Ninjago

Ninja Nightcrawler

The rare Ninjago car that earns a spot on a grown-up shelf.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 70641 · 2018

Pieces552

Minifigs3

Year2018

Set number70641

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The verdict

The Nightcrawler is the sleek black sports car I keep forgetting came out of a kids' theme.

It looks more like a designer display piece than a play set, and the fold-up attack mode driven off the rear wheel is genuinely clever rather than gimmicky. I'll be straight with you, the play features feel a little tacked on and Nya has nowhere to actually sit, but as a shelf car for the price it punches well above its weight. Great for a Ninjago fan who secretly wants a Speed Champions car.

Best for: Ninjago fans who love a sleek car they can display

The full review

What it is

I did not expect a Ninjago set to make me stop and look twice, but the Nightcrawler did. It is a long, low, glossy black sports car with sharp gold detailing, and finished it reads far more like a display model than something aimed at nine-year-olds. There is a fold-out attack mode where two 6-stud shooters and a pair of gold blades rise up around the cockpit, and here is the part that got me: the whole thing is driven off the rear wheel through Technic gears, so rolling the car actually powers the transformation. That is a lovely little mechanism to find in a set at this size. It comes with a small Stone Booster Bike on the side, plus Lloyd, Nya and Ultra Violet.

The catch

I will be honest about where it wobbles. This is sold as a play set, and the play features are the weakest part. The shooters are fine but forgettable, the speed mode is more of a pose than a function, and Nya genuinely has nowhere to sit, which makes her feel like a figure added to bump the count from two to three. At the original 40 dollars this was a comfortable buy, but it is retired now and prices have climbed hard, well past its old RRP, so you are paying a collector premium rather than a toy price. Go in knowing you are buying the car, not the accessories around it.

Who it's for

Get this if you love Ninjago and you love a clean vehicle you can actually stand on a shelf without it looking like a toy. It rewards the display crowd and anyone who enjoys a smart low-part-count mechanism. I would skip it if you mainly want swooshy play value for a kid, or if the current secondhand price makes you wince, because you are paying that premium for the styling and the exclusive figures more than the build itself. For the right person, though, it is one of the nicest cars the theme ever shipped.

The parts story

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

The build is a satisfying, focused sit-down, roughly 180 steps of shaping a car body with a lot of angled slopes and curved slopes to get that low, sleek silhouette. It is not a difficult build, but there is a nice moment when the gearing for the attack mode goes in and you connect the rear wheel to the pop-up mechanism and realise how the whole thing is meant to move. That engineering step is the highlight of the assembly.

The star materials here are the black and gold: swathes of black curved slopes and a good handful of gold and pearl-gold accent pieces that give the car its designer look. Ultra Violet is the standout figure, exclusive to this set and able to wear the Oni Mask of Hatred transformation piece, and Nya's print is exclusive here too. At 552 pieces for a 40 dollar RRP the per-part value was always fair rather than remarkable, but you are paying for shaping and a clever function, not raw brick tonnage.

Fun facts

01The car's attack mode is powered entirely by the rear wheel: rolling it forward drives Technic gears that lift the shooters and gold blades around the cockpit.
02All three minifigures (Lloyd, Nya and Ultra Violet) are exclusive to this set, and their combined aftermarket value is a big chunk of what the set now sells for.
03Released in the Sons of Garmadon wave, the set carried a 39.99 dollar RRP and retired at the end of 2019, after which its value roughly doubled on the secondhand market.
04Reviewers repeatedly compared its footprint and shelf presence to LEGO's larger display vehicles, unusual praise for a set marketed to the 9-14 age range.