9573 Slithraa review

[unknown_user2596]

Spin your way to victory against the Spinjitzu masters! With his hypnotizing stare and mesmerizing golden weapon, Slithraa is about to catch the eye of his opponents, the ninja warriors! Use the 4 battle cards included to influence the outcome. Set includes minifigure, blue transparent spinner, blue crown, LEGO bricks, golden weapon and 2 regular weapons, character card and 4 battle cards.

• Includes Slithraa minifigure
• Features blue transparent spinner, blue crown, LEGO bricks, golden weapon and 2 regular weapons, character card and 4 battle cards
• Battle with your friends!
• Spin Slithraa on the blue transparent spinner!
• Collect all of the LEGO Ninjago spinners and characters for endless Spinjitzu fun!

Slithraa comes in blister packaging like the rest of his brethen--literally, there's nothing groundbreaking to talk about. Some may even wonder why people buy him. I guess it's because his other appearance is in some ninja boat set and not everyone has $80 within pocket's reach to spend on.Again, this wave's spinner sets feature Venomari snakes in a green/black backdrop. I already talked about them in my other review so I don't need to explain it again here.At least the blue bits the set spinner set has makes it stand out more, unlike certain others (*cough* Lloyd ZX *cough*).But yeah, that's the downside of having 13 single-character spinner sets within the span of 4 waves. For me, it gets redundant having to buy these for the contents (especially the cards). Not to mention that the packaging takes up room when stored. (It can be stacked haphazardly, but still) I wish the packaging would be different somehow...wistful thinking, but hey, I can dream, can I?But I guess what makes this stand out is that he is the only standalone Hypnobrai spinner set, so there's that.The contents are pretty much the same as with any other spinner set (and you'll probably know what they are), so I'll just start by talking about the spinner itself.Slithraa's spinner uses trans-light blue, which fits his ice-type. The color is the only one that is reused twice in one wave; NRG Zane's spinner also uses this color. The only difference is that Zane's spinner has a light-metallic bottom and uses solid ice patterns (to create said "solid ice" look) while this spinner here has a dark gunmetal gray bottom and uses a hypno-snowflake pattern.Speaking of which, I love the spinner pattern used here. It utilizes the hypno-pattern that appears on Slithraa's hood (namely the left one (your right)) and uses eight of them to create a snowflake. It's really clever and looks very neat; it beats all the other spinner patterns the other Serpentine use. Fangdam's spinner pattern looks too bland and I have no idea what does Spitta's pattern resemble. Here's a closeup.His crown is also good as well; it looks generic enough to be utilized on NRG Jay's spinner (to make a pure trans-blue spinner) and I like that new spinner mold used here as well; I think that the newer snake crown in wave 3 won't look as good here, but that's just me.Then again, I like anything with transparent colors.His card set is diverse. I know the official website has these card pics at higher resolution but keep in mind those are international versions (because of the italiced/additional text), while the scanned ones here are the North American versions, which are getting harder to come across online. Anyways, Even the Odds pic is amusing and Wrong turn can be useful. Everything else is average.Slithraa is no different from his appearance from 9446 Destiny's Bounty. Like what I said before, this is a far cheaper way to buy this for the minifigure for those who don't have an additional $70 lying around. He also comes as a $5 keychain but apparently kids these days like to make new snakes, so I guess that isn't a feasible option,His snake hood looks very flat when viewed from the front (as shown above), but it is saved by the small "slope" on the back of the head when viewed from the side. I think the neck part is making it look like so; it's far too blocky and stands out considerably from a snake head that is dominated by lots of curves.The snake prints are not the most intricate but the yellow makes it stand out, and it looks good. I like how the whole thing acts as one stripe, which starts from his head and extends down to his legs.His weapons of choice include a golden snake staff (a distinction shared by no other), a sai on a chain stick and a trans-blue snake. The snake staff is a odd choice for a golden weapon; show-wise it makes half sense and having a staff as a weapon seems good on paper. However, the staff pretty much prevents spinning completely; Slithraa cannot hold the staff so the snake head dangles outward, as it makes the spinner spin too outward and just spin in place. Holding it inward won't help; the same thing happens as well.The same goes with the snake (but can be held inward). The chain weapon is the only one that Slithraa can use safely, however it is not as effective.Apparently he uses a tan brick set. I'm not sure why they couldn't use other colors.And I guess I have to mention the obligatory Spinjitzu game here. All I'm going to say is that it is best if multiple spinner sets and booster packs (I'm talking about 2 or more each) are used to maximize the playing outcome. The game is still fun though.Overall, Slithraa has lots of cool stuff (especially the spinner) but as a whole it seems very boring--it's no different from other standalone spinner sets. This isn't helped by the $10 price tag--while justifiable it makes buying spinners for the game quite costly, and finding sales on them are very rare. And on top of that, most spinners sell out within 1-1/5 months, and demand makes it worse. I'd say buy him if you want the bits and minifig and beat the demand, but otherwise waiting a bit longer probably won't hurt.

[Meiko]

Oh... I never saw this topic. Well very nice review. Excellent photos too. I have a Slithraa spinner, and I love it. It's probably my favorite late-2012 spinner set. Anyways, I liked the review! Keep them coming.