I really like Ninjago Minifigures and accessories. However, I don’t collect the theme. I never got into the show. While I have enjoyed the occasional set, I am uninterested in most of them. It seems like a waste to buy a set I don’t want just to get a Minifigure. Consequently, I have let many sets slip through my fingers resulting in regret over some Minifigures. Recently, I was perusing AliExpress for something else when I came across an offer for 24 characters obviously ripped off from the LEGO® Group. Among them were a few I wish I had as genuine Minifigures. So, I ordered the AliExpress Ninjago-style figurines. They were cheap, and at worst I figured I would get a blog post out of them. The worst came to pass.

Who was I hoping to get, you ask? My top priority was Akita. I also wanted the Ice Emperor and his Blizzard Samurai. All were originally available in the Castle of the Forsaken Emperor (70678) set. I never found a good enough deal to make me purchase the set just to get the Minifigures. It slipped into retirement and now Akita averages $110 CAD new or $89 CAD used on Bricklink… prices I would never pay for one Minifigure. The 24 AliExpress characters also include Harumi with the face paint I am currently using on my Viking Shield Maiden army.

I wanted to see if I could get passable substitutes for retired Minifigures.

I paid $14.84 CAD for this collection and got free shipping. That means each figurine in this pack cost $0.62 CAD. I got what I paid for… A steaming pile of crap. I occasionally review products that blatantly copy LEGO® to see if the market has progressed at all over the years. I have to say that this offering was a regression. These were by far the worst knockoffs I have ever seen.

To begin with, they are not LEGO® compatible. I was able to stand them up on LEGO® bricks, but they did not connect properly when sitting down. On top of that, the interior connectors for the torso and legs do not match genuine Minifigures. Consequently, the elements are not interchangeable with LEGO® parts. I tried, and they don’t hold at all. Even the fake parts don’t hold well together. If you try to pull the characters off of a brick, the torso separates. If you use a little too much force placing an accessory, the arm pops off. I could go on and on.

Cheap figurines plagued with issues.

Despite changing the connectors inside the figurines, whoever made these AliExpress Ninjago-style figurines did not change the cloth accessories to match. I tried to attach a skirt to one of the Nya characters and it ripped. The circular holes were too small for the squared connectors. Speaking of connectors, each figurine also included multiple hands. I found a large number of hands could not connects to the arms… I can only assume the makers of these toys included several hands knowing many wouldn’t work.

Then we have the heads… the prints on nine out of 24 were so botched I would never use them. I had hoped I could at least salvage some of the heads, particularly Harumi’s, for my projects. No such luck. The hole to connect the head to the torso is too large for a genuine Minifigure, so it won’t stay on. Some of the hairpieces and helmets are the same deal. Oddly enough, a handful of hair elements do actually work on LEGO®, including Akita’s.

I won’t even waste time going over all the issues, there are so many!

I could go on and on about everything that is wrong with these characters. This was $15 down the drain. There is almost nothing I can salvage from this purchase. The plastic quality is so poor I would not even use the accessories. I got one torn looking cape I can reuse, and maybe the snake heads. They are compatible with LEGO® Minifigures and look decent too.

It feels almost silly to talk about things I like about these. Without LEGO® compatibility, this is a pile of garbage. But, the torso and leg prints are actually good in most cases. Of all these figurines, I only have the genuine version of Harumi. The colours are different from the LEGO® version, but I would not really care about that if I could make custom characters with the parts… but I can’t…

To make a long story short, don’t waste your money. It is not worth even $15 to get less than a handful of reusable parts and a whole bunch of sloppy characters that are not even compatible with LEGO® Minifigures. The funny part is I actually got these on sale… they usually cost more. If you are curious about these AliExpress Ninjago-style figurines like I was, I’ll be happy if my $15 wasted deters you from wasting your own. These are not Minifigures.

Until next time,

-Tom

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