[Lego] 9446 GET!

  

I finally got my hands on this set! It's so amazing & cool. Actually, this is my first Lego® pirate ship I've ever obtained and I'm really happy about the bricks it has and the playability is amazing. It has tons of features, such as hidden weapons & treasures, the sails can open making the ship have wings and the back can turn around in an incredible way, and makes the ship a flying boat. Isn't that cool? More information below the Jump break.

• The set contains quite a lot rare bricks (most of those rares just got released this year), such as the new 98283 (Dark Tan Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Masonry Profile (Brick Profile)), 92593 (Light Bluish Gray Plate, Modified 1 x 4 with 2 Studs), and also some new minifigure parts (such as the new katana: 30173b ). Also, some older bricks in this set comes in new colours: tan (sand yellow), flat gold, flat silver, dark green, making some bricks in that colour unique to this set. I like the flat gold & flat silver that Lego® has used.
• The sails are not really made of cloth but they feel a bit paper-like, so I'm really, really careful of using them. I'm used to cloth or plastic sails from other Lego® sets I have and I really have to get used to the paperish sails.
• Also, the 1 meter string that is used for the anchor is quite fragile. When I opened the cardboard case of the rope while building the set, the rope already damaged a bit in the inside so I was really scared of already having a broken piece in the first 2 hours of building this set (yes, building the set almost took me 2 hours, but I love building. My 10185 Green Grocer took 6 hours and it was soooo fun!).
• Another thing that always bother me are stickers. Stickers look cool but if you don't handle your Lego® sets well the stickers will dry up and crumble off the set. A lot of care is needed to maintain stickers on sets. The set contains a few stickers: the top of the post has two triangle signs (which we see a lot in Lego® CITY as traffic signs) which needs stickers, three plates needs stickers and the tiles on the engine also needs one each tile. I was really happy to see that the map, the snake head on the shrine and the flags (which says "Dragon God" by the way) do not require any stickers; they were all printed.
• The way the sails open as wings is really simple made. Only one Lego® rope (with studs) is needed to open the wings. You pull a lever and the lever will force a rope to change from weak to stiff, and the stiff will pull the wings to the outside, unleashing the wings. A few wheels keep the ropes in place. The top of the lever (which is a Bionicle piece) does actually not stay good on its place, it's a bit loose on top of the Technic axle.
• The back of the ship can turn around, changing the fins of the ship into wings with jet engines. The ship has a few Technic bars & axles to let the fins turn around. You need to lift the ship in the air in order to let the fins turn around (since you can't turn them around when it's on a surface, like a table), though.
• The post of the ship is built really sturdy in the ship itself. On the box it may look it could fall off any time because of the weight of everything on it, but the post is also connected with a Technic axle in a few bricks with Technic-holes to ensure it's sturdy.
• Also something that I haven't seen mentioned in a few reviews is that you can, actually, turn the roof away, so that you can play in the cabin (placing Sensei Wu to the steering wheel for example).
• Some other nice features. The classic Lego® pirate ship's cannon makes a well earned return, even in this set. The dragon's head on front of the the ship is one of the few dragon heads without any decals (stickers or prints), it's nice to have a clean one. The roof of the cabine looks really cool with the W-design (the roof is bend a few times to form a W, referring to classic Japanese styled roofs).