Aanchir

This topic seems to have mostly died, but in case anybody's still interested, this Ninjago key visual on the official LEGO Ninjago Facebook page reveals some of the sets and minifigures. There are two new swords and they both have skull motifs molded into the hilt guard. The monkey torso is also now appearing in grey, so monkeys don't all have to be brown anymore! Also, earth green epaulettes! The sky pirate vehicles are a lot more steampunk-ish than would really fit in the Pirates theme, but they do make extensive use of piratey parts like anchors, bottles, ship's wheels, etc. And of more basic parts in various earth tones.

Gosh, I love the squirebots. This is our first time seeing one disassembled, which is neat. These activity books generally don't have exclusive figs, so Aaron's Squirebot will probably be showing up in one or more sets, though I'm not entirely sure of which ones.

Hooray! From our first confirmation of a LEGO Movie series (our first "themed" collectible minifigures series) I started to hope that maybe a Ninjago-themed series might be possible one day, and the movie is obviously the perfect opportunity for that to happen. Glad to finally have confirmation that it is in fact happening! I think it's probably safe to assume it will include new and unique versions of the theme's main heroes, plus the movie's main villain and an assortment of secondary characters, much like the LEGO Movie collectible minifigures last year. Beyond that, though, it's probably too early to speculate. I'm not a Simpsons fan but the Simpsons series didn't really annoy me in any way. It brought some new technologies to the table like the new co-injected minifigure arms and legs, and I'm sure there are parts there that even people who aren't Simpsons fans can use for modern-day sigfigs. In my case, though, it's like you said: more money to save. I've gotten very few figs from most of the recent series anyway, just because I don't get out to toy stores as often or for as long as I did when I was at college. The LEGO Ninjago fanbase is huge. Far bigger than the LEGO Group forecast when the theme began. Its sales in its first year already surpassed any previous launch for a new LEGO product line. And when the rumors started to circulate in the middle of 2012 that it would be ending, there was a tremendous outcry that led to an unprecedented number of calls to LEGO Customer Service. The confirmation that the theme wasn't ending came in December 2012, before the 2013 lineup that would have been its final wave was even released! As of this year, it's even being considered an evergreen theme like LEGO City, and both LEGOLAND California and LEGOLAND Billund are building Ninjago-themed expansions for next year. According to Google Trends, LEGO Ninjago has generated more search interest in the past five years than the LEGO Group's best-selling themes, LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars. At the peak of its interest in December 2012 (shortly after what would have been the TV show's season finale), it generated more search interest than those two themes put together. And while its search interest took quite a dip throughout 2013 and 2014, when the product line and TV show alike were severely diminished, its search interest since the start of this year has exceeded the search interest for LEGO City or LEGO Star Wars every. single. month. I'm sure LEGO Star Wars will see a sharp increase starting next month, of course, since that's when The Force Awakens comes out, but still, for the LEGO Ninjago theme to have generated this much search interest over nearly an entire year is extraordinary, since search interest for most LEGO themes peaks during the holidays and then steadily declines. So yes, it absolutely has got a lot of fans, and the movie in 2017 will surely cause its fanbase to increase even more!

Do we have confirmation of that? If so, that's awesome! I've been hoping for one ever since the LEGO Movie series was confirmed, and I figured the Ninjago movie would be our best chance of that happening. I'd imagine that like the LEGO Movie series, it'd probably have unique versions of the main characters plus an assortment of minor or secondary characters. But it's so far off and we know so little about the movie that I see no point making more specific predictions. I think the exclusive fig in the new character encyclopedia will PROBABLY be one of the seven main characters (the six ninja and Sensei Wu). There are some recent DK guide books that include secondary characters, like the Legends of Chima Character Encyclopedia, but the vast majority focus on new variants of main characters. I'd love a fig of Nya in the costume she wore throughout "Rebooted", but that seems like a bit of a longshot considering that a) she's not really wearing that costume anymore in the show and b) plain clothes aren't as "edgy" as a ninja or samurai costume.

These actually seem to be a different piece than the traditional large dragon wing. The "membrane" of the large dragon wings from Vikings/Castle sticks inward towards the dragon's body past the Technic pin holes, and the wings of the blue and green dragons, at least, don't appear to have that extra inner bit of membrane. Not sure if they're the same size other than that change, though.

We now have a cover for the British edition of the activity book "Sky Pirates Attack", but the minifigure is just Jay in his Jungle robes (just as this year's "The Hour of Ghosts" activity book and "World of Ninjago" guide book just included Kai and Cole in their Techno robes). Kind of peculiar, since the "Tournament of Elements" activity book earlier this year DID have a Sleven minifigure. So unless something's changed, it's not like including a current minifigure in an activity book isn't possible. We also have a preliminary cover of the new Character Encyclopedia, but it's probably subject to change between now and the date of release. I'm particularly excited for that since it promises "an EXCLUSIVE brand-new minifigure!" (hopefully not a bait & switch like the Visual Dictionary's "limited edition" Zane Rebooted figure). It also should have a lot more content than the original Character Encyclopedia, since by the time this is released there will be nearly three times as many Ninjago figs available as there were in 2011–201.

While I'm a huge believer in feminism and gender equality, I don't disagree with any of those things. It doesn't particularly matter if those things are based on "nature" (genetic predispositions) or "nurture" (societal influences) — either way, they're still very real tendencies we see in girls, and I feel like they should be respected. It frustrates me a lot when people insist that themes like LEGO Friends or LEGO Elves should be more "gender-neutral", because that starts to create the impression that there SHOULDN'T be a theme for girls who like dolls or dollhouse play or pink or purple. That those girls somehow don't deserve a LEGO building experience unless they can conform their expectations to the types of building that boys are willing to tolerate. "Gender neutral" is often used as code for "things a boy would be comfortable with". Girls who like action movies and horror movies are considered cool, because even if those movies are dripping with testosterone, they're considered "gender-neutral". But boys who like romantic comedies are considered wusses. And I think a lot of the criticisms of LEGO Friends and LEGO Elves feed into this framework that legitimizes things boys like while dismissing things girls like as silly or frivolous. We can't just pretend themes like City and Castle are gender-neutral if their audiences are overwhelmingly male. Now, of course, these things are just tendencies. There's nothing wrong with being different than the norm for your gender. I'm a big fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and while that's intended as something that entire families can watch together without cringing, it's still overtly feminine in its design language, color palette, cast of characters, etc. I also know a lot of girls who really like LEGO Bionicle and LEGO Ninjago, which feature overwhelmingly male casts and a bold, aggressive design language and color palette. People should be free to like whatever appeals to their individual interests. But we shouldn't demonize boys or girls whose interests do line up with gender norms, nor should we create a climate where it's perceived as okay or even preferable for girls to like "boy things" but not the other way around. Having been a fan of the LEGO Group's buildable action figure lines like Bionicle for so long, a part of me even wonders if there's any possibility that the LEGO Group could break into the fashion doll market. I could see LEGO Elves buildable dolls having a lot of appeal — it's just a matter of finding a way to balance "building play" and "fashion play" that maximizes both types of appeal. But that's getting pretty far from what this topic is about, so I won't ramble on about that here. Now, I do somewhat disagree with your claim that if LEGO had come out with more girl-oriented lines in the 80s and 90s, the minifigure would be globally recognized as gender-neutral. First of all, because a lot of the girls the LEGO Group was studying during the development process for LEGO Friends (from around 2007 to 2011) were too young to even know what LEGO was like in the 80s and 90s. Second, because LEGO actually DID try to release girl-oriented minifigure playsets in the Paradisa theme. And third, because as you say, girls have a tendency to like dolls, and I think it's safe to say there are reasons for that that are deeper than just being told that dolls are appropriate for them. Remember those female LEGO Bionicle and LEGO Ninjago fans I mentioned? Quite a lot of them prefer to draw the characters as humans rather than as robots or little block-men like they appear in the sets and media. So I don't think the LEGO Group's findings that many girls prefer play figures they can relate to on a personal, human level are all that far-fetched.

The minifigure may have been intended to be more gender-neutral, but that's certainly not how it ended up working out. In actuality, far more boys love the look and play experience of the traditional LEGO minifigure than girls. If girls and boys could enjoy the LEGO minifigure in equal measure then designing the mini-doll wouldn't have been necessary in the first place. But whether by nature or nurture, the LEGO Group found that girls tend to have different expectations of a play figure than boys do. Girls overwhelmingly preferred something more lifelike that they could relate to in the first person and not just as an abstract, blocky character.

I'm still not entirely sure the shields will be stickered. Bear in mind the high-resolution Fortrex pic we've seen is still somewhat preliminary — it doesn't have all the stickers on the towers, for instance. I don't particularly care either way. I like stickers. I think printing might be more practical for things like an "activity book with minifigure", though... I don't know a lot of those that have included a sticker sheet. For all we know, it could even be a situation where some shields use stickers and others use printing. The interview I watched earlier revealed that the app can scan shields from books, TV, or the web just as easily as from sets, so there isn't some material property that's integral to their functionality like there was for the Ultra Agents "app bricks".

I wonder if the Elves sets are aimed in part at the sort of girls who felt Fantasy Era LEGO Castle had quite a few good things going on in it, despite the minifigs and excessive "little boy" stylizing? A lot of things we think of as gender-neutral, including the minifigure, aren't nearly as gender-neutral as we like to pretend they are. Who are we to say that the mini-dolls girls overwhelmingly prefer aren't gender-neutral but the minifigs boys overwhelmingly prefer somehow are? Also, society has a troubling tendency society has to treat the things girls like as "kid stuff" while treating things boys like as appropriate for all ages. Why did you feel the need to specify "little girl" stylization? Hate to get into the whole age recommendation spiel again, but Elves sets are technically aimed at ages 7–12 or 8–12, while a lot of LEGO Castle sets of similar size would be aimed at even younger ages. And why should wanting animal characters to look cute and human or elf characters to look beautiful end as you get older? It's just a different aesthetic style, and one style is not inherently more childish than the other. I've enjoyed the Elves sets a great deal, in part because of their figures, which are really lifelike and beautifully designed. The details of Azari's dress, Farran's boots, and Skyra's headdress are all very enchanting. I don't think Elves would be better with minifigures any more than Ninjago would be better with mini-dolls. Random side-note: an interview I watched earlier today seems to confirm that the Nexo Knights Fortrex has a kitchen. That's the kind of livable detail I like to see! And the kind I'm still waiting on traditional LEGO Castle to deliver. Maybe we'll have a chance with whatever the next Castle D2C set turns out to be.

Bear in mind that some of that time might have just been a matter of waiting for the opportune moment. It would have been a mistake to launch it right after launching another big action-adventure theme like Ninjago or Legends of Chima, for instance. Also, a lot of the early years would have mostly involved testing different versions of the core concept with kids and refining it to make it the best theme it could be. That's exactly the opposite of what they did with Galidor, which was hastily rushed to production as soon as the LEGO Group found out Bionicle was a hit. This is the first time I've ever heard anybody complain that LEGO spent too much time developing a theme. I'm not even sure how that would work... you'd think every bit of time spent refining a theme prior to its launch would be a positive influence.

Just came across TTV conducted with some of the Nexo Knights creators. Apparently, not only can you scan powers from the shields in the sets, there will also be powers to scan from the TV episodes, the books, etc. Also, Nexo Knights development apparently started in 2009, so it's a concept they've been refining for over five years.

I thought it was new at first too, but my brother pointed out it's actually two pieces. 11437+11090.

Yep, they're new this year. Even when you take them off the sprue they're different, as the new ones have a texture on the handles similar to the katana piece, while the old one had smooth handles.

Better edit that post. Based on what went down in the Nexo Knights topic, the mods don't want us posting those images. As much as I like seeing sets ahead of time, it's good to see they're taking this seriously.

They look to me like they are in folded cardboard boxes similar to this year's Airjitzu and Bionicle sets or last year's Speedorz sets. I wish LEGO were still using those resealable foil pouches they used for Hero Factory. They're some of the best, most functional packaging the LEGO Group has ever created.

Oh my gosh! The dragons look so beautiful! The designers did a truly excellent job matching the design language of the smaller creatures while still making them mostly brick-built. Their color schemes are bright and exciting, and they seem to have a great deal of articulation for their size. I am in awe! I'm seeing some great building techniques throughout this range, like the Unikitty tails behind the library/bookstore sign in the Secret Market. The Secret Market has a nice selection of shops. Besides the bookstore, there's a blacksmith, a grocer, and... not entirely sure what the upper-story shop with the owl is. Maybe a post office? Most of the main character mini-dolls appear to have new outfits, but it's hard to make out all the details (and some might still be preliminary). What is clear is that Azari's new outfit is now Flame Yellowish Orange with Bright Reddish Violet accents rather than the other way around, which means she better matches the new fire dragon. The new packaging with the white dragon looks nice, and I'll bet we'll see that dragon in a set next summer!

I don't think so. They're probably just costume accessories like the Chima armor and cape that could be bought at LEGOLAND parks.

I've recently started watching and gotten caught up with Gravity Falls. Really fun show! Lots of heart and humor. The quality of the animation is stellar... I guess that might be one of the perks of being a Disney program. I think my dad might enjoy it more than he enjoyed Steven Universe when I tried to share that with him. Gravity Falls' story definitely gets up and running a lot quicker, perhaps because its episodes are longer so it doesn't take so many to set up the universe and its characters. And its snarky style of humor is a bit closer to the types of cartoon my dad tends to enjoy like The Simpsons or SpongeBob SquarePants.

ReBrick recently did a cool interview with Nicolaas Vás (Brickthing), designer of 70734 Master Wu Dragon! I think it's definitely worth a read for any LEGO Ninjago fan. He talks about his background as a MOCist and how he became a designer, as well as the process of designing this set. It even includes pics of some of the sketch models that led up to the final design. As I sort of expected, one motivation for the set's design was to include a lot of parts that he felt he and other MOCists would appreciate. Master Wu Dragon is still one of this year's sets that I'd most enthusiastically recommend to other LEGO fans, even ones who don't normally collect Ninjago. It's got all kinds of rare parts and advanced building techniques. And unlike the Temple of Airjitzu, which costs a whopping $200, this one has an affordable mid-range price of $40 (which is incredible for a set with 575 pieces and 5 minifigures).

Yeah, it's high time Lloyd got a proper signature weapon! Most years there has been some kind of special weapon or artifact for the original four ninja (golden weapons of Spinjitzu in 2011–2012, elemental blades in 2013, Techno-Blades in 2014), but nothing for Lloyd but plain old katanas. In the show he has his energy blasts, but that doesn't lend itself to as many exciting scenes and poses in vignettes. Nya's signature weapon situation is more complicated. The sets were pretty consistent about giving her some variation on her nick daggers in 2011, but from then on, like Lloyd, her only consistent weapon was some type of katana. In the show, her only signature weapon is her boomerang blade she used as a samurai, which never appeared in the sets. In LEGO Dimensions, both characters just use katanas: Lloyd has gold ones and Nya has black ones. I don't honestly know what kind of signature weapon would best suit either of these characters in the sets. I would really like for Nya to go back to using daggers or maybe sais. But for Lloyd, who knows? I'd be happy so long as it doesn't feel redundant next to the other ninja's signature weapons. As for how the nunchucks (and possibly other golden weapons) could come back, when you introduce a magical wish-granting genie to a series, anything's possible. It's safe to say next year's story probably involves some wish going awry, but we don't know what kind of wish that might be.

I think the creatures clipping the Toa's backs appears to work pretty nicely. Having to take apart and re-assemble one or both sets would be fun in terms of building but tedious in terms of role-play — you'd be pretty much limited to playing with EITHER the combined form OR the base form since you'd have to completely stop the action any time you wanted to combine or separate the characters. I also think the "power up" gimmick works a LOT better here than it did for the Matoran back in 2008. Instead of the Toa and Makuta just seeming like Matoran babysitters giving free piggy-back rides in the middle of a battle, the creatures actually become new armor and gear for the Toa. The Toa are visibly enhanced by the combination feature, rather than seemingly burdened.

Well, the Ninjago TV series is definitely "quality entertainment" compared to a lot of the old merchandise-driven cartoons from the 80s (Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc). In fact I'd say cartoons in general are a lot better than they were back then when companies were first discovering "hey, we can use cartoons as extended toy commercials!" Ninjago is far from the best cartoon out there, or even the best merchandise-driven cartoon out there, but it's generally pretty good and it's not surprising it has so many fans. I can only hope that the Nexo Knights cartoon will be as good!

Well, it could be that he got them back somehow (after all, once you introduce a djinn that can grant wishes to the story, anything is possible), but more likely they're just meant to represent generic nunchucks, the same way so many sets have used golden shurikens to represent generic shurikens rather than the Shurikens of Ice specifically.

Last year's cube came out towards the end of November/beginning of December. So this year's will probably be the same. We got pictures of it WAY earlier than we were supposed to.