Review : 70611 Water Strider

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.