Aanchir

That's a problem I see affecting other genres these days as well. There are still quite a few Westerns being produced, for instance, but so many of these are aimed at adult audiences. The Lone Ranger reboot was clearly meant to revive the family-friendly western genre the same way Pirates of the Caribbean did for pirate movies, but obviously it didn't succeed at that task. I respect the LEGO Group for betting on it anyway, since if it had succeeded it would have been a good property for them, and now that it hasn't it's unlikely the genre will have the pop culture resonance it needs to support a full LEGO Western range in the foreseeable future. You're absolutely right that medieval fantasy has a much better track record for resonating with kids. Alright, I get what you're saying. I personally don't think that things like a set's scale or whether they have an open back make certain sets weaker or stronger. It's just a difference in how you expect the sets to be used and displayed. However, you're right that it would be nice for an exclusive castle to be bigger and more solid. I've seen the size of the Temple of Airjitzu criticized before, but that has less to do with its theme or age range than its three-building layout (which it shares with Town Plan and Diagon Alley). If an actual castle were released for that same price point and that same age range, I could even see it being bigger than the Temple of Airjitzu's three buildings put together, like Tower of Orthanc. If you don't have three separate buildings, you don't need three separate color schemes and architectural styles, so you can use more of the same bricks throughout the model. And that kind of efficiency helps bring down the overall price. Plus, for an actual castle you don't need all those tiny individual windows, so you could easily swap those with larger bricks. It only takes two 1x8 bricks to fill the same space as four 1x2x2 windows and just as many window frames. That's fair. I don't really consider them the same category myself. Eurobricks forum categories are functional, but they can be kinda weird sometimes.

It looks non-transparent in this pic. Sand Green specifically. Interestingly, the Ninja use the same legs as the current ones. I can't complain about that decision. The new costumes still feel very fresh and unique. :) The new shoulder guard element looks awesome, though it surprises me that only Jay appears to use it.

Amazing MOC! It feels very much like an actual set, and I'm always a sucker for amenities like beds that help a castle or fortress feel like more than a mere battle station. There are lots of great play features too, like the dungeon, the croc vehicle, the crane, and the turret! Great use of stickered elements as well. Even though they're not from the Legends of Chima theme, they feel like a natural fit and really help to add some nice texture. Good luck in the contest!

How does it look "junky"? I mean, I understand that it is made to look antique and rural, not clean and urban like the modulars or even the Medieval Market Village, but that seems to me more a result of its choice of subject and the design language of the Ninjago theme as a whole, not its target age range. I think a future Castle exclusive is likely to be impressive whether it's aimed at 12+, 14+, or 16+. As I've mentioned, Ninjago, Chima, and probably Nexo Knights have a Y7-FV rating for their cartoons in the United States. This is generally the minimum rating for a cartoon that includes fantasy violence. It'd be tough for LEGO to create a media-driven theme for any sort of high- or medium-conflict theme for kids younger than seven, so that's where they start the core age range for action-adventure themes they want media support for. That leaves the younger age bracket open for themes with either less conflict (Friends, Mixels) or less media support (City, Pirates, Castle). And it seems to me like Nexo Knights falling into the action-adventure category is really a consequence of what it's replacing. Castle theme or not, it seems like its main purpose is to fill the void that Legends of Chima and Ultra Agents left behind, since those are two high-profile themes ending this year. So Nexo Knights is being directed at a similar audience to those themes, using similar media strategies. Contrast with the 2013 Castle range, which coexisted with Ninjago, Chima, and Ultra Agents. That theme made sense as a more traditional theme since it had to set itself apart from those themes, rather than try and fill their shoes. Could there be a more "grounded" theme with a full cartoon supporting it? Well, that's a bit tougher to determine. TV networks like Cartoon Network are going to want more of what they've seen LEGO pull off successfully, and so far, that's action-adventure themes. Which isn't surprising — these kinds of cartoons tend to be the most successful with kids in general, not just with LEGO fans. When's the last time you saw a grounded, historically authentic cartoon become a media and merchandising phenomenon? The LEGO Group is a leader in the toy industry, but they're relatively new to TV storytelling. But this is an industry that other toymakers like Mattel and Hasbro have been dabbling in for over a quarter of a century. So there's a lot of precedent for not just what kind of cartoons kids go crazy for, but what kinds of cartoons actually sell toys. If LEGO does make a cartoon based on one of their more "grounded" themes, they're probably not going to start with a full TV season. I'd expect them to start with one or more TV specials like they had when they launched LEGO Atlantis, LEGO Hero Factory, LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Friends, and LEGO Elves. There just isn't enough precedent to bet on such a cartoon being a "hit" like there would be with a theme in the same genre as Ninjago or Legends of Chima. I don't think that'd be something to complain about. Castle may not be at the peak of its popularity, but it's been treated a lot better over the years than Western has. And I think the Castle theme's prospects for the future are a lot brighter than the Western theme's. Again, it has more precedent working in its favor. The Western theme has had two iterations: one was in the late 90s when the LEGO Group was on a steep decline, and one was a recent licensed theme tied to a movie that bombed. Castle, on the other hand, has been a mainstay of the LEGO Group's product offerings for decades. Hardly a year has gone by without at least one licensed or unlicensed Castle theme. So if LEGO decided to give the Western theme a bit of attention for a change, I think that'd be a pleasant surprise.

Not all of the pirates seem to be normal humans. The one we've seen a photo of (from one of the polybags) is, but judging from what CM4S has shared with us, at least one of the pirates (Dogshank, I think) is a bigfig, and another is a Serpentine. Seems like the pirates come from many walks of life.

Somebody brought up in the TV show topic that a listing for an upcoming LEGO Ninjago activity book confirms that Nadakhan, the sky pirate captain, is a djinn. So it's probably safe to say that he is the four-armed minifigure who uses a ghost tail element, but he's a djinn, not a ghost.

Oh, forgot to mention. Another way I try to help LEGO buyers I see at Toys 'R' Us is to tell them about TRU's price match guarantee. A lot of people don't know about it but it can help take some of the bite out of that store's prices.

Sounds like a really cool initiative! What was the attached graphic? You didn't include that in your post.

Nice review! One error — you've attached the wedge plates on the upper roofline backwards. I love the instruction manual. It's nice and sturdy, and the "behind-the-scenes" features in the beginning are the kind of thing that always fascinates me, even though having to include that section in three languages adds about 20 extra pages to the manual. The main way I think it could have been improved would be adding a key visual towards the end like in some of this year's other sets, because I always love those, but that's hardly a deal-breaker. The choice not to include any villains in this set might have been to help keep it relevant for longer than just this year. Ninjago tends to have different villains from year to year, but the main characters (Sensei Wu and the six Ninja) stay consistent aside from costume changes. The minifigure selection in this set is quite excellent, with all six ninja, a new costume for Wu, and the first set appearance of Misako and the Postman. It is a shame, though, that the ninja's hair pieces are not included. All of them are readily available in other sets except for Zane's, since his hair changed this year from tan (Brick Yellow) to silver, which it does not currently appear in. It's a bit unusual in a peacetime set that the Ninja are stuck wearing their full uniforms, when Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty just this year included hair for the three ninja it came with. The trading cards are a great likeness of the Sensei Wu and Cole trading cards from back in 2011! The City of Stiix set also includes a tile resembling the Jay trading card from 2011. Great little references for Ninjago fans who have been following the theme since the beginning! Likewise, the glider is a great reference for those of us old enough to remember the original Ninja sets from the 90s. The fireworks cart is a brilliant play feature, and a very creative way to work a launcher effect into a peacetime set. It, the sliding doors, the rice-paper windows, shadow theater and other features help make the setting feel unmistakeably Asian. The baguettes in the Smuggler's Market are a fairly odd inclusion for an Asian setting, but they can be explained as imports. Obviously, the world of Ninjago in the TV show is a mish-mash of Eastern and Western cultures, so baguettes would not seem too out-of-place there, but AFOLs who don't follow the show might prefer a bit more explanation than that. Besides adding play value, the shadow theater also helps keep the space underneath the pagoda's raised base from going to waste! The tree construction next to the blacksmith is really awesome, and the use of the star elements as fallen autumn leaves is quite clever. I also love the stair construction outside the temple. The set's overall color palette is rustic but still very vibrant. Really, there are only a few real flaws to this set design-wise. First, the dragon statues are facing towards the bridge when realistically, they should be facing away from it (since statues like that are meant to guard the bridge from evil). My brother turned them around when we built the set yesterday. Second, the pagoda structure is not quite architecturally sound since the corner columns of the second floor are wider than those of the first and third floors, but that's something I can more easily dismiss as artistic license. My brother and I had a great time building this set! The overall set makes a fantastic display piece, and has some good play value as well! It's a great likeness of the location from the show (though that almost goes without saying, as the show's subjects tend to be based on the sets rather than the other way around). In my eyes, it's easily worth its price. I'd happily recommend it to other Ninjago fans and to LEGO fans in general, although people who don't follow Ninjago might understandably want to first focus their attention on less recent D2C sets that are liable to retire sooner. I look forward to seeing how Sensei Yang's temple is used in future seasons of the show (as hinted in both this set's instruction manual and the Ninjago panel from San Diego Comic-Con). I can easily see Nya traveling to the temple to learn Airjitzu. And now that the ninja have some ghostbusting skills, maybe they will be able to exorcize the temple and use it as a headquarters!

They have the sales data for sets like Medieval Market Village, Castle Giant Chess Set, Kingdoms Joust, and Tower of Orthanc, as well as for Castle sets in general. They have feedback from AFOL surveys, LEGO Customer Service calls, and other support channels. We don't have any of those things. If they're not qualified to determine how big a market there is for Castle exclusives, then who is? I don't know of any LEGO fans who collect quantitative data on how big the LEGO Castle community is or what percentage of that community buys the big exclusive sets. It'd be really cool if the LEGO community did more research into what sets and themes AFOLs buy (like how the brony community has its own yearly census and ethnographic study), and it could potentially increase our community's persuasive power if fans got together to conduct this kind of research, but as it is, the LEGO Group holds a lot more cards than we do. Right now, LEGO has the 7–14 age range covered with other themes like Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Elves, and Star Wars. I personally see more potential for growth in themes like Castle and Pirates at the 5–12 age range (which is mostly only occupied by City and Friends, two non-fantasy themes) than the 7–14 age range. That's not to say Castle COULDN'T be aimed at the 7–14 age range, just that it seems like it'd (currently) have more competing against it in that bracket. And that's also not to say the situation couldn't change in the future, but I don't think anybody hoping for the return of LEGO Castle prefers to just wait around for those other themes to end. And when I'm talking about a core audience for a theme, I'm not denying the possibility for big exclusive sets aimed at older audiences or Juniors sets aimed at younger audience. This year Ninjago got a 14+ exclusive, and next year they're going to be getting two 4–7 Juniors sets, despite the theme as a whole having a 7–14 core audience. Any successful Castle theme could probably manage both of those things as well, no matter what core audience it's aimed at. Except, of course, if it's based on an external IP that isn't appropriate for 4-year-olds.

About what specifically? LEGO themes having their own cartoons? This AFOL, at least, is all for it. When I was a kid, I enjoyed LEGO on many levels. Sure, I made up my own models and my own characters and my own stories. I wasn't afraid to turn my Aquasharks into mermaids by replacing their legs with slope bricks. And I did buy some LEGO sets that had no explicit story behind them whatsoever. But I was also a kid who loved storytelling. I relished in any short stories or character bios that showed up in my LEGO Mania Magazine, even though most of them had more cheesy jokes than substance. Even the original Castle, Space, and Aquazone factions I came up with MOCs and custom minifigures of all had to have a full cast of named characters — they simply didn't measure up to the official themes I loved if they didn't! When Bionicle came out, the first theme with a fully realized mythos rather than just a broad premise, it fired up my imagination like no theme before it, and before long I was drawing my own Kanohi masks, building my own Rahi beasts, coming up with elaborate stories about the Toa's quest to defeat the Bohrok swarms. Bionicle is what drew me into the online LEGO fan community — my dad had helped me download custom building instructions from sites like Lugnet in the past, but the creativity I had seen there was nothing compared to the MOCs, fan art, fan fiction, and role-play I saw on sites like BZPower. These days, my three favorite themes are Bionicle, Ninjago, and Elves. All three themes take place in magical, invented worlds, not pre-existing historical or mythological settings. Nexo Knights might join them if the story can prove fun and engaging. Now, that doesn't mean I don't think there's a place for more grounded and less story-driven themes. LEGO City strikes me as the "foundation" of the minifigure world, since it shows what the world we see in our everyday lives is like when translated into LEGO. Themes like Castle and Pirates continue to charm me with the ways they continue to build on classic LEGO archetypes. And themes like Creator and Classic represent the LEGO spirit of creativity at its core, demonstrating the versatility of basic bricks again and again. But none of these are the kind of themes I'm drawn to collect or build with. They don't inspire me the same way each year of new Bionicle or Ninjago sets does. I do not necessarily agree that there's "no going back". LEGO City and LEGO Friends, two themes largely grounded in real life, are some of the LEGO Group's top-selling non-licensed themes, though I'm sure a part of that stems from their modern, "everyday" relatability, something LEGO Castle can never really achieve. Products aimed at younger buyers such as LEGO Juniors and LEGO Duplo still seem to explore themes without any kind of genre-mashing. And sets aimed at AFOLs like the Medieval Market Village, the Haunted House, and the Temple of Airjitzu are all a lot more grounded and traditional in their scope than the rest of the sets from the themes they're a part of (Fantasy Era, Monster Fighters, Ninjago). Even if the LEGO Group could have a cartoon and app for every one of their product lines, I don't think they would, because that would put unnecessary limits on the audience for those themes. As I've pointed out before, Ninjago, Legends of Chima, and Nexo Knights are all aimed at more or less the same 7–14 age range, and the TV shows all seem to carry the same Y7 rating due to fantasy violence. Nexo Knights is launching in the wake of TWO other 7–14 "action themes" ending — the app-driven Ultra Agents and the cartoon-driven Legends of Chima. As I see it, it's much more of a replacement for those two already media-driven themes than it is for less media-driven 5–12 themes like Castle and Pirates. So I don't think it makes sense to say the LEGO Group is increasing their focus on the 7–14 age bracket or media-driven marketing. They're just filling a void.

Just to clarify, the Modular Buildings are really more Creator than City (the City theme is generally aimed at an even younger demographic than the Castle theme, and has a very different design philosophy than the Modular Buildings). Nevertheless, I can't pretend I'm not interested in how something like this might turn out. I can imagine design obstacles that might spring up, but I'm sure they're ones the LEGO Group's designers could overcome. And $150+ exclusive castle sets aimed at ages 16+ might be able to come a lot closer to my ideal for "livability" than your typical $100 castle aimed at ages 7+. My biggest (non-design-related) concern would be that the LEGO Group has already released big exclusive Castle sets like the MMV and Kingdoms Joust, so if they saw a market for exclusives like that on a more frequent basis like the winter village or modular building sets, I think they'd already be releasing them more frequently than what we've been seeing these past several years.

The presence of a round table in Fortrex is quite nice. I imagine it's probably used as both a place for strategy meetings and dining, which would explain the chefbot. Between that and the separately-sold library set, Fortrex is moving even closer to my dream of a non-licensed LEGO castle that's actually livable. Weird that the futuristic cyber-castle that's obviously bristling with firepower comes closer to my ideal of a castle as a home and sanctuary than more traditional castles. 7946 and 70404 look much more "homey" and less aggressive from the outside, but feature little interior detail besides a throne room, dungeon, and treasury. And classic castles generally have even fewer amenities for their inhabitants. That bigger castle is still there in the backdrop of the box art. I wonder if that might end up showing up in a set. Most multi-wave themes tend to have their biggest sets in the summer, and some of the recent "big bang" themes like Ninjago and Legends of Chima regularly have their flagship sets hit the $120 price point, so it'd surprise me if the $100 Fortrex is the largest Nexo Knights set we're getting this year (even though that would be pretty typical for a more traditional Castle theme). Of course, it's also possible that this summer's hypothetical $120 set might be some kind of evil stronghold and Knighton Castle would be saved for a future year.

Take note that listings on boxes like this are generally for characters, not minifigures specifically. So for example, Knowhere Escape Mission's box lists Groot with the other characters, because while he is not a minifigure, he is a character. Conversely, Temple of Airjitzu's box does not list the statue of Sensei Yang with the other minifigures, because despite being a minifigure, it is not a character. So with that in mind, it makes perfect sense for Merlok 2.0 and the Book of Monsters to be listed on the boxes of their respective sets.

This year's Target-exclusive minifigure cube will include stone armor Kai, just as last year's included Lloyd DX. So soon it will just be two of the suits that we don't have. I wouldn't call Sensei Wu an obscure character. In fact, I'd identify the Ninjago theme's main characters as the six Ninja and Wu. I think any exclusive figure we get in a book is likely to be one of those seven. Some books from other themes like Friends, Legends of Chima, and Star Wars HAVE started delving into more obscure characters, though, so maybe Ninjago is next.

You talking about just hand-held accessories? If you mean accessories in general, the earmuffs from 2013, the new life jacket from 2012, and the ball and chain from last year would surely qualify. But even if you just mean hand-held accessories, the crowbar from 2011 stands out as one example. There's also the 2013 hand tools, but you might not count those since they effectively just replace the old tool wheel. Let's not forget the new water hose nozzle/stud shooter we're getting in next year's Fire sets! I think LEGO is probably going to want to avoid a car accident in LEGO City firefighting sets, for the same reason they avoid setting fire to populated buildings. For any kid who's been in a car accident it might be too traumatic to really fit LEGO City's safe and fun tone.

Feel I ought to share that next year there's going to be an updated edition of the LEGO Ninjago Character Encyclopedia. It's about time, considering that there have been more characters this year alone (57) than there were in the original character encyclopedia (55)! Counting the 16 minifigures we now know of from next year's sets and the Stone Armor Kai we know is coming in this year's Target minifigure cube, we're up to 158 Ninjago minifigures total, excluding minor variants of the same character designs.

The entry period ends October 31st, and the winners will be announced November 2nd. I've got an entry well underway. I think it might be able to hold its own against other entries I've seen posted, but I'm sure some of the best entries are yet to appear. Speaking of the contest, there's some new art by Matt Betteker to help promote it!

Might not be a good idea to do that so soon after Scooby-Doo. But before the Scooby-Doo theme was announced I had been thinking about the possibility of a mystery-solving Friends subtheme with a spooky twist, sort of like Scooby-Doo meets Nancy Drew. It could feature slightly spookier animals than usual (owls, black cats, mice, etc), a cool color palette with colors like Medium Lavender, Sand Green, and Earth Blue, and maybe a little more conflict than typical LEGO Friends sets (because you've gotta have some crooks to catch).

Same here. All it took for me to become an AFOL was for me to turn 18. :)

I haven't been afraid to chime in if I feel like I have something to contribute. I can't remember any specific examples off the top of my head, but it's usually something where the parent has put a strict "spending limit" like $10–15, and the kid wants something above that limit, so I help find a middle ground. Even if it does sometimes make me seem more nerdy than helpful, it's not like I'm likely to run into those same people again. And I'll have done my part to help dissuade them from, say, settling for a Mega Bloks set.

I think that's an awfully narrow-minded way of thinking. LEGO has had many, many types of figure over the years, including the old-school buildable "construction figure" from the Homemaker sets, Fabuland and Jack Stone figs for preschoolers, the articulated Technic figures for older builders, and constraction sets like Bionicle for people who want to build and customize their own action figures. The minifigure has had the most staying power of any type of LEGO figure, but it is not the only figure that is "true LEGO". Not to mention, some people don't like the minifigure but do like the mini-doll. Are those people somehow unqualified to enjoy LEGO play and building the way City or Ninjago fans do? The minifigure is not the be-all and end-all of the LEGO building and play experience. And as hard as it is for some minifigure-lovers to admit it, the minifigure is not flawless. Its proportions are awkward (as demonstrated by the tremendous challenge of fitting two side-by-side in a six-module-wide vehicle), and its features are far from lifelike. These flaws don't matter to all builders and potential builders, but clearly they do matter to a lot of them. The mini-doll is not flawless either, but to many people the flaws it corrects are more significant than the ones it introduces. I've been quite impressed with the mini-dolls in the Elves theme. Unlike, say, the Exo-Force minifigures, they actually closely resemble the lifelike art style used to promote the theme. Their outfits also have a great deal of detail that would not be nearly as feasible with minifigures (particularly in terms of shoes and skirts, since minifigure feet are tiny, and minifigures cannot sit down while wearing uniquely shaped skirts).

In many cases I'd agree, but personally I hardly think there's a single theme from the late 90s that LEGO couldn't do better today! In general that was not a very good time for LEGO set designs. However, I do generally think they can achieve more by creating new themes based on a similar concept than directly remaking or rebooting themes. Even as a big fan of Rock Raiders, there's no doubt in my mind that Power Miners is the superior underground theme. Better set designs, better monster designs, and much more humor. Its human characters didn't feel like such a ragtag bunch of misfits, but they had plenty of charm in their own right. And I loved Power Miners' brighter (and in many ways, more realistic) color palette.

Well, they're not much more similar than Chima and Ninjago, and both those themes generally did well (aside from the Speedorz, and I don't think competition with Ninjago is what really hurt their sales). Ninjago and Nexo Knights are both science-fantasy themes aimed mostly at ages 7–14, but saying they can't coexist is like saying Castle and Pirates sets can't coexist because they're both historical fiction themes aimed mostly at ages 6–12. I think your price estimates are a bit off. Toysrus.ca has some of the sets listed for much lower prices than your estimates, and those are in Canadian dollars — the USD prices tend to be even lower. And yeah, Ninjago isn't going away any time soon. Besides Ninjago being an evergreen theme now, there's also still the LEGO Ninjago movie coming in 2017.

It wouldn't make much sense to release it as-is when many of the minifigure parts from it have been out of production for years now. The fact that it was able to reuse so many then-current parts and decorations helped keep the price down (as is typically the case with any chess set). Having to re-introduce all those elements would be a lot more expensive and push the price up a great deal (on top of the inevitable price increases from inflation alone). That's not even getting into all the other elements that might have to be re-introduced, or have their section of the set redesigned. I would LOVE if LEGO introduced another "giant chess set" at some point, because the Castle one was amazing. My brother was doodling concepts for a Ninjago Giant Chess Set on LEGO Digital Designer back in 2011 or 2012, but never got it finished enough to present on LEGO Ideas. Of course, the recent Pirates Chess Set isn't too shabby either, considering how much value for money it offers and how the pieces can all be packed up inside the board itself. So something along those lines for LEGO Castle could also be pretty neat. A Nexo Knights chess set is another possibility! That theme seems like it could easily have enough figs for a chess set — Squirebots and mini lava monsters would make great pawns, and there seem to be easily enough other characters for the other pieces.