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On 4/7/2019 at 6:27 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Wow, talk about pretty particular even for Ninjago... *huh* 

31 minutes ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Wow, that's a bad thing I guess

To be fair, those license designs themselves are based largely on Japanese mythology, which I'm less familiar with and hence I'm more likely to associate the LEGO designs with anime/game franchises. 

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23 hours ago, Exetrius said:

To be fair, those license designs themselves are based largely on Japanese mythology

Yeah i mean it's no more specialized than Dragons, Oni, Ninja, Samurai.. It's really not specialized unless you honestly think any cultural icon is specialized

Also Vikings

 

 

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20 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Do you think everything cultural is particular?

Most people are familiar with ninjas and dragons and samurai. Not three tailed foxes.

I had to look it up. Apparently they're called Kitsune. According to wikipedia, three tails is a pretty particular number for Kitsune.

Quote

One, five, seven, and nine tails are the most common numbers in folk stories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune

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It makes sense that the longer Ninjago goes on, they'd dig deeper for inspiration. Ninjago was based off East-Asian mythology at a very surface level (i.e. less "mythology", more tropes in various kung-fu movies made in or popular in the west), so it's understandable going slightly deeper than what most people in western cultures are familiar with would seem odd. 

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I mean, I was definitely aware of Kitsune as a kid, because the Pokémon Vulpix and Ninetales are based on them, as is Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Kitsune tend to be referenced in a LOT of video games, cartoons, and comics created in Japan, so even kids who don't know the term probably won't be completely bewildered by the concept.

Kids in most of East Asia should certainly have little difficulty relating to the concept, since besides Japanese kitsune, a lot of other Asian countries have their own folklore about many-tailed fox spirits, like the Chinese huli jing and the Korean kumiho.

To be honest, it feels weird to retread this discussion about whether kids will understand the idea of a magic fox with multiple tails or not, because I believe I had a similar conversation with somebody on Facebook last year in reference to Liska the Earth Fox from the LEGO Elves sets. I suspect among Western LEGO fans like many of us here, there's probably a generational factor in whether many-tailed foxes are a strange concept or a familiar one, depending particularly on whether your childhood took place before, during, or after the 90s anime boom.

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I was born before the anime boom, but I was in my late teens/early 20s when it hit. And even outside of anime and video games like Pokemon, I had a general knowledge of some East Asian mythology (primarily Japanese) such as kitsune, kappa, etc.

For kids and young teens outside of East Asia, I’d assume that regardless of awareness of the mythology they’ll see Akita and go “oh a cool fox/wolf with three tails!!”. The majority of them will probably compare him/her to Naruto, Ninetails or some other kitsune based character.

Back on topic of the mini-fig; I’m almost as excited for their human form as I am for their molded beast form. I suspect that the character is probably female, but has some sort of “Mulan” thing going on. As interesting as an actual gender-fluid character could be, I doubt they’ll  try to unwrap all of that in a 30 minute animated toy commercial :head_back:

 

 

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Whatever people say: Ninjago sounds like the most stupid concept and it should be out of date. But in fact both show an sets are a secret jewel within toys and children TV shows. I wouldn't have ever thought we'd get molded Kitsune and Mononoke-hime in Lego. Not even mentioning the Gundam or the White Walker Samurai :excited:  

And btw I love how nice this community is, how cultured people debate here. Really peaceful, compared some of the more popular licenced threads.

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On 4/14/2019 at 3:49 PM, Aanchir said:

To be honest, it feels weird to retread this discussion about whether kids will understand the idea of a magic fox with multiple tails or not, because I believe I had a similar conversation with somebody on Facebook last year in reference to Liska the Earth Fox from the LEGO Elves sets. I suspect among Western LEGO fans like many of us here, there's probably a generational factor in whether many-tailed foxes are a strange concept or a familiar one, depending particularly on whether your childhood took place before, during, or after the 90s anime boom

Yeah I think these conversations tend to always be a bit naive. like, it doesn't give Kids much credit

20 hours ago, crimsondeity said:

As interesting as an actual gender-fluid character could be,

Why is that relevant to the quality of a character? I'm just curious why people always bring that up as if it's some sort of trait. It's like. No it's just something that is or isn't.

2 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Ninjago sounds like the most stupid concept and it should be out of date

Ninjas will never go out of date. 

 

2 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

And btw I love how nice this community is, how cultured people debate here.

Thanks

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11 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Why is that relevant to the quality of a character? I'm just curious why people always bring that up as if it's some sort of trait. It's like. No it's just something that is or isn't.

I haven’t seen it brought up frequently here around this particular character; but I doubt people bring it up as a sort of “trait”. That would be more like Cole being a big eater. 

Akita is a mystery character at this point. What we’ve seen of the mini-fig doesn’t have the traditional faceprint cues, and the cool wolf hat means no hairstyle clues. Even the name is nebulous, because it probably alludes to the dog breed Akita.

As I’ve already stated, the character is probably meant to be female, but posing as a boy for some reason; Mulan is probably the most commonly known tale using this trope, but a lot of East Asian story-telling incorporates it. Conversely, Akita could also just be a teen boy with with mystical wolf/dog powers, like Naruto. But until more info comes out, people will play around with theories. 

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Akita has visible eyelashes, and her hair is still visibly long under the hat. I don't think her being female is a secret, she's already actually a kitsune.

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57 minutes ago, GarmaFan said:

Akita has visible eyelashes, and her hair is still visibly long under the hat. I don't think her being female is a secret, she's already actually a kitsune.

Yeah, I agree, I don't see much at all about the character that looks boyish or even androgynous. I suspect that the lack of lipstick may be meant to signify that she lives in the wild or away from civilization, sort of like San from Princess Mononoke. Or it could just be an aesthetic choice on the part of the designers and/or a reflection of the character choosing to present that way. But she does still have printed eyelashes, long hair, and printed curves around her waist, all three of which are pretty traditional female gender signifiers in both real-world culture and minifigure designs. So I think the idea that she's meant to look boyish may be extrapolating a little bit too much from just one design feature (the lack of lipstick).

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Man see what this kinda stuff causes?

54 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

So I think the idea that she's meant to look boyish may be extrapolating a little bit too much from just one design feature (the lack of lipstick).

I think the idea that someone would think a character who lacks lipstick is non feminine. Speaks more about that person then the thing itself

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3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Yeah, I agree, I don't see much at all about the character that looks boyish or even androgynous. I suspect that the lack of lipstick may be meant to signify that she lives in the wild or away from civilization, sort of like San from Princess Mononoke. Or it could just be an aesthetic choice on the part of the designers and/or a reflection of the character choosing to present that way. But she does still have printed eyelashes, long hair, and printed curves around her waist, all three of which are pretty traditional female gender signifiers in both real-world culture and minifigure designs. So I think the idea that she's meant to look boyish may be extrapolating a little bit too much from just one design feature (the lack of lipstick).

I think what you’re calling lashes, I was seeing as thicker brows? In any case, I was looking at the print as a whole, as well as the non-traditional (in Lego terms) hair style under the headdress. The mouth is much wider and “rakish” which are usually reserved for the boys, while characters like Nya or Skylor have slightly more heart-shaped lips. 

I do agree that the torso print suggests that the character is meant to be a girl. And it’s also very possible that the overall design was meant to show a more “living in the wilds” vibe. Either way, I’m sure Lego intends for Akita to be a girl; I feel that some people think I was initially saying that the character would/should be gender-fluid, when it was merely a “it would be interesting...” thought.

 

3 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Man see what this kinda stuff causes?

I think the idea that someone would think a character who lacks lipstick is non feminine. Speaks more about that person then the thing itself

In the real world, someone with bright yellow skin would be considered deathly ill; in Lego parlance, it just means the character represents a human.

I personally never said anything about lipstick, but Lego figures meant to represent women usually either have lipstick or more demure, heart-shaped lips; they also tend to have slightly thinner, more arched brows and either lashes or what appears to be eyeliner. 

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10 hours ago, crimsondeity said:

In the real world, someone with bright yellow skin would be considered deathly ill; in Lego parlance, it just means the character represents a human.

I guess Ultra Violet and Killow aren't human then?

10 hours ago, crimsondeity said:

I personally never said anything about lipstick, but Lego figures meant to represent women usually either have lipstick or more demure, heart-shaped lips; they also tend to have slightly thinner, more arched brows and either lashes or what appears to be eyeliner. 

why does it matter?. That's all I meant by my comment. i'd rather judge a character by, their character than their design. Unless it's a character like Pola or Cyren who really has no character and thus you must judge it by design.

10 hours ago, crimsondeity said:

when it was merely a “it would be interesting...” thought.

It's not really interesting to me, to be honest. I'm more interested in how this kills the Chima theory alot of people had involving the wolf

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Tommy Andreasen said a few years ago that it was possible the Serpentine are from Chima. Maybe the Pyro Snakes are the first snakes to migrate to Ninjago.

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1 hour ago, GarmaFan said:

Tommy Andreasen said a few years ago that it was possible the Serpentine are from Chima. Maybe the Pyro Snakes are the first snakes to migrate to Ninjago.

The Chima designs and the Ninjago Serpentine designs are pretty different from each other; but we’ve already had one scene showing that Chima exists in one of the Realms connected to the Realm Crystal. And apparently we’re getting some sort of nod/scene with Chima again this year. So there’s definitely potential. 

I wonder if that snake sarcophagus that shows up in museum scenes will have anything to do with the Pyro Snakes.  

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11 hours ago, GarmaFan said:

Tommy Andreasen said a few years ago that it was possible the Serpentine are from Chima

Really? that would be interesting and explain a few things  It would also explain why the Vermillion were considered the "pure" children of the great devourer. Also would explain why she had no issues eating them

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So, I've been digging around various shopping sites that sell Lego, looking for official summer set pictures, and I came across all the sets for Ninjago. Enjoy!

I'm going to keep looking around that site for the rest of the June releases for other themes.

 

Edit: Links removed, all the pictures are on the usual places now anyway. No other June releases seem to be on the site.

Edited by JasonEffex

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23 minutes ago, JasonEffex said:

So, I've been digging around various shopping sites that sell Lego, looking for official summer set pictures, and I came across all the sets for Ninjago.

That vertical box art format... *huh* :oh3:

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Not gonna lie, the vertical boxes are freaking dope! I love the general look and design of these sets too. I wasn't initially on board with all of them from the prelims, but these sets plus the boxes (I know I'm making a big deal about the boxes, but it's mostly because I'm a graphic designers and have been with the line since the beginning) look amazing! 

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Whoa! Just checked that out too! I'm really stoked there! Was already amazed with the leaked catalogue but the official version completely BLEW my mind! The sets is even more awesome and the new boxart is super-dope!

I'm definitely will plan to pick this wave and Hidden Side up!

 

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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4 minutes ago, LegendsOfNinjago said:

Not gonna lie, the vertical boxes are freaking dope! I love the general look and design of these sets too. I wasn't initially on board with all of them from the prelims, but these sets plus the boxes (I know I'm making a big deal about the boxes, but it's mostly because I'm a graphic designers and have been with the line since the beginning) look amazing! 

It was something I certainly wasn't expecting, and I'm already hoping to see the format adopted by other playthemes' box art in the near future! :thumbup: :smug:

5 minutes ago, JJ Tong (zfogshooterz) said:

Whoa! Just checked that out too! I'm really stoked there! Was already amazed with the leaked catalogue but the official version completely BLEW my mind! The sets is even more awesome and the new boxart is super-dope!

After seeing better images, the main builds for the Katana 4x4, Land Bounty, and Lloyd's Titan Mech are all kinda cool. :thumbup: :shrug_oh_well:

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