Ninjago

Empire Temple of Madness

A Ninjago temple that trades ancient stone for glowing arcade circuitry, and mostly pulls it off.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 71712 · 2020

Pieces820

Minifigs6

Year2020

Set number71712

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The verdict

This is the rare Ninjago temple that looks like it belongs inside a video game, all transparent panels and circuit-board bricks, and the Prime Empire story gives it a personality most temple sets don't have.

The build gets you a proper arcade cabinet, a spinning throne, and a sushi kitchen stuffed with monster sushi, which is exactly the kind of daft detail I love. It isn't the most sophisticated temple LEGO has made, and the play features can be fiddly for the youngest fans. But if the Prime Empire arc grabbed you, this is the heart of it.

Best for: Prime Empire fans who want the season's centerpiece build

The full review

What it is

The thing that got me about the Empire Temple of Madness is that it does not look like a Ninjago temple at all. Instead of weathered stone and gold trim, you get transparent colored panels, floating hit-point tiles, and bricks printed to look like circuit boards. It is the season's big Prime Empire centerpiece, the place where Emperor Unagami rules his digital world, and LEGO leaned all the way into that video-game feeling. Building it, I kept grinning at the small stuff: the little box of evil monster sushi in the kitchen, the arcade cabinet that actually looks like something you would feed quarters into, the throne that pivots a full circle so Unagami can menace the room from every angle.

The catch

I will be straight with you about where it wobbles. As a piece of engineering it is not the most ambitious temple in the theme. The structure goes together in a fairly direct way, and if you came from something like the Monastery of Spinjitzu you might find this one a touch plain under all the neon dressing. The play features are where opinions split most. There is a Key-Tana that twists to open the throne room doors, and a few other action bits, but reviewers with younger kids noted they can be fiddly, so a nine year old ends up rebuilding as much as playing. And the value is fine rather than generous. At the 79.99 launch price you are partly paying for the six minifigures and the license, not raw brick count.

Who it's for

So who is this really for. If you followed the Prime Empire season and want the set that captures its whole world in one model, this is the one, full stop, and the minifigure lineup alone makes a strong case. Display it on a shelf and the glowing panels genuinely look great. If you are a grown-up builder chasing intricate technique, or you want the definitive Ninjago temple, you can probably skip it and hold out for a bigger showpiece. But for the right fan, this is a warm, characterful, slightly bonkers build that I enjoyed far more than I expected to.

The parts story

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

The build is quick and cheerful rather than demanding. You work up through the levels, dropping in the sushi kitchen and its box of monster sushi, then the arcade room with its buildable cabinet and a weapons rack holding the three Prime swords, and finally Unagami's throne room up top. Nothing here will stump an experienced builder, and that is sort of the point: it is paced for a nine-plus audience and it keeps handing you a fun little reveal every few bags. The transparent panels and the circuit-printed tiles do a lot of heavy lifting to sell the digital-temple look.

The standout parts are mostly the printed and character pieces. Sushimi is exclusive to this set, and this is the only place you get Cole with his particular armor pads, which makes the minifigure selection matter more than usual. Unagami, the Red Visor, and the Digi versions of Jay, Lloyd, and Cole round out the six, and you get all three Key-Tana blades plus three monster sushi. The transparent colored panels and circuitry-print bricks are the pieces parts fans tend to pull out of this one, useful for anything with a neon or sci-fi feel, even if the raw part-count value at retail was only middling.

Fun facts

01The set retired in early 2021 after roughly 18 months on shelves, and secondhand prices have barely dipped below the original 79.99, sitting around the mid-70s for a sealed copy.
02Sushimi, the sushi-chef villain, is exclusive to this set, and it is also the only way to get Cole wearing his Prime Empire armor pads.
03Unagami's throne pivots a full 360 degrees, and twisting the Key-Tana on its resting place triggers the throne room doors to swing open.
04It scores 84 on Brick Insights, which places it as a solid, above-average set rather than a standout in the Ninjago lineup.