I don’t think the simple fact that it is aimed at a younger audience is an excuse for its tone that keeps shifting around from decently mature to stupidly childish. For whatever reason, it seems like the writers have a very hard time keeping a consistent tone. One season may be mature enough to keep you interested enough to want to see where the series goes next, only to be directly followed by a super imature and childish next season.
I know this is a show that exists primarily to sell toys, but is a consistent tone too much to ask for? If you want to make just a goofy kids show, stick to it. But if you want to make a more mature show that older audiences can take seriously, again, stick to it.
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Ninjago is one of those themes that’s popular with people that were born in the mid/late 2000s and beyond. I know almost nothing about Ninjago’s story as I was halfway through high school when it debuted. My exposure to Ninjago (and Frozen) comes from babysitting kids who were really into it. It’s kind of a mashup of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bionicle. The pieces in this theme are quite good for doing constraction mocs because of the colorful nature of the vehicles and dragons and minifigs. It’s not bad in that regard. Bruni the salamander is probably the best Ninjago set. It has a lot of uncommon rounded blue pieces that work well in constraction and I would highly recommend buying it to upgrade your water mocs.
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I personally felt that Ninjago went into a decline starting with Possession that continued all the way to Hands of Time. That’s when things got really stale story wise imo and the sets just didn’t have that great of an appeal. On the set side I think Day of the Departed had the strongest wave of sets during this time.
However, I think Ninjago reversed this decline and went into a great run with Season 8 and the Oni trilogy. I think this came because of the more mature storyline during this time and the sets were riding off the high of the Ninjago Movie. Even in the newer seasons, I think the set waves have actually been pretty good. The story is much up for debate depending on whether or not you like the path the writers and story team decided to go down.
I personally am fine with it. I consume the tv show for entertainment and I have a fairly low bar for being satisfied (Revenge of the Fallen is my favorite Transformers movie just to give you and idea) so some of the nitpicks, pacing issues and cliches don’t bother me so much. Though I can see why some people do have problems and issues and generally grow apart from the line. I’ve been a fan since day one and I fully intend to stick around longer.
I was never really all that into Ninjago, though i do agree that the loss of spinners was bad. The whole Mata-nui-darn theme was named after what you would say when you unleashed your fidget spinner ninjas! i think, at least. i vaguely remember that being in a lego club magazine… What was also annnoying is all the snakes. they were cool the first time around, but now snakes are just a little annoying. Bring back the skeletons! that was the only reason i ever bought ninjago!
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Yes, shouting “Ninja-GO!” was heavily advertised as the thing to do while playing the game, especially in the spinner commercials. If I remember correctly, it was even showcased in the actual spinner instructions themselves that told you how to play the game.
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I liked the spinners. But I viewed them as cheap ways to get rarer figures. At one point they were selling spinner add-ons that were spinner sets without the spinners. Basically CMF packs. A minifigure collector’s dream.
I always regretted missing this one. Perhaps I’ll get it on Bricklink someday.
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lol I was a ninjago superfan until I got back into bionicle and never really liked ninjago again.
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I like ninjago
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I think that it was year three’s wave of sets that are the weakest in my eyes. The legacy sets really help you forget how bad those old sets look, but year three had some admittedly very bland looking sets. The best one in my opinion is battle for ninjago city, because it was a very cool package that basically is a recreation of the final battle of season 3 (the better season that year, fight me). And most of that wave was ok, but the winter wave from the final battle was underwhelming. I barely owned any of those because they aren’t that good. But every legacy set of both waves crush anything they made that year. 2013 was definitely the point in ninjago I consider to be the weakest despite my nostalgia for it. Most of the other years don’t have the problems that the year had, and it’s generally the year I have the least interest in collecting all the sets for
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I haven’t watched all the seasons, but I do feel that Ninjago has long passed its peak, especially after season 7. The redesigns of the original ninja just killed season 8 onwards for me (Zane and Kai got absolutely nerfed), especially after the movie’s release. I understand why Lego had to do that, so that new fans can transition into the series from the movie, but it would have made more sense to keep the looks of the original, especially when there’s no in-story explanation for the abrupt appearance change, leaving it all up to head-canon. Also, it would not have made sense to pick up from season 8 without watching the other 7 seasons and the pilot before. I also think that the story has gotten quite repetitive, just the ninja fighting enemy after enemy with no higher purpose except for saving Ninjago. This is one of the two reasons why Ninjago is only my 2nd favorite theme, behind Bionicle.
The main point I could appreciate about Bionicle that I cannot say the same for Ninjago is that Bionicle had an overarching villain in the form of Makuta Teridax, and all the events that transpired in the Ignition era all lead up to him possessing the GSR, completing his ultimate plan. At least for the MU arc, the story was tied up very nicely. However, the theme ended just as Spherus Magna was whole again, cutting short a potentially new and refreshing story arc. For Ninjago, it would have been a better move to make the Overlord the main villain in Teridax fashion because he was Ninjago’s longest lasting villain, playing a Makuta role while battling the first Spinjitzu master, similar to Mata Nui. Instead, the Overlord was defeated twice by Lloyd and Zane and was never seen after. Bionicle’s sets were also new and very creative at the time (mainly the large sets), like the Skopio and Umbra and Gadunka, to name a few.
I’m not saying that Ninjago isn’t creative, Ninjago has produced a lot of very cool and interesting builds with lots of new and very useful parts and techniques, but it just became the same few mechs and dragons and whatnot rehashed over and over, at least in my opinion, which is why I tend to prefer the sets within the first 5 or so seasons.
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I think that Ninjago began its decline in 2014, when the Nindroids first appeared. It was the first year where it went from having a fantasy aspect to mainly being sci-fi, with everyone running around shooting lasers at each other. As for the rest of the seasons, they followed suit, with the heroes constantly gaining huge mechs and tanks, and the bad guys doing the same. Then the LEGO Ninjago Movie appeared, and it was suddenly a total reset of the theme. Gone was Sensei Wu, the original Master of Spinjitzu. In his place was a stereotypical old, wise, leader, who selects a group of generic teens to fight weird crooks and the fourth or fifth iteration of Garmadon. Besides that, the movie erased all character development seen in the TV show, making Lloyd the same age as the other characters. It also removed the fantasy aspect entirely, replacing it with the usual sci-fi mecha and action. There was no more of the heroes learning new techniques, but actually redoing the first season with even weaker enemies.
After that, it all seemed to degenerate into each new year of sets featuring two characteristics: One, villains having a complete lack of necessity for the plot. Most were there basically to justify making more mechs and tanks, and rarely were anything other than crime lords with magic powers, and I don’t know of any other than Aspheera who could use Spinjitzu. Two, the plots felt extremely basic. They relied on childish humor and behavior, even though the heroes are called “young men” several times in the show and books. Also, the show seemed to change from having an actual plot to being multiple specials, so that some years of sets were combined with others in the show to provide extra episodes for each season. (I haven’t watched much, though, so this is just my impression). Finally, it became merely the heroes going anywhere that sounds “cool” and fighting themed villains. First, in a video game, then in the ocean, and who knows where else?
Really, though, I would support Ninjago again if the story was improved, so that it wouldn’t be mostly rehashes and quick stories that seem quite disconnected, like the Transformers TV shows and movies, which are obviously not set in the same universe. (As far as I know…)
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The weird thing is, as I tried to lay out in my “Ninjago, but it’s just Bionicle topic”, that the story outlay of Ninjago is somewhat similar, even though not as well structured. Makuta is also in different ways present. Makuta is Garmadon in the pilots (void Makuta), season 8 and 9 (GSR Makuta), Overlord and Dark Matter in season 2 (MoL Makuta, Antidermis) and 3 (Ultimate Dume), Borg (Dume) and Samurai X in season 7 (Maxilos). Makuta had influences all over the place in Ninjago, so much that at some points I thought they would make a reference that Makuta is one of the “many names” of the Overlord. Wouldn’t be the first time that characters from different themes reincarnate in a different form (Clutch Powers for example). Yet, still they decided against the idea of a primary antagonist that takes the plot into one certain direction. Probably because they wanted to be flexible with how things are developing. If they had a cool idea they do it, even if it’s not beneficial to continuity.
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Wasn’t he in Ninjago? I know he came in a pack of Ninjago minifigures, armed with a whip.
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He returned in Ninjago. Yes that was the point of why I brought that up. He was at first referenced in season 1 before becoming an actual character in season 11. In season 11 they localized his name here in Germany to Kevin Kiesel (=pebble), like why, he was never before called Kevin, why now and why Kevin?
But Clutch Powers in Ninjago is supposedly very different from his original movie iteration (I have never seen the movie so I really can’t tell).
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Yes, he is very different.
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