JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

Series Z looks great! Totally dig the Phantom Thief, Cecaelia and Cyberpunk Guy, those were my faves of the series. The fantastical ones such as the Ogre and Hammer Wielder looks really nice too! Seeing all 500 minifigures is just Wow. I really gotta revisit the past series and check out what would be my faves since I haven't been hanging here (or Eurobricks in general) a lot for quite some time now.

So about the Dragon of the East, I gotta say, I do like it! The colors are nice and the silhouette does remind of a cross between certain bird and lynx character from another franchise and a giant turtle which I find to be pretty interesting. I haven't been keeping up with the show lately so I don't really know the comparison on which one is better but for now, I really dig this set.

I just want to add a very late note that I absolutely love that Goo Monster! Easily one of my top faves with what I have seen here! Also, I'm glad to have returned just in time to witness the final series, looking forward to that

Not feeling it with the Team Van, it's just alright to me. But The Heavenly Realm looks really good there! I'm still looking forward to the reveal of Dragons of the East. That's the one that I'm most anticipated to check out after seeing the screenshots of it from the show.

Yeah, I did actually notice that too. I agree that it's one of the lower points and would definitely be nice for more uniqueness to be used. Though.. thankfully it doesn't really bother me that much nowadays as I don't plan on collecting minifigures "hardcore" for cataloguing purposes anymore. I'm just going to enjoy the very good ones such as the Crystal King. Personally, I find having the same minifigures having two different heads/faces and accessories to be more of a headache. Not to mentioned the ghost warriors from Possession having different names but they can also be the exact same minifigure. Whew, those weren't fun!

While I get that black would be a better color (the legacy Overlords minifigs were stellar!), I also understand why gunmetal was chosen as making the villains black would have them similar to last year's Maaray Guards as they're black too. I'm just guessing though. However, on the other hand, their current color scheme does make them look like an amalgamation of Monkie Kid's Bull Grunts and the Core Wave's Snake Warriors. Still, the new villains designs are pretty insane!

Man, I gotta say, yeah unlike the core wave, I love every single set here! They are all so good! I plan to pick all of them up whenever I can. Here are my thoughts on them individually. Nya's Samurai X Mech - The color, the proportions, and the cyclops head, a super sentai robo in Ninjago? Sign me up! This was leaning more of what I was imagining when the name of the "combo mech" was leaked. Also, this mech gives off the vibe of Lloyd's titan mech but poseable which is great! And they finally got Garmadon's Oni mask right this time haha. So much better than his goofy head in MoTO. This set might be in my top two fave sets of this wave with the Crystal King. Absolute fanstatic! Zane's Golden Dragon Jet - It looks similar to Jay's Storm Fighter from Legacy 2019 but I dig that transformation where the wings spreads! Kai's Golden Dragon Raider - Looks funky but it's probably going to be able to do some really cool stuffs. EDIT - More images has surfaced and yeah, the transformed mode is really cool and unique! Cole's Golden Dragon Cruiser - Personally, I find it to be the coolest Cole's vehicle visually since the Tread Assault. Jay's Golden Dragon Bike - While it looks cool, I can't say anything spectacular about since it's your standard bike. I still like it very much though. But that Dragon Jay minifigure looks hella lit! Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon - It never occurred to me that this dragon could be using Lloyd's Dragon crom the core wave but super saiyan-ed and that's actually pretty cool! The Crystal King's Temple - it kinda reminds me of Anti-Matter's base from Ultra Agents.In it-self it looks alright, it's definitely pretty cool but I think it would look even cooler when this set is in a diorama. I'm also kinda curious to see how the tensegrity works IRL. The Crystal King - Ooh I so dig this one! For some reason, this gives me some Egyptian vibes, probably because the centaur looks similar Tol'vir Dark Pharaohs from World of Warcraft. Like mentioned above this set and Samurai X is def my top two fave of this wave! Overall, the visuals have exceeded my expectations, the designers nailed this wave! I was worried that it's going to be a Power Miner, but nope! This is Ninjago, but golden super saiyan-ed! Also, I wasn't really feeling the crystal warriors (I was thinking that they would be Blizzard Samurai 2.0) when hearing them but after seeing them, they look good! Especially the Crystal King minifigure, he looks so wicked! The Ninja minifigures look really good too! Using three different suits to tell a transformation pretty unique in my eyes! While Crystallized is the second concluding wave of Ninjago, it's the first to do a proper one in such a spectacular fashion!

So yeah, I'm just going to post this here to add to the activity and also, I thought it would be cool to show this off too as it's the only "MOC-ing" I've done in the recent times. First and foremost, I'll put the link to play the game in Unity right here - https://play.unity.com/mg/lego/the-living-circus The Living Circus is a game about you, the player trying to collect a certain amount of Dark-Screams in an obstacle course circus under a time limit. Back in 2021, Lego and Unity announced the first contest to make a game using the Lego Microgame within Unity's game engine. Sounds really cool so I decided to do it with ideas bustling in my head (the exclusive minifigure was also a carrot on a stick too haha). This was my first time venturing into unity, and thanks to my brother's help on messing with unity more first or this would've been a real pain to do as a first timer haha. The Theme I want to add that the idea of this game was mainly inspired by the Ghost Rider Gameboy Advance game from 2007 (You can probably tell that this game might be dark), particularly the settings of part 1 (Hell) and 5 (Circus). This game was part of my childhood nostalgia as the gameboy belonged to my cousin and I only get to play it every once in a while. Though I manage to get an emulator to play the game of PC to get a feel for it again. Concepts Initial concepts was pretty unrealistic. I wanted to add combat and boss fights within a huge and long obstacle course. Of course, as a first timer, extremely unrealistic. I also wanted to add multiple levels and a sort of cutscenes but due to procrastinations and a lack of motivation during the middle period, I didn't get to add them later. The game eventually got scaled down to a one level arena obstacle collecting course. Builds So yeah, here are the builds I've done in this game. Some are not that impressive but I'll put it here anyway. Why am I using screenshots and not renders? Well....during late 2021, my hard drive suffered multiple failures. And I didn't back my work up.... Yeah, big mistake. Thankfully, they are kinda simple enough that I can redo them when I want to remake the game again in the future. 1) The "Entrance" - I dig the skull cave prefab but it couldn't be modified so I had to rebuild the skull from scratch to be able to modify it to the way I liked. 2) Bumper Kart Pillars - This was meant to be an easy-tiered enemy that will chase you. Unfortunately due to floor clipping issues, they ended becoming decorative pieces. 3) The seats - Since this was a circus arena I wanted to add seats that also gives off a sinister vibe and feel. There's also hard-tiered enemy karts that ended up being side decorative pieces which adds more sinister vibes. 4) Clown-Lamps -They decorative lamp piece that I thought it would be cool to surround the circus with to give more "light" to the show. 5) Dark-Scream Platforms - These are the platforms that will signify that the objectives are floating above it. They also kill the player when contact is made. 6) Clown Tower - This build is meant to be the living circus itself. It was supposed to fire lasers from its eyes but...the fps lag is just too great with that implemented so I scrapped it and now the tower's just a decorative piece. There's also two enemy karts of a new tier that's stored in its lower part but they're decorative now. There's also purple spinning rock contraptions but it was a prefab piece, all I did was make the rock glow purple. Why wasn't this an entry? Well, simply put - Lego ended up rejecting the entry due to it not being appropriate. Probably because this was horror-themed or death was mentioned in the menu. I could maybe tweak and resubmit but.....this entry was submitted about ten minutes before the contest closes haha... So yeah, while this is the only remnant of the game, I plan to remake a better version of the game someday in the future. I had a blast making this (when the wheel gets rolling) and it was the highlight of 2021 for me.

Like a member above, I'm not familiar with the source material but I do have the occasional fascinations with Aztec designs so that frog's headdress was the first thing to catch my eye!

Looks pretty nifty! It never occurred to me that Geckles and Spider Queens can be used as Dark Elves which is pretty interesting, I like it! This might seem more fitting to post in the historical section though as that section does cover fantasy. Still, this is a really cool piece!

Looks promising! Hopefully the story lives up to the hype, sounds like a lot of things are going on. Thanks for bringing this here! And I'm going to add this - thank frick that it's called "Crystallized" It's one of the biggest factor that I'm happy to see from this trailer! I'll just be frank here, "Endgame" from the leaks sounds like a dumb and very cliche title post-Avengers now. (When used in a certain concluding context.)

Looking forward to that! Guess it's a good time to return (again) haha

AFOL means "Adult Fan of Lego". The terms is trying to show that you can be an adult and also be into Lego too. There's also a variant to this such as TFOL (Teen Fan of Lego).

Yeah, you're most likely right there. I guess sometimes simple solutions works better than beating around the bush with convoluted concepts.

Yeah, I would definitely love to see that too. Some distinct variety within the villain factions are always nice to see. I would guess this is could be one of the reasons why the original serpentine tribes are very interesting. It would really cool for the returning villains to be generals leading different colored squads of crystal samurais. Considering that the recent season/chapters has been using SotFS's suits as the Ninja's casual suits, I can see the Core suits being a good candidates for the next casual suits if those in-charge wants a shake-up in aesthetics. I find myself liking the Core suits more as casuals than SotFS's. Also wow, I've completely forgotten about Vex. Now I just remembered that he's still a surviving villain, just powerless which lands him in a similar spot to Vangelis. The only major differences between him and the revealed returning villains is that Vex is still in the Never-Realm while the rest are all (last-seen) in Ninjago. It's definitely not out of the picture that he could return but yeah, as someone else mentioned, the time jump does make things complicated and convoluted for him (or any other characters in the Never-Realm) to return smoothly without some form of retconning.

Totally second the post above! You somehow managed to capture the style of these characters in Lego form which is insane!

A thing I have also noticed with many of these reviews videos is that they are following a very specific format or something similar in fashion. So in the end, yeah, a lot of them can sometimes feel pretty samey or reviewed for the sake of reviewing. At least to me. I've seen review videos (of other stuffs) done in a pretty creative and humorous format or shown that the reviewer is very passionate about reviewing the item while actually having fun. Those videos can be quite entertaining.

Slightly off-topic to what OP was saying but also slightly relevant to most of what the discussion was heading - Currently the only Lego-centric channel that I would enthusiastically keep up would be legoanimations6370. It mostly consist of disaster-themed stop-motion videos with good dose of dark humor which I absolutely enjoyed.10/10 would totally recommend his channel to anyone who enjoys this kind of humor or Lego stop-motions in general.

I just looked the Jombies up (as I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda 3 yet, unfortunately) and yeah, that's what my imagination was leaning more towards when it comes to the crystal faction instead of being Power Miners-themed. While it's definitely cool to see Harumi in sets again, I'm somewhat excited to see her in the show again but yeah, I'm worried too. I really hope the writers can pull this off in a good way. My confidence in them has been constantly fluctuating. Seabound has significantly brought it down. While "Curiosity" managed to give me a great dose of optimism, "Balance" brought that down again with a conflicting factor that I'd like to dub the "Seabound Syndrome" which is trying to mix in lighthearted fun with overtly emotional moments right next to each other.

This format of villains returning is what I've always been wanting as Day of the Departed and Legacy didn't manage to deliver for me - New and very different versions of them under a new powerfully-themed big bad. The way Sensei Yang was executed in DotD set-wise was too weak and there wasn't a big difference/upgrade of aesthetics for the returning villains. The Legacy versions of villains is mostly in similar format to DotD but with some having really good upgrade designs and some that just isn't that great. And both series do not have their own villains focused sets to carry them either. (With the exception of the Overlord Dragon. 70590 and 71735 feels more like a one-off thing) This wave seems to be rectifying most of those issues I was having! The more I hear about this, the more I'm looking forward about this wave! Based on what's revealed, it seems that the returning villains are only the surviving ones. That probably would be granted new powers by the Crystal King. I suspect the "Skull Magician" would be the return of Vangelis in another form with new powers. As for Harumi, her fate is pretty much left ambiguous despite her implied death so it's not that much of a stretch with her return. Four-armed villain could be Garmadon and there's, of course, Pythor and Aspheera. The rest of Ninjago villains seems to have either died, completely lost somewhere else or turned good to return.

Yep! I watched the shorts and yeah, I gotta say, I absolutely love it! Very pleasantly surprised! Unlike certain Legacy Shorts last year, I don't find anything that cringes me. Definitely excited to see more of the coming shorts! Also based on the trailer, I'm really liking the idea of mashing up the themes of previous waves (from SotFS onwards), that looks like fun! As for the list of 2022 2HY wave sets. I certainly dig it! Great to finally see a unifying theme for Ninja vehicles, quite curious to see how that's going to look. The villains is also quite intriguing too, while the name "Crystal King" does sounds like the set in Power Miner to others, I'm getting a vibe of a lost crystal kingdom. I don't know. but I'm curious to see how the crystal aspect is going to tie with Vengestone. Very interesting!

So yeah, I have read the article and like a bunch here, both agree and disagree with certain points. Most of your points with the show I definitely agree. The writing has gone pretty iffy for me. In-terms of being a thematic mess, I've pretty much accepted that we probably won't go back to the good old days where there's a good amount of variety in Original themes, as much as I want it. I've even gone to the point that I accepted that contraction isn't returning anytime soon or at all. At this point, all I can ever hope for is that Lego would occasionally create a new theme to enjoy (such as Hidden Side or Monkie Kid) and not to have a year go by without any original theme existing as I, like others, also doubt that ending Ninjago would bring in much more original themes. I guess I can say that I'm fortunate enough to not be that burnt out that I still have the desire to want to enjoy the sets. Also, something "interesting" that I just want to note - would ending Ninjago today trigger a backlash and resentment towards the replacing theme in a much more insane level than the days of Chima? For example, I've seen the dedication and attachment certain people have with specific Ninja on Twitter, not to mention all the kinds of questions Tommy Andreasen was asked there too. Then of course, there's still the fans that are heavily invested in this franchise too. The whole thing sounds to me that the cancellation/ending of Ninjago would be pretty devastating to these people. I don't know, maybe I'm misinterpreting this particular thing. Still, I just find this dilemma slightly interesting.

Yeah, upon a slight reflection and seeing those sketches for armoring customizations on Twitter, I can see the possibility for really cool stuffs to happen. What's revealed now definitely looks a bit basic (6+ I understand) but now I'm actually kinda looking forward to see how this system is going to expand. Heck, this could go beyond just mechs and become specific characters themselves too. I can imagine a Masters of the Universe-esque theme using this system for the characters. Okay....I'm starting to be a little more excited at the potential.

Yeah, I find this wave to be a mixed bag for me too. Some sets I find it to be really good and the rest to be just not for me. My definite favorite of this wave would be Jay's Race Car - I have always liked tuner cars from Racer's Tiny Turbos so that probably why I find it cool. Combined with all the golden blades to make the car stylized in a samurai-esque sense is just awesome! I would really love it if we could have more of this in a future wave. I know we already have a street racing wave with S.O.G. but it would be really nice to have another with more focus on Japanese tuner cars - to me at least. I would most likely buy this if I have the extra cash! The ones that I dig - The Dojo - The silhouette and the build reminds me of the base sets of the 90s Ninja theme which is pretty dope! Lloyd's Legendary Dragon - That's one solid Dragon! The interesting chest build gives this dragon a very unique proportion. The ones that I find decent - Lloyd's Race Car - the build looks pretty good, but with Lloyd's color, the car looks like a smaller (but still slightly different) version of the Ninja Nightcrawler. If it were in a different Ninja color, I would have liked this so much more. (Would be really awesome if it's in Cole's or Nya's color) The Ultra-Combo Mech - When I heard of this set in the listing, I was kinda hoping it would be more Megazord or Voltron-like since the Ninja are kinda like Power Rangers now. While I understand that this is inspired from Gurren Lagann, I find that original mecha design to be more suited for villains (of Ninjago). The mech definitely looks cool but...it's not for me. Kai's Fire Dragon - It's decent, just not mindblowing. The head reminds me of the Beasts from Hero Factory Invasion from Below which is interesting. The ones that I'm not much of a big fan - Jay's Thunder Dragon.... Yeah, it's not great. I understand that's it for 6+ but it's still not great. Zane's Power Up Mech - The vibe of this set feels too similar to SotFS's ShuriCopter with the latter being much better. Given a choice, I would also prefer Nexo Knight's Battle Suit over this. Overall, in terms of being the epitome of Ninjago toys, I'd feel that LEGO did hit the mark while at the same time also missing the mark. If you consider that mech, vehicles, dragons, snakes and temples being pretty much what Ninjago is, then yes, they hit that mark. However, I find that this wave - like Legacy - to be heavily unbalanced where every set is just a hero set - this has even got to the point where there's multiple sets specifically for the same Ninja in a wave which is why I find that the mark was missed too. Part of the magic of a wave (at least to me) is to check out what the villains are and how cool their own sets are. Another reason on why I thought the mark was missed was the mentioning of the Classic aspect. I feel that the theme of the hero sets to be all over the place (Which is also my criticisms for certain types of ninja vehicles in older waves too). I guess this shouldn't be surprising since this is a "core" wave. But when it comes to classic, I would think back to 2011 and a bit of 2012 too which includes a solid set for each of the Ninja and also a variety of solid sets for the villains too. This wave would be much more awesome to me if the sets that weren't dragons have more of a dragon-esque designs while also having three to four snake-centric villains sets. Of course whether that would have work or not in this age, I have no idea. That said, I also want to add that this is the first time that a non-mainline Ninjago Ninja suit design (with the exception the the Legacy Goldens) that I actually find to be really nice. I'm indifferent towards Legacy 1. I don't particularly like Legacy 2 due me already not liking ToE suits in the first place and Legacy 3 feels underwhelming. This new design strikes the balance between modern Ninjago and keeping the Ninja motif. I definitely dig it! A nice highlight of this wave for me. That's about it on my very long two cents haha.

Took a break from participating in this forum but this thread is quite interesting so I kinda want to put my thoughts in here. From my experience, it would have to depend on the experience I have with the sets combined with the vibe of that period in time too. If the mood was right. the build/play experience being pleasant and also if it's a set that I really want to have, I would look at those sets fondly. If it was either set in a period that I wasn't fond of, the build/play experience feeling like a chore or buying the set just for the sake of collecting/having parts, I wouldn't feel anything about them. Mostly indifference and a genuine lack of desire to mess with those sets. Personally for me it kinda boils down towards the meaning I have with LEGO. Practical or not, if the "stars doesn't align" (meeting the criteria above), I would feel nothing with those sets. And thus sometimes be hit with the feeling of what's the point in this. Fortunately, I still remember the meaning I have and had with LEGO (which is the unique worldbuilding creativity of themes). That's why I still want to continue trying to find ways to enjoy the sets. It's also why I still feel the rush when new sets gets leaked or revealed.