LEGO Ninjago 2018

[Robert8]

Considering Ninjago is a top seller and with Nexo Knights is cancelled, I'd say there is almost no chance for Ninjago to end any time soon

[Lucarex]

2 hours ago, Robert8 said:

Considering Ninjago is a top seller and with Nexo Knights is cancelled, I'd say there is almost no chance for Ninjago to end any time soon

Is it though? Too early to tell if this year's sets will cut the mustard amidst a dip in TLG sales overall.

All I know is that my boys have shown almost zero interest in the SOG/biker fan/mask subtheme, after being all over TLNM and the admittedly fantastic Shark Army. Given they and their schoolmates are the main target demographic, I'd say that Ninjago isn't bulletproof by any means,

 

On 05/03/2018 at 11:12 AM, Exetrius said:

Next magazine comes with "Scooter", who has the exact same face as the biker from the polybag. Why??  At least he has a cool pair of red rollerskates:

 

About the P.I.X.A.L. nanofig: I think it's not random at all. She's one of the most popular original IP female characters, and her striking colour scheme is unlike any other minifig ever released. 

 

Posted in the 2017 thread already. 

Yikes, that godawful minifig looks like something left by a 5 year old on top of the instore build-a-fig station 

Edited March 7, 2018 by Lucarex

[THELEGOBATMAN]

19 hours ago, bricksnator said:

My belief is that eventually Ninjago will evolve or spin-off into something else. We'll see what the plans are post season 9 soon enough.

Nah. If it sells good, it will still be Ninjago.

[Fenghuang0296]

What would they spin it into anyway? "The Adventures of Nelson, the Purple Ninja!"?

. . . Y'now, I'd buy that. XD

[Blazej_Holen]

So the new ad on to the Ninjago city set will have 3 500 + pieces..its not bad for 229 USD :)

[Faefrost]

18 hours ago, Lucarex said:

Is it though? Too early to tell if this year's sets will cut the mustard amidst a dip in TLG sales overall.

All I know is that my boys have shown almost zero interest in the SOG/biker fan/mask subtheme, after being all over TLNM and the admittedly fantastic Shark Army. Given they and their schoolmates are the main target demographic, I'd say that Ninjago isn't bulletproof by any means,

 

Yikes, that godawful minifig looks like something left by a 5 year old on top of the instore build-a-fig station 

The one thing that benefits the main Ninjago line is they have so far remained restrained in how many sets they release per year/wave. The SOG and Season 9 releases both have the classic stepped price point releases of 5-7 main sets plus a few impulse items. That isn't the sort of thing that is clogging inventory and causing product backlog and reduced profit. Things like 42 different Lego Batman sets and 9000 Star Wars buildable action figures is. 

[Falconfan1414]

So it seems ninjago isn’t ending after season 9. The writers for the ninjago show confirmed that it wouldn’t end with season 9

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, Faefrost said:

The one thing that benefits the main Ninjago line is they have so far remained restrained in how many sets they release per year/wave. The SOG and Season 9 releases both have the classic stepped price point releases of 5-7 main sets plus a few impulse items. That isn't the sort of thing that is clogging inventory and causing product backlog and reduced profit. Things like 42 different Lego Batman sets and 9000 Star Wars buildable action figures is. 

Your argument got pretty nonsensical there at the end, considering there's never been more than 9 Star Wars buildable figures per year. They may not be the strongest sellers but they also make up a miniscule part of Lego's overall product portfolio these days (as any fan of Constraction in general will grudgingly explain).

I think the thing that benefits the Ninjago line is that kids like it. There's one big reason why this year's first wave is smaller than most, and that's because it's subdivided between TV and Movie sets. I've seen little reason to believe that Lego is devoting that much less attention to the Ninjago brand than it had previously—it's just trying to exploit the success of the movie sets a little longer before that fades from memory and the TV-based sets once again become the be-all and end-all for the theme.

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, Faefrost said:

The one thing that benefits the main Ninjago line is they have so far remained restrained in how many sets they release per year/wave. The SOG and Season 9 releases both have the classic stepped price point releases of 5-7 main sets plus a few impulse items. That isn't the sort of thing that is clogging inventory and causing product backlog and reduced profit. Things like 42 different Lego Batman sets and 9000 Star Wars buildable action figures is. 

I think you're being a bit unfair. The LEGO Batman Movie had a pretty huge launch wave (13 sets), but the second and third retail waves were just five sets each. Meanwhile, the Star Wars buildable figures never get more than six sets per wave, and most of those are at fairly low price points by LEGO standards — not as impulse priced as Ninjago spinners maybe, but hardly exorbitant.

Also, the main Ninjago line has hardly "remained restrained" in its number of sets! In its first year it had over a dozen spinner sets at $10 and $20 price points, and over a dozen playsets on top of that. And then it went ahead and did the same thing in its second year! Its third and fourth years were a lot more modest… but in its fifth year, it ramped up again, with eleven playsets in the first half of the year and nine playsets and six Airjitzu launchers in the second. The fact that the 2016 and 2017 non-movie waves were more modest is hardly a sign of a significantly different market strategy than LEGO applies with their other themes, particularly since when it was Ninjago's turn for a movie LEGO gave it about the same treatment they've given their other original movie properties.

[spiderfan2000]

9 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

So the new ad on to the Ninjago city set will have 3 500 + pieces..its not bad for 229 USD :)

That sounds like a pretty good value, though I still hope the minifigure lineup included is revealed soon.

[Blazej_Holen]

2 hours ago, spiderfan2000 said:

That sounds like a pretty good value, though I still hope the minifigure lineup included is revealed soon.

Me too :) There were rumors that this set should include 16 minifigs, and one of them should be Princess of Ninjago. What we know so far - it will include Lloyd, Garmadon with helmet, Dareth (brown ninja), Shark army guy "pufferfish"...and rest will be probably civilian + 1-2 extra ninjas...

[Lucarex]

58 minutes ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Me too :) There were rumors that this set should include 16 minifigs, and one of them should be Princess of Ninjago. What we know so far - it will include Lloyd, Garmadon with helmet, Dareth (brown ninja), Shark army guy "pufferfish"...and rest will be probably civilian + 1-2 extra ninjas...

There had also better be that balloon-popping Narwhal shark army thug in that lot!

Where did you see that updated info on Ninjago Docks btw?

[DutchBlockhead]

13 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

So the new ad on to the Ninjago city set will have 3 500 + pieces..its not bad for 229 USD :)

70620? Or is there a new new-City coming? :o Could you show me the ad? :)

[ninjagoyax555]

1 hour ago, Lucarex said:

There had also better be that balloon-popping Narwhal shark army thug in that lot!

Where did you see that updated info on Ninjago Docks btw?

i hope that set got kai with a new face 

[Falconfan1414]

So season 9 kai leaked, all I can say is wow it looks very nice

[Lucarex]

1 hour ago, DutchBlockhead said:

70620? Or is there a new new-City coming? :o Could you show me the ad? :)

Pretty sure he means "add-on" (to Ninjago City) which we know is the Docks 70657 set.

Edited March 8, 2018 by Lucarex

[JasonEffex]

2 minutes ago, Falconfan1414 said:

So season 9 kai leaked, all I can say is wow it looks very nice

Zane has also leaked, and he too looks very good. He has an interesting combination of his quiver and the Mr. E armour piece which go together surprisingly well.

[Digger of Bricks]

That new sword hilt of Kai's looks useful beyond its intended purpose.

[Agent Kallus]

interesting that they're both missing one sleeve, they seem to follow the same theme as the others we've seen with season season 8 armor upgraded.

Though was there a leak a while which back which showed all the season nine ninja but it was only the heads and shoulders and it was a bit of promo art not the actual lego and that made it look like they'd all fit that theme.  

[THELEGOBATMAN]

Kai and Zane minifigures look cool, but I think they are one of the worst Ninjago suits, although I love Kai's sword.

[Tahu]

I think the suits look really cool. I like the wilder, brave style of which may represent the Ninja's new battle techniques they will use against the new villains

[Faefrost]

15 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Your argument got pretty nonsensical there at the end, considering there's never been more than 9 Star Wars buildable figures per year. They may not be the strongest sellers but they also make up a miniscule part of Lego's overall product portfolio these days (as any fan of Constraction in general will grudgingly explain).

I think the thing that benefits the Ninjago line is that kids like it. There's one big reason why this year's first wave is smaller than most, and that's because it's subdivided between TV and Movie sets. I've seen little reason to believe that Lego is devoting that much less attention to the Ninjago brand than it had previously—it's just trying to exploit the success of the movie sets a little longer before that fades from memory and the TV-based sets once again become the be-all and end-all for the theme.

 

15 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I think you're being a bit unfair. The LEGO Batman Movie had a pretty huge launch wave (13 sets), but the second and third retail waves were just five sets each. Meanwhile, the Star Wars buildable figures never get more than six sets per wave, and most of those are at fairly low price points by LEGO standards — not as impulse priced as Ninjago spinners maybe, but hardly exorbitant.

Also, the main Ninjago line has hardly "remained restrained" in its number of sets! In its first year it had over a dozen spinner sets at $10 and $20 price points, and over a dozen playsets on top of that. And then it went ahead and did the same thing in its second year! Its third and fourth years were a lot more modest… but in its fifth year, it ramped up again, with eleven playsets in the first half of the year and nine playsets and six Airjitzu launchers in the second. The fact that the 2016 and 2017 non-movie waves were more modest is hardly a sign of a significantly different market strategy than LEGO applies with their other themes, particularly since when it was Ninjago's turn for a movie LEGO gave it about the same treatment they've given their other original movie properties.

The problem with those Star Wars constraction lines is the product is not exiting the channel and is backing up. I was just in my local Target at lunch time. I was looking at the Lego aisle with an eye towards that earnings report. (I’m a Business Consultant, we do this sort of thing as a hobby.) Those construction figures really stood out. In my local store they were probably taking between 15-20% of the aisle shelf space, were fully populated floor to ceiling, looked largely untouched and had a fairly wide spread of current, Rogue One and TFA offerings (at least the unloved ones). They were taking up more real estate then the actual Star Wars brick sets. They reminded me a lot of a similar (and similarly failing) product offering a few aisles over. The Star Wars Forces Of Destiny dolls. Fully populated display from day one. I don’t think my Target sold a single unit until they dropped past 50% clearance. 

Heck Chima and Bionacle Constraction stuff moved way better. 

Lego Batman has some similar warning signs. Yes the huge pool of product offerings was spread over 3 waves. But many of the wave 1 sets are still on shelves alongside wave 2 and 3. Further compounding things is just how little differentiation there is in the sets. The bulk are some sort of wheeled vehicle and some Batman figures. Almost no locations or playsets. It’s pure “Batman Wacky Races.” Which leads to the lines products not feeling well differentiated between themselves. 

Ninjago has generally been handled much better than those. The central part of the line will have 5-7 sets at the typical stepped price points from impulse buy up to flagship set. The sets rarely feel similar with a variety of vehicles, playsets, locations etc. and the parent or collector feels like he she can get the full wave. The ancillary impulse buy line with the spinner packs seems to clear the aisles reasonably well. (Although not as well as they used to. I suspect the flying airjitsu ones had a lot of parents saying “he’ll no” after household destruction inceidents.) 

The Lego Ninjago Movie sets were still a bit over produced, with a few too many that seemed to self compete resulting in some shelf backlog (looking at you Manta Ray Bomber). But the line still had enough truly distinct sets and those sold well in most cases. Even then many wave one sets still remain directly competing with Wave two. Not as bad as Batman, just because there largely was better price and subject differentiation between the sets. But you do see some weird things like Kai’s fire Mech sitting side by side on the shelf facing off against Garmadon’s Mecha man at the same price point. Which granted looks cool on the shelf, but is still not a great way to market or sell them. 

[Boogly22238]

The suits look great but that sword is sick. Particularly the hilt..

[DuckBricks]

1 hour ago, Boogly22238 said:

The suits look great but that sword is sick. Particularly the hilt..

I just wish the connection point in the hilt was the other way around so we could make screen-accurate Elemental Swords and Golden Weapons, although I understand it may have looked a bit clunkly with a blade going out of the dragon’s head.

[Falconfan1414]

Good news, Lloyd and a Harumi from the summer wave leaked

Edited March 9, 2018 by Falconfan1414