Ninjago

Fire Stone Mech

A big posable ninja mech with a samurai face and real desk-shelf presence.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 71720 · 2020

Pieces977

Minifigs5

Year2020

Set number71720

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The verdict

This one surprised me.

I came in expecting a fairly ordinary kid-line mech and got a genuinely satisfying build with a samurai-armor head, deep red panels, and enough articulation to strike a proper pose. It won't challenge an adult who lives for clever engineering, but as a fun afternoon and a shelf piece with attitude, the Fire Stone Mech more than earns its spot. Five minifigs and a cockpit that swallows two of them make it a play machine too.

Best for: Ninjago fans and mech lovers age 9 and up who want a poseable robot with presence

The full review

The Fire Stone Mech is one of the bigger sets from Ninjago's 2020 Master of the Mountain wave, and it's the kind of LEGO® set that photographs smaller than it feels in your hands. At 977 pieces you get a proper hulking robot with a face that reads pure samurai, all sculpted red plating and a stern golden brow, standing tall enough to dominate a shelf. What got me was how much personality LEGO packed into the head and shoulders. This isn't a generic battle bot. It has a point of view, and the deep red plus gold color scheme makes it look expensive even though it launched at a friendly sixty-nine dollars.

You also get five minifigs, which is a lot of bang for a mech this size. Hero Kai, Hero Nya and Hero Cole all wear brand-new torsos, cowls and printed legs from that summer wave, with dual-expression heads and dual-sided torsos, so each ninja can flip between calm and fighting-face. Rounding out the crew are the rock-warrior twins Moe and Murt, the villains you'll actually want to knock over. Cole carries a golden shield and a brick-built mace, and both he and Kai get new golden shoulder armor. It's a genuinely fun roster for a set in this price band.

Now for the honest caveats. The legs have no knee joints, so while the hips, shoulders and elbows move nicely, you can't get those really dramatic action-figure stances without leaning the mech on something. Play features are also fairly minimal. You get a couple of stud shooters, removable swords, and a cockpit that fits two figs, and that's about the extent of the gimmicks. Reviewers who've built LEGO's other mechs from this era also note the internal skeleton feels familiar, so if you've assembled a few of these robots the frame won't reinvent anything for you. None of that stopped kids in the review videos from playing enthusiastically, mind you.

So who's this really for. If you love Ninjago, or you just love mechs and want one with real character and a strong color scheme, this is an easy yes, especially now that it's retired and can be had secondhand. If you're an adult builder chasing fresh engineering or intricate mechanisms, temper your expectations, because the joy here is in the shapes and the look rather than the technique. For a display piece with attitude and a great minifig haul, though, I think it holds up beautifully, and it's aged into a lovely little collector's mech.

The parts story

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

Building this is mostly a lesson in sideways construction, and that's the good news. So much of the armor is built on its side and then rotated into place, which is how you get those pleasingly clean curved surfaces instead of a bumpy studded surface. The head is the highlight of the whole build, cleverly stacked to evoke a samurai helmet, and the shoulders and torso come together with satisfying chunk. The legs go quickly and the arms give you decent articulation at the shoulder and elbow. It's an involved sit-down build without ever getting fiddly or frustrating, which is exactly what you want from a set aimed at nine and up but happily buildable by grown-ups.

For parts people, there's real value here. The set debuts two new molds, the Brick Special 1x4 with 3 Layers Curved and the Slope Curved 2x2 with Stud Notches, and the red version of that layered panel is exclusive to this set, which is a lovely element for anyone building custom armor. You also get exclusive recolors like a batch of Light Bluish Gray trapezoid flags and a transparent bright orange 6x6 canopy, plus scarce bits like a black large figure armor plate. LEGO even tossed in a spare of one of the new slopes, which felt generous. With a part-out value that has climbed past the original price, this is one of those sets that's quietly worth more in pieces than you paid, and the color palette alone makes it a nice donor set.

Fun facts

01The set retired in December 2021 and now sells sealed for well over its 69.99 launch price, a tidy jump for a mid-size kids' set.
02The mech's head is built to deliberately echo a Japanese samurai helmet, right down to the golden crest across the brow.
03Its chest opens into a cockpit that fits two minifigs at once, so a ninja can literally pilot from inside the torso.
04The red version of the brand-new 1x4 triple-curved armor panel appears nowhere else, making this set the only source for that exact element in that color.