71812 Kai's Ninja Climber Mech

:Not to be confused with the actual mech.
71812 Kai's Ninja Climber Mech is a Ninjago: Dragons Rising - Season 2 set that was released in March 2024. It includes Kai and Jay in their Climber suits, Source Tournament Wyldfyre, Jordana, and the Climber Mech.
==LEGO.com description==
Boys and girls aged 9+ can recreate Shadow Forest battles from season 2 of NINJAGO® Dragons Rising with Kai’s Ninja Climber Mech (71812). The adventure set includes a spectacular mech figure in Kai’s red color with 2 big ninja hooks on the back for kids to play out climbing action (or to hang and display it after playtime), posable arms, legs, torso, head and feet, 2 big katana sword accessories and a cockpit for a minifigure.
The ninja toy includes 4 NINJAGO minifigures: Climber Kai and Climber Jay, each with a katana sword accessory, Wyldfyre with 2 flammable fists, and evil Jordana with a glider vehicle.
The rest of the LEGO® NINJAGO range of buildable ninja toys for kids includes dragons, vehicles and temples so fans can role-play adventures with their heroes (sets sold separately). Each action toy can be created with the LEGO Builder app, which guides you and your child on an easy and intuitive building adventure. Zoom in and rotate models in 3D, save sets and track your progress.
*Mech adventure set for kids – Boys and girls aged 9+ can play out battles in the Shadow Forest from season 2 of the NINJAGO® Dragons Rising TV show with Kai’s Ninja Climber Mech
*Posable mech figure – The ninja mech toy’s arms, legs, torso, headand feet are posable, and it comes with 2 big katana sword accessories and an opening cockpit with space for a minifigure
*2 ninja hooks for play and display – On the back of the mech are 2 large ninja hooks that kids can use to stage exciting climbing stories and then display it after playtime
*4 NINJAGO® minifigures – This ninja toy includes Climber Kai and Climber Jay, each with a katana sword accessory, Wyldfyre with 2 flammable fists, and Jordana with a glider vehicle
*Ninja gift – This LEGO® battle toy provides a fun build-and-play experience and is a birthday gift idea for boys and girls aged 9 and up who love ninja action
*A helping hand – Discover intuitive instructions in the LEGO® Builder app where builders can zoom in and rotate models in 3D, track their progress and save sets as they develop new skills
*Bigger ninja adventures – Look out for more NINJAGO® toys (sets sold separately) featuring dojos, shrines and vehicles
*Measurements – This 623-piece LEGO® building toy set includes a mech standing over 9 in. (23 cm) tallhttps://www.lego.com/en-us/product/kai-s-ninja-climber-mech-71812
==Designer notes==
"Set number 8 is an exciting one and probably the most technically challenging LEGO model I have ever worked on, and that includes my time back then as a fan! 
Ever since I joined the team, I have been obsessed with all the incredible large mechs that Ninjago has put out, especially the ones designed by Niek (toothdominoes). As people both in and out of the office say, no one designs an official LEGO mech quite like Niek, and I can't agree more. So I never really imagined a day that the big mech duty would land on my plate. As someone who has only previously worked on the EVO mech battle set (and 2 mech MOCs from years ago that I am still too ashamed to post this day haha), I was both excited and extremely nervous about it.
The concept of a climber mech that can be hung around was developed by the front end team very early on, and Niek actually did the first sketch model, which established the "skinny mech" direction, then our design manager Heiko made a second version that brought upon the "4-arm" concept, and when I took over, I tried to bring all that together and also add my personal spin on it. One particular stylistic choice was the hands on the extra arms, I really wanted to capture that peculiar way monkey hands look, as they were the animals I think of when it comes to "climbing".
I went into this thinking the biggest challenge was to find a way to secure the strings between the hook and the arm (which was still a major challenge that took months and dozens of trials to crack), but I did not think about the implications that by allowing the mech to hang, we also have to make sure the entire mech is strong enough if a kid decides to swing it around, or deploy the hook mid-air and drop the mech while holding onto the hook - or even the playing with the mech while it's hanging was very different than how they would play with a regular mech that stands on the desk. And when you think you can just secure everything as much as you want by locking over everything, I got hit by the reality of how much weight the LEGO string can actually hold - we actually had to weigh this model throughout the development!
This is also a reason why I had to keep the articulation optimal, as it gets more and more difficult for the kids to handle when we put in more joints (especially when this guy already have 2 more arms than the usual mechs and this became a bigger problem when it's hanging around)... but fear not! This mech is actually quite posable because for the first time in mechs of this scale, we managed to bring back the ankle joints! And also because of the optimization on weight for the hanging, the mech is light enough to easily balance on some crazy poses - running, standing on one foot, kicking... all the action poses you need! I'm also really happy that I figured out a way to build the extra arms so that they can fold all the way down as shown on back of the box.
I also ended up facing my second greatest fear in this product- the Technic system! This is probably the most Technic pieces I have ever used on a LEGO model, but at the same time, this is also probably the sturdiest thing I have ever built haha - as a lot of testings were involved during development, I can't even remember how many times I have dropped the mech from considerable height when the string snaps or by a slip of hand, and by the very end of the development, the latest version of the mech can actually sustain quite some fall and I'm pretty proud of that, especially for someone who was once known for making fragile MOCs hahaha.
Big thanks to Niek who gave me pointers on mech design every now and then, Renato who made some really awesome stickers and Brian who did a great job with the building instructions! Teamwork!"https://brickset.com/sets/designer-Chi-Wing-Lee
==Trivia==
*Climber Jay is exclusive to this set.
*The mech's detachable hook is capable of handling its entire weight. The build was built around this concept; as such, articulation had to be limited and optimized in order to handle rough play.https://www.instagram.com/p/C33cD_oLlJu/ The hook is also intended to be usable as a zipline for the Dragon Hooks.https://www.instagram.com/p/C38d7bGL6y1/
*The mech's design and hooks are inspired by a former Lego theme, Bionicle.
*The initial set design was sketched by Niek van Slagmaat; the original design had hooks that unfolded from its forearms.https://x.com/Toothdominoes/status/1753485477305618918 
*Set designer Chi Wing Lee built multiple head designs, with the final one intended to match that of Jay and Zane's former Titan Mechs.https://x.com/Toothdominoes/status/1753487709342167156https://www.instagram.com/p/C3_ARCaryHw/
*The set was originally pitched as a Wyldfyre mech but it was rebranded to Kai due to fear of it not selling well.
==Gallery==
71812 alt2.webp
71812 alt.webp
71812 alt3.webp
71812 alt4.webp
71812-LEGO-Kais-Ninja-Kletter-Mech 8.jpg
Climber Kai in 71813.png|Climber Kai
Climber Jay in 71812.png|Climber Jay
Source Tournament Wyldfyre.png|Wyldfyre
Jordanaface2.png|Jordana
==References==
de:71812 Kais Ninja-Kletter-Mech
Category:2024
Category:2024 sets
Category:Sets
Category:Ninja
Category:Season 2 (Dragons Rising)
Category:Imperians
Category:Wolf Clan
Category:Heat