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Should I Pick Up Ninjago Again?


jed1ndy

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While I didn't buy any of the sets when the theme initially came out (it was during my time where I fell out of LEGO for a little while, after BIONICLE was first cancelled), and while I didn't watch the TV show as it was first airing, I do remember marathoning it a couple of weeks before the first "finale", and from what I remember, I actually really enjoyed it! With the new movie coming out and BIONICLE's cancellation, I was thinking about maybe getting back into the series, and actually buying some sets this time. However, I haven't followed anything about it since the not-ending, so I don't know if I should pick it back up again. So, should I pick it up again? And if I were to start buying some of the sets, what would you recommend?

 

EDIT: Phrasing

Edited by jed1ndy

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Sure, go for it! In my opinion there's never been a better time to be a Ninjago fan! The storyline has been going strong, and there have been some fantastic sets in the past couple years!

 

Some of the sets I'd most readily recommend would be the Temple of Airjitzu, Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty, Samurai X Cave Chaos, Ultra Stealth Raider, Airjitzu Battle Grounds, and Master Wu Dragon.

 

Temple of Airjitzu and Ultra Stealth Raider are particularly nice because in addition to great builds, they have a very strong selection of characters. The Temple has Wu, all six ninja in their Deepstone outfits from Season 5, and supporting characters like Misako, Dareth, and the Postman. The Ultra Stealth Raider has the four original ninja in new "throwback" outfits that echo their classic garb, plus Season 4 villains Master Chen and Eyezorai and Season 5 villain Sensei Yang. If you want "throwback" versions of the remaining three main characters (Wu, Nya, and Lloyd), you can get them in Samurai X Cave Chaos, which also has redesigned versions of season 1's Pythor, season 2's General Kozu, and season 3's General Cryptor.

 

Of course, those are all high-dollar sets. Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty and Master Wu Dragon don't have such a stunning selection of characters, but they're still fantastic builds, and since they're a year old you're more likely to find them on clearance at stores like Target.

 

The Airjitzu Battle Grounds is great in terms of play value. It has energized Airjitzu versions of Nya and Lloyd, along with Sensei Yang and two of his ghost students. It also includes two types of Airjitzu launchers: ground launchers for spinner battles and air launchers for flight. Aesthetically, it makes a nice companion piece to the Temple of Airjitzu. If you want Airjitzu versions of the original four ninja as well, that's not too difficult, since each of them comes in a $10 Airjitzu Flyer set, which like some of the sets mentioned above are over a year old and probably available for reduced prices if you do some looking around.

 

When it comes to catching up on the story, the pilot and seasons one through three are available for streaming on Netflix, and everything except season six (Skybound) is available on DVD.

 

Hope some of these recommendations help!

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Sure, go for it! In my opinion there's never been a better time to be a Ninjago fan! The storyline has been going strong, and there have been some fantastic sets in the past couple years!

Well, personally, the story is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to get into Ninjago. I guess that's what the people who wanted to get into Bionicle around 2007-2008 must've felt...

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Sure, go for it! In my opinion there's never been a better time to be a Ninjago fan! The storyline has been going strong, and there have been some fantastic sets in the past couple years!

Well, personally, the story is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to get into Ninjago. I guess that's what the people who wanted to get into Bionicle around 2007-2008 must've felt...

 

It can definitely be a bit daunting, but fortunately it doesn't seem to be hurting Ninjago as much as it was hurting Bionicle by that point. It probably helps that Ninjago made a bigger splash from the start, and the Ninjago storyline, while still continuity driven, has been a lot more linear. It's followed more or less the same main characters since day one, and the main story is told in one consistent format in a mostly chronological sequence.

 

If you're interested in getting started on Ninjago for the first time, I'd recommend Netflix as a first option. You can watch the pilot and first three seasons — 36 episodes and 4 years of story — by getting a $8 monthly subscription ($10 for HD). If you have time to watch two episodes a day, one month should be more than enough time to get through everything there, and it should be enough to give you a sense of whether you want to follow the series any further.

 

Seasons 4 and 5 (the next 20 episodes, telling the 2015 story) will probably be added to Netflix sometime this fall, and are also on DVD for less than $15 apiece.

 

Alternatively, if you would rather start on the same page as everybody else, you could skip the current series and wait for The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which seems like it'll be an entirely new take on the universe and characters.

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Too bad I deleted my Netflix account after my free month expired... I guess I'll have to wait for the movie to come out then.

Anyway, I'd also like to symbolically buy one single Ninjago set. However, I can't afford the big sets you mentioned in your previous post in the topic and I'd like to buy some sort of impulse set instead. What would you recommend in this case? It'd be nice if it included both a hero and a villain or more than one Ninja (which would be even better but I doubt it's realistic) but that's not neccessary.

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Too bad I deleted my Netflix account after my free month expired... I guess I'll have to wait for the movie to come out then.

 

Anyway, I'd also like to symbolically buy one single Ninjago set. However, I can't afford the big sets you mentioned in your previous post in the topic and I'd like to buy some sort of impulse set instead. What would you recommend in this case? It'd be nice if it included both a hero and a villain or more than one Ninja (which would be even better but I doubt it's realistic) but that's not neccessary.

Hmmm… Tough call! Depends on what you consider "impulse". If you mean, like, $10 or less, there aren't a whole lot of options. Your best bet would be either an Airjitzu flier ($10 each, but they're a year old so you might be able to find them cheaper), or Cole's Dragon. If you're willing to push to a $20 price point, Anacondrai Crusher is nice, but it's a year and a half old so might be tough to find. Sky Shark is more current, and has a great steampunk look and nice play features.

 

But the set I'd most recommend to somebody who just wants a taste of Ninjago yet doesn't particularly care about the characters or story is definitely still the Master Wu Dragon. RRP is $40, but Target, Walmart, and Amazon currently all have it marked down to around $31 online and possibly even lower in brick-and-mortar stores (someone on the Brickset forums found it at a Walmart for $19 earlier this month). Not only is it a great model and a great parts pack, but it's designed by a BZPower member (Brickthing/Nicolaas Vás). Even at RRP, 575 parts including 5 figures is a steal. On clearance, it's even harder to turn down!

Edited by Aanchir
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Well, the Crusher appeals to me the most because I love purple and tan Lego pieces but I think I'll go with Cole's Dragon. I don't like the fact that it includes stickers (you know, things get dusty really quickly in my room for some reason and I just don't know how to clean the pieces with stickers) but the dragon and the minifigures are really cool. The Sky Shark is an amazing set but it's bit a too expensive for me and I don't think the Airjitzu Fliers would be a good choice because I want to buy a set for display purposes and I have hard time imagining something that looks like an overgrown Rhotuka displayed on my shelf. :P

Anyway, thank you very much. :)

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