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2 minutes ago, Maple said:

I agree. We aren't getting a Space theme because of Star Wars and they don't sell well. Without NinjaGo we would get less themes. We didn't even get a 30th anniversary Pirate wave. But I'm sure that's because NinjaGo did sky pirates 5+ years ago. :hmpf:

Lego wants themes connected to TV shows and to last at least 3 years. You can't make a TV show for every one off theme.

Yeah. It seems like LEGO is trying to put more focus on fewer themes. Remember the Trolls: World Tour and Rise of Gru lines? Oh, and Angry Birds a while back? It seems that LEGO doesn’t believe in one-off themes with little to no tie-in media; in the digital age kids just don’t walk into a toy shop and buy things that look interesting like Space Police or Monster Fighters over tie-ins to properties they’re already familiar with. Ninjago’s ongoing cartoon airs all over, and kids will be familiar with the characters at this point. Chima and Nexo Knights also both had cartoons, and Hidden Side had animated webisodes and an app - but even those weren’t very popular, which might be why Hidden Side kinda collapsed. 

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1 hour ago, Fenghuang0296 said:

Yeah. It seems like LEGO is trying to put more focus on fewer themes. Remember the Trolls: World Tour and Rise of Gru lines? Oh, and Angry Birds a while back? It seems that LEGO doesn’t believe in one-off themes with little to no tie-in media; in the digital age kids just don’t walk into a toy shop and buy things that look interesting like Space Police or Monster Fighters over tie-ins to properties they’re already familiar with. Ninjago’s ongoing cartoon airs all over, and kids will be familiar with the characters at this point. Chima and Nexo Knights also both had cartoons, and Hidden Side had animated webisodes and an app - but even those weren’t very popular, which might be why Hidden Side kinda collapsed. 

 I think Hidden Side failed because the box art was horrible and there wasn't a TV series. Even the dino theme (Jurassic World) is only around because sets are based on movies or Netflix specials. Which does make me wonder if we will get any sets in 2021 as the movie was delayed. Like you said LEGO wants tie ins for it's products.

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3 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Can't help but get a little tired of the griping about Ninjago supposedly eating up space for other action adventure themes, especially since when others like Legends of Chima, Nexo Knights, Hidden Side or Monkie Kid come around, people complain about those too. If anything I'd argue that the action/adventure themes we've gotten since Ninjago has been around have often tended to be more wholly original than those older ones that mostly functioned as reimaginings of older themes (often well-designed ones, but nonetheless retreading old ground). 

Agreed. There was a bit of drought of non-licensed themes in around the mid-late 2010's(ish) but you can't pin that all on Ninjago, I mean we've have both Monkie kid and Hidden side quite recently. And whilst I do like getting other action themes do not get me wrong, I must say I do like the variety ninjago is giving us, a ninjago subtheme is less of an 'investment' than a whole proper theme and I mean that in more senses than one (e.g less design cost as less new character, less sales uncertainty as ninjago already sells, etc) so they can take what would otherwise be greater risks. Ninjago subthemes based on a idea would cover that idea in much less depth however in exchange(if you get my gist) we get a much greater breadth of ideas covered. And with action themes in general, well different things appeal to different people so the greater variety of idea explored works there too. 

I mean say they announce a new adventure theme and It's called 'Heroes of the Leg Godt Isles' it's a heavily D&D inspired theme with a diverse cast of heroes from different fantasy races and with different skills and weapons and they travels across theses isles to exciting locales based on things like ancient Mesopotamia, living mushrooms, hell and fae gardens, where they complete quests big and small such as finding a lost dog or vanquishing and immortal (and immoral) demon empress. And I'd love that and buy a lot of it (well budget dependant tbh). Now lets say instead of this that lego announces a different theme called 'Uber Nifty Ultra Agents : RELOADED!' That was full of over the top vehicles and no much else. I would buy much from that theme, it wouldn't really excite me.

Now lets say we have 3 possible futures (all 3 years long)

1- 'Heroes of the Leg Godt Isles' is a new theme last for 3 years 

2- 'Uber Nifty Ultra Agents : RELOADED!'  is a new theme last for 3 years

3- 3 years of  Ninjago with 2 waves that are inspired by the same ideas as these 2 new hypothetical themes alongside various other waves with fun ideas.

Now personally I like future 1 the most and future 2 the least, with future 3 being the middle ground. So with a new theme to replace ninjago, i could either like it more or less than ninjago, but ninjago I'll like as much as I like ninjago... Okay that sentence made more sense before I typed it up, but that matters not, because we still get new action themes alongside ninjago, and I'm sure there are people who'd prefer 'Uber Nifty Ultra Agents : RELOADED!' to 'Heroes of the Leg Godt Isles' but with ninjago running alongside our hypothetical new theme, even if it the one that less your cup of tea then you could get some stuff that is more your cup of tea from ninjago as it varies so much. What I'm trying to say is that with ninjago being so variable it gives a bit of an edge over an unspecific new action theme as it can fill different niches in different waves whereas most themes tend to be pretty similar across most waves, of course that isn't saying that I think this means ninjago is better than most potential new action themes, just that not everyone is gonna like every action theme but ninjago with it's widely varying waves (yes it's a lot of vehicles and dragons but it's also more than that) is more likely to have something for everyone, not all in the same wave but still.

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Any ideas who designed the garden? Also do we know who designed the docks? I can’t find any information on it. 

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8 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Can't help but get a little tired of the griping about Ninjago supposedly eating up space for other action adventure themes, especially since when others like Legends of Chima, Nexo Knights, Hidden Side or Monkie Kid come around, people complain about those too. If anything I'd argue that the action/adventure themes we've gotten since Ninjago has been around have often tended to be more wholly original than those older ones that mostly functioned as reimaginings of older themes (often well-designed ones, but nonetheless retreading old ground)

There is an argument to be made about those Big Bang themes being mostly just Ninjago Clones, meant to re-capture the success of Ninjago istead of doing their own thing. Where as with those one-off orginal themes from the late 2000's and early 2010's I think I can safely say that they did their own thing, independet from other themes. While the basic premise of those Big Bang themes may be quite wholly original, it's mostly the execution that killes them. They are all marketed in the shadow of Ninjago, which isn't going to help them succeed in the slightest. However, if you want to do a smaller theme with less marketing push like say, an underwater theme like Atlantis, you can do whatever you want in this underwater theme, because it's not tied to any other LEGO IP.

If you want to do an underwater theme as a Ninjago wave, however, you are going to be severaly limited by the Ninjago formula, which is shoehorning in the typical mechs, jets, mototcycles and cars that we get more or less in every wave. Maybe that isn't the case with you, but other people getting tired of it should be competely understandable.

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2 hours ago, Lego David said:

If you want to do an underwater theme as a Ninjago wave, however, you are going to be severaly limited by the Ninjago formula, which is shoehorning in the typical mechs, jets, mototcycles and cars that we get more or less in every wave. Maybe that isn't the case with you, but other people getting tired of it should be competely understandable.

It's not only the vehicles that are restricive,it's also the characters.With an original theme you get original characters but that's not the case with Ninjago,for the most part the only protagonists in this theme are the ninja themeselves.For example compare the ninja to the Monster Fighters group,the latter is far more unique and individualistic compeared to the ninja who have the same outfits with some exceptions such as colors and slight design changes.

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7 hours ago, Maple said:

 I think Hidden Side failed because the box art was horrible and there wasn't a TV series. Even the dino theme (Jurassic World) is only around because sets are based on movies or Netflix specials. Which does make me wonder if we will get any sets in 2021 as the movie was delayed. Like you said LEGO wants tie ins for it's products.

Jurassic World is currently still around for the exact same reasons as Ninjago: a tv show. Besides the Indominus Rex vs Ankylosaurus set last year the last movie sets came out in 2018. The Netflix show Camp Cretaceous didn't even get a single set, although they did put the shows mascot Bumpy in the completely unrelated Dr Wu's lab set. 

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Ok first of all: The tv show has been the worst  toy commercial ever. Vehicles are broken within minutes after their introduction and the message or resolve of the story often contradicts the importance of the "collectables" anyway. The whole point of Cole's 2 swords was in the end that they had symbolic meaning but no real power. They broke shortly after being used.

I think this is pointing towards a strong and independent team of writers. Yes they gotta feature this and that; yes they probably work together with the toy company. But overall the story is the story and doesnt change much.


..And again: with Ninjago we at least get a lot of useful molds and prints. May it be mechs, apocalypse, steampunk or now even medevil and islanders stuff. Hidden side, Nexo and Ultra Agents were much more limited.

I doubt we will get another "single themed theme". Maximum another thing like hidden side, or nexo knights. Most likely in combination with technology. I think Ninjago is the best shot of getting really good bits and pieces of diverse themes. Dont forgett the last classic pirates rehash, which failed after one wave.

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6 hours ago, Modal said:

Any ideas who designed the garden? Also do we know who designed the docks? I can’t find any information on it. 

Nicholas vas and Christopher stamp worked on ninjago city, but I can’t find any info on the docks, but judging in how similar they are design wise, I would think that they both worked on it. In an interview with the designer of the spring lantern festival, Justin Ramsden told brickset that the pond area with the water tiles and the layering to create depth was a tribute to Nicholas vas, who designed ninjago city. This means that Nicholas probably designed the water ways along with the main city, and as the water ways are the same for the docks, I think it’s safe to say that he also worked on ninjago city docks.

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6 hours ago, a guy from somewhere said:

I think it’s safe to say that he also worked on ninjago city docks.

It's not in his bricklist...

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27 minutes ago, JintaiZ said:

It's not in his bricklist...

2nd page, about 3/4 of the way down, he gives a bit of insight into other sets as well, like how a green prototype of Cole’s sky bound dragon sat on top of the concept models... in other news, another teaser for vidyo was revealed... all I can say is I’m confused. Am I allowed to show the screen shot here? I know it’s off topic, but it is rather strange. For context, it’s a flame orange minifig with a lama head mold, holding some maracas and wearing sun glasses. Interested to see what they do!

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13 minutes ago, a guy from somewhere said:

2nd page, about 3/4 of the way down, he gives a bit of insight into other sets as well, like how a green prototype of Cole’s sky bound dragon sat on top of the concept models... in other news, another teaser for vidyo was revealed... all I can say is I’m confused. Am I allowed to show the screen shot here? I know it’s off topic, but it is rather strange. For context, it’s a flame orange minifig with a lama head mold, holding some maracas and wearing sun glasses. Interested to see what they do!

Vidiyo most likely has it's own thread like pretty much all themes have.

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I find it strange there is zero information on who built Ninjago City Docks. There’s no designer video either. Was it because of the failed movie that they just kinda threw the set out there without wanting to make a scene about it? So strange

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6 minutes ago, Modal said:

I find it strange there is zero information on who built Ninjago City Docks. There’s no designer video either. Was it because of the failed movie that they just kinda threw the set out there without wanting to make a scene about it? So strange

I could have sworn I had seen information about who the main designer for that set was but I can't find it for the life of me. I know it was not Nick Vas; IIRC it was a separate designer who was originally working on it independently (not as a set) and was approached about turning it into a set design. But god knows where I read that or if I'm just imagining I did.

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1) As much as I understand of the feelings of tiredness on how shoehorned the ninja vehicles are (and I am), I feel the payoff of the tradeoffs is in the villains. Their designs can get really creative at times - like with the recent Keepers set, I am very impressed with them. Currently, set-wise, I'm mainly just looking forward to checking out how cool the villains are. This is also why Legacy lost its appeal to me very quickly and why I don't plan on collecting them anytime soon (except for the Overlord). The whole aspect just felt pretty unbalanced with overwhelming number of ninja vehicles. On the other hand, as tiresome as most ninja vehicles are, I think I'll take them over the chance of another theme turning the good guys into another case of Agents, Ultra Agents, and the ADU of Alien Conquest, they are just boring as heck. (However again, I do think Legacy is already pushing it.).

I do hope the sets of S15 doesn't remind me of Aqua Raiders or Atlantis. Both types of vehicles are nice for their theme but it's going to be extremely odd for Ninjago. Though "Hydro" doesn't seem like a good sign. Oh well, I'm just going to wait and see. 

2) It's rare but there are times that I do feel the question of did Ninjago overstayed it's welcome when they start covering other unexpected aspects since 2015? They don't give the vibes like 2011 or 2012 anymore. However, despite touching various aspects like Ghost, Pirates, Biker Gangs, Dieselpunk, Cyberpunk and now Islanders, the limits of being in Ninjago does give them a nicely unique design which does in a way is part of the charm that I've eventually grown to appreciate very much.

I'm just going enjoy the ride that is the variety the Ninjago offers. Could these other themes be made into a theme of their own? Probably. I guess LEGO could always do those themes again after Ninjago ends since nowadays a lot of things are kinda rehash of rehashes but with new twists. Whether it's actually going to be done is another issue though, but in the scenario of that doesn't happen, I definitely agree with Kim-Kwang-Seok on appreciating Ninjago while it's still there as it's still an original theme with a nice variety. It's better than nothing with the ever-shrinking pool of original themes.

On 1/2/2021 at 3:34 AM, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Ok first of all: The tv show has been the worst  toy commercial ever. Vehicles are broken within minutes after their introduction and the message or resolve of the story often contradicts the importance of the "collectables" anyway. The whole point of Cole's 2 swords was in the end that they had symbolic meaning but no real power. They broke shortly after being used.

Personally for me, the Pilot, Season 1 and Ninjaball Run of season 2 does give me a certain itch to grab certain sets, so I'd say they are kinda enough of a success for being commercial-ish. Anything after those, yeah, not really. I'm just there for the story - the biggest factor I can only relate to would be the vibes between the season and it's corresponding set wave.

Of course, the former examples have nothing on those actual set commercial which are still the best adverts! 

On 1/2/2021 at 3:34 AM, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

 Dont forgett the last classic pirates rehash, which failed after one wave.

Yeah, pirates and castle themed sets were really good and interesting from the 80s, 90s, Knights Kingdoms II, Fantasy Era Castle, Kingdoms and Pirates 2009. I had a great time exploring those. Pirates 2015 and Castle 2013...not so much. They felt like blatant rehashes, nothing that interesting about them in my opinion. 

Like Legacy, despite being original themes, they would be one of the last things I would touch if not never.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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1 hour ago, JJ Tong (zfogshooterz) said:

1) As much as I understand of the feelings of tiredness on how shoehorned the ninja vehicles are (and I am), I feel the payoff of the tradeoffs is in the villains. Their designs can get really creative at times - like with the recent Keepers set, I am very impressed with them. Currently, set-wise, I'm mainly just looking forward to checking out how cool the villains are. This is also why Legacy lost its appeal to me very quickly and why I don't plan on collecting them anytime soon (except for the Overlord). The whole aspect just felt pretty unbalanced with overwhelming number of ninja vehicles. On the other hand, as tiresome as most ninja vehicles are, I think I'll take them over the chance of another theme turning the good guys into another case of Agents, Ultra Agents, and the ADU of Alien Conquest, they are just boring as heck. (However again, I do think Legacy is already pushing it.).

The problem with that though is that even when Ninjago does have cool villains, they are usually have a very small amount of sets for themselves. We might get one cool villain-focused set, but that would be it. Pretty much the rest of the wave would be focused on the Ninja vehicles (and as you pointed out yourself, that is especially an issue with the Legacy waves). 

And to be honest I far prefer the good guy stuff from lines like Agents, Ultra Agents or Alien Conquest simply because those lines do a much better job balancing the amount of good guy and bad guy vehicles we get. With Ninjago, on the other hand, the disproportionate number of Ninja stuff vs the number of bad guy stuff is rather obvious. 

Edited by Lego David

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37 minutes ago, Lego David said:

The problem with that though is that even when Ninjago does have cool villains, they are usually have a very small amount of sets for themselves. We might get one cool villain-focused set, but that would be it. Pretty much the rest of the wave would be focused on the Ninja vehicles (and as you pointed out yourself, that is especially an issue with the Legacy waves). 

And to be honest I far prefer the good guy stuff from lines like Agents, Ultra Agents or Alien Conquest simply because those lines do a much better job balancing the amount of good guy and bad guy vehicles we get. With Ninjago, on the other hand, the disproportionate number of Ninja stuff vs the number of bad guy stuff is rather obvious. 

I guess that's one of the places we differ then... I am a huge fan of the Ninja vehicles, which have gotten consistently better over the years while having strong design language tying them together (and to their respective characters). Part of what excites me most about the prospect of an underwater wave is that undersea vehicles like submarines are one of the only "vehicle types" that hasn't really been explored in Ninjago sets before—not even for Nya, the character most themed around water.

If it really bothers you that Ninjago is going to do what other underwater themes have done before, you can probably at least take solace in the fact that after this year Ninjago probably won't have a dedicated wave with that theme again—Ninjago rarely repeats a major setting change or design theme like that, leaving the door wide open for a completely different underwater theme in the future. With that in mind, half a year of underwater Ninjago sets doesn't feel like that big an imposition.

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8 hours ago, GarmaFan said:

So, Golden Wu's body is just Kai's reused. That's lame.

I don't think there is an exclusive minifigure in the whole Gardens lot. 

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I think that people complaining about the minifigure selection in the gardens need to remember that it is coming in at an absolutely unheard of 5.3 cents per piece, and some stuff needs to be done to cut down on costs to make that price. 

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On 1/2/2021 at 1:20 PM, Lego David said:

The problem with that though is that even when Ninjago does have cool villains, they are usually have a very small amount of sets for themselves. We might get one cool villain-focused set, but that would be it. Pretty much the rest of the wave would be focused on the Ninja vehicles (and as you pointed out yourself, that is especially an issue with the Legacy waves). 

Yeah, that I'd have to agree with you, It would be real nice for the villains to have more sets. At the very least one more.

As for the recent mainline waves, I'd agree to them not being that that balanced but not that bad either. They just need tweaks to get there. Like adding the Pyro Vipers' Pyramid base set for the Fire Chapter portion of SotFS, replacing Jay's Velocity Racer with a Red Visor Speeder in 71709 for Prime Empire. Surprisingly, I find MotM very balanced. The whole assemble the dungeon felt pretty much playing on villain's turf. Maybe adding a Geckle and Munce  each centric "base" extension set would really cool. So yeah, it's mainly just Legacy's overwhelming Ninja vehicles rehashes I'm just tired of.

But I actually have more issues with Legacy than just the overwhelming amount of Ninja vehicles. After seeing how mediocre March of the Oni turned out, I started to question on the idea of Legacy perhaps being the reason for it's heavily wasted potential. If LEGO wanted Ninjago to be an evergreen theme and then pushed for Legacy, resulting in the conclusion to the Oni and Dragon trilogy getting cut short and be redone in a much smaller scale without any wave of sets. How would MotO turn out if it used Legacy's resources? Or of course, on the other hand, it could be the Ninjago team couldn't figure out where to take the whole thing and have Legacy as a placeholder to cover that. However, that doesn't really make sense either, as why go through the trouble of building up S.O.G. and Hunted just to fall flat?

Sure, of course, I'll admit that Legacy does bring some gems like more Elemental Masters and the Ninjago City Gardens and some really cool redesigns but I couldn't help thinking if Legacy weren't here would it's resources made the mainline waves much better instead of getting split? However, there's also the possibility of the scenario of LEGO deciding said resources be diverted to other themes instead if Legacy doesn't exist.

On 1/2/2021 at 1:20 PM, Lego David said:

And to be honest I far prefer the good guy stuff from lines like Agents, Ultra Agents or Alien Conquest simply because those lines do a much better job balancing the amount of good guy and bad guy vehicles we get. With Ninjago, on the other hand, the disproportionate number of Ninja stuff vs the number of bad guy stuff is rather obvious. 

While I'm not crazy over Ultra Agents themselves and still find the ADU to be incredibly boring, I will admit that the tradeoff is very much worth it as both theme's villains are just stellar! So yeah, I can see the balance there.

Agents...on the other hand, despite being balanced, personally I find both sides to be pretty meh to the point where I'd prefer Ninjago anytime.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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9 hours ago, GarmaFan said:

So, Golden Wu's body is just Kai's reused. That's lame.

I just looked at Golden Wu and Kai. I think this is like Kai and Lloyd from the movie. The torso prints are very similar, but there are slight differences to make them feel unique. I am unsure if I am allowed to post Wu on here to show what I mean, but the image I have is from an official catalog.

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It’s mind blowing to me in almost 10 days the Gardens set is going to be out on shelves. I feel like it’s still like a year out for some reason

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