Ninjago's End: Would It Really Be Such A Good Thing?

LEGO Ninjago
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Ninjago (on these boards, at least) is very unpopular in the Lego community. Many feel it has long outstayed its welcome, and that it’s sucking out pretty much all of creativity, devolving from a feudal Japan-inspired theme to just a “ninja vs. everything” story. People have made entire topics devoted to why they think Ninjago should end. I must confess, I’ve seen some very valid points in those topics.

But I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I’ve realized maybe cancelling Ninjago wouldn’t be such a good idea.

Since Ninjago uses so many ideas that could be made into their own themes (mechs, undersea adventures, sky pirates, etc.) many people blame it for killing off all of Lego’s other original IPs. Helping this case are themes like Chima, Bionicle G2, Nexo Knights, Hidden Side, and possibly Monkie Kid. These themes tried (and failed) to compete with Ninjago, and then they got cancelled.

But Ninjago isn’t the only theme that has taken over the face of Lego. The 2010s saw the major rise of licensed themes. Granted, Star Wars had been a thing long before Ninjago came around, but with the success of the MCU, Lego superhero sets became big sellers-not just Marvel, but also DC. Then we got the Harry Potter revival, which was also a huge success. And we got smaller, more random licenses, such as Minions and Trolls World Tour. Plus, the CMF minifigure series and Ideas have opened the door for even more licenses.

In short: blaming Ninjago for the death of original Lego IPs isn’t entirely fair. The massive amount of licenses played just as big of a role, if not bigger.

And with so many licensed themes devouring the market, Lego probably feels it’s too risky to create a new original IP about, say, mechs fighting each other in al all-out war (Exo-Force, anyone?). But since Ninjago is still a big seller, Lego thinks the safest way to try out its own original ideas is to devote the next Ninjago wave to sky pirates, D&D-type adventures, a tribe of hostile islanders…whatever. Would I like to see entirely new themes dedicated to ideas such as these? Heck yes. But I do have to admit that, from a business perspective, there are worse methods.

What I’m getting at is, Ninjago isn’t entirely the “killer” of original IPs so much as it is all there is left. And if it gets cancelled…I’m starting to fear that that might be it. Lego wouldn’t have any more space in its business portfolio for original story-driven themes. It would just be entirely comprised of overpriced X-Wings and the fifty millionth crappy Batmobile. If licensed themes did die out, then it might be possible for Lego to turn back to making original IPs. But from the way the wind is blowing, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

But hey, at least we’ve still got Monkie Kid as an extra original theme besides Ninjago. That’s something, at least.

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A good analysis. Ninjago isn’t eating the original IPs, it’s allowing the designers to “test” IPs without devoting nearly as many resources as an entire theme launch would require. LEGO’s original IPs are currently pretty neatly divided into action/adventure (Ninjago), city for boys (CITY), city for girls (Friends), and various building-oriented themes (Creator, TECHNIC, etc.). As has been demonstrated in the past, LEGO only spams original IPs when they’re not doing well. There was a huge proliferation of original themes in the late 90’s and early 2000’s as the company floundered, and there was another brief boom in the late 2000’s as they began to settle into their role as licensed toy manufacturers. For much of LEGO’s history, they have produced licensed toys. It may be a shame that we don’t get devoted space or castle themes anymore but, at the same time, LEGO knows better what the market wants than we do. If they aren’t producing a Castle theme, it’s probably because not enough people will buy it.

I also want to point out that if Monkie Kid is cancelled anytime soon, it will not be due to Ninjago. Monkie Kid was designed for the Chinese market, and so if it’s cancelled, it’s because it’s underperforming in China.

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Or it will fail because of politics.

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I would say if Ninjago died, which it probably wont since it has A. evergreen status and B. seems to have no signs of slowing down profitably.

However playing with the thought, I do see LEGO losing alot of its kids audience if Ninjago where to be cancelled. I also see LEGO at that point target their products only to mainstream adults who has big pockets. I’m on the spectrum of people who think Ninjago is becoming repetitive and yada yada but I also realize that Ninjago is the only part of LEGO today that feels like it has a soul to it. Friends and City are very annonymous themes imo and Monkey Kid seems to be promoted only towards the asian market.

And the problem here as I see it isn’t the licensed themes and I’ve gone alot of back and forth on this over the years but LEGO is becoming too corporate.

During the late 2010s LEGO has developed more and more into an adult oriented company focusing on nostalgia baiting, shady buisness practices like fomo and artificial scarcity and in general just pander only to a mainstream audience to generate as much profit as possible and brand hype.

Example of such behaviour is the VIP system overhaul, The Promotional licenses that spring up for 1 wave in conjunction(often with a disney movie release), more store excluisives or collectible sets and items of limited availbility. Clear 90s and 80s themes baiting and dtc sets.

However what do I know, really but if Ninjago kicks the bucket then LEGO won’t be LEGO anymore. The company has become too corporate as their brand recognition and mainstream appeal has increased and so Ninjago and to some degree Monkie kid feels like the only themes that feels like it had some thought put into it and not the cause and effect of a undercover Disney shareholder pulling the strings in the executives office.

I’m going to remove my tin foil classic space helmet now.

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I don’t understand what you’re talking about

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I feel like even if another original theme replaced ninjago, it’s still be full of mechs, motorcycles, bases.

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This is pretty much what I’ve been saying.

Tarkur makes a good point here. A lot of companies that traditionally catered to kids are struggling to connect with today’s children, especially with their hyper-digital upbringing. Their desperation shows in various ways. (From my own observation, it seems like the Transformers franchise has diverged almost completely into extremely simple toys for young kids and more expensive toys for adult collectors.)

It’s probably no coincidence that two of the last holdouts of original IPs, Hidden Side and Nexo Knights, both attempted to lean heavily into app compatibility. But apps don’t really tap into the core appeal of Lego very well, so it’s not altogether surprising this didn’t take off. As for what remains, little kids can’t really appreciate story-driven IPs, and adults are generally not inclined to take Lego-original IPs seriously. Meanwhile, Lego is in a position where they can license almost any franchise they want to, even and especially the ones that practically market themselves.

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Also, the Nexo Knights sets became less and less well-designed as the theme continued, although they did have some firsts, such as having the first set to include both the good and bad guy leaders, which LEGO almost never does. It was also the first set to include a mech-within-a-mech.

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if ninjago is sunsetted hopefully its not until after some other runaway success original story theme replaces it

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bionicle g3??

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be sure to tune in for weekly episodes of kidney island on cartoon network!

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I love Ninjago. I’ve loved it longer than I’ve loved Bionicle (though not as much). It means a lot to a ton of fans out there, and I think we all need to keep that in mind.

Also, the last few waves have had some really good sets, and hints are pointing towards one of the best waves ever coming soon…

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