JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

Damn, just read it and that's pretty terrible. It's already pretty shitty enough that he's doing what he's doing (grabbing all the stocks of a new set shortly after it's released to artificially inflate the scarcity). And it's one thing to not have the decency to leave out one for the kid but to have the balls to tell them that they should've gotten there sooner and then attempting to sell his mother the very set for a much higher price afterwards? I know he's most likely preying on the desperation but seriously? Friggin' scalpers...

Yikes, my bad for not reading there. Does this means that we're only getting one villain set (If Temple of the Infinite sea is a villain set) and if I'm not mistaken, 71751 is skipped too. (If the Fire Dragon wasn't a villain set) Also, thanks for clarifying! And seeing the later replies, if the villains are fire-based, I'm surprised that we would be returning to fire-themed villains again pretty close to the Pyro Vipers. I always find the fire dragon to be Kai's a very plausible theory since there's always the possible theory that this wave might not only just be a Nya season but a similar repeat like Hands of Time where it's both siblings instead. On the other hand "Attack of the Fire Dragon" does sound like as a villain set which I would agree that it could lead to this reply : I do find this a be quite a fun direction! If that's actually the case, I really hope they don't botch it like with Zane in SotFS haha.

Interesting, with temp name of 71752 being "Amphibian Submarine", it sounds to me that despite the summer wave being underwater themed, we're probably not having deep-sea creature as the villains. Though the "salamander folks" does sound like a cool concept for villains to me now. And definitely looking forward to checking out the 'Temple of the Infinite Sea". Sounds really dope!

Have to say, the garden definitely looks really awesome connected to the docks and city. I'm almost tempted to grab it, but yeah, unfortunately it's a pass for me as I have other plans. Regardless of collecting it, I definitely agree that it would be nice to see more extensions, if there are more planned. A great choice indeed, it would've look so out of place if the box went for the route of 18+.

Ah I see, so that explains it. So it was more of an added bonus rather than originally being part of the plan for the arc. Which means Legacy was most likely something already planned from the start. I still find it to have much wasted potential as there are still coincendental loose ends set up by S.O.G. and Hunted that have not been tied up or followed. But considering it's production origins, it's now more understandable. Anyway, thanks for that piece of the puzzle!

Yeah, that I'd have to agree with you, It would be real nice for the villains to have more sets. At the very least one more. As for the recent mainline waves, I'd agree to them not being that that balanced but not that bad either. They just need tweaks to get there. Like adding the Pyro Vipers' Pyramid base set for the Fire Chapter portion of SotFS, replacing Jay's Velocity Racer with a Red Visor Speeder in 71709 for Prime Empire. Surprisingly, I find MotM very balanced. The whole assemble the dungeon felt pretty much playing on villain's turf. Maybe adding a Geckle and Munce each centric "base" extension set would really cool. So yeah, it's mainly just Legacy's overwhelming Ninja vehicles rehashes I'm just tired of. But I actually have more issues with Legacy than just the overwhelming amount of Ninja vehicles. After seeing how mediocre March of the Oni turned out, I started to question on the idea of Legacy perhaps being the reason for it's heavily wasted potential. If LEGO wanted Ninjago to be an evergreen theme and then pushed for Legacy, resulting in the conclusion to the Oni and Dragon trilogy getting cut short and be redone in a much smaller scale without any wave of sets. How would MotO turn out if it used Legacy's resources? Or of course, on the other hand, it could be the Ninjago team couldn't figure out where to take the whole thing and have Legacy as a placeholder to cover that. However, that doesn't really make sense either, as why go through the trouble of building up S.O.G. and Hunted just to fall flat? Sure, of course, I'll admit that Legacy does bring some gems like more Elemental Masters and the Ninjago City Gardens and some really cool redesigns but I couldn't help thinking if Legacy weren't here would it's resources made the mainline waves much better instead of getting split? However, there's also the possibility of the scenario of LEGO deciding said resources be diverted to other themes instead if Legacy doesn't exist. While I'm not crazy over Ultra Agents themselves and still find the ADU to be incredibly boring, I will admit that the tradeoff is very much worth it as both theme's villains are just stellar! So yeah, I can see the balance there. Agents...on the other hand, despite being balanced, personally I find both sides to be pretty meh to the point where I'd prefer Ninjago anytime.

1) As much as I understand of the feelings of tiredness on how shoehorned the ninja vehicles are (and I am), I feel the payoff of the tradeoffs is in the villains. Their designs can get really creative at times - like with the recent Keepers set, I am very impressed with them. Currently, set-wise, I'm mainly just looking forward to checking out how cool the villains are. This is also why Legacy lost its appeal to me very quickly and why I don't plan on collecting them anytime soon (except for the Overlord). The whole aspect just felt pretty unbalanced with overwhelming number of ninja vehicles. On the other hand, as tiresome as most ninja vehicles are, I think I'll take them over the chance of another theme turning the good guys into another case of Agents, Ultra Agents, and the ADU of Alien Conquest, they are just boring as heck. (However again, I do think Legacy is already pushing it.). I do hope the sets of S15 doesn't remind me of Aqua Raiders or Atlantis. Both types of vehicles are nice for their theme but it's going to be extremely odd for Ninjago. Though "Hydro" doesn't seem like a good sign. Oh well, I'm just going to wait and see. 2) It's rare but there are times that I do feel the question of did Ninjago overstayed it's welcome when they start covering other unexpected aspects since 2015? They don't give the vibes like 2011 or 2012 anymore. However, despite touching various aspects like Ghost, Pirates, Biker Gangs, Dieselpunk, Cyberpunk and now Islanders, the limits of being in Ninjago does give them a nicely unique design which does in a way is part of the charm that I've eventually grown to appreciate very much. I'm just going enjoy the ride that is the variety the Ninjago offers. Could these other themes be made into a theme of their own? Probably. I guess LEGO could always do those themes again after Ninjago ends since nowadays a lot of things are kinda rehash of rehashes but with new twists. Whether it's actually going to be done is another issue though, but in the scenario of that doesn't happen, I definitely agree with Kim-Kwang-Seok on appreciating Ninjago while it's still there as it's still an original theme with a nice variety. It's better than nothing with the ever-shrinking pool of original themes. Personally for me, the Pilot, Season 1 and Ninjaball Run of season 2 does give me a certain itch to grab certain sets, so I'd say they are kinda enough of a success for being commercial-ish. Anything after those, yeah, not really. I'm just there for the story - the biggest factor I can only relate to would be the vibes between the season and it's corresponding set wave. Of course, the former examples have nothing on those actual set commercial which are still the best adverts! Yeah, pirates and castle themed sets were really good and interesting from the 80s, 90s, Knights Kingdoms II, Fantasy Era Castle, Kingdoms and Pirates 2009. I had a great time exploring those. Pirates 2015 and Castle 2013...not so much. They felt like blatant rehashes, nothing that interesting about them in my opinion. Like Legacy, despite being original themes, they would be one of the last things I would touch if not never.

Not exactly though, for the new Overlord, the leaks shows the golden master-esque print on the standard minifigure torso while also only having two arms. The first legacy Overlord's armor-esque print is on the torso extension while his standard minifig torso is just in black with some purple smoke as print. Edit- and I got beaten just by a minute haha.

From the depiction in the back of the box, gotta say, the dragon doesn't look too bad when viewed from the top and surprisingly, I find the dark blue parts actually mesh and flow pretty well. I dig it. My nitpicks with it is that - it would be nice if the purple skeletal wings/tail swords to have some wispy black paint/print from the sword's bottom to the halfway to make the connection from the dragon flow better, aesthetic-wise. And the body still could use some stickers and print for dragon texture. For some reason I really like the head, it looks nice to me. If only the tongue was in trans-pink rather than solid color. Would've fit the energy blasting vibe better. However, even with clearer images, the front of the box still shows the dragon as horrendously as I remember. Which, unfortunately, doesn't change most of my original criticisms - It still need better shoulders, a wing build with vinyl wings and a whole lot of stickers or prints. That's what I feel when looking at the dragon from that angle. From the top, I'm actually kinda fine with it. Though I'm glad the Overlord minifigure could ride the dragon and the minifigure looks really sick! I'm definitely picking this up since (aside from wanting a Overlord dragons for a long time and digging his color scheme) I collect specific dark dragons and this dragon roughly fits the criteria of what I want, weird choice of build aside, the dragon definitely looks solid enough to mess around without worrying much.

I was initially pretty stoked for the Overlord Dragon at first glance as I was really looking forward to its reveal. But when taking a closer look, yeah.... not gonna lie, it's not that great. There's four aspects that really bothers me. The first would be the dark blue parts (especially at the thighs) - kinda felt out of place for the Overlord color scheme. Though that wouldn't have bothered me if the next two problems didn't exist - The shoulders and wings. With the Overlord Dragon intending to use that shape of wings/arms, it would looks better if the shoulders are much more beefier instead of being ridiculously thin. And the wings...oh boy...why wasn't a plastic wing like Skull Sorcerer's Dragon or Firstbourne used is completely beyond me.... The fourth issue would be the lack of prints/stick for extra texture beside the eyes. I really felt the thighs could've one each. And probably the chest too. The Empire Dragon which is another Black Dragon had stickers which made it looks really good that it makes the Overlord Dragon seem not that great in comparison for that aspect. Had the shoulders been using a beefier build and the wings redone with a plastic wing, the design could've provide great opportunities to have the dark blue pieces flow nicely and the dragon would've look so much better. I wouldn't be bothered if the set was more expensive as more part has to be used, I'd rather pay more for a great Overlord Dragon since it's something a lot of us has been waiting for. Though I'll say that I do like the head which looks nice, however...I wish it's toe claws are gold... So yeah, I'm basically torn between "Holy Sh*t, it's the Overlord Dragon" Stoked and "Aww crud why....?" Disappointed. I like it's silhouette and its color scheme potential as they are really nice, but the build for the wings and shoulders could've been so much better executed than this. This might change when more clearer images are out. Also I do hope the Overlord minifigure could ride the Dragon...similar to Unagami's Empire Dragon as the dragon and minifigure are also the same entity after all.

This is really sad, I never realized what impact he had on us until this. Rest in peace Kirby, and thank you for these great 10 years.

Personally, what made Galaxy Squad and Alien Conquest awesome was mostly the aliens. They brought in some very interesting cool looking sets. I didn't really care much for "good guys" sets as their design (especially the ADUs) are pretty generic in flavor. However, admittedly, I do eventually find the colored galaxy squads to be nice touch which helps them stand out much more than the ADUs. Strangely enough, I don't really feel the same with Mars Mission's Astronauts despite being generic-looking. While I definitely like the aliens more, the Astronauts does get a decent amount of attention from me too. Perhaps it could be the way the theme's balanced around both sides whereas the themes above felt like you wouldn't miss much if you choose to pick up only one side (which can be a good thing if you look at it in another angle). Or it could just be that ominous Mars Mission Trailer shown way back. Just my two cents here.

I guess it's most likely I could be in the minority on this then. I will have to admit that I do get what Lego were trying to do, with (mostly) exploring animals of the Ice Age which are kinda nice. The Phoenix, Tigers and leopards were alright to me. Maybe I would've been mostly fine with it if the fire and Ice stopped there (though even that much fire and Ice will still bother me)? I don't know honestly. What bothered me most with the sets would be fire-souped up vehicles of the animals of the first series like King Crominus' Rescue, Cragger's Fire Striker, Eris Fire Eagle Flyer or Laval's Fire Lion. At that point I think it fully sealed the deal that this is just feels like this theme became a fire vs ice theme and nothing more. Not to mention Bladvic's Rumble Bear too. It just bothered me that we get have some form of the bear tribe and it's fire-souped up... I can't help but to think what if instead of Fire and Ice, we get to explore the vast lands beyond Chima and Outlands. Go even more prehistoric and say, introduce the dinosaurs where each species is a unique tribe and explore new and savage cultures and legends. And...this would also make it possible to introduce old tribes like the bears without everything being deep-fried or deep-freezed. Just my thoughts here again.

Oof, with the price increase, maybe I should've ditched some sets to picked up more elves sets back in 2018 when they were still in store. It's definitely a really good theme. Was having the same feeling about it being just a girl's theme but with the addition of villains, my interest starts to be piqued and that was before I fully explored the theme in 2018.

Personally, first and second series were really enjoyable and pretty good. Sure, the show might be a little hard to watch at first but I did eventually get invested into it, especially the arc in the Outlands and I do like how dark it went. The sets for both series looks really good too for its time. And as partly in Nick's video, I do love the worldbuilding for 2013 and 2014 1st half year. And then came the Ice and Fire chapter...At first, some of the 2014 2nd HY sets seems really cool and first two episodes were quite exciting as they do have a dark tone to it. But eventually (and combined with how much Ice and Fire stuff I've already seen in Bionicle and Ninjago), it got really stale pretty fast, most things felt uninteresting by then. I stopped looking forward to the next episode and instead just watched on to just see how the story ends. While the first season have a lot of creative episodes, this chapter is mostly just warfare and minor shenanigans. With the high episode count for seeing ice and fire all the way, it was just boring. Then there's 2015's wave, by then I felt this chapter has gone on for too long. Sure, some of the sets does look good in a way and there are character that needs to be covered got covered but at that point, with more ice and fire themed vehicles, the sets didn't really excite me and I overall just stopped caring about the theme as I got hooked to other theme such as Ultra Agents, and Ninjago's Tournament of Elements. Maybe if Lego decided to take another approach while still retaining the fantasy jungle spirit instead of Ice and Fire, would it be more interesting? While I'm not sure on the public perception on that, it's just my two cents on the theme. I wasn't part of the hate but I do want to bring this point onto the table as I won't be surprised it tanked due to staleness at the end.

Man, that definitely sucks though I'm not that surprised but still. I definitely have enjoyed the theme overall. It's one of my new favorite original theme in quite a while and still is. Really dig the show with its urban and spooky styled theme that hasn't been around for quite a while. And they have killer minifigures too. Well, it sure was fun while it lasted. I do hope that there a bit more on the miniseries for the summer sets but if there isn't, the conclusion of Lady E's threat is already good enough for me. I really like a lot of the sets, but my favorite sets would be the Haunted High School (As that set had blown my mind when it's revealed), and The Paranormal Interceptor Bus as that's a dope rig. I'm also going to add J.B. Submarine because I do have that and it's really neat little set.

My overall thoughts on Season 13...

Absolutely, I definitely would love to have more tags!

Whoa! Can't believe I won again! Thanks for organizing this raffle Peppermint_M, I had a blast making this! Glad to be entering with all of you guys too, cool and spooky entries! (And I must say, Bricknave's and reddx's entry are my favs ) As for the tag, I think I'll take this :) - Again, thanks for this!

You'll never know where possessed horrors might be lurking when you're trick-or-treating in Newbury... Possessed Flower lurking... by J.J. Tong (And rendered by ExeSandbox) Whew, I really hope I made it in time!

Same here too. I starting to enjoy it again. Was kinda getting bored with the pacing and "filler" episodes too. And I'm really happy with them going back to using legit flashback again with General Vex's backstory! The "anime" style flashbacks are "kinda" interesting but ultimately I'm not big fan of that at the moment. Looking forward to the final two episodes! I totally dig this plot right now! Sounds like there going to be some good mystery which I like.

I'm definitely enjoying the season so far! While it isn't the usual 22 minute episodes and the dark tones has been subsided, I find the new format kinda refreshing.

Congratulations to the winners! All the entries looks very awesome there and pretty high-tiered too! And thanks to Peppermint M for hosting this contest too! Glad to have participated alongside ExeSandbox!

Man, this build is utterly amazing! I definitely dig the details and the colors, they're really great! And love the usage of the skull piece from indiana jones line at the rocky stairway path. Also the cave is illuminated quite cozily! This is just incredible!

This mecha is amazing! A lot of its detail got me. Even though I have to say that I'm not a big fan of using inverted parts, the other detail such as the entire helmet to shoulder armor package and also limb detail and solidness is quite superb that it still ends up being very appealing to me!