The LEGO NINJAGO Movie 70615 Fire Mech review

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie sees each of the Ninja piloting a massive mech based on their elemental power. Does Kai’s Fire Mech offer a big screen worthy experience?

Price: £59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 Pieces: 944 Available: Now

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie trailers have focussed on the epic battle that sees the Ninja heroes pilot their mechs to prevent Lord Garmadon and his minions dressed as sea creatures from destroying NINJAGO City. 70615 Fire Mech is of course the vehicle belonging to Kai, the Red Ninja, giving the character a hefty ride to help him take on Garmadon’s army.

Building 70615 Fire Mech begins with the central command pod, before adding the arms and legs – the final details are then added to complete the mech. The sections are connected by click joints, articulated at the shoulders, elbows and hips. The articulation works well, but the lack of knee joints limits the way the mech can be posed – it’s something that fans can fix if they so choose, and has no doubt been omitted to make it easier for children to have the model stand.

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Fire Mech-1

Although the mech can stand well and is broadly solid, the red sections on the upper arms are not fixed as solidly as would be ideal. They will likely be fine for a fan looking to pose the mech on a shelf, but will certainly struggle with a child having it aggressively do battle with 70613 Garma Mecha Man.

The on-screen version of Kai’s fire-inspired battle bot is of course larger than this LEGO set version – but is still to scale with the other mechs in the range. The designers have done a good job of using the same pieces as the movie model in key places, but using different elements where necessary to get the piece count down to something reasonable.

The numerous stickers included are necessary to give the mech relevant decoration, but will require some patience as they are all very visible and some are quite large. The most prominent are found on the flags that stick up above the cockpit, showing that Kai has a touch of dramatic flare.

A set that looks this good and full of character does not need lots of gimmicky play features and thankfully the designers have been suitably restrained. The lower arms, that are the fire-emitting blasters, have a dial that spins the attached flame pieces around. A decent disc firing mechanism is situated at the top of each arm, which is discretely incorporated and works well. No more features are required, as fans will be inspired by the quality of the mech and its place in The LEGO NINJAGO Movie story.

Often NINJAGO sets include many minifigures at the expense of the model, but in this case six minifigures are just right relative to the size of the build. The minifigures in this set include the essential Kai, perfectly matching his sleek new movie look with alternate intense and relaxed expressions. Accompanying him is Zane, similarly sporting a dual head and movie-identical details.

The villains are excellent, continuing the bizarre theme established in the rest of The LEGO NINJAGO Movie line. The angry faces that Hammer Head and Jelly sport are entirely ridiculous when contrasted with the silliness of the aqua based heads they are wearing. Their accessories are the best part though, simply using regular LEGO weapons but attaching fish to them because… well, because fish.

Finally, the two minifigures that round out the set are the excellent Lauren, with an excellent print, desirable hairpiece and suitably terrified expression. Henry ticks all of the same boxes, adding to the NINJAGO City citizen count.

This is an enjoyable, impressive, towering mech that captures the essence of the movie model, with a solid construction that will delight fans of NINJAGO and decent, detailed LEGO builds.

70615 Fire Mech is available on August 1 from shop.LEGO.com. You can help support Brick Fanatics’ work by using our affiliate links.

More The LEGO NINJAGO Movie reviews:

70607 NINJAGO City Chase

70608 Master Falls

70609 Manta Ray Bomber

70610 Flying Jelly Sub

70611 Water Strider

70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon

70613 Garma Mecha Man

70614 Lightning Jet

70615 Fire Mech

70616 Ice Tank

70617 Temple of the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon

70618 Destiny’s Bounty

Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

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