Random minifig of the day: njo0918

I thought this was Chima.

@StudMuffin24 said:
" @WokePope said:
"I thought this was Chima."

Basically is."

Which I for one prefer to acknowledge as little as possible.

On a side note, I’m kind of waiting for a real version of the confrontation suggested by the name of the set this figure comes in. And if Cole happens to smack Ras silly with his own fancy hammer, I will find it extremely satisfying.

I didn't realize that some of those magazine gifts came with two minifigures. But then, I've never seen one in the flesh... I mean the plastic.

@StudMuffin24 said:
" @WokePope said:
"I thought this was Chima."

Basically is."

Pretty sure Ras is canonically from Chima, or least the Wyldness

@TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't realize that some of those magazine gifts came with two minifigures. But then, I've never seen one in the flesh... I mean the plastic."

Neither. Although I periodically see them with two gifts attached. The current one, and a random earlier one. They must use it as a way to clear off excess/returned stock.

I have this one. I love the head mold.

Looks like his beard crisscrosses from upper to lower jaw, can he actually speak despite tying his mouth shut?

@TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't realize that some of those magazine gifts came with two minifigures. But then, I've never seen one in the flesh... I mean the plastic."

Ninjago is a funny case.

There are the normal magazines which come out monthly, which come with one figure each.

But Ninjago also has "special edition" magazines which come out less often, but they come with little tin carrying-cases (the carrying cases are lovely, but the magazine company attaches them to the front cover with this sticky-tape that leaves a sticky residue on the case. It's stupidly-difficult to remove it) that have two figures in them.

That's what this figure was in. I know because I bought it, actually, purely for the really cool hammer weapons that the figures came with.

@Zordboy said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" I didn't realize that some of those magazine gifts came with two minifigures. "
Ninjago is a funny case.
There are the normal magazines which come out monthly, which come with one figure each.
But Ninjago also has "special edition" magazines which come out less often, but they come with little tin carrying-cases [...] that have two figures in them. "
The recent LEGO Ninjago Issue 131 had two paper-bagged figures: Spectral Dragonian Warrior (pale blue and trans-blue) and Imperian Claw Hunter (pearl-gold). These magazines don't circulate in the U.S., but whenever I'm in Europe I check newsstand racks for LEGO Magazine with interesting figures or mini-sets; this issue I found in the Tesco Extra in Slough.

@Brickalili said:
"Looks like his beard crisscrosses from upper to lower jaw, can he actually speak despite tying his mouth shut?"

It could just be that some of the hair on the upper lip is hanging down below the lower lip, but isn’t actually attached to it. It bugs me when mine starts even touching my lower lip, but I’ve known people who let their mustache grow as much as half an inch below theirs. If they also have a beard, it can be hard to tell exactly where their mouth is when it’s closed.

Huwbot wrote:
" njo0918 Lord Ras - Dark Pink Markings, Dark Purple Robe, "
Wait -- the purple bit is supposed to be a robe? And it's covered the blue dragon belt-sash-thing? IMHO, this is a case of minifig graphic design getting too complex for its own good: the character is wearing multiple layers (black left-over-right robe, purple vest-robe, etc.) but because the layers are flattened and divided across torso, hips and legs, they don't *read* as anything in particular.

The TV shows represent minifigs verbatim, which looks silly -- "I'm carrying coiled rope and grappling hook, but they're perfectly flat" -- but to be fair, depicting clothing-layers and accessories in 3D would be (a) extra modelling effort, (b) extra rigging for the secondary motion, and (c) potentially confuse young toy-buyers.

@Lexomatic said:
"Huwbot wrote:
" njo0918 Lord Ras - Dark Pink Markings, Dark Purple Robe, "
Wait -- the purple bit is supposed to be a robe? And it's covered the blue dragon belt-sash-thing? IMHO, this is a case of minifig graphic design getting too complex for its own good: the character is wearing multiple layers (black left-over-right robe, purple vest-robe, etc.) but because the layers are flattened and divided across torso, hips and legs, they don't *read* as anything in particular.

The TV shows represent minifigs verbatim, which looks silly -- "I'm carrying coiled rope and grappling hook, but they're perfectly flat" -- but to be fair, depicting clothing-layers and accessories in 3D would be (a) extra modelling effort, (b) extra rigging for the secondary motion, and (c) potentially confuse young toy-buyers."

Well, they depict stuff as flat if it’s printed on the minifig. If it’s worn or carried by the minifig, it has shape. They also probably never actually use the items printed on their body, like knives or shuriken that are tucked into sashes. This gets into things that always bugged me about animation when I was a kid. If there was a stack of logs, you could always tell which ones would be moved because the color and art style never matched the rest of the stack. Alternately, they might “remove” a log from the stack without the stack visibly changing one tiny bit, even if they repeated the process dozens of times. This was all the result of having one person paint the backgrounds, and one or more different people paint the animation cells.

Maybe, someday, in the far future, we get him with printed teeth. The dream lives on.

@Lexomatic said:
" this issue I found in the Tesco Extra in Slough.
"

That's probably the most positive thing I've ever heard anyone say about Slough.

@Lexomatic said:
"The TV shows represent minifigs verbatim, which looks silly -- "I'm carrying coiled rope and grappling hook, but they're perfectly flat" -- but to be fair, depicting clothing-layers and accessories in 3D would be (a) extra modelling effort, (b) extra rigging for the secondary motion, and (c) potentially confuse young toy-buyers."

As a point of interest: not one of the TV shows, but I remember that the Lego Rock Raiders video game - in the pre-rendered cutscenes at least - going a step beyond the flat graphics to depict some of the characters' specific details in 3D (mostly their pockets, as well as the goggles around Axel's neck, Sparks' wrench, and a few other details) which I always found to be a really cool effect that helped the characters feel more alive. Does feel a little bit of a shame to me that future Lego media didn't continue to use that approach.

For an example, Axel in the demonstration of how the characters were modelled at the top of the page here: https://f005.backblazeb2.com/file/Brickshelf/bs01/gallery/VezokofZakaz/LEGOMagazines/LEGOAdventures/Issue7/adv7_32.jpg