Ninjago

Tournament Battle Arena

A little arena built almost entirely around its brilliant cast of six.

Brick Rated Score

3.6/5

Set 71818 · 2024

Pieces659

Minifigs6

Year2024

Set number71818

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The verdict

This is the Dragons Rising set you buy for the minifigures, and honestly, that is not a knock.

Evil Jay and Tox are exclusive here, and getting them alongside Kai and Sora in their tournament armor is genuinely tempting. The arena itself is a fun playset with a couple of clever action functions, but at fifty dollars it is asking a lot for 659 pieces. If you love the show or you collect Ninjago figures, you will be glad you have it. If you want a display centerpiece, look elsewhere in the wave.

Best for: Ninjago fans chasing the exclusive Evil Jay and Tox minifigures

The full review

What it is

The Tournament Battle Arena recreates the final showdown from season two of Ninjago Dragons Rising, and the first thing I did was tip all six minifigures out of their bags before I touched a single brick. That tells you where the heart of this set lives. You get Kai and Sora in their tournament armor, the returning villain Cinder in a fresh version, a Wolf Mask Warrior, and then the two names that make collectors sit up, Evil Jay and Tox, both exclusive to this box. For a fan of the show, that lineup alone does a lot of the selling.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the value, though, because it is the thing people keep circling back to. Fifty dollars buys you 659 pieces, and once you mentally set the figures aside, the arena is a fairly modest playset. It builds up quick, it is not a demanding or clever engineering exercise, and reviewers across the board landed on the same verdict, that this is the weakest set in its wave. There is also the sting that a few of these characters turn up in cheaper sets from the same series, so the exclusivity you are paying a premium for is really just Evil Jay and Tox.

Who it's for

The action functions save it from feeling flat. There are two moving platforms for staging a duel, a big drum you can shove off its stand so it rolls into the ring, and my favorite touch, a staircase that collapses when you pull a lever and sends whoever is standing on it sliding to the bottom. That last one is the kind of thing a seven year old will trigger fifty times in a row, and I mean that as praise. So who is this for? Kids who watch the show and Ninjago minifigure collectors, without hesitation. If you are after a build that challenges you or a piece that earns its spot on a shelf, this is not the one, and I would not talk you into it.

The parts story

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

The build itself is brisk and friendly, which suits the intended age of seven and up. Nothing here is going to test a seasoned builder, but the arena comes together in satisfying modular sections, and the functions get slotted in as you go so there is a nice little payoff when the staircase finally collapses on cue. It is the sort of afternoon build you finish before you are ready to be done, which is either a plus or a minus depending on what you came for.

Piecewise, the headline is the new short katana accessory that Kai and Sora carry, a never before seen element that will find its way into plenty of custom minifigure setups. The central statue gives the arena a real focal point and uses some nice angled work to sell its scale. At roughly eight cents a piece the raw part-count value is fine rather than exciting, and the honest truth is that the printed minifigure parts, especially the exclusive Evil Jay and Tox torsos and headpieces, are where the lasting value of this box actually sits.

Fun facts

01The set recreates the final showdown from season two of the Ninjago Dragons Rising TV series.
02Evil Jay and Tox are exclusive to this set, making it the only retail way to get those two figures.
03It released in May 2024 and retired at the end of 2025, and sealed copies have since climbed to around 65 dollars, roughly 30 percent over the 49.99 launch price.