High-Tech Knights Are LEGO's Best New Idea In Ages

By Alex Chen | January 01, 0001

Transforming robot horses. Cybernetic demons. A king piloting a mech. LEGO’s Nexo Knights line has launched, and it’s the best. Announced back in October of last year, LEGO’s new Nexo Knights line officially joined the animalistic warriors of Chima and the spinning ninjas of Ninjago on store shelves on January first. Slated to be one of the brick company’s tent-pole properties, the futuristic knights will be battling the minions of a dark magic-infused court jester everywhere this year, from lunch boxes to t-shirts to television screens. But first LEGO needs to build a strong foundation, and they’ve got just the bricks to do it. January first was a massive release day for LEGO., with the $350 Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ, a bunch of smaller sets based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a new wave of Bionicle and a bunch of LEGO Friends releases. But that’s not why I was at my local LEGO Store yesterday. I was there because the day before I picked up eight Nexo Knights sets from Toys’R’Us, and I needed more.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1750706928","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"reviews","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"reviews","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); A total of seventeen different sets make up the launch lineup for Nexo Knights. Those include two sets we saw when the line was announced—Jestro’s mobile base and the knights’ rolling Fortrex. I stayed away from those two pricier sets, as I wanted to get a feel for the franchise first. Thankfully LEGO provided a perfect way to do this with a set of six “Ultimate” figures. Each $9.99 package includes a knight or enemy and a stand to hold various weapons and power-infused Nexo shields. Here’s Ultimate Macy, the female knight. She comes with her massive mace, a flaming axe and some whipping vines. The idea is that the weapons and shields on the stands can be swapped out, giving her several different configurations. The shields are a big part of the Nexo Knights branding. Each one can be scanned into the Nexo Knights mobile game, granting its powers to the player. It’s a simple beat-em up, but scanning things is always fun. Ultimate Aaron comes with an assortment of shooty weaponry, including bananas. I’m guessing he’s the goofy one of the bunch. Ultimate Clay has whirling sword arms sprouting from his back. Also a shield and random flames, but whirling sword arms. I really don’t need an adjective for those. They speak for themselves. Ultimate Robin is tiny, but he has missile launchers on his back, so I wouldn’t mention that to his face. He also has chicken, so u31.com เข้าสู่ระบบ

he’s the Leeroy Jenkins of the team. Ultimate Beast Master is a bad guy, who does not come with Ultimate Tanya Roberts so he doesn’t matter. Ultimate Lavaria, on the other robotic spider leg, matters a great deal. If she weren’t so obviously a villain, she’d be my hero. I picked up the $40 Rumble Blade but haven’t put it together yet. I am saving it for last, because it’s a vehicle that splits into several other vehicles, one of which is a giant flying sword. I have to build to that level of greatness. Instead, I put together the $20 Lance’s Mecha Horse set. It’s a mechanical horse, ridden by Lance. It’s a theme in the Nexo Knights. A couple of sets come with much smaller mechanical horses. But you know how knights named Lance roll. They roll in giant mecha horses that have transformed into vehicle form. Note the robotic sidekick. So I bought all of those sets at Toys’R’Us the day before the official launch. Then I hit up the LEGO Store at North Point Mall in Georgia and picked up two more. One of these was the $25 Infernox Captures The Queen set. It came with the smaller hover horse above, as well as this fellow here. He’s big, he’s mean, and what’s that inside his mouth? Why hello, Queen Halbert. Nice birthmark. You’re looking quite fetching, and not even a bit digested. Good, good—we wouldn’t want to anger the king. Not when he’s piloting a mech. Not to mention rocking a killer beard. King Halbert comes in the $30 The King’s Mech set, which so far is my favorite piece. Why does he even need knights? He’s got a massive robot with a giant sword. One of its hands is a ship u31.com เข้าสู่ระบบ piloted by a smaller robot. And on top of all of that, he doesn’t even need to be inside the u31 ทางเข้า machine for it to work. The set

even came with an extra beard to the minion trying to take him out with a ballista can get in on the act. The Nexo Knight line is off to an amazing start, and my wallet certainly u31 เข้าสู่ระบบ feels it. I’ll have the rest of the launch sets by the end

of January, and I’ll be counting the days til more arrive after that. Where do they even go from here? I’m placing my bets on massive biomechanical LEGO dragon. Contact the author by leaving by leaving a pile of LEGO bricks outside of your window and waiting for him to magically appear, at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @bunnyspatial

High-Tech Knights Are LEGO's Best New Idea In Ages

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