Chima bears - when will we finally see some bear minifigures?

paul88

Just like the subject says. From the first episode ever, bears have been seen on screen (the opening anyway). However, here it is summer 2014, and they have yet to release a bear minifigure. We now have spiders and bats, and I don't think either of those were even in the original opening. I could be wrong there, it's been a while since I've watched the show :)

So is there any information yet on when we'll ever see a bear minifigure? It seems I do a search about every month or so looking for news of the bear minifigures only to find that none have been released.

samiam391

Believe me... there are enough of them already out there...

paul88

doesn't work for me :(

Pitfall69

Does this work for you?

paul88

nope! only the attached....

Aanchir

Maybe we'll see them next year like we saw the Rhinos this year.

Pitfall69

I've already lost interest. Have a good day.

paul88

Maybe next year, yes. Thanks, Aanchir for the one useful reply so far!

graphite

Bah, Useful is 27% overrated.

bobabricks

I think only 27% of the comments now do not have "27%" in them :P

thehornedrat

Chima: the new Fabuland.

CCC

The problem with them being in Chima is that they will get scratches or flowers or something non generic on their heads and Chi prints on their torsos.

Shib

my favourite Chima mini figure is still Furty, the only odd marking on his head are some orange lines that don't really look out of place. I just wish they'd redo him using the method they used on Scratchy on the Simpsons CMFs for the tail piece.

paul88

I agree, Furty is one of the best :)

Brickarmor

Been waiting on bears so long my son's already lost most of his interest in Chima. More tribes = less interesting. There should have been plenty of potential material and develpoment for the sets and the show with just the stuff introduced in wave one. Do they think kids can't tell it's the same 3-4 voice actors doing everything? The breadth is more than any child could hope to collect and it poorly conceals a lack of depth. Not to mention the baffling redundancy of the Speedorz.

paul88

Yes, the speedorz were/are a weak link in chima as far as I'm concerned. They've been clearanced at every store I've seen them at. They had me up until the gorillas, then, I lost most interest in the show. I don't care for the spiders or the bats at all. I guess they were trying to appeal to a wider demographic with those and possibly lose the cute banner? Not really sure, but I think it had a lot of potential in the beginning, then veered off the path.

Shib

It's funny because I went completely the other way with Chima, I wasn't interested at all at first. In fact the first mini figures I saw I thought were utterly ridiculous. But the more different animals I've seen the more interested I've become, with the insect type characters I like that some have got non standard legs to give them more of an insect look. I've not watched any of the cartoon though, I have no interest in that at all but never have any interest in any of the series to be fair.

plasmodium

bobabricks said:

I think only 27% of the comments now do not have "27%" in them :P

What is this whole 27% thing? I seem to have missed something and now everything is "27% this" or "27% that"...

Shib

I think the predictions on discontinuing sets thread is the source, referring to gettin 27% discount on exclusives, any 27% jokes out of that thread I try to ignore.

Matthew

^^ You need to have a look at the predictions thread, you may find 27% of the answer...

TheOneVeyronian

I for myself would like to see the Chima bears in next year's wave of sets (as well as the other glaring omission, beavers). There might be a 27% chance that at least one Bear will appear in next year's Chima sets I reckon.

legofeet

also beavers are still missing.

(offtopic)I really like the new chima vulture tribe headpiece , its just like a mask from the venice carnival called il peste -the plague doctor

graphite

Brickarmor said:

Been waiting on bears so long my son's already lost most of his interest in Chima. More tribes = less interesting. There should have been plenty of potential material and develpoment for the sets and the show with just the stuff introduced in wave one. Do they think kids can't tell it's the same 3-4 voice actors doing everything? The breadth is more than any child could hope to collect and it poorly conceals a lack of depth. Not to mention the baffling redundancy of the Speedorz.

Thinking that the cartoon exists for reasons other than a channel to market toys is why the expansion in the show doesn't make sense to you. Ninjago and Chima aren't about lengthy character development or vast story telling. They exist purely to market toys. The more animal tribes, the more possible toys screaming kids will want to have. LEGO knows well that a majority of the time the minifigs sell sets. If they made more and more sets with the initial tribes the sales would plummet but more interesting figs keeps the sales going longer.

CCC

^^ that was my first thought on seeing the vulture too.

Aanchir

graphite said:

Brickarmor said:

Been waiting on bears so long my son's already lost most of his interest in Chima. More tribes = less interesting. There should have been plenty of potential material and develpoment for the sets and the show with just the stuff introduced in wave one. Do they think kids can't tell it's the same 3-4 voice actors doing everything? The breadth is more than any child could hope to collect and it poorly conceals a lack of depth. Not to mention the baffling redundancy of the Speedorz.

Thinking that the cartoon exists for reasons other than a channel to market toys is why the expansion in the show doesn't make sense to you. Ninjago and Chima aren't about lengthy character development or vast story telling. They exist purely to market toys. The more animal tribes, the more possible toys screaming kids will want to have. LEGO knows well that a majority of the time the minifigs sell sets. If they made more and more sets with the initial tribes the sales would plummet but more interesting figs keeps the sales going longer.

I think that sort of attitude is a bit simplistic, and does a disservice to the writers for the series. Obviously the ultimate goal is to sell toys, because that's where most of the money is generated. But that doesn't mean the writers aren't interested in telling quality stories.

I came across this interview with the Dan and Kevin Hageman, the two brothers who write the Ninjago TV series, earlier this year. It's really amazing to see just how much heart goes into the writing for the show. Ninjago was their big break and they want to do as good a job with it as possible. For them, the toys are a source of inspiration, and working them into the show helps ensure the show's continued existence.

It surprises me, sometimes, how some people seem to think "selling toys" and "telling good stories" are mutually exclusive goals, or even goals that work against each other. The truth of the matter is that good stories can help sell toys, and toy sales can help fund good stories. Sometimes a company settles for emphasizing either one or the other, but I think brands like Ninjago and BIONICLE have done a good job balancing those two goals.

Can't really speak for Chima because I've only seen the first three episodes, but it seems to me like the writers are TRYING to create an exciting mythos with diverse characters that kids can relate to — how well they succeed at that is another matter entirely. Though keep in mind that if the Legends of Chima series DID merely exist to sell toys, then tribes like the rhinos, bears, and beavers who did not appear in the first year of sets would probably not have been written into the show in the first place, and we would not be having this conversation.

ricecake

#41046-1 has a bear... but he's probably only 27% as ferocious as a Chima bear

paul88

Aanchir: well said! It may seem from the outside sometimes that "the company" is all about the mighty dollar, but it is often forgotten that there are real people lower down the ladder that actually work very hard researching, developing and executing ideas.

ricecake: so far, that bear is the closest I've seen to what I'm looking for :) I'm actually a sucker for some of the friends animal polybags.

Pitfall69

Merchandise Driven

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MerchandiseDriven

paul88

Pitfall69: I thought you lost interest about 7 posts into the thread ;)

In any case, of course merchandise drives kid's shows and vice versa. That's not to say though that the actual writers and developers have no interest and are just out to make cash. Sure, that's the goal of the corporation as a whole, but I'm sure there are a lot more people working at companies like LEGO that actually enjoy their jobs contrasted against the average "joe" that works at company "x". That thought, in and of itself leads me to believe that not *all* of the people involved are only after the cash. There are surely some employees who enjoy their jobs enough to have a vested interest in what they are doing.

Pitfall69

I lost interest in the Chima Bears. This, on the other hand, is something completely different.

I'm sure there are people that love their jobs, but I will tell you that if Ninjago wasn't selling, the writers will be let go. After all, TLG is a toy company.

paul88

Agreed. Even when workers love their jobs, it's not guaranteed security. If they are not producing for the company, they are useless in the eyes of upper management.

CCC

The newer figures in the Chima sets seem to have less printing on the head pieces. Maybe there will be some decent and more generic bear heads after all.

TheOneVeyronian

^ Very true, but the lack of printing on the orange tiger headgear which you used as the first example is actually an example of where less printing is less ideal. After all, I think even anthropomorphic tigers should have more than 4 small stripes on their head :-)

But then again, we have seen quite generic headgear patterns since the start of Chima. Ewar immediately springs to mind here.