TPLSTER21

Somewhat late to the party, but figured I'd weigh in on the sets now that we have detailed pics. The Ultimate sets look decent to good for the most part. I like them better than the "game" impulse sets that Ninjago and Chima have released in the past. Lavaria, Clay and Macy are the stand-outs to me. Blaster & Catapult sets are just "meh" to me. I neither like, nor dislike them. The Infernox and Merlock's Library sets look to be good value for money with multiple builds, good minifig selections and interesting features. The horse/bike thing looks pretty good and I like that the designers went for something different there. The Chaos Chariot is my least favorite set in the bunch. And as for set 70327: As Victor Newman would say "That's a damn good looking mech". Finally: I'd like to take your comment at face value and I don't want to be "That Guy", but where did you get this information? I don't see anything posted about it on Brickset. Plus, that site is notoriously sensitive about leaked information, images, etc. Unless Lego sent him a set to review, but even then would it not be unusual for them to allow a review to be posted almost a month before the sets are released at retail? I've seen Brickset review sets on the date of release but never so far in advance. If this actually happens, then great but I'm setting my expectations very low until I actually see something on the site.

Thanks! I discovered a post on Brickset shortly after I made this post confirming this as well. And sorry if my initial response sounded a bit snarky. Not my intention at all!

Well....there are official pics of 70316 and 70317 from NYCC. After that, as CM4Sci sais, it depends on what you count as official. There was the Italian online retailer that posted pics of the sets which were deemed unacceptable for disclosure by Eurobricks. However, Brickset (who are extremely picky about leaked images) posted the existence of the pictures on the site and invited it's readers to check it out. There is also another site that does price comparisons for various sets that has images and these are not watermarked. I don't want to cause any trouble by mentioning names, but as far as I know non-watermarked images of all sets are out there. Up to you mods if you want to post or allow links to them. Given the UK release date of January 1st, we should have official picks on Lego's website in a month or so. Earlier than that if any other retailers like TRU release the sets early.

[ That's interesting. The retail catalog stated Ninjago would be a March 2016 release. That moves the timeline up quite a bit, at least for the UK. Very curious as to the R.O.W. release dates and N.A. in particular. If this is the Lego store release date then TRU will probably have the sets out before Christmas. Also, last year Asia got an early release of some of the sets so that might happen again. Do you have a source for this information or is it speculation on your part?

That set is a real mixed bag for me. On one hand, the minifigs in the set are excellent, but the overall lack of them in a set with this price point is shocking. Okay, Lego are counting the lava monster as a figure and I guess given it's size it's worth 3 or so on its own so that is their reasoning. Counting the book as a figure is a bit of a stretch though..... If you count the lava monster as a build, you get 3 models in the set which is good. With regard to Jestro's vehicle and Sci's comment. It looks like the mouth does...something. I blew up the pic and there is a technic (?) rod with a ball on the end at the bottom of the mouth opening and there is a trans-orange saw blade in the mouth. The blade is literally just....there. So I think the blade and the rod have some sort of function or are parts of 2 separate functions. The vehicle also has 2 catapults and there is a prison compartment in the rear. Quite frankly, since this is the main enemy vehicle of this wave, I would hope it has something more than the catapults and prison as it's features.

So, the final box images are out there. I have to say that the bike looks pretty good and I never thought it would have a side car for the squire-bot. It also has 2 flick fire missiles and storage for Lance's weapon. Other sets look...pretty much the same to my eyes.

Thanks! I guess that this is another bag that "went missing" from Lego's European manufacturing facility. Since there are 4 polybags slated for release next year, I'm guessing that this one and the motorcycle will be available when the line launches (given the timing of the leaks) with the other 2 following later in 2016.

Just curious as to where the image was found as this looks like an in-hand pic. Also, it's the second in-hand photo of an upcoming KN set in less than a week.

The Ultimate sets are...interesting. They are like minifig sized mech suits. From what I can tell, you get the minfig (exclusive deco) with the add on pieces and weapons that form the mini mech suits, a stand that has a spare weapon and a shield. Can't see if the stand has anything else on it or if it interacts with the fig in any way. Looks like the piece count will be around 70-80. For $10 they look like decent value from a playability standpoint. Robin and Beastmaster look like the weakest of the bunch with all of the others looking good to me.

Guys, it is not my intention to argue what is or isn't a good date to release sets. The point I am trying to make is that given the original release date of Jan. 1st, it is likely like the line will be released before Christmas. Even now, if this magazine is correct with their date (I don't think it is an official Lego publication...?), then the release date (in the UK at least) has already been moved forward by 5 days and into the calendar year 2015. Given that, it is now even more likely that these will be out before Christmas. And never underestimate the resourcefulness of kids. My son is already well aware of the line and wants to put a couple of sets on his Christmas list!

Interesting. The article says: "You can battle with the toys and app when it's in shops from 26 December!" So...I assume they are saying that they sets and app will both be released on December 26th. But they could also be referring only to the app as they use "it's in" and not "they are". Also, by "shop" I know they mean "store" as this is a European magazine, but are they talking about a retail shop for the sets or an online shop for the app? Some clearer sentence structure (Really, who wrote this?) would have been nice. But, I'm pretty sure that what they are TRYING to say is that the release date for the sets will be December 26th along with the app. Since that would be the worst release date in the history of retail, I think it is looking more and more like a pre-Christmas release for the line.

@dannalcorn - are you referring to the Ninjago Army Builder/Battle pack in the previous post from x105Black or are you referring to a Nexo Knight set? If you could provide further clarification as to what you saw and perhaps a pic as per CM4Sci & legozebra's posts, that would be great! Thanks!

Simon Lucas is the "Design Director" for Ninjago, so I'm guessing they will reveal the Winter 2016 sets tomorrow. It's either that or they will announce the premier date for the new season of the TV show. Or both.

I asked Huw at Brickset if he could provide any info as to the origin of this pic. He replied that he believed it was probably a one-off set that was stolen from one of TLG's European manufacturing facilities. I tend to agree with him for the simple fact that if this was available at retail, there would probably be a few copies floating around on Ebay. Also, given that 24 hours has passed since the photo was published, there probably would have been other sightings reported by now. So much for a very early release! I wonder when we will get official set descriptions, in-box photos and North American pricing? It has to be sometime soon I would think...?

Someone mentioned it earlier in the thread and it bears repeating. January is a desolate wasteland for toy sales and the first quarter of the year is usually the worst quarter for toy manufacturers/retailers. If toy manufacturers/retailers can capture sales in December vs. January, they will do so at every opportunity. Toys R Us are historically the biggest culprit of this. If they get their January shipments in December, they put them on the shelves. They have done this in the past with Lego as well as other toy lines that were stated for January-February releases. And Lego, historically, has turned a blind eye to this. As Lego has stated the official release date is January 1st, it is reasonable to assume that all stores will have shipments delivered to them at least a few days and perhaps a few weeks prior. So, to answer your question (and provide some content during a "slow news" period for KN ), I would handicap your chances this way: Late November: 0% regular retail (25% that independent Asian market retailers will get an early shipment and put it out, so you could get on Ebay for 2X retail plus shipping. This happened with the 2015 winter wave of Ninjago where 4-5 sets were released to independent toy shops in South Korea and half a dozen sellers were putting them up on Ebay). Early December See Above, but Ebay availability probably at 40% now. Mid December: 40% regular retail - TRU most likely and at this point, probably readily available on Ebay with pricing as above. Late December: 75% regular retail - online as above, 25% chance Lego stores break the street date So really, a lot depends on your budget and how soon you want/need the sets. Given the above, unless Lego puts out a hard street date to all retailers and they all abide by it, I feel very strongly that TRU will have the sets out by mid-December.

Fair comment. I should have worded that better. What I meant to say is that to my knowledge, pretty much every theme that had a January 1st release date had been on shelves prior to Christmas. So, I figured that the Jan 1st release date was not a hard street date as opposed to TLG listing the release date as say January 19th.

So, anyone care to take a guess as to when we will see detailed set descriptions and when these will actually hit retail? To me, the January 1st release date is almost a "nudge, nude, wink, wink" that we will see these in time for the Christmas/Holiday season. In fact, I am almost certain of it. In North America, even Lego stores break their own street dates. For example: this past summer the Ninjago sets that had a release date of August 1st were readily available at Lego retail stores 4-5 days prior to that and at TRU around 2 weeks prior. Also, given that January 1st is a holiday in many parts of the world, I don't think that this is the actual release date and that the Jan 1st date is not a hard date for TLG. I believe that these will hit the shelves at TRU and other major regional chains (usually the ones to put stuff out earliest) by mid-December which might force Lego stores to put them out early as well. Following that train of thought, I think that set descriptions and full line pricing by region should follow by the end of November. Sounds about right?

The set descriptions for Ninjago (and it looks like the other themes as well) have been removed from Toys R Us Canada's website. Looks like an over zealous TRU staffer entered them on the site prematurely. Pretty much what I figured since no other retail outlet anywhere in the world has posted set descriptions/photos yet. Will be interesting to see just when we will get set pictures and when they will be released at retail. December at the very earliest I imagine or more likely next February - March given the official January 1, 2016 launch of Nexo Knights.

Hmm....interesting that set descriptions are out this early (on TRU.ca for Ninjago and other lines). Either it's an error on the retailer's part, or it could mean that a retail release of the sets is coming sooner than we thought (October listing = November-December release). I don't recall TRU jumping the gun with Lego before and having to take stuff off their site. But I say this is probably an overzealous admin person putting the set data on the site too early and those descriptions won't be up too much longer. But, if the descriptions aren't taken down in, say, a week or if they are joined by set pics then I guess the sets will hit retail before Christmas - which will make my son and I very happy!

Just speculation on my part. Based on the description on the fig, I did say that Lego was either holding back on the reveal or that the figure itself was not far enough along in the design process to show in the prelims. I'm thinking that the latter was probably the case so I thought maybe they just put the 4 armed ghost there as a placeholder. Thanks to NinjaJayNuva, you can see that the figure is basically a mash-up of various uncolored parts which to me says that this is not what the actual figure will look like. My other reason for suggesting that we have not seen the "real" figure is my assumption that the figure on the platform battling the Ninja is the leader of the Sky Pirates and it would seem a bit strange to me if he was a ghost, since we just had the Possession wave. Of course, I stand to be corrected! Hopefully we see some finalized pics of the sets sometime soon.

Ah, I see now. The huge sword and cockpit piece are not a flyer (despite the presence of wings on the side of the cockpit) but rather the top of a F1 like car for Clay. This car uses the huge wheels at the rear of the vehicle and the small grey wheel that you can see on the bottom of the model between the 2 robots and their cycles. From the picture, it looks like the spring missile assembly at the rear of the vehicle does not form part of Clay's car. There is also some framework forming the housings for the 2 cycles at the front. So, while this now does not look like it splits into 4 separate vehicles (2 cycles, flyer and car), I am curious to see what Lego did with what is left of the model after the 3 vehicles have detached. If the missile launchers stay on the frame, then perhaps the frame can form some kind of a command center or turret when the vehicles have all been deployed? Okay, so the trade off here is that in order to have the transforming feature and you getting 2 models in one, they had to have the back legs hanging off the rear of the cycle mode. The idea is, I guess, that they are supposed to be rocket boosters for the cycle, but I think it may come off looking somewhat kibble-ish. Can't wait to see more pics of these as well as the other sets!

My guess is that Misfortune's Keep will come with the leader of the sky pirates as the main enemy minifig. I think that it's not likely he is a ghost. So rather than spoil what he looks like (or not having a finalized design yet), they used the 4 armed ghost as a stand in. The figure prelim was described as having the Possession "ghost bottom" - i.e. the wispy smoke trail bottom and 2 solid (white?) minifig torsos with I believe a skeleton head and samurai helmet...? It was described as looking like a "very preliminary" design. I think that based on the nature of the set and the position in the set pic of the mini-fig that whatever it is, it is the sky pirate leader.

The 4 armed ghost could just be a random placeholder for some other mini-fig and might not even be the prelim of what they are going to include in the set. They might have just tossed some pieces together to represent the eventual final figure from a size standpoint.

Wow, lot's to digest now that all of the sets (excluding the ultimates) have been revealed. Here are my thoughts/observations: Several of the lava monster vehicles are actually other creatures or creature/vehicle hybrids. The catapult, lava smasher, flyer in 70324 all look like they are alive and feature eyes, mouths, teeth and you could even say limbs. As opposed to Chima where the vehicles were mechanical but based on the tribes, these things look like they are actually alive! I think that the Nexo Knight's shields are supposed to power their vehicles as all of the vehicles seem to have a space for the shields to be displayed prominently as opposed to just a place to store them. 70310 & 70311: These are small army builder type sets. Too bad they don't include a Nexo Knight and instead have only generic "Knighton Kinghts". Stud launcher crossbows for lava monsters look cool. 70310 has the friction disc launchers featured in Ninjago's 2015 summer wave. Nothing much else to say. Pretty basic sets. 70312: This thing has grown on me. Looks like the flick fire missiles in the prelim have been removed. Key feature is the transformation from motorcycle to horse-mech. Ultimately, these 2 mode sets seem to sacrifice something from each mode in order to achieve the transformation feature, so it will be interesting to see a review on this one. Lack of a buildable model for the lava monster somewhat hampers the play-ability of the set. 70313: Hammers can move forward and back as well as up and down. Also has a small catapult on the side. Again, no secondary model for Aaron. 70314: Horse-hover-bike thing looks interesting. Model's main play feature looks to be the opening/closing of the mouths when the thing is pushed along a surface. Also has a catapult. This main build looks to be more targeted at a younger audience than some of the other builds and looks more like a "comic relief" villain vehicle to me. 70315: Really nice looking build. Much better than the prelim. You can tell that the 2 robots are riding mini bikes that can be ejected from the front of the vehicle and that Clay's giant sword thing is an aircraft that can also detach from the main body. After those 3 vehicles are detached, it looks like the remaining frame might be another vehicle making this a 4 in one build! Very interested to see what else this thing can do. But again, no secondary model for the lava monsters. 70324: Looks like a set that is composed of leftovers from other sets. Apparently it can connect to Fortrex which I guess is its main feature. Lava monster flyer looks cool. 70325: Lava monster looks cool. Hammer has a disc launcher on top. Knights bikes feature their colors. 70327: Really nice looking mech. Left hand "shield" is a vehicle for the king and has 2 stud shooters on the front. Also looks to have a cape on the back that might deploy into a pair of wings/glider. So, no 70326? Will be interesting to see just when we will see these on shelves. A January 1st "Official Lego Release Date" usually means that other retail outlets will get them 2-3 weeks beforehand, so might see these in December....?

Spent yesterday evening getting "caught up" on all the posts! Some comments/observations: - Reveal was pretty much what I expected. All the minifigs and the 2 largest sets of the first wave. Glad that Lego unveiled it now at NYCC instead of waiting for Toy Fair Season or until a couple of weeks before the sets released as they seemed to like to do in the past. - The theme looks like it is going to run parallel to Ninjago from a marketing and target demographic standpoint. That being, more advanced builds that go after boys in the 9-12 age range. I think that the recent proliferation of Juniors sets was designed so that they could push the mainline sets up the age spectrum. - The minifigs look really good. Knights have great detail and all come with quite a few accessories. Aaron's bow and Axl's body pieces really make them stand out. - Of the 2 models shown, Fortrex looks like a more simplified, if larger, build. Jestro's....thing.....looks pretty awesome and is incredibly detailed - Given the detail and the complex build of Jestro's vehicle, these sets look to be targeted to older kids which is good to see - Not sure if mentioned already, but Fortex can split open at the back and there looks to be some kind of detachable turret/base/command center thing inside - Fortrex has some kind of massive cannon on top of it - Jestro's vehicle is actually being pulled by the monster, has a prison at the back and it's main weapons look to be twin catapults on either side - The 2 sets shown look to have quite a few play/action features which is great - The minifigs shown are all Wave 1 which means the King/Queen are probably in the King's Mech set and the kids are likely in the Merlock Library set - The knights and several other minifigs have a 4 hollow stud piece on the back of their shoulder armor - wonder what that's for? As for the rest of the sets, I don't think we will see them at NYCC as I think this is all Lego is going to show us for now. Having said that, I think it's only a matter of time before set images show up. Quite frankly, given that the theme has been revealed, if anyone has un-watermarked images I'm sure it would be fine to post them on Imgur or whatever. Retailers will likely start putting up pre-orders soon so we can always check there. And lastly, given that the stated release date is January 1, 2016 it's pretty much a certainty that the sets will be available in December in time for the Christmas/Holiday shopping season.