Ever notice...

[Ghidora131]

Hey. Again. *booing*

 

 

 

Remember how everywhere you looked, there always seemed to be some ancient Japanese architecture on all the artwork?

 

I wonder where that went to, as we rarely see it otherwise... Although massive temples that turn out to be completely obvious show up later, but were never mentioned beforehand.

 

(Way to run a line, LEGO.)

 

 

 

Any ideas what all those sculptures were for, or if they were spoilers for later themes?

[Lyichir]

I mean, they never went away. But Ninjago is a play theme based on an ongoing story, which means that unless a setting or object is both relevant to the story and enhances the play experience for the theme, it usually won't be represented in sets. And as the theme expands, a greater variety of settings are bound to be explored, such as the modern city setting of last year's "Rebooted" storyline, or the island ruin settings of this past winter's "Tournament" storyline.

Background elements on boxart, on the other hand, aren't necessarily meant as teasers for future sets or even canonically important structures. Most of the time, they're just that—background objects designed to give the set designs themselves some context, mood, and atmosphere.

It's weird that you'd consider the theme "ruined" now of all times, considering this year's sets feature a lot more of the traditional Asian elements and architecture that were typical of the early sets—the prime example being the recently announced Temple of Airjitzu, but also things like the tea farm and haunted food cart in Master Wu Dragon or the small shrines in sets like Lava Falls or Jungle Trap.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Lyichir