Well everything has to end eventually, and ninjago has had a very good run. Three years more is still a long time though.
Was this announced by Lego? Iāve heard this ending thing, but I canāt find the source.
Ninjagos ending on 2020, I read a comment and looked it up myself
Sources?
links?
something?
look I read a comment that mentioned Ninjago closing in 2020. I looked it up myself and I cant confirm.
A quick Google search provided me with
- A thread on the LMBs from 2015, claiming that Ninjago would end in 2019/2020
- Another thread on the LMBs, again from 2015
- Your posts in this topic
Unless you can magically provide an article where a verified source confirms that Ninjago is ending in 3 years, Iām just going to disregard your point.
You conveniently leave out City, Friends, Technic, Creator, and (arguably) Architecture. Letās look at the longevity for these Original IPs you provided:
- Aqua Raiders: Lasted less than one year
- Mars Mission: Lasted less than 2 years
- Exo-Force: Lasted less than 3 years
- Factory: Had 6 sets over the course of 3 years
- Bionicle: Lasted 9 years, died, came back for 2 years, died. Also a contraction line, which IMO shouldnāt be considered in the same category as other Action Lego themes.
- Racers and Castle: Both evergreen lines that have both been around in some capacity for the past two decades.
Now letās look at Legoās current original IPs:
- Nexo Knights: Entering its 2nd year, no signs of it stopping outside of the usual 3 year boundary.
- Elves: Entering its 3rd year, no signs of stopping any time soon
- Ninjago: Lasted 3 years, was canceled, brought back, and is now in its 5th year with no signs of stopping.
- Friends: Entering its 5th year, no signs of stopping any time soon
- City: Entering its 12th year, no signs of stopping any time soon
- Creator: Entering its 16th year, no signs of stopping any time soon.
- Technic: Entering itās 33rd year (depending on where you view its beginnings), not even a remote sign of it stopping any time soon.
- Ideas (if you count it): Entering itās 5th year (roughly), no signs of stopping any time soon.
- Architecture (if you count it): Entering its 9th year, no signs of stopping any time soon.
As far as longevity goes, itās clear that Legoās current IPs are superior to what it had in the 2000s.
If you want to talk about action themes, the answer is clear: why over-saturate the market? Ninjago is clearly one of Legoās best-selling IPs at the moment. Why have 5 other action lines with mediocre performance when kids will buy 1 line like hotcakes?
Have licensed themes increased in the past 10 years? Absolutely. Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman are two of Legoās best-selling IPs, and since the release of The Lego Movie in 2014, Lego has officially entered itself as a part of pop culture, and has seen a fairly large increase of licensed IPs. Does that mean that these IPs are going to kill Legoās original IPs? I say no.
I want to read between the lines for a second and draw out the core of this discussion. By asking the question of āAre original Lego themes dying out?ā the implication is that Lego, as a company, will become entirely unoriginal with their themes in the future. This, to me, seems absolutely ridiculous as a concept. Legoās core philosophy is creativity. They are a company yes, and they do need to make money. But dropping original IPs entirely is something they will never do, not unless something massive changes in the company. Ninjago will die at some point. Nexo Knights will die at some point. Elves will die at some point. But I am certain that another original IP will take their place.
tl;dr: no
I know this is kind of random but does anyone else think Friends is just City but more colorful and with very much simplification in the builds? Not saying that girls are stupid and they need more simplified themes (specifying girls because they are the target audience for the sets) but because Iāve used a few friends sets, they are really just generic and donāt have/do much. They just have a lot of cool pieces but even that gets boring at some point (already has for me). It really just seems like a lower version of City.
Friends is primarily location based, while City is primarily vehicle based. Friends has a ton of playsets, both large and small. City has tons of vehicles; firetrucks, police cars, planes, helicopters, boats, etc. Obviously there is overlap; Friends has some vehicles, and City has playsets. But when looking at the vast majority of the sets, itās very clear that they are different.
I know Iām biased on this subject because Iām a die-hard space fan, and disappointed with the lack of original Lego space themes since 2013. While I love the Star Wars movies and the whole Lego series, I would like to see something other than a new X-wing or Millennium Falcon every three years, but thatās probably not going to happen with Star Wars booming again and being crazy profitable.
At the same time Lego no longer prints picture of alternate builds in instructions for inspiration, which can be viewed as Lego caring less about promoting creativity among builders and more focused on just selling products.
You mean they have a cohesive aesthetic?
You donāt see people complain power miners vehicles were all green, or that all the fire engines in Lego city are red.
There are exceptions to this form of visual cohesion of course, but thatās because they handled the cohesion differently because they could, for example, exo-force was based on Japanese mecha and as par for the course had colorful mechs, or for a more recent example, ninjago is based around the elements which are differentiated by color and the feudal Japan aesthetic of the line allows for the predominance of color, whereas the medieval-tech aesthetics of nexo knights requires the visual cohesion of steel and the kingdoms royal color.
There was clearly a lot of effort put into balancing uniqueness and unity within the tech-knight aesthetic of the theme.
Personally Iād want to see a story theme of space pirates, nexo knights fills the āfunky sci-fiā spot right now but Iād like to see space make a hard return sometime.
I know what youāre saying but the power miner sets all had something very unique. Almost none of the sets looked similar besides the color. However in Nexo knights, many of the same parts were used giving almost every set a slightly similar appearance. Even the villain sets were this way.
This is called a theme. Itās how you make different things look like theyāre on the same team. Color can be part of theme, as well as aesthetic.
Ok, sorry for bothering anyone. Iām just following speculation.
Yeah I know but what Iām saying is that in Nexo knights they reused many ideas in sets which left the sets looking a little too bland next to each other. This could have definitely affected sales, as I know Iām not the only person who didnāt buy some of the sets because of how similar they are.
Then again, that couldāve helped sales just as easily because some people like having a consistent theme. Also, I fail to see what you mean by them being too similar.
Such as?
Black Knight Mech and Kingās Mech are pretty similar (unless in the show the BK Mech was made into the Kingās Mech, I havenāt watched Nexo Knights since episode 6 but I assume that happened).
Lanceās Twin Jousters and Axlās Rumble Maker are pretty much the same thing except one is smaller and white and the other one is big and yellow.
The Heligoyle and Macyās Bot Drop Dragon are kind of similar, but not really.
In both themes (Lava and Stone monsters) Jestro has had some kind of mobile thing on wheels. Also Jestro being a villain is reused (#StopJestroAbuse).
Axlās Tower Carrier and General Magmarās Siege Machine of a long name to seem funny both have the same idea around them. They even are pitted against each other. But I think Axlās vehicle can remove the tower and Magmarās can move up.
Although one thing to consider is that the sets are made first, then the story, so the designers are kind of reusing designs (referring to the BK and King Mechs mainly).
A lot of the season 1 & 2 vehicles are kind of just fancy designs that look like weapons with lots of blue and gray and trans orange and big black ātonkaā wheels (as I call those wheels). It gets pretty boring just having the heroes having big huge OP vehicles with tons of weapons and they all have the same color concept around it. The villains have a bit of a better design with their vehicles.
All the Knighton Guard stuff and those mini machines pitted against them are sort of similar, they share small concepts around the builds but are pretty different. One concept being the visor in front of the seat.
Iām not going to call out the Ultimate/Battle Suit things because their concepts are supposed to be reused with each other. But yeah, not really trying to go against anybody saying that their wrong, since my points are a little rickety. But those are just some things I noticed being reused.
The same cockpit for almost every knight set, many vehicles had a similar concept and barely any originality in color schemes (and by he way Iām mainly talking about hero vehicles). In the eyes of a child, they might find some sets a little too similar, and may choose to buy a set from another theme with more originality in each set, like ninjago or maybe even a licensed theme. Most kids donāt have a huge amount of money to spend on lego sets, so I doubt a younger fan of Lego would want a bunch of similar sets, when they could have a huge variety of vehicles or sets other themes. I could definitely be wrong, but Iām trying to see this the eyes of a child, as kids are Legos main customers. And wow I was not expecting to start a debate
Maybe because theyāre a team? Even in Bionicle almost all the Toa followed a similar concept, itās not like this is anything new.
But in bionicle they were characters not vehicles, and each character was built differently, had a special new mask, and lots of originality in their color scheme, at least compared to other main characters. Also the market is very different today then it was in g1 bionicle. Today a lot of the time kids care less about sets and more about games or such because of all the new technology and gadgets. Because I think kids care more about things in our pop culture such as star wars D.C. or marvel. What Iām saying is that originality wasnāt really a problem back then, but I believe it is now, as if the sets had some more originality now they would have sold better. But, back in the time of g1 bionicle, I think these sets would have sold fine as is. I could be wrong, however.