Ninjago impressions

[Kosh]

Actually the black ninja's would be the color that makes the most sense to me to have more of, the whole stealth aspect of the deal. I fail to see me buying too many of the spinner sets, that seems to be the part driving up the price the most and would have the least utility for me. The boxed sets have more appeal design and piece wise.

[Quickblade22]

Nice parts packs. The idea isn't all that bad. It makes more sense to me to have ninja's in different colors with goofy powers than knights. What I find even more ridiculous than skeletons in hi-tech sci-fi vs ninjas is $10 for the spinner packs. If I sent my imaginary son to the store with $10 for a Lego set and he came back with one of these, here is how the conversation would go:
Me: So what'd ya get?
Imaginary Juniorblade22: I got one of these!
Me: And?
Imaginary Juniorblade22: And it came with cards and a spinner....and some weapons!!
Me: 'Whoosh' (that is the sound of me spinning in a rage over the stupidity......no spinner required)

Target audience = kids. Target wallet = not kids.

[LordZode]

Well, like others I'm not terribly interested in most of the sets, however several of the skeletons are quite striking for an undead army / dungeons & dragons sort of theme. (Skeletons with boots!? Unique printed faces?)

And more new ninja minifigs are always good.

[Robin Hood]

Hmmm....I dunno, I really don't know. It will be interesting to see what the average consumer makes of these. They could sell decently, or they could bomb horribly. We shall see.

On another note, anyone care to argue-, I mean debate how much this theme qualifies as Castle? The original Ninja theme, if not offically considered Castle by everyone, was sure close. This obviously is much further away.

Dan

[LordZode]

On another note, anyone care to argue-, I mean debate how much this theme qualifies as Castle? The original Ninja theme, if not offically considered Castle by everyone, was sure close. This obviously is much further away.

Dan

And yet, it's actually very close to Fantasy Era - one could easily consider this to be the same undead army that rampaged against the Crownies, only in the Far East with ninjas to defend against them.

So although I find the theme to be a bit over-the-top all things considered, I do like the individual elements and the larger sets - the only place it completely loses me is with the vehicles. o_O

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

...how much this theme qualifies as Castle?

That's what I was eager to learn at first -- from the "teaser" pages they initially opened on their website it seemed like maybe they were going to redo the original Ninja/Castle theme. While some of the individual sets could very well blend with a castle theme, I'd have to say that the overall theme is definitely not castle. It's more like something along the lines of Mad Max meets Kung Fu.

EDIT:
As an afterthought, it might have been neat if instead of Ninjas-vs-Skellies they had made a Ninjas-vs-Pirates theme. Maybe that could be the sequel after the ninjas defeat all the skellies.

[Tower of Iron Will]

I would say that the first Ninja theme was definately "Castle" but the Ninjago is not. The Ninja theme had three solid Castles varying in size from small to big. Ninjago only has Garmadon's fortress which looks like a front gate to a castle, not a whole castle itsself. Second is that the a good part of the theme is based on a game. It's not easy to place absolutely in a midieval time period as there are no other elements except ninja and skeletons. With the Ninja theme, there were samurai that can be dated to a medieval period.
-Tower

[Robin Hood]

Or maybe the little fact that it has a motorbike and tank? Just saying...

Dan

[Halberd777]

You know I am actually quite happy that they came out with Ninjago and I hope they continue to come out with themes like that. I do not like the Theme at all however, I like the fact that they have not tried to skewer castle like they did with kingoms 2 and try to make it fit with what they believed kids wanted. I really think that it what Ninjago caters too. What they think kids want like how crazy kids are over Bakugan. I can't seem to understand it but my 4 yr old son (going on 15) loves bakugan. It seems that Ninjago has part of that infused in it. It actually will be a good excuse for me to buy him cooler legos instead of Bakugan. However I think that the spin part is quite pricey but does fit into a semi ninja theme. All in all might get some for the Dragon's and weapons and might buy my son some to keep him in the lego realm.

[LegoAvon]

A speaker at AFOLcon is Tim Ainley is a Senior Designer at The LEGO Group in Denmark. Tim has worked on lines such as Power Miners, Space Police, Atlantis and more recently Ninjago. This year, his presentation will revolve around the process of creating Ninjago, all the way from conception of the idea to release into the marketplace.

[medib]

Initial Impressions:

VASTLY OVERPRICED....

playability.... well the spinners really suck... especially if you compair them to their Beyblade counterparts. 1 minifigure, 1 spinner, a couple of
weapons and a few cards... my strong suggestion is wait until thanksgiving and see if these get cleared out quickly....

I might get the Dojo training set because of the oriental style windows, and the sensei with the nice "rice" hat. Perhaps also the set with the
ice dragon because of the skeleton with the jester hat. We'll see about the rest.

[Halberd777]

I bought my son a Ninjago spinner and he absolutely loves it. I think this will be a fine replacement for having to buy him Bakugan, which I can't seem to understand the craze. The spinner seems to spin better than most tops. overall I was pretty satisfied at least to buy this for my son. Yeah it may be a little pricey however I will always take the opportunity to buy from lego over any other toy because I know that it is good quality toy and made by a reputable company.

[dyntar]

Don't know if this is a sign of how well the sets are selling .. but the shops near me in Australia have started to reduce the prices of the battle pack type sets by a few dollars. The regular Lego sets have stayed the same price.

[Shadowviking]

I just picked up the two smallest sets. They're sweet!
I love the catapult-jump-bamboo wall breakin' action on the one with the red ninja. It's way fun