KingOfLiberation

So we are getting completely new outfits, no Core repeats. Gotta say, distinguishing the Gold Dragon ninja could be hard. According to Promobricks this one is supposed to be Cole but I can barely tell, the color scheme is too gold. Though, also according to Promobricks he's supposed to have the Epic Battle scythe, and I don't see it (or maybe I'm just blind). Those EVO wings look ridiculous on a minifigure. Skull Sorcerer got legs now, it looks like he's called Crystal Sorcerer on the box. Lloyd on the promo image thing looks like he has his SotFS hood for some reason even though that hasn't been in sets for a couple years now. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

I don't think Promobricks does TV show information, just the sets. And PIXAL or Skylor haven't become ninja because we haven't gotten any episodes after Seabound yet. Set names are already on Promobricks, though it's possible they're not finalized yet (Cole's vehicle especially has been referred to by three different names across two articles). If we are getting something new I'd expect some clarification on the set descriptions - they're unclear on the identity/existence of a few minifigures.

I really don't think announcing the theme before the set reveal would be a good idea ... that's just added time for us to get up our expectations/hopes to be disappointed, and to gather the salt. Just look at the Nexo Knights 2016 thread, that was full of people getting hyped up for like a year about Fantasy Era 2.

While still on "probably won't happen but would be cool", Fire Emblem, specifically Three Houses, would be my dream videogame. Almost certainly won't happen - the premise of the franchise is based around warring countries (plus 3H adds a church as one of the factions), and the most iconic parts are the characters, there aren't a lot of recognizable sets they could do except Garreg Mach Monastery, and the branched paths would complicate things significantly because all and none of the routes are canon. The logistics wouldn't be fun - there's some 50 named playable characters, over 30 of which have 2 versions, and that's not counting generic soldiers or major villains. There are several dragons they could make sets out of, though at least one would be a big spoiler, and none of them are exactly major characters. Still, a fan can dream.

To my knowledge Monkie Kid has never gotten any set leaks before reveal and it would be weird if CoL was the one exception. But even so it's very clearly not Ninjago - the minifigures are wrong, the base is clearly not modular-style and lacks water, and the set number (usually one of the first things leaked about any set) is in the wrong range - 8****, which is reserved for Chinese festivals and MK, as opposed to Ninjago being consistently 7****. The NC expansion rumors are almost certainly because of wishful thinking and some educated guesswork.

Zane being the Ice Emperor was spoiled by the soundtrack of all things (along with the other signs), but yeah, the writers have come up with some pretty crazy stuff. However, plot details like character alignments and identities are much easier to guess from set details than something like the origins of a video game that's barely referenced even in the set descriptions. I don't think it's that far-fetched to think the Overlord might return, considering he's the only villain with a black/purple/pink/gold color scheme, is known to have made the Stone Warriors (which were also samurai, and Stone is kinda close to Crystal), and the Crystal King is said to have similar armor. We just know that the dragon is gold in color with a white underbelly, which if anything implies it isn't the elemental golden dragon (all the old elemental dragons are fairly monochromatic except the Fusion Dragon). The original ninja are only stated to have gold winged armor, we don't know if the suits themselves are gold (unless someone who actually speaks German can translate the page better for us), and the ninja have had prominent gold highlights and armor before (ZX, Elemental, Master of the Mountain; granted, those were only for half the team at a time). To be fair, Lloyd is stated to have a golden form, but his powers returning after 8 years doesn't make much sense. Counting Decoded, we last saw the Overlord 5 years ago, and it's been stated that he's immortal, while Lloyd still having Golden Power has never been hinted at unless you count Hunted's "true power is never lost, only given away when you think you have none" thing.

We don't know that Golden Power is returning, just that the ninja have gold vehicles and gold (Shintaran?) wings, unless Tommy said something and I missed it. But yeah, everything else fits for the Overlord to return, which makes sense as this wave is said to be a "conclusion".

The main question to be raised for prices ($40/60/90/140 according to the Indiana Jones thread) is whether the theme's subject matter would allow for such prices to be reasonable (eg. Bionicle G2 stuck to <= $30 sets). In this case, I'm pretty sure the prices are a moot point because both Indy/LotR could be made to fit the price brackets (locations can be expensive).

Pretty sure Bionicle has its own creation story (someone more familiar with the Tomes of Lore can explain it). Also remember reading that "alternate universe" has a very specific meaning pertaining to the Bionicle-verse that doesn't work with other themes. The problem with trying to link the lore-heavy themes is that contradictions arise, and the creators (mostly Tommy) have stated at various times that most aren't connected.

The other tweet linked in my post is from Tommy stating that, yeah.

I wonder if Monkie Kid going off to space increases or decreases the chances of the next original theme being set in space. On the one hand, they might not want the two competing with each other. On the other, this isn't really a "space" wave the same way, say, Ninjago: Master of the Mountain was Castle-esque - there's still quite a few sets under the normal branding that are not space, so they could be trying to gauge interest in OG fictional space.

Huh, that's cool. So Friends and City are one universe, possibly with Hidden Side and Elves (or maybe it's our world). Funnily, if you take the lyrics of "21st Century Ninja" literally, Ninjago is in the far future of our world (after it's been consumed by water and taken over by a sea serpent. Also there's now humanoid fish people).

Ninjago doesn't have a monopoly on a fairly common word in the English language. twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1166682302279294977 Ninjago and Chima exist as works of fiction in Knighton. Ninjago and Chima are both explicitly part of the Sixteen Realms. It's possible Friends, City, and Elves are in the same universe (Friends and City are both fairly everyday and could be in different parts of one planet, and Elves mostly takes place in a mirror world to the ordinary), maybe Hidden Side too. Bionicle and Monkie Kid are their own separate things as far as I know.

Oops, yeah, the Big Bang themes have sorta been on a 3-year cycle, but then Hidden Side was axed early, so who knows. Monkie Kid, unlike Chima and Nexo Knights, is meant to appeal to a different audience than most themes (China), so I think there is a better chance that a) Monkie Kid keeps going and b) there's another original media theme running alongside it. 2015-2016 both had 5 original media themes, only two of which were targeted to generally the same audience (Ninjago and Chima/Nexo Knights). Friends and Elves are targeted towards females, and Bionicle is constraction. We probably won't know what's happening with Monkie Kid until December (unless it doesn't get a summer wave).

The vengestone buyer has been mentioned like twice in the show, I was really confused when it started becoming a thing with a bunch of theories since it never seemed that important. Considering the descriptions of the new villains I have doubts it'll be a huge thing like we've all been thinking, vengestone isn't pink or purple.