Tobias_Jay

Usually when final sets lack something preliminary images feature, it means they’ve been moved into a different set. I remember early pictures of the 2016 Samurai X Cave set including Master Yang but somewhere along the line until release, he was moved into the Ultra Stealth Raider. I also remember early pictures of last year’s Forsaken Castle having Zane instead of Cole, but he was removed for obvious reasons. I’m unsure where the Garmadon figure would go, admittedly, unless he’s set to appear in one of the Season 13 sets or a book, as others have suggested.

And he has very similar eyebrows. I dunno, I’m personally not as quick to dismiss this guy as Clouse just yet. Characters have gone through bigger physical changes than this before. Maybe this is just me, but if this new Kai is from the Spinjitzu Surge sets, then I’m kinda bummed we won’t get these variants for Jay, Nya and Zane. Still waiting on Spinjitzu Slam Cole and Nya. I’m having to resort to making my own, which is a problem as my custom work isn’t great!

That’s a good point actually. Alas, Legacy villains go vehicle-less. I guess apart from the 4+ Serpentine vehicle. I hope that future Legacy waves, should Legacy continue, have more villain-centric sets. I would love to see the Great Devourer reimagined, largely selfishly, because I missed out on her the first time. Would also love to see Legacy remakes of the Skull Truck and Garmatron. I wonder if there will be much special in the set lineup for next year, being the tenth anniversary and all. Having Legacy for the last couple of years has kinda taken the shine off ‘old sets made new again’, so they can’t really do that. I’m confident they’ll make it special somehow. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I agree the Wonder Woman box art is a strange choice, having just two minifigures on the front. But I would argue the artwork on the Hidden Side boxes at least gives an idea to the consumer what they can expect from the build. Kinda like you said, it’s clear which Hidden Side set includes a plane or a bus from whichever side of the box is visible. I would envision, if Ninjago were to follow this path, they too would include pictures that at least showed what the box contains. Maybe I’m just bias because I want to see more artwork like we got in 2011/12! I don’t disagree that it’ll be bigger, but the original Kai Fighter had 194 pieces, making this one roughly 2.5 times bigger in terms of piece count! I was thinking the other day that the Ninjago Legacy line, so far, hasn’t had any villain set remakes, they’ve all been vehicles and locations that belong to the ninja. So it would be nice if this big boy Kai Fighter included a Hover Hunter or something for the Nindroids to go into battle with.

At 513 pieces, that Kai Fighter is going to be HUGE, unless there’s a villain vehicle going up against it. Knowing how these prices are going to translate to AUD, I’m almost hoping there aren’t any more sets to release this year. It’ll be an expensive half of the year if these sets turn out really good.

A little disappointing that Zane seems to be the only one without new leg printing, but that’s grasping at straws to be honest. A nice looking minifigure. I'm looking forward to seeing what Kai will look like, but above that, I'm also looking forward to seeing if they’ll give us a new Wu, I wonder if he’ll get armoured up as well. Also, I heard a rumour that there are three more sets we don’t know about releasing later in the year. Any truth to that? It would be a generous helping from Ninjago if it is true. I was wondering (Prime Empire Spoilers);

Saves them having to redesign two variants of the ninja for the Legacy sets inspired by Seasons 3 and 4. Kinda like how last year’s Legacy ninja suits are kind of hybrid designs of the Training/DX/ZX suits to match with Seasons 1 and 2.

With the episodes out in English, what does everyone think about the new series? Feels like, despite a flurry of new information, this topic has remained largely quiet! I’m personally loving the mystery around the Prime Empire, a lot of intrigue that has me hooked and excited for the rest of the series. I’m also loving that they’re finally giving the Mechanic a proper role in a series’ plot line, rather than sidelining him with petty crimes. What are everyone else’s thoughts?

Hey now, they have a guy wearing a green brick with a ‘10’ printed on a plate. That’s special. In all seriousness, a Ninjago CMF is possible, but it would need to have a wide appeal to the general LEGO consumer. That’s why the Ninjago Movie CMF was largely occupied by minifigures that could be used anywhere in other themes. Batman and Harry Potter are different, because they already have a huge global fanbase attached to them. Ninjago doesn’t have as much of a universal appeal to the everyman. Not saying its impossible. If they make some of the civilian characters, like Lou, Harumi, Julien, etc., who have unique civilian designs that could compliment a city or town, then it could be a win win. Even someone like Bolobo or Kataru could compliment other people’s fantasy layouts.

Could be, but, to me at least, the face fits in with the Hidden Side aesthetic, by that I mean the green elements of the face seem to match the look of the ghost minifigures. But I guess we won’t really know until we have set pictures.

We’ve known for a while that this wave won’t have just one villain faction, but maybe this series will just have a bunch of unrelated bad guys. We have skeletons, goblins and now this new guy. Also, unlike many, I’ve been adamant to call this wave ‘Nexo Knights 2’, but every minifigure leak is making that stance harder and harder to stand by. This latest leak looks like an unused character from the second year of Nexo Knights...

The cowboy figure seems to resemble the ghost hunter that saves Jack in the latest Hidden Side web short. Both figures look super cool! Glad the line seems to be expanding beyond possessed civilians and branching into actual ghost figures.

I’m interested in what everyone else thinks about the connection between Ninjago’s longevity and the cartoon. If Cartoon Network tanks or decides not to air/fund the series going forward and they can’t get anyone to pick it up, would LEGO put in the effort to keep the series going? I know that not everyone that watches the cartoon buys the sets and vice versa, but I wonder if Ninjago’s life is tied to the continuation of the story or is purely based on the quality of the sets they have on the shelves. I would also think, in regards to another Ninjago movie with this new Universal deal, that LEGO would be wary of trying it again, unless they have learnt from what went wrong the last time.

To me they look less like knights and more like ninja with a lot of armour. I think they’ve done well to make them look like ‘dungeon explorers’ while keeping them looking like ninja. The Skull Sorcerer and one his skeleton minions have also leaked and they look amazing! They’ve really gone for a plague doctor look for the Sorcerer and it makes them look quite menacing. The skeleton warriors look super cool, the black and green colour scheme give them a great spooky look. Can’t wait to see more of what the next wave has to offer. EDIT: for those interested, the words on the Sorcerer’s robes say ‘Dead Rise’. Makes sense considering their apparent skill.

The new episodes will start to air in English on the 21st (this weekend). Back on the next lot of sets, some pictures of various leaked pieces and minifigures and one of them was holding a couple of the weapons introduced in the Hunted wave (the weapons that come in packs of ten in every set) in red. I’m wondering if these are uncoloured prototypes or that the next wave will feature those weapon pieces in red. I kinda like that these pieces are getting recolours, but I hope that they aren’t overused like they are in the Prime Empire wave. It’s better when those sets use each piece, either as weapons or to decorate models, but I have a LOT of loose unused trans-green pieces from what I have of the latest wave.

I apologise if this is a point that has already been made, but I would argue these busts and mosaics are for adult fans of Marvel, not just AFOLs. I can imagine fans that just want an Iron Man themed thing to put by their desks or in their bedrooms would lap these things up. Be they made of LEGO or metal or what ever, these things are incredibly popular. LEGO offering these things as part of their catalogue seems like a great decision. A giant play set would be harder to sell to adults that don’t collect LEGO often.

That’s an intensely long bow to draw. The themes they mention as ‘best selling’ are merely samples of the most popular themes, they’re not the only ones that did well. LEGO can be brutal with theme cancellations, but Ninjago is still strong enough that they aren’t going to pull the sheet from under it. Besides, LEGO aren’t going to pull the pin immediately. Ninjago is confirmed to go at least until it’s tenth anniversary next year. Whether they’ve got a big finale planned for then, we won’t know until it’s happening.

Thanks! Yeah that seems like a great price for the size. I’ll keep an eye out at my local Kmart

Has anyone in Australia been able to find the Thunder Raider in any physical shops? Almost everywhere I go, I can’t find it on the shelves. Is it a store exclusive somewhere?

I’m seeing a lot of speculation that this theme will be just like previous big bangs, and I’ll admit I’m no business expert, but surely LEGO would want to differentiate this one from Nexo and Chima seeing as they didn’t reach the dizzying height of Ninjago’s success? Obviously there’s something formulaic about how these lines work and what gets children’s attention, so there’ll be some big bikes and mechs and such. But surely they’ll try to do something noticeably different with this one? Right?

Will be disappointed if this is the case, having three sets with Legacy 2 Lloyd and none with Zane or Nya is bothersome for completionists like me! Maybe they’re keeping their options open for future Legacy sets.

Can anyone else make out the hooded minifigure on the Destiny’s Bounty? You can kind of make out a small minifigure next to Garmadon on the lineup at the bottom. Looks to me like it could be Kid-Lloyd, which would be an interesting inclusion. This set, potentially including lil’ Lloyd, Mega Weapon and, above all, a RotS accurate Destiny’s Bounty, could be a very desirable set for long time fans.

You know as much as any of us do. It’s all speculation at this point.

I would not be so quick to dismiss this new Bounty appearing in the show, Legacy sets are represented quite frequently in the cartoon (ala Earth Driller in March of the Oni and the Jungle Raider in the Prime Empire shorts). I’m more looking to see which Bounty it’ll be directly inspired by, the season 1-2 Bounty or post season 4. More than likely, as is Legacy style, it’ll be an amalgamation of the two. I just hope it contains a Chen’rai minifigure, thats all Ive been hoping for when I heard that Legacy was moving into season 4. It’s also nice to see Tommy Andreasen promising a more Cole focused season appears to be coming to fruition. Finally some justice for the boy.