DuckBricks

Season 13 is a great return to form after a mediocre 11 and alright 12. I still miss the days of 8/9 (2018 was one of the best years show-wise in my opinion with Sons of Garmadon and Hunted), but this is a great step in the right direction and actually feels like "classic" Ninjago (seasons 4-6 are closest in tone and quality, which is great). In terms of next season - since the sets next year will mostly be Legacy with the 10 year anniversary, I'm really hoping this doesn't mean another very truncated and rushed season like March of the Oni. That being said, there are actually a few sets confirmed for this season, so here's hoping it'll be a bit more substantial (after all, MoTo only got a minifig pack).

Recently I've been using Bricks and Pieces for another purpose: purchasing the parts to old, discontinued sets that are ridiculously high on the aftermarket. For example, I was able to build the Market Street modular and several of the Employee Christmas gift sets to nearly 100% completion via BnP for a fraction of the normal going price. Even beyond that, the newest LEGO House exclusive duck has literally every single piece, including exclusive prints, available on the site, so I was able to obtain an essentially 100% accurate model of that for around $85 US, which was really remarkable to me. Right now I'm in the process of BnPing the 3724 Ollie Dragon, and all I needed to replace were 2x8 green bricks with double the amount of 2x4 green bricks, which seems to not cause major issues in the instructions. Running total is around $200, way less than the $600+ on BL to the US.

So what's been confirmed/rumored by Ninja_whip so far is that the focus is largely on Legacy, recapping the entire theme up to this point. However, we will see a few S14 sets, including a new boat (Not a DB) and a location based set, among others. Rumors for Legacy sets include villain vehicles this time around, which is a welcome surprise.

Villain vehicles as Legacy sets is welcome news! Glad there will also be more than two sets for S14, even though it’s limited.

From my understanding of @Ninja_whip's post (correct me if I'm wrong), there are two sets that he knows of that are NOT Legacy sets: the boat and one location set. The rest will be Legacy sets covering the entire run of Ninjago. This makes sense because as discussed before, Legacy focuses on hero vehicles and the only prominent hero boat is the DB, which it isn't. Sure, Misfortune's Keep was a big pirate ship but the actual sailing version of it was only in a short flashback, with the rest of its prominence being in flying form. Speaking of Legacy sets being only hero stuff, I really hope they branch out. I get that kids prefer to play with the "good guy" stuff, but why not give us an Overlord Dragon, Preeminent, Great Devourer, etc? Like, I can get the logic behind not remaking some random villain side vehicle like an Anacondrai truck or ghost bike, but these are the big, season-finale villains that we haven't really got any decent representations of in the past (or in the case of the first two, any representation in sets at all).

This should be good. They haven’t done a great job of this with past legacy sets, but this is the perfect opportunity (and probably the only opportunity in a while) to give us characters we’ve been missing, especially the remaining EMs, missing Ninja parents, and so on. Wonder how far up we will be getting legacy - will it be up to season 10, or even cover material from seasons 11-12?

Huh, interesting. So the focus will be on Legacy? I guess that makes sense with the 10th anniversary and all. Wonder if the show will be shortened as well like March of the Oni.

It will go up when we get any substantial news about the sets wave; at this point, all we know is approximately how many words the title of the season is because of Tommy's blurred teaser.

I’ve gotten all the sets and haven’t noticed any issues myself, but that doesn’t mean other people aren’t. Usually a reviewer like Jang would have mentioned it if it was a widespread issue though, which he didn’t in any of his reviews.

Huh. The AAT has literally one more piece than the 501st Legion set, but costs $10 more for only two desirable figures, as opposed to four. I know Ahsoka is really popular and LEGO seems to know it too, but that seems a little excessive to me. Are there any really large parts in the AAT I'm missing to warrant this? Another thing - LEGO designers mentioned back in 2018 the Grievous figure is expensive to produce, hence the high price tag on some sets. I decided to do some analysis on similar sets adjusted for inflation to examine this. 2010 was the debut of the grievous figure, his Starfighter had three figures (well, one was a droid) with 454 pieces and retailed for $50. That's $58.79 adjusted for inflation but giving LEGO the benefit of the doubt let’s say $60 today. In 2014 we had the wheel bike for $25. Two figures and a new white recolor of grievous for 261 parts. That’s $27 adjusted for inflation - again benefit of the doubt let’s say LEGO would sell it for $30 today. Here’s where it gets strange. 2018 had his speeder with two figures for $30, but with only 157 pieces. That’s almost half the previous small set for the same exact figure, no recolor, but $5 more. With inflation, it’s around $31, so not really any change. Then our friend the 2020 starfighter has 487 parts, so 20 more than the 2010 one, with three figures, the same exact Grievous mold, for $80 USD. Huh. It is true that LEGO designs have come a long way since those days, and models have greatly improved over time. That being said, this isn't the case of it visually looking similar, but having way more parts on the interior or exterior for either structure or detail. They both visually look similar and have similar piece counts. Comparing this to another $80 set releasing at the same time: Ninjago's Skull Dragon, 71721. That's 1016 parts for the same exact price, $80. It includes six minifigures, so twice as many as the Grievous set, and features a large, expensive-to-produce dual-molded spinner dice element, as well as a host of new elements created for this line of sets specifically. Now, Disney/licensed tax is a thing, but this is basically double the amount of parts for the same price. Other countries have it worse. Canada has the starfighter for $120 CAD, while the dragon is $109 CAD for double the minifigures and parts. The UK has both of these for 75 pounds, which equates to a whopping $95 USD. European regions have them priced at the same point, 85 Euros AKA $95 USD. I guess the conclusion is that sometime between 2014 and 2018, LEGO decided to treat Grievous like a bigfig in terms of how much he elevates the cost of the set. But is it really worth paying the premium to get a six-year-old figure that's appeared in that exact configuration and color scheme in two other, much cheaper sets? Why is the Obi-Wan figure reused from the Mustafar set inaccurately, when updating his printing could have added some more value to the set? And why not include a second Clone trooper to make up for the divide in price? Recently LEGO has priced Star Wars sets to be on discount on launch (see TROS sets on Amazon launch day back in December, etc). Will this be the case for this set? And is anyone going to get this at full price? I hope that the pricing of these two sets won't send LEGO the wrong message that people are less willing to pay for prequel-era and Clone Wars-era sets outside of a few sets that have been campaigned for.

It represents Niek van Slagmaat's sigfig, AKA ToothDominoes. He also appears in the haunted house! Here's a list of sets he's been a part of making: https://brickset.com/sets/list-24652

One thing I feel is a little off about the pilot is the fact that seemingly the entirety of wave 1 was introduced and wrapped up in 45 minutes. Early Ninjago had this issue with the pilot season, but at least that was paced a lot better and had some breathing room. Of course I'd have to wait till the english version comes out to fully pass judgement, but as an introduction to the characters, plot, and setting, it felt really rushed. Hopefully this makes an impression on kids and we will get a full-fledged season next year.

I live in Washington state, but I ordered basically every August set (Ninjago, HP, and Superheroes), so it was overwhelmingly worth it in the end. Last year when I did the same, they arrived on June 11 or 12, but who knows if that will be extended by a bit due to COVID restrictions and all. At least it isn't an August 1 wait!

There’s a German bricklink store selling them for much cheaper than retail called Steinchenwelt; I have ordered from them quite a few times in the past (in the US) and even plus shipping, it is way cheaper than retail - for example, I paid 70 euros for the Astronomy Tower and 48 for Privet Drive.

The instruction/game manuals confirm this, as well as a ton of other spoiler points - it's an interesting read! The season seems to deal a lot with the Ninja handling conflicts between different tribes underground, and uniting them against the Skull Sorceror - an interesting take.

Wow, that intro is really slick. Loving the animation style and the flow of everything. This type of action and seamless movement is something Ninjago has only just begun to embrace, and the first two episodes nail it. Episodes are live here, but will almost certainly be taken down so download it quick if interested:

Good to know! Perhaps we should make a topic in the LEGO Media thread to discuss the show, like Ninjago does and Nexo Knights/Chima did. EDIT: Nevermind, didn't realize it was up! Looking forward to this show and seeing how the writing compares to Ninjago.

How odd. Venomosaurus has vanished and I wonder what the deal is with this. I get that supplies are low with COVID, but if LEGO has a planned release date they usually stick to it.

My expectations were so low for the rest of this wave I was actually really surprised we are getting a new Ahsoka and 332nd trooper this wave; I figured there was no way - so it's a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one! The other sets are a little baffling, however. The Throne Room is basically the same as the previous set but mirrored so the tube is on the other side. The Soulless One is also super similar to the 2011 one, but I can forgive that since we haven't seen a new one in 9 years (unlike the Throne Room). Funnily enough, the Night Buzzard looks a lot like the MOC that was being used as a placeholder image for the set. It's actually not bad for the price. Anakin's Interceptor is again, almost identical to the 2014 one and with no new desirable figures. The best set of the wave is arguably the AAT and that's because of the figures - and the Galaxy's Edge ship is really surprising to get, but not bad. Never thought we'd ever get that before any of the other Clone-Wars era stuff we are missing, but it must have been a Disney push. I don't mind it.

Strange how the Venomosaurus says coming June 1,and yet it is June 1 all across most of the US (both EST and PST) and it's still not live. Also, it seems like that's the only Marvel set the US will get June 1, besides the minifig pack. Disappointing, as I was looking forward to the Tower, etc

I know there was a rumor going around that the deal was renegotiated so LEGO can make Marvel/Star Wars CMFs but I'm not sure how true that was - perhaps someone more in the know can clarify. Otherwise, there's basically 0 chance sadly with the deal in place. And if they were to ever make a Marvel CMF, it would most likely be comic, not film-based, as I imagine securing the rights to make a minifig series off of all those films is much more difficult than a generic Marvel comics CMF.

Yeah, last year it came in around 10 days so I'm hopeful for it to take a similar time this year, except who knows with the current climate in the US coupled with coronavirus if shipments get delayed. I was also thinking of maybe waiting till June 1, but I've seen no evidence towards the fact that they may come out June 1 in the US (and plus, they were overall much cheaper anyways than buying it retail on June 1), so I went with the store again.

Gotcha no worries - it’s called Steinchenwelt and I already placed an order for the entire wave of sets - there were great deals to be had with the Firestone Mech at 48 euros, Kai Fighter at 27, Skull Dungeon at 69, Skull Dragon at 54, Destiny’s Bounty at 90, etc, so it was worth it for me because even with 100 euros shipping to my state, it was a significant discount compared to how much I’d have to pay retail, plus 10% state tax.

The LEGO store in Bellevue, Washington (in the US).

Grabbed the whole wave but only built the two mechs - I was surprised to actually prefer the Bull Mech more. The Monkey King Mech is amazing and shiny, but there's no easy way to pick it up without risking crumbling fabric or cloth, and it's far less easy to pose than the bull mech to the point where there's essentially only one pose it can make without toppling over. The Bull Mech, on the other hand, is very stable, looks great, and can actually be moved around reasonably. Curious to build the rest of the sets and see if there's anything else that surprises me.