JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

That's looks intimidating as heck! And you can feel the pure evil from the demoness too. I'm definitely looking forward to checking the set out should it become one. Despite being quite stylized, I'm kinda curious on what would constitute the legs. As based on what I could make out with, it's seems that lower parts are very skirt-like, possibly all the way down like a dress. If that's the case, it'll be very interesting to see how that's going to translate into the set.

It's actually...pretty cool! One thing I'll give post-MotO seasons is that the posters are actually exciting in its own right. My opinion on the scuba suits has kinda improved. Slightly. Mainly because I don't get to see the mouth. But other than that, I'm still not feeling it. Nya looks awesomely badass though! Also, the baddie in the middle definitely did catch my eye. I'm pretty happy that it has aquatic elements such as the fin. Hoping to see more of that when the wave is fully revealed.

Wow, that reason has never occurred to me on why minifigure magazine gift exist which is a question I've been wondering about. That's kinda nice, actually, being able to deliver those minifigures into more hands other than those who purchased the original sets that those minifigures belonged to.

It just occurred to me that Ninjago may already have somewhat done a Rock Raider/Power Miner-esque wave in the form of 2013's The Final Battle wave, with a driller set and villains/monsters that's made out of stone. It's kinda brilliant though (if that was the intention), taking away enough elements so that the wave doesn't feel like just a "Ninjago-ed RR/PM 2.0". Fingers crossed for a carnival/monster wave that returns to Mega-Monster Amusement Park and a Kamen Rider-styled wave where we could have awesome fantastical bug designs and zany powers.

Seeing how beautiful the water dragon and awesome the temple are, I can agree the tradeoffs are worth it. Looking at the suit prints and the cockpits again, I'm actually starting to get a little steampunk-ish vibes which is actually nicely fantastical enough. But yeah, we can indeed evaluate more when there's clearer images. I suppose I don't really mind the speculative "tech" like Kai and Jay's hoverboard was mainly that they are stylized enough plus also seeing Skylor's hoverboard which was already depicted as mechanical did lead me to think those possession hoverboard are the same. Though on the other hand, seeing that I do like the design of the Nindroids, and Prime Empire sets (both Ninja and Villains), I suppose I do like certain futuristic aspect when it really counts (being quite stylized and as well having a flavor of their own). But I guess to put it clearer - I just don't like it if the contemporary aspect outweighs the stylized fantastical aspect which happened to be the type of most futuristic tech used in scenarios that felt like a departure such as the examples in my previous post and the way the City of Ouroboros was used for Project Arcturus (another example I forgot to mention). . It all just felt pretty generic. And I guess this is also why I wasn't too big on Lloyd's bike from rebooted, the Jungle Raider and his drone-jetpack side-build thing from Misfortune's Keep despite them being mechanical/mystical-ish. Hopefully that clears up more on my perspective!

Yeah, I have agree with that, despite certain departure, they still kept the spirit of it in some way. And that's something I'll always be appreciative of. I am actually pretty fine with Prime Empire, MotM and the Island, I loved them. I guess I let the radical departure of the scuba suits really get into my head. It was too contemporary for my taste which is also something that I didn't really like about SotFS's suits. Most departures that I don't particularly like would be from the show where a large amount of futuristic tech would be used such as the Samurai X cave in SotFS or that futurized "elevator basement" of the tea shop in Possession. Or how horribly the realm and story of Prime Empire was conceived. The reason I didn't really mind the vehicles in season 1 or 2 was mainly they're of mystical or mechanical. Whatever that's extremely futuristic made me wished that they stayed in Rebooted or Borg Tower at least when the season is not focused on that. And I know the show and the sets are pretty separate so I'm pretty aware that I'm not being that fair. If you have nothing but imagination when messing around the sets of the recent wave, they are pretty great. Y'know, maybe to go back to a more traditional design while still keeping things fresh, maybe Ninjago could do a wave set in Mega-Monster amusement park. I always liked the design of the mascots. Giving them a sinister secret would probably be really cool. Plus there's already roller coaster parts available, which now enables this idea to possible.

Despite me wishing Ninjago would deviate less and go more japanese-esque. I'll have to admit that with these past few waves (minus Legacy since I'm not focused on them so I don't know that much), even though they are mostly bikes, vehicles, mech and cars, they actually look and feel good. And to think of it more, I'll actually take them over repeats of Kryptarium Prison, Airjitzu Battle Grounds, Jungle Raider and Kai Fighter. Those were horribly unappetizing, personally. At least I can comfortably collect these newer waves of Ninjago, instead of still grappling on whether I should to be buying sets like the Prison or Battle Grounds because of completion. Though I have give credits to Legacy for producing a very much better Kai Fighter, which actually turned that design into something I really dig. However, even if I'm accepting Ninjago no longer wanting go with japanese-esque directions, At the very least, I really hope that future waves would bring in more villains sets than what we have currently or this upcoming wave.

Yeah, while I have no problem with snakes in Ninjago in general, I do agree that perhaps a much better variety of sea creatures could be used for this wave seeing that Japan food culture and folklore has plenty of those. I'll admit that the TLMN villains had great concept there as their underwater creature theme is one of the rare connections with Japan's food culture. Just turn some of them into full-fledged monsters and it would be quite a nice faction of underwater villains. Hopefully, some of the exclusive aquatic minifigures would deliver, but again, was hoping for more, Also to think of it, aside from the temple, there isn't any other villain sets.....which really sucks. I used to think that I would be fine with dumping all ideas into one theme but after seeing how the scuba suits is really blurring the lines, now not so much. The one good advantage Ninjago has was being a theme that could incorporate plenty of Japanese elements into them. No other new themes could take that spot. I really hope LEGO start using that aspect more rather than it ending up being a wasted potential. Admittedly, after seeing the image, I'm actually kinda curious in seeing how the ninja vehicles that has pod-like cockpits would look when grouped together.

Yeah, hopefully once the whole adventuring seasons are done, the next event would have a feudal vibe to it for at least an era. I do miss the ranking of the suits where you go from Trainee to DX and ZX. Would be really nice if they returned to that concept. This situation with the scuba is kinda why I don't think I'll ever be down with Ninjago in space. For some reason, I'm actually quite fine with the Digi and Hero Ninja suits. However, the scuba is the first time this feels quite out of place for a ninja. it just feels like the show characters in a scuba suit tailored to their color scheme. And this leads to me dreading about the idea of "astronaut ninja." The "astronauts" in The Void are just horrible. While I'm down for 10 more years of Ninjago, I do also hope that it stays proper in theme as there are still plenty of Japanese subcultures and fictions to explore rather than reusing "standard" themes.

Not the OP but thanks so much for clarifying! Was wondering about this for quite a while and a previous thread did not mention this bit of info. Glad to have put this to rest. (At least for me.)

There are several reasons all related toward horrible writing, direction and execution - The promotions hyped up all six ninja, however in the movie all the focus mostly went to Lloyd leaving the others barely doing anything and instead being quite incompetent. The ninja barely did any traditional ninja martial arts save for two short scenes and even though spinjitzu is mentioned and "practiced", we never get to see the end result of that. And worse, the characters personalities were either somehow butchered worse than G2 bionicle or rendered with barely any personality but it was mostly very leaning on the latter. There wasn't any good balance between the humorous and "emotional" moments. Whatever humor the movie has, they try to insert the same amount of "emotion" into it and this can also be viewed vice versa, leading to all of that feeling quite tacked in and frankly, stupid. Basically, a lot of things in the movie was dumbed down. The only thing enjoyable for me about it was the first fight, the very short final fight and the visuals with both of that. Still, it was a massive disrespect to the source materials. Below would be a more personal biased opinions - I don't really like the dynamics between Lloyd or Garmadon or why they're even there in the first place. If noticed properly, this is the third Warner Bros. Lego Movie that a father-son relationship story is used. The first Lego Movie has already done it perfectly. The second time it was used was why I'm not that big of a fan of the Batman Movie (although it was also mostly Robin that I don't really like). In the Ninjago Movie, it's already beating a dead horse. This over-focusing on "relationships" is a huge chunk on why I hated the movie. Also, god that scene with Jim Croce's song is just absolutely...yeah words can't describe how much I hate that. I'm not a big fan of the lines being blurred between Chinese martial arts & culture with Japanese ninja & the feudal era they belong to. There was remotely nothing about Ninja aside from some moves and costumes. There's no principles on what makes a ninja. No codes to live by. No nothing . All of that was thrown away in favor of a movie filled with dumb western and Chinese styled tropes. The whole Hong-Kong film style formatting was also very off-putting for me. There are core differences between the two genres and this movie is trying to pass them off for the same thing. The only thing I feel that references to Japan would be the theme of the sea army. But that's it, I don't get any Japanese vibes beyond that. Heck even the soundtrack is so far off from being Japanese and more leaning on Chinese. S.O.G. is practically TLNM done right. A street ninja is so much better that some bland superhero ninja, It was mostly nighttime which was the perfect setting and there's great Japanese references such as the Monarchy and the Oni. Heck, even Tommy mentioned that this is inspired from Akira. At least there's some respect toward Japanese culture and fiction.

Not sure on how I would feel on these scuba helms. They are pretty cool when viewed as just regular scuba helms but as a new version of Ninja-esgue hoods, I'm not really feeling that especially when you can see the mouths. I'm kinda fine with the breathing apparatus though I do wish they weren't that bulky. And also it would be nice if the "goggles/visors" were printed on the face instead while the hood gets remolded to be more ninja-like where only the eyes gets exposed. As of now, I don't really like the current googles. The Ninja-suits are alright, it serves the scuba theme. But I have to say that I really like Cole's suit, it's pretty dope. However, I'll also admit as cool as his print is, both that and his helm does sort of clash with each other.

I am aware of that, however I felt that was kinda dropped when Garmadon took/block Lloyd's powers as that didn't affect the OG four ninja in any way which now puts them in position as regular elemental masters. While It's true that the four ninja powers are still related to creation, I just don't see the link to Lloyd anymore unless or until the Ninjago team choose to revisit that. Though, I probably could have specified more clearly that Nya could the second Ninja to have their power linked to a villain (If the mentioned creature is Wohira), just like Lloyd and Garmadon.

With the sypnosis mentioned before the big one (which I have not read because I don't want too much spoilers). I'm kinda intrigued with the direction on how Ninjago wants to take their elemental powers. Supposedly the creature that Nya's powers are linked to is "Wohira", this is actually the second ninja whose power have more to it then just being an elemental master. The first being Lloyd's power being linked towards Garmadon in S.O.G.

Yeah, I definitely don't doubt that it'll be mythical causes. Having it being natural would for sure be kinda of a wasted potential. Was more on wondering how the water would flood the city - whether would it be through an invasive form like the villains entering the city via conjuring tsunamis or from within where the villains would enter through overloading the sewers with immense amount of water. Personally I'll prefer the former over the latter as an invasive force entering through a tsunami sounds more epic. But yeah, we'll definitely know when the time comes. I'm quite curious on how are they going to handle that by the time of 2022. Yeah, while this is a concept, #legoleaks tends to have weird trend of editing colors on the minifigures for the sake of "recreation". It was a clever picking though, of Legacy 2021 Overlord's torso and armor which so happened that the resembling is very close to those who are unfamiliar with the minifigure.

I just remembered that Tommy Andreasen, the series' creator did hint that Ninjago City "will probably be attacked soon… again!" So perhaps this might be it! What really intrigues me is the devastations that's going to be ensured and how that's going to happen. Could it be tsunamis? Or sewer overloads that results in the flooding? If it's the former, we all know how destructive tsunamis are, it might actually top the damages done in Rebooted or Hunted.

Man, I'm liking that box art there! Having "Wohira" from just being a mysterious artwork (from The Island Box Art) to being flat out revealed is insanely awesome! I love it! Now that I think of it with this era having two Ninja mascots each year, why didn't the Ice Chapter portion of SotFS sets have Zane as the Mascot? It would've been really cool! And after seeing Lloyd's mech in that leaked ad, my opinion has slightly improved, it does looks more decent but I'd still find the claw arm my favorite part while the rest still hasn't impressed me much. Also, it seems "Jay's Sub Speeder" (trying to make out the text on the box) has Ninjago City in the background? This also seems to be further backed by Sub Speeder riding off a bridge (with railings, concrete supports and all). Pretty interesting as this does imply that the fight might be brought back to Ninjago City which results in it being flooded very badly.

Yeah, I, too did consider that possibility on Nya herself being the dragon and if that's the case, that is really cool. I wondering, could the Ninjago Team have taken some ideas from the TMNT 2003 series? Because that is one exciting trove!

Haha! I gotta say, it's kinda refreshing for me to see this level of enthusiasm on this here!

Yeah, it really does give me some Pixal vibes considering both of them even had the same hairstyle. This is also kinda interesting as this could mean the ninja faces would even have some apparatus printed on it aside from the actual head apparatus. .

Whew, an image surfaced on instagram on a closer look on the minifigures, seems like the ninja are actually having a breathing apparatus as part of their head gear and the Pyro Whipper's head mold is most likely final rather than preliminary. If the image is legit, of course. And it's out now on Instagram, damn that looks sick!

After taking a slight rewatch on Season 1's episode 5 and 13 to make sure, I'd have say that Ninjago City post-S10 is much worse than season 1. At least in season 1, the lighting, assets and colors was properly used to nicely blend in and cover the limitation of the city's graphics. While graphically, S11's version of Ninjago City was pretty decent, the removal of huge metropolis buildings and it's billboards of S8-10 combined with how the streets was done would not make you think it was Ninjago city but rather just any other city if you take away all the relevant characters. However, the worse dip happened in Prime Empire with how mostly greyscaled the city is combined with not-so-great assets. Even at the final episode, with city starting to resemble back to S8, the sparse billboards and then the mostly basic greys of the building still makes it unimpressive. Both iterations still makes the contrast stick out like a sore thumb. This is probably because most of the budget went into the digital realm unfortunately. Overall, had SotFS and Prime Empire been the first two season post-TLNM, I would've absolutely hated that movie and its effects with a passion, the dip is so bad for both in writing. I'm really glad SoG and Hunted came first, it saved my perception on the effect that TLNM cemented. That movie is still utterly horrible though.

This wave is actually pretty interesting but yeah, there are some sets that I'm not too big on either. Like others mentioned too, the Temple and the Water Dragon is friggin' awesome there! For some reason the Temple is giving me a vibe that is an amalgamation of Atlantis and Elves. That creature (if that's Wohira) looks really good, though I didn't expect the villain and it to be in this color scheme but it's still pretty cool. And I'd agree that it's pretty odd for a certain pyro viper's head to be reused for for the villains but I'm definitely happy that some villains of the other sets does have some aquatic elements although I was quite hoping for more. The Water Dragon aesthetic is also something I didn't expect, one of the more imposing dragons I've seen in a while and with its beautiful wings, it really blends in with the aquatic theme, The "Hydro Bounty" looks really nice too but I kinda wished it wasn't that predominantly white. A mix of additional colors of Teal, Azure and Olive like its sail print would've been really great. Also that leaked Image. we do get to see an artwork to the side on what seems to be part of the box art portraying the main creature of the Temple. And wow, its really looks awesomely menacing! Going to Jay's vehicle, it looks alright, doesn't feel mindblowing or groundbreaking by any means. Though personally, for some reason I'm really getting a silhouette and a color combination that's made out of the Samurai VXL, and two Hotwheels - the Roborace Robocar and Bad to the Blade which is kinda cool. And as for Lloyd's Hydro Mech, I don't think I'm big fan of it. However, I do dig the claw arms as it is has an asymmetrical and bulky style but the rest just looks plain bland. Looking forward to checking out the clearer images of this wave. (While I don't collect Legacy. gotta say the Fire Dragon is looking pretty menacing, much more than its original incarnation (set-wise and show-wise). It's giving me some similarity with the Firstbourne. But the main reason I'm mentioning this is because of....those vinyl/cloth wing.... Why oh why couldn't the Overlord Dragon have those? I know it's a homage to the past dragon builds of that era, but come on. The fire dragon now has it!)

Oh yeah, it's indeed definitely a good possibility that villians could be servants of Wohira. It would certainly be depending on it's fate at the end of The Island. But primal deep sea creatures is something that'll be really nice to have for villains again.

This is interesting. If "Attack of the Fire Dragon" turns out to be Kai's Dragon as a Legacy set, that means the possibility of the villains not being fire-themed for S14 part 2 is much more open now. So far the only known non-ninja vehicle set would be the Temple of the Infinite Sea which isn't telling us anything actually.