Ninjago

Tournament Temple City

The biggest Ninjago set of 2024, and one of the best temples in years.

4.5/5

Set 71814 · 2024

Pieces3,490

Minifigs13

Year2024

Set number71814

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The verdict

If your mate loves Ninjago, or just wants one big playable centerpiece that looks the part on a shelf, this is an easy yes.

It packs 3,489 pieces, 13 minifigures, and a pile of working features into a four tier pagoda built on a rock face. It is pricey at $249.99, and a chunk of the build is rockwork, but the per piece value is genuinely good for a set this size. With retirement expected around the end of 2026, the retail window is closing.

Best for: Ninjago fans who want one big, playable temple centerpiece

The full review

What it is

Let me tell you why this one gets Ninjago fans excited. Tournament Temple City is the largest Ninjago set of the 2024 Dragons Rising wave, a four story pagoda built into a cliff face and spread across a rock bridge between two islands, with a third island off to the side. It has 3,489 pieces, 13 minifigures, a blacksmith forge, a little dragon, and enough working features to keep a kid busy for hours. The Brothers Brick called it one of the best temple sets since the beloved 70751 Temple of Airjitzu, which is high praise, because that old modular is a fan legend. It landed a 4.5 out of 5 across aggregated community reviews, and once you see everything it does, that score makes sense.

The catch

Now the honest part. At $249.99 this is not a casual pickup, and while the per piece value is good, that is still real money. A decent slice of the piece count goes into gray rockwork and landscaping rather than the temple proper, so if you are the sort who finds repetitive rock and brown on brown sections a slog, you will hit a few of those stretches, especially in the opening bags. And if you are a parts collector chasing brand new molds, temper your hopes. New Elementary counted only about four genuinely new molds here, a couple of them minifigure accessories plus that cute little baby dragon, so most of the interest is in recolors and useful bulk parts rather than headline elements.

Who it's for

So who should grab it? Anyone who wants one big Ninjago centerpiece that both displays well and actually plays. Kids get the water mill, the falling rocks, the secret door, and the hidden storage. Grown up fans get a genuinely handsome temple and a great minifigure lineup with Lloyd, Nya, Zane, Cole, Arin, Wyldfyre, villains Lord Ras and Jordana, plus set exclusives Mr. Pale, the Blacksmith, Roby, and Bleckt. Who should skip it? If you only want a pure display piece with no play gimmicks, or you have no attachment to the theme and just fancy a pretty Asian style building, a modular or Icons set may serve you better for the money. But for the Ninjago faithful, this is one of the easiest yeses in the theme, and the fact that it retires around December 2026 means waiting too long gets risky.

The parts story

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

Building this one flows nicely for such a big set, and it splits into three clear acts. You start on the right side with the rocky base and the dragon cave underneath, plus the blacksmith forge, the little dragon, and a hot air balloon. Then you move to the left rockwork, the pier, the bridge, and an outbuilding, before finishing with the pagoda tiers and the landscape trees. The pacing stays interesting because you are constantly switching between landscaping, mechanisms, and structure. The play features get built right into the frame as you go: a hand cranked water mill that drives two battle platforms and the blacksmith's hammer, a lantern you press to trigger falling rocks, a secret door, and storage tucked into the cliff.

On the parts front, New Elementary flagged this as the largest set of the wave with plenty to talk about, though the truly new stuff is limited to around four molds. The standouts are the new baby dragon in Warm Gold, a shorter katana, and a Mid Length Bun hair piece in red, plus a double scabbard that is more a mold update than a brand new part. The bigger story for most fans is value and bulk: at roughly 7 cents per piece across 3,489 pieces, you get a mountain of useful bricks, lots of recolors (including internal parts recolored for other Dragons Rising sets), and plenty of printed minifigure torsos and legs. Nice touch too, the sticker sheet is modest for the size, so it is a builder's parts pile more than a molds showcase.

Fun facts

01It is the largest LEGO Ninjago set of the 2024 Dragons Rising lineup, at 3,489 pieces.
02The Brothers Brick rated it the best Ninjago temple set since 2016's fan favorite 70751 Temple of Airjitzu.
03The new baby dragon mold introduced here also appears in Warm Gold, Pearl Gold, and Trans-Orange across sibling sets like 71818 and 71822.
04Mr. Pale, the Blacksmith, Roby, and Bleckt are exclusive to this set and appear nowhere else in the wave.