Dude brought a gun to a sword fight!

That first year of Ninja was good stuff. It never quite beat out Adventurers for my favourite new releases of 1998 and I always somewhat resented that it "killed off" traditional Castle by taking its place in the line-up, but those sets were dynamite. The figs were excellent, the new swords great, and set designs were solid. This set, which my brother had (thus allowing it to figure into my childhood landscape) was a good example of this: shogun, samurai, and ninja and a decent gate/tower. Not much of an interior and more of a three-quarter model than a 360-degree one, but that was normal enough for LEGO. It uses a splash of white parts very effectively, in addition to the more obvious colours of brown and black.

Unpopular opinion: Ninja is better than Ninjago. I said it.

Ooh, this was one of my must-have Lego sets in '98.

The one thing I didn't like about this building was how the catapult/falling-rubble-mechanism took up the entire second floor of the building. I always felt like, shouldn't the little samurai dudes have actual living quarters?

And gee, they were fond of those falling axe traps back in the late 90s, weren't they?

Ahh there's something so cool about those 90s set images. The little diorama pieces in the foreground and the lusty tangerine lighting... it takes your imagination to intriguing places.

I don't know if Lego peaked in the 90s. Heck, it's still peaking today. But that era was definitely a high point.

@natro220 said:
"Unpopular opinion: Ninja is better than Ninjago. I said it."

Agree. I’m sad we’re likely never to see it again.

Ninja certainly was a great subtheme , I never had any of it's sets but the buildings, horses, and boats/carts/transports still are pretty cool imo, I like it a lot more then year 2000 Castle .

I only started getting interest in Ninjago in 2019 (legacy monastery was a great "starter set" as it has a full team of ninja + wu) and I'd love to see some good ninjago location sets remade, like Legacy versions of 70594 70749 70728

The 2020 Mountain/Skull Dungeon wave of sets were my favorite by far, Dragons, and pretty much all location sets, the mech set got a lot of critic due to lack of knees, but it was sold seperately from the other sets with no unique content , so could be left out easily, instead of making some €150++ set.

Gotta say the current strength of ninjago is the very diverse subthemes, from Sci-Fi gaming, to "Castle" Dungeons, to "Islanders", to now "Aquazone/Atlantis".

I won't compare Ninjago City / Docks / Gardens to Ninja or even Ninjago as they are in a different category entirely imo.

Ninja theme style sets shouldn't be that hard to re-create with a set like 31120 as a starting "parts pack" , since most of the ninja builds are on some rocks , add some parts from ninjago or chinese new years for more red/black/white, and stand in ninjago figures, and should go a long way, the main gripe with classic themes right now is low amount of minifig horses for the last few years.

Whoa! Nice detail with the shachihoko on the roof. Never knew that part existed.

@MCLegoboy:
Dude with the gun is boss of dude with the standard. If they’re about to cross blades, there’s been a serious breakdown in discipline. The factions on this are a hit hard to sort out, but there are two basic samurai factions (red and blue each have two samurai and one shogun/daimyo). There are two bandits. There’s a third shogun/daimyo with no other samurai. There’s a sense. And there are six ninja (black, dark-grey, red, green, white princess, and green princess) that don’t really match up nicely with the samurai factions.

I know the Japanese had muskets during some of the Samurai era (the Portuguese introduced muskets to Japan then the Japanese made their own), but I didnt know they had flintlock pistols. Definitely possible since its very similar in principle to a musket but I dont recall seeing or reading anything about samurai ever using pistols.

These Ninja sets are better then Ninjago in my opinion. Personally Im much more interested in European history and European castles, but I can definitely appreciate these models and the uniqueness of the theme.

@Zordboy said:
"Ooh, this was one of my must-have Lego sets in '98.

The one thing I didn't like about this building was how the catapult/falling-rubble-mechanism took up the entire second floor of the building. I always felt like, shouldn't the little samurai dudes have actual living quarters?

And gee, they were fond of those falling axe traps back in the late 90s, weren't they?"

I always assumed this was more of a gatehouse or barbican, leading on to the big castle and living quarters.
Which, yes, probably has more axe traps

@Norikins said:
"Ninja seems like the most unlikely "classic theme" to come back. Due to Ninjago, of course, and Lego at one point said they had promoted it to an "evergreen theme." Not like that term means as much anymore, as Castle and Space are also "evergreen themes."
There has for some reason been a lot of demands in a short time on Brickset, even more than usual, for "classic themes" to come back, particularly castle. So I have been thinking about the possibility for them to come back. Of course, it would be LEGO's whim out of the blue to release some new sets for an old theme, there's not really speculation possible when it could happen. But there could be new licenses - licenses on occasion have been lauded for sort of bringing back a classic subject matter in a form (i.e. Indiana Jones, PotC, LotR, Lone Ranger). A common argument has been that LEGO would be more interested in making new licenses that appeal to both fans of the IP and "classic" subject matter. I will go through and list potential future licenses, and evaluate how faithful and close they would be to the classic Lego equivalent.
Space: Closest thing to space right now is SW, but it and space have coexisted previously, it's not a "replacement" like Ninjago could be argued to be for Ninja. I guess I have to say it, but NASA sets of course are also in no way "space" in the same way because it's real life, not sci-fi. Now since space sci-fi is so broad, a new license would be very different from SW, so Lego wouldn't need to worry about competition, but would be not much like classic lego space either. Lego won't make Star Trek, a competitor licensed it, and I can't really think of any other sci-fi properties that are both family-friendly enough and successful enough. Now Lego may make sets for more Nintendo properties given their new business relationship, but they probably wouldn't make sets for these because these video games haven't been relevant in years.
- Metroid could be possible due to the new game this year, it may bring the spotlight to the
franchise and thus Lego may make sets eventually. But it wouldn't be much like classic space
because it's a solitary protagonist fighting aliens in a variety of locations. Which is why LEGO
probably wouldn't make it because they would prefer to sell a bunch of spaceships.
- Star Fox is very vehicle-based, but there hasn't been a widely successful game in two decades
or so from what I've heard so although it would be kind of like Fabuland in Classic Space with
anthropomorphic characters, as well as a blue and gray color scheme, it is very unlikely.
All in all, not much hope for a new Spacey license.
Adventurers:
Indiana Jones could have been said to replaced Adventurers, but we have no news if the planned fifth film will have Lego representation. I don't need to describe what Lego Indiana Jones would be like in comparison to Adventurers, unlike some of these other properties which have never been Lego. Other than IJ, there really aren't any other licenses. I don't even know if Lego considers IJ ok to make anymore - even as an 18+, given the Nazis and stuff. People today are more sensitive than 2008.
"

in my opinion, in house space will probably not come anytime because sw occupies that space forever. i realy hate sw because of that reason! sw bores me to death. millenium falcon version x and imensly overpriced star destroyer version 567.. sorry i have to vomit.. such a waste of our beloved plastic bricks. poor people who fall for this.... its getting less and less creative, best example: vidiyo but the theme has some realy creative minifigs though!

@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Ahh there's something so cool about those 90s set images. The little diorama pieces in the foreground and the lusty tangerine lighting... it takes your imagination to intriguing places.

I don't know if Lego peaked in the 90s. Heck, it's still peaking today. But that era was definitely a high point."

In my opinion, LEGO reached its all time peak in the 2007-2013 era, when we got new exciting themes pretty much every year. Since that time, however, they've been going downhill on so many levels particularly with how corporate they have become.
As far as I am concerned, they don't really care much about being creative nowdays as much as they do about making as much profit as possible.

Pt 2
"Spy" theme:
While I haven't ever heard the 21st century themes of Alpha Team, Agents and Ultra Agents referred to as "classic themes" there is no denying it is a pattern of subject matter LEGO has released lots of sets based on. James Bond is obviously the king of fictional spies, but even with the nonstop movies every few years since the 60s doesn't have much merchandising. LEGO did make the James Bond branded Aston Martin, but I don't think that sold well. And I doubt Lego would make any minifig stuff, given the violence, but they could make an 18+ D2C of another famous 007 vehicle in the future. Sure, the car didn't sell well, but neither did Old Trafford and look at the new Camp Nou...
Aquazone:
While tempted to type "lol nope," I will explain. There are very little underwater based fictional franchises. Maybe Disney would be willing to release a cool Nautilus from their old 20,000 Leagues movie which is I guess on Disney+? At least we have the Ninjago wave (punny) of sets now as well as City diving sets. The 97 Divers sets didn't stop Aquazone and these City sets aren't stopping Ninjago.
Western:
It has been said that Lego isn't likely to bring this back on their own. I can't think of any appropriate licenses. So the best bet is an Ideas set, like the one showcased on this site last week. An Ideas set would be the most likely way for an underwater set as well.
Pirates:
There is a gratuitous 6th PotC movie being made. Maybe Lego will make a one-off like the Silent Mary, maybe a full wave (punny again), maybe nothing considering the 5th movie was a "turkey." Things have been good for pirates though thanks to Barracuda Bay and to a much lesser extent Creator. But unfortunately Lego seems to be rejecting Pirates ideas now. Maybe after Barracuda Bay retires they would accept another one.

Very cool. Forget classic European castles, classic Japanese castle is a trend I could get behind. I'm a bit sorry I missed this theme (Dark Ages).

@Norikins:
Kevin Hinkle once told me that DC and Marvel had both been promoted to evergreen status, and that the only two themes that, at the time, currently had that status were City and Star Wars. Space and Castle may have held that status at one point, but it is clearly not a permanent upgrade. If sales fall off enough, it’s not worth pushing clearance fodder out the door, so they will absolutely demote it if it’s in the best financial interests of the company. Bionicle may have been an evergreen theme during its original run, but after concluding and a failed reboot, they’ll hardly even acknowledge that it ever happened.

@RoundhouseBrick said:
" @natro220 said:
"Unpopular opinion: Ninja is better than Ninjago. I said it."

I don't disagree there!
Ninjago is good, too, because there are lot of cool sets and parts, and the large Ninjago Movie sets are beautiful.
However, I would love to see the Ninja sets resurrected. They look more real, and don't have the flashy colours the Ninjago ones do.

I only have 6045 from the classic theme, all the others were too large and expensive for five-year-old me.
Currently I'm trying to piece together 6093, and it seems like it would have been cheaper to just buy it second hand. There are a lot pieces that are hard to get, and also they are necessary in large quantities.

I do have a little army of samurai warriors though!"

6093 does suffer from a lot of large, specialized, and printed parts making it expensive today. Back when I got one I was impressed by it's adherence to the old Lego "System" plan making it very easy to expand. I managed to buy a second set at a discount retailer in 1999 and completed the square shaped fortress by connecting them together. It was stunning. I really should resurrect them from my parts bins...

Classic Ninja! Classic Ninja! :D

Honestly? Few themes make me happier than this, Adventurers or Rock Raiders. Granted, this isn't my favourite example in the theme, it seems a little bland compared to most of the others; but still, just seeing something from the theme get its moment in the spotlight makes me happy ^^

I'd love to get more of these sets nowadays; the only one I own is still 6013. But the theme is hard to search for on eBay (just TRY searching "Lego Ninja" without getting swamped in Ninjago or TMNT results!), and not really cheap unless you happen to get there at just the right time to score a bargain. Still keeping my eye out for 6093 especially, though, which holds second place on my all-time Lego wishlist.