Temple of Airjitzu (70751) - Finishing off the Marketplace

It's been quite a while since I updated here - not because we haven't been diligently working on the set but because I just haven't gotten around to doing the updates.

We did finish off the marketplace building a couple weeks ago. True to Ninjago fashion, there were weapons hidden in obscure places. In this case, two chests full of shurikens and swords were hidden in the archway above the main entrance to the market.

You can see how they were skillfully hidden in the architecture to appear like part of the structural design.

If you didn't know to look for them there, you would hardly notice them at all.

The roof of the marketplace is again very typical Ninjago, with the slotted roll up theme. Definitely a favorite or ours as it evokes a very Asian (specifically Japanese) feel to the set. Adding to this are the ornamental gongs that hang from the roof peaks.

I think the fishing poles are a nice touch to the scene, though I have to admit that I have never heard of crabbing with a fishing pole. Must be an ancient ninja secret technique! The stepping stones (which I think lead to a bridge) also add some realism to the scene, as do the two small statues that frame the store entrance.

I am not a huge fan of the vegetation by this building. Given that it is situation on the shore, I should think that the soil is quite wet, meaning dense shrubbery or at least some cat tails. The vegetation provided looks more at home in a desert - there are no flower, no leaves, just a couple of dried out looking stalks.

There are a couple more weapons that have been skillfully worked into the architectural design. You'll notice that it is actually a pair of naginata being used as the poles to hold up the lanterns and the store signs.

Temple of Airjitzu (70751) - Our Next Project!

This is always the most exciting part of starting a new build - the UNVEILING!

Next up, we return to our Ninjago sets, continuing on with the Temple of Airjitzu. This set is now retired and we were lucky enough to pick it up right before retirement at our local Lego store. It wasn't even on our radar as something we wanted to build but it caught our eye as we browsed around. It was the second last set in the store and was even on sale as it was close to retiring. Definitely a good buy!

From the box itself, you can tell that it continues with the high amounts of detail that we've come to love and expect from Ninjago series sets. There are a plethora of mini-figures (12 I believe) which is really spectacularly for a relatively small set like this one.

It didn't take long for our expectations to be met. We started off building one of the smaller buildings (the one on the right side of the temple) and immediately got a sense of the detail and the overarching Japanese theme of the set.

The building is clearly a marketplace. On one side of the shop are baskets of baked goods - a variety of baguettes in a large bread crate, a basket full of either cookies or mini-pies and another basket filled with bars of some type (maybe chocolate bars?).

 On the opposite wall is a crate of apples - both green and red - and a barrel of fish with a large sink where you can rinse off your fruit or clean your fish before heading home.

In true Asian fashion, the market also has live chickens that you can buy and take home for supper. YUM!

This all fits into a fairly compact area. The 2 anchoring studs right by the chickens leads me to believe that this building connects up to something else. What, exactly, remains to be revealed ...

 

Statue of Liberty (21042) - Final Thoughts

This set was a pretty big departure from the sets we normally tackle. We've never been much interested in doing any sort of architectural sets. However, it was a good experience to try it out and see what we've been missing (or not missing haha).

Overall, we were fairly impressed with how well the Statue of Liberty was captured - not easy to do considering how small scale the model is compared to the actual statue. One area that we would have liked more detail on was the face. In the model, it is simply a flat tile piece and I think so much more could have been done with that as the face is pretty central to any humanoid model.

The use of the mini-figure hairpiece for the torch was ingenious and a great way to avoid having to make a new piece while still capturing the flickering flame effect.

All-in-all, it was not a bad build. The base was pretty straight forward while the body of the statue proved to be more of a challenge and required some diligence to detail.

That being said, I don't think we will do another architecture series set. From what I've seen, the facades tend to be quite smooth and not really accentuating too much intricate detail (unlike something like Ninjago City for instance). However, if you are a fan of various famous landmarks and buildings, the architecture series could be your cup of tea.

We finish off this post with views of the set from all 4 angles.

Statue of Liberty (21042) - The Lady is Done!

We polished off the last bit of the statue and got her all ready for display! Given how small the scale is on this model, the final rendition is actually surprisingly detailed. The last "side" of the body went quite smoothly, maybe because mom had gotten used to the mounting of the pieces or maybe it just happened to be the easiest of the sides.

Here is the lady with the iconic tablet and torch (which is actually a blonde-gold hairpiece from a minifigure haha).

Statue of Liberty (21042) - Starting on the Statue

Mom has decided that she is taking back her earlier statement about how much easier this set is than the DB5 Aston Martin.

While it definitely started off as a mind-relaxing excursion with the base, it's definitely morphed into a build that requires a lot of attention to detail when building the statue itself.

The color is the same for every piece and while the overall shape is clearly that of the Statue of Liberty, it is difficult to know just by looking at an individual piece where it should go. Those things combined mean a lot of diligence is required to ensure that all the pieces go in the right place.

The pieces get put together into "sub-blocks" which then get attached to the long studded pillar that you previously saw. This makes it a little easier to build vs attaching the pieces individually to the structure.

You can see below that it is starting to take shape quite nicely. Pictured is the back of the statue.

Here is a bit of an angled shot that shows the back (to the left) and the right side of the statue.

And here is the front. Again, you can see the studded structure that the curved statue pieces attach to.

Statue of Liberty (21042) - Reaching new heights!

We made a big push on the build yesterday after having neglected it for a couple weeks. Not only did we finish off the "base" but we started on the structure of the statue itself though it doesn't look like much at this point.

 The 3rd level of the base continues with the familiar detailing and shapes that we have seen thus far. The corner columns are even taller with this level and there is another balcony/viewing area above.

Seeing the entire base together is quite impressive. Mom was excited to move from the beige brick to the tarnished green layers.

And here you can see the beginnings of the statue itself, starting with the structure around which it will be built.

Statue of Liberty (21042) - Another layer up

The set seems so simple and straight forward after the rigors of the DB5. It's almost as if the brain can go on autopilot instead of having to focus intensely on the task at hand!

The detailing on the set continues to be a pleasant surprise. We added the next layer to the base, this one with more detailing than the foundation. Where the brick detailing of the base came mostly from the patterns that were carved into the pieces, the detailing on this level comes instead from the use of many small, differently shaped pieces that were combined to give the overall effect.

Along the corners, you can see the use of alternating rectangular and circular pieces to provide the recessed column look while running along the base of this second level are alternating triangular and sloped pieces.

Again, the middle continues to be hollow. It's a good thing the hole extends all the way to the bottom as pieces simply tumble down onto the table when they get fat-fingered and dropped.