Six years ago Zane’s Titan Mech was released in a LEGO set including another mech as part of the Ninjago season 5 “Possession” wave. Now the Legacy sub theme brings the Titan Mech back, and its bigger, better and it’s keeping all the bricks to itself.

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD ZANE’S TITAN MECH

By comparison to the original 2015 mech this Legacy version truly is a titan. That set had 754 parts to make up two mechs, 5 minifigs and a couple of small side builds. This new incarnation has 840 pieces and apart from the 4 minifigs all those parts go to the title build.

So yes, its a big old mech. It stands tall and looks appropriately cool but what really makes this mech stand out is… it’s knees.

Yes, glorious, sturdy, articulated knees. The knees are impressive in 2 main ways.

1. They exist. So many LEGO mechs, especially the larger ones, either don’t have knees or just have the suggestion of them, massively restricting movement. 
2. The build. I’m no LEGO master builder so I’m often impressed by clever little build or parts usage. The way these knee joints are put together is one of the most impressive mechanisms I’ve seen in a LEGO set. I can’t explain it but it’s an elegant use of the Technic steering arms with 3 ball joints.

But let’s not get weak at the knees over some leg articulation. Aside from knees, what else does this mech offer? 

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT

The head of the mech is nicely articulated and sits right above Zane’s pilot compartment. The arms ratchet at the elbows, have good shoulder movement and wrist swivels. Yet despite all this the arms still feel restricted. That’s mainly because you can’t bring them across the body very far which limits posing somewhat.

It has two spring loaded shooters mounted either side of the head, a large sword and rotating blade on its arms. 

The Mech packs a lot of detail that contributes to giving it a very polished look.

Zane sits comfortably inside a cockpit of sorts that I think may have looked better if the minifig was more concealed. As it is it can look like the mech has two heads.

The hands are also nicely articulated with two fingers and a thumb.

NINJAS & ROBOTS & GHOSTS, OH MY!

The set comes with 4 minifigures, 3 directly related to the set and a collectable golden legacy ninja. First up let’s look at Zane since his name is on the box.

I like Zane more than most of the standard Ninja minifigures you find in these sets. He is a little more interesting to me with his silver head, due to him being a “nindroid”.

Here his black and white colour scheme looks great and the use of white arms rather than black like in the original series really helps make the fig pop. (NOTE: I’m a Newcastle United fan so maybe black and white just appeals to me because of that) 

Zane comes with both his Ninja hood as well as his very 80’s hair piece. He wears a shoulder pad (also very 80’s) with accompanying sheath (less 80’s). The silver katana and black bow clip to the back of the mech to store them while Zane is piloting his Titan.

The foes for Zane to vanquish are two knee knocking-ly scary Ghost Warriors. First up is Ghoultar. This is the more deluxe of the two enemies. He gets shoulder armour, hat, face mask and a double sided flaming scythe.

Soul Archer is mainly the same figure but with different accessories.

I like these ghostly leg pieces a lot so I think the inclusion of these two enemies is good, though it would have been nice for them to have slightly different prints.

Last but not least its golden Legacy Jay.

I like these golden minifigs though this is my least favourite of them so far. I think the blue and gold just clash a little. But regardless of that it’s a well printed figure and the plinth and 10 year tile elevate it slightly.

Mountain Mist

When discussing the Titan Mech with some other Brickcentral community members who have this set, we all wanted some sort of mountain range shot of the mech. Ideally in a dramatic pose that will bring Zane’s enemies to their knees.

I took a bolt to the knee many times on this outdoor shoot. Those missile launchers are always desperate to fire and I kept triggering by mistake, but at least the bolts are easy to find compared to studs.

TITAN 2: JUDGEMENT DAY

My knee-jerk reaction when first seeing this set was “Oh, another LEGO Mech”, but that was unfair. Zane’s Titan Mech is a really impressive build, great fun and like most Ninjago sets these days, fantastic value for money.

I never thought the highlight of any set would be knees, but they sort of are here. It’s a shame there are some limitations in articulation elsewhere but that’s maybe a little harsh. The mech looks great and can be placed in some fantastic poses. 

One more figure would have been nice but I like the Ghosts a lot and the Zane figure looks great. The mech plays well and is impressively sturdy.

Overall it’s a great build, the colour scheme (white/sand blue/dark azure/gold) looks fantastic and gives it a unique style. I thoroughly enjoyed the Titan Mech, it really is the bees knees.

Final Score: 8/10

Zane’s Titan Mech is available now for $60/€60/£55. LEGO and Brickcentral generously provided me with one to shoot and review.