Review LEGO® Ninjago: Dragon of the Skull Mage, Set 71721
Twice a year, LEGO® delights the young and old fans of the Ninjago series with new releases. Each winter and summer, up to 15 sets and various polybags appear in stores. We at JB Spielwaren had the opportunity to build the second largest set of the new LEGO® Ninjago novelty wave from summer 2020 in advance and want to share our opinion, detailed pictures of the set and figures as well as a preview of the other summer novelties with you in the following review.
General info about the set
The set 71721 Dragon of the Skull Sorcerer / Skull Sorcerer's Dragon comes with 1016 parts and an MSRP of 79,99 EUR. This results in a parts price of 7.9 cents per LEGO® brick. It's a normal retailer set, so no exclusivity for a retailer or LEGO® itself. Therefore we can already offer you the set here for a good price. Release date is 01.06.2020.
Once again a dragon, you might think. LEGO® Ninjago is almost not a year without a new dragon, the number of legendary animals in the Ninjago series alone has grown to 25! And that's not counting dragons from Polybags or small dragons in big sets!
Here is an overview of the dragons that have been released so far, from small to large, from colorful to monochrome, from good to evil:
- 2260 Ice Dragon
- 2507 Fire Temple
- 2509 Earth Dragon Defense
- 2521 Lightning Dragon Battle
- 9450 Epic Dragon Battle
- 70503 The Golden Dragon
- 70593 The Green NRG Dragon
- 70599 Cole's Dragon
- 70602 Jay's Elemental Dragon
- 70627 Dragon's Forge
- 70652 Stormbringer
- 70653 Firestorm
- 70655 Dragon Pit
- 70666 The Golden Dragon
- 70678 Castle of the forsaken Emperor
- 70679 The Ultra Dragon
- 70725 Nindroid MechDragon
- 70734 Master Wu Dragon
- 70736 Attack of the Morro Dragon
- 70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon
- 70748 Titanium Dragon
- 71701 Kai's Fire Dragon
- 71711 Jay's Cyber Dragon
- 71713 Empire Dragon
In the current assortment of LEGO® Ninjago alone we find 7 dragons.
In addition to the dragon itself, there are also parts of a lava landscape and six minifigures included. If you add the statue as a full figure, you get seven minifigures.
Here are all the important details of the set at a glance:
- Set number: 71721
- Name: Skull Sorcerer's Dragon / Skull Sorcerer's Dragon
- Theme World: Ninjago
- Number of bricks: 1016
- Number of figures: 6 / 7
- Price, MSRP: 79,99 EUR
- Price per brick: 7,9 Cent
- Release date: 01.06.2020
- Age recommendation: 9+
- Stickers included: yes, a few
Since we already had the chance to build the set, we want to show you some photos of the assembled set here:
The Ninjago Summer Wave getup has a gritty cardboard design with a lava look. The design looks action packed and makes you want to build and play. The figures are listed in the bottom corner and divided into good and evil. In addition, there is a reference to a game that is also included.
The figures from 71721 in detail
Six or seven figures are included in the set, a great number for a set in this price range. The figure of Kai seems to be exclusive to this set, all other figures are also in the other sets of the summer novelties.
As usual with Ninjago, LEGO® puts an extreme amount of effort into the figures. The printing is very detailed, and new elements such as the hat with mask of the villain par excellence is outstanding in my opinion. All in all, all figures are convincing in their presentation!
The dragon from set 71721 in detail
There were dragons in the LEGO® assortment long before the Ninjago series. The first dragons were introduced in 1993 as a molded part in the World of Knights. Sets 6056, 6076 and 6082 each contained a green dragon with red wings, consisting of seven elements. Later, namely in 1997, this dragon - also in the World of Knights - was also produced in black.
The dragon that has now appeared has very little to do with these predecessors, at most the name "dragon" remains. It consists of about 800 LEGO® elements, the result is impressive! The eyes are printed on a 2x2 brick on both sides, the wings (unfortunately like the 21322 Ideas Barracuda Bay) are only printed on one side.
Legs, tail, neck and head can be turned into all imaginable poses by the built-in joints, so both as a showcase model and for playing the dragon is perfectly suitable.
A picture is worth a 1000 words, so here are a few detailed pictures of the dragon:
Play from the new Ninjago sets
New this summer is a Ninjago game! It is included in this set, but can be combined with the sets 71722, 71719 and 71717.
The game system is simple: good versus evil, our heroes of Ninjago must stand against the army of the Skull Mage and collect valuable artifacts. In this case, the items of desire are a sword and a baluer crystal, each protected by a guard. Along the way there are moving pedestals (reminds me a bit of Super Mario or even the stairs from Harry Potter) and falling statues.
If the figures meet on the playing field, the "dice" are rolled. A heart + number of eyes represents the Ninjago heroes, a skull + number of eyes represents the skeletons. The higher score wins!
Each hero has 3 lives, so 3 golden hearts, so be careful!
The stickers of the set 71721
There are a total of 10 stickers "built in" to this one: four alone are placed on the skull mage's flags. All the remaining stickers are installed on the small lava islands, they show the starting positions of the figures for the included game.
For a game set, I think it's fine that a few stickers are used. It would have been nice if the flags were printed.
Official set description
LEGO® itself describes the new Skull Mage Dragon as follows:
"NINJAGO® fans will experience huge building and playing fun with the Dragon of the Skull Mage set (71721). This dragon building set includes six building figures for an exciting and creative play experience. Kids will have great fun with action-packed role-playing as the ninja face off against the Skull Mage, his dragon, and his skeleton knights to free themselves from the eerie dungeons of Shintaro. Fantastic playset for board game adventures This dragon building set can also be used as a LEGO® NINJAGO® board game, as it includes a cube spinning top and a trap attack course for the ninja to complete. Kids can spin the cube to find a way through the game and grab the coveted Ivory Blade of Liberation. The toy can also be combined with other LEGO® sets to create a massive board game. Stunning building sets for kids LEGO® NINJAGO® sets immerse imaginative children in a mysterious world where they take on the roles of their ninja heroes, make up their own stories and stand up to the forces of evil. Various dragons, cars, jets and other models allow children to play countless entertaining role-playing games.
Overall impression and conclusion of the LEGO® set 71721 Dragon of the Skull Mage
As mentioned in the review video, the new dragon here is, in my view, the best in the entire Ninjago series to date! The used parts, the details, few stickers and especially on the gigantic dimensions of the dragon justify the price, even the MSRP of 79,99 EUR.
In addition, we get 6 fantastic figures (at least 4 of them are extremely detailed from top to bottom) and a game that provides additional fun.
Therefore, this set from the Ninjago novelty wave gets a clear "thumbs up" from me!
Your Hendrik from JB Spielwaren
