Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, Cocoa said:

Yes, I absolutely love that round azure framing. The desserts use the colors of the original vehicles (sans neon orange), so maybe the shop itself is intentionally colored to resemble the hues of the Ice Planet box displays.

This actually gets me thinking about the complaints I sometimes see waxing nostalgic about how much more clearly sets stood out against those old-school, diorama-style backdrops from classic themes compared to the more elaborate illustrated backdrops of many current themes — even on beautifully photographed and illustrated boxes like the ones for Barracuda Bay or the Temple of Airjitzu. A lot of the time these comments attribute the difference to the way the sets used to be photographed within a physically constructed scene, rather than the backdrop being added via digital editing after the fact. But I have to wonder how much of this might also be a matter of the limited color palettes sets used back in those days compared to the more realistic and nuanced tones of the surrounding scenery.

I mean, Bright Yellow sand, Bright Blue water, or Dark Green (classic green) grass are never going to come close to matching a more naturalistic painted/sculpted rendition of those same environments — but Medium Azur water, Brick Yellow (tan) sand, Sand Yellow (dark tan) soil, and vegetation in more variegated green colors would probably blend in a little better against a more naturalistic backdrop, whether you construct that backdrop around the set or edit it in after photographing or rendering the set on a more neutral backdrop.

Edited by Aanchir

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
14 minutes ago, turk187 said:

On the NC Gardens, does anyone know why there is a hole in the wall behind the Mega Monster park poster??

So the mechanic can cut away the signs with his big saw weapon (or another villain with another power/weapon should you have them) and break in and/or out to steal from the museum.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, mrfang2 said:

So the mechanic can cut away the signs with his big saw weapon (or another villain with another power/weapon should you have them) and break in and/or out to steal from the museum.

Is that a reference to something? Did it happen in the show?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The designer for the gardens said he liked the Mechanic and you could use the Mechanic to break into the museum.

Edited by Dr.Cogg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Little off topic: I have great oportunity to get original NC sealed for quite afordable price (450 USD). BUT i have limited shelf spce and also budget. So I am in the middle of deciding wheter to get NC and in future NCG but sell Diagon Alley set to get more space and of course money ;) opinions? 

Edited by Blazej_Holen

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
35 minutes ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Little off topic: I have great oportunity to get original NC sealed for quite afordable price (450 USD). BUT i have limited shelf spce and also budget. So I am in the middle of deciding wheter to get NC and in future NCG but sell Diagon Alley set to get more space and of course money ;) opinions? 

No brainer. Buy it. Worst case scenario you can flip it for a few extra hundred.

Then either wait for Gardens (will be available for 6-12 months) or sell Diagon Alley (which from what I’ve read, isn’t all that) although I’m biased as zero interest in HP.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
50 minutes ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Little off topic: I have great oportunity to get original NC sealed for quite afordable price (450 USD). BUT i have limited shelf spce and also budget. So I am in the middle of deciding wheter to get NC and in future NCG but sell Diagon Alley set to get more space and of course money ;) opinions? 

Having built both and the fact that the going rate for Ninjago city used is at about 450 I’d say get it and put it together at least; then go from there. Diagon Alley was a good build but the Ninjago City sets have been great IMO and I’m indifferent to Ninjago as a whole.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, turk187 said:

Is that a reference to something? Did it happen in the show?

Not with these specific details, but artifacts being stolen from the museum has been a plot point several times over the course of the series. So it makes sense to have that as a "play scenario" for this set.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lego has just dropped a trailer for LEGACY: reimagined. Very intrigued with this, seems each episode will have a different animation. I'm a massive fan of the dragon that's about 45 seconds in. Some episodes have the amazing style of the monkie kid animation as well! It also seems to show off the backstory of the golden suits, as we can see Nya in her golden suit officially for the first time. We also see kai's x-1 charger from this year. Very strange. Im not even gonna mention the animation that's 35 seconds in, im not really a fan of that, but the rest looks pretty good. perhaps this gives some backstory to the suits in the epic battle sets? either way, check it out:

 

Edited by a guy from somewhere

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ooh! I'm really excited to check out the episode with Teen Wu vs. the Time Twins! We may finally get some clues between what's happened between HoT & SoG and the fates of the Time Twins. And I'm pretty intrigued with the black-and-white styled episode too, digging the concept - it's a great flashback material to use for future seasons!

As for the Monkie Kid styled episode, not sure how I feel about them as I'm not really a big fan of the show in the first place. Will decide once I've watched it. And....as for the adventure time styled episode....personally, I don't like it. Absolutely not fan of that.

It seems that out of five short films, there's only four styles revealed. Looking forward to checking out the fifth.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Apologies if this isn't the right sub-forum, but this does regard 2021 Ninjago partly. Now, let's all have a nice, civil discussion on this. Ninjago ending. I don't think this should be a theme that lasts for 20+ years. They've done basically everything. I know the main Ninjago fan base is... passionate about Ninjago never ending, but we must face the facts of LEGO Action Themes. Before/during the early years of Ninjago, we had a new action theme every couple of years, but in my opinion, because of Ninjago's success, it hasn't made LEGO want to expand their action themes and try new things because Ninjago's working so well. I, in no means, hate Ninjago. Season 3 is my favorite, and all of the seasons had at least one good episode before the updated designs that started after The LEGO Ninjago movie was used, and the storytelling ever since has not been great, with Prime Empire being the best of the newer seasons. Now, I saw some ideas floating online about Ninjago's finale, but I thought I would post my own spin on things and pre-existing ideas. Below is the rundown.

So, using the multiverse is the way to go I think. You have the show ninja meet the movie ninja after the movie ninja arrive on the show Earth. They explain that their Earth's Ninjago City was taken over by Nindroids, and their Earth's Cyrus Borg sent them to this Earth to get help. They explain how their universe's Master Wu was capptured by the Nindroids. The show Ninja take the movie Ninja to Master Wu. Master Wu tells the story of these incidents the past several days of him fainting for no reason and the feeling that something bad was coming. This is that bad thing. The ninja go see the show's Cyrus Borg and he starts working on a multiverse travelling device while the ninja (with the exception of movie Zane, who stays to help Cyrus build the device). The ninja meet up with Skylor and the other elemental masters and explain what's going on. They decide to fight together when a massive wormhole opens up above the desert, where the movie universe's General Cryptor and hundreds of Nindroids appear. He orders the Nindroid scouts to go out and find a list of people who will aid them in their fight. While the scouts find the other people they need, General Cryptor goes into the jungle with the other Nindroids to find the show Earth's version of General Cryptor. When they find him, he's wearing white and he attacks. When the movie Earth's version of General Cryptor explains what's going on, the white suit General Cryptor agrees to help. We head to a beautiful, peaceful, lake, where the ninja and elemental masters train. Then they feel the ground shake and the lake dries up. Master Wu contacts them on the comm of the Bounty. He says they need to get back now. When they get back to Master Wu, he says the situation has just gotten much more dangerous. He shows them footage from Ninjago City, which is now a futuristic paridise. Dark purple and black flows through the city. The ninja from both Earths know exactly who it is: The Overlord. Master Wu explains that somehow, both Earths' Overlord have fused together to create The Ultimate Overlord, and multiple Nindroids have been spotted all over Ninjago. Movie Zane and show Cryus Borg rush in with a massive device. They explain how this device will allow them to travel to other Earths and get help. While Show Kai, Zane, Cole, Jay, and movie Nya and Lloyd head through the multiverse hopper machine, the others stay to try and do what they can. We flip back and forth between the multiverse hopping ninja, the villains recruiting the people they need, and the others. The multiverse hopping ninja recruit astronaut, futuristic warrior, samurai, racer, archer, superhero, and Power Ranger-like versions of themselves. When they all return, the others are ready and the Nindroids, along with The Ultimate Overlord, Krux, Acronix, Samukai, Techno Wu, Skulkin warriors, and the Vermillion (all from the show's Earth, with the exception of half the Nindroids, Techno Wu, and the black suit General Cryptor), all start their attack. The ninja and the elemental masters fight them all across Ninjago, with the show's version of Garmadon joining the fight to help the ninja. Then the final battle takes place between The Ultimate Overlord, and the show and movie ninja and the show Garmadon. When The Ultimate Overlord hits bother versions of Lloyd with energy, Garmadon takes the blasts, absorbing it. But instead of it destroying him, it turns him back into regular Garmadon and the ninja glow with their elemental colors mixed with a tiny bit of gold. Together, the good guys win, but not without loses. Show Cole, Lloyd, Garmadon, Wu and Zane are destroyed, along with movie Kai. There is silence as we hear each of the still alive ninja say parts of a speech as a eulogy. We then see the movie ninja go back to their Earth, and that transitions to the future, as we see an older Kai and Jay and Skylor and Nya train their children at the Ninjago HQ, the ninja's new base in the middle of the futuristic-yet-nature-covered Ninjago City in front of memorial statues for Cole, Lloyd, Garmadon, Wu, and Zane.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
25 minutes ago, JJ Tong (zfogshooterz) said:

Ooh! I'm really excited to check out the episode with Teen Wu vs. the Time Twins! We may finally get some clues between what's happened between HoT & SoG and the fates of the Time Twins. And I'm pretty intrigued with the black-and-white styled episode too, digging the concept - it's a great flashback material to use for future seasons!

As for the Monkie Kid styled episode, not sure how I feel about them as I'm not really a big fan of the show in the first place. Will decide once I've watched it. And....as for the adventure time styled episode....personally, I don't like it. Absolutely not fan of that.

It seems that out of five short films, there's only four styles revealed. Looking forward to checking out the fifth.

Which one is the adventure time one? The one 35 seconds in certainly isn't.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Little off topic: I have great oportunity to get original NC sealed for quite afordable price (450 USD). BUT i have limited shelf spce and also budget. So I am in the middle of deciding wheter to get NC and in future NCG but sell Diagon Alley set to get more space and of course money ;) opinions? 

Personally as someone who owns both  OG Ninjago City and Diagon Alley, I much prefer Diagon Alley myself. Ninjago City is an incredible set but DA is just on another level imo. Maybe it’s because I bought at the same price you did, but I didn’t enjoy Ninjago City as much as I did DA. Also they are both corner pieces and together they could look like a mess without Docks. But yeah I’d keep DA, buy Gardens and use the rest to save towards Gringott’s. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
16 hours ago, Nearlyheadlessbrick said:

Which one is the adventure time one? The one 35 seconds in certainly isn't.

Yeah, I am referring to the one 35 seconds in. I admit to have not watch that show (except having seen some images) but that bean-shaped ninja and the whole stylized simplicity of the scene does reminds me of that cartoon (And the two main characters of the show happened to be bean shaped too). 

At least that's just my guess on why. I don't watch a huge variety of cartoons, so there are many ways I could be mistaken.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, RODDY said:

Personally as someone who owns both  OG Ninjago City and Diagon Alley, I much prefer Diagon Alley myself. Ninjago City is an incredible set but DA is just on another level imo. Maybe it’s because I bought at the same price you did, but I didn’t enjoy Ninjago City as much as I did DA. Also they are both corner pieces and together they could look like a mess without Docks. But yeah I’d keep DA, buy Gardens and use the rest to save towards Gringott’s. 

Thats my main question... I had NC back in 2017 and then I sell my whole Ninjago sets to get space. Now I kinda regret that move. I did liked NC but back then I had a problems with those small timy rooms just for two minifigs (beside Crab shack and Fashion store...) I do like DA but I hate those open backs. But it fits my city / street nicely. Now I am just split in two halfs. One of them want the NC and the new NCG, the other one dont want to spend such money on those and want to keep DA just for Gringotts and other possible add ons. So my question is also what do you guys prefer more - DA or NC? From the build, design, playabillity and overal look perspective... Something tells me that one day DA would cost all the money...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, xxix5 said:

Apologies if this isn't the right sub-forum, but this does regard 2021 Ninjago partly. Now, let's all have a nice, civil discussion on this. Ninjago ending. I don't think this should be a theme that lasts for 20+ years. They've done basically everything. I know the main Ninjago fan base is... passionate about Ninjago never ending, but we must face the facts of LEGO Action Themes. Before/during the early years of Ninjago, we had a new action theme every couple of years, but in my opinion, because of Ninjago's success, it hasn't made LEGO want to expand their action themes and try new things because Ninjago's working so well. I, in no means, hate Ninjago. Season 3 is my favorite, and all of the seasons had at least one good episode before the updated designs that started after The LEGO Ninjago movie was used, and the storytelling ever since has not been great, with Prime Empire being the best of the newer seasons.

In the future, it might be a good idea to break your finale idea into paragraphs so it's easier to read! I don't have much to say about your finale concept itself, though, because I feel like whenever the time DOES come for the show to have a "grand finale", I feel like it would be best for it to draw on plot elements from whichever seasons happen to precede it, so that it feels like a satisfying and natural direction for the story to take, rather than feeling like veering abruptly away from recent story elements in order to focus on "old school" ones.

For comparison, consider how prominent a role the lore about the First Spinjitzu Master's Oni and Dragon heritage presented in Season 8 and 9 ended up playing in Season 10. It would have been strange if instead of that very linear sort of progression, the Season 10 story arc went in a completely unrelated direction, and brought back the Skulkins, Serpentine, or Stone Warriors as the main enemy faction — it would have resulted in those bits of Oni lore and foreshadowing feeling like loose ends or missed opportunities.

As such, I don't think it's really possible to speculate about what Ninjago's final story arc should entail until we're much closer to that point — and while I understand that you might prefer for the theme to wrap up soonish, I don't feel nearly that same sense of urgency.

You may feel that "they've basically done everything", but I honestly disagree. After all, it took until last year for the theme to get a full "underground" story arc, as well as a skeleton dragon — an idea that seemed like a pretty obvious future direction for the theme to take even in its very first year, which introduced both dragons and skeletons to the theme's lore. And it's only this year that it's going to be getting a full "underwater" story arc and wave of sets (two possibilities I'd been contemplating for years). There are quite a few ideas for future directions the series could take which have already occurred to me:

  • Recently, while re-watching Season 3 with my wife, who hadn't seen it previously, she and I both started thinking about how cool it could be if Ninjago got a full story arc set in outer space, rather than just one or two episodes like we got back in 2014. Even if the only "alien life" we've seen evidence of in the series is a metal-eating pest residing on a particular comet, the mere EXISTENCE of alien life seems like the sort of revelation which could have much wider-reaching implications — after all, who's to say that INTELLIGENT alien species couldn't exist as well, or that the ninja would never wind up crossing paths with them?
     
  • I've also been thinking a lot about the possibility for future sets that introduce actual elemental creatures based on the Ninja's elemental animal emblems (Kai's lion emblem, Zane's wolf emblem, Cole's gorilla emblem, Jay's octopus emblem, Lloyd's dragon emblem, and Nya's crane emblem). While plenty of other LEGO themes have had similar supernatural creatures as a plot device (like the elemental creatures in Bionicle G2 and Elves, or the Legend Beasts in Legends of Chima), it seems like something that would make a lot of sense for Ninjago as well, since those animal symbols have been part of the theme from the beginning, and their significance has never been addressed.
     
  • While Ninjago has had a few "kaiju"/"giant monster" style threats over the years like the Grundal, Great Devourer, or Preeminent. But imagine the possibility of a story arc where the core conflict revolves around protecting Ninjago from an invasion of huge, ferocious creatures with mysterious origins that emerge to threaten Ninjago, similar to franchises like Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Monster Hunter, etc. Sets like the Hero Factory Invasion from Below sets, the Marvel Eternals sets, and arguably even the Vikings sets do a good job showing how "giant monster attacks" like these can work even across a range of higher and lower price points.
     
  • Another cool possibility for future sets would be a series of ninja vehicles or mechs that can connect together in different multi-element combinations, drawing inspiration from "combining mecha" from the sorts of anime, manga, and tokusatsu series that have long influenced the Ninjago sets and storyline in other ways. Ninjago has had transforming vehicles and mechs before, but not a lot of combining ones — despite that being a very classic sort of LEGO gimmick in the context of Space themes like Blacktron and Life on Mars.

These are just a few ideas of future directions the theme could take based on the sorts of subject matter that that the theme has previously approached or touched on briefly without delving in more thoroughly. But the theme has shown us on many occasions that its range is broad enough to encompass ideas even more far-flung than this while still deftly weaving them into the existing narrative. I mean, it's not like "Mad Max style dieselpunk/post-apoc faction" or "fiery snake mummies" or "frozen samurai zombie empire" would have likely been on anybody's Ninjago bingo cards prior to the seasons those factions debuted in, but they still ended up feeling like a fairly natural fit for the tone and aesthetics of the theme. For all we know, future story arcs could revolve around something just as unpredictable.

Regardless, even if none of us are quiet sure just HOW long the theme might continue to run from here on out, I don't think we have to worry about the writers or designers running out of new ideas for sets and story arcs any time soon.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really hope Lego doesn't change the animation style for ninjago. At this point I only really watched the show to get an idea of how better to display the sets. The first few seasons were great and there has been a few good ones since. The Anime (or magna not sure which is the correct way to describe animation style) made the show unbearable in the episodes where the weird animation style was used I really hope the show doesn't go in that direction especially for the celebration of 10 years of it but it now looks unavoidable unfortunately. Hopefully it gets a horrible response from fans so they don't expand on that animation style. If that animation style goes on and takes over the show then Ninjago will be as good as discontinued to me. 

On the other hand assuming it sticks with the style it currently has then I am really excited for the spring and summer sets at first it seemed like 2 easy waves to skip but those islanders and the catamarans especially look to good to pass up. Part of me hopes they go with the summer wave so I can have a great ocean battle of some kind being displayed (I thinking of making some kind of giant ninjago ocean MOC) and the other part of me hopes it is a total flop and the sets are horrible so I can skip them and keep some money in my wallet for Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think, because Ninjago is basically Legos version of Power Rangers (which is still going) that it could go for a very long time.

Edited by Dr.Cogg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, bluedog1111 said:

I really hope Lego doesn't change the animation style for ninjago. At this point I only really watched the show to get an idea of how better to display the sets. The first few seasons were great and there has been a few good ones since. The Anime (or magna not sure which is the correct way to describe animation style) made the show unbearable in the episodes where the weird animation style was used I really hope the show doesn't go in that direction especially for the celebration of 10 years of it but it now looks unavoidable unfortunately. Hopefully it gets a horrible response from fans so they don't expand on that animation style. If that animation style goes on and takes over the show then Ninjago will be as good as discontinued to me. 

On the other hand assuming it sticks with the style it currently has then I am really excited for the spring and summer sets at first it seemed like 2 easy waves to skip but those islanders and the catamarans especially look to good to pass up. Part of me hopes they go with the summer wave so I can have a great ocean battle of some kind being displayed (I thinking of making some kind of giant ninjago ocean MOC) and the other part of me hopes it is a total flop and the sets are horrible so I can skip them and keep some money in my wallet for Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Nowhere has it been said that these ‘Reimagined’ videos are to become the standard for the animation for the show. It’s five different short films from five different animation studios based around Ninjago. They’re one offs. While there may be the occasional ‘anime’ style in episodes to come, the LEGO visual style they’ve been using for ten years isn’t going anywhere.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm almost done building my NC Gardens, and there are definitely some odd building choices. There is a building where one wall uses two 2x3 tan bricks and one the other side it uses 4 2x3 tan plates and 6 1x2 tan plates to build two 2x3 tan bricks. Just weird. It has been discussed here and the idea that it is about raising the piece count, or creating a "textured" look. The textured look doesn't fly when the parts are hidden. And, I'm not sure about piece count being that big a deal. I do usually calculate the price-per-piece, but I don't think its that big a deal. So, now I'm thinking it might be a manufacturing issue. If you need X number of parts, but you only have Y number of molds and you need to produce Z number of sets, you either have to create more molds to keep up with production demands, or you substitute another piece. I think this is the most likely explanation. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, turk187 said:

I'm almost done building my NC Gardens, and there are definitely some odd building choices. There is a building where one wall uses two 2x3 tan bricks and one the other side it uses 4 2x3 tan plates and 6 1x2 tan plates to build two 2x3 tan bricks. Just weird. It has been discussed here and the idea that it is about raising the piece count, or creating a "textured" look. The textured look doesn't fly when the parts are hidden. And, I'm not sure about piece count being that big a deal. I do usually calculate the price-per-piece, but I don't think its that big a deal. So, now I'm thinking it might be a manufacturing issue. If you need X number of parts, but you only have Y number of molds and you need to produce Z number of sets, you either have to create more molds to keep up with production demands, or you substitute another piece. I think this is the most likely explanation. 

In the green apartment? I assumed that was because on the forward-facing wall, the bricks are hidden by the "bed" and so their hollow undersides are covered. But on the rear-facing wall, they are not. Using plates instead of bricks makes the visible "surface" of the underside of those parts look less deep, and specifically using 1x2 plates makes them look somewhat like drawers (with the "tube" in the underside of the plate resembling a handle in the center of each drawer).

An alternative if they had not wanted that surface to resemble drawers would be to use 2x2 inverted tiles in the place of the four 1x2 plates visible from the inside. But that would still require the use of 2x3 plates and 1x2 plates to fill up the rest of that "space". Using 1x2 plates for the entire reverse surface both adds detail and reduces the variety of parts that would need to be used.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, Dr.Cogg said:

I think, because Ninjago is basically Legos version of Power Rangers (which is still going) that it could go for a very long time.

True, but power rangers also, (to my knowledge,) hasn't been running as a single show for all this time like Ninjago. There's been quite a few reboots, and they change up the cast too. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 1/29/2021 at 1:28 PM, Aanchir said:

You may feel that "they've basically done everything", but I honestly disagree. After all, it took until last year for the theme to get a full "underground" story arc, as well as a skeleton dragon — an idea that seemed like a pretty obvious future direction for the theme to take even in its very first year, which introduced both dragons and skeletons to the theme's lore. And it's only this year that it's going to be getting a full "underwater" story arc and wave of sets (two possibilities I'd been contemplating for years). There are quite a few ideas for future directions the series could take which have already occurred to me:

These are just a few ideas of future directions the theme could take based on the sorts of subject matter that that the theme has previously approached or touched on briefly without delving in more thoroughly. But the theme has shown us on many occasions that its range is broad enough to encompass ideas even more far-flung than this while still deftly weaving them into the existing narrative. I mean, it's not like "Mad Max style dieselpunk/post-apoc faction" or "fiery snake mummies" or "frozen samurai zombie empire" would have likely been on anybody's Ninjago bingo cards prior to the seasons those factions debuted in, but they still ended up feeling like a fairly natural fit for the tone and aesthetics of the theme. For all we know, future story arcs could revolve around something just as unpredictable.

Regardless, even if none of us are quiet sure just HOW long the theme might continue to run from here on out, I don't think we have to worry about the writers or designers running out of new ideas for sets and story arcs any time soon.

While I'm not too keen on the idea of Ninjago set in space (Which is one of the primary reasons on why season 3 was one of my least favorites seasons), I'm definitely down with the other three ideas in one way or another!

In fact, these ideas could even be partially combined into a complete wave/season. Where with the huge mysterious kaijus as the enemies being battled by the Ninja with animal-esqued vehicles that combines super robot style. While the current ninja vehicles are in-theme to the wave, a more cohesive group of ninja vehicles would be a breath of fresh air.

I also got to agree with how nicely Ninjago take unexpected ideas and manage to still fit those into the theme. And even aside from those, there's also still plenty of materials from Japanese pop culture to take from too. It would really be awesome if there was a Kamen Rider themed season/sets for Ninjago with the bikes and the bizarre but also very cool armor and unique powers.

On another note, while there's all this really cool and funky ideas, it would also be nice for Ninjago at certain times to bring in more focus on the actual Ninjitsu aspects where both the heroes and villains would have to outsmart each other through their very skills alone. A good example and inspiration would be from TMNT 2003's early seasons where the turtles were mostly reliant on their skills, weapons and terrain and both heroes and villains such as The Foot Clan were Ninjas.

So yeah, while I do also understand why some people think it should end, I too, don't feel the urgency for that. With the possibilities of the future, I'd say bring it on!

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 hours ago, Aanchir said:

In the future, it might be a good idea to break your finale idea into paragraphs so it's easier to read! I don't have much to say about your finale concept itself, though, because I feel like whenever the time DOES come for the show to have a "grand finale", I feel like it would be best for it to draw on plot elements from whichever seasons happen to precede it, so that it feels like a satisfying and natural direction for the story to take, rather than feeling like veering abruptly away from recent story elements in order to focus on "old school" ones.

For comparison, consider how prominent a role the lore about the First Spinjitzu Master's Oni and Dragon heritage presented in Season 8 and 9 ended up playing in Season 10. It would have been strange if instead of that very linear sort of progression, the Season 10 story arc went in a completely unrelated direction, and brought back the Skulkins, Serpentine, or Stone Warriors as the main enemy faction — it would have resulted in those bits of Oni lore and foreshadowing feeling like loose ends or missed opportunities.

As such, I don't think it's really possible to speculate about what Ninjago's final story arc should entail until we're much closer to that point — and while I understand that you might prefer for the theme to wrap up soonish, I don't feel nearly that same sense of urgency.

You may feel that "they've basically done everything", but I honestly disagree. After all, it took until last year for the theme to get a full "underground" story arc, as well as a skeleton dragon — an idea that seemed like a pretty obvious future direction for the theme to take even in its very first year, which introduced both dragons and skeletons to the theme's lore. And it's only this year that it's going to be getting a full "underwater" story arc and wave of sets (two possibilities I'd been contemplating for years). There are quite a few ideas for future directions the series could take which have already occurred to me:

  • Recently, while re-watching Season 3 with my wife, who hadn't seen it previously, she and I both started thinking about how cool it could be if Ninjago got a full story arc set in outer space, rather than just one or two episodes like we got back in 2014. Even if the only "alien life" we've seen evidence of in the series is a metal-eating pest residing on a particular comet, the mere EXISTENCE of alien life seems like the sort of revelation which could have much wider-reaching implications — after all, who's to say that INTELLIGENT alien species couldn't exist as well, or that the ninja would never wind up crossing paths with them?
     
  • I've also been thinking a lot about the possibility for future sets that introduce actual elemental creatures based on the Ninja's elemental animal emblems (Kai's lion emblem, Zane's wolf emblem, Cole's gorilla emblem, Jay's octopus emblem, Lloyd's dragon emblem, and Nya's crane emblem). While plenty of other LEGO themes have had similar supernatural creatures as a plot device (like the elemental creatures in Bionicle G2 and Elves, or the Legend Beasts in Legends of Chima), it seems like something that would make a lot of sense for Ninjago as well, since those animal symbols have been part of the theme from the beginning, and their significance has never been addressed.
     
  • While Ninjago has had a few "kaiju"/"giant monster" style threats over the years like the Grundal, Great Devourer, or Preeminent. But imagine the possibility of a story arc where the core conflict revolves around protecting Ninjago from an invasion of huge, ferocious creatures with mysterious origins that emerge to threaten Ninjago, similar to franchises like Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Monster Hunter, etc. Sets like the Hero Factory Invasion from Below sets, the Marvel Eternals sets, and arguably even the Vikings sets do a good job showing how "giant monster attacks" like these can work even across a range of higher and lower price points.
     
  • Another cool possibility for future sets would be a series of ninja vehicles or mechs that can connect together in different multi-element combinations, drawing inspiration from "combining mecha" from the sorts of anime, manga, and tokusatsu series that have long influenced the Ninjago sets and storyline in other ways. Ninjago has had transforming vehicles and mechs before, but not a lot of combining ones — despite that being a very classic sort of LEGO gimmick in the context of Space themes like Blacktron and Life on Mars.

These are just a few ideas of future directions the theme could take based on the sorts of subject matter that that the theme has previously approached or touched on briefly without delving in more thoroughly. But the theme has shown us on many occasions that its range is broad enough to encompass ideas even more far-flung than this while still deftly weaving them into the existing narrative. I mean, it's not like "Mad Max style dieselpunk/post-apoc faction" or "fiery snake mummies" or "frozen samurai zombie empire" would have likely been on anybody's Ninjago bingo cards prior to the seasons those factions debuted in, but they still ended up feeling like a fairly natural fit for the tone and aesthetics of the theme. For all we know, future story arcs could revolve around something just as unpredictable.

Regardless, even if none of us are quiet sure just HOW long the theme might continue to run from here on out, I don't think we have to worry about the writers or designers running out of new ideas for sets and story arcs any time soon.

 

Ok, I like this response because of how civil it is. Normally, if you say that you want Ninjago to end, you end up getting screamed at. I just don't want Ninjago to go on for another 10 years, in an effort to make room for 5 year action themes, and Season 3 is by far the best season in my opinion. I think if in the next, let's say, 5 years, Ninjago will literally out of ideas. I like the actors, but it's best that Ninjago ends before it gets more stale. There has been a downgrade in quality since the movie came out, and it needs to end before it becomes too repetitive, and they could do a whole time travel/multiverse season, so they can expand on the idea of the multiverse.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.