General Ninjago Discussion

jnscoelho

Wasn't #40490 supposed to be available on the website starting today?
Assuming that there was stock left to be sold, of course...

KungFuKenny

jnscoelho said:

Wasn't #40490 supposed to be available on the website starting today?
Assuming that there was stock left to be sold, of course...

It’s up for sale on Shop@Home in the US currently, but oddly still says “coming soon” in Portugal… I would keep checking back today…

jnscoelho

KungFuKenny said:

jnscoelho said:

Wasn't #40490 supposed to be available on the website starting today?
Assuming that there was stock left to be sold, of course...

It’s up for sale on Shop@Home in the US currently…

When I asked it didn't show up yet, but now it's up saying "Coming soon".

sonatine01

Hopefully it’s in decent supply, just couldn’t bring myself to spend £85 on Ninjago at RRP. Not that I could get to a Lego shop either to be fair.

GrannyLEGO

For a change I can say a Lego set is well worth the money. #71741Ninjago City Gardens is a great build with lots of variety and very little repetitive build parts although it is necessary on many builds. Save up for it. My only problem I have is that to build it again I have to deconstruct it!

sonatine01

Ninjago Brickheadz now showing out of stock rather than coming soon in the UK. 

^ Ninjago City Gardens is definitely on my wanted list but I’m still hoping for a decent discount at some point. I’m don’t think a £25 Brickheadz is enough of a discount for me to bite.

Lyichir

sonatine01 said:

Ninjago Brickheadz now showing out of stock rather than coming soon in the UK. 

^ Ninjago City Gardens is definitely on my wanted list but I’m still hoping for a decent discount at some point. I’m don’t think a £25 Brickheadz is enough of a discount for me to bite.

Not sure if it's the same in the UK but in the US sales on big D2C sets like Ninjago CIty Gardens are EXTREMELY rare—some of the only times I've ever seen it happen are when stores discount sets with damaged boxes, which isn't a reliable enough occurrence to really count on. And while this isn't saying you necessarily need to get it with this promotion if you don't care much about the BrickHeadz, the aftermarket price of the previous two Ninjago City sets is quite high so you should be a little wary of putting off getting this one for TOO long...

TheOriginalSimonB

Agreed.  I managed to get the original city when Smyths were doing a discount for handing them a Toys R Us card at the same time as another reduction, and the docks again from them with (I think) 20% off.  But for the gardens I just went direct to shop at home when there were a couple of promos on I wanted.

sonatine01

Lyichir said:

sonatine01 said:

Ninjago Brickheadz now showing out of stock rather than coming soon in the UK. 

^ Ninjago City Gardens is definitely on my wanted list but I’m still hoping for a decent discount at some point. I’m don’t think a £25 Brickheadz is enough of a discount for me to bite.

Not sure if it's the same in the UK but in the US sales on big D2C sets like Ninjago CIty Gardens are EXTREMELY rare—some of the only times I've ever seen it happen are when stores discount sets with damaged boxes, which isn't a reliable enough occurrence to really count on. And while this isn't saying you necessarily need to get it with this promotion if you don't care much about the BrickHeadz, the aftermarket price of the previous two Ninjago City sets is quite high so you should be a little wary of putting off getting this one for TOO long...

Yeah it’s not normally too bad for discounts in the UK on D2C sets. I’m only looking at 15-20%, which as TheOriginalSimonB says Smyths or somewhere similar should do. Either way I’ll hold on for a bit longer and if the Brickheadz don’t come back in stock it won’t matter anyway. 

There are a fair few regular Ninjago sets i like but they’re regularly discounted at amazon at 40% or more.

Astrobricks

sonatine01 said
<snip>

There are a fair few regular Ninjago sets i like but they’re regularly discounted at amazon at 40% or more.

This hasn’t been true in the US lately either.

sonatine01

Ninjago Brickheadz has just come back in stock and available to buy on its own.

sonatine01

^ @jnscoelho just in case they’re available in Portugal to.

GrannyLEGO

Managed to catch #40490 Ninjago BrickHeadz at the store up in Jacksonville!

jnscoelho

sonatine01 said:

^ @jnscoelho just in case they’re available in Portugal to.

Thanks for the heads up :)

NioMarvin83

Wow! Thanks @ CM4S, I hope everything is in order and we can see more of your great pictures on other topics as well. Since wall work Lego does not ask to remove the drawings, then everything is fine and we can enjoy your creativity.

Looking forward to new summer sets, with other dragons. The weird thing is that Lloyd hasn't had a new dragon since 2013 when he was a golden ninja, now that he's a green ninja again, it would be nice for him to get a new dragon. I will wait suddenly to release a new collection.

SearchlightRG

NioMarvin83 said:

Wow! Thanks @ CM4S, I hope everything is in order and we can see more of your great pictures on other topics as well. Since wall work Lego does not ask to remove the drawings, then everything is fine and we can enjoy your creativity.

Looking forward to new summer sets, with other dragons. The weird thing is that Lloyd hasn't had a new dragon since 2013 when he was a golden ninja, now that he's a green ninja again, it would be nice for him to get a new dragon. I will wait suddenly to release a new collection.

Technically he has had a couple since then. In 2016, if I recall correctly, he got his NRG Dragon. In 2017 there was also the Green Ninja Mech Dragon, though that was both a mech and a The LEGO Ninjago Movie set. The Jungle Dragon set from this year is also basically a Lloyd dragon, as he appears with it in the set and had the most interaction with it in The Island from what I saw. Puts his total at five, not counting the Legacy remakes of the Ultra and Golden Dragons.

By comparison,  Jay and Kai have each had four dragons (plus a couple remakes of Kai's original 2011 dragon); Cole and Zane have had three; Wu has had two; and Nya's sitting at one. Of course, Kai and Nya also shared the Fusion Dragon.

jnscoelho

The Jungle Dragon is more a lizard than a dragon...
Actually, NINJAGO uses the term dragon in a very broad sense. This year's Legacy Fire Dragon is indeed a dragon, but the Jungle one and Nya's not really...

But this is more of a LEGO problem than a NINJAGO one. The Elves theme also had consistency problems between its dragons.

Lyichir

jnscoelho said:

The Jungle Dragon is more a lizard than a dragon...
Actually, NINJAGO uses the term dragon in a very broad sense. This year's Legacy Fire Dragon is indeed a dragon, but the Jungle one and Nya's not really...

But this is more of a LEGO problem than a NINJAGO one. The Elves theme also had consistency problems between its dragons.

Why is a lack of consistency a problem, exactly? To be honest there's few dragons in either Ninjago or Elves for which "dragon" wouldn't be the first description to come to mind. Some people might nitpick between things like "dragons" and "wyverns" but to be honest I don't think that sort of variety being labeled as dragons across the board creates any real confusion. And I greatly prefer having that kind of variety to themes as dragon-heavy as those trying to force all their dragons to conform to one "consistent" body plan.

datsunrobbie

Mushu and Smaug are both dragons, so there's a bit of a range to cover.

Astrobricks

Wyverns? 🤔

560Heliport

Astrobricks said:

Wyverns? 🤔

Wyverns have two legs; dragons, four. 

Russell844

Are you guys D&D nerds?

pxchris

*insert Simpsons nerd meme here*

Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdddssssssssssssssss!!!


(My 17 y/o loves D&D)

560Heliport

So the set numbers for the Seabound sets skip 71751. There's nothing on Lego.com or Brickset for that number. Is it just a set that won't get released? I'd like to see mini-subs for Nya and Jay. A 71751 would fit in the $30 range, so how about a Ninjago equivalent to #75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers: the two mini-subs, Nya, Jay, Master Wu, three or four Maaray Guards, and perhaps another small build.

Astrobricks

Russell844 said:

Are you guys D&D nerds?

I’m the one who didn’t know what a wyvern was. So, no nerds here. Nope, definitely none. ;-)

560Heliport said:

Astrobricks said:

Wyverns? 🤔

Wyverns have two legs; dragons, four. 

So, kind of a D-Rex then. :D

daewoo

If every dragon Lego produced followed the same design, I wouldn't buy them.

SearchlightRG

560Heliport said:

So the set numbers for the Seabound sets skip 71751. There's nothing on Lego.com or Brickset for that number. Is it just a set that won't get released? I'd like to see mini-subs for Nya and Jay. A 71751 would fit in the $30 range, so how about a Ninjago equivalent to #75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers: the two mini-subs, Nya, Jay, Master Wu, three or four Maaray Guards, and perhaps another small build.

*Whiny voice*But Jay and Nya didn't have subs in the show!!!!!*End whiny voice*

Honestly, a set like that sounds fine to me; it'd be nice if they made it easier to get Scuba Nya. I think I'd go with Seabound Ray and Maya over Jay and Wu, personally.

Lyichir

Another Seabound set (especially one with Jay and Nya subs) would be great, but I wouldn't necessarily count on it. Set numbers getting skipped happens relatively often for unclear reasons. Maybe it could sometimes be because a set got cancelled relatively late in development? Hard to say.

I will say that if a set with Jay and Nya subs does come out, it might complicate a sort of pipe dream I've been working on where I mod the Hydro Bounty to fit all four current subs (with two copies of the set). Adding a third Hydro Bounty to that could be pushing it in terms of both the length (which might start to look comical) and perhaps more importantly, the cost (since the Hydro Bounty is an expensive set to get one of, let alone three).

Heck, at this point I wish I could get ahold of even one copy of the Hydro Bounty. I've been feeling down and could use a pick-me-up, but no stores near me seem to have it in stock and even ordering from Amazon would apparently take it until the end of next month to get to me (possibly because of COVID-related trucker shortages?). It's a major bummer...

I did manage to pick up Nya's Water Dragon on my last trip out to the store, which is a nice set. The length is quite impressive, though I'm not 100% satisfied with the motion of the wings (I get the kind of undulating motion they were going for but in practice it's less effective than I'd hoped for).

560Heliport

I am considering ordering (from B'n'P) enough hull, ramp, and canopy pieces to triple the size of the hold, building my own subs for Jay and Nya, and maybe changing the design to have three modular holds- so I could have the Hydro Bounty with 0, 1, 2, or 3 holds. This would add at least 15 inches (38 cm) to the length.
@SearchlightRG I've never seen the show, so building something that never existed there won't bother me at all!

SearchlightRG

@560Heliport it wouldn't particularly bother me either. I just know that certain fans don't like it when the sets don't match up with what's in the series. For instance, Kai and Cole didn't get scuba outfits in the show, yet they received them in the sets, and some fans have complained about that. Personally, I'm just glad that all the Ninja got included; it irks me when they come out with new Ninja suits but only some of the Ninja get them. I mean, I get that Nya didn't become a Ninja until later so obviously she wouldn't have versions of some of the earlier suits, but when they do things like not giving her a Dragon Master, FS, Spinjitzu Burst, or Epic Battle variant I get annoyed. She's not the only Ninja it happens to either, though if any Ninja does get left out it's pretty much guaranteed that it's going to be Nya.

TheOriginalSimonB

If length is an issue, go for a Hydro Bounty catamaran and put two hulls next to each other.

SearchlightRG

So...we gonna discuss the Promobricks set descriptions, or do we wait for an official release from Lego or a retailer?

SearchlightRG

Never mind, we've got images for nine sets!

This is definitely an interesting wave: pretty good figures, some great builds, some...not so great builds. I'm glad to see that ALL the Ninja are fairly well distributed, though Cole and Zane only have two sets each so far. I'm bummed that the villain situation continues to decline: not a big build for any of them this wave, only two different heads between the four villains, and two of them are identical except for accessories. I wish they could have done at least one new mold of Aspheera's head for the group; "Cobra Mechanic" doesn't look like a cobra at all.

I also find it disappointing that Cole's only dedicated build is his vehicle from the Ultra Combo Mech, while Nya is sharing a car with Jay. Jay's got a glider and a dragon, so why couldn't the car have been Nya's alone? Also seems like the Dojo mech or the Fire Dragon EVO could/should have been Cole's; Kai doesn't need two mechs and a dragon in the same wave, in my opinion.

jnscoelho

To me, this wave is very disappointing, with the exception of the Dojo.

The_Rancor

Hmm yes, a lot of the sets seem to have taken a step down whilst Monkie Kid becomes more Ninjago than actual Ninjago in terms of set design & innovation.

The Dojo does look nice, but I find that a lot of the other builds are a little repetitive or just not quite up to the standard of Ninjago that we’re used to. The dragons in particular look quite odd with their new parts.

Bumblepants

The 2H Ninjago sets will probably be much better. I agree with all the comments that this wave is underwhelming.

Aanchir

Designer Niek van Slagmaat created an interesting Twitter thread about the development of these new sets and some of the new parts that went into them:

https://twitter.com/Toothdominoes/status/1466429420282040322

Apparently this wave is meant as a "Core" wave that distills the core elements of Ninjago into a range of newcomer-friendly sets that kids can enjoy even without any familiarity with the ongoing storyline. That's also why four of the sets are simplified for builders as young as six, as opposed to the 7+/8+/9+ target age of more typical Ninjago playsets.

According to Niek, the sets in the second half of 2022 are going to be more along the lines of what long-term fans are used to, with more complex builds and a storyline that picks up  where the "Seabound" storyline left off.

I'm not too impressed with the 4+ or 6+ sets this time around (Lloyd's mech and car, the fire and lightning dragons), aside from Zane's mech which is very charming in spite of its simplicity. I definitely do see how the "power up" concept of those and the other EVO sets seems like something that'll be very fun for kids, and I imagine I would've had a lot of fun with it at that age myself, but at age 30 most of those sets are an easy pass for me.

The new snake faction has a very cool color scheme, but they don't feel nearly as conceptually compelling to me as the Vermillion Warriors (armor animated by thousands of tiny snakes), Pyro Vipers (undead mummies with fire powers), or Maaray Guards (eel-like deep sea dwellers with flippers and Atlantean vibes). "Boa Destructor" is an amazing character name, but otherwise they feel largely forgettable.

What I am very pleased with (as I suppose was the expectation of the designers) are the four older-targeted sets. I feel that they have the same strong old-school Ninjago vibes as the Legacy range, but without the subject matter being at all beholden to what we've seen in previous waves of sets or previous waves of the TV series.

Jay and Nya's Race Car EVO is a strong design, but to me it's the most "skippable" of those four sets. I suppose "car" sets in general tend to feel sort of plain to me unless they have some really clever function like the deployable motorbike from Kai's Ninja X-1 Charger or the pop-up rotating cannons of Lloyd's Ninja Nightcrawler.

Also, with Nya's relative lack of ninja vehicles over the years, I'm a little bummed that it has few motifs tying it to her aside from her spoiler/detachable glider on the back. I recognize that a lightning motif feels more thematically appropriate for a muscle car than a water motif would be, so I get WHY it's designed this way. But Nya has been my favorite ninja since 2015, and it frustrates me how often she seems to get the short end of the stick compared to her teammates.

Combining mecha are the sort of anime and tokusatsu inspired concept that feels perfectly suited to Ninjago, even if this is the first time it's ever shown up in Ninjago sets! The Ultra Combo Mech also makes great structural AND ornamental use of new and recent parts like the golden fins from the Seabound range, the "SCCBS" armor shells from this wave's EVO sets, and the sturdy hip and shoulder joints also seen in next year's Monkie Kid sets.

The individual ninja vehicles that comprise it also look pretty excellent in their own right, even if Cole and Jay's vehicles seem a little underwhelming compared to what I'd expect from them if they were stand-alone ninja vehicle sets. And it's hard to miss the Gurren Lagann influence which was also apparent in some Niek's earlier Ninjago sets like #71738 and #71756.

Lloyd's new dragon has a very muscular and curvy look that pleasantly reminds me of Firstbourne from 2018, (which remains my favorite Ninjago dragon so far for some of those same reasons). Notably, this new dragon's colors also suggest that it was designed as a sort of "fusion dragon" for Lloyd and Nya, which helps keep it from feeling redundant when compared to Lloyd's Green NRG Dragon from 2016.

The "swing-wing" function is a very new sort of feature for a Ninjago dragon, and feels like it would be loads of fun to use while swooshing it around — swinging the wings back when diving towards the ground, and swinging them forward when taking off or coming in for a landing. However, it's a shame that the individual digits of the wings can't also fold shut like Firstbourne's, since that's one of the main advantages of using textile-based wings instead of brick-built or molded ones.

The Ninja Dojo Temple echoes the motifs from the Temple of Fortitude (featured in season 3 and in set #70728), but with an architectural layout that is entirely its own. I love the bridge that connects it to the outdoor training area, the vivid Bright Red doors, and the elevated foundation which makes great use of space inside and out.

I'm very happy that this set includes a brand-new Pixal minifigure, and it also seems to include minifigure-scale versions of the classic trading cards, a charming feature which we hadn't seen in a few years. I do sort of wish that the mech in this set were in Pixal's colors instead of Kai's, since Kai already has a dragon set this wave, and giving Pixal a vehicle/mech would help make her presence in this specific set feel a little more meaningful. Her workshop is a great detail, though, as is Wu's scroll with the Ninjargon alphabet!

All in all, this wave's a bit of a mixed bag for me, but I really don't mind that since I've had to become more selective with my LEGO purchases now that I'm living in a smallish apartment with my wife and two cats. I think if we get any sets this time around, we might go with Lloyd's Legendary Dragon, the Dojo temple, and the Ultra Combo Mech.

Presently, we don't have any ninja temple/dojo/HQ sets or Ninjago mechs at our apartment, and the only dragons we have for our apartment are the Skull Sorceror's Dragon and Jungle Dragon (since I left most of my previous Ninjago sets at home with @Lyichir and my parents).

Those three sets are also enough to get us all the minifigure characters from this wave, albeit without any alternate hair pieces for Jay, Cole, or Zane. Of course, these plans are tentative — I'd probably like to try and wait for a discount on at least some of these sets so I'm saving a little money where I can, and as more sets are announced they might end up taking priority over these. But these are the sets of this batch that I think my wife and I would be happiest with as part of our shared collection. :)

SearchlightRG

@Aanchir with you all the way on Nya being neglected. She seems to consistently be the Ninja, or one of the Ninja, who gets shoved into sets simply for the sake of being able to point out the token girl character, or of getting sets that she has to share with Kai and (less often) Jay. This wave is also hardly the first time where she's been left out of the builds department; I really don't get why she wasn't included in Prime Empire's Ninja Tuner Car, which the show creators were at least nice enough to have her drive in the animated series.

Pixal definitely could use some more love too; I honestly would love it if we could get a set version of her mech from "The Kaiju Protocol" at some point. Her getting the Dojo Mech would have been a nice touch, especially since Kai's already got a mech in the combo set this wave and a dragon. I'm rather hopeful that this Pixal will appear again; if nothing else it'd be nice if that hairpiece became more widely available.

Jay and Zane's hairpieces should be easy enough to come by, at least; Jay's appeared in four different sets, while Zane's is in six and counting. If you're wanting 2021/2022 hairpieces for everybody then Cole is going to be the trickiest, as it was only available in one set along with his The Island variant.

SearchlightRG

Wow, no discussion of the summer sets here?

Bumblepants

None of them really jumped out at me as I am mainly interested in buildings over vehicles and mechs. Some great Minifigures in the mix though so I may end up with some of those.

Lyichir

I'm excited for the summer sets! Honestly all of them look really good to me, and it feels like the designers really went all out on them. The prices are gonna sting a bit, but the contents still feel generous to me. Especially looking forward to that Golden Ultra Dragon, which seems to have a great build and four great-looking printed head molds.

SearchlightRG

So the Lego Ninjago Magazine is doing really odd things with regards to its selection of minifigures. We got Golden Dragon Kai, Crystalized Lloyd (with The Island hairpiece), Golden Dragon Zane, Two-Armed Crystal King (with no shoulder armor), and next up is...Golden Crystalized Cole. I guess he is technically harder to get than the Golden Dragon version; he's in two sets but they're both more expensive than the one Golden Dragon Cole comes in. Hopefully they do Golden Crystalized Jay as well; give folks a chance to get him without having to buy a $100+ set or hit up the aftermarket.

560Heliport

Normally I'm not much into either mechs or bikes, but I'm really looking forward to #71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer! I like the color scheme and the fact that it includes three of the new heroes (Sora, Arin, and Baby Riyu [the dragon]). Probably a Day One purchase! The rest of the Dragons Rising wave look pretty good, but this is the only must-have.

Lyichir

560Heliport said:

Normally I'm not much into either mechs or bikes, but I'm really looking forward to #71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer! I like the color scheme and the fact that it includes three of the new heroes (Sora, Arin, and Baby Riyu [the dragon]). Probably a Day One purchase! The rest of the Dragons Rising wave look pretty good, but this is the only must-have.

Funnily enough it's one of the ones I plan on skipping since I'll be getting the new characters from some of the other bigger sets that I want. That's not a bad thing—it's always good when there are options.

560Heliport

Lyichir said:

560Heliport said:

Normally I'm not much into either mechs or bikes, but I'm really looking forward to #71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer! I like the color scheme and the fact that it includes three of the new heroes (Sora, Arin, and Baby Riyu [the dragon]). Probably a Day One purchase! The rest of the Dragons Rising wave look pretty good, but this is the only must-have.

Funnily enough it's one of the ones I plan on skipping since I'll be getting the new characters from some of the other bigger sets that I want. That's not a bad thing—it's always good when there are options.

Absolutely! I dislike exclusive minifigures, especially when they're in the most expensive set of a wave. 
The windscreen/canopy on #71792 is going to be swapped for the trans-pink one from #71772 Crystal King. 

SearchlightRG

@560Heliport same. Fortunately I think the only exclusive minifigure for the Dragons Rising sets (not including Ninjago City Gardens) is the Spirit of the Temple. Oh, and the "Imperium Guard" only comes in one set, but I think all of its pieces are shared with other Imperium figures except for the gold hat.

Astrobricks

560Heliport said:

Normally I'm not much into either mechs or bikes, but I'm really looking forward to #71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer! I like the color scheme and the fact that it includes three of the new heroes (Sora, Arin, and Baby Riyu [the dragon]). Probably a Day One purchase! The rest of the Dragons Rising wave look pretty good, but this is the only must-have.

Hmm, is that Grumpy Cat on the front? Might need to seriously consider this one :)

560Heliport

@Astrobricks do it! I think I need to get the Friends grumpy cat and try to fit it in on this set. 

Astrobricks

^ After reading the review, I noticed that the grumpycat sticker is a “meta-sticker”. It shows a turned up sticker edge in the design 😆