Now, I don’t have the greatest collection of Ninjago sets or minifigures. I just haven’t really focussed on collecting the theme. But I was recently wandering through my local newsagenct, and saw a collection of LEGO themed magazines, mostly imported from the UK, and one in particular caught my eye:
Ninjago Legacy Magazine #7, an alleged special edition. A huge picture of Jai on the cover. But lets be honest, this isnt what caught my eye: it was the attached blister pack of minifigures! It might not be the latest magazine – travel time to our side of the world is often a bit prolonged, but that doesn’t change the personal value of the figures on the cover to me!
Wu vs Skulkin
The Spinjitzu Master, versus the one of the Skulkin Army. Is this ever really going to be any serious form of competition?
At $AUD10.99 for the magazine and two figures, it felt like acceptable value. The figures were firmly gripped in their blister pack: I pulled them out and put them together.
Wu wearing a black kimono with golden printing. The Ninjago Script written on his torso and leg spells ‘Master.’There is a golden dragon print on his back. He has his whispy beard, as well as a tan, conical hat. He carries a reddish brown staff. This particular version of Sensei Wu has appeared in a umber of Magazine cover figures, as well as several of the Ninjago Legacy Sets.
This Skulkin is unique to this set, although a similar figure has appeared, with a blue loincloth in the Ultrabattles series, this year. He has a detailed face print, including a missing tooth and red sunken eyes, appearing to glow red.his red loincloth feathures a skull symbol on the waist strap. He carries a dark tan scimitar. When Ninjago was first unveiled a decade ago, the majority of skeletal hordes had the ‘standard’ skeleton minifigure – with a variety of artwork, and only the main players featured the upsized, more detailed head mold. The mold for the torso skeleton warriors is different to the standard skeleton torso mold, originally seen in LEGO pirates – less rounded, and more angular. It screams Skeleton Enemy!
I am grateful to have one of the skeleton army added my collection. I have recently received a (yet to be opened) copy of the Ninjago Legacy 70670 Monastery of Spinjitzu, which contains both this version of Wu, all of the Ninja heroes, and Wyplash: a one of the named Skulkin. That figure is very similar to this one, wearing a conical hat and blue loin cloth. Indeed, the loincloth and
Generic skulkin figures using this head mold have only become available in the LEGACY set releases: while they are gradually being released in more sets, I appreaciate that there are now more opportunities to build your army. The larger head mold looks like it might also lend itself over to customisation, if that’s your sort of thing: changing the smile; adding breaks, cracks and chips, or just adding a piece of comedic headwear.
What do you think of this new figure? a useful addition, or a way to ruin years of army building with the original figures? Why not leave your comment s below, and until next time,
Play Well.
Enjoy the Monastery set when you get to building it. Its beautiful. Good question on the new Skulkin heads. At first if felt it was unnecessary to change them. But I suppose from Lego’s point of view it makes us more likely to want to collect them. Since there is no real changes to body printing that they could do.
I think overall they new minifigure skulkin head shape looks more realistic. They could therefore be argued to be better. But that’s not something that ever bothered me.
For scenes I’ve built, I’ve just incorporated the new and the old alike together. Arguably not consistent, but you can never have too many bad guys.