Where are Ninjago fans?

[TwistLaw]

"In the LEGO Action and Adventure Themes section", would be the obvious answer.

What I am really asking here is: how can a theme as big as Ninjago is today not to have a much louder fanbase? In 2005 BZPower had even began its decline, after years of outstanding activity. Why doesn't Ninjago have its own fan website, why is /r/Ninjago so slow, why is its own area in this forum not as crowded as is the one dedicated to BIONICLE? Sure, I know most Ninjago fans are kids, but a 8 years old boy in 2011 is now 12, old enough to browse the internet on his own. What really makes me scratch my head is that Ninjago is today a much bigger deal than BIONICLE has ever been, at least in terms of sheer popularity.

And if I'm asking this here is because I want to make a comparison between the two fanbases, fanbases of two wonderful themes that made LEGO what it is today. Also I think this kind of topic may sound rude in the other section

P.S.: Even though I'm not a fan of Ninjago, I love its settings and above all the fact that it learnt the lesson of BIONICLE without making many of its mistakes. What you can call a good legacy, couldn't you?

[Mesonak]

There are many fans of Ninjago, but I mostly see them active on social media sites rather than a dedicated fansite.

[TwistLaw]

Yeah, I've seen the groups, enormous ones compared to those dedicated to BIONICLE, but... they don't speak english

how come the anglosphere doesn't talk half as much about ninjas?

[obsidianheart]

They're 9.

[TwistLaw]

They're 9.

I used to think about that particular, but then BZPower. That place has always been crowded by kidz.

Also, tons of people from Southern Asia and South America talk about Ninjago. I mean, really, A LOT.

But no europeans nor north americans.

[obsidianheart]

I used to think about that particular, but then BZPower. That place has always been crowded by kidz.

While I was just having a bit of fun with my response, I do know a child who loved Ninjago 3 years ago, but now he thinks it's "for babies" and only collects Avengers LEGO. He's 12.

[TwistLaw]

While I was just having a bit of fun with my response, I do know a child who loved Ninjago 3 years ago, but now he thinks it's "for babies" and only collects Avengers LEGO. He's 12.

And that's why BIONICLE went Sonic-the-EDGEhoge way from 2006 onward.

[CET23]

I would say a good bit of the fanbase are fans just because of the cartoon and mainly hangs around cartoon fan sites. For instance, while the subreddit doesn't seem to have that large of a following, I have seen a lot of followers on places like twitter and tumbler talking about parts of the show and making fanart. These places also seem like the places a 12 year old would be more likely to hang out as opposed to here.

Edited August 13, 2015 by CET23

[PenPlays]

They're 9.

Correct.

Bionicle (much like Sonic the Hedgehog) is backed by a group of adolescents that grew up with the story.

Ninjago's original fans, if they haven't entered the dark ages, are still at a stage in their lives where they don't know how to collect all of their fans together, or, more or less, engage in logical conversation with them (there are exceptions, like myself). If they were already to reach that stage, said site would be overrun with childish content which would drive away the older fans who can actually engage in a conversation. Allow me to demonstrate:

"i think there should be an overlord dragon set that has 10000 pieces for $80 cmon lego make this i want it"

"ishipjayandcole4evromygoshhhh :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: "

i think darith is stupid. lego should go back to alll of the episodes and deled him from the show cuz he suckzz

Would you like a forum overrun like that?

Also keep in mind that, no one who has reached a civilized age has stood up and started a site that runs in a civilized manner (a la BZP).

One day, that may come, but also keep in mind that some of said "under-aged" users have evidently sneaked into here. The 18-year-old minimum age is definitely a hindrance, keeping a community from being set up here, but that hasn't stopped some. So, I agree, that can't be stopped sometimes, but it can be helped...

Eurobricks is not the only site that does this, however, and it's because of my "example" that that restriction is there (thankfully so). I mean once that cap is lifted suddenly we will drown in that mess.

Another example: I discovered and tweeted out something interesting that Ninjago's writers used in the show. Suddenly I was part of the "Ninjago Fanbase" and I was being followed by a whole slew of kids who at one mention of something "Ninjago" would have a freak-out session with the keyboard and make some of the most outlandish notions that I, honestly, have ever heard! My feed was chaos!

*sigh*

It's mostly due to age.

If there was a forum much like BZP that had an age cap off... let's say 14. I think we'd be okay, especially if English literacy was pushed by mods as civilized and lovely as our own (BZP's as well!).

Edited for clarity

Edited August 13, 2015 by Penkid11

[NinjaJayNuva]

There are many fans of Ninjago, but I mostly see them active on social media sites rather than a dedicated fansite.

Well,there are many ninjago fans in instagram,but if you really want to see some serious fans,some more mature,I suggest you to goto Twitter.And I don't need to mention youtube,that.was.chaotic.

Edited August 13, 2015 by NinjaJayNuva

[Hinckley]

like tiwtter

I would like to point out, as gently as I can, that people know what social media sites are. This kind of response may be superfluous and doesn't necessarily contribute to furthering a conversation. Also, if you can visit the Site Guidelines (there is a handy link in my signature, along with other helpful tutorials and discussions) you will see that we expect you to make your best effort for spelling and punctuation. The first letter of a sentence is capitalized. Periods come at the ends of sentences. Spaces come after periods and commas. Please remember this site is intended for AFOLs, aged 18 and older, so we expect at least that level of maturity and ability to communicate. Thank you.

[dviddy]

BZPower's fanbase didn't start declining in 2005- it spiked many many years after that, and only began steadily declining after BIONICLE was canceled in 2010, with the massive drop-off when our site was compromised for five months in 2011.

[VBBN]

Since this is a discussion of fans and websites and not Action Figures, moving to community.

[Exetrius]

A part of the Ninjago fans can be found here: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/?section=&global=1&q=Ninjago&offset=0 and other media like Twitter and Imgur I guess.

Of course that's not the real fanbase. The fanbase is not loud, it's more like... quiet. Those who really like ninja seek to... become ninja. And you all know what they say; it takes a ninja, to spot the Ninjago fanbase

[Brickowski]

Something you might be forgetting with Bionicle is that it had a non-traditional (for the time) media push. Most toy lines outside of Lego tend to be largely supported by a TV show with things like websites, games, and comic books as smaller supporting media.

One of Bionicle's biggest pushes was the Mata Nui Online Game backed up with comic books to sell toys. Bigger fans were already spending time on the internet to get their story fix, so its not a big stretch to assume that Bionicle fans would be a little more inclined to build online communities.

Ninjago is a more traditional TV show used to push toys. There may be plenty of other supporting material, but its not funneling kids to the internet like Bionicle did. 2001 was still pretty early for the average kid to have large amounts of time on the internet too. It was new and exciting. Only the more tech savvy or children of tech savvy parents spent a lot of time online before then.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Brickowski

[Aanchir]

There are many fans of Ninjago, but I mostly see them active on social media sites rather than a dedicated fansite.

This. The reason sites like BZPower and Mask of Destiny sprung up back in the day is that Bionicle discussion was not really welcomed on other LEGO fansites, and yet other venues for discussion like social networking sites didn't exist.

Now that social media is a thing, it's much easier for fans of ANY franchise to congregate on social networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, DeviantArt, etc. instead of having to make, promote, and manage discussion forums of their own. Just creating a site like BZPower or Eurobricks, let alone getting it to thrive, is a lot of work.

[DuckBricks]

I am one of those Ninjago fans that is the "exception" to most, as it seems. While I do have the capability of making a forum dedicated to Ninjago and have actually considered doing do, I really don't see a reason for doing that as Eurobricks already has threads with several consistently active members on them about Ninjago (Like Penkid and myself). Thus, I don't think that Ninjago really needs its own forum as Eurobricks already has a place for us fans to come together and discuss.

Plus, as Aanchir mentions above, creating the site is hard enough - promoting the site and helping it succeed and thrive is even more challenging, and the only way for it to really be successful is a large fanbase with neither social media nor another preexisting forum to discuss - the ripe conditions for a budding forum, and the reasons of some of BZP's success.