2011 NINJAGO sets

Aanchir · June 2, 2011

For me it looks like Snake, but maybe we will get Dragon people! (The Godzilla man from CM5 could be a hint!)

C'mon, really? Are we that desperate? So far, the Collectible Minifigures have been interpreted as "hints" for various things-- additional factions in Kingdoms, the return of Blacktron, an classical Greek or Roman theme, etc. None of these supposed "hints" have amounted to anything, and with good reason. The Collectible Minifigures are their own theme, and do not necessarily have anything to do with current or upcoming themes (except by coincidence or in the form of references to familiar LEGO brands and icons, like the Blacktron or Octan logos).

It's possible you were being sarcastic given the sheer ludicrousness of a person in a rubber monster suit hinting at actual dragon-people in a fantasy theme, and if so I apologize. But people leap to such ridiculous conclusions so often with the collectible minifigures that I can no longer tell when people are being serious about supposed "hints". I'm not saying that dragon people are not a possibility, but frankly if they are there is no reason they would have anything at all to do with the monster suit guy from Collectible Minifigures Series 5, except by mere coincidence.

Anyway, I'm personally intrigued about where Ninjago will go from here, so I'll be keeping close tabs as always.

Edited June 2, 2011 by Aanchir

horizon · June 3, 2011

Hmm,

just bought the ice dragon set for our son. Great model.

The dragons are great I must say. However, I would think LEGO sales would be higher if they sold every dragon as a single model.

Set wise the Fire Dragon wins, though our son does like the Skeletons & vehicles a lot so that's a plus to the Ice Dragon set.

Miniature wise it is a real pity you get some double if you want all. Better distribution would be nice, but hey that's marketing.

Ah well, our daughter wants the old dojo or Garga castle. Hasnt seen these before...

Lordofdragonss · June 3, 2011

I tottaly agree with you Horizon! If every dragon would be like Ice one- I would buy them all. Now I'm only Buying ice and earth one.

I wonder... Will we get Skeleton dragon? That would be awesome!

Edited June 3, 2011 by Lordofdragonss

horizon · June 3, 2011

I tottaly agree with you Horizon! If every dragon would be like Ice one- I would buy them all. Now I'm only Buying ice and earth one.

I wonder... Will we get Skeleton dragon? That would be awesome!

Bone Dragon is a cool idea.

What are the release dates in Europe/the Netherlands?

ziljin · June 3, 2011

Okay I saw online that they are slated for an August release, and the prices on brickpedia. Just big and medium sets. =(. No smaller sets like Ninja Ambush or Ninja Training Outpost with army building potential.

Edited June 4, 2011 by lego40k

Jouster · June 4, 2011

The summer Ninjago sets are out online in my country (Romania): linky

Going to get the Earth Dragon soon. When I do, I'll post a review of it.

Edited June 4, 2011 by Jouster

ziljin · June 5, 2011

I looked over the sets a few more times. at first I wanted each one! But now I think I only want the Lightning Dragon Battle, Fire Temple and Earth Dragon Defense for the dragons and minifigures. I might get a Mountain Shop or two for the cheap Krunchas. Skull Truck and Mountain Shrine I am definitely skipping.

Edited June 5, 2011 by lego40k

Delta 38 · June 5, 2011

See THIS DK BOOK PICTURE yet?

Nice find! There are some uncommon pieces in there, but it's probably going to be too costly, so I'll pass.

New HR image of Lightning Dragon Battle!

The skeletons' helicopter is quite nice. The skull cockpit looks a bit blocky so it looks more like a rock monster or something, but that's fine.

On the other hand, the set itself is starting to look too big for my wallet. I hope this is around the $100 mark, or I might have to start crossing sets off the list. :sceptic:

Edit: I forgot about the official website. Apparently, it's $130... I'll probably regret this, but goodbye Skull Truck set.

Another edit: Ninjago is continuing next year, eh? I hope it won't be nearly as costly as this year will be.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Delta 38

Anghild · June 6, 2011

The official site has been updated with the new sets, and videos for each.

www.ninjago.com

Aanchir · June 7, 2011

The official site has been updated with the new sets, and videos for each.

www.ninjago.com

Oh my gosh... those videos are AMAZING! I love the little scenes at the end of the Earth Dragon and Skull Truck videos! Granted, if I were a kid, I'd probably have thought they were just silly, but today as an adult I think they're hilarious! I guess my sense of humor is no surprise, though, considering I regularly read webcomics like Axe Cop.

I'm currently building the Fire Temple on LDD. Most of the parts besides some of the skeleton general parts and the Dragon Sword of Fire should be available. Normally I worry that I use LDD as a substitute for real bricks, but I think it's a testament to this set's design that partway through building it I'm beginning to wonder whether I should skip out on some of the things I'd been saving up to to make room in my budget for this set (and probably the other three dragon sets to go with it). It also gives me many ideas for the Ninjago Giant Chess Set WIP my twin brother is working on-- he's doing Study Abroad in the UK currently, but once we're both back home I plan to do some serious brainstorming.

By the way, has anyone gotten "LEGO Battles: Ninjago" yet, and if so, have you tried making any of the models from it? Some of them are quite clearly based on classic Ninja sets from 1998. The behind-the-scenes design videos on the LEGO Video Games website are entertaining, if not as much as these designer videos. I reckon the designer videos are more entertaining because it feels less like the designers are acting-- they honestly seem to be having just as much fun playing with and showing us the sets as a kid buying them might have playing with them and showing them to his or her parents!

Vindicare · June 7, 2011

A little off topic here and I haven't read this thread in a while, so if this has been said, don't bite my head off. I always see people typing this theme as "NinjaGo". Obviously one would read it as Ninja+Go. But, thanks to a commercial, it's asking pronounced Nin-ja(as in jaw)-go. Just saying. :tongue:

ziljin · June 7, 2011

A little off topic here and I haven't read this thread in a while, so if this has been said, don't bite my head off. I always see people typing this theme as "NinjaGo". Obviously one would read it as Ninja+Go. But, thanks to a commercial, it's asking pronounced Nin-ja(as in jaw)-go. Just saying.

I sometimes pronounce it Ninjawgo when I remember to I pronounce it ninja go.

horizon · June 7, 2011

Is it me or are the mountain shrine and that skeleton vehicle not on the site?

Fire Temple does look grand.... but that price...

Aanchir · June 7, 2011

A little off topic here and I haven't read this thread in a while, so if this has been said, don't bite my head off. I always see people typing this theme as "NinjaGo". Obviously one would read it as Ninja+Go. But, thanks to a commercial, it's asking pronounced Nin-ja(as in jaw)-go. Just saying.

I don't think it's a really big deal, since the double-meaning works either way. It's either the words "Ninja Go!" (demonstrating the same characteristic excitement as the Japanese-exclusive promo set "[url=http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=3018-1 LEGO Shogun Go!") or a portmanteau of "Ninja" and "LEGO". The exclamation "Ninja Go!" is a recurring line in "The Weekend Whip", the theme song of the series, and you're even encouraged to shout "Ninja GO!" when releasing your spinner in the Spinjitzu gameplay instructions.

In other words, when referring to the setting of the theme, it would be Nin-JAH-go, whereas the pronunciation "Ninja Go!", while not the official pronunciation of the theme or setting, is still played with occasionally and has a similar level of meaning.

Anghild · June 7, 2011

Is it me or are the mountain shrine and that skeleton vehicle not on the site?

I'm guessing that all the sets that are released as "special edition" is not on the site. All of the following sets released so far is not on there:

2518 - Nuckal's ATV

2519 - Skeleton Bowling

2520 - Ninjago Battle Arena

That means that either the mountain shrine will be released at a later date, or it's going to be a special edition.

ziljin · June 9, 2011

Is NinjaGo doing really well for Lego? Because I noticed its Wave 2 is enormous compared to Kingdoms. 3 dragons for NinjaGo, zero dragons for the dragon knights!

Aanchir · June 9, 2011

Is NinjaGo doing really well for Lego? Because I noticed its Wave 2 is enormous compared to Kingdoms. 3 dragons for NinjaGo, zero dragons for the dragon knights!

Keep in mind, though, that Ninjago is being more heavily-promoted than Kingdoms. For Ninjago, two consecutive waves of sets (plus various promotional material like the TV special) were planned from the get-go, whereas in the case of Kingdoms there was a half-year gap between the first two waves of sets, and the line wasn't nearly as heavily promoted even when it was first beginning.

With that said, yes, I'd say Ninjago is far more successful than Kingdoms was for LEGO. The TV special was extremely well-received, and a full cartoon series is planned for the end of this year. Ninjago's popularity among kids is extremely visible by browsing Flickr. I frequently just look at the most recent LEGO-related images, and something I've seen fairly often this year is "Here is a Ninjago-themed birthday cake I made for this kid who really loves the theme", or similarly with costumes or smaller confections. The only other themes I've seen with that kind of immediate popularity are BIONICLE and Star Wars.

And LEGO planned for this same level of success, evidently-- according to the Borders.com blurb for the upcoming Ninjago Official Guide, "Ninjago is funny. Ninjago is action-packed. Ninjago is Lego's biggest new initiative since Bionicle!" And as with BIONICLE, the marketing for Ninjago was probably a very big investment on TLG's part. I'm very happy to see that it seems to have paid off.

Finally, let me add that since Kingdoms isn't a fantasy-intensive theme and seemingly was never intended to be one, the fact that there are dragons for Ninjago and none for the Dragon Knights kind of goes without saying. The only dragons in the Kingdoms theme so far have seemingly all been inanimate ornamentation, besides arguably the dragon wizard's baby dragon (and even that could easily be a fancy paperweight).

Rather than being a swords-and-sorcery theme like the previous iteration of Castle, where fantasy creatures were everywhere, Kingdoms seems like it may be more along the lines of actual medieval history. A lot of people, even the rich and powerful, believed in creatures like fairies or dragons, but at the same time they knew that such creatures, if they existed, tended to remain hidden, and that the average person would not be likely to encounter such creatures in their lifetime.

ziljin · June 9, 2011

Wow that is insightful information. Well I hope that means many waves of NinjaGo to come or similar themes. I could use some more Ninjas and Skeletons. And any other historic and fantasy minifigures.

Corydoras · June 14, 2011

New Ninjago sets available in my local store in Poland. Unfortunately, about half of them is already sold out. They ran out of the Blacksmith, which I wanted so badly...

Shroffy123 · June 24, 2011

IN the Spring 2011 Lego Catalog, on page 3, it shows the Red Ninja with a dragon sword. Does this really exist? Or is it just for show in the catalog. I've scanned on the sets listed, and don't see anything resembling it.

Thanks

Nevermind, just saw it in the "Fire Temple" set. Can't wait for it to come out. That sword looks amazing.

Edited June 24, 2011 by Shroffy123

ziljin · June 26, 2011

IN the Spring 2011 Lego Catalog, on page 3, it shows the Red Ninja with a dragon sword. Does this really exist? Or is it just for show in the catalog. I've scanned on the sets listed, and don't see anything resembling it.

Thanks

Nevermind, just saw it in the "Fire Temple" set. Can't wait for it to come out. That sword looks amazing.

Fire Temple, and Mountain Shrine should have the new Sword of Fire. POssibly another set as well.