I spent years biased against LEGO Ninjago, certain that the theme was stupid. Then a funny thing happened earlier this month–I accidentally saw an episode of the Ninjago cartoon. And, well… now I’m buying the LEGO sets. You got me, LEGO! While I missed out on the sets with the original four dragons (which are now astronomically expensive), I was determined to own at least one LEGO Ninjago dragon. And thus, for my first Ninjago purchase, I procured the LEGO Ninjago Golden Dragon 70503…

The Right:

First, let’s talk about the build of the Golden Dragon–it’s simple. And by simple, I mean simple. Despite the set only being 252 pieces, LEGO has carefully separated and numbered three bags of bricks for specific segments of the build. This is great for kids, who will have a quick and easy time putting the Ninja Golden Dragon set together.

For me, having the pieces separated out that much makes the build a little too easy, so I poured all of the LEGO blocks together. Even so, the colors of the bricks were so bright and varied that the build was lightning-fast and went without a hitch. It took me a little under 45 minutes to build the entire 70503 LEGO set.

The first thing that struck me about the completed Ninjago LEGO Golden Dragon 70503 is the size of the beast. Much like the Ninjago cartoon, I may have misjudged the 70503 LEGO Ninjago The Golden Dragon set by its box! With a moderately small box, I had assumed that the Golden Dragon itself would be a little bit larger than the normal-sized World of Warcraft Mega Bloks mounts (like the Swift Gryphon and so forth). That couldn’t be farther from the truth, though–the Golden Dragon is freaking huge! At its full length, the Golden Dragon is over a foot long and a foot wide! Crazy!

The Golden Dragon’s appearance is both impressive and ferocious. I love the idea of his wings being made of elongated blades, and the decorations on his head make the Ninjago Golden Dragon look outright terrifying. The Lloyd Garmadon Golden Ninja minifigure has truly found himself a frightening mount to fly into battle atop!

I was highly skeptical of the Dragon Sphere-firing action feature of the Golden Dragon, as I feared the little green ball would just kind of roll out of the Golden Dragon’s mouth endlessly. That’s not correct at all, though–the green Dragon Sphere is locked firmly into the Golden Dragon’s mouth, and it’s not going anywhere until you decide to fire it. When you do choose to fire the dragon sphere, it blasts with a ton of force and velocity, but it won’t hurt even the most fragile child (due to being a small plastic ball, after all). Basically, the Golden Dragon’s sphere-firing action works absolutely perfectly.

LEGO The Golden Dragon 70503 includes three minifigures, but none of them are exclusive to this set. The highlight of the set is the Lloyd Garmadon as the Golden Ninja minifigure, which is otherwise only available in the far more expensive Ninjago Temple of Light 70505 set. As the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master, Golden Ninja Lloyd Garmadon has golden skin to match his golden clothes. It’s really a pretty interesting aesthetic, and definitely makes Lloyd take on a feeling of mysticism. The stylish golden sword the Golden Ninja wields is also quite neat.

The other two minifigures included are two of Lord Garmadon’s henchmen in minifigure form: a Warrior minifigure and a Hunter minifigure. As generic characters, I thought I wouldn’t really care about these, but it turns out I really like both. The short legs on the Hunter minifigure make him a sort of cute evil, and I love his red quiver backpack and red version of Sensei Wu’s hat. I’m not as enamored with the Warrior minifigure, but I definitely respect his elaborate helmet and visor.

Finally, the set includes a little Weapons Rack and Catapult base for Lord Garmadon’s henchmen to utilize. I feel pretty bad for the Hunter and Warrior minifigures–they’re hopelessly outmatched against the Golden Dragon, so it makes sense to give them at least a few perks to give them the illusion of having a fighting chance against the Golden Ninja and the Golden Dragon. The catapult is a little silly, but I do think that the dynamite and scimitar weapons are a fun bonus and great for increasing play value.

The Wrong:

The only area where the Ninjago Golden Dragon 70503 LEGO set falls a little short for me is articulation. Maybe I’m just spoiled because I reviewed the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Sindragosa Dragon a few months ago, which has an unspeakably crazy number of ball-joints, but the Ninjago Golden Dragon definitely can’t compete in the flexibility department.

While the Golden Dragon’s wings can fold out and its head, tail, feet and wings can all move up and down, there’s a glaring lack of side-to-side movement. I know that ball-joints aren’t really LEGO’s thing, but it’s hard to move from a super-articulated beast like the Mega Bloks Sindragosa to something like the LEGO Golden Dragon, whose movements are some limited. I can get past it, but it’s still disappointing.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

If you want the cheapest price for the LEGO Ninjago The Golden Dragon 70503 set, you’re going to have to shop online. I paid $24.97 shipped to my door from Amazon, which is a lot cheaper than the $32.09 it would’ve cost me to buy this set at my local Target (if they had it in stock–which they don’t).

Overall: The LEGO 2013 Ninjago Golden Dragon 70503 set impressed me in a variety of ways, including the massive size of the LEGO Golden Dragon for such a conservative price, the coolness factor of the included minifigures, and the surprising power of the Golden Dragon’s sphere-firing action feature. I was less than impressed with the articulation on the set, which is still a bit archaic compared to the articulation present in other block building sets available today. Overall, I think the Golden Dragon is a terrific set that is well worth the money (especially since I only paid $25 total for it online), and is definitely recommended to anyone who isn’t a stickler for hyper-articulation in their dragons.