LEGO® Arcade Pods: Aron Gerencser's Robot Lovers and Hermit Crab

Continuing our examination of the cruellest seed part ever, today's builder grappling with the arcade pod from LEGO® Ninjago is Aron Gerencser (Pohaturon on Flickr). He's a professional journalist from Hungary who joins the New E team as contributor and subeditor, so make him welcome!

They say couples who play together, stay together - and I guess if that applies to both LEGO® and video games, the buff stacks!

LEGO® Arcade Pods: Mansur Soeleman's Tank & Terribilis

Today, Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman (instagram.com/lamborghiniwafflesauce) reveals his LEGO® creations using the two specialised parts that comprise the 'Arcade Pod' from Ninjago. Back in April, Victor Pruvost analysed these new parts and created his own models, and we sent some to other builders to see what they could come up with. Some products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this. Let's see how Mansur got on!

It would be an understatement to say that building something with the main element from 71715 Jay Avatar Arcade Pod was a challenge. It is a large, clumsy LEGO® part with strange shapes and bits sticking out. The angles on the front were not the issue; it was the clips and plate on the sides that got in the way of using this part in the ways I wanted to.

LEGO® NINJAGO™ Review: 71710 Ninja Tuner Car

Back in January, a new wave of LEGO® NINJAGO™ sets was released including today's focus: 71710 Ninja Tuner Car.  The sets tie-in with Season 12 of the Ninjago television series where an old game called Prime Empire is unearthed, resulting in havoc.  No wonder the sets have a definite cyberpunk video game vibe.



Ninja Tuner Car has 419 elements, including four minifigures and is priced at £34.99 / $39.99 / 39.99€. This set caught our eye thanks to its retro colour scheme, like a ski jacket from the 1980s! And of course we were drawn to the new elements underneath that hyper-cool exterior.

Articles about specialised LEGO® parts

Recently we published a great article by Victor Pruvost examining the highly specialised new LEGO® piece, the 'arcade pod'. However, many of you were soon frustrated as Google had some dumb bug resulting in all the images disappearing. I've now replaced them all, so check it out if you missed it:

READ: LEGO NINJAGO Arcade Pods: Victor Pruvost creates a Rover and Computer

Maybe you did see it already? So here's another couple of suggestions from the archives of New Elementary...

LEGO® NINJAGO™ Arcade Pods: Victor Pruvost's Computer and Rover

2020 seems to be a bit of a year for LEGO® pods. The Friends, Ninjago and Trolls lines all feature large two-piece containers that you might struggle to think of uses for. Today, Victor Pruvost examines the second of these: the LEGO NINJAGO Arcade Pods which come in sets 71714 Kai Avatar, 71715 Jay Avatar and 71716 Lloyd Avatar.

Breaking away from the usual spinners, flyers and other Spinjitzu-related entry-level sets, LEGO® released three Arcade Pods as part of the latest Ninjago wave, which is inspired by video games. Like the new Friends Play Cubes, these Arcade Pods are built around two specialized new parts, which we’re examining today.

Those two elements are:

• Arcade Front (Design ID 65067), which comes in the three classic colours Bright Red/ Red (Element ID 6287556), Bright Blue/ Blue (6287557), and Dark Green/ Green (6287559). It is called Design Element, Front, 6X6X7 by TLG/Brickset, Minifigure, Utensil Arcade Game Cabinet Body by BrickLink and Pod, Arcade Machine by Rebrickable.
• Arcade Back (Design ID 65068), which is only available in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (Element ID 6287562). It is called Design Element, Back, 6X8X1, W/3.2 Shaft by TLG/Brickset, Minifigure, Utensil Arcade Game Cabinet Back by BrickLink and Plate Special 6 x 8 x 1 with Bar, Door by Rebrickable.

Interestingly enough, Element IDs 6287558, 6287560 and 6287561 aren’t assigned, so I wonder if there could be more Arcade Pods in the future for the other Ninjas, with different colours.

LEGO® NINJAGO turntables

Sven Franic examines the unusual and interesting new turntable pieces that come in new LEGO® Ninjago sets like 70670 Monastery of Spinjitzu.

We don't often get younger age group LEGO playsets to pick apart here at New Elementary, which makes it easy to overlook some cool new parts. Ninjago model designers have really stepped up their game in interactive play functions, and I want to see if we can bastardize some of the novelties that come in LEGO Ninjago 70670 Monastery of Spinjitzu.

One of the recent features of several Ninjago sets are the hand-held minifigure turntables. Presumably to promote interactive and social play, the resourceful designers came up with a brick-built contraption allowing players to rotate a minifigure character and fight an opponent by mimicking some impressive ninja moves.