LEGO Ninjago 2023 Discussion

[bluedog1111]

9 hours ago, a guy from somewhere said:

Yes I forgot to mention that in my sets rundown here, I didn't see that. That is a fairly cool feature and makes it worth the price, but im interested in how the show will execute it. Theres also some details about the series shared from brcksbymind, apparently Sora is from the imperium or was a part of it, but disagreed with it and is now against them. The imperium is from a different realm, and theres so called "source dragons" which im assuming are part of the energy cores. The reason we haven't seen Jay Cole and Zane is due to the fact that for each season the ninja will be swapped around. Sora, Arin and im assuming Riyu will be the main cast, and there will be supporting ninja alongside them. For season 1, its Kai Lloyd and Nya, and for season 2 we will probably see Jay Cole and Zane. This is due to the world being so massive now they're basically off on side quests, however the show will check in with them at points. DR will also be like the oni trilogy, where it will be one large continuous story spanning multiple seasons, not just 1 story in one season. 

The second part to dragons rising season 1 will be coming in the fall, whislt the 1st part will be released in June. Core and Legacy are officially confirmed dead, they will no longer be returning. Kinda sad to say goodbye to core, I really enjoyed it as a theme and I'd like to see them at another point return. Also I was correct, JB speilwaren did actually ruin the whole set reveal by posting the images early. 

What do you mean by Core? Was that just all the sets prior the change of the show with it wrapping up last season and the new wave being its' own thing?

[Vindicare]

2 hours ago, Doom2099 said:

I'm really liking 95% of what I see for the Market. I think it's a great way to add variety instead of just adding new squares on a square baseplate. The water at the back from the original City and the Docks seemed a bit much, so this one bulking out the middle may be a nice change of pace as we get more modulars. Sort of like how Assembly Square has more sidewalk due to the fountain, but this provides some recess from a flat street front. And the cable car is very eye catching, just like the train around the Monkie Kid City of Lanterns.

Great minifigures too. Throwing in a couple of villains every time is great, but most Lego took the chance to bulk up the civilian population we've been longing for. Gayle, Dareth, Cyrus Borg, these types of sets are the perfect place to drop in Antonia, Dr. Julien or Cole's Dad.

Most importantly after the Gardens came out, it is just great that we are getting the fourth modular, with hopefully more to follow every 2 years or so. A single baseplate with a Daily Bugle height Borg tower? A single baseplate with a tall fourth floor and a recessed Imperial Throne Room for the Emperor and Empress of Ninjago? It's great that we can mix up the tall single baseplates, corners, 1.5 baseplate straight sections, and now the first double baseplate.

Anyone who built the original Ninjago City and was blown away by it loves adding more to this line. Please keep it up Lego!

 

 

Well said. I love what’s going on here. 

 

Taking another look....and depending on how people display these sets, you could easily bulk out the upper area with some facades. The walkway in the previous sets are all 4 wide while this one appears to be 8. Just relocate the torii gate & omit the railings on the backside. 

[Meaf]

3 hours ago, bluedog1111 said:

What do you mean by Core? Was that just all the sets prior the change of the show with it wrapping up last season and the new wave being its' own thing?

Core is the sub-series we got in the Winter 2022 and Winter 2023 waves, kind of like a replacement to Legacy but not strictly based on older sets. 

[hikouki]

I feel like the ground floor on the Markets set is a bit bare…seen some vids on YouTube.

[Merlo]

Ah, well... I'm going to buy the Markets I guess.

But I have to say this is the first NC set that doesn't look amazing to me. Ninjago City was such a pleasant surprise. Docks were made to the same standard, if not better, even though they're not tackling a city part that is equally exciting. Gardens undoubtedly look good, although a big part of it feels like a remake of Ninjago City rather than it's own thing.

Markets seem to have noticeable problems with the composition of the scene. As mentioned, the bottom center looks empty. For me, it's not even empty in the "there should be some more builds here" but it's empty in the "in the city this detailed, seeing a surface with no texture on it instantly breaks the illusion" way.

The right side is not presentable, ditto for the entirety of the rear.

Docks is wonderful on both sides, so much so it's hard to tell which one is better. Ninjago City presents a bare look that works, as it really feels appropriate for that part and we've all likely seen city parts reminiscent of that vibe. So everything except the elevator is on point. Gardens perhaps doesn't have enough detail in the rear to look fully finished, but it's not that bad. Markets just have that flat look you get when you take a Lego building and cut it precisely in half, showing the inner structure, if you know what I mean?

The level of details and textures feels more appropriate for Minecraft than Ninjago City. I also wonder where all the pieces went. All into width?

And I have to wonder what it will look like without the stickers. City absolutely doesn't need them, but will this seriously lack detail without them?

So even though I enjoy flipping my NC around in different configuration, this feels mostly like something I would stick in the center and then surround on all sides.

Btw, I'm not sure if I'm seeing it well, but is that red bridge just connecting two parts that are connected anyways, for no particular reason?

As a final note - seemingly dumping poo into the main waterway is a terrible decision. We have people actually catching, selling fish and eating fish grown in raw sewage now??

Edited May 10, 2023 by Merlo

[MoribundStraggler]

Hey all, been lurking for a bit as we waited for the Markets reveal

I've made some mock-ups of how it can connect to the other City sets. Whereas some have complained that the set feels empty, you really get a sense of how it shines as an extension.

Here's my favourite configuration: City - Markets - Gardens.

I'm especially keen on covering the ugly wall to the right of City there, which it isn't with the old, suggested Docks layout - and a very uneven skyline there too, I much prefer this one. On the other side, Gardens' balconies are detached so you once again have the artist studio's doorway into a wall. I think, however, this is an absolutely brilliant combination. It feels like both City and Gardens are getting about a half plate of naturally fitting extension. To the person who questioned how this has the highest piece count: don't forget that this has the baseplate footprint of City and Gardens put together. Markets bulks them out and the whole thing feels unified. Much less so if you include Docks and/or Zane's Memorial Garden in the straight line, but we'll get to that.

Here's City - Markets - Docks - ZMG - Gardens. I would be removing ZMG in any case, but there's also a rather ugly clash between the right of Markets and left of Docks - that purple and blue on the walkway level. So, bad news for those looking to have all the sets in a row. Skyline works though. Docks -> Markets looks better, but with an awkward skyline. I like how the gondola is further from the escalator on the far left, now servicing a distinct section.

Gardens - Markets - City. Couldn't find a decent image of that side of City for some reason, so it isn't at the correct angle or well lit, but you get an idea. I think this is another great configuration! Like any connection with City on this side, you lose the poster-swap function on the walkway level, but in return you get some nice combinations on the different levels and the other ugly, blank wall (to the side of the elevator) covered. The squid and the blowfish make a funny combination. The clients of the expensive sushi restaurant might look down on the rather more humble shack.

On the reverse side, I had a sneaky suspicion that one of the rear walkways of Gardens might get a good connection.

I didn't notice this til someone pointed it out on this thread, but if you scroll down the Lego page there's a video which includes a brief look at the reverse of the set.

We can see the elevator on the right, which I believe Borg or other characters can enter through the tower that is placed directly to the left from this view. It then lifts up to allow access to the higher level. The question is, would that also also allow access to the higher levels of Gardens?

Sadly, upon further inspection of the front view of the combination, I think we can see a glimpse of the elevator in the gap between the sets, and it looks like there would be a gap to the rear walkways :'( It could perhaps be modified.

Speaking of modifications, I think the "emptiness" of the middle of the set feels appropriate when it's been the two corners, lending a symmetry, but I've got a nice idea of an open air market on the long walkway. It would have to be efficiently built - a wooden construction that provides a roof over that section of the walkway and maybe the goods would need to hang or otherwise embrace the vertical. But it would feel extremely fitting to the theme. Characters walking along would have no choice but to go through and have deals yelled at them by the various street vendors.

[a guy from somewhere]

4 minutes ago, MoribundStraggler said:

Hey all, been lurking for a bit as we waited for the Markets reveal

I've made some mock-ups of how it can connect to the other City sets. Whereas some have complained that the set feels empty, you really get a sense of how it shines as an extension.

Here's my favourite configuration: City - Markets - Gardens.

I'm especially keen on covering the ugly wall to the right of City there, which it isn't with the old, suggested Docks layout - and a very uneven skyline there too, I much prefer this one. On the other side, Gardens' balconies are detached so you once again have the artist studio's doorway into a wall. I think, however, this is an absolutely brilliant combination. It feels like both City and Gardens are getting about a half plate of naturally fitting extension. To the person who questioned how this has the highest piece count: don't forget that this has the baseplate footprint of City and Gardens put together. Markets bulks them out and the whole thing feels unified. Much less so if you include Docks and/or Zane's Memorial Garden in the straight line, but we'll get to that.

Here's City - Markets - Docks - ZMG - Gardens. I would be removing ZMG in any case, but there's also a rather ugly clash between the right of Markets and left of Docks - that purple and blue on the walkway level. So, bad news for those looking to have all the sets in a row. Skyline works though. Docks -> Markets looks better, but with an awkward skyline. I like how the gondola is further from the escalator on the far left, now servicing a distinct section.

Gardens - Markets - City. Couldn't find a decent image of that side of City for some reason, so it isn't at the correct angle or well lit, but you get an idea. I think this is another great configuration! Like any connection with City on this side, you lose the poster-swap function on the walkway level, but in return you get some nice combinations on the different levels and the other ugly, blank wall (to the side of the elevator) covered. The squid and the blowfish make a funny combination. The clients of the expensive sushi restaurant might look down on the rather more humble shack.

On the reverse side, I had a sneaky suspicion that one of the rear walkways of Gardens might get a good connection.

I didn't notice this til someone pointed it out on this thread, but if you scroll down the Lego page there's a video which includes a brief look at the reverse of the set.

We can see the elevator on the right, which I believe Borg or other characters can enter through the tower that is placed directly to the left from this view. It then lifts up to allow access to the higher level. The question is, would that also also allow access to the higher levels of Gardens?

Sadly, upon further inspection of the front view of the combination, I think we can see a glimpse of the elevator in the gap between the sets, and it looks like there would be a gap to the rear walkways :'( It could perhaps be modified.

Speaking of modifications, I think the "emptiness" of the middle of the set feels appropriate when it's been the two corners, lending a symmetry, but I've got a nice idea of an open air market on the long walkway. It would have to be efficiently built - a wooden construction that provides a roof over that section of the walkway and maybe the goods would need to hang or otherwise embrace the vertical. But it would feel extremely fitting to the theme. Characters walking along would have no choice but to go through and have deals yelled at them by the various street vendors.

Thank you! These are great, and yes, I will have come around on it now. But I will be modding it a bit to fix it up to my liking. 

[MoribundStraggler]

3 hours ago, Merlo said:

Btw, I'm not sure if I'm seeing it well, but is that red bridge just connecting two parts that are connected anyways, for no particular reason?

On the reverse view it looks like there is a gap either side of the little shop

So the water appears to break into streams around the little island.

Now why Ninjago's planners would invest funds into building a bridge at the wider point of the river/bay/whatever it is rather than the tiny gaps is a mystery 😅

[Merlo]

Nice mock-ups, but I'm curious about how many would display all these sets in a straight line. ZMG (don't really know what that stands for :)), despite being shown in that configuration,

I feel is clearly made to facilitate different connections, and is great at doing so. (Popped between the bigger builds it looks weird and out of place.)

In fact, if you're willing to add a bit of custom made water or are not bothered by irregular edges (Lego obviously isn't in all their landscape sets that come without baseplates), there are many more interesting combinations possible.

[a guy from somewhere]

34 minutes ago, Merlo said:

Nice mock-ups, but I'm curious about how many would display all these sets in a straight line. ZMG (don't really know what that stands for :)), despite being shown in that configuration,

I feel is clearly made to facilitate different connections, and is great at doing so. (Popped between the bigger builds it looks weird and out of place.)

In fact, if you're willing to add a bit of custom made water or are not bothered by irregular edges (Lego obviously isn't in all their landscape sets that come without baseplates), there are many more interesting combinations possible.

ZMG- zanes memorial garden I believe. Also I’ve just noticed the team mechs actually have knees. At least the big one does. Pretty cool. Love how it seems to be the new standard with mechs. 

[Red Rackham]

Thank you MoribundStraggler, the options to customize look great. Switching is always fun.

A few thoughts on the Markets and the City Sets:
I think every expansion suffers from being measured against the first set in the series... and can only (almost) lose. When Ninjago City came out, it felt like it set a lot of milestones. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to achieve this again, but much more to give us more variations, more possibilities and simply more "from the core topic in general".

I am very happy about the cable car and the many bright colors, I am always happy about the water in these sets and the many details. It's also nice that it didn't become a corner building.

And as for the WOW factor:
As a child of the 80's, my childhood theme is "pirates". I have a lot of old sets (the Islanders in particular are fantastic), this series will always have a special favorite spot. Also out of pure nostalgia. Besides that I have some landmarks, fairground, MOC of ships...this and that. But when visitors come to the Lego room, especially with kids, it's ALWAYS the Ninjago complex.
City, Docks and Gardens with the Bounty from the Ninjago Movie are THE heart of the whole room.
I think these 16,000+ parts are simply unbeatable in terms of colour, playfulness, complexity, joy of building, selection of minifigures and this gigantic "everything from one piece" look.
You can stand there for hours.
And if it ever came to that and you could only afford one set a year, it would be the Ninjago City Modulars.

[Vindicare]

For those saying it feels empty, what would you want? Because if they filled that empty space the cable car wouldn’t exist because it would crash into the poor citizens below or into a shop. Looking at the 4 sets lined up together, the skyline looks a lot better with varied height & width that we have. 

[Lyichir]

Personally I like the spacing of this set... I feel like if you "filled in" the areas under or on top of the bridge in the rear, you'd lose sense of the bridge itself and the sense of space that gives the cable car something that feels meaningful to traverse. The negative space helps give the two sides more of a sense of scale.

Then again, I felt similarly about the gardens affording a wide area between the buildings for the tree in the middle, or the Docks having a lower elevation with more space afforded to the "ground level". If every NC module were as densely packed as the original Ninjago City, there'd be less room for variation and I feel like the format would more easily become stale.

I'm eager to see more pictures or reviews of the completed set. There's several buildings/rooms in the set that the provided pictures/videos don't show off the interiors of.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Lyichir

[Clone OPatra]

Looking at pictures of the wave some more, it's incredible how much better the new hood pieces look with some printing. I don't like the plain versions much at all, but the printed ones in the Spinjitzu sets look pretty cool.

[a guy from somewhere]

Almost done on my dragon MOC from the new bounty, just need to work out a fix for the EVO legs, I don’t have those parts handy unfortunately, and there will be a couple of part swaps due to the colours I have available. Dragon is actually decently sized, I could see it going up against the hunter hound from the smallest set. 
I’ve seen a lot of dispute over the bounty’s size, and yes, whislt it does cost 30$ more in America, when compared to the legacy bounty it looks horrid on paper, but it is nearly 10cm longer. I’ve measured the size and this thing is huge, over half a meter long. Very excited to have it in hand. This along with the hunter hound will be a day 1 buy.

[Merlo]

11 hours ago, Vindicare said:

For those saying it feels empty, what would you want? Because if they filled that empty space the cable car wouldn’t exist because it would crash into the poor citizens below or into a shop. Looking at the 4 sets lined up together, the skyline looks a lot better with varied height & width that we have.  

Well, as I said in my post, it's not a problem that it's "empty". All the sets are packed and a little breathing room brings a nice contrast.

But precisely because the sets pack a lot of details per square Legometre, that part looks barren. It serves little purpose and has little content, yes. But city square are often like that, so it's not a problem.

But it also has no texture, it's just flat and gray, which always somewhat brings to mind an empty space that you're yet to build upon and it's all the worse contrasted with the other details.

Look at the water in the sets, for example. It does not possess "insane MOC" levels of detail. But it does have some in terms of different colored plates below it, occasional plant, differently orientated tiles, etc.

So where in real life I would find more details on the concrete on any city square, even if it's just dirty, than I would in the water, it's the complete opposite here, and thus it feels unfinished.

The other gray walkways were too narrow to expect much from them and they were broken with stairs or adjoined architectural details, this is just... plain.

[BrickSP]

4 hours ago, Merlo said:

Well, as I said in my post, it's not a problem that it's "empty". All the sets are packed and a little breathing room brings a nice contrast.

But precisely because the sets pack a lot of details per square Legometre, that part looks barren. It serves little purpose and has little content, yes. But city square are often like that, so it's not a problem.

But it also has no texture, it's just flat and gray, which always somewhat brings to mind an empty space that you're yet to build upon and it's all the worse contrasted with the other details.

Look at the water in the sets, for example. It does not possess "insane MOC" levels of detail. But it does have some in terms of different colored plates below it, occasional plant, differently orientated tiles, etc.

So where in real life I would find more details on the concrete on any city square, even if it's just dirty, than I would in the water, it's the complete opposite here, and thus it feels unfinished.

The other gray walkways were too narrow to expect much from them and they were broken with stairs or adjoined architectural details, this is just... plain.

You've hit the nail on the head there. 

16 hours ago, Vindicare said:

For those saying it feels empty, what would you want? Because if they filled that empty space the cable car wouldn’t exist because it would crash into the poor citizens below or into a shop. Looking at the 4 sets lined up together, the skyline looks a lot better with varied height & width that we have. 

Not everyone will have all the other three sets so you have to look at it as an individual model as well and as individual model it does lack something - it's the greyness of the baseplate space - easily filled with plant parts etc but for the price that should already be there. Wasting parts on flushing toilets and cable cart lifts I suppose.  I'm suprised there isn't a slide like the Friends sets

Edited May 11, 2023 by BrickSP

[Agent Kallus]

I'd argue that parts spent on the toilet and especially the cable car aren't wasted.

[Lyichir]

All the criticisms of the toilet seem absurd to me, since it reminds me most of the incredibly clever working ATM and vending machine functions from the original two Ninjago City sets. Novel functional components (even parts-intensive ones) have been a part of the series from the get-go, and their inclusion here doesn't seem to have compromised any other aspects of the set as far as I'm concerned.

I am eager to see how the toilet function actually works, since the exit chute is actually quite a distance from the top-floor restroom! There's got to be some clever "plumbing" behind the club and inside the bridge to allow the tiles to move from point A to point B.

[Merlo]

But... there's poop. Does poop have a role in the cartoon? Doesn't seem like a fun gameplay element to insinuate everyone is catching fish in raw sewage.

[Lyichir]

3 minutes ago, Merlo said:

But... there's poop. Does poop have a role in the cartoon? Doesn't seem like a fun gameplay element to insinuate everyone is catching fish in raw sewage.

Kids are likely to be less concerned with the realistic environmental outcomes of a simplified plumbing system like this than they are excited for the novelty of working plumbing in the first place. It's probably best not to dwell on the fact that they couldn't integrate full wastewater processing infrastructure.

[Vindicare]

11 hours ago, Merlo said:

Well, as I said in my post, it's not a problem that it's "empty". All the sets are packed and a little breathing room brings a nice contrast.

But precisely because the sets pack a lot of details per square Legometre, that part looks barren. It serves little purpose and has little content, yes. But city square are often like that, so it's not a problem.

But it also has no texture, it's just flat and gray, which always somewhat brings to mind an empty space that you're yet to build upon and it's all the worse contrasted with the other details.

Look at the water in the sets, for example. It does not possess "insane MOC" levels of detail. But it does have some in terms of different colored plates below it, occasional plant, differently orientated tiles, etc.

So where in real life I would find more details on the concrete on any city square, even if it's just dirty, than I would in the water, it's the complete opposite here, and thus it feels unfinished.

The other gray walkways were too narrow to expect much from them and they were broken with stairs or adjoined architectural details, this is just... plain.

It looks just like every walkway area in the past sets. The only real difference is there’s no ladders & 1x2 green slope plates like in the first two. The water tiles, I think, are different colors underneath to represent different depths(little bit of trans tikes aside). Of course they’re not going to dirty sidewalks in a set, same way they have pristine sidewalks in the Modulars. It serves the purpose of being an open air for a market to take place. The set is light on that...but then every set is light on what they’re meant to be. Not much of a garden in last year’s set.

6 hours ago, BrickSP said:

You've hit the nail on the head there. 

Not everyone will have all the other three sets so you have to look at it as an individual model as well and as individual model it does lack something - it's the greyness of the baseplate space - easily filled with plant parts etc but for the price that should already be there. Wasting parts on flushing toilets and cable cart lifts I suppose.  I'm suprised there isn't a slide like the Friends sets

Fair...just the picture alone shows off the variety in the skyline whether someone has all the sets or not though. That’s always been my biggest complaint about the other Modulars, they’re all basically the same height & square building. They didn’t waste any measurable parts(I’m sure) I’m the toilet...and parts definitely weren’t wasted on the cable car, that’s a great addition to the theme. 

[Dardanel]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

All the criticisms of the toilet seem absurd to me, since it reminds me most of the incredibly clever working ATM and vending machine functions from the original two Ninjago City sets. Novel functional components (even parts-intensive ones) have been a part of the series from the get-go, and their inclusion here doesn't seem to have compromised any other aspects of the set as far as I'm concerned.

I am eager to see how the toilet function actually works, since the exit chute is actually quite a distance from the top-floor restroom! There's got to be some clever "plumbing" behind the club and inside the bridge to allow the tiles to move from point A to point B.

The reason why I don't like it is because it "normalizes" disposing feces directly into water and some kid might see it and think it's ok. I'm all for this kind of functionality, but it could've been a teachable moment with the sewage ending up in some kind of processing plant.

[Harren Tonderen]

JB Spielwaren have released Mech vs Dragon review

Dragon seems not super stable in legs and neck, and tail's root is not moveable. But overall it's pretty good
I love that we are getting more big elemental dragons in modern era
We already have Fire* (2018), Energy (2021), Ice (2023), and now Lighting! (2023 too)
Not sure if Nya's seabound one can count, it's not really as massive as mentiod ones

Now we need big earth dragon, right? Hopefully DR or atleast Core could deliver some good one in future

*If we can count Firstbourne as fire one. It's kinda marketed as Kai's dragon, like Chompy as Wu's and Firestone mech situation, unless lego decides otherwise

Edited May 12, 2023 by Harren Tonderen

[zoth33]

3 hours ago, Dardanel said:

The reason why I don't like it is because it "normalizes" disposing feces directly into water and some kid might see it and think it's ok. I'm all for this kind of functionality, but it could've been a teachable moment with the sewage ending up in some kind of processing plant.

Your thinking to hard about this most smaller kids won't know the difference and older ones will.  This way the parent can actually teach the children about the function of a toilet properly.  I mean look we got the poop shoot in the 90th anniversary castle.  And realistically some places in the world don't have the most sanitary conditions.  It's all in how you use this.  Also I don't know how many kids will be getting this set mostly adults at that price point.