Ninjago

Temple of the Dragon Energy Cores

A four-storey temple in autumn colours with the best Ninjago figure lineup in ages.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 71795 · 2023

Pieces1,030

Minifigs6

Year2023

Set number71795

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The verdict

The colours are what got me here.

That warm autumnal palette with a big gnarled tree threading up through four floors gives this one a real mood that most Ninjago temples don't have. Six great minifigs and a genuinely tall build for the price make it easy to recommend, as long as you go in knowing the interior runs a little bare.

Best for: Ninjago fans who want a big playable temple with a fantastic figure lineup

The full review

What it is

This is the flagship playset from the very first wave of Ninjago Dragons Rising, the 2023 reboot that relaunched the whole line, so it carries a lot of weight for a LEGO® set aimed at eight-year-olds. You get a four-floor temple that stands over 16 inches tall, wrapped in a big twisting tree, all done in these gorgeous reds, oranges and warm golds. It photographs beautifully and it holds a shelf like a much pricier display piece. The play side is here too, with a set of built-in traps: falling tree trunks, a balcony that drops away, and a statue that topples over when the bad guys attack.

The catch

Here's the honest part, and it's the one thing nearly every reviewer landed on. The outside of this temple does almost all the work. Step around the back or open it up and the interior is surprisingly hollow, with big empty floors and not a lot of furniture or detail to fill them. There's room to pose minifigs mid-battle, which is clearly the point for the target age, but if you were hoping for a richly furnished dollhouse-style temple you'll notice the gaps. The facade also gets a little repetitive up close, the way a lot of these symmetrical temple fronts do. And while the value is genuinely good, around $95 is still real money, so it's worth knowing going in that you're paying mostly for height, figures and that lovely colour work rather than dense interior play.

Who it's for

If you love Ninjago, or you want a large, colourful centrepiece that a kid can actually play with, this is an easy yes. The figure selection alone carries it: three heroes, two of the best Imperium villains, and the exclusive Spirit of the Temple make this one of the strongest lineups in the whole Dragons Rising range. It's also aged well as a collectible now that it's retired, quietly climbing above its old shelf price. The people who should pause are display purists chasing a fully detailed interior, or anyone who already owns a stack of Ninjago temples and doesn't need another big facade. For everyone else, especially newer fans who came in through the reboot, it's a warm, generous, genuinely fun set.

The parts story

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

The build works from the ground up across four levels, and the pacing is friendly rather than taxing, which fits the 8+ age mark. You spend the early bags laying out the base and the lower temple structure, then things get more interesting as the tree starts to snake up through the floors and the trap mechanisms go in. Those traps (the dropping tree trunks, the plunging balcony, the toppling statue) are the most satisfying bits to assemble because you can see the little play functions come together. The facade sections do involve some repetition, so a few stretches feel like more of the same, but the tree keeps breaking up the symmetry and stops it feeling like a chore.

The real story here is colour rather than exotic new molds. LEGO leaned into an autumnal palette, so you pull out a lovely pile of reddish brown, dark orange and warm tan, plus leaf elements in bright yellowy greens that make the tree pop. There are useful gold weapon pieces spread across the figures too: golden katanas, a big golden sword for the Spirit of the Temple, and Lord Ras's golden hammer. For parts value, 1,030 pieces plus six minifigs for around $95 lands well under ten cents a part before you even count the figures, which is why reviewers kept calling it strong value. It's a set you buy for the finished look and the lineup more than for a bin of rare recolors, but that warm-colour parts haul is genuinely nice to have.

Fun facts

01This was one of the launch sets for Ninjago Dragons Rising, the 2023 reboot that rebooted the entire Ninjago storyline after more than a decade.
02The finished temple stands over 16.5 inches (42 cm) tall, making it one of the largest Ninjago temple playsets of its year.
03The Spirit of the Temple minifigure was an exclusive quirk of distribution: it was included in sets sold in countries where Ninjago Magazine wasn't available, so not every region's box had it.
04It packs six minifigs including two Imperium villains, Lord Ras and Empress Beatrix, giving newer fans some of the reboot era's key bad guys in a single box.