Mandate

That is a translation of what he said. So this is yet ANOTHER theme making a return this year. That is, if you count Benny and Johnny Thunder as a line returning, even if it's just the minifigs

The bad guys will almost certainly be the last few remnants of the Empire. The Sith are totally destroyed, if not completely. Likewise the Jedi are, but in the Expanded Universe Luke was getting ready to rebuild the Jedi order, etc. Introducing a completely new enemy would be very difficult in the Star Wars world, almost the entire universe is mapped out by this point, there's almost no way to pull off a new threat worthy of a full trilogy's attention without it seeming cheesy or just off. That being said, I'm wondering what kind of foe could warrant a full trilogy of movies. The Empire is all but gone, the Rebels practically control the entire universe by this point, and I doubt that hunting down the last resisting fragments of the Empire, while still very strong, would be a main plot point for a movie. It would be like a Lord of The Rings movie that covered killing the remaining orcs and retaking Mordor and "purifying" it. It wouldn't attract much attention save for the fact it would have "BASED ON TOLKIEN'S WRITINGS" in gigantic bold print all over it. It would be a success just because of the brand, but it would be a complete flop in the end.

To be honest, DoS was a major disappointment for me. I was hoping it would "reignite" my liking of Tolkien's literature, but over the past few months I think I've grown more of a disliking for it, and I absolutely hated DoS because of how unfaithful to the book it is. I know, you can't always do what the book says, etc, etc, but in this case the amount they strayed from the main plot was absolutely absurd. Peter Jackson cut out Tom Bombadil from FoR because he contributed nothing to the plot, and then he turns around and makes Beorn, the most useless of the secondary characters, have his own sequence (that wasn't even remotely faithful to the book) and apparently have a huge part in the battle of Dol Guldur. A battle which never featured Beorn, or was even featured in the book asides from a brief mention. I understand they need to elaborate on why Gandalf left, and why Mirkwood is so screwed up, but they could have been more faithful to the book. The idiot love triangle between Legolas, Kili (or is it Fili? I get most of the dwarves mixed up) and Tauriel was just plain ridiculous and contributed nothing to the plot itself other than as a way to drag out the movie further and let them show more tension when Laketown gets torched. Not to mention the also useless sub-plot of poisoned arrows. Worse yet, the fact that it was Athelas that could heal it contributed even moreso to the idea that every major character uses some form of drugs at some point. The addition of Legolas was just silly to begin with, he seemed cold and shy throughout the entire thing which detracted even further from the "Tauriel + Legolas" sub-plot. And then the sheer lunacy of the fighting with Smaug under Erebor. I mean, really, that entire segment was just plain stupid. The idea that Smaug couldn't find them as they explored Erebor because they were very quiet was just ridiculous. He can smell them and hear even the slightest tap. How does a stealth approach even seem sane when trying to take on a dragon? The movie just felt so off and far away from every single part of the LotR universe that I just couldn't like it. The only parts that I even remotely liked was Peter Jackson's cameo in Bree again and Bilbo's little tantrum at the spider that dared to go near the Ring.

I lost interest when it became a dubstep-fest. I get it, this is what people like nowadays, but I feel that song is just... not awesome. The lyrics (especially combined with the people singing them) are just off, and it's basically your typical modern song. Hopefully when Tobuscus, or someone else, makes their remix of it I'll have a better opinion of it. (Tobuscus makes brilliant parodies, like his Happy Wheels parody of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky")

I doubt that it would happen, but they have made some references to it as of late so it's not completely out of the question.

I'm not surprised at the lack of deadliness to it. For all we know the sudden presence of Chi has done something to it, or maybe ShadoWind likes killing plants. Either way, it's a major disappointment.

They've basically abandoned the Samurai Car anyway.

So, did anyone actually download it or record it? I for one would like to see it

Yeah, I was wondering about that car. I haven't been on lately, and I haven't had a chance to watch the video in decent quality yet. I don't think that's a wheeled vehicle, it looks more like a hover car judging by how big it is and the lack of visible wheels.

I think it's pretty obvious it is who we think it is. Otherwise it's not the epic-climax build-up, it would be like having the Great Devourer not actually be released at all, it basically just says "ha ha, you watched the entire tv show and waited six months for nothing lolololol!"

Regarding the Overlord, the gold does not surprise me whatsoever given the current plot of him trying to use Lloyd's powers to recreate himself. Can we PLEASE put spoiler tags on these? The set images contain some major spoilers as to what happens in the later parts of the story, regardless of whether or not the minifigure is or not.

So... Chima is becoming like HF now? Regarding mammoths looking ridiculous in Minifigure form, don't be so quick to discount an idea. Most of us thought that scorpions and spiders would look horrible as Minifigures, and to be honest I still do. Yet most people love the new Minifigures, and it's not going to be the first time LEGO has suprised us with whatever they do.

The wings make it look larger on the box, as in real life, the rest of the dragon is somewhat small.

No, as of yet we currently have no premier date, but the new series has had at least the first two episodes air on Teletoon. Regarding your comments on the re-using of secondary characters, I would really appreciate some elaboration on your comments. The only secondary character not used as a place-holder civilian model used more than once is the Museum Director, who seemingly has a part-time job at what was previously Darkley's Boarding School for Gifted Children

Actually, Kai states that if feels like ages ago, not that it was a long time ago. He also says they have not been back there since the Overlord was defeated, and Nya says they were only gone for a short while. The actual technological rebuilding of NINJAGO City is mainly aesthetic, as the general lay-out of the City is more or less the same, and as seen in the introduction of The Surge, the majority of the buildings are more or less the same asides from the more technological aspects, such as the new vending machines, energy highways (presumably that's what they are, they're holograms at the least), Borg Tower, the new defense systems etc. All of this would not take much time to construct seeing as the entire Nindroid army was created in the space of a day and a half at maximum.The Nindroid Army also seems somewhat limited, if the backstory behind Min-droid is true that means the factory is presumably no longer producing Nindroids due to lack of metal, or lack of power (seems the Mechdragon drained a lot, which would explain why Cryptor and the nindroids were at the Storm Parks too)

Well, glad to see it's going to be available, even if for a hefty price tag...

No, I was referring to the TV show, not the Chima sets. The sets (at least last year's anyway) are rather meh IMO. But the plot of literally 7/8ths of the episodes is downright terrible, and acts more like a blatantly subtle advertising system because the plot had no way of moving due to LEGO's insistence on dragging out the very finite beginnings of next year's plot from the start of this year's plot, creating a weak plot based off of one-time encounters, because they were relying on their "big bang" marketing strategies to pull off again (which is really becoming a bad thing, Mixels, CM etc are becoming a perfect example of this, for reasons I will state if asked)

Wait what. You watched the TV show and became addicted to it? Matey, (no offense to anyone here) watch the NINJAGO series. It's a lot better.

Wow, Spinlyn's Cavern looks amazing and so does the Outland Base now that we've seen HD pics.

Yes! That is BRILLIANT news that Destructoid is out now. Good news for me as well, turns out I'm getting the Ninjacopter for Christmas! :D

Strange, why is Zane using the Shurikens of Ice on one side? For a weapon that's completely vanished for two years now, and would make more sense if they were silver now. I'm not suggesting the Golden Weapons will make a return, but it's still somewhat odd of a decision.

No, it's only a few months. Few weeks minimum. Dialogue from Nya and Cyrus confirm this, as Cyrus makes a reference to Dr Julien (which is a spoiler, so I won't say it) and Nya says they've only been gone for a short while. Kai also states they haven't been back there since the Overlord was defeated, so that adds on to Nya's little comment.

To be honest I'm really more wondering about how they're going to pull off the rest of the season, it seems they've got some MAJOR plot twists ahead, with the hintings at Zane's true origins. That's not to say Zane wasn't built by Dr Julien, and because this isn't really a spoiler I'll say it, but PIXAL states that Zane was built from spare parts, and yet his power source is vastly different from any and every other power source in NINJAGO. In the new season (this isn't a spoiler as well) it is revealed that all of NINJAGO gets their power from the Storm Parks where a massive generator attracts lightning and converts it into clean, usable electricity. Which really further implies that NINJAGO is vastly different from our world, no fossil fuels (presumably), no gunpowder etc. Back on track, should said power source be turned off all of NINJAGO would be without power, including PIXAL. Some sources have back-up reserves, such as PIXAL, but are presumably rare. Zane however, can/will not be affected by such a thing because he has his own power source built into him. So after the ending of Episode 2 I have a feeling Zane's back story is going to come further into play, and a very certain inventor may make a return.

So can we get some pics of the poster given away at TRU?

No. LEGO has clearly intended NINJAGO to come back as a full-scale action theme, and there's a lot of evidence to support that. This wave has just been to test the demand of the sets and to see if it will bounce back from its hiatus. They wouldn't have a feature-length NINJAGO movie in the works if they expected Chima, or the Hobbit, to beat its sales. And if anything that illustrates how poorly Chima is doing, that NINJAGO, a line that has not yet proven it can come back gets a (VERY big-budget) movie, whereas its "replacement" Chima, did not pick up enough steam to get its own.