Ninjago

Dieselnaut

A Mad Max war rig in olive and orange that looks better in your hands than in photos.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 70654 · 2018

Pieces1,188

Minifigs7

Year2018

Set number70654

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The verdict

This is the one Ninjago vehicle where the finished model genuinely outshines the box art, and that almost never happens.

It's a rolling fortress on mismatched wheels and tank tracks, packed with play features and seven good minifigs. Just know going in that the build itself is more workmanlike than clever, and it earns most of its love once it's sitting finished on the shelf.

Best for: Ninjago fans who care more about a big display centerpiece than a fiddly, surprising build

The full review

What it is

The Dieselnaut is what happens when Ninjago borrows the design language of a Mad Max war rig and commits to it completely. It's an 18-wheeled armored fortress built by the Dragon Hunters, and the whole thing rides on a deliberate jumble of different sized tires and tank tracks that give it this wonderful mismatched, scavenged look. The color scheme is the real star: olive green and orange over dark bluish grey and black, which sounds odd on paper but reads as grim and industrial once it's all together. This is one of those LEGO® sets that looks decent in the official photos and then genuinely surprises you when it's finished on the table, bigger and meaner than you expected at 19 inches long and 9 inches wide.

The catch

Here's where I have to be straight with you. The build is not the exciting part. A lot of reviewers, and I'm with them, found the actual construction a little flat, more repetitive assembly than the clever section-by-section engineering that makes some big sets sing. You're putting together a large armored body, and while the finished shape is great, getting there can feel like work rather than play. The front tank tracks are the other honest gripe: they're stiff, and they stubbornly refuse to roll properly on a smooth floor or table, so the rolling-fortress fantasy is a bit undercut in practice. There's also a small hidden weapon rack tucked inside that feels tacked on and doesn't earn its space. At the 2018 retail of around $110 the price per part was actually good, roughly nine cents a piece, though you are paying a little extra for the seven minifigs.

Who it's for

If you love Ninjago and you want a big, dramatic display centerpiece with a ton of built-in play features, this delivers and then some. The detachable containment pod at the rear, the spinning top turret with its shooter, the crane hook and harpoon give kids plenty to act out, and the minifig lineup is strong. If you're the kind of builder who lives for surprising techniques and a build that keeps you guessing, this one won't scratch that itch, and you'll want to know that before you commit an afternoon to it. It's now retired, so prices have crept up on the secondary market, which nudges it more toward the collector and the die-hard Ninjago fan than the casual buyer. For what it is, a chunky, characterful war machine with genuine table presence, I like it a lot. I just wish the journey to the finished model were as fun as the model itself.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building the Dieselnaut is a big-body affair. Most of your time goes into the long armored hull and the running gear underneath, and this is where the set shows both its strength and its weakness. The mix of wheel sizes and tank tracks is what gives the finished vehicle its scavenged, apocalyptic character, but assembling all of it is fairly repetitive, and the middle stretch of the build settles into a rhythm rather than throwing surprises at you. The upper sections are more rewarding: you add the rotating turret and spring-loaded shooter, the crane arm with its winding chain hook, a side harpoon, and the rear containment pod that detaches to lock up a captured dragon. The fully opening roof and cockpit mean nothing important gets buried, which is a nice touch for a set clearly built to be played with hard.

On parts, the headline is the minifigures rather than exotic new molds. You get seven: Teen Wu (exclusive to this set and a genuinely unique version), the gloriously over-the-top Iron Baron with his cyborg arm and peg leg, Heavy Metal, Skullbreaker, Muzzle, plus Hunted versions of Jay and Zane. It's also one of only two sets, alongside The Dragon Pit, to include the complete four-piece Dragon Armor, which matters if you're chasing that collectible. For parts monkeys there's a healthy pile of olive green and orange in useful shapes, plus all those tires and tread links, so the 1,188 pieces work harder as a bulk-and-color haul than as a source of rare printed elements. Value per part landed better than the 2018 average, so as a big box of practical bricks with a great minifig roster on top, it holds up.

Fun facts

01The Dieselnaut is Ninjago's largest ground vehicle, surpassing the Ultra Stealth Raider.
02It comes from the Hunted season, where the Dragon Hunters led by Iron Baron use the war rig to capture dragons in the Realm of Oni and Dragons.
03It is one of only two sets to include the complete four-piece Dragon Armor, the other being 70655 The Dragon Pit.
04Skullbreaker is exclusive to this set, and the Teen Wu minifig is a one-off version you can't get anywhere else.