Aanchir

I had fun with the spinners and my various minifigures as well. It's interesting to experiment with which headgear works for head-spinning, and which weapons work best for taking out opponents. Ironically, the weapons that protect your minifigure the best are the ones that are closest to having no weapon at all-- they don't give your opponent anything to latch onto on your fig. I managed to win many matches using the Ringmaster from Minifigures Series 2 with his rubbery whip. I think this unintentional advantage of not having a weapon is part of the reason why holding a golden weapon is necessary for many of the Spinjitzu card effects, and also why the booster packs this year contain so many more things to "attach" to your spinner. These raise your offensive and defensive capabilities at the same time rather than giving you more offensive potential but weakening you defensively. They could possibly make it last a long time; it's hard to tell. After BIONICLE ended it seemed like they were going out of their way to avoid making Hero Factory have the same type of expanding story that theme had, instead making it as episodic as possible. Ninjago, on the other hand, has a lot of the same story complexity that BIONICLE had, and TLG has not tried to disguise that the similarities in the two themes are by design rather than by coincidence. The real question will be whether the theme's similarities to BIONICLE help or harm its overall lifespan. BIONICLE was at one time expected to last up to twenty years, and while its eventual nine-year lifespan was impressive, it was abundantly clear by the time it was cancelled that it had lost a lot of its sales strength over the course of those nine years. While a lot of BIONICLE fans try to attribute this to poor story and set design decisions in later years, TLG's official stance is that with the constantly-expanding story they had created a franchise that it was difficult or in some cases impossible for new fans to jump into. One wonders whether Ninjago will have the same problem, and if so whether that problem will begin to emerge sooner or later. Obviously, Ninjago is a lot simpler than BIONICLE in many ways. The main characters are human, not some fantasy race with its own complicated life processes. The story has a lot more humor and a lot fewer ongoing mysteries (the "who is the green ninja" thing will obviously be resolved by the end of this year). The 44-minute TV special from the first year has been made available for free online (check it out here), making it easy for fans to catch up on past story. I think web content might be a deciding factor in how well people can keep up with Ninjago's story, and so I anxiously await a more complete 2012 web update, with characters pages for the new figures and so forth. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be happening today. I was hoping it would be to tie in with the return of the TV series on American TV, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Something to point out about stores that seemingly have lots of overstock is that this is sometimes a result of stores overcompensating for a massive initial demand by purchasing more of the next wave than they need. This is what happened at an independent toy store I went to in NH when the Series 3 minifigures came out. The demand for Series 1 and 2 was so high (and the supply so low) that they went ahead and bought lots of Series 3, and had leftovers for quite a while. Of course, they continued to stock the Collectible Minifigures as additional series came out, suggesting that while they had overestimated the demand for Series 3, the demand was still high enough for them to continue making a profit in future series. I imagine the same is true for Ninjago. This is part of the reason that I can't really make any predictions on how long Ninjago will last. A phenomenal initial success isn't really any guarantee that the theme will have lasting success or longevity. The only "story theme" to have an outstanding lifespan within my lifetime was of course BIONICLE. As for discounts on LEGO.com, it should be noted that the sets discounted in the U.S. are all spinner sets, with the exception of Nuckal's ATV and the Ninjago Battle Arena, both of which contain spinners and are store exclusives, and the Ninjago Card Shrine, an extended-line product. And not all of the spinner sets are discounted or even available. Perhaps TLG has realized that they flooded the market with spinners last year, hence why this year's sets have a mix of spinner sets and cheaper "booster packs" to be used in conjunction with spinner sets. Most of the spinner sets discounted are also skeletons, so perhaps for some reason the skeleton spinners didn't sell as well. I know they were awkward to use since the skeleton feet didn't grip the spinner as well as regular minifigure feet and the balance of weight tended to be skewed towards the upper body (the largest skeleton, Samukai, cannot be used on a spinner at all). This is probably part of the reason the bad guys in this year's story are snakemen, who, besides the generals, use regular minifigure body parts. This is part of the reason I don't expect the skeletons to come back as the main villains for any future waves.

Do you realize that Eurobricks also has an 18+ age restriction? Granted, members younger than 18 get a little leeway if they're a mature and constructive part of the community, but revealing that you don't meet the site's age limit isn't something I'd recommend in your first five posts. Anyway, the reason for the age limit on posting projects is made very clear in a blog post this month, which explains that the limit is primarily for legal reasons: TLG cannot enter into a legal agreement with the creator of a project that reaches the consideration threshold if it turns out that the creator is not legally an adult. More details on the causes and ramifications of the change here.

He means that the chin on the minifigure we saw at Comic-Con is completely gold, whereas Iron Man's usual depiction has a red stripe across the chin. In the second and third pics, the one on the left is the one that was at Comic-Con and the one on the right is edited to have a more appropriate chin design. I agree this helps the look of the helmet, although there are some who would still feel it is too bulky. In general I think another solution to make Iron Man feel less disproportionate would be to give him an armor piece that bulks up the torso and shoulders. However, since they didn't do that for the Comic-Con figure, I don't really expect them to for the final set.

Dragon Masters is a theme I grew up with! I ought to comment on one thing-- you mention a "cardboard castle" that comes with the Majisto's Tower set. This is in fact just the box of the set; two of its sides are printed with castle decorations. It's OK within the context of the set, but ends up feeling rather pointless in a larger collection, since it only resembles a castle from a few angles. The doors can be cut open, but I remember it was difficult to put anything inside and actually play with it, even with my then child-size hands! The main value I got out of that set was its vaguely conical roof and its spiral staircase, both rare pieces nowadays. Not to mention the lovely printed archway and window that were typical of Dragon Masters. Majisto's Magical Workshop could very easily be my all-time favorite castle set. Even today it feels like it could go head-to-head with modern set designs. Of course, that's partly that it doesn't use any defunct joint styles, besides the shutters, and that it had a well-designed interior and exterior. The fact that it has no door never bothered me as a child, since Majisto, being a wizard, could use his magic to open and close the building-- which was at that time my explanation for the lovely opening function. Fire Breathing Fortress was another set I really liked as a kid, but in retrospect it is a rather poor castle compared to some larger and more strategically-shaped offerings. It's very bunker-like with its huge flat roof, although the tower helps. The fire-breathing function is nice and realistic compared to many things in the theme; a mechanism for dropping hot coals on intruders. Overall, though, while I didn't own any more interesting-looking castles until the somewhat iffy designs of Knights' Kingdom I and II, I liked this set. Dragon Masters was one of the Castle themes I collected most thoroughly, and most of my memories of building castles during my childhood involve building them for the Dragon Masters, with their distinctive black walls, dragon-patterned parts, gray walkways, and bright red roofs. I should also point out that while you say Majisto was the first named castle figure, names varied by country! In Dutch catalogs, the name of Majisto's Magical Workshop was Huize Hokus, de werkplaats van Tovenaar Pokus (Hokus House, the Workplace of the Wizard Pokus). In the UK, the Wizard's Cart was unambiguously titled Merlin's Magic Box. In catalogs from the UK, the Forestmen sets almost invariably identified the protagonist as Robin Hood himself, such as in the case of the Camouflaged Outpost, there known as Robin Hood's Secret Cave. A catalog from the Netherlands identified the Knight's Castle as the difficult-for-me-to-translate Kasteel «Donkervoort» bewoond door Ridder Jan Swartegeest (Castle "Donkervoort", inhabited by the Knight Jan Swartegeest). I have an Excel spreadsheet of the names I've found for various sets, but haven't posted it online as it's woefully incomplete-- if you'd like me to I'd happily do so!

Part of the reason I prefer to keep sets together or partially-together when transporting them is so that I can be confident I'm not missing any pieces. It's easier to recognize a missing part on a completed set than in a pile of parts, after all. To an extent, though, it's just the routine I've gotten used to after taking my sets to and from college so many times. Ziploc bags would probably be smarter than the original boxes in many cases so there are no cracks for parts to escape through. The fact that I've been a BIONICLE/Hero Factory fan for so long, and those sets have containers usually designed for storing the completed set, was probably no small influence itself.

Her? Don't you mean his?

Well, I'd think a new mold is more noteworthy than a new print any day of the week. It's also possible that the person making the poster couldn't recognize that Stormtrooper as a new fig, whereas with the other figs marked "New" there are more obvious changes. I can't come up with any explanation besides carelessness for why the new Obi-Wan Kenobi fig is not marked as such, though.

Great review! I've seen some pics where the printing on the Kendo mask is slightly off-register, but yours looks perfectly aligned so I guess that isn't a problem with all copies of this set. The silver 6M chains, the sai, and the golden chainsaw blade would definitely be the selling points for this sets IMO, since Kendo Cole isn't by any means a rare figure in the 2012 wave of sets. I suppose for kids interested in the Spinjitzu game, the cards could be a selling point, but they're not all that remarkable as far as I can tell. They can be seen here if you click "Images". The Kendo Cole character card has somewhat mediocre stats, and can't use the Liquefy or Rock Force cards also included unless Flash'n'Burn is played first. So the intended strategy seems to be to use Flash'n'Burn (when holding a golden weapon, of course) to raise your Fire and Earth SP, then use Rock Force to make use of the parts in the booster pack. Of course, the thing about a booster pack like this is that it pretty much counts on the fact that you will also be buying a spinner set, hence the presence of the "Backup Plan" card that while usable has little strategic value using this set's cards by themselves. I think I'm a little old to totally get into the swing of the Spinjitzu game, but having played with Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and Beyblade battle tops in my childhood, I can understand the Spinjitzu game's appeal. I can also respect it as TLG's first attempt at a trading card promotion that actually integrates the LEGO toys in a meaningful way-- certainly far better than the Knights' Kingdom II cards, although like those the value of these cards to an AFOL is probably in the lovely character art and not the gameplay component.

I should also mention that the Friends "promotional" sets we've seen are all numbered 3####, and sets with those numbers often show up at various retailers, either in the checkout aisles or in the "seasonal" section of the store.

Amazing! Can we see a photo of Nuckal wearing it?

Keep in mind that Zane himself was having trouble reading Sensei Wu's scroll. It wouldn't be hard at all to just explain that he read it wrong, and then Sensei Wu could provide a more accurate description of the prophecy. Meanwhile, isn't this topic more about the future of Ninjago beyond what is immediately foreseeable? I would think that stuff about 2012 Ninjago (including stuff about the Green Ninja) would fit better in the 2012 Ninjago topic than it would here.

I like your very athletic-looking design for Mark Surge, and the creative design of his electrical weapon! Just as in the set, the design of his lower legs and torso help tie his design to those of his teammates.

Very neat design! While it's mostly a palette swap of Toxic Reapa, it ends up looking very unique, especially with the reversed Furno helmet-- a head design I hadn't seen before, surprisingly! I also like the backstory you gave this character and Toxic Reapa. I had never previously thought about what Toxic Reapa might have done before becoming a criminal, but a role as an exterminator makes a decent amount of sense. After all, pest control is one of our most socially-accepted uses of deadly chemicals in real life.

Well, it's not like they were being deliberately misleading with that-- after all, the only way to make the upper body's color match the lower body would have been to use more coats of printing, and they only have so much control over how carefully the torso prints are lined up with the lower body. IMO, the second issue is pretty trivial anyway, since I never noticed it on my own fisherman until I compared it with your picture. And it seems to be a an issue almost all LEGO overalls prints have potentially had. While it might be more noticeable on the fisherman's brightly-contrasting outfit, it's hard to ignore it on Bricklink's photo of this classic minifigure, or this one. I doubt any problems with the Series 3 minifigures will be fixed by these ones, since making these figs probably depends on TLG keeping their parts in production, and keeping their parts in production probably doesn't allow for the printers to be recalibrated.

Hilarious! Great innovation! Now if only there were a helmet that fit this design really well...

My twin brother and I have the cards from the Spinjitzu Dojo, Bonezai, and Ultimate Battle Arena sets. We haven't been collecting the spinners too much, since the minifigures and weapons can often be gotten at a better value from the larger building sets and the spinners tend to have a relatively low Bricklink price (since so many people for some reason think it's a good value to buy the spinners for the figs and then sell them separately from the spinners and cards that minifigure collectors don't tend to want).

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Rocka XL either. The main thing he did introduce was the way of filling those gaps in Fire Lord's legs, which can also be done with Fire Lord and Bulk 3.0. But the set on the whole just felt like a generic titan model with Rocka's mask and all types of blades thrown everywhere. It lacked the personality of the smaller Rocka set. Witch Doctor was amazing but at the same time I felt he diverged from the typical Hero Factory building system perhaps a little too heavily. I guess TLG really only needed one traditionally-built titan per wave, but all I could think about when everyone was showering Witch Doctor with praise was "how is this design going to help set designs in the future?" Witch Doctor was in a class by himself, but some aspects like the awkward leg and arm posability and the blocky hips made him feel like one step forward and one step back in titan set design rather than making lasting improvements.

It's more like a hamburger, but all they gave us was the veggies. Anyway, I think it's a very nice set. It has to be remembered that these sets are designed differently from others to appeal to girls. Based on the "Olivia's House" set, I think it's pretty clear that LEGO feels girls are very concerned with interior details. Also, adding a floor could have cut into the buyer's freedom to arrange the shelves and tables around a room as they please. Anything that wasn't meant to be at a sharp 90-degree angle from other objects in the room would have to be modified to be able to swivel somehow. I know that would be very frustrating with a lot of "dollhouse"-style playsets.

I believe if LotR proves popular enough then Castle sets could very well come back. I think ending Kingdoms was merely a precaution, since TLG has never had a non-licensed and licensed medieval/medieval-fantasy theme running concurrently. Keep in mind that for several years, Star Wars was the only Space theme on store shelves, but then in 2007 Mars Mission was introduced alongside it, followed by Space Police III and Alien Conquest. So even if TLG limits themselves in order to prevent inter-theme competition, they're only going to do this for as long as they feel that competition will limit the success of those themes. And if LotR can prove itself successful enough that this is not a threat to its sales, then non-licensed Castle may very well return before too long (although perhaps designed to elicit a more decisive contrast with LotR).

True, but the Ninja in this wave have techy vehicles, and that's not something Ninja are traditionally associated with. So pirates could just as easily be given zany vehicles of some sort. Still, I'm not expecting a full Ninjas vs. Pirates story year. A single episode title hinting at that doesn't really make me envision a whole year's worth of set and story material.

Good review; I look forward to pics. I'd like to point out though that the big black sword is from Orient Expedition and 4+ Pirates, not Castle. One of the things I think is cool about Samurai X is that although her design definitely pays tribute to Nya (her outfit under her armor has Nya's collar, and her spinner and clothing has Nya's distinctive phoenix emblem), all of her printed parts are unique to this set. The original Nya set also had a double-sided head, but it had one side plain and one side with a red mask/veil (I guess to make her look more "ninja-y"). This set drops the veiled face and instead has a rage-filled expression for the heat of battle. It's especially nice because the tendency in many themes is for the female fig's second expression to be a "scared" one, and while male figs also get this treatment, it's always nice to see both male and female figs looking self-assured with both expressions. The new Samurai helmet is interesting. It will take me some time to warm up to it, even though it's not too radical a change from the old one. Based on its appearance on Lord Garmadon in the Destiny's Bounty, it presumably is completely replacing the old version.

I fully expect PotC to return as a theme, but not until there's another movie in theaters. Nothing like a movie tie-in to move product. Dino unfortunately seems to be a short-lived theme. If TLG releases another dino theme in the future, though, I hope they create new dinos compatible with these ones. These feel like the best LEGO dinosaurs by far, at least in my opinion-- even having been a big fan of the Dinosaurs sets of 2001!

Personally, I liked Jayko becoming king-- for me it made it feel like the story was dynamic rather than keeping the status quo the same every year. What bummed me out was that the new characters in 2006 KKII didn't get explained in such depth as the previous ones. We had known "Jayko the Quick", "Rascus the Clever", "Santis the Strong", and "Danju the Wise" for so long. Kentis and Adric's character traits weren't explained as thoroughly, and being a part of a smaller team they had fewer character foils to bring out those principle strengths and weaknesses that characterized the previous main characters. The same applies for the Rogue Knights, who, although deeper than the nameless, dronelike Shadow Knights, still ended up feeling like generic bad guys. This page by an illustrator for the theme makes the 2006 story a lot easier to appreciate in retrospect. Personally, I think pirates would be kind of cool as villains, but I don't know if they could be diverse enough to be the villains for a full wave-- especially since the Ninja got their "ship" in this wave so a full one-year seafaring adventure might not be an option. Since Pirates vs. Ninja, if it is in fact a legit episode title, is only given to one episode, I think it's more likely that whatever antagonists there are in the next wave include maybe a few characters who are "pirate-like", and the whole year won't be based around that conflict.

Oh, OK. I had difficulty understanding that sentence. Glad to hear it works well in real life!