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I know it's too early to talk about the next wave but I hope we get a new villain faction.Journey to the West had many demons for the heroes to fight so Lego has endless source material.

Edited by LOTR34

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13 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Not every theme is a perennial Ninjago, and to be honest expecting any theme to be is perhaps being even more optimistic than Lego themselves (who set pretty modest initial goals, usually three years of product launches at most, compared to that). At the same time, I think expecting a theme with this level of investment put into it to falter after one wave is, if anything, too pessimistic—Lego has yet to have any of their "big bang" themes fail to to last more than a year, even including early pre-Ninjago ones like Atlantis and Power Miners that were not planned with more than one year of sales in mind! They have a pretty strong track record in that respect, with even themes that fall short of expectations (Legends of Chima, Ultra Agents, etc.) tending to last two to three years.

Yes, these are difficult times, but from many indications so far Lego's struggles so far have been to meet surging demand despite interruptions at the production, distribution, and retail stages, rather than struggling to find buyers for its products. With many families spending more time at home the demand for toys like Lego seems almost like it has risen compared to "normal" circumstances.

Also if it does fail in year 1, there is already an excuse that is not due to the sets but due to the current pandemic. So probably worth sticking with it. And when they stop Monkie Kid in future, then I imagine they will continue to do themes that appeal to China / Far East buyers. It makes sense, as that is where the real growth in their product is.

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Can people put their anger towards Monkie Kid "taking up resources" at the Mario or Minion sets or something?

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31 minutes ago, doclord said:

Can people put their anger towards Monkie Kid "taking up resources" at the Mario or Minion sets or something?

Seriously, it feels like every licensed theme gets an automatic pass while anything in-house is picked apart for scraps nowadays. 

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5 hours ago, LOTR34 said:

I know it's too early to talk about the next wave but I hope we get a new villain faction.Journey to the West had many demons for the heroes to fight so Lego has endless source material.

I hope the next villains are sea demons. 

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39 minutes ago, Harkonen said:

I hope the next villains are sea demons. 

There is a long list of the antagonists in here.Bears,tigers,scorpions and the list goes on.I hope MK keeps going on just so we can see most the demons in Lego form.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Journey_to_the_West_characters

Edited by LOTR34

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Just now, LOTR34 said:

There is a long list of the antagonists in here.Bears,tigers,scorpions and the list goes on.I hope MK keeps going on just so we can see most the demons in Lego form.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Journey_to_the_West_characters

Since there are so many animals, what if there was a twist that Monkie Kid takes place in the Chima relm. After all, we only saw one piece of the world with the theme, so humans can still be plausible. On top of that, Chima had many references to Chinese mythology as well. If we get more builds that seem like Chima, it will confirm this is Chima 2.0.   

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6 minutes ago, Legoanonymous said:

Since there are so many animals, what if there was a twist that Monkie Kid takes place in the Chima relm. After all, we only saw one piece of the world with the theme, so humans can still be plausible. On top of that, Chima had many references to Chinese mythology as well. If we get more builds that seem like Chima, it will confirm this is Chima 2.0.   

I'd rather not have this theme become Chima 2.0 but be it's own thing.

Maybe Lego will make the villains sci-fi oriented just so MK can separate itself from Chima.

After all the characters of Chima are anthropomorphic,unlike the villains from JttW where they look like animals but in reality they are just demons.

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5 hours ago, Legoanonymous said:

Since there are so many animals, what if there was a twist that Monkie Kid takes place in the Chima relm. After all, we only saw one piece of the world with the theme, so humans can still be plausible. On top of that, Chima had many references to Chinese mythology as well. If we get more builds that seem like Chima, it will confirm this is Chima 2.0.   

There won't be. No offense, but it's a ridiculous idea that would undermine this theme's distinct Chinese identity in favor of tying its story inextricably to a theme that already ran its course. Not everything has to be connected, and in many cases creating tenuous connections between two separate stories does nothing but weaken both.

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21 hours ago, mrfang2 said:

It seems highly likely we will get more locations both for the bulls and of the city the show takes place in. Looking at the current sets, the bull fort in the bike set includes pins at both sides of it, as well as the ability to separate it into 3 modules which all have connections to 2 sides. In the king mech set, the same dual pin connectors are used for the noodle shop/apartment, with a corner of sidewalk that has pins on 2 sides. I’m assuming the same will be true of the convenience store in the inferno truck. The sets also seem to be better than any other action theme so far in terms of giving us civilians to save, so it would be logical that more civilians will require more buildings to fill out. 

I doubt they would have done this using a dual pin connector instead of the single pin that themes like creator and modular use if they didn’t expect to develop more into that system of buildings. I’d expect atleast one or two more side build buildings in the next wave if not a full set of some important show location we haven’t seen yet, and atleast one fort set for the bulls that can be expanded with that entrance gate.

Good spot on the Dual Pin connectors.

Actually 2019 Creator 3-in-1 building started to use dual pin connectors on it, so it's sort of compatible, the Petshop Cafe set has 3 modules in the main build to form the corner+street terrace, and the alternate build has smaller shops that can be re-arranged.

The 2020 Creator Toy Shop also has those pin holes on the side.

 

 

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11 hours ago, doclord said:

Can people put their anger towards Monkie Kid "taking up resources" at the Mario or Minion sets or something?

I feel themes like Minions and Trolls are inevitable. You are always going to see those movie tie ins for some kids property and while few of them are going to appeal to most AFOLs they will appeal to kids.  That almost feels like a separate inevitable resource pool that I would presume LEGO makes money on.

New unlicensed themes, on the other hand, are a rare enough thing that when they miss they feel like wasted resources.

Mario is a unique case in my mind, good property bad execution.

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On 5/17/2020 at 11:37 AM, Mizyaz said:

I think that's mainly because we don't see half of this care on other themes. Star wars is overpriced garbege with a bunch of minifigures. Harry Potter has turned from half buildings to quarter buildings which are sill good but only from a single side. Other licensed themes are also pure garbage and even their minifigures are less detailed. Even ninjago is somewhat less detailed when you compare it to monkie kid. And they literally say that they are for Chinese Market. At least for me, this shows that lego sees us and Europe as guaranteed markets and they think they can sell everything with any price. The new "adult" sets with even more inflated prices are also a proof for that(again, its my opinion). 

Themes have different budgets and that’s always been the case. No one expected the level of quality from the LEGO Movie sets to continue into normal lines, and Monkey King is clearly a very high budget theme at least during its debut. Pouring more money into an original in house line than into a licensed theme makes sense to me even if I wish licensed themes got the same budget. Also, what are these “inflated price” adult sets? The only adult sets released so far (Star Wars Helmets and the Haunted House) have normal to great price per part ratios, and seem about what you’d expect in terms of value for the actual item, which is a bit overpriced for the Star Wars sets and a good value for the Creator Expert set. 

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Earlier I was looking at the instructions to some of these sets and noticing some fun details, like the bottles of soy sauce and sriracha on the counter of the food stand in the Monkey King mech set, or the use of both the ice cream swirl piece as well as frogs (!) in white in the Inferno Truck set, presumably as differently shaped dumplings. A refrigerator/freezer in the "panda store" also has banana pieces in white... anyone know what kind of food item those are meant to represent?

I'm also not sure anyone here reads Chinese, but if they do, I'd certainly be curious to know what some of the signage in these sets translates to! I could probably do a rudimentary job in Google translate but someone who speaks the language could probably translate it more easily and more accurately.

Edited by Lyichir

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On 5/18/2020 at 11:22 AM, LOTR34 said:

I know it's too early to talk about the next wave but I hope we get a new villain faction.Journey to the West had many demons for the heroes to fight so Lego has endless source material.

If the series doesn't close(considering how much the kits cost).

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Me: -sees hidden side- wooooooow

Me: -sees monkie kid then looks at hidden side- not impressed:laugh:

Edited by Ninjaguy99

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On 5/20/2020 at 10:11 AM, Lyichir said:

anyone know what kind of food item those are meant to represent?

Dumplings maybe?

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Have you guys gotten any sets thus far? If yes what are your impressions? As for me I'm currently waiting for the bike set to arrive.

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5 minutes ago, LOTR34 said:

Have you guys gotten any sets thus far? If yes what are your impressions? As for me I'm currently waiting for the bike set to arrive.

I’ve got the ship, inferno truck, and cloud jet. On the level of the fantastic ninjago movie sets honestly. The ship is one of the best “base” play sets Of any line recently and the closed form looks great on display, the jet is awesome and bigger than the box makes it seem, and you get so much with the inferno truck (4(3 plus a bicycle) vehicles, a bunch of figures, and a location.

ive heard complaints about how the stickers are cut, but I’ve had no problems with them, and honestly despite the high prices, I feel like they’re all (of the ones I got at least), pretty much worth what’s being charged.
Oh, and the figs are great. All the heroes and villains are Full of personality and the clone bulls make easy army building. 

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1 hour ago, LOTR34 said:

Have you guys gotten any sets thus far? If yes what are your impressions? As for me I'm currently waiting for the bike set to arrive.

Grabbed the whole wave but only built the two mechs - I was surprised to actually prefer the Bull Mech more. The Monkey King Mech is amazing and shiny, but there's no easy way to pick it up without risking crumbling fabric or cloth, and it's far less easy to pose than the bull mech to the point where there's essentially only one pose it can make without toppling over. The Bull Mech, on the other hand, is very stable, looks great, and can actually be moved around reasonably. Curious to build the rest of the sets and see if there's anything else that surprises me.

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16 minutes ago, legozebra said:

Grabbed the whole wave but only built the two mechs - I was surprised to actually prefer the Bull Mech more. The Monkey King Mech is amazing and shiny, but there's no easy way to pick it up without risking crumbling fabric or cloth, and it's far less easy to pose than the bull mech to the point where there's essentially only one pose it can make without toppling over. The Bull Mech, on the other hand, is very stable, looks great, and can actually be moved around reasonably. Curious to build the rest of the sets and see if there's anything else that surprises me.

The bull is my favourite set out of the whole wave and I've been contemplating buying it but I haven't yet mostly because it's rather pricey.

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On 5/27/2020 at 7:04 PM, legozebra said:

Grabbed the whole wave

That's 700+ bucks of commitment right there! I'm still tempted by the secret HQ, but so many competing priorities this summer.

On 5/27/2020 at 7:25 PM, LOTR34 said:

The bull is my favourite set out of the whole wave and I've been contemplating buying it but I haven't yet mostly because it's rather pricey.

I actually think it's one of the only sets (along with the Pigsy's Food Truck) priced relatively accurately/realistically. It's the smaller and 3 larger sets that seem painfully expensive/poor value.

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49 minutes ago, Lucarex said:

That's 700+ bucks of commitment right there! I'm still tempted by the secret HQ, but so many competing priorities this summer.

I actually think it's one of the only sets (along with the Pigsy's Food Truck) priced relatively accurately/realistically. It's the smaller and 3 larger sets that seem painfully expensive/poor value.

The ship seems like a fair enough value to me... the price per piece is good, it has a lot of figs including a bigfig, and the scale seems quite impressive (especially considering that the interior is even scaled big enough for the aforementioned bigfig, which I'm not sure has ever been done with a fully enclosed interior). The Monkey King mech manages to eke out an acceptable price per piece as well and has a fair bit more content in addition to the mech itself (which uses more lacquered gold elements than any set before it, which might explain why the price per piece only barely manages to squeeze by the widely accepted 10c/piece threshhold). The truck is the only one of the larger sets that really starts to push things into the dubious end of the value scale.

The smaller sets' prices, on the other hand, definitely seem abnormally high. I can't help but wonder whether they'd be this high if not for the Coronavirus impacting Lego's supply and distribution chains... interruptions at the manufacturing and distribution facility in China probably couldn't have happened at a worse time for a theme targeted so heavily toward that market, so it's possible that the prices for these sets were bumped up to temper the demand to closer to what Lego is capable of even fulfilling at this time. I know at least here in the U.S. some of the sets are already backordered even in spite of the pricing. If so, there's always the hope that we might see some discounts down the road, especially considering that as a Lego-exclusive theme the company retains the ability to adjust pricing without the risk of undercutting retail partners.

Edited by Lyichir

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52 minutes ago, Lucarex said:

I actually think it's one of the only sets (along with the Pigsy's Food Truck) priced relatively accurately/realistically. It's the smaller and 3 larger sets that seem painfully expensive/poor value.

I dunno 100€ for the bull is too much I reckon,if it was 70 or 80 € that would be acceptable.

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