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So I'm quite impressed this is still running (or spinning, I guess, dohoho), there was the animated series, I'm seeing there's a movie, I'm even seeing Ninjago costume products ( ). Is Ninjago one of LEGO's most successful (original, not movie-based) products of all time?

(Thinking about it, it's probably Lego City.)

The movie was good.

At this point they could probably replace every theme with a subtheme of Ninjago and no one would care.

Pretty sure it's on it's last year but yes the theme's almost been running as long as Bionicle it feels like.

They actually canceled it to make room for Chima and Nexo, but were then horrified that the first year of Chima and Nexo only did as well as the first year of Ninjago instead of as well as Ninjago when it was a fully mature theme. The fact that they were both "only" as successful in their first year as Lego's most successful line of all time was viewed as a huge failure. So they brought Ninjago back from the dead out of panic rather than as part of any kind of careful strategy.

So they are still in business despite themselves.

never been big on ninjago until the movie sets came out, i fukkin love those, and i didn't even like the movie that much

Yeah, it combines mechs, crazy-ass vehicles, that spinning mini-game, and nice buildings - all in one theme.

Also, bikers with katanas and chainsaws. The most badass thing I've ever seen - before they announced Lego Movie 2 sets that is.

Maybe the careful strategy is that they can then bring back Chima and Nexo if the next line doesn't exceed anything that came before it.

Yeah well, some masterpieces are born out of that "I have nothing to lose" mindset. I might be mistaken, but that's how they green lit the first gen of Bionicle. It was all or nothing for Lego.
Or was that the case with From Software's Demon Souls? Damn you masterpieces, can't even tell one from another.

Texhnophille wrote:Yeah well, some masterpieces are born out of that "I have nothing to lose" mindset. I might be mistaken, but that's how they green lit the first gen of Bionicle. It was all or nothing for Lego.

Lego rejected bionicle completely and banned the designers from working on it. Of course the designers kept going anyway, because 2000-era Lego management was worse than useless and nobody listened to them if they ever wanted to accomplish anything. So when management called them up with "okay where's that other boring playtheme you were supposed to be working on for the past year," the bionicle guys were all "lol fuk u lego we spent all that time working on the bionicle project you banned instead of any of the stuff you asked us to" and then it was all or nothing in the sense that they needed a product line and that was all they had. Those designers are heroes and role models to all Lego employees.

I enjoyed Bionicle, it was one of my childhood highlights. I didn't like the newer ones quite as much, but nonetheless, they were cool. I was disappointed when Lego discontinued them

Texhnophille wrote:Yeah well, some masterpieces are born out of that "I have nothing to lose" mindset. I might be mistaken, but that's how they green lit the first gen of Bionicle. It was all or nothing for Lego.
Or was that the case with From Software's Demon Souls? Damn you masterpieces, can't even tell one from another.

Warframe has pretty much the same story too.

stubby wrote:Lego rejected bionicle completely and banned the designers from working on it. Of course the designers kept going anyway, because 2000-era Lego management was worse than useless and nobody listened to them if they ever wanted to accomplish anything. So when management called them up with "okay where's that other boring playtheme you were supposed to be working on for the past year," the bionicle guys were all "lol fuk u lego we spent all that time working on the bionicle project you banned instead of any of the stuff you asked us to" and then it was all or nothing in the sense that they needed a product line and that was all they had. Those designers are heroes and role models to all Lego employees.

That makes Bionicle even more awesome.