Ninjago 2013

[PenPlays]

^Yes but that is for a different thread.

@Wall E

There was never any confirmation on the name for the Kimono Ninjas.

Energy eXtreme doesn't fit for me. Especially since it does not apply to and energized form.

[Tobias_Jay]

@Wall E

Energy eXtreme doesn't fit for me. Especially since it does not apply to and energized form.

I actually refer it to Elemental eXtreme, but sorry it was a force of habit that I find hard to break. That is what I call them and I meant to call him Kimono Cole for the review to avoid confusion, however I seemed to have failed at that

[DraikNova]

Well, that's a relief. I thought the Drill was going to be horrible.

[JamesBenjamin]

http://www.toyark.com/news/toy-fair-59/toy-fair-2013-lego-ninjago-7231/

Ninjago pics from Toyfair, courtesy of Toyark.

[DraikNova]

We've already long seen those. As a matter of fact, we've already got some of the sets.

[Faefrost]

Well, that's a relief. I thought the Drill was going to be horrible.

Nah! I'll second the vote for pleasantly surprised by the Driller. It's actually turned out to be me favorite of the new Ninjago sets. It feels well balanced and complete, and is astonishingly swoosh able. I wasn't as crazy about the warrior bike. The big rubber band tread doesn't roll well. It has no real detailing of any sort, just a kind of frame with legs, and nothing that even vaguely resembles a cockpit or drivers controls. It captures the Stone Warrior aesthetic nicely but feels incomplete.

[Aanchir]

So Toys 'R' Us Hong Kong's Ninjago microsite has updated, with contents including (supposedly) a new poster featuring the 2013 key visual I've been having so much trouble finding. It looks quite awesome, but unfortunately it's currently a dead link that redirects to the main Toys 'R' Us Hong Kong site (this is fairly common with newly-added posters to the site from my experience). I'll be watching intently to see when that poster gets added, since it'll make great iTunes album artwork for some of my Ninjago tracks.

You can see the same key visual used as a background here, and apparently it will be the cover art of the sixth Ninjago DVD in Poland and some other countries.

[DraikNova]

That. Is. Awesome. Artwork.

[CM4Sci]

It's also the same artwork I found on a t-shirt back in.. November? I posted about it a while back.

-Sci

[Aanchir]

It's also the same artwork I found on a t-shirt back in.. November? I posted about it a while back.

-Sci

Yes, and I've been searching for a version I could use for my iTunes ever since. It seems like that's finally going to pay off very soon.

I wonder why the key visual wasn't included in the instruction booklet like past waves? Was it not finished in time, or were there too many complaints about the number of ads in the previous Ninjago instruction manuals? Personally, I always love when an instruction manual has content like this that hints at the engaging story behind the theme, much like how some BIONICLE manuals had promotional images of the characters and the events of each story year, or how the earliest LEGO Star Wars instruction manuals had little screenshots of scenes from the movies related to the sets on every page.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Aanchir

[Tobias_Jay]

I would have loved that too, the downsize of Ninjago has had quite an annoying effect on fans. I have had to resort to drawing my own art for Kimono Lloyd and the new minifigures (only had time to draw Lloyd at the moment, but they are coming).

[Faefrost]

In flipping through all the toy fair photos and reveals something hit me. There is a new set releasing that may have some appeal to the more dedicated Ninjago fans. Take a look over at the LotR stuff. 79008 Pirate Ship Ambush.

Would that not make a superb starting point to mod up a Dark Bounty? It's already a better Bounty than the one we got. The lines look about right, and it has a cabin.

[DraikNova]

I think that to make a proper Bounty, we would need a LDD RCB. Actually, to make a full-scale Bounty you'd need a complex structure of technic beams, similar to those on a real ship.

[Aanchir]

I think that to make a proper Bounty, we would need a LDD RCB. Actually, to make a full-scale Bounty you'd need a complex structure of technic beams, similar to those on a real ship.

I don't think RCBs are a good tool for designing a cohesive, exact model. While rules can be set in advance to keep color schemes and other factors fairly consistent, the fact remains that making a model with any degree of specificity usually requires several revisions, and it's hard to do that in an RCB without potentially undoing parts of a model that a builder was quite proud of. Not to mention that a lot of the fun of an RCB is being able to take it in any direction you want and never knowing how the final design will turn out. That doesn't work too well when there's one specific end result in mind, particularly in the case of later builders who will be constrained to building whatever the previous builders haven't created yet.

A Ninjago RCB would work better if it involved the creation of a fantasy setting never depicted in detail in any medium.

Now, a full-scale Destiny's Bounty wouldn't necessarily have to be too huge or complex. Keep in mind that there was a pretty much show-accurate Destiny's Bounty at LEGOLAND Deutschland, and that was at miniland scale-- in other words, LARGER than what a minifig-scale version would have to resemble. Granted, that one lacked interior details and was not entirely show-accurate when it came to color, but nevertheless it shows that a minifig-scale Destiny's Bounty is far from impossible.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Aanchir

[Faefrost]

I don't think you will get it to scale or 100% of what you see on screen with the LotR ship. Just that the LotR ship will get you closer to an acceptable selectively compressed model that the actual Bounty set will. And the darker colors would work well. The main things being the LotR ship is about the same draft profile as the bounty, but has a full length deck, is a bit wider, and has an actual rear cabin of about the right shape, etc. Not perfect, but a decent enough starting point. An actual full size show accurate bounty would be a labor of love, and would probably be very difficult to pull off. Like many on screen digital designs that look like Lego models, there is a ton of subtle scaling and compression going on that just can't be matched in the brick.

[Faefrost]

Oh I almost forgot to mention. I was at the Lego store tonight and I saw a new Ninjago set. Or at least one that I had never seen before. It was a carded Ninjago Battlepack. ZX versions of Jay and Zane and 2 Stone Warriors with a small weapons stand build for $14.99. Pretty neat. I didn't think to get the set number. Have we seen this or listed it here yet?

[howie28]

I don't think so. I wish there was a Lego store in Australia though, because that sounds like a great little set. I would buy that on sight.

[PenPlays]

Oh I almost forgot to mention. I was at the Lego store tonight and I saw a new Ninjago set. Or at least one that I had never seen before. It was a carded Ninjago Battlepack. ZX versions of Jay and Zane and 2 Stone Warriors with a small weapons stand build for $14.99. Pretty neat. I didn't think to get the set number. Have we seen this or listed it here yet?

Never heard of it. Does it include the Stone Warriors (Black hats with red forks) or did you mean 2 men from the Stone Army (meaning any of the three besides Kozu)?

Edited February 16, 2013 by Penkid11

[Faefrost]

Never heard of it. Does it include the Stone Warriors (Black hats with red forks) or did you mean 2 men from the Stone Army (meaning any of the three besides Kozu)?

I think it was a scout and a soldier. I'm not quite certain on that. One of the baddies might have had the black samurai helm.

[DraikNova]

A new battlepack? Sounds interesting.

[Aanchir]

Oh I almost forgot to mention. I was at the Lego store tonight and I saw a new Ninjago set. Or at least one that I had never seen before. It was a carded Ninjago Battlepack. ZX versions of Jay and Zane and 2 Stone Warriors with a small weapons stand build for $14.99. Pretty neat. I didn't think to get the set number. Have we seen this or listed it here yet?

I saw this on Flickr a while ago; probably should have shared it. Here's a pic. I like that both Jay and Zane come with their golden weapons, though I'd have preferred the new ninja costumes.

[DraikNova]

Seems like a good way to get extra stone army minifigures, but I would have preferred it to have included the Kimono versions of Jay and Zane with their new elemental swords.

[just2good]

I'm sorry but that is an awful battle pack. It's so bad I'll have to get it to review it, unfortunately.

[Meiko]

Picked up the Golden Dragon at KidsFest yesterday. May review it soon.

[PenPlays]

Being the completist that I am, I will need that Battle pack in order to be considered complete, but $15! Oh well, the horrible card shrines were that price which will be the hard to come by seeing as they have been retired.