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56 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

Brickset has their review of the Crystal King up! https://brickset.com/article/74644/review-71772-the-crystal-king

Honestly really impressed with the shaping of that set. The review also gives us our first look at the crystal king under the mask...

 

That review has definitely cemented the Crystal King as the Ninjago set which I am currently most interested in. It's just a very unique build compared to the usual (albeit still really great) stuff we tend to get, and the minifigure selection looks good too. From what we have seen it also seems to be one of the more reasonably priced sets from the upcoming wave, so I don't think I will mind picking it up even if it isn't discounted. 

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Crystal King review certainly was nice, and the parts used in the set are great too.

The pose, and proportions, remind me of a World of Warcraft Obsidian Destroyer, it even has some of the same egyptian vibes due to the golden accents.

Overall, this and the temple will be the sets I'm most interested in, Crystal King minifig is in both, but the temple version has 2 pairs of arms, and the other can be put inside the big crystal king creature anyway, also has a very cool face under the mask.

 

 

 

Edited by TeriXeri

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So with reviews of all the sets out, I feel like its time to give my thoughts. Be advised, its a long read!

Jays dragon bike: Probably my favourite set of the wave, its cheap, gives you the amazing golden dragon jay, plus it includes one of the weighted wheels which are useful. The price is alright, it doesn't look like a £18 set but considering the dragon jay fig, which I roughly equate to about £5 on its own, I can see the vengestone warrior being £3 and the bike is fine for £10. Solid set, solid price. 

Zanes jet: Looks like a good set, I like the jet design and looks decent value for £20, with the golden dragon Cole being £5. Looks very empty and unfinished underneath, and the duel moulding on the giant blades looks rough. But I like the actual design, and considering the figs, it definitely looks to be worth it, if a bit small. But hey, prices aren't gonna come down anytime soon, so I'll take it. 

Coles cruiser: This one...... yeah this one is rough. And I mean literally. Theres a lot of parts around the back that look unfinished, and its generally just looks like it was incredibly rushed and poorly designed. I think its look does improve when the golden blades are flipped forward, but still, I think it was a case of the design going 2 directions, one where the car is all black and orange and one where its completely golden, and this is just imbetween. I feel like it would have been a lot better just sticking with one look and going for it. At £40 as well its definitely overpriced, but not by too much. Kai's 4x4 from 2019 was about the same size and was £5 more, and considering this comes with the golden kai (my favourite of the 4 figs) I think its one I'll pick up on discount and mod the hell out of. Should have been a £35 set at most, £40 is too much. It looks far superior in the show. 

Crystal king: Unexpectedly, this is one of my favourites. Its a solid build, decent fig selection, and definitely looks to be worth the price. The arched back looks a bit weird but not too bad. Back legs also look very plain and the anti studs on the back look bad, but the cockpit and ribcage plus the head are all expertly built and sculpted. No golden dragon ninja but I'd say Lloyd is a worthy exclusive. Crystal king looks like he's wearing shades. Harumi is an interesting addition, considering she's not named as a general I'd probably say she's cannon but in like a flashback/what could have happened scene. 

Crystal temple: (Warning: rant ahead) Easily the worst set off the wave. I'm a massive fan of the idea of floating islands and tensegraty, and I can kind see it here. The back section looks alright at best, but I'd have liked to see more floating rocks attached, and the area for the myth of quakes feels really empty. From what we can gather from the box art, it appears this temple is floating in a storm or an abyss looking place, and whilst black is suitable, it looks awful here, especially at the front section. Theres no detail, just plain flat back plates. The collapsing bridge feature is neat however the technic pin to push someone off is not. It feels really basic. Another section thats basic is the right hand side of the structure, where at the bottom it looks just like scattered tiles and slopes, and theres no mechanism to move the floating stones. The whole thing lacks cohesion. Another really negative point is the price, in the USA and in the UK. This does not feel like £70 worth of value, no where near that. £55 at most, which is what I originally thought it was gonna be priced at. But enough moping, as it does have some good factors. First off, the dragon/bat looking thing, it may just be my favourite thing to come out of this wave. I love little creature builds like that. The figs are another point. The crystal king looks fine, still rocking the shades which makes it look like a vidyo character, but all 4 ninja in their season suits? Great! and the suits look amazing, possibly my second or third favourite suits (nothing will top the dragon master suits, unless we get the neoninja suits at some point, but man those dragon master suits where good). Unfortunately its gonna be impossible to get duplicates of the suits unless the magazines pick them up. The back floating rock build looks pretty good, just empty, but I like the roots hanging around. Now, onto my main point. I feel like this set really needs more parts for the price, and really it just feels like a greedy way to get people to buy all the ninja suits, which look to be the main suits everyone will have throughout the season. They're the most desirable, and locking them away at a £70 paywall without anyway to get duplicates feels criminal. It's an ok set, but for that price, I expected more. It really feels like figs first, build later. 

kai's raider: my favourite of the wave, I love the unique and interesting build idea, and it defiantly looks imposing. The red and gold looks wonderful, and I like the feature of the wing blades flipping round. The drone is a nice touch and is hidden well, and the cockpit looks good, fitting 2 figs and a lot of control consoles. Not a fan of how the sides are open around the cockpit, but I like the general design. The walker mode seems cool, but I'm not sure on how the legs splay out. I definitely think a mobile artillery platform suits this build best. Kai looks great, as do all the golden robed ninja, Skylor is a welcome addition but I'd like to have seen printed legs, mister F is fine, though I'll probably swap out the samurai helmet for a regular biker helmet. I guess he got rebuilt. The other vengestone warriors are nice, theres a decent amount, and zane looks amazing. I love the trans blue and gold, and for once the blue technic pins suit the subject build. The price feel alright, I would have liked to see it at maybe £65 but £75 is manageable compared to the rest of the wave, but in the grand scheme of things is still very expensive for one kai vehicle. $90 US is a complete no-go for me though. 

Nyas mech: Wow, this is certainly a very colourful mech. Agreed with what others have been saying, it looks very toyish and plasticky (ironically, thats exactly what it is) but I do think it could have more detail. The knees look great, however are still held back by the lack of ankles. A lot of people don't realise that knees on a mech are only half the issue, there also needs to be suitable ankle rotation for them to work. I love the fully enclosed cockpit, thats something I've been wanting for so long, as it seems illogical to have the pilot of the mech to in the open. One shot and it's over. The colours though don't really do it for me. Its very messy and in a way, too colourful. I think swapping that X out on the centre is gonna be very important. The head is my least favourite part, it just looks strange, but its lego, so its easy fixed. The little vengestone creature looks great, definitely a good use of parts, and I'm not sure on the lack of eyes. All the figs in this set are amazing as well, I hope we get more face prints with the mask printed on as I love that style with Nelson, its great to see 2 generals in the same set, Nya looks good and wu looks amazing. Sadly the only way to get golden jay other than the dragon. Still a decent set, and pretty fairly priced in the UK. In the US though, it could be better. 

Golden dragon: Honestly, pretty good. I like the main build, the heads are amazing, and although I thought there was too much gold, seeing it in hand I think its rather balanced. The white stripe is good, and the main body looks fine, I love the tail but the rings could be better. They look way too mechanical. Oni Lloyd looks insane, but doesn't really sell the set for me. The crystal king is good, still rocking the shades. Having all the ninja is also good. The price is alright, but still very high, especially for the US. 

Overall, I think this wave is decent at best. I think the main focus on this wave was on the minifigs, and it really shows. Some of these builds are really rough looking at the expense of a couple of cool figs, and I generally rank the build over minifigs on my importance level scale. But thats just my opinion, I know a lot of people like their minifigs, and this wave is really good for that. However I do think lego is trying to hike up the prices due to the figs, unfairly in some situations, especially with the larger sets. This wave feels a lot like monkie kid, with high quality builds and figures, but the prices are just so high they cant be justified, especially with the current inflation costs. If the prices on these sets where all brought down by £10 (excluding the motorbike) I think this could easily make the top 3 best waves in many peoples books. But those prices are just too high. I do like how all the golden winged ninja seem to be fighting their focus villain in the sets, obviously jay doesn't have a focus villain in the bike set due to Unigami being a child now, but I still like the consistency. Its really hard to draw comparisons to other ninjago sets as well. Zane's titan mech and the EVO combiner mech where both priced cheaper and are about the same size as the Nya mech, and look a hell of a lot better value wise, I mean the EVO mech is the same price as the Kai raider here in the UK. thats a rough comparison, but I think the figs do make up for it somewhat. I'd rate it a solid 6.5 out of 10, maybe a 7. Hopefully we see the sets on discount soon!

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Really good sets overall! I'm sorry about inflation; US seems to be hit harder and Europe softer then it looked initially.

Noteworthy to me that all the villains have new face prints, Overlord is distinctive from former figs, Nyas figure looks great and I'm very happy they didn't ignore her in the parts pack (Samurai helmet part).

I'm out of Lego though - hope to get that Nya and Overlord at some point. Last waves Nya is the first time I didn't get her fig since like 2013!
But anyway my respects and applaus from afar!

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7 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Really good sets overall! I'm sorry about inflation; US seems to be hit harder and Europe softer then it looked initially.

In the long run, the value of the Euro currency also dropped from like $1,20 to almost $1 in a year and will likely have effect on future pricing on sets. 

I'm still on the fence about this wave, very little interest in the vehicles/mech/dragon myself, the 2 crystal king sets look the most unique to me but especially the temple need some discount for value.

Edited by TeriXeri

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On 5/13/2022 at 10:35 AM, Killian said:

My thoughts/predictions after watching the teaser trailer...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I think the new Ninja team are probably replacements to defend Ninjago City while the regular Ninja are in jail, maybe funded by Cyrus Borg. The yellow one has marks on her face like Skylor has in the new sets, so maybe it's her? The pink haired girl in the van could be the pink ninja. If next year is a soft reboot, I wonder if this new ninja team will be the new main characters? I wonder if the creepy masked guy is Nya returning in secret? The mechanical tentacle thing seems to be part of the noodle truck? Vangelis is obviously getting his Crystalized power up from whoever is communicating with him via the hologram. Kai and Jay are probably fighting over something to do with Nya, maybe there's a way to bring her back but one of them doesn't want to do it and the other one does? Maybe it would be dangerous in some way, or one of them doesn't want to ruin her happiness by forcing her back? Looks like they're allied with Aspheera at some point before she gets her Crystalized power up. Maybe Aspheera steals the Golden Weapons to give to the Crystal King?

 

Spoiler

Ok... Now the episode descriptions have been released we know that The Pink haired girl is a singer travelling to Ninjago City when she assists the Ninja to escape the new Sherriff. 

 With their weapons being all technological, I wonder if the new Ninja are Nindroids? Or at least employed by Cyrus Borg?

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39 minutes ago, Falconfan1414 said:

Looks like the entire first half of the season is out 

Yep, 12 episodes. Time to give my thoughts: 

Spoiler

Episode 1: Alright, its pretty rushed, but it does what it needs to do. It gets the team back together. Some scenes feel a little off, mainly with the dialogue feeling forced, the visuals are pretty incredible though. its also interesting to see how each ninja deals with grief, and jay ripping the beard off is a little wild. Theres a nice callback to Tommy and his twitter name, Quanish was a fool! and the new ninja, whilst I find them mildly annoying with all their smoke and show off, I do really love their look. The black and neon tech look combined with the weapons having a sort of Tron legacy vibe, god I hope we get them someday as figures. 

Episode 2: This ones good, maybe my 3rd fav. I'm happy to see Nya is getting the spotlight for the full episode, but I really feel like the 10 minute episode length is really pulling the season back as a whole. A lot of things feel very rushed and forced. This is one of the main problems with this episode, we know theres been a time skip but it just feels like she's done nothing for a year and suddenly this just all happens at once. It would have been better to start the episode of with a "3 months earlier" card and then like half way through it cuts to present day ninjago. But I like seeing Nyad, and also it sets the seasons dark tone with just the skeleton in one of the scenes, it's implied that they drowned. 

Episode 3: Also very good, subway fight was pretty amazing, obviously the ninja are a bit rusty. Its also nice to see miss Demeanour (best ninjago name btw) actually have some character in this season. Neon ninjas look great as always, and the mayor is also a very interesting person. I wouldn't be surprised if he was being somewhat bribed by the crystal king himself. Not much too say as we've seen a decent part of it already in the teaser clip. The rat is also interesting, I'm pretty sure thats gonna have some sort of significance, its eyes line up with the masked messenger. Again, Nya's entrance feels somewhat forced but we can run with it. 

Episode 4: Again, good. The plan to break revenge lady out and obtain her staff seems a little odd, I'm sure theres better ways of doing it, but hey, plot! Rather intriguing to see that they knew the ninja would go after the staff and so it was removed, but no trap or guards where left in its place. But the frozen Nya statue seems to work, honestly the best part is Skylor showing up and Lloyd just casually mentioning he has her number, to Kai's anger and dismay. 

Episode 5: Now this, this is my favourite so far. Loved the action scenes, the music was on point and the vehicles look great. I know this one is basically one giant advert but I do love it. Hopefully this updated version of the rover chase soundtrack gets released with the rest, because the music gods have answered my prayers! Cant wait to hear the rest of the Ninjago soundtracks. also, Pixals hyper fast construction times are probably gonna become a running gag now. Wonder if they will ever explain that..... Another point to touch on is Zane's emotions, it's a rather interesting arc and I'm happy to see him get some character development. I wonder if he also switched off his emotions when becoming the ice emperor, that may explain why he hasn't showed any regret or trauma considering what hes done. I also really wonder about the stealth aspect, like its pretty obvious who these blacked out ninja are, I mean ones got green eyes, ones got silver skin, and they drive massive vehicles. But its a kids show, cant poke too many holes. Also can I point out how creepy the mayors cat looks? Theres something about it, it just doesn't fit the art style. 

I have not seen the rest of the episodes bar the 12th one, which was spoilt in a clip. all the returning villains look great, I really wish we got Mr F as a fig in his normal attire, that helmet looks great! and it is painfully obvious that the masked messenger is Harumi, even up to the reveal. Not sure how I feel about her being back, especially after Tommy confirmed she was dead. revenge lady is gonna get old pretty quick I think. 

Overall, id say this is a really strong season, and I really hope it can only get better. it was definitely a good idea to give it 30 episodes, I cant wait to see what happens next! I will say that releasing 12 episodes at once probably wasn't the smartest idea though. 

 

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So will this be the final season in this continuity? Will there be a reboot afterwards? I'm over 5 years behind on the show and I don't think I'll ever catch up, especially since I left the target demo a long time ago and don't enjoy the show anymore. Just curious if this is the ending, because would probably tune in for the last couple of episodes if it is.

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2 hours ago, Alegrispa said:

So will this be the final season in this continuity? Will there be a reboot afterwards? I'm over 5 years behind on the show and I don't think I'll ever catch up, especially since I left the target demo a long time ago and don't enjoy the show anymore. Just curious if this is the ending, because would probably tune in for the last couple of episodes if it is.

No one knows yet.

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I doubt the theme will end but I have a strong feeling that we’re going to get a significant reboot, maybe with the ninja finally aged up and possibly training the next generation.

Anyway, while I’ve ultimately decided to use my money towards other things than this summer’s wave, I’m really loving the season so far! I’m left wanting more, which I consider a good sign.

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Spoiler

Harumi ; "I died, was wearing a mask, and had a male voice, but you should have known it was me Lloyd" :hmpf:

 

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So yeah, I've watched the episodes released so far... And I'm very happy to say that I agree, they are GOOD. I'm pretty satisfied and nicely entertained with them since Master of the Mountain! The trailers were promising and the episodes delivered! The arcs flows very smoothly into each other and that is a massive improvement over Prime Empire. Props to the writers for stepping their game up!

Spoiler

 

Though I feel what transpired in the first arc makes the start of that arc and the ending of Seabound very problematic. If the plan was to find a way to bring Nya back and eventually that happened very soon - i.e. shortly after the start of the season, the whole funeral feel pretty pointless then and now.... The whole thing sounds like trying to recreate the ending of Rebooted and the start of Tournaments of Elements again which sorta feels a little ham-fisted.

Maybe if the ending of Seabound were after Nya loses herself, the Ninja vows to try to find a way to bring her back and at the start of Crystallized. they just couldn't find a way which leads to despair and a loss of hope. Maybe that would gel better with the non-finality that the first arc was trying to vibe with as opposed to the sense of finality that ending of Seabound gives.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed Crystallized and I'm very much looking forward to more!

 

 

Also yeah, I definitely agree with A guy from Somewhere that mass releasing episode isn't the smartest of ideas on Lego's part. There's a big difference between bingewatching episodes and anticipating them weekly which can sometimes fuels the hype. It really adds a lot to the fun.

I really wish that instead of releasing the season in regions here and there, Lego would just premiere the episodes in a simulcast format worldwide like how it's done with shorts such as the Virtues of Spinjitzu.

Edited by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

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I feel like Lego have put so much into the Crystalized wave with so many great minifigs, awesome builds, trans-clear parts, large parts and gold parts. I can't wait to get them all, and multiples of some. However, I feel that the high prices will put a lot of people off and this wave won't sell well, so in future Lego won't put as much effort into Ninjago. I worry that it'll be downhill from here for this theme. Hope I'm wrong though

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Do we know when The Ninjago City Gardens are retiring? I don't want to miss out, but I'd rather wait for a good gwp (the robinhood 'forestmen' one coming soon looks very good to me)  or double points or something.

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50 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

Do we know when The Ninjago City Gardens are retiring? I don't want to miss out, but I'd rather wait for a good gwp (the robinhood 'forestmen' one coming soon looks very good to me)  or double points or something.

It was meant to retire this year but has been extended to 2024 I believe. Also considering picking up another copy just so I can get a ninjago city castle, paired with my current one, my custom corner module and my friends. TBH I just really want that courtyard feel with the islands in the centre. 

 

2 hours ago, Killian said:

I feel like Lego have put so much into the Crystalized wave with so many great minifigs, awesome builds, trans-clear parts, large parts and gold parts. I can't wait to get them all, and multiples of some. However, I feel that the high prices will put a lot of people off and this wave won't sell well, so in future Lego won't put as much effort into Ninjago. I worry that it'll be downhill from here for this theme. Hope I'm wrong though

I agree, this wave does look good but those prices are a definite turn off, considering inflation is going up and jobs are getting increasingly harder to come by. I for one would love to pick up all the sets, but I feel as if I may be very limited with my budget, and some of those prices, I cant bring myself to pay 70 for that temple. As for the other sets, they're like monkie kid. They look great, may be worth it (only just) but just have really high prices. The mech, the raider and the golden dragon all look like great sets but those 3 alone is a grand total of £300. Thats pretty crazy. Honestly though I will probably skip the dragon, I can get jay in the mech and unless golden oni Lloyd plays an enormous role in the final battle aspect its not that interesting. Currently I'm gonna pick up the golden jet and maybe the crystal king on release, ask for the Jay bike for my birthday and hopefully snag the raider and Coles car on discount. As for the mech and temple, I'm gonna wait for my birthday and see if they're on discount anywhere. Its just bad timing really, prices get hiked for all the new stuff and cool figs and at the same time inflation makes everything incredibly pricy. :(

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I still find it really bizarre that Oni Lloyd is the only exclusive character in the dragon. I don't necessarily mind if a set is lacking in exclusive minifigures, but it just feels weird that it's only got Lloyd, whereas the third and second most expensive sets have three and six exclusive minifigures respectively. Even the temple, which retails for $60 less than the dragon in the US, has four unique minifigures.

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On 5/23/2022 at 11:14 PM, Meadius said:

I still find it really bizarre that Oni Lloyd is the only exclusive character in the dragon. I don't necessarily mind if a set is lacking in exclusive minifigures, but it just feels weird that it's only got Lloyd, whereas the third and second most expensive sets have three and six exclusive minifigures respectively. Even the temple, which retails for $60 less than the dragon in the US, has four unique minifigures.

To be honest, I feel like the dragon itself is enough of a selling point that it doesn't really need an abundance of exclusive minifigs. It's easily the set that I'm most excited for, at the very least. In comparison, I feel like a set like the temple would be a lot less desirable without the exclusive minifigures—there's just not as much raw appeal to the set design itself.

I also don't think that a big set that has existing versions of the main ninja is a bad thing—I'm reminded of the Lego Ninjago Movie's Destiny's Bounty which similarly didn't really offer exclusive figs, but was a strong set design that offered the full cast of ninja, and consequently was a very highly sought-after set.

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57 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

To be honest, I feel like the dragon itself is enough of a selling point that it doesn't really need an abundance of exclusive minifigs. It's easily the set that I'm most excited for, at the very least. In comparison, I feel like a set like the temple would be a lot less desirable without the exclusive minifigures—there's just not as much raw appeal to the set design itself.

I also don't think that a big set that has existing versions of the main ninja is a bad thing—I'm reminded of the Lego Ninjago Movie's Destiny's Bounty which similarly didn't really offer exclusive figs, but was a strong set design that offered the full cast of ninja, and consequently was a very highly sought-after set.

I guess that's fair, because it's probably the set I'm the most interested in too. I wouldn't have minded another exclusive, or even some of the other currently exclusive characters like Wu or Garmadon, but as is the set itself seems pretty great (albeit too expensive). 

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On 5/23/2022 at 11:41 PM, a guy from somewhere said:

It was meant to retire this year but has been extended to 2024 I believe. Also considering picking up another copy just so I can get a ninjago city castle, paired with my current one, my custom corner module and my friends. TBH I just really want that courtyard feel with the islands in the centre. 

Where did you read that it’s retiring in 2024? I am also considering buying it, but will have to wait till the end of this year. 

Edited by Bainter-ban

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