Ninjago City was a big (literally) surprise last year, being the largest Ninjago set by far and introducing both a ton of new parts and several new techniques. While it fit nominally beside the modular buildings series, it was very much its own beast. Now, Ninjago City Docks extends the idea into a waterfront area, with much less height and a slightly older feel but the same ridiculous amount of detail as its bigger brother.

Being a harbour, roughly a third of the two baseplates are covered with watery tiles, giving you a jetty with a canal behind it, as well as a watery cave. On the back of the structures, the narrow strip of water from Ninjago City continues. These steps are repetitive, but provide an excellent look since this set also utilizes plates below the surface to give a suggestion of depth. After setting up the jetty and the foundations in six bags, the actual construction can begin.

Starting from the left, we have a captain’s house, with plenty of neat nautical details including stickered maps and a globe. A sliding screen door connects to the passage outside which leads down to the cavern, where a boat can be conveniently moored. Through the house and up a ladder you arrive at a small shop which has what looks like a wall of tea herbs and newspapers. On top of the tea drawers are flasks which are held into their shelves by a ridiculously clever use of the new Asian style fence.

The middle building has a vegetable shop combined with a rotisserie. There are functions here to tip all the vegetable displays (presumably in a fight) and rotate the turkey, but the activation for that is hard to reach inside an alley. The back is worthy of a mention too – the walls use flags for a nice staggered effect. On top is a small apartment, which similarly to Lloyd’s home in the Ninjago City set has a small kitchen and a really clever bunk bed. Also notable is the big round window made from a wheel that fits neatly into the arched parts. I also love how they used the Joker’s hair for hanging flower pots.

Finally, the righthand building has an entrance from the back, where a stone carver has her shop. Besides a few display items there is very little to see here though. Up the first stairs is Dareth’s dojo (he indeed comes with the set). Without knowing the story, he comes across as somewhat of a fraud with silly pictures, trophies and lots and lots of gold. This floor is also notable for having walls built partly sideways. The loosely placed ring of parts then locks securely in a really clever way. Finally there is an arcade, which houses two arcade games (adding to a growing number of Lego arcade cabinets) and a amazing soda can dispenser. Like the ATM in Ninjago City, this really works! Three cans of soda are stacked inside and by pushing a money tile into the machine, a can drops out.

While building, Ninjago City Docks introduces a couple of parts new for 2018, like the 2×2 diagonal tiles and a couple of the super useful 1×1 up and down brackets. It’s not super exciting stuff though and the set isn’t really a strong parts pack, mostly because there is such a wealth of different parts.

There are plenty of neat techniques throughout, but particular mention has to go to the roofs! There are seven different roof sections and all of them employ different techniques, almost as if the designers were issuing a challenge. There aren’t even any repats from Ninjago City, so combined these two will provide a huge lesson in roofbuilding. First off, the left building has a center of traditional slope pieces but flared sections on the outside. The center building uses rows of flags and signs to make the sides, with arching ends to the roof. On the side is a flat but tiled sloping plate. The small roof sections over the shops are even crazier: to the left it is built using shovels which looks exactly like clay roof tiles, and to the right is a line of bar holders. Finally, the right building has a small strip of garage door roofing (which feels generic by now) but the top literally tops all else: it’s built partly upside down just to hold the clips which in turn hold six snowplows which make the actual roof! And as if to underline the craziness of it all, a rounded pig balloon floats over it.

So overall, Ninjago City Docks is an excellent build which when finished makes for a little village all on its own. It doesn’t really have a camera unfriendly side except to the right. This is because the set is meant to connect to Ninjago City, which is does very smoothly. And suddenly the entire thing looks complete! The walkways which ended in nothing now connect to either side of this, and then connect to the ground level by stairs. The ad banners which line the walkway continue down here no matter which way you connect it. Some details like the red lanterns or the giant holo ad displays and air conditioning units and solar panels continue across this set, which ties them together further. There is only one weird issue. The waterways were mostly in the back corner of Ninjago City, and those are the front of this set. Since that set is a outer corner, you need to connect this to the opposite side. So either you display this from the front with the back of Ninjago City, or you display either front of Ninjago City with the backside of this. Luckily that part has a ton of detail to it too, but you miss out on the docks themselves.

Once connected, it’s obvious that these two sets are part of one whole. With just two sets you literally get a sprawling city and you can walk your figures around it all kind of ways. It’s also intended to tie the sets together with the Destiny’s Bounty, but I feel that it doesn’t really work out. The buildings are compressed to tiny spaces while the ship is almost actual minifigure scale, which makes it dwarf the other sets. I feel this harbour will work better with a mid-size boat like the Elves ship or, indeed, a yellow submarine.

There’s no escaping the fact that the prize for this entire thing is pretty steep. At almost €600 combined for the buildings (€250 for just this), you expect a lot. Luckily, you get a lot too. This feels really fun and is quite sturdy and not as hard to carry around as the Ninjago City. It’s also not an exclusive set so it will be quite possible to find it cheaper outside Lego’s own stores (I got around €40 off right off the bat). It’s probably worth it at full price. If you can get it lower, there’s not much to hesitate about. Ninjago City Docks is a great set.