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Why you guys hate Ninjago so much?


Lenny7092

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Hi, guys. Judging from what I’ve on this sub-forum, you guys seem to not fond of Ninjago. I get that it’s not constraction, but it’s a good theme, to be honest. It’s like Bionicle. Well, I can think of reasons why some aren’t too fond of Ninjago: 

1. It’s a version of Bionicle with mini-figures. 
2. It may be the reason why constraction wasn’t doing so well and ended. 
3. It got a real TV show and theatrical movie, something that Bionicle and Hero Factory never had. 
4. Ninjago is more light-hearted and comical than Bionicle. 
5. It lasts longer than Bionicle G1. 

Are any of these true for you guys? Don’t be brash on Ninjago. Let’s be reasonable with Ninjago. I’m a fan of both Bionicle and Ninjago (well, I don’t buy mini-figures, but yeah).

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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I don't hate Ninjago, and frankly I don't think anyone around here legitimately hates it either. But it has a lot of problems, thus why it tends to be often criticized. Here are some of my personal gripes with it:

- It introduced the "Big Bang" theme formula, which LEGO has continued to use ever since it's success. This formula has greatly limited LEGO's creativity potential with their original themes.

- It has greatly overstayed it's welcome, and has gotten very stale, both set-wise and story-wise.

- The sets are just repetitive vehicles: only Bikes, Jets, Cars, and Mechs. They were alright when the theme first started, but now they are just boring and uninspired. 

- The story has been going downhill ever since The LEGO Ninjago Movie. 

As much as I loved the theme when it first came out, and it has stuck with me for quite a while, It has eventually lost me, because of the reasons I stated above. Don't get me wrong though... as much as I wouldn't consider myself a Ninjago fan anymore, I still do want it to get a proper conclusion... It has done a lot of good, and I think it deserves it. But the more the series keeps going, the less likely it gets for it to get a proper ending. 

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14 hours ago, Lego David said:

I don't hate Ninjago, and frankly I don't think anyone around here legitimately hates it either. But it has a lot of problems, thus why it tends to be often criticized. Here are some of my personal gripes with it:

- It introduced the "Big Bang" theme formula, which LEGO has continued to use ever since it's success. This formula has greatly limited LEGO's creativity potential with their original themes.

- It has greatly overstayed it's welcome, and has gotten very stale, both set-wise and story-wise.

- The sets are just repetitive vehicles: only Bikes, Jets, Cars, and Mechs. They were alright when the theme first started, but now they are just boring and uninspired. 

- The story has been going downhill ever since The LEGO Ninjago Movie. 

As much as I loved the theme when it first came out, and it has stuck with me for quite a while, It has eventually lost me, because of the reasons I stated above. Don't get me wrong though... as much as I wouldn't consider myself a Ninjago fan anymore, I still do want it to get a proper conclusion... It has done a lot of good, and I think it deserves it. But the more the series keeps going, the less likely it gets for it to get a proper ending. 

I agree with pretty much everything you said, but would you mind elaborating on "'Big Bang' theme formula"?

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2 hours ago, Bambi said:

I agree with pretty much everything you said, but would you mind elaborating on "'Big Bang' theme formula"?

I wondered that as well, and found this definition:

"Ever since the great success of Ninjago in 2011, LEGO seems to have shifted their business model from having just casual original themes to having mostly just Big Bang Original Themes. In case you aren't familiar with what a "Big Bang Theme" is, it's an original LEGO theme that is planned to last for at least three years, and gets a lot of marketing push in the first year in order to create a "Big Bang" in terms of sales. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with such themes, until you realize that all the Big Bang themes we've gotten so far have been more or less just Ninjago clones. Chima, Nexo Knights, and recently Monkie Kid have all tried to emulate Ninjago's success while simultaneously competing against it, and for the most part, they have all failed more or less. Chima tanked in it's third year, Nexo Knights was cut short very early on, and while we don't know yet about how well Monkie Kid sold, I have a feeling it would also suffer a similar fate as the other two (especially when you consider how overpriced the sets are)."

"You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your
future is an empty book. You must find your own destiny, my brave adventurer.
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The problem with Ninjago is that the first two seasons were incredible, top-notch and coherent. I loved the skeletons and snakes as villains, and the story with Lloyd and his father. After they had the perfect ending, everything that came after was just a decade-long bunch of anecdotes.

My Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClo2J14RKmVtcnoJTv7g6PA , Bionicle films coming soon!

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/12/2020 at 7:11 PM, Lenny7092 said:

Hi, guys. Judging from what I’ve on this sub-forum, you guys seem to not fond of Ninjago. I get that it’s not constraction, but it’s a good theme, to be honest. It’s like Bionicle. Well, I can think of reasons why some aren’t too fond of Ninjago: 

1. It’s a version of Bionicle with mini-figures. 
2. It may be the reason why constraction wasn’t doing so well and ended. 
3. It got a real TV show and theatrical movie, something that Bionicle and Hero Factory never had. 
4. Ninjago is more light-hearted and comical than Bionicle. 
5. It lasts longer than Bionicle G1. 

Are any of these true for you guys? Don’t be brash on Ninjago. Let’s be reasonable with Ninjago. I’m a fan of both Bionicle and Ninjago (well, I don’t buy mini-figures, but yeah).

1. Ninjago isn't and never will be the new Bionicle.

2. Ninjago has next to nothing to do with constraction, so how should it have contributed to the fact that we no longer have constraction figures?

3. So what? Besides, Hero Factory had a TV show, and was also the first theme to have a one.

4. More childish and simplified would describe it better.

5. So did Lego Star Wars, City and Technic.

Do you think Bionicle fans are jealous of Ninjago's success? Because that seems to me.

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2 hours ago, Sailor Wah! said:

1. Ninjago isn't and never will be the new Bionicle.

2. Ninjago has next to nothing to do with constraction, so how should it have contributed to the fact that we no longer have constraction figures?

3. So what? Besides, Hero Factory had a TV show, and was also the first theme to have a one.

4. More childish and simplified would describe it better.

5. So did Lego Star Wars, City and Technic.

Do you think Bionicle fans are jealous of Ninjago's success? Because that seems to me.

2. Well, it may be business and budget. What else do you think may have put constraction disappear since 2018? 
3. Hero Factory never had a real TV show, just 11 22-minute episodes that are like specials. Ninjago acts like a real TV show, where episodes are episodes that have their season. 
 

Anyway, Bionicle can being jealous of Ninjago’s success is a good way of describing all of this. That could be why I said this stuff. I am a bit jealous, to be honest, but I don’t hate Ninjago.

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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8 hours ago, Lenny7092 said:

2. Well, it may be business and budget. What else do you think may have put constraction disappear since 2018? 
3. Hero Factory never had a real TV show, just 11 22-minute episodes that are like specials. Ninjago acts like a real TV show, where episodes are episodes that have their season. 

Anyway, Bionicle can being jealous of Ninjago’s success is a good way of describing all of this. That could be why I said this stuff. I am a bit jealous, to be honest, but I don’t hate Ninjago.

As already said, Ninjago had nothing to do with constraction, the reason why we don't have any more constraction figures is that the last ones sold badly. 

It's a TV show anyway, it doesn't matter how long the episodes are.

But Bionicle did something that Ninjago didn't : save Lego in its worst time, when it looked like the company would go bankrupt.

Edited by Sailor Wah!
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Well, Lego was a little shabby with constraction in the 2010s. I hope that Lego would bring it back this summer to celebrate Bionicle’s 20th anniversary. 
 

Bionicle is indeed better than Ninjago for a few reasons. One of them is that it takes things more seriously, as Toa and Glatorian are always focused on their tasks without going to mess up a little while the Ninja tend to fool around a little more. Plus, the Ninja forget some things later on, like using their elemental dragons and Airjitzu. That’s silly. Hero Factory is sort of in between. 
 

I wish Bionicle and Hero Factory had TV season that are based on each storyline. Ninjago has the right idea.

Edited by Lenny7092
Forgot some things.

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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When it comes to ninjago I'm generally indifferent towards it. That is I don't think about it all that much as I was maybe (depending on your definition) just barely in its target audience at the time it came out. As such I never formed a bond of any kind towards it. That being said I did collect the spinners (I'm a sucker for collectables) and did in fact watch the first two seasons of its TV show. Asking someone like me this question honestly isn't very insightful due to the fact that virtually all followers of the bionicle franchise are now adults and as such were never really in the age range for ninjago to have an impact. So of course indifference is going to be your typical response. That being said I will offer my own critique of the franchise.

On top of the criticisms already stated and the general  impact it has had on the Lego company ninjago has always felt very.... artificial to me. And what do I mean by artifical? Well in the sense that ninjago lacks a cohesive aesthetic and vision. Ninjago always felt to me like something made up of various marketing surveys rather than a visionary with an idea. I mean look at its first year. In 2011 it was Ninjas vs Skeletons. At the time when images of the then new theme leaked I and many others found it... confusing. Many of us expected a theme based more in Japanese mythology rather than a weird combination of some Japanese Elements with more European style mythology. It just felt strange. And then you got to its second year which consisted of Ninjas vs snake people which once again felt... odd. And this has been consistent throughout its run. It just feels like a combination of everything the stereotypical boy likes. Ninjas, pirates, robots (etc) all in one theme. And whilst sure it is great from a marketing perspective it isn't that great from the perspective of someone like me. Someone who had bionicle from a very young age. Bionicle by contrast was its own thing through and through. It didn't feel like a reaction to marketing surveys. Where instead of crudely appeling to a stereotype of what the manufacturers think you like and pandering to it, bionicle did the opposite. Bionicle was an original story set in its own unique universe which appealled to you through cool design, character, aesthetics, and story. It shaped you and not the other way around. Which also brings me back to aesthetic. With Ninjago characters they have such a wide array of looks and designs with so many different design philosophies going about that it's hard to believe it takes place in one single universe. But with bionicle you can always see it taking place in one single universe. Place a Matoran from Mahri Nui next to a Matoran from Ta-Koro and you can see the two existing side by side with each other. You could see them sharing a singular world. This added to the collectibility feel because it allowed you to put all the characters together on one shelf and have it feel like they were all related in some way. It humanised it in a weird way.

Ninjago just feels more cynical in comparison to bionicle. It doesn't have the same emotion or passion attached to it. And as such, I feel no passion or emotion towards ninjago. 

It's time to move on.

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