LEGO Ninjago Garma Mecha Man: Unboxing and build part 1

LEGO Ninjago has been a big hit at the Clements household since my oldest son discovered the series “Masters of Spinjitsu” in 2015.  Ever since, he and his younger brother have abused our furniture jumping and spinning yelling “Ninjaaaaaa Go!” at every opportunity.  No surprise, we’ll be heading out to see the new LEGO Ninjago movie at the earliest possible moment.  In the real world, LEGO has released a number of new sets themed with the new film, including the one we’re unboxing and beginning to assemble in today’s article: Set 70613 Garma Mecha Man.

I am impressed by the size of the figure.  It’s not the largest in the series by any means, but the box wowed my seven-year old.  At an intimidating 757 pieces in six separate bags, he was a bit daunted going into the build.  We decided to go halfsies on the build, each taking a pair of pages in the bound book manual.  This sped things up and allowed him to get breaks in the two hours we set aside for construction.

Of course, my son went for Garmadon himself first, building the four-armed demon and then pretend sword fighting with his little brother while I took the first pages.  We worked through the body slowly but steadily, using some cool, non-standard bits to create the hip joints of the Mech.

If it’s been a while since you did a big LEGO build, as it has been for me, you may be surprised by the seamless combination of what used to be bits of Technic, Bionicle, and “standard” LEGO sets into modern LEGO design.  My last big builds were in the early days of Star Wars LEGO, including the original Millennium Falcon (set 4504 – released in 2004 with 985 pieces, as compared to the recently released Millennium Falcon Ultimate Collectors Edition set 10179 with an astonishing 7,541 pieces).  Seeing the addition of bricks with multiple building surfaces, cylinders, and movable joints is really cool for an old-timer like me.  The downside, of course, is when a grizzled old LEGO vet is working with a younger child.  My oldest is capable of understanding the builds and getting the pieces in the right spots, but he’s just not quite dexterous enough to get all the precision bits in place.

In about two hours, we made it through the first three bags, completing the Mech’s body, legs and feet.  We are looking forward to diving into the rest and will be posting Part 2 of our build next week.