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18 minutes ago, Nearlyheadlessbrick said:

Is it just me or are these the first triple molded pieces? There's the coloured hood, the scuba gear and the clear goggles all in one piece. Has there been any other tri-molded piece?

There have definitely been others. Sweet Mayhem's helmet from TLM2 comes to mind (with black, white, and magenta plastic all used). The Sandy bigfig from Monkie Kid, too (some parts of him are probably preassembled rather than molded together but his head area uses orange, medium azure, and magenta plastic that seems to all be molded together).

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It does seem indeed that the hood/goggles are one double-moulded piece while the breathing tubes are separate, and their back might perhaps have the same design as the firemen mask, which sort of clips into the airtanks, but I don't spot those behind them.

I think they're neat, especially the wrinkled detail of the goggles wrapping around the hood, but awkward at the same time - could be because of the gap between the shoulders and the tubes, making it look like it's taller. I would've preferred if the tubes had been lower and just above them, almost looking like shoulderpads.

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Yikes...I thought the knight gear was tacky but these are such a stretch. LEGO is keen on combining ninja scarves with every single piece of headwear possible it seems, but should they? I don't mean to be "an AFOL," but I don't appreciate LEGO using Ninjago for concepts that would work wonderfully as original themes. Is LEGO not willing to take the risk and sell these sets on their own without being branded under some large in-house IP? Or are these subthemes an attempt to keep Ninjago "fresh" with children? I think so far LEGO has done a fine job blending these ideas with the Ninjago line, but this latest wave is alarming. From the figures alone, you can tell these sets should be their own thing. But if these subthemes sell, they'll keep on coming. Fortunately, fans who don't like this direction for the theme have Legacy and CNY (which is not entirely related since it's based on Chinese culture and architecture but still satisfies many).

3 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

Really wish they would've used the time twins to send the ninja really far back in time. Give the theme a feudal Japan kind of look and feel for a wave or 2. 

If only. There'd be a huge reliance on dragons for certain since that's likely the most gimmicky sets you could make from that time. Though I'd love to see a serene-looking temple with tons of booby traps inside.

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21 minutes ago, Cocoa said:

Yikes...I thought the knight gear was tacky but these are such a stretch. LEGO is keen on combining ninja scarves with every single piece of headwear possible it seems, but should they? I don't mean to be "an AFOL," but I don't appreciate LEGO using Ninjago for concepts that would work wonderfully as original themes. 

This has been a big critisism of mine for quite some time when it comes to action themes.It's seems like Lego got too complacent with the success of Ninjago and doesn't want to produce new action themes like they did in the past.Instead they dumb ideas into Ninjago and call it a day.This way of thinking is lazy and creatively bankrupt and they won't stop untill the Ninjago cash cow has gone dry.

 

Edited by LOTR34

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21 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

Really wish they would've used the time twins to send the ninja really far back in time. Give the theme a feudal Japan kind of look and feel for a wave or 2. 

Yeah, hopefully once the whole adventuring seasons are done, the next event would have a feudal vibe to it for at least an era. I do miss the ranking of the suits where you go from Trainee to DX and ZX. Would be really nice if they returned to that concept.

This situation with the scuba is kinda why I don't think I'll ever be down with Ninjago in space. For some reason, I'm actually quite fine with the Digi and Hero Ninja suits. However, the scuba is the first time this feels quite out of place for a ninja. it just feels like the show characters in a scuba suit tailored to their color scheme. And this leads to me dreading about the idea of "astronaut ninja." The "astronauts" in The Void are just horrible.

While I'm down for 10 more years of Ninjago, I do also hope that it stays proper in theme as there are still plenty of Japanese subcultures and fictions to explore rather than reusing "standard" themes.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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4 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

Really wish they would've used the time twins to send the ninja really far back in time. Give the theme a feudal Japan kind of look and feel for a wave or 2. 

I remember a while back, the voice actor for Maya posted an image of Maya on instagram and basically she said Maya is coming back. Now, many people made theories (including me) that Maya will be returning in season 14 or season 15 (because it's a Nya season.) Although now that I think about it, I think Maya won't be returning in season 15 or the island but she MAY return in the time twins short. It kind of makes sense to be honest. Still not sure though.

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Do we have a release date for the legacy shorts? I assume its this year, but anything more specific? 

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45 minutes ago, LOTR34 said:

This has been a big critisism of mine for quite some time when it comes to action themes.It's seems like Lego got too complacent with the success of Ninjago and doesn't want to produce new action themes like they did in the past.Instead they dumb ideas into Ninjago and call it a day.This way of thinking is lazy and creatively bankrupt and they won't stop untill the Ninjago cash cow has gone dry.

 

Some people keep saying this BUT: Ninjago only did gangs/biker, apocalypse, video games, european-medevil, island and soon Atlantis for one wave each. How can one wave take another theme's chance away? Star Wars, Creator and Super Heroes sell sci-fi at the same time, all the time next to each other.

You could try seeing it from an optimistic point of view: they can test the waters like this. If kids really like the Atlantis wave, Lego may incooperate this somehow.

The sad truth is that none of the original themes other than Ninjago have survived more then a few waves.* Us wanting this won't change the numbers. The market is very "blockbuster"-oriented and I think we can be glad that we still have Ninjago - and through Ninjago other settings, like now basically Atlantis.

*Im not just talking about Nexo and Hidden Side . Like 6 years ago they did original Pirates again and the theme failed. Before that Galaxy squad and Cowboys (The Lone Ranger) came and failed. More examples? So why should Atlantis or the Island work on its own?

What seems to work are: blockbuster-oriented themes, Creator, City, Friends, Technic and Ninjago. We can only hope to get certain genres that way or through something like IDEAS.

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3 minutes ago, Surge said:

Do we have a release date for the legacy shorts? I assume its this year, but anything more specific? 

unfortunately no. But if I were to be guessing, Id say in May or June? I really want to see the Time Twins short so badly.

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I think it's a little silly to call a Ninjago take on something like a medieval fantasy theme or an underwater theme "creatively bankrupt" when the alternatives that those people seem like they'd prefer ("vanilla" or non-Ninja-flavored versions of those sorts of themes) are all things Lego has already done in the past. And as people mention, Ninjago basically does one of those sorts of themes for a single wave and that's it—it's hardly standing in the way of those sorts of themes in the long term.

And maybe it's because I'm a fan of Ninjago and the zanier and more offbeat it is, the more I like it, but I don't really see any reason why one-and-done waves of Ninjago are that much worse than the sort of one-and-done action themes Lego's done in the past. I certainly expect that if we were to get a new "vanilla" action theme along the lines of Atlantis or Power Miners, AFOLs would still be complaining that Lego had reimagined those as new themes instead of bringing back the old ones (the same way they whined about those themes for not being Aqua Raiders or Rock Raiders back in the day). So I'm not sure "unoriginality" is really the problem people make it out to be.

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The accusation of creative bankruptcy was thrown towards Lego as a whole but since this the Ninjago discussion I'll stick to the topic at hand.Yes they are one off waves but it doesn't change the fact that instead of having a diverse array of themes like how things used to be in the late 2010s nowdays all those potential themes get snuffed out before inception and instead they get slapped with the Ninjago logo and BOOM there you go this is your newest wave for Ninjago.I'd much prefer to have original themes flourish and have a variety of different characters and vehicles yet instead the status quo is that the action theme genre has grown stale and the only theme that is still around is Ninjago.

And it's not that I hate this theme quite the opposite in fact,it has great minifigures and the location based builds are almost always great.I just wish there were more themes around like it used be. 

Edited by LOTR34

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24 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

I think it's a little silly to call a Ninjago take on something like a medieval fantasy theme or an underwater theme "creatively bankrupt" when the alternatives that those people seem like they'd prefer ("vanilla" or non-Ninja-flavored versions of those sorts of themes) are all things Lego has already done in the past. And as people mention, Ninjago basically does one of those sorts of themes for a single wave and that's it—it's hardly standing in the way of those sorts of themes in the long term.

And maybe it's because I'm a fan of Ninjago and the zanier and more offbeat it is, the more I like it, but I don't really see any reason why one-and-done waves of Ninjago are that much worse than the sort of one-and-done action themes Lego's done in the past. I certainly expect that if we were to get a new "vanilla" action theme along the lines of Atlantis or Power Miners, AFOLs would still be complaining that Lego had reimagined those as new themes instead of bringing back the old ones (the same way they whined about those themes for not being Aqua Raiders or Rock Raiders back in the day). So I'm not sure "unoriginality" is really the problem people make it out to be.

Speaking of rock raiders and power miners, can you imagine if ninjago went that route for a season? They'd all be decked out in heavy armour and drilling machines.... on one hand I love the idea of it, but on the other, I feel like this may be way over the line. I'd say lego is pushing it now with the underwater stuff. In a more laid-back part of the news,  a clearer image of the sub speeder 'surfaced' and you can make out the ratchet joints often used on mechs that connect the wheels to the body of the car. 

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27 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

And as people mention, Ninjago basically does one of those sorts of themes for a single wave and that's it—it's hardly standing in the way of those sorts of themes in the long term.

I've never really delved deep into the Ninjago sets, nor do I particularly feel strongly that they're stifling creativity, but an argument you could make is that these settings are being explored by the same range of main characters which belong to the Ninjago theme, rather than Lego bringing in a new band of characters as they would for a new theme. Whether this is good or bad is another matter - you mentioned Atlantis, and how well are the characters from that remembered today?

If anything, I think the problem is more that Lego don't seem to be able to do an in-house theme without a TV series (and consequently giving each theme main characters and main villains and backstory aplenty for them). Ninjago isn't inherently bad for doing this, but when the in-house themes essentially boil down to Ninjago, City and Monkie Kid (all of which are coming now with named characters on the box) it begins to feel a bit samey. I can't personally get into the TV series - nothing on those who enjoy them, it's just not for me - and in many regards an in-house theme filled with characters I don't know is just the same as a Licensed theme I haven't watched. I don't personally buy Batman sets because I've never seen Batman and therefore don't get anything from the characters. If Lego did a theme that wasn't backed by a TV series or some tie-in media, I suspect the angst against Ninjago might decrease.

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Ok, looking at the box art for the sub speeder, interestingly the bridge has seaweed on it, meaning it has already been submerged, and the front wheels of the speeder move either up or down and the back wheels go from the side to the back, becoming back facing propellers. I honestly think this is my favourite set of the wave now, just the price, the figs and the build are amazing. yes, its a racer in an underwater theme, but its unique, and can still function as a submersible vehicle, and the design is something we haven't seen much of. Yes ninjago has tons of oversized single seater vehicles, but none that have a transformation feature as crazy as this. The only thing that could beat this is if the hydro bounty just blows me away. But so far, im liking the look of the wave. I completely agree with the helmets though, they are quite big and the tubes should be lower down.

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8 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

If anything, I think the problem is more that Lego don't seem to be able to do an in-house theme without a TV series (and consequently giving each theme main characters and main villains and backstory aplenty for them). Ninjago isn't inherently bad for doing this, but when the in-house themes essentially boil down to Ninjago, City and Monkie Kid (all of which are coming now with named characters on the box) it begins to feel a bit samey. I can't personally get into the TV series - nothing on those who enjoy them, it's just not for me - and in many regards an in-house theme filled with characters I don't know is just the same as a Licensed theme I haven't watched. I don't personally buy Batman sets because I've never seen Batman and therefore don't get anything from the characters. If Lego did a theme that wasn't backed by a TV series or some tie-in media, I suspect the angst against Ninjago might decrease.

I don't think LEGO themes being backed up by a TV series or other media tie-in is a bad thing at all. I know it is sad for AFOLs who just want generic figures, but the reality is that characters and stories is what sells. The real issue is whether the respective TV series is of quality or not. Ninjago has a decent TV series with likeable characters and an often engaging story that has kept the kids interested in the theme for a decade at this point, while other story-driven themes that got TV shows, like Chima and Nexo Knights, greatly struggled with the sales due to their TV Shows being of sub-par quality. Ever since LEGO successfully first tapped into the story-driven themes market with Bionicle in the early 2000's, it has become a staple of the brand's in-house themes. 

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying LEGO shouldn't also do more themes with generic figures like Castle, but the reality is that without being attached to the story or characters of the theme, most kids (and some AFOLs alike) will have no reason to remain engaged with the theme and come back to it for more. 

My personal issue is similar to what @LOTR34 believes. I don't hate Ninjago nor its TV series, but the fact that LEGO just dumps all their ideas into their current most popular theme can be quite frustrating. Sometimes the blend of those ideas can work (a good example of that would be the Skybound wave), but most of the times, it just comes off as feeling really off, like this current wave. Instead of exploring new ideas for underwater villains and vehicles, we just get the obligatory shoehorned in Snake villains and Ninja cars into an underwater wave of all things. 

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4 hours ago, Nearlyheadlessbrick said:

Is it just me or are these the first triple molded pieces? There's the coloured hood, the scuba gear and the clear goggles all in one piece. Has there been any other tri-molded piece?

Hammond from Overwatch comes to mind. I think there’ve been a few CMF parts as well. 

4 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

We can't be sure yet but I bet the visor is a separate piece.

I agree. It looks like that one Sky Police visor to me (though I might be wrong).

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1 minute ago, Lego David said:

Ever since LEGO successfully first tapped into the story-driven themes market with Bionicle in the early 2000's, it has become a staple of the brand's in-house themes. 

Which is why themes with stories will always have a place in the Lego repertoire. At the same time, there should be room for generic themes too. In Bionicle's heyday, there were themes such as Adventurers or Alpha Team (neither of which had a TV show, to my knowledge) for specific characters, as well as ever-present City, Castle, Space and Trains ranges. Even into the 2010s, themes such as Agents and Atlantis came without TV series (again, as far as I know; correct me if I'm wrong), and as Trains fell by the wayside so Pirates returned.

That's a different beast to the present situation where Castle, Space and Pirates are gone. Trains is gone. Every Action theme has a TV series to back it up, and even City is moving towards named characters. My main issue with themes such as Ninjago is that without the investment in the TV series, there seems no reason or rhyme to the sets. If it was announced today that there would be a new Pirates line in 2022, we'd know roughly what the sets were going to be: there'll be a big pirate ship, a smaller island set, maybe a soldier's fort, things of that ilk. Maybe they'd surprise us with a big Governor's mansion or Imperial ship, but that would be 100% in keeping with the lay understanding of what Pirates is. With Ninjago, someone who doesn't watch the series doesn't have the same knowledge. I don't keep up too closely with the theme because the core premise is a genre I don't personally find interesting. I've bought a few sets that have appealed to me - the Skull Sorceror's Dungeons being the most recent - but I haven't a Scooby Doo how that fits into the story they've got going on.

If that set had been part of a different theme - exactly the same set, except with minifigures that don't belong to a TV series - I'd still have bought it. I suspect many people would. It would also be easier for people to buy into this hypothetical theme, knowing that it had maybe two or three years worth of sets that follow a core theme rather than Ninjago's indefinite run of... ninjas on tour?

Now I swear I don't mean to come here and talk down Ninjago. Not at all, I have no grudge against it whatsoever. I just don't see why Ninjago having a TV series means every theme has to.

As to Bionicle having a story, I'd argue against the fact that Bionicle was such a big seller entirely because it had a story. Anecdotal I know, but I was a kid for the entirety of Bionicle's original run. I was four when the theme started and thirteen when it ended. All the kids in my class had Bionicle, but a grand total of zero knew anything about the storyline. There were other things going for it too. You built cool robots (kids love robots). The sets were all broadly similar in size and price, at least in the early years - and perfectly priced for gifts for a school party. On more than one occasion, a few weeks before my own birthday party classmates would come up to me and ask if I liked Bionicle. I did the same before classmates' parties. Between the gifts bought for me, and the gifts I bought for my peers, I suspect every standard Bionicle released between 2001 and 2006 probably touched my hands at one point. And that there was a story to it was entirely irrelevant to us all.

But I'll say no more of Bionicle, since this isn't the thread for it.

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16 hours ago, Lego David said:

My personal issue is similar to what @LOTR34 believes. I don't hate Ninjago nor its TV series, but the fact that LEGO just dumps all their ideas into their current most popular theme can be quite frustrating. Sometimes the blend of those ideas can work (a good example of that would be the Skybound wave), but most of the times, it just comes off as feeling really off, like this current wave. Instead of exploring new ideas for underwater villains and vehicles, we just get the obligatory shoehorned in Snake villains and Ninja cars into an underwater wave of all things. 

Yeah, while I have no problem with snakes in Ninjago in general, I do agree that perhaps a much better variety of sea creatures could be used for this wave seeing that Japan food culture and folklore has plenty of those. I'll admit that the TLMN villains had great concept there as their underwater creature theme is one of the rare connections with Japan's food culture. Just turn some of them into full-fledged monsters and it would be quite a nice faction of underwater villains. Hopefully, some of the exclusive aquatic minifigures would deliver, but again, was hoping for more,

Also to think of it, aside from the temple, there isn't any other villain sets.....which really sucks.

I used to think that I would be fine with dumping all ideas into one theme but after seeing how the scuba suits is really blurring the lines, now not so much. The one good advantage Ninjago has was being a theme that could incorporate plenty of Japanese elements into them. No other new themes could take that spot. I really hope LEGO start using that aspect more rather than it ending up being a wasted potential.

17 hours ago, a guy from somewhere said:

Ok, looking at the box art for the sub speeder, interestingly the bridge has seaweed on it, meaning it has already been submerged, and the front wheels of the speeder move either up or down and the back wheels go from the side to the back, becoming back facing propellers. I honestly think this is my favourite set of the wave now, just the price, the figs and the build are amazing. yes, its a racer in an underwater theme, but its unique, and can still function as a submersible vehicle, and the design is something we haven't seen much of. Yes ninjago has tons of oversized single seater vehicles, but none that have a transformation feature as crazy as this. The only thing that could beat this is if the hydro bounty just blows me away. But so far, im liking the look of the wave. I completely agree with the helmets though, they are quite big and the tubes should be lower down.

Admittedly, after seeing the image, I'm actually kinda curious in seeing how the ninja vehicles that has pod-like cockpits would look when grouped together.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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1 hour ago, LOTR34 said:

 

And it's not that I hate this theme quite the opposite in fact,it has great minifigures and the location based builds are almost always great.I just wish there were more themes around like it used be. 

That would be great. But would that work with the current market? Lego has to sell to stores worldwide. Due to bad experience they gave up on original themes, after trying many times (Examples from above). Any genre is being reincorporated in the big 7 themes or Ideas. The same happened with City, Creator and Friends now - the sets are increasingly adventurous.

If a certain setting were to sell strong - as a businessman or woman I would make it a spinoff of one of the big themes. Because I have to sell that stuff to stores which (worst case scenario) are still traumatizeed by unsold Ultra Agents or Galaxy squad boxes lying around.* And if the sub-theme fails, I can still reintegrate it in the old show. Like Family Guy did with the Cleveland show. Didnt work. But American Dad became its own show.

*Seriously! In any Country, when Im in a rural area I see that stuff in old toy stores. You could make a fortune in buying and reselling those sets ;)

1 hour ago, LOTR34 said:

Also btw the HD images for Llyod's mech and Jay's car are available on insta.

thx for the Information!


So I count: new big blade piece, scuba helmet + neck attachment and maybe new visor. Maybe also waist piece. At least 2 new pieces for villain head pieces, Nyas hairband-hairpiece, lower jaw of Nyas dragon -> about 9 new pieces.

Plus I think Kais dragon uses new molds entirely. Maybe they are also the one from Lloyds dragon though.

16 minutes ago, JJ Tong (zfogshooterz) said:

 

Naja Snakes were always a big part of Ninjagos lore. I always disliked them as figures (no matter which season) but some could argue they stay more true to themselves like this.

About the sets: Ninjago doesn't serve some AFOL plan. No matter what genre they do: there will mostly be some bike, a mech, dragon and a speeder-car. Some base/temple-thingy and whatever big vehicle. Look at Star Wars - people gotta be happy about some changes in sets (recent X-Wing, Sandspeeder, etc.) but mostly sets are the same. When Ninjago redoes a Bounty, they really redo it.

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10 minutes ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

So I count: new big blade piece, scuba helmet + neck attachment and maybe new visor. Maybe also waist piece. At least 2 new pieces for villain head pieces, Nyas hairband-hairpiece, lower jaw of Nyas dragon -> about 9 new pieces.

That blade isn't new.

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Just now, Guyon2002 said:

That blade isn't new.

 

11 minutes ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:




So I count: new big blade piece, scuba helmet + neck attachment and maybe new visor. Maybe also waist piece. At least 2 new pieces for villain head pieces, Nyas hairband-hairpiece, lower jaw of Nyas dragon -> about 9 new pieces.

Plus I think Kais dragon uses new molds entirely. Maybe they are also the one from Lloyds dragon though.

 

The blade isn't new? I assume we're talking about the one that's used as claws on the hydro mech and as a large blade on the front of the hydro bounty. If so, where has it appeared? Ive never seen it before!

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1 hour ago, LOTR34 said:

The accusation of creative bankruptcy was thrown towards Lego as a whole but since this the Ninjago discussion I'll stick to the topic at hand.Yes they are one off waves but it doesn't change the fact that instead of having a diverse array of themes like how things used to be in the late 2010s nowdays all those potential themes get snuffed out before inception and instead they get slapped with the Ninjago logo and BOOM there you go this is your newest wave for Ninjago.I'd much prefer to have original themes flourish and have a variety of different characters and vehicles yet instead the status quo is that the action theme genre has grown stale and the only theme that is still around is Ninjago.

And it's not that I hate this theme quite the opposite in fact,it has great minifigures and the location based builds are almost always great.I just wish there were more themes around like it used be. 

The way I look at it is that Ninjago allows themes, or some version of them, that are (currently) unprofitable to have their time in the spotlight. The only thing I wish for is that LEGO had the bravery to step away from the true and tried formula of vehicle dominated waves to something more fitting the current flavor (ie castles for knights). On top of that LEGO should provide more minifigures that can be reused that match the theme, either within the sets or as separate "expansion packs".

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