Ninjago

Stormbringer

Jay's lightning dragon is one of the most poseable brick dragons LEGO ever put in a mid-size box.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 70652 · 2018

Pieces498

Minifigs4

Year2018

Set number70652

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The verdict

This is the set that finally made me stop underrating Ninjago dragons.

Stormbringer is genuinely poseable, the blue-and-yellow build reads as lightning without a single off-color pin sticking out, and the four minifigures punch well above the old 40 dollar price. It is not a display centerpiece and the play features are simple, so if you want an adult-shelf statement piece you will want to look elsewhere. For anyone who loves a dragon they can actually swoosh, though, this one holds up years later.

Best for: Ninjago fans who want a proper poseable dragon plus four strong minifigures

The full review

What it is

Stormbringer is Jay's lightning dragon from the Hunted arc, and the first time I got it fully built and started tipping the neck around, it clicked why people rate these Ninjago dragons so highly. The whole beast is jointed. Neck, shoulders, hips, wings, all of it moves, so you can drop it into a diving pose or rear it up mid-roar and it actually stays there. The blue and yellow color scheme is committed the whole way through, and I love that the builders hid the Technic pins so cleanly that you get almost no off-color joints breaking the look. It sits somewhere in the sweet spot between toy and model, which is exactly what an 8-to-12 year old wants and, honestly, what a lot of us older builders secretly want too.

The catch

I will be honest about where it comes up short. This was a 39.99 set at retail and it builds like one. The play functions are simple: spring-loaded shooters fire little lightning bolts out of the dragon's mouth, and a Technic gear at the base of the tail swishes it side to side to knock ninja off their feet. Fun for play, but not clever engineering you will study. The build itself is a comfortable couple of hours and then you are finished, so if you were hoping for a long involved session this is not that set. And because it retired back in December 2019, the days of paying RRP are gone. Secondary prices have climbed a long way past the original sticker, so going in now you are paying collector money for what was a mid-range play set.

Who it's for

So who should actually chase this one down. If you want a dragon your kid (or you) can grab and fly around the room, one that poses well and looks the part, Stormbringer is an easy recommendation and always was. The minifigure lineup sweetens it a lot: you get Jay and Zane on the ninja side, plus Dragon Hunters Muzzle and the wonderfully odd Daddy No Legs, who is exclusive to this box. If you are strictly an adult display collector who wants a big static showpiece, or you are hunting for a meaty engineering build, this is not the dragon for you and the current resale price makes that call easier. But for Ninjago fans and dragon lovers, it earns its keep.

The parts story

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

Building Stormbringer is a pleasant, breezy few hours. Most of the time goes into the dragon itself, working outward from a Technic-cored body into the neck and tail sections, then cladding the whole thing in blue and yellow plates and adding the ball-joint legs and wings. It never gets fiddly or frustrating, which is part of why it works so well for younger builders, and the payoff is that everything you assemble is a moving part. By the end you are not holding a static model, you are holding something you can pose.

The standout inclusions are the two golden Dragon Armor pieces, the chestplate and the Dragonbone Blade, which sit on their own little pedestal as collectibles rather than getting buried in the build. The dragon's head uses printed eyes rather than stickers, which I always appreciate at this price. And the real conversation piece is Daddy No Legs, the Dragon Hunter who strides around on tall spindly mechanical stilt legs and is found only in this set, making him the part most likely to send you here in the first place.

Fun facts

01Daddy No Legs is exclusive to this set, so Stormbringer is the only box you can pull that stilt-legged Dragon Hunter from without hitting the secondary market.
02Stormbringer retired in December 2019 after about a year and a half on shelves, and its value has since climbed well over 100 percent above the original 39.99 RRP.
03The set ties into the Hunted arc where the ninja race the Dragon Hunters for pieces of Dragon Armor, which is why the golden chestplate and Dragonbone Blade get their own display pedestal.
04The tail is a working weapon: turn the Technic gear at its base and it thrashes side to side to sweep minifigures off their feet.