Lego Universe Infulence on Ninjago and Chima

[Takanuinuva]

Being a fan of Lego Universe I've noticed some things in Ninjago and Chima that could be related to things in Lego universe

 

For Ninjago its the Dark matter and the Overlord. The dark matter makes anything evil. Malestrom does the same thing. Plus they look strikingly similar. The Overlord could be a represntation of Baron Typhoonus

 

With Chima I've noticed the chi is like imagination. There similar in colors and from the trailer. Chi makes Cragger stronger and it looks like an orb. Imagination makes minifigures stronger as well.

 

 

But this is just a theory. What are your takes on it.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I think it's less of an influence and more like Lego reusing its ideas over and over again, like they do with most of their original themes (Space Police, Castle, that sort of stuff).

 

Take Bionicle and Hero Factory for example. A couple years ago when Savage Planet came out, everyone went crazy with theories about how the Quaza spike things were a 'homage' to Bionicle and how the story was intentionally like that of 2001, where Kanohi masks made Rahi do naughty things like kill people (the fact that it was Bionicle's tenth anniversary made people go even MORE confident with their theories).

 

Well, guess what: it's the exact same thing THIS year, with brain things making you turn evil, which sounds shockingly familiar.

[Aanchir]

I think it's less of an influence and more like Lego reusing its ideas over and over again, like they do with most of their original themes (Space Police, Castle, that sort of stuff).

 

Take Bionicle and Hero Factory for example. A couple years ago when Savage Planet came out, everyone went crazy with theories about how the Quaza spike things were a 'homage' to Bionicle and how the story was intentionally like that of 2001, where Kanohi masks made Rahi do naughty things like kill people (the fact that it was Bionicle's tenth anniversary made people go even MORE confident with their theories).

 

Well, guess what: it's the exact same thing THIS year, with brain things making you turn evil, which sounds shockingly familiar.

Yep, when you have an idea that appeals to people and that hasn't been exploited until everyone's tired of it, then there's no excuse not to reuse it. Certainly BIONICLE was no stranger to this (paraphrasing Lewa, "Have you noticed that every time we go underground, something bad happens?"), and examples can be seen even earlier than BIONICLE. Consider how the idea of energy crystals was seen in Insectoids, Rock Raiders, Life on Mars, BIONICLE, Mars Mission, Power Miners, Hero Factory, Monster Fighters (though those were a less typical case, in that they were more like specific relics than a common mineral resource), and Legends of Chima. That idea arguably goes back even further to Aquazone and M:Tron, though the mineral resources in M:Tron were not very well-defined and the crystals in Aquazone provided oxygen, not energy.

[Meiko]

They are certainly similarities between the franchises, but you could find those similarities in almost any story-driven LEGO theme. I could give some examples, but the two posts above me did a pretty good job at that already.

[Dralcax]

Some overall recurring things I've noticed...

• The underground is full of monsters
• Crystals have some form of energy
• No matter how cute it may be, squishy things will make you an evil slave
• Bad guys like corrupting things
• The good guys have to collect something
• Vehicles abound, no matter how anachronistic they may be
• There are no completely human villains, only cyborgs, mutants, aliens, monsters, etc.

Edited January 15, 2013 by Dralcax

[Meiko]

• There are no completely human villains, only cyborgs, mutants, aliens, monsters, etc.

Lord Garmadon in Ninjago was still human though. Just a really really evil human.

[Dralcax]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Meiko" data-cid="491507" data-time="1358292513"><p><blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Dralcax" data-cid="491454" data-time="1358287470"><p><ul class='bbc'><li>There are no completely human villains, only cyborgs, mutants, aliens, monsters, etc.</li></ul></p></blockquote>Lord Garmadon in Ninjago was still human though. Just a really really evil human.</p></blockquote>Well, he was corrupted to the point where one could consider him a mutant.

[TahuForever!]

But the Dragon Knights in Kingdoms were pure human. As are/were many of the villians in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, POTC. And you could count the criminals in City, and then there's Baron Von Baron, Basil the Batlord... There have been plenty of human villains, even in original themes. But in recent years there has definitely been an influx of non-human villains.

 

To stay on topic, though, yes, Lego definitely re-uses similar ideas in different things. I hadn't realized energy crystals (go Rock Raiders!) had been used so often. I don't remember them in Bionicle, though.

 

 

• No matter how cute it may be, squishy things will make you an evil slave

 

This is true. .

[Aanchir]

To stay on topic, though, yes, Lego definitely re-uses similar ideas in different things. I hadn't realized energy crystals (go Rock Raiders!) had been used so often. I don't remember them in Bionicle, though.

Well in the case of BIONICLE I was referring to lightstones mostly. They're not the chief motivator for the story like energy crystals are in most themes, but they still sort of fit the bill.