Weirdest Action Theme

[Oky]

Which is the weirdest Lego action theme?

Time Cruisers or NinjaGo?

Hi, action fans! Lego action themes are among the most imaginative themes Lego has produced and can get pretty wild, which is partly the draw of these action/adventure oriented themes. However, some themes take it a little too far. In 1996, TLG introduced the Time Cruisers theme and followed it up with Time Twisters the next year. This was a time-travel theme filled with crazy colorful vehicles that revolved around the adventures of Dr. Cyber and his apprentice Tim and their efforts to prevent the evil Time Twisters from messing up the past.

Fourteen years into the future, Lego releases another rather colorful theme with skeletons as the bad guys: NinjaGo. Filled with ninjas, dragons, vehicles, giant spinning tops, and other strange things, this theme follows the quest of a handful of ninjas bent on becoming masters of the ancient art of Spinjitzu and stopping the evil Lord Garmadon from acquiring a series of magical weapons and taking over the world.

While both of these themes have the plot of a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon, they have their upsides too. Both are an excellent source of parts as they come with many accessories and pieces in rare colors. They also come with some pretty cool minifigs too.

However, there's no denying that these are certainly some of the strangest themes Lego has ever put out. The question is: Which is the weirdest? Which of these themes makes you go "WTF? What the hell were they smoking when they designed this?" the most? Please vote and share your thoughts! If there's another theme that you think deserves the title, please name it, if there are enough votes for it, I might add it to the poll.

[lightningtiger]

Just looking at Time Cruisers, I also wonder what aids (liquid, tablet, etc.,.) helped in creating it.

Ninjago might just be the WILDEST Lego has ever created, it's human vs. bad-to-the-bone characters (sorry, couldn't help the bone part)....it's just like castle series before Kingdom's.

Keep on spinning !

[The Yellow Brick]

I have to go for NinjaGo. Just like Lightningtiger said, Humans vs Skeletons It's just so odd.

There is so much happening in the theme and there are so many characters (I can't even remember one of the names ).

[Arigomi]

I would have to go with Time Cruisers because it often felt like TLG was just trying to find a way to get rid of the random parts that were taking up space in the warehouses. It was certainly creative but the lack of a unified color palette or design aesthetic made everything look like it was designed by a child with a severely limited collection.

NinjaGo only seems odd on the surface. It is fairly tame when you compare it to all of the weird adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Another example would be how nobody seems to raise an eyebrow when the Power Rangers fight monsters and evil robots using a mix of martial arts and technology.

[Piratedave84]

Time cruisers for sure .... I mean how weird is this As someone already said, to me Time Cruisers seems like something LEGO came up with to get rid of extra parts and just bunched up parts at random and called it a set.

NinjaGo on the other had is meant as a game (from what I understand) rather than an actual theme. Besides the ninjaGo minifigs and accessories look AWESOME (gold chain!!!).

My 2 cents

Pirate

[CDC]

Time cruisers might be the weirdest theme but i must say i totally enjoyed it. It was weird in a kinda positive way. Lots of cool parts and sets seemed interesting, especially when i was a child.

Well, NinjaGo just seems lame.. it's even worse than Knights' Kingdom 2.

[Nightshroud99]

I don't have any Time Cruisers and Ninjago isn't out yet. Buuut.. I'd say Ninjago, nothings more insane than having ninjas riding on tops fighting skeletons on Choppers.

[XimenaPaulina]

Both of these themes are weird, but I just think Time Cruisers is just weirder between the two. The design of the time-machine-thingys/vehicles in TC are just insanely out-of-this-world, whereas the NinjaGo elements are somehow more acceptable. Ninjas vs. Skeletons others might argue? Well, there was Knights vs. Skeletons in past Castle subthemes before right? And why they weren't deemed as weird?

[CorneliusMurdock]

While I think Time Cruisers is inherently weirder, I like it so much better as a theme. It just makes more sense to me but maybe that makes me weird.

[Sirens-of-Titan]

There is a big difference between "weird" and poorly built.

I think the ninjago concept is the craziest Lego has done, after all it looks like a cartoon form the 90's, but the sets are beautifully built for what it's worth, and the color pallet, design and selection make logical sense even if the theme is wacky.

Time cruisers wasn't that radical of a concept, it was quite neat, but in turn the sets were so poorly built that even back in the 90's when I was still a kid I felt like i could have built them better than what they built. Just look at them; absolutely atrocious, there was only one that i liked and that was the time machine:

It always reminded me of "back to the future"

So: craziest theme: NinjaGo

most-poorly built theme: Time Cruisers

[vexorian]

Both of these themes are weird, but I just think Time Cruisers is just weirder between the two. The design of the time-machine-thingys/vehicles in TC are just insanely out-of-this-world, whereas the NinjaGo elements are somehow more acceptable. Ninjas vs. Skeletons others might argue? Well, there was Knights vs. Skeletons in past Castle subthemes before right? And why they weren't deemed as weird?

Yeah, it is almost like a case of occidentallitys.

Although it is weird that the skeletons have monster trucks, bikes and tanks...

[SpiderSpaceman]

I'm not ready to take a side but I just wanna say, as a lucky owner, that set at the top is killer. It is more peewee's playhouse than anything, but it is stuffed with fun.

Although it is weird that the skeletons have monster trucks, bikes and tanks...

which is my favorite thing about it unapologetic tacky awesomeness.

[vexorian]

I'm not ready to take a side but I just wanna say, as a lucky owner, that set at the top is killer. It is more peewee's playhouse than anything, but it is stuffed with fun.

which is my favorite thing about it unapologetic tacky awesomeness.

I for one am hoping they have a couple of giant mechs for the next wave.

[Bfahome]

Time Cruisers, definitely. "They Just Didn't Care" basically sums up my feelings about it.

[lisqr]

Time cruiser is definitely weird looking at it now. Although back in my childhood, I thought that it was pretty cool.

On the other hand, Ninjago is a perfectly legit theme. Those that think ninja fighting mecha-riding-demons are weird obviously watches too little anime.

[prateek]

Time Cruisers for sure. It made no sense whatsoever, and not in a light-hearted fun way like NinjaGo.

[ZO6]

I think it's still pretty tough to judge things too precisely as none of us have gotten our hands on the NinjaGo theme yet, but I do have some thoughts regardless.

While NinjaGo sounds totally fun and crazy in concept, the sets themselves seem a complete mess in a bad way. I'm getting the impression that the bulk of the playability of these sets will come from one's imagination, otherwise there seems to be a lack of functions and tricks & traps. Again this is a personal preference, but I like my sets to be filled with more classic studded parts. It looks like the NinjaGo piece counts are going to be inflated by loads of spikes, viking horns, flick fire missiles, and technic pins. Time Twisters/Cruisers on the other hand had loads of good old fashioned accessories from a handful of different themes. NinjaGo looks to have some good minifigures and accessories, but the sets themselves just are not appealing. Sure Time Twisters/Cruisers sets were completely nonsensical, but at least every set from the very smallest to the very biggest was built to have maximum functionality. Functions were usually powered by elastic bands or gears, but they worked well and certainly kept me going back to play around with the sets.

So which theme is weirdest? Well, Time Twisters/Cruisers was pretty straight forward in terms of storyline and the sets were pretty crazy. NinjaGo on the other hand has Ninjas vs. skeletons and some really messed up sets. I like the sets for the Ninja Faction, but I'm not feeling the skeleton sets at all. Between the two themes, NinjaGo gets my vote as being the weirdest.

[Dr.Cogg]

I had to go with Time Twisters, because NinjaGo just seems like something from an Anime, where as Time Twisters had no plot,the sets were really weird,and everything in it was just crazy.

[Aanchir]

Now, Time Cruisers was ridiculous in my eyes. I loved it back then, certainly (aside from the grotesque minifigures), but the mix-and-match design elements nowadays look grotesque.

Its spin-off, Time Twisters, was another story (in some countries, Time Twisters kept the Time Cruisers branding). Time Twisters sets had a unified aesthetic that really felt appropriate for a time-travel theme. Even the zaniest set, the Twisted Time Train, looked a lot more unified than the Time Cruiser's flagship. Not to mention that instead of a bunch of ridiculous minifig print designs, the Time Twisters minifigs stuck strictly to pre-existing decorations for torsos and faces, yet still came out looking completely unique.

Needless to say, though, the Time Cruisers and Time Twisters themes together are weirder than Ninjago, simply because Ninjago is a mashup of already-existing archetypes. Ninjas are depicted as noble warriors with superhuman skills and reflexes. The bad guys are an army of undead raised by a Lord of Darkness. The evil army uses advanced machinery to do battle-- the good forces, on the other hand, couple their already-present skills with a connection to traditional values and the natural world, riding elemental dragons into battle. They might not all be archetypes you see in the same work, but it sure makes a lot more sense than time-travelers who wear different hats and ride anachronism-mobiles to zip from era to era, some seeking treasure and others seeking merely adventure!

[SpiderSpaceman]

sure makes a lot more sense than time-travelers who wear different hats and ride anachronism-mobiles to zip from era to era, some seeking treasure and others seeking merely adventure!

never complain about extra king kahuka masks

[Aanchir]

never complain about extra king kahuka masks

Islanders was a staple of my childhood. My brother and I once wore LEGO costumes for Halloween-- I was King Kahuka, and my brother was an Imperial Guard. Needless to say, I had no shortage of King Kahuka masks.

I'm surprised how many votes there are for Ninjago.

[Captain Blockbeard]

Personally, I loved Time Cruisers and owned Flying Time Vessel, Whirling Time Warper, and Twisted Time Train. Of course, by now, most of the parts have gone on to build new creations, but for a while when I had all of these sets put together, the odd aesthetics didn't bother me. They also made for some of the best parts pack sets of all time, which I suppose was their ulterior purpose.

Ninja Go has useful new figures (Blue Ninja, Ninja Master), and the bizarre skeleton vehicles are looking more and more like useful parts packs to me. I vote Ninja Go for being the weirdest Lego theme and look forward to seeing how well or how poorly Lego markets it.

Honorable mention goes to Exo-Force which I could never fully understand or appreciate.

[Sirius Black]

After careful deliberation, i am going to have to go with..

NinjaGo. This theme is incredibly chaotic. We have our medieval ninjas facing off against dead skeletons, but that isn't enough, so we give our skeletons Harleys to go with the skull theme, and then to even the odds, throw in a few ATVs and Tanks. Then to tie in the fantasy element, we throw in a few "ice" dragons (isn't that an oxymoron, folks), and then somehow or other, we introduce bowling to the works.

I don't know about you, but that just seems slightly unusual.

[Aanchir]

After careful deliberation, i am going to have to go with..

NinjaGo. This theme is incredibly chaotic. We have our medieval ninjas facing off against dead skeletons, but that isn't enough, so we give our skeletons Harleys to go with the skull theme, and then to even the odds, throw in a few ATVs and Tanks. Then to tie in the fantasy element, we throw in a few "ice" dragons (isn't that an oxymoron, folks), and then somehow or other, we introduce bowling to the works.

I don't know about you, but that just seems slightly unusual.

How is ice dragons an oxymoron? Dragons are fictional creatures to begin with, and fire-breathing dragons are only one of many types that appear in folklore.

The bowling set is quite clearly a training dojo with (possibly wooden) practice dummies. It's "bowling" only in terms of real-world functionality, and actually seems to be based on a variant of the traditional game of Table Skittles, where you use spinning tops to try and knock down wooden pegs. My mom had a Skittles set of this variety in her childhood, and I've played it a couple times. It's fairly entertaining.

[Walter Kovacs]

I don't own any sets from either theme, so I am just going to have to go on impressions from photos.

Time Cruisers/Twisters has always seemed to me to be completely random. Like the designers just threw whatever crap they had handy together and called it a set. Ninjago, on the other hand, is a well unified theme. Sure, it's a little odd to have skeletons riding harleys against ninjas, but at least it doesn't feel completely random.

I voted for Time Cruisers/Twisters as the weirdest.