TPLSTER21

[ Speculation on the theme started out as it being a "new castle", then moved on to "castle with some steam-punk influences" and now seems to have settled on "space nights" (as Sir Von Lego called them - and I believe that he is an "insider") or "techno knights". At this point, I think that "castle" and "steam-punk castle" are probably not what this line is about. Yup. This all sounds about right. I'm very interested to see pics. Since the retail catalog is now in wide circulation, hopefully someone who has seen the it can at provide us with set descriptions so we can get an idea as to what to expect from this line. We are likely to get that info long before set pics come out. Judging by his comment above, perhaps just2good can enlighten us a little bit.....?

The "Mobile Fortress" does not appear to be in the current set listing. Perhaps it is the missing set 70314 in the sequence that was rumored to be the store exclusive? And, at the risk of dating myself , that castle could bear a resemblance to the Castle of Lions from Voltron Defenders of the Universe. A "Techno-Castle" if you will. Of course the Jestro's Companions of Darkness could be that set, in which case I guess it would be a villain castle. Regarding pics, they tend to come out for all lines at the same time which is what happened last year in mid-September. I agree that since we seem to be getting details a bit earlier this year, that we could have leaked images by the end of August or early September. But we should get some set details from people who have seen the retailer catalog even earlier than that!!

Wow. Can a mod please come in and deal with this situation? This thread has gone completely off the rails....

Okay. Thanks for confirming that. Ninjago is the same 8-14. What I was getting at was that Chima had an 8-14 range (same as Ninjago), but it's actual target range and set user range was probably 7-9 with minimal AFOL interest. Ninjago's actual target range/set user range is probably 9-12 with some AFOL interest (more than Chima in any case). I was hoping that NN was skewered to a slightly older audience like Ninjago as opposed to a younger audience like Chima. Okay so, since you kind of put it out there... ...can you tell us anything more about the ultimate packs? Are they minifigs with knight-like exoskeletons with weapons? Figures with a bunch of weapons and a rack/display stand to store them? A figure pack as 8BrickMario suggested? Mini-models with a figure? Rough piece count? And what's this about Golems...?

Having now seen the logo and read through many comments, I have some observations: - the logo uses very bright colors (sky blue, silver, yellow, red, orange) and appears to be more futuristic than medieval - I hope that the use of those bright colors does not translate into a line that is targeted at very young kids - although, in many cases the color scheme of the logo does translate into the sets themselves so I think we can expect these colors to appear in the sets - I think this theme will be more of a riff on MOTU or Warhammer 40K than a classic Castle theme which I think will be interesting - the logo itself doesn't really "give anything away" in terms of a unifying theme or feature (for example: Galaxy's Squad's logo gave away the splitting feature) Basically, I'm optimistic that the sets may take the castle/knights theme in a different and ultimately interesting direction. But I'm concerned that they will utilize a garish and too childlike color/deco scheme. 2015 saw the curtain call of 2 Action themes, Chima and Ultra Agents, the former targeted at younger kids, the latter at older kids (and I guess AFOL's). With Ninjago perhaps skewering to an older audience, I wonder which direction Nexo Knights will go in? In an unrelated matter: since there is a set that is called "Knighton Disc Launcher" can we assume that Knighton is the location in which this theme takes place or at least the home-base/city of the Nexo Knights? It's either that or the name of the hero faction. Also, let me add my voice to the "change the name of the thread" chorus. The name of the theme is now known so time to stop calling it "Castle 2016".

Thanks for all the info amazingbricks! Keep it coming! Are you able to find out if the ultra sets are part of some kind of game/gimmick or are they something else entirely? Another poster a couple of pages back mentioned that it would be cool if these were minifigs with knight-like exoskeletons around them. I am asking this because the name of the sets seems not to suggest anything along the lines or spinners or Airjitzu sets as those sets (along with the chima racer sets) had the gimmick as part of the set name itself. Only using the term "Ultra" in front of the character name suggests a powered up version of the character as opposed to a play gimmick.

Now that we have set numbers/names/prices, time to speculate on what they might contain! 70599: Cole's Dragon Likely a 100-120 piece set. Small dragon for Cole. Likely that piece count will be mostly used up on this model, so probably just an enemy minfig along with Cole and the dragon. This set could be very interesting, given that it would be a dragon build in a piece count range that we have yet to see. 70600: Ninja Bike Race Likely a 200-230 piece set. This name...sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the others. I am confused as to why Ninjago would do yet another bike set when the last wave already had 2 separate sets featuring bikes. I think this might be a design from the cutting room floor of an earlier wave that was shoe-horned into this wave to round it out. Gonna go out on a limb here and say that this set will have...a bike! Maybe 2 bikes! Racing! Seriously, I hope that they at least bring something new to the table here with the design of the bike(s) or have a bike and some other vehicle. 70601: Sky Shark Likely a 200-230 piece set. Same box size as 70600. So, this is a very interesting name and the set could go I think one of 2 ways. First, it could be a creature set featuring an actual freakin' flying shark! Or, it could be some kind of attack aircraft with a shark like design or decoration. Either way, this looks like a set featuring an enemy vehicle. I am very interested to see just what the heck this set will look like! 70602: Jai's Elemental Dragon Likely a 300-320 piece set. Contents self explanatory. Will probably have a small secondary model for the baddies. 70603: Raid Zepplin Likely a 300-320 piece set. Same box size as 70602. Looks like this will feature a larger enemy ship that will be a Zeppelin-style airship. Likely heavily armed and armored. Either this set or 70602 is likely to have a less significant or very tiny secondary build if history is any indication. I think it's probably this one since I imagine that the Zeppelin ship will have to utilize a lot of the piece count. 70604: Tiger Widow Island Likely a 450-550 piece set. Looks like we get 2 "base" type sets for this wave. I imagine one base will be the Ninja's and the other the sky pirate's. Given the other set is called "Misfortune's Keep" and sounds a bit more evil. I will guess this is a ninja base and that the building will be smaller. Maybe just a small tower on a rock formation build. Secondary model could be a pirate airship or maybe some kind of sea creature/serpent? 70605: Misfortune's Keep Likely a 700-800 piece set. Main enemy base with what I would assume to be a fairly substantial Ninja vehicle attacking it since the other sets do not seem to have a major Ninja vehicle in them. What do you all think?

Hi Everyone. Just wanted to mention that the 2016 Retailer Catalog is out and making the rounds. I contacted another forum member TwistLaw (Bionicle Forum) who's local toy shop had received their catalog. He attempted to get a look at the catalog to see the Bionicle sets and he told me he tried to get a look at the Ninjago sets as well. However, the store owner/manager would not allow him to see the catalog and provided only some vague info on the Bionicle sets. I did thank him for his efforts on our behalf though! However, now that we know that retailers are receiving their catalogs, it is only a matter of time before we get some leaks. Probably within the next week or so. If any forum members have seen the catalog or set pics, please do feel free to share details!!

True. But the first list that showed up was roughly in order of smallest to largest. I think that Sky Shark is likely Set 70601 and is a smaller set and Tiger Widow is going to be 70605. I think that Misfort is probably Black Widow Island. By the way, did anyone save the listings and get the package dimensions? If we have those, we can probably get a rough idea as to piece counts.

Thanks! But...given that we didn't get any set names/numbers until late August last year, it looks like it will be quite a while before that happens. We wouldn't even have the information that we do now if SDCC hadn't taken place 2 weeks earlier than it did last year. And a quick update that I did not hear back from legomilk as to additional details on the 2016 sets. I had hoped for maybe a bit of info like he was able to give in the Town Forum, but sadly no luck. Either he told me everything he knows at this time or he is unable to reveal any other details that he does know. I'm not going to push him for any more details (I did follow up once last week) and I'm thankful for the info that he did provide on the number of sets. We'll have to wait for either more information to surface for for another member who is "in the know" to share additional details when they can.

I think that a largest set being/containing a pirate airship is all but guaranteed. If the next season is set in Cloud City, I could see the flagship set being a large pirate vessel and a cloud city building. I think that we will probably get one large pirate ship and a smaller one in one of the other sets. As to the design of the ships, I thought that they might go with more of a "barge" design as opposed to ships with sails. Flat top with wings/engines on the sides/back would give more surface area to mount weapons and display minifigs and would also be a design departure from the large number of sailing ships sets that have already been released and purchased by Lego's customers. They could even go with a design similar to the Sand Skiffs in Return of the Jedi.

When legomilk advised me that he had heard there were 5 sets in the upcoming 2016 wave, I asked him if he could clarify whether these were building sets or Airjitsu launchers. I have not heard back from him yet but I'm going to venture a guess that these are the actual building sets and that there will probably be a retail exclusive or 2 to round out the wave. As for Airjitsu, at SDCC Lego showed the development of that line and all of the engineering, etc. that went into it. They look to have spent a lot of time and resources on it, so I imagine that we will get another wave of launchers. As for a new DB, given that they just released a flagship set of that model, I agree that would put the chance of it being in the 2016 wave at zero. As for the 5 being all launchers and not new sets until March....that I don't know. But I could see it happening given the large amount of sets released this year. But if the new action line is going to launch in February - March like Chima did, then it might make sense to release a smaller wave of Ninjago sets earlier (around Christmas) and let the other line have the early 2016 spotlight.

I think that Lego brand stores tend to stick to release dates. But, with the official release date being August 1st which is a Sunday, I would not be surprised if they were released in store on the Saturday July 31st to take advantage of high retail traffic. But Lego's online shop for sure won't start selling them until August 1st. If you are looking to pick them up earlier than that, then Toys R Us is your best bet as they seem to always release stuff early. In North America, the Airjitsu sets had a street date of July 1st, but Toys R Us had them in stock around mid-June and available on line a few days after. So, basically I would start checking out your local branch of TRU in the next couple of days.

Yesterday, I sent legomilk a message asking him if he had any information on the upcoming 2016 Ninjago sets. This was his response: legomilk German Correspondent Posts: 630 Joined: 21-October 05 Member: 513 Country: KOLN Sent Today, 03:38 PM Ninjago 2016 Yes 5 sets Thanks legomilk for the information. It is greatly appreciated!! I asked legomilk if he can clarify as to whether this is for mainline sets or if this is the number of Airjitsu sets in the next wave. I'll post when I hear back from him.

[ Thanks BrickJagger for that information. Much appreciated! I'm glad to hear that Ninjago is going in this direction as opposed to more typical water-based vehicles. I agree with LegendsOfNinjago and I was wondering how, given the recent proliferation of pirate/boat sets Ninjago was going to differentiate their offering. "Sky Pirates" allows for more design freedom/flexibility and different takes on what could be a "Pirate Vessel". Maybe they go with more of an "Air Barge" look with wings instead of sails. They could even go with a "Ninjago Heli-Carrier" type concept. I would also expect to see the new gatling gun and srping shooter units taking the place of the more traditional cannons. Hopefully our "insiders" can give us some more information soon!

Yeah, but he could be referring to the new Action/Castle theme having air based/flying sets. That thread started with a comment about the new Action/Castle theme not getting boats because of the upcoming Ninjago pirate wave. The next comment said "why settle for the seas when you could aim for the clouds". I assume that since this was in the other thread then the 2nd poster was referring to the Action/Castle theme and not Ninjago. So, assuming that just2good was following the theme of the thread and posting in the other forum, then I take his comment to be about that theme and not Ninjago notwithstanding the mention of Ninjago in passing in the first post. Having said that though, a Castle-type theme with pirate airships does not make a huge amount of sense. Pirate airships or "Sky Pirates" (given that boat/pirate sets have been abundant recently) seem to fit better into Ninjago and allows for a different take on the Pirate theme.

Anyone care to speculate as to the number of sets we will get in the Winter 2016 wave? In 2014, we got a 7 set winter wave and a 2 set summer wave. In 2015, we got an 11 set winter wave and a 9 set summer wave (plus Airjitsu sets). Question is, was 2015 an anomaly and do we go back to a more typical 7 (or so) set wave? Or given the success of the line, is a large wave now a new norm for Ninjago? I'm inclined to say that assuming we get another wave of Airjitsu launchers, I think that a 7-8 set wave is more likely. I think that plays out something like this: - 1 - Impulse set (90-120 pieces) - 2 - Small sets (190-220 pieces) - 1 - Medium sets (300-330 pieces) - 2 - Large sets (425-550 pieces) - 1 - "Halo" set (700 + pieces) - 1 - Retailer Exclusive set (300-330 pieces) If it's a 7 set wave, I think that there will be probably one less small set. Overall, I would like to see Lego continue to emphasize the 200-350 piece sets as the last couple of years have had some very strong sets in that range. Also, from a pricing standpoint, those sets are more accessible to parents and kids.

Some board members have access to "inside information" through various means. Usually, they are able to access the retailer catalog through industry contacts or they know someone who works at Lego. They are great sources of information for us and have always been very helpful and accomodating. That said, I'm sure they have to be extremely careful as to what and when they reveal stuff. I'm sure the NDA's signed by anyone that works for Lego are quite strict with breaches resulting in termination of employment. Retailers are also under NDA's when they receive their catalogs although, that is usually where leaks occur since they are far more difficult to track/catch. At this point, I doubt that the 2016 retail catalog is even in circulation and probably won't be for another month or so. As much as I would love to get some info on the 2016 sets, I think it's still a bit early.

Well, I guess we have a pirate-themed wave incoming. This is a really curious choice to me. In the past year we've had Metalbeard's Sea Cow (and wasn't there a smaller version of that ship in another movie set...?), an entire release of Pirate sets and in the last wave of Ninjago the DB and a ghost ship. I am puzzled as to why Lego would choose to do a pirate theme for Ninjago next year given that they have saturated the market with pirate and pirate-like sets over the last year? How many parents are going to shell out large amounts of cash for another big ship if they just bought their kid the DB this summer? If a collector has the Sea Cow, then do they really need another pirate ship? What if a parent bought a bunch of pirate sets for their kid this year and then see the Ninjago pirate sets at Christmas or shortly thereafter? They may say to their child "hey, I just bought you 2 pirate sets, you don't need any more of those sets!" I want to see Ninjago succeed and I hope this does not backfire on them. Having said all of that, as a parent whose kid is interested in Ninjago primarily and doesn't have any of the aforementioned sets, I'm interested to see where Lego goes with this. I would expect that the pirates will have a certain Asian-type flavor to them and maybe Lego goes in a different direction with the sets design-wise to differentiate them from prior pirate sets. I would imagine we will get some kind of Kraken/sea monster/sea dragon model and they could certainly do some interesting takes on "cannons" given all of the new spring loaded shooter and stud launcher pieces. I wouldn't mind seeing a boat that wasn't a large scale model - a medium sized boat set at that price range ($40-$60 USD). And since we have gotten a lot of Ninja dojo's, temples, mobile bases, etc. I imagine we may see a large scale pirate base or island?

I posted this in the "Future of Ninjago" thread, but I will also put it here given that it looks like 2016 will in fact be "Ninja's vs Pirates". The flag posted in the Hageman's twitter feed looks to be a Lego set piece. It is definitely plastic and the right side of the piece looks to have been strategically omitted from the pic. You can see part of the persons fingertip in the middle of the right side of the pic and I am guessing that the rest of the piece consists of attachment posts. I believe this is a flag that would attach on to a ship or vehicle. Keep tabs on the SDCC panel today. I think that the twitter posts are teasers for more info at SDCC today!

Well, that is certainly...interesting! In their twitter feed, there is now another post that mentions that "hints to the new season have already been planted in the last season". Which echoes the comments made earlier in this thread by by Itaria No Shintaku. I think this is one of 2 things: 1. They are posting an idea from a prior brainstorming session about a possible pirate theme for Ninjago. 2. The next season is in fact pirate based and they are throwing out a teaser of what is to come. Some things to consider: Given Lego's tendency to keep things under wraps for as long as possible, it is unlikely that they would tip so much of their hand this early. This to me, would support "Theory #1" and the Hageman's are just posting some stuff from the cutting room floor for entertainment purposes. However, given Ninjago's presence at SDCC, perhaps this is a good time to reveal some details. Also, the timing of the post is very interesting given that the SDCC panel is today. Also, that pirate flag in the earlier post looks like a Lego piece. It is definitely plastic. The right side of it is cut off and you can see what looks like a fingertip on the right hand side of the pic holding the piece. I'm guessing the missing part of the pic are the connection points for the piece to attach to a mast. If this is the case, we might get a bit more info that I originally thought and perhaps a formal reveal of the theme of the next season. I believe the Hageman's are on the panel today so we might get something in the way of 2016 news. But...given that the product reveal on Friday was a set we already knew about, I'm going to set the bar for this low.

I'm somewhat disappointed that we did not get a 2016 set reveal yesterday and that the reveal was "just" the Temple of Airjitsu (which looks great BTW). But I'm also not surprised as that would have been a huge departure from Lego's M.O. to date. However, tomorrow is the Ninjago panel, which should (hopefully) shed some light on what we can expect in the next season of the tv show and therefore the next wave of sets. Last year, they mentioned the elemental masters and a "new enemy" ,which turned out to be Chen/Cultists. So, I think its reasonable to assume we should have some more info tomorrow, but that it will be quite vague like last year. Hopefully a board member or 2 will be at the panel and can fill us in on what was said!

Well, on one hand Lego has not given any sneak previews of its new non-licensed sets out at SDCC before and are extremely protective of leaks. So, that kind of gives BZP's story some weight. On the other hand, they already revealed the temple and issued a press release. If they were saving it for SDCC, then they would not have done anything beforehand and done the reveal at SDCC. Also, we know that Superheros (Batmobile) and Starwars (Storm Trooper Constraction Set) sets have also been revealed before the events on Thursday and Saturday, so it doesn't make sense that they would do a new product release for these themes consisting solely of stuff....that they already revealed! I have no doubt the temple will be on display, but I think given the enhanced presence of Ninjago this year, that we will get a preview of one set (or part of a set) from Winter 2016. We will know in around 48 hours. If anyone here has a "source" they can tap for some info on whether or not 2016 stuff will be shown on Friday...that would be super.

Thanks for the info. But, I'm confused by your second comment. Are you saying that you think the product reveal at SDCC on Friday won't be a Ninjago set? Because it does specifically state that Friday's reveal will be a Ninjago set(s). Or are you saying that the Ninjago set reveal on Friday won't be the Temple because it is a D2C set and those sets have not been SDCC reveals in the past. If it is the second one, then from what I know you are correct. Which to me gives us some hope that we could see a preview of a 2016 Ninjago set on Friday.

I mentioned in the "Future of Ninjago" thread that it appears that Ninjago has achieved enough success as a line (and perhaps as a pop culture "Thing") that it is getting a spotlight at SDCC. Last year there was a panel only and this year it looks like a panel and product reveal. Here is what I think will go down: 1. Agree with Penkid11 and CM4Sci that we will see the temple D2C set on Friday. At this point I think that is pretty much a given. 2. If they are doing a product reveal on Friday, I think it is possible that we will see more than one set. I think we will get one more reveal besides the temple. A set from the Winter 2016 wave. Probably a single ninja model and minifig(s) only. That way, they can do a reveal without showing too much of the line or revealing the enemy faction. 3. On Sunday, they will probably give us some very general/vague info about the upcoming season (based on the Winter 2016 sets) and perhaps some very general/vague info on the movie. Personally, I would be very happy to see some upcoming 2016 products. And I think there is a chance!