Ninjago spinners now feature high-quality parts

 

  • Ninjago spinners now feature high-quality parts

    Posted by Huw, 22 Jan 2012 08:42. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    9562 LashaLast year's Ninjago spinners were a real turn-off for me. I had no interest in the game, I didn't like the skeletons and, worse of all, the majority of the parts, including the minifig, were made in China.

    While in Argos today I picked up 9562 Lasha on impluse to get my spend over £30 so as to get a free £5 voucher and I'm pleased to confirm earlier reports that this year it's a different story altogether.

    The minifig is made in LEGO's own factories from high-quality materials. The snake head 'hat' piece comes in a polybag, indicating Chinese origin, but as with most other heads and hats that come packed like this, there's nothing at all wrong with it, perhaps because it's not made from ABS (as far as I can tell).

    Last year's spinner piece was pretty poor, too. I only have one but its base is all scratched up and the metal weight is visible through the transparent top cover. This year's have been redesigned completely and are much higher quality.

    On the way to the till in Argos, I noticed they had the three booster packs so I grabbed a Kendo Cole (9551) as well, purely for research purposes of course, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it, too, has a non-Chinese minifig in it.

    So, it's not all bad news about LEGO quality: the company IS improving it in some areas. As a result, I suspect I'll be buying more of this year's Ninjago: the weird snake-things are growing on me :-)


    28 comments, latest one posted 16 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 22 Jan 2012 09:44

It's flat, but with a 2x2 round centre protrusion on which to fit the 2x2 'boat stud'

Posted by Seagull in United States, 22 Jan 2012 10:06

I hope they do this with the collectable minifigures as well- though I doubt it.

Thanks for the report! :-)

Posted by guildfordmatt in United Kingdom, 22 Jan 2012 11:02

The figure and accessories in 5000030 (Kendo Jay Booster Pack) feel very poor quality to me, so maybe the quality varies in each case. It was a shop@home freebie though!

Posted by UtarEmpire in United States, 22 Jan 2012 11:27

Again with the "made in China" hysteria. It's like I went back thirty years in time.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 22 Jan 2012 11:34

^^ You are right, the figure in that set is a Chinese one. I didn't mention it in the article because I wanted to set a positive tone.

Posted by Ypres in Canada, 22 Jan 2012 11:36

No way!?! It's hard to express how happy I am to hear of this... maybe the feeling of "I just potentially saved a lot of money" is familiar to a bunch of others on this site.

Now I can simply buy the spinners and boosterpacks for the figures I want. Of course this may still cost a decent amount, so I'll still ration myself and wait for a sale. There were some snake sets I really didn't like but would've eventually caved on to complete my Ninja collection.

Thanks for the news!!!

Posted by eggsfooyoung in Canada, 22 Jan 2012 14:36

I can confirm that this is NOT true. I got all three booster packs a few weeks back from the Lego Store at Concord Mills, and they are Chinese plastic. Maybe it's the difference in region, I dunno, but at least mine was not regular quality plastic.

Posted by Rolyat24 in United States, 22 Jan 2012 14:52

The weird snake things are starting to grow on me too. Weird is spelled with an e before the i. Isn't that weird?

Posted by Firox 5000 in United Kingdom, 22 Jan 2012 15:00

The spinners in whole I think are growing on me. Should I buy the old Ninjago spinners (currently on discount) or just buy the new snake spinners.

Posted by giraffefreckles in United States, 22 Jan 2012 15:01

Well, at least I now know the old spinners aren't worth getting. (Thanks.) S@H is showing significant discounts on basic skeleton spinner sets. I'll pass on those and look to these instead.

Posted by Uno Brick in United States, 22 Jan 2012 15:46

@eggsfooyoung: This might be possible with this new spinner line. I've seen, for example, the Zane DX spinner, within the same store, have both qualities. One had the torso on which the neck had a black rectangle (indicates standard quality) while another did not.

It's nice to see them take this step. Perhaps eventually in the future we'll see the magnet packs, keychains, CMF etc. revert back to the standard quality.

Posted by yys4u in United States, 22 Jan 2012 16:05

Hmm well this is nice to hear. I bought one spinner and regretted it instantly. Paying 10 bucks for a single Chinese figure didn't make any sense to me. But if regular quality now that'd be nice. I've passed on the booster packs cause I assumed they were Chinese too. I'll wait on further confirmation though.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 22 Jan 2012 16:49

Well I guess regional variation is possible but I think it unlikely. My Kendo Cole from the booster pack is identical to the one in the Fangpyre Mech and definitely has paint on its neck and (c) LEGO under the feet.

Posted by Bobszaar in United States, 22 Jan 2012 17:17

Interesting. I'm not getting any of these, but that's very interesting...

P.S. - What does ABS stand for exactly?

Posted by chrismajor2124 in United States, 22 Jan 2012 17:32

These sets are epic. My bro and I went NUTS each time a flimsy made-in-China skeleton arm broke. Now, these awesome sets are perfect ABS. Thumbs up to new Ninjago!

Posted by Elli in Australia, 22 Jan 2012 17:39

@Bobszaar - (ABS) Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene; Since 1963, LEGO pieces have been manufactured from ABS, A strong exclusive plastic for LEGO, sourced from Italy, Netherlands and Germany. It is more durable, stronger, colour fast and molds better.

Posted by bandana-joe in Singapore, 23 Jan 2012 03:26

COOL. I'll be picking one up over the week. Maybe Lasha or Cole V.S. The snake thing. It seems worth it, thanks for the review! Oh, one more thing. The snake 'Headpiece' is made our of rubber. :O

Posted by Zordboy in Australia, 23 Jan 2012 03:57

I found the booster packs a couple of days ago, and I immediately grabbed the Kendo Cole one. For the weapons -- Kendo Cole comes with two of the new sai weapons. Plus you get a new minifig and another couple of weapons.

I only found two, though. I can't wait until Lloyd's booster pack comes out.

Posted by Corellian Engineering in Belgium, 23 Jan 2012 04:22

^UtarEmpire... like you say: it seems to become a hysteria, a blind witch-hunt.

Personally I am not a fan of outsourcing production to China or whatever cheap labour country. I have seen the effects ir has on local employment numbers in the company I work for. But it seems that some people are exagerating here when it comes to this quality problems..

I dont deny that there are quality problems sometimes. For me the most noticeable and annoying are the bad printings. Luckily I didnt have broken or missing pieces yet, but I fail to see the quality problems only related to chinese production.

In fact, and I am playing devils advocate here, I just was confronted with a "reverse" quality problem this weekend.
Last week I picked up the new 9493 Xwing and build it yesterday. I am pleased with the model, but very disapointed with the minifigures. Especially the torse of both pilots. The printing of their white vest over the orange background is so bad, so thin, that the orange just shines trough... making the white, or light gray?, vest look almost pink.
However, the torso has all the signs that the experts here use to identify it as a non-china part...
On the other hand, I had a couple of 8083 snow rebel trooper battle packs bought in a sale some weeks ago.
And while I read once that those battle packs are mainly from chinese origine, the printing on those torsos is a lot better.
So I changed the torsos from my new, expensive, minifigures for the torsos from the spare Zev Senescas I had, and those "hybrids" do look a lot better now..

Posted by BJMdotLEGO in United Kingdom, 23 Jan 2012 04:25

@Rolyat24 You might want to watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duqlZXiIZqA

Posted by Elli in Australia, 23 Jan 2012 07:22

I went to the Shop today and had a look at some LEGO set's and there's actually a lot that don't have China on the packaging at all! :O
For instance. LEGO 7641 City Corner said: Component's made in DENMARK, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, MEXICO and the
CZECH REPUBLIC. And LEGO 8404 Public Transport said: Component's made in DENMARK, HUNGARY and the CZECH REPUBLIC. And many of the city set's said DENMARK, HUNGARY, MEXICO and the CZECH REPUBLIC.

Posted by kurttkrueger in United Kingdom, 23 Jan 2012 09:41

I noticed this as well Huw.

I skipped Ninjago last year, but now my son has just turned 5, I picked up the new starter set and a couple of spinners.

We were pleasantly suprised to see the high quality pieces! The exception to this is the free Kendo Jay booster available free from Lego.com with a spend of over £55. Those are still Chinese parts.

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 23 Jan 2012 15:47

^^ Most LEGO sets don't have Chinese components. It's usually only specialty pieces, like the Alien Conquest Alien heads, and CMs/Keychains etc.

Posted by Elli in Australia, 23 Jan 2012 18:50

@Huw - Absolutely correct :)

Posted by Bobszaar in United States, 23 Jan 2012 20:05

Thank you, @Elli! I remember reading on article on it a few months ago. Definitely high-quality stuff.

Posted by Elli in Australia, 24 Jan 2012 01:05

^That's okay Bobszaar!, Always happy to help. :)

Posted by yys4u in United States, 24 Jan 2012 15:40

Picked up a booster pack. No where on the back did it say made in china, and the figure turned out to be good quality. Very happy camper!

Posted by DXninja9000 in United States, 28 Jan 2012 20:47

This is awesome! Finally, spinners with decent parts! :D I'm gonna get NRG-Jay in June. :D

~:DX ninja

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