Ninjago Episode review Season 1 Episode 1 Rise of the snakes

Ninjago Episode review Season 1 Episode 1 Rise of the snakes

Before the review begins, I must give a SPOILER ALERT for Ninjago if you have not seen it.

Overview:

The episode starts at the monastery of Spinjitzu where the ninja have gone lazy and are playing videogames until the news comes that Lord Garmadon has returned. So the ninja dash of to Jamanakai village only to find it is not Garmadon but his son Lloyd who wants to steel all the sweets in town.

The ninja soon deal with Lloyd and leave but before they leave they find a scroll which is the prophecy of the green ninja and the start becoming competitive so when they get back they have a tournament where the last ninja standing becomes the green ninja. at first it goes all right but the Kai nearly burns down the monastery and Sensei Wu is not happy.

after his defeat Lloyd leaves the village and comes across a strange lever in the ground he pulls it and falls into a tomb full of Serpentine Lloyd manages to take control of the Hypnobrai general and returns to the village with them and takes control of the villagers.

The Ninja soon learn about this and head back to the village along with Nya and they try to get the generals staff in the process they learn that the Hypnobrai can hypnotize you. while fighting them Cole gets hypnotized by a snake called Skales but nothing happens since he becomes distracted since he is holding the staff and puts it in the fountain curing all the villages.

Our thoughts:

we thought this was a good way to introduce the serpentine as villains and Lloyd for the first time.

Facts:

  • Focus Character: kai
  • Focus Villain: The Serpentine
  • How long 22 minutes
  • released on: 2011/2012
  • Overall star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 9-10 stars

Ninjago Episode review Episode 1 Way of the Ninja

Ninjago Episode review Episode 1 Way of the Ninja

Before the review begins we must give a SPOILER ALERT for Ninjago if you have not watched it before also we will be doing the UK version of the pilots which had 2 episodes instead of 4

Overview:

The episode starts at the 4 weapons blacksmith shop where two teenagers Kai and Nya are working on weapons. whilst they are working a traveler knowns as Wu enters the shop wondering if there are any weapons for a Ninja and Kai says No and sends him on his way.

Suddenly the skeleton army arrives scaring the villages, Kai tries to protect everyone but comes face to face with Samukai, who orders the other skeletons to Kidnap Nya. Kai then nearly gets crushed by a water beaker but Sensei Wu saves him using Spinjitzu and the skeletons leave.

After they have left Kai thanks Wu for saving him and master Wu tells the story about the golden weapons and how they created Ninjago and how Wu’s Brother Lord Garmadon tried to steal them and how he was banished to the underworld.

After the story Wu convinces Kai to become a Ninja he reluctantly says yes but only since he want’s to save his sister. So they head to the Monastery of Spinjtzu to train and kai keeps failing the course several times till he succeeds. Later that night three other Ninja break in and Kai attacks them till he learns there his teammates and the get their Ninja suits.

NOTE THIS IS WHERE THE SECONED EPISODE BEGINS IN THE US

The three Ninja introduce themselves as Cole, Jay and Zane together they head to retrieve the first golden weapon the Scythe of Quakes from the caves of despair. In the process they also retrieve the map to the other golden weapons.

As they head into the cave they move a giant boulder to retrieve the Scythe but they are heard by the skeletons. The ninja the quickly retrieve the scythe but the entire army is waiting so a huge battle takes place and during the battle the ninja learn Spinjitzu forcing the skeletons to retreat.

After the skeletons retreat the Earth dragon who guards the scythe then starts attacking them so they use the scythe to escape disobeying Wu’s orders and get out of there. Later though Wu is not happy at them for using the scythe.

Our thoughts:

for the first episode ever we think it was very good and still holds up today.

Facts:

  • Focus Character: Kai
  • Focus Villain: The skeletons
  • How long 22 minutes
  • released on: 14th January 2011
  • Overall star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 9-10 stars
71045 LEGO® Minifigures Series 25

71045 LEGO® Minifigures Series 25

New for Winter 2024 we have another series of collectable minifigures one again being in boxes.

Inside the box you will find 1 random minifigure and instruction sheet. There are 12 different minifigures you might receive here is how we would rank them from best to worst and there own rating.

NameRanking Position
Vampire Knight4.9 stars out of 51st
Train kid4.7 stars out of 52nd
Fierce Barbarian4.4 stars out of 53rd
Goatherd4.3 stars out of 54th
Fitness instructor4 stars out of 55th
Sprinter3.9 stars out of 56th
Film Noir Detective3.8 Stars out of 57th
Triceratops Costume Fan3.6 stars out of 58th
 E-Sports Gamer3.4 stars out of 59th
Pet Groomer3.3 stars out of 510th
Mushroom sprite3.2 stars out of 511th
Harpy3 stars out of 512th
overall rating of series 25 46.3 out of 60

Overall rating

I would highly recommend this series though maybe you should consider buying seconded hand to guarantee you get ones you want also the list was our opinion.

one random pack will cost £3.49 and amount of pieces will vary

Automatic Lego paper airplane machine

Automatic Lego paper airplane machine

A post on Twitter (now X) grabbed my attention this week. It was a simple video of an Automatic paper airplane folding machine created by Ken Lego (Lego Technique Club, Osaka University, Japan). Osaka University LEGO Users Group (OULUG) is the only University-based LEGO Users Group in the world to be officially recognised by the LEGO group. Managed mostly by university students, the aim of this group is to have visitors enjoy science through LEGO.

I wasn’t alone in being amazed at this Lego Technics build. As of November 4th 2023 the video is week on it’s way to 900,000 views and has received over 6,000 likes. Perhaps the best signal of interest is that fact that over 800 people have bookmarked this on Twitter, which usually means they will want to review the post later and share with others.

This is version 3 of Ken Lego’s paper airplane system. Looking at the Ken Logo channel on YouTube you will this longer video of the Version 3 and earlier versions. It is very interesting to see how the design has been simplified with each version. Earlier versions remind me more of old LASER printers and photocopier mechanisms whereas version 3 is clearly inspired I would say by the minimalistic paper handling design of a modern budget inkjet printer.

Clearly the ability to feed a sheet of A4 photocopier paper into one side of this Lego Technics machine, have it folded and then launched automatically is very impressive.

Lego paper airplane folding and launching machine video

From an educational perspective this project is probably only suitable in Higher Education (HE) as the number of skills, knowledge, time and patience required is so high. However I do think this would inspire younger children in secondary education to research and build simpler machines.

From an HE perspective, the refinement of this project from version 1, 2 and 3 could make an interesting research project.

76963 Baby Dinosaur Rescue Center

76963 Baby Dinosaur Rescue Center

New for winter 2024 we have a brand new Jurassic world set this time being a 4 plus set with lots of baby dinosaurs.

The set consist of 139 pieces, 2 minifigures and 5 dinosaurs in the build you get a car and 2 buildings.

The Car is very basic using the 4+ bike pieces which have been coming in sets for a few years. the rest of the car uses a red and brown colour scheme and has room to have a box of vegetable’s on the back.

The first of the two buildings uses rock pieces to make it look like a cave it also uses lots of tree pieces to make it blend in. Inside of the cave is a computer a dinosaur egg and and more making it good for play.

The seconded area is a place for the dinosaurs to eat with lots of boxes of food. Also behind there i think there is a recolour of a panel piece.

The Dinosaurs in the set are quite small although some are bigger than others. They also have lots of detail on them. the figures you get in the set are  Darius and Sammy but for us the dinosaurs are the thing your spending money on.

Overall I think this is one of the better 4 plus sets the only thing i would point out is the price which is £34.99 but Jurassic park sets are always more due to the dinosaurs.

This set releases January 1st 2024 alongside the other Jurassic park sets.