assembly turns with a slight clicking sound when handling the minifig. It is unsightly but it is not overly annoying. the less careful will be careful not to step on it ...

A robot, with a cockpit to put a minifigure in, you can't refuse. This set fulfills the contract despite its few flaws and its simplified finish compared to the film model. I say yes, although it will take the budget to find this mech an opponent of his size among the other sets in the The LEGO Ninjago Movie range (70613 Garma Mecha Man ?).

Note: We do as usual, you have until Aug 4, 2017 at 23:59 p.m. to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.
If I do not get a response from him to my request for contact details before August 20, a new winner will be drawn.

Even though hyping The LEGO Batman Movie has been around for a long time, a Batwing is always good to take. The machine is emblematic of the universe of the vigilante of Gotham City and the movie The LEGO Batman Movie logically gives it a place of choice.

The and 70916 The Bat Wing today goes a little unnoticed and that's a shame. He too deserved to be part of the first wave of sets based on the film.

The contents of the box therefore make it possible to reproduce this bat-shaped vessel. This version of more than 1000 pieces is also rather successful on this point and greatly surpasses all previous interpretations, sometimes calamitous, of the Batwing marketed so far by LEGO.

Aesthetically, nothing to say, it's perfect. We find the symbol of the vigilante of Gotham City if we take the trouble to look at the thing from above and from afar. We can consider that the Batwing finally has an interpretation in LEGO sauce up to the reputation of the machine.

On the design side, LEGO has integrated a slew of possibilities to make the machine playful: the wings can be oriented at different angles just like the flaps located at the back of the wings, the engines turn by activating the mini-cannon located at the rear and various and varied barrels are integrated.

We find under each wing disc launchers that change a bit from the usual missiles. It's well integrated, it remains discreet and these elements of playability do not disfigure the machine.

I would also like to point out the efforts made by LEGO designers on this range in terms of integrating guns of all kinds.

These are generally skillfully positioned and collectors will not have the impression of "suffering" the playability of these sets to the detriment of the overall design of the machines and vehicles concerned.

The machine is easy to handle and the handling by the lower part of the fuselage is excellent. There is plenty of fun without breaking everything.

Two minifigs can be placed in the cockpit. Without forcing. The canopy of the cockpit is also pad printed, LEGO probably having noted through the LEGO Star Wars range and the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter that putting stickers on these elements is an annoying challenge, especially for the youngest.

Let's not get carried away, there is still a nice sheet of stickers in this box, mainly to dress the engines.

The rotation of the motors makes it possible to simulate different phases of flight, takeoff or stationary landing. It's funny five minutes, but it's still anecdotal.

The mechanism which makes it possible to turn the blocks of the motors on themselves is however very well integrated. Again, this function does not alter the overall aesthetics of the machine.

MOCeurs will be happy to find in this set 14 copies of the coin usually used for Nexo Powers and 13 black ingots.

Robin's vehicle can be stowed in the Batwing via a hatch at the back. On the other hand, impossible to enter the mini vehicle and Robin perched on it, it does not pass.

It's a shame, the interest of the thing is diminished. It would have been nice to be able to eject Robin perched on his mini-kart. There, you have to exit the vehicle and then install Robin on it.

On the minifig side, you have to be content with three characters. We will quickly pass on Batman and Robin, two regulars of the sets in the The LEGO Batman Movie range, to take an interest in Harley Quinn, here delivered with her rigid plastic skirt, hammer and cannon.

The minifigure is beautiful, no doubt about it. On the other hand, I find the skirt that is positioned between the legs and the torso a little thick, even if the overall rendering is satisfactory.

The canon is not of great interest but at least it has the merit of matching the character. Same color scheme, crazy look, it's a convincing accessory. As usual with this type of gun, we turn the barrel and then spend our time looking for the parts ejected from the four corners of the living room.

Vendu 99.99 € in the LEGO Shop, this set will delight collectors who will be happy to finally be able to add to their garage bat a Batwing worthy of the name alongside the Scuttler (70908), the Batmobile (70905) andUltimate Batmobile from set 70917 that we were talking about a few days ago.

Even if it is already possible to find this set at a price lower than the public price practiced by LEGO, those who collect only minifigs can ignore this box and get this version of Harley Quinn on the secondary market.

Note: We do as usual, you have until July 2, 2017 at 23:59 p.m. to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.
If I do not get a response from him to my request for contact details before June 25, a new winner will be drawn.

I'm leaving the movies, I went to see Wonder Woman. The film is good, Gal Gadot is excellent as a somewhat naive Amazon convinced that she can restore peace to the world by killing only one man / god.

And as soon as I got out, I went back to take a look at the set 76075 Wonder Woman Warrior Battle (37.99 €) which is in principle a derivative of the film. In principle. Most of the reviews I have read were published long before the film was released. Obviously, therefore, no one makes a link between the content of the set and that of the film.

I want to hear all the usual explanations about the work of LEGO very early in the release of the films from which these boxes are inspired, with only a few preliminary visuals provided by the production. We are repeated these excuses at each obvious failure, as if to find extenuating circumstances for the mark.

But in this specific case, the set has NOTHING to do with the film.

Let's move on to Chris Pine's (Steve Trevor) minifigure who does not closely or remotely resemble the actor, that we already knew. The face used has already dressed the minifigs of Chris Evans (Captain America) or Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye). For the outfit, it's minimal service, but we will be satisfied, even if the character spends a good part of the film in German uniform.

The plane seen in the film, with which Chris Pine crashes near Themyscira, is a Fokker E.III. German. The LEGO version only vaguely resembles this airplane model and as a bonus the machine is here decked out with American symbols ...

Regarding Ares, again the LEGO version is a thousand miles from the character of the film. The big bad in the movie is admittedly slightly taller than Gal Gadot with his horned armor but not in the proportions seen in set 76075. I'm not even talking about the character's armor or shield ...

As a bonus, the scene shown in the visual above, which dresses the box, NEVER takes place in the film. NEVER. And as for the mention "... use superpowers and the famous wonder woman sword to face the mythical gods ..."I'll let you see the movie, you'll understand that this part of the set description is a bit wrong.

We are left with the Wonder Woman minifigure with her sword and shield, successful and true to the look of the character in the film.

Some of these findings are details, others are more troublesome. In the end, it seems that LEGO got the wrong movie and all the justifications in the world will not be enough to make me accept this discrepancy between the original content and the derivative product.

This is not the first set affected by this type of "shift", far from it. But I'm still annoyed by these gross misinterpretations.

If LEGO cannot have content that is faithful to the final product to develop its derivative products, the manufacturer could at least modify the content of the boxes a few months after the release of the film to stick to reality.

There you go, I just wanted to heat it up after watching the movie.

This is certainly the best find from The LEGO Batman Movie and I almost regret that LEGO did not take advantage of the general craze surrounding the film's release last February to bring this set to market. 70917 The Ultimate Batmobile. 1456 pieces, 8 minifigs and a public price set at 144.99 €.

This box arrives in my opinion a little late and it may go unnoticed or in any case not to be entitled to the commercial success it deserves. By the start of the school year, all "young" eyes will be on The LEGO Ninjago Movie and the slew of very successful sets planned to accompany its theatrical release.

As you already know, we're talking about a super Batmobile here that is actually made up of four separate vehicles. This assembly is at first glance not very aesthetic but we are here in the slightly crazy outbidding which is the hallmark of the film and it works.

In the film, the whole is built in the Bat Garage before heading off to face the baddies and split into three, then four separate vehicles in an epic streak. Enough to make fans want to replay the scene.

LEGO could almost have marketed the whole in four different sets for a mini-collection to be completed over the possibilities of its budget, just to make it more fun and above all more affordable for young fans who are offered sets on various occasions. (birthday, Christmas, ...).

The four vehicles that make one are in my opinion of very unequal interest. We go from very good (Batwing, Batmobile), at least good or even coarse (Bat-Tank) to really very basic (Bat-Moto). It all comes together perfectly to form the weird thing LEGO calls the Ultimate Batmobile. The super machine can be handled quite easily without the risk of breaking everything. It's heavy, 980 grams on the scale.

We therefore proceed in reverse by first removing Batgirl's Batwing which lands on the back of the super-assembly. Be careful not to lose the two lightsaber handles present at the end of the wings which have an annoying tendency to come off. Spacious cockpit with canopy in the inverted position, it is successful. Batgirl wanders around the cockpit a bit due to the lack of Studs fixing for the minifig. It's not that serious.

We therefore find ourselves with three vehicles still assembled: The Batmobile, the Bat-Tank and the Bat-Moto which is well hidden under the Batmobile. Lots of stickers, but here they help give the whole thing its techno-futuristic-crazy look.

We detach the Bat-Tank and we get a big, somewhat shapeless autonomous machine that Alfred can finally pilot in the right direction. The good man had hitherto been relegated to the rear of the building and in the opposite direction of travel.

Cannons on all floors, things that turn and can be oriented, hatch that conceals a few weapons and which also serves as a fixing to make the junction with the Batmobile, cockpit that can accommodate a minifigure without forcing, it's correct and playable . This tank is a weapon designed to sow plates 1x1 in the four corners of the living room.

So we have the Batmobile left, or Wreckreactional Vehicle, very successful with its aggressive look. Another inverted canopy for the cockpit, it's original. It is in my opinion the "real Batmobile" of the film, even if it makes only a very stealthy passage on the screen. It handles pretty well, be careful not to accidentally press the Stud Shooters located at the front, relatively well integrated into the overall design.

Well hidden under the Batmobile, the Bat-Moto is extracted from the rear and you then have to fold the axles to make it functional. Nothing exciting, but Robin at least has something to get around.

LEGO does not provide vehicles for the "bad guys". They all have the ability to fly anyway, the witch on her broomstick, the Flying monkeys with their wings and Polka-Dot Man with his flying disc. Economical and smart, even if at 145 €, we could hope for better.

As a bonus in this set, a very plush rotating Bat-Signal with light brick and pad-printed half-sphere with the Gotham vigilante logo.

In the dark, the thing is illusion, we get a nice projected Bat-logo. Too bad Commissioner Gordon is not in the box, it could have been used to activate this Bat-Signal.

The minifig endowment is correct for a set at this price, even if there are some characters already seen in other boxes of the range: Batgirl, Robin and Batman.

The witch of the Wizard of Oz is that of Fun Pack 71221 for the LEGO Dimensions video game. Both Flying Monkeys, identical except for their facial expression, leave me unmoved. They're cute minifigs, but I'm buying these boxes for the DC Comics universe, not the Wizard of Oz universe.

Polka-Dot Man and Alfred Pennyworth save the furniture even though the colored dot man minifig has the usual disease of pad-printed minifigures on the legs: The ink does not reach the area between the curvature of the thigh and lower leg. This will be a detail for many buyers, but collectors will notice this printing defect which is repeated on all the minifigs whose legs are pad printed on the offending area.

For Alfred, the minifigure is nice and it has the merit of being unique, one more in my collection. Pretty cap with logo, face with the false air of Zorro, pocket watch on the chest, discreet homage to the TV series of 1966 (RIP Adam West), it is successful.

If you are only planning to buy this set for the two really interesting and never-before-seen DC Comics minifigs it contains, you will probably choose to save a hundred dollars and go shopping in the aftermarket. And you will be right.

On the other hand, each of the vehicles is self-sufficient and the whole can be displayed in an "exploded" way rather than assembled. If you have kids, with just one box you will give them something to really have fun with.

Finally, as a good collector, I obviously do not miss this set, even if I would have preferred three "real" villains from the DC Comics universe seen in the film instead of the witch and the two monkeys.

If the thing tempts you, it will cost you so 144,99 € in the LEGO Shop.

Note: We do as usual, you have until June 21, 2017 at 23:59 p.m. to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.
If I do not get a response from him to my request for contact details before June 25, a new winner will be drawn.