Aanchir

It's possible that both Wu and Garmadon will be younger in the film to clear up some of the complications about Lloyd's age (since he's Garmadon's son and Wu's nephew). Yep. The two-colored ninja hoods from the past two years of Ninjago sets have been dual-molded. So have some "hat and hair" pieces like Barbara Gordon's hair from the LEGO Batman Movie collectible minifigures or Gail the construction worker's hair from The LEGO Movie minifigures.

The Elves site now has character pages for Sophie Jones and The Goblin King, with stills from the new animations. I'm really loving how expressive the character designs are even in animated mini-doll form, and of course the colorful and detailed scenery. The Goblin King's character description is also intriguing.

You're ignoring the tremendous similarities between the Ninjago TV show and movie. From what we've heard, Kai is still hotheaded, Jay is still insecure, Lloyd and his parents still have a similarly complicated relationship, Wu is still the wise master he's always been, etc. Most of their physical appearances are DIRECTLY based on their appearances in previous sets and TV episodes, just stylized with some creative flourishes. It's like you're complaining that Batman Begins shouldn't have been called a Batman movie because it wasn't as silly as the 1960s Batman TV show, Batman was super broody and violent, and his suit was black instead of grey. Or that The Wizard of Oz shouldn't have been called The Wizard of Oz because the Munchkin Country wasn't entirely blue, the Winkie Country wasn't entirely yellow, Glinda the Good Witch took the place of the Good Witch of the North, Dorothy wasn't a little girl, etc. I mean, seriously, have you never seen an adaptation or reboot in your entire life? Things change. In this case, none of the changes we've seen were fundamental to the story in the first place. They're either things the original story largely ignored (the ninja's ages and whether or not they should be in school) or things that were, from the start, largely cosmetic (like the ninja's faces and hairstyles). By that logic, ANY actor who becomes famous (and yes, that's what Jackie Chan is: an actor) should give up acting forever, because nobody will ever be able to think of them as anyone other than themselves. Like, it's not as if The LEGO Movie didn't have any famous actors. Vitruvius was Morgan Freeman. President Business was Will Ferrell. Etc. But who they are in real life doesn't matter, because they're actors, and their whole star-studded careers are based around their ability to play people they aren't. There's no reason to think he will be. We've literally only seen one scene of him smiling. If we'd only seen one scene of the TV series and it had one of the ninja frowning, would we really be worried that they'd continue frowning for the entire series?

Umm, Jay's been insecure since Season One. Pretty much every story arc focused on him has dealt with that. "Snakebit" has him ashamed of his upbringing and wanting to hide that from the other ninja, "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" has him going to great lengths to hide his Serpentine transformation from Nya because he's afraid Nya will reject him if anything goes wrong on their date, "Rebooted" has him worried that Nya will choose Cole over him, and "Skybound" has him, again, self-conscious about his upbringing and afraid that Nya's lost interest in him. I'd go so far as to say that Jay's insecurity is one of his central character traits.

Time skip. Show how the play world of Finn, his sister, and their father has changed as the children have started to grow up and their interests have changed. This also makes sense since Finn's actor will have physically aged in the time between movies. The tongue-in-cheek cliffhanger ending of The LEGO Movie doesn't mean that the entire second film has to be built directly off of that ending. It's not like Andy and his family getting a puppy at the end of Toy Story set that up to be the main conflict of the subsequent Toy Story movies. It was there as an element of the story (just as Finn's sister and her impact on Emmet's world surely will be in the LEGO Movie sequel), but the actual conflicts of subsequent movies were driven by how the characters and their relationships to one another had changed in the intervening time.

Another factor might've been a desire to vary up the characters' silhouettes more. A common trick in animation to keep characters instantly recognizable is to make sure no two characters' silhouettes look the same. With LEGO minifigures, the easiest way to achieve this is by changing their hair/headgear or adding a neck accessory. Other than Kai, the ninja in the LEGO Ninjago TV series all use somewhat generic LEGO hair that has been used for many other LEGO characters besides them. By comparison, the main characters of The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie tend to have much more unique silhouettes. Emmet, instead of using the generic "man hair" from the 70s, has a little cowlick. Wyldstyle has a hood and a ponytail that comes up at an angle. And President Business has his uniquely blocky hairstyle, or, alternatively, his hilariously oversized helmet. And to those commenting on the characters' facial expressions in the movie, bear in mind that facial expressions in LEGO movies ARE something that changes from frame to frame. Cole's eyes won't necessarily be half-closed throughout all of the movie — in fact, for all we know, they might only be this way during this still because at that moment he was blinking and there wasn't any more picture-perfect moment that had all six ninja together to use in the article.

Zane's hair and face remind me of some of the old LEGO PC games (Alpha Team, LEGO Island, etc). Wonder if that was a conscious reference to play up his digital persona. Meanwhile, the curlier hair and freckles for Jay remind me of some of the "humanized" fan art I've seen of him on sites like Tumblr. It's a shame he lost his red hair, though. I'm glad Nya is continuing to use a Titanium Metallic outfit with blue accents, like in the Hands of Time sets. That really suits her and helps the color of her outfit stand out from Jay's or Kai's. The costumes are nice and diverse, and the faces are very expressive. The new hairstyles in general should help the characters' silhouettes stand out more than if they continued to use generic hair. Kinda disappointed that instead of real Japanese they're using a pseudo-Asian font. I wouldn't have minded a greater sense of authenticity for this movie. Most of the outfits seem to be labeled with the ninja's element, but Lloyd's just says "Ninja" and I can't tell what Jay's says.

It's worth noting that the instruction quality sometimes varies from set to set, not just from year to year. For instance, the instructions for bigger sets like 70627 often use a slightly sturdier material for the covers, while smaller sets like 70623 often use the same type of paper for the covers as they use for the pages. I can even remember one set (I think it might have been 2507?) in which two of the booklets used a sturdier cover material and one of them used the same material as the pages. Overall, I haven't noticed any specific quality difference between the instructions of 2016 and 2017 sets.

I also think that the dark and spooky nature of the goblins is kind of undercut by their inherent cuteness and silliness. For instance, Dukelin from the Airship set is a grizzled-looking guy, but he's still got the same cute, stubby limbs as the other goblins. And his flying machine is the sort of wacky, rickety contraption that you might see in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Even the goblin village with its man-eating plants and eerie color palette keeps the darkness in check by including accessories for the goblins like beds, a toilet, and a guitar to show that they have lives outside of kidnapping people and animals or plundering crystals for their king. My brother just alerted me to the fact that lekmer.fi has lots of new pics of the first five Elves sets for this year! This is where I found things like what the inside of the houses in the Goblin Village look like. On another cute note, inside the store from The Capture of Sophie Jones, there's a framed picture of Mr. and Miss Spry! The new pics also show just how much the wings move on Aira's airship, which is actually a pretty impressive range compared to what I was expecting. And as with last year, there's some awesome art on the back of the boxes to show off the main conflict.

Not quite. The 2015 City Advent Calendar was the first to use that piece as a vehicle coupler like this set does. Last year's Party Train and Amusement Park Roller Coaster from LEGO Friends and Kanan's Speeder Bike from LEGO Star Wars also used it as a coupler. When I first saw pictures of this set, I wasn't super impressed, since I feel like the Headquarters didn't translate to this smaller size as well as the Fortrex did. It really loses its rocky aesthetic, it doesn't have quite the same cutesy Power Wheels look, and even the head that gives it its name is not all that recognizable unless you know what it's supposed to be. On the other hand, it looks decently playable, it's a good parts pack, and the name is a brilliant play on words. Also, importantly, I don't really know how it could have been done any better without unique printing or stickers, which are usually outside the scope of a polybag set of this sort. So while it's not a set I'd really have any interest in, it's alright for what it is: a freebie or impulse buy. Thanks for the review!

Agreed. The Legend of Zelda series is a good example of a fantasy series that frequently makes use of musical instruments as important tools or artifacts. I'm kind of disappointed that there haven't been any instruments to date besides Bieblin's guitar. Farran's bio when the theme first came out listed musical instruments as one of his interests so I hoped it might be a sign of things to come. It is interesting that Elves has shifted away from collectible artifacts like the keys and towards collectible characters like the baby dragons and goblins. Given the way it started out, I thought collectible artifacts might remain a focus sort of like collectible weapons are in Ninjago, but it hasn't worked out quite that way. If the theme were to bring collectible artifacts back to the forefront, magical musical instruments could be a neat option.

How to Train Your Dragon could be an interesting theme, although when the last movie came out, Ionix had the building toys license for it. Time will tell whether they chose to renew that for the new movie. I also wonder whether LEGO would want to pursue a dragon-heavy theme when Ninjago and Elves are still ongoing and getting two or more dragon sets a year or more (though with HTTYD3 a year off, it's possible that Elves will have either ended or moved away from dragons by then). Honestly, if LEGO were to pursue licenses for any DreamWorks properties, I wouldn't mind them going for some of the DreamWorks Netflix originals like Voltron: Legendary Defender or Trollhunters. I've been enjoying those a lot lately.

Most of those are in the City theme, which builds its foundation on familiarity. Sci-fi themes tend to be aimed at somewhat older kids and consequently need a much greater emphasis on novelty. A nine-year-old isn't necessarily all that excited with the same things that interested them when they were four years younger. I wouldn't say sci-fi properties besides Star Wars only have a cult following. Guardians of the Galaxy was wildly successful. Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix also seems pretty popular in its own right, and is finally getting toys of its own. But it's worth noting that all these popular sci-fi properties couple the traditional sorts of space exploration, combat, and diplomacy with elements of magical fantasy and superhero stories, which are a lot more in vogue right now. Even Star Wars, which can still get away with using tactical intel as what the heroes and villains are fighting for, has always had the Jedi to add a mystical fantasy component. With that in mind it's not entirely surprising that many recent themes also blend sci-fi with other genres: Ninjago has magical artifacts and elemental powers, Nexo Knights has medieval imagery and supernatural monsters, Ultra Agents had costumed supervillains and spy elements, etc.

This is a great MOC! I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when Pharaoh's Quest wasn't followed by another Jungle-inspired adventure like the Adventurers one in 1999, even though I knew that wasn't terribly likely. This MOC feels a lot more authentic to what I think of when I imagine Mesoamerican architecture than anything from the Adventurers theme ever was. The landscape is also delightfully detailed with all of its amazing foliage and its clean blue water. I appreciate the parrots to add a bit more life to the treetops, and it would be awesome to see some monkeys too! The sand green bricks you used on the pyramid itself do a great job adding visual interest on the more repetitive parts of the pyramid. I'm not sure how well King Kahuka and his Islanders fit here, though, since I always thought they were more based on Pacific island cultures (I haven't ever looked very deep into this, though, so perhaps some aspects of their design might have been Caribbean or Mesoamerican inspired). It's also a bit tricky to understand when this model is meant to be set chronologically. If set prior to the colonial era when the people who created this temple were still thriving, I might've expected the space around it to be a little bit less overgrown and perhaps a little more populated with indigenous people. Great job overall!

Awesome dragon! I love its majestic mane and mustache and scaly body. Your dragon creations are always very inspiring. The good and evil soldiers have a lot of character. Even though I recognize where most of the parts come from, they don't just feel like transplants from another theme. I wonder if it would be possible to make the ladder more like the one in 6863. That way it could probably be rolled up against the dragon's side when not in use, and wouldn't hang at a fixed angle like the single-piece ladder does.

Brand confusion is also a wholly expected consequence of counterfeiting, and one of the reasons LEGO tries so hard to fight it. Rather than making this person look stupid or inexperienced, I think it's a really good demonstration of how you don't HAVE to be stupid or inexperienced to make these kinds of mistakes. An average person who hasn't done any kind of research or examined LEGO parts in detail shouldn't be expected to know where all the brand names and molding marks are supposed to be on a genuine minifigure.

This MOC might be one of your most brilliant yet! The smoothness characteristic of many of your other MOCs is itself charming, but this really shows that your mastery of textures extends to more elaborate textures as well as smooth ones. Everything is neatly distributed and nothing seems random or careless. The proportions are also extremely distinctive, coming together to create a muscular build that looks beefy but not brutish. The hand construction is also very effective. I like the knee construction with the dishes on the sides. I've had a number of Flame Yellowish Orange 4x4 radar dishes since a convention a few years ago, and keep wanting to use them for some sort of knee or elbow construction something like this, but have never gotten around to it. It's good to see that a knee like this can work in practice! About how tall is this fellow?

This is really clever! I assume it can't roll into a ball like the original Bohrok, which is a bit of a shame since that's one of their features that I always found the most exciting. But I certainly understand the difficulty of recreating that feature without so many specially-designed parts. The colors are striking and well distributed, and the cocoon piece is a great way to reinforce how organic the Bohrok always looked compared to the Toa and Matoran. The arm construction is very inspired. You did a great job re-imagining the "chikt chikt chikt" function, which some other Bohrok re-imaginings I've seen have omitted. Obviously I can't tell from photos, but I hope the sound it makes is just as delightful as the snapping sound of the original function! Great work overall! Your MOCs are always a joy to see. ^_^

She's very cute and has a lot of personality! I wish there were some way to give her at least a little bit of back armor, though I understand you probably wanted to keep her looking fairly petite, and that the connector you used to attach the skull mask limits your space to attach armor. It'd be neat if you could attach something to the arms or legs to give them a little more character, sort of like the spikes and vines that the Protector of Stone and Protector of Jungle use on their ankles. The arm construction doesn't really leave any room to attach much, but maybe something using the "hero cuff" piece to create some kind of decorative jewelry? Or maybe something could be attached to the leftover cross axle holes on the back of the torso to wrap over one or both shoulders. Overall I understand that she's meant to be a simple build, and doesn't really NEED anything more than what she's got here. But it's fun to think about ways to make even a simple build stand out more. ^_^

Epic builds! The temple is great — the colors and architectural style feel pretty typical of Ninjago, but it stands out due to the detailed build of the roofs and the amazing landscape surrounding it. The airship really fits the steampunk-ish sky pirate aesthetic while still standing out from the Skybound sets. I particularly love the balloons off to the sides with the roaring flames to keep them aloft. I do feel like the bow of the ship would be improved with the addition of some type of figurehead, though.

I quite liked that there were as many LEGO Ninjago packs as there were, since it meant more choice and also helped make up for the scarcity of other original LEGO properties amidst a sea of licenses. However, it does make me wonder what LEGO Dimensions will have for The LEGO Ninjago Movie, since all the main characters already exist as Dimensions packs. I guess Excalibur Batman does show that LEGO is willing to have alternate versions of a single character as separate packs as long as they have different names and different enough costumes, so that might be the route LEGO Dimensions takes with the LEGO Ninjago Movie.

Very neat! I like how the various blade pieces come together to create a detailed wing shape. It would be better if the Chima blades were a closer match to the look of the bigger and smaller Ninjago blade pieces, but it's not too distracting. The body is very small and skeletal but still nice and streamlined. It might feel a bit more solid if you were to use a larger shell on the back instead of those talon pieces — there are quite a number of nice shell pieces in the same Flame Yellowish Orange color as the head.

Great build! It's a very good likeness of the ship from that pilot episode, I think. I'm particularly impressed with the brick-built hull, the railings towards the stern, and the elaborate rigging! One aspect that I think could be improved is how crinkly the blue sides become as they approach the bow. I'm not sure what the best way to fix this is, but perhaps some curved slopes attached sideways (like on the Imperial Flagship set) might help smooth that area out. But it doesn't detract too much from the impressiveness of the overall build. Thinking about this boat's role in the show, I wonder whether it was in Sensei Wu's possession or whether he and the ninja chartered it to reach the ice fortress. I'm inclined to think the latter, since other than the monastery which he inherited from his father, Wu didn't seem to have too much in the way of material possessions at this point in the show, and it would be a bit odd for him to own a boat this big when he didn't live near water. With your skill at shipbuilding, it would be cool if you someday looked into building one of the paddleboats from Ninjago seasons 4 and 5!

I don't have any problem with Netflix. In fact I've been really enjoying their original programming like "Voltron: Legendary Defender", "Trollhunters", and "A Series of Unfortunate Events". Netflix is also cheaper than most cable TV subscriptions here in the US, and more convenient for me when I'm away at college. But since this is effectively being treated as a new series, I was a bit concerned they might change the look radically, like maybe switching to a 3D animation style like the Friends TV series. Fortunately they seemingly haven't changed that aspect of it except for certain scenes like the airship scene which combine 3D and traditional animation. As for why they switched to Netflix, they moved the LEGO Friends series from Disney Channel to Netflix last year, so I guess that has been a successful venture. Considering how little promotion and what inconvenient scheduling Disney Channel has given the LEGO Elves specials, I'm hopeful that Netflix will be a much better home for next year's episodes and that it will get many more viewers!

I think it looks nice. The backgrounds are just as detailed as we're used to, and the character designs retain the colorful lineart and highly expressive look from the 2016 episodes, only now with more recognizably LEGO proportions. From these snippets I don't really have a definite preference between the two styles, and will have to see a full episode to really decide how much has been lost or gained. But it's definitely much better than my worst fears when they announced the switch to Netflix.