Arol Augsburger- Staff Writer
Lego’s Ninjago line has seen great success since its introduction in 2011. The franchise follows a team of ninjas as they battle the forces of evil. While the main cast started with four ninjas it has expanded to six, it was planned to be a three year line and was temporarily replaced with Chima, but fan demand brought it back. At this point it is an evergreen theme along with Lego City. While still popular I believe that Ninjago should be retired.
Since Ninjago has come back the amount of Lego original themes has decreased. Themes like Nexo Knights and Hidden Side have come out but we used to be able to see a few small themes coming out at the same time. Now we have one other theme to go with Ninjago and those themes often vanish within a few years. Most of the time it seems that every idea that they have, if they aren’t sure it will sell, is thrown into Ninjago. The newest wave has a pacific island aesthetic and the wave before had a Dungeons and Dragons feel to it. Most of the hero vehicles have also grown for the most part repetitive, take a vehicle had element decals and ninja stars and katana to it and boom a new vehicle for the ninja, or make a vaguely boat themed vehicle as a callback to the popular Destiny Bounty set.
That isn’t to say Ninjago has nothing good, it has great things in it. Namely the dragons. Before Ninjago most dragons were just sets of large specialized pieces that, like Lego dinosaurs, bring up the price. While Ninjago dragons still sometimes have specialized heads they are brick built and often the main build of a set themselves. These dragons look amazing and can look very unique without Lego having to make a whole new piece. Ninjago overall has some great build in many of the sets past dragons as well. Still I believe Ninjago should be retired as it has begun to feel repetitive, choking out other original Lego themes. Ninjago has had a good long run but I think it is time we let the fruit colored ninja go.
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