Do I see a new part in "71748 Catamaran Sea Battle", at the front of the right boat: there is a white element, to which 3 teeth are attached. The white element looks like some kind of sword? What is it?

I will probably get The Keepers' Village. I think it will stylistically look great next to Barracuda Bay.

These will go nicely with the sets I bought on the 1st. They may even have arrived by the time these are released...

I love this wave!

I love the minifigure design of the Ninja; they look almost like the minifigures from the Rebooted season, especially Jay. Nice!

@legom0nk3ys said:
"There's still gonna be more right? I mean, 4 sets seem kind of little for a full season."

Island Cole is missing so far; so I'd guess there'll be more.

Happy birthday Ninjago! Looks like it'll be my favourite theme in 2021.

I’m highly impressed with this wave! Brings back memories to the Islanders sets of the 90s. I will hopefully acquire most, if not all of these.

Well... I have no room left to display my sets, and there are a few ones that I really love in this wave. I now have a problem. The colours are so bright, harmonious IMO, that jungle dragon is so beautiful! I really like the big chopper too... I truly have a problem.

These sets reminds me of the old Pirate Islander sub theme.

Ninjago just keeps on rockin" it. Happy Anniversary!

Will get every non-ninja minifig but no sets, zero display value.

Need to mass me a herd of that TEAL DERP-DRAGON!

It's a shame there's only 4 different islander figures

Is it kind of weird to anyone else that the set number and name are on the right side of the box?
Anyways I really love this wave.
Happy 10th Anniversary Ninjago.

I love the new hair pieces for the ninja

I want them all!

Wonderful sets!

I cannot believe how innovative and refreshing each season's Ninjago sets remain! Just in the last year we've gotten video game themed sets, D&D themed sets and now Pacific Islander themed sets! The color usage in this season's sets is spectacular, and if I wasn't working out some storage issues I would definitely be picking up the majority of these!

Great theme for this season. Also hope of seeing more - and bigger - sets from this wave, a huge island or jungle set! 4 sets indeed seems very little. Nya, for ex. only appears in one set!

One must-buy for me is the Keeper's village, which isn't too expensive for what I see on the pictures. Nice medium-set with a lot of display/play-value. I mean, who doesn't love an island with 'wildlings' or tribes and cannibal-types of villains?
The ninja's got wonderful designs too, the clothing as well as the hairpieces. Lloyd is superbe, wild really! His best rendition ever?

The natives have gotten a LOT more aggressive since the Pirate days.

Not many actual islands.

with the scooting through numerous themes (Castle/Orcs last year, Hi-tech video game-y stuff and now Islanders) I'd wonder are they deliberately tapping into other themes as they go. Space Police/Ninjago next?

That dragon is a beaut, also like the village a lot! I tell myself I'm not a Ninjago fan, yet I keep liking and buying the sets... they are doing a great job giving this theme appeal beyond the target little boy demographic

All of them just per-fect.

Great theme, great designs, great sets. I personally like Keeper's Village above all, the cats are wild and the dragon is quite a sculpture. As far as the bike goes, even though it's a very nice set, to really get the most out of it you gotta like bikes, and with all due respect for bikers and such, I don't.

But minifigures, box art and the whole concept behind Ninjago makes you want to buy them all regardless.

Does this theme make anyone else uncomfortable? Don’t get me wrong, from a design standpoint these sets are very impressive, but the islanders here lean HARD into the “savage native” trope. It almost seems like a step down from the Islanders of the mid ‘90s, which is saying something.

@Spike730 said:
" @legom0nk3ys said:
"There's still gonna be more right? I mean, 4 sets seem kind of little for a full season."

Island Cole is missing so far; so I'd guess there'll be more."

Island Cole is in the Keeper's Village set. He is on the box and listed in the description. But he isn't in the set image for some reason. Maybe a jail cell of some sort?

I don't really follow Ninjago, but these look different enough they are appealing. The dragon looks great. The Village will be decent, maybe wait for a sale. But the figures look great. And I'm glad to see some new Islander type figures. They likely won't mesh with the originals. Sadly I recall making my original Islander red mask into teal with paint...so I guess teal is a natural color for Islanders...

Islanders of 21st century.
That golden dragon simbol is similar to Mortal Kombat simbol. Cool

Great sets! Really impressed with this wave. I still have problems with Pacific Islanders being vilified though, very disappointing that they couldn't be allies or something other than the "savage" stereotype.

@randomly_generated said:
"Great sets! Really impressed with this wave. I still have problems with Pacific Islanders being vilified though, very disappointing that they couldn't be allies or something other than the "savage" stereotype."
Maybe they will. We have only the sets to go of for now, but hasn’t ninjago done the “actually the entire race isn’t bad it’s just one or two really bad examples” story before?

It's easy to miss, being the side-build, but it looks like, in the Jungle Dragon set, Zane's small boat has a new flag piece with 2x2 studs forming part of the mast. I hope this is one of those Ninjago pieces that makes it out of the theme, although at $40 for 500+ pieces that set both looks nice and is good value.

Wait, is there only one collectible McGuffin this time around? That's surprising!

Hope you will be able to stockpile those shields and jungle villain figs trough lego bits and pieces,...dang, want them so bad!!

I have not been interested in Ninjago aside from the massive city sets since they were fighting skeletons and snakes but this...this does bring a smile to my face

@paulmison said:
"It's easy to miss, being the side-build, but it looks like, in the Jungle Dragon set, Zane's small boat has a new flag piece with 2x2 studs forming part of the mast. I hope this is one of those Ninjago pieces that makes it out of the theme, although at $40 for 500+ pieces that set both looks nice and is good value."

Those are just a pair of 1x2 plates with clips. Notice how they're thicker than the other two flags.

Not bad, I like the bike and Keepers Village in particular.

@CapnRex101 I think it would be accurate to say that the sets were developed first, and then the episodes were based on them.

@gsom7 said:
"Islanders of 21st century.
That golden dragon simbol is similar to Mortal Kombat simbol. Cool"
Nya looks like Sub-Zero as well ;-)

I like the Godzilla on the shield too

The jungle dragon reminds me of the hyena in the lion king whose tongue is always hanging out. Ed, I think?

I agree about the cultural discomfort that might be present here-- admittedly, I know nothing about island cultures and these bad guys may well be based on monsters and villains from their mythologies to justify their negative role. I'm willing to give LEGO the benefit of the doubt and assume they did their research to avoid conflating cultures and portraying them as evil, but I know I'm not familiar enough to see if they did.

Maybe the Islanders are simply defending themselves and their islands...
Also, in 27 years (or a couple of centuries) the Islanders went from yellow skin to lavender. WHAT HAPPENED?!?

Love the Islanders influence! This is a must get series for me!

Copied from other forums...

Interesting stuff! I actually dig these a lot, although it's funny how Ninjago is now going all out with the Bionicle parallels, now going with a Pacific Islander-vibe with the location and builds.

Chopper Bike: Eh, it's whatever. I like the sail-speeder, but man. It's a bike. It's fine.

Jungle Dragon: Hoo boy. Surprise surprise- this is easily my favorite set. I love how lizard-like they made it, with relatively long fingers and toes. I love the head, I like it when LEGO makes these hybrid heads that are partly custom but still have attachment points for more pieces, plus I like the re-use of the Overlord Dragon's lower jaw. The underbite gives it a lot of character and that doofy tongue sticking out further makes him look like an overgrown Gecko. Heck I don't even mind the puny wings, this thing gives me the vibe that it's a very primitive proto-dragon, and at it's point in time the wings are not developed for flying. As in, it's on its evolutionary path to developing wings, but currently these are just used for jumping/gliding or... a mating display.

Oh yeah, and T E A L.

Keeper Village: Most underrated set of the lot I say. This is also probably the smoothest use of all of those blade pieces I've seen, it fits the totem very well. Plus, the totem pole springing to life is a really cool idea. It's probably one of my favorite looking playsets I've seen, I dig everything on it. There's a little cauldron for brewing witch-doctor potions/just cooking food, booby traps in the bushes, a throne, it's awesome. It's got so many nice builds too, look at the lava pooling out of the side of the rock, that's a brilliant use of that "energy blast" piece.

I'll also mildly defend Cole's weapon, it reminds me of those homemade bladed weapons, a-la this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP3aA5PWwbg&t
So in a way, it's kind-of supposed to look like garbage!

Catamaran Battle: Honestly, probably my second-least favorite set of this wave, but it's still good. It's mostly down to that villain catamaran, that is a great build. Those are such nice builds, I love the parts usage at the front to make it look bony. Plus more Bionicle-ish recolors are good with me.

Poor Nya getting shunted away again. I still love the irony of giving the Fire guy the boat. Really, they should've swapped either Jay or Zane for Nya and made the catamaran hers and her bother's. That way, it'd make sense for the Water character to have a boat, BUT you'd also get some synergy with her brother and get the Red accents to distinguish it from the enemy catamaran.

Thinking about it ... it's kinda weird and messed-up they gave the fire character the catamaran and the water controlling one gets nothing, again. However, on the topic of Nya... do you think this could be setting up an underwater season/location with Nya as the focus? Every other Ninja has gotten attention in a subtheme, Nya almost always gets left out. Having an underwater line would finally give them an excuse to go all-out with the Water character, kind-of like what happened with Hahli Mahri in Bionicle. She could get like, a giant sea-dragon, considering she hasn't gotten a single dragon all to herself. Ever. Plus, it's one of like 2 subthemes Ninjago hasn't tackled yet, aside from Space.

@Spike730:
No he's not. Check the Keepers Village box art. I have no idea why Kai and Cole are missing from the set photo. Oddly, the catamaran set is the only set that does not have any exclusive minifigs.

@BovineBrick:
Nobody can keep up with him. He's in three of the four sets, and is the most common minifig of this wave.

@Drog:
What "authentic-looking tribal one"? Is it hiding behind the boat they stole from the Chima Crocodile Tribe?

@PixelTheDragon:
They were actual cannibals in 4182. This time they just had a weird mishap while making blueberry wine.

@cofaigh:
Watch out for Time-Twisters/Ninjago, where they fight Timmy!

@Unikittius:
They have purple skin, one of them has two heads, and another one has a lightning staff of some sort. These aren't human islanders. They're supernatural beings. I read a _LOT_ of mythological stories growing up, and I can't think of a single pantheon-based mythology where every member of the pantheon is an upright, moral character. In particular, Maui seems to be a common folk hero across many (all?) Polynesian cultures, but he's most famously a trickster.

Dergon dergon dergon

I am definitely getting all four and combining them with the masters of the mountain sets to create a beneath the volcanic island MOC where the tribe is an offshoot of the Geckles that has decided to live above ground, or the Geckles were part of the tribe that ended up deciding to or were banished to live underground. PERSONAL FAN THEORY: I think that Mammatus is the elemental master of the storm. Mammatus is a type of cloud,Rumble keeper and Thunder keeper are references to thunder and Poulerik is a play of Polaric, a type of electricity in lightning.anybody, please let me know what you think of this theory.

@Iguanaboy said:
"I am definitely getting all four and combining them with the masters of the mountain sets to create a beneath the volcanic island MOC where the tribe is an offshoot of the Geckles that has decided to live above ground, or the Geckles were part of the tribe that ended up deciding to or were banished to live underground. PERSONAL FAN THEORY: I think that Mammatus is the elemental master of the storm. Mammatus is a type of cloud,Rumble keeper and Thunder keeper are references to thunder and Poulerik is a play of Polaric, a type of electricity in lightning.anybody, please let me know what you think of this theory."

Can’t be coincidence, this season is gonna be all about thunder & lightning! And that’s fine to me. An elemental master would be nice, and look at the design art page: seems like there were plans for such a character!

@lORDoFtHEbOARD
Good point. I ended up looking at the plans in the article that you mentioned. However if Mammatus is an elemental master, I would have a couple questions. The first of which is how Mammatus' elemental abilities will interact with those of Jay, i.e. who has more control over the elements involved/is more powerful? The second of which is whether there is a limit to the types of weather that they can create, i.e. can they create a snowstorm or a tornado or other weather that doesn't involve thunder or lightning?

amazing colours. Love it.

@PurpleDave said:
"They have purple skin, one of them has two heads, and another one has a lightning staff of some sort. These aren't human islanders. They're supernatural beings. I read a _LOT_ of mythological stories growing up, and I can't think of a single pantheon-based mythology where every member of the pantheon is an upright, moral character. In particular, Maui seems to be a common folk hero across many (all?) Polynesian cultures, but he's most famously a trickster."

You're right. Chief Mammatus and his ilk are clearly not intended to represent any real Pacific island culture, and in that key respect they differ from the Islanders of the mid '90s. However, I don't quite buy that LEGO is drawing on Polynesian mythology for their inspiration. I mean, c'mon: Chief Mammatus quite literally has a bone throne, the jungle outside the Keepers' Village is littered with skulls, and there's an enormous cooking pot at the center of the village*. These are all hallmarks of the classic Hollywood cannibal tribe, and I'd be willing to bet that LEGO drew more inspiration from these harmful tropes than they did from any pantheon-based mythology.

*Sidenote: How is it that the cooking pot appears to be iron when all the weapons carried by the Keepers are fashioned from wood and bones? The same goes for Chief Mammatus' gold regalia. Clearly the Keepers posess extensive knowledge of metalworking. Why they have not applied that knowledge to their weapons and tools is beyond me.

@Lyichir replied:
"Those are just a pair of 1x2 plates with clips. Notice how they're thicker than the other two flags."

Oh, so they are- it's just aligned very neatly. Well, that makes it easier to steal the idea for a MOC!

Set design, minifigures, boxes, prices = all amazing.

Just the 2-pack catamaran could have been 2 sets for me. Nothing else to complain about!

I love the new hair piece for Lloyd, but I most especially love that the dragon has more of a "loveable native wildlife" feel to it rather than the usual ominous evil vibes that Lego usually goes for. I also like that it doesn't feel like a repeat of previous seasons and has a unique colour theme.

@Unikittius:
I'm not saying you're wrong, but there are always other possibilities. I've got an old miniseries called Shogun on DVD. The miniseries is based on James Clavell's novel of the same name, which in turn was based on the real life of William Adams, the first Englishman to set foot in Japan, and the first non-Japanese to be made a samurai.

In it, a group of Dutch traders get shipwrecked in Japan, along with an English Pilot-Major named John Blackthorne (based on Adams). In real life, two of the Dutch sailors were allowed to return home, while one was forced to remain in Japan with Adams for the remainder of their days. In the miniseries, I believe ever Dutch sailor ended up dead before the end of the miniseries, and none of them returned home. And in the miniseries, one of those Dutch sailors was boiled alive in a giant pot while the other shipwreck survivors were made to watch. This is Japan. They ate seafood, but didn't really have any domesticated livestock that I'm aware of. Certainly they weren't cannibals (nor was there any suggestion in the miniseries that the victim was consumed afterwards).

Cannibalism isn't the only reason that some primitive cultures tended to accumulate human skulls. The Aztecs just _really_ loved human sacrifice. Vikings were a little more restrained in that aspect, but they also sacrificed humans. Every nine years they would have a gathering that lasted nine days, during which they would sacrifice nine males of every species, including humans.

From a resource perspective, metal was not always unknown to these places, but if your entire island only has one cubic foot of metal, you don't waste it on stuff that can be done with other materials (that funky sword that looks like a cricket bat that comes with the new CMF Jaguar Warrior is a wood handle lined with chunks of obsidian, which can produce an edge that makes a fresh surgical scalpel look like a butter knife, and it would be pretty devastating to an unarmored opponent). There aren't a lot of other materials you can use to make a cooking pot, so it makes sense that this would be the top priority in those societies. The real question is, how the heck did they make a giant pot on an isolated island? Did a chest full of blacksmithing tomes wash ashore? If you've only got enough metal to make one cooking pot, it's not like you're going to have a thriving metalworking industry.

Gekko Dragon, Gekko Dragon, GEKKO DRAGON!

I love these sets, but my favourite is definitely 71747 The Keepers' Village because it has my two favourite minifigures, Chief Mammatus and the Thunder Keeper.

71747 looks like a fun parts pack, might try to get one cheap with a damaged box or something and sell off the minifigures.