9574 Lloyd ZX review

[unknown_user2596]

Product blurb from TRU:

Spin to victory against those slithery snakes with 4 battle cards and the LEGO Ninjago Lloyd ZX (9574)! Lloyd ZX is the legendary green ninja, destined to win the great battle between good and evil and bring peace once again to the land of Ninjago. But before he can fulfil his destiny, his fellow ninjas must help him master the art of Spinjitzu and defeat the evil Serpentine snake tribes! Use the 4 battle cards included to influence the outcome. Set includes Minifigure, gold spinner, green crown, LEGO bricks, golden weapon, 2 regular weapons, character card and 4 battle cards.

When we last saw him, Lloyd Garmadon was just a wee little kid bent on domination with the "help" of the Serpentine tribes. Yet here he is, donning the identity of the fabled Green Ninja and ready to take on said tribes. Will he succeed? Will his set form live up to the ridiculously massive hype that built up around him? Let's find out!Well we're at wave four of the spinner series and this time around the Venomari snakes are the stars of the show (or rather, packaging). Both the Spitta snake (which has Lizaru eye markings for some odd reason) and the Acidius snake seem to be really placid here; all the other snakes from the past three waves seem to be angry or something. They're even dripping venom!Anyways, the other main star of the set here is Lloyd ZX and boy does his packaging scheme (or whatever you like to call it) look gorgeous. The swirls around his spinner and minifig picture fits him quite well, better than the prototype packaging did. His card art, as you can see here also looks great, as well as his emblem. He even gets a gold crown border too! No wonder NRG Cole got stuck with a silver one.Other than that, pretty much if you're collecting these spinner sets up to this point, you would already know what to expect.Standard set contents. The instruction pamphlets contain (most of) the same promo material from wave three, the only difference being that the Lloyd ZX + Lizaru combo spinner is advertised.His card set is very intriguing, featuring many high-powered cards (most of them Power cards). Roundhouse Kick is far easier to preform than Spin Circle, which is another plus. Unique Power is essentially a permanent Elemental Strength/Force with higher SP costs. Crown cards like Premonition can help as well, and Opposition is all around the best card in the entire game. Because of this, there has been an sudden increase of cards specifically designed to hinder said card. All around, a great set.Lloyd's spinner is very interesting; it stands out from the other spinners from this wave and the previous wave, being the only spinner to have a non-transparent solid color. His spinner and crown also feature elemental patterns that are straight from the NRG ninja (the crown not so much), because Lloyd here can now wield all four elements. Speaking of which, his crown is absolutely gorgeous. Again, the four elements are depicted on their own quadrant, but added with the trans-dark green....let's just say this crown beats all the other crowns out of the water. Aerial ViewThen again, I'm a fan of transparent colors. I don't understand why Lloyd's headdress has silver on it while his shoulder armor is pearl dark grey (gunmetal). Personally, it would have been nice if the silver were in said gunmetal color, just for the sake of consistency. Otherwise, he looks great; the printing decal looks superb, sharing subtle similarities from the other ZX ninja while still being unique. And the green looks great on him. His serpent emblem is featured on the back as well.Lloyd uses the same head from his previous child incarnation, so he still features his frightened alter-ego. His growth spurt went wrong or something. What's weird is that my copy uses the old head mold with the 'tri-hole' on the stud area; my other two Lloyds have the newer sealed stud variety.Lloyd's weapons of choice on the other hand are not so great. Other than his signature weapon (apparently it's called a Super Bolt), he comes with the standard-issue silver katana and a long wooden stick. I guess Ninjago these days has a everlasting supply of these types of weapons. But since they work wonderfully well as in-game weapons, I guess that's a good thing!He also includes the 2-brick (in trans-dark green!)-1 plate wall that all spinners have. I say wall because it makes a terrible terrible card holder. Don't believe me? Try it yourself.The standard spinning configuration shown above won't work as well in the Spinjitzu game, as not only it won't provide much whacking range but also severely hinder its spinning longevity. It can be fixed by positioning the weapon lower though. There's also this configuration but in reality it makes spinning far worse. With those whips Lloyd can't spin at all.I won't talk much about the Spinjitzu game since most of you familiar with Ninjago would probably know how to play the game. I'll just say while not exactly innovative, the Spinjitzu game seems to be very fun to toy with. The cards also add an degree of madness and overall appeal to the game as well. After all, who doesn't get the urge to just spin a spinner when one is lying around?So what to say about this particular spinner set as a whole? I'd say Lloyd ZX is the best spinner set around. There's nothing bad about him (and his spinner) I can say about. Well maybe he could have benefited from a better weapon selection but otherwise he is the spinner set to get.* He may be expensive, but after all, $9.99 is a much affordable price point for those unable or unwilling (who isn't?) to get 9450 Epic Dragon Battle. Highly recommended.*: If you're really lucky enough to see him in stores, that is. Edited August 25, 2012 by unknown_user2596

[Meiko]

Very nice review. I absolutely love this set, and since my brother Lyichir insists that he gets the Epic Dragon Battle, this set is on my list so I get myself a Lloyd ZX minifig. Your pictures in this review are phenomenal as well. If you want, I can post this on The Ninjago Wiki as well, as I am getting ready to post Wheeljack's review of the Lizaru booster pack.

[unknown_user2596]

Yeah, you 're free to post the review on there as well. Since this review is a super-condensed version, you can convert the links into images and add a couple more pics onto the review as well:The packaging backSpinner + crownI'll try to get an NRG Zane review up this weekend as well.

[FrozenFlash]

Thanks for the review. I'm planning on getting him sometime soon, if I can find him that is. Also, you might want to add those additional 2 pictures to the review.