I think Lloyd and Cole's designs perfectly show that a year has passed. They both have longer hair and in general look like an older version of their previous designs
Keeping Zane’s original eyebrows was the best decision they could make. The movie ones were just thin straight lines and looked really stupid. He had them in MotO but luckily WildBrain gave him the original ones back.
@@garmadon3 Exactly. It's just, I like the current titanium face in both show/LEGO versions, but why is the minifigure SO angry? Zane is literally the sweetest boy in the entire show, why can't they change his expression to a more neutral one? He's barely angry
@@felipevaldes3487 I was recently able to finally get my first set and was slightly shocked to see how angry zanes face is. Kai and Jay have two faces (happy and angry) but they can't do that with zane. I wish they at least had a second head for him so he could be happy for once.
i think cole’s tired eyes being removed in the wild brain era is kind of smart, cole was so eager to look for wu so leaving him restless until he found wu so it just makes sense kind of
100% agree with this video. The new designs are more expressive, stylized, and just fit the ninja better in almost every single way. I just wish the transition between the two went smoother. I in fact did lose some sleep back in 2017 over how sudden and misleading the changes were, but at least it all turned out well in the end!
One thing I love about Lloyds redesing is that they gave him a normal mouth. The old one always had that stupid blocky shape when he talked and overall, Lloyd original face was the most bland out of them all
And some people can still say the new lloyd design is shit. Like bro he sounded and looked annoying af. As a ninjago fan who's been watching since 2011 I'm glad they changed it.
I am pretty set on most of these designs, but I wish that Cole kept that scar or we could get a modern minifgure with his earth-powered form. That being said Nya is by far the best improvement imo. They fact that she now has a more defined and personalized face allows for LEGO to give her more personalized facial expressions. LEGO used to use old city faces for Nya around 2015-2016, wich I personally didn’t find great. Now that prob can’t happen again due to Nya having a more defined face.
Lloyd's old design from season 2-7 mainly looked like that cuz it was supposed to be an 'older' version of young lloyd. Hence the childish face print and the basic hairpiece. That's why i loved the season 8 redesign for him cuz it was his proper transition into a grown up, to fit with the rest of the ninja.
I was mad at first, but then I realised how it actually turned out to be a good thing. The fact that Lloyd was getting older, the battle scars some of the ninja had, it shows they've changed and grown with time. Lloyd's voice change I think was a good decision too, showing how he's growing up. They could be more creative now, with his relationships, emotions, a d even a more complex personality.
i love every one of the redesigns, they also changed some personality traits to some of the ninja wich i mostly enjoy, except kai's personality change, he went from a leader/serious/cocky guy to just a joke, in the newer seasons he kinda just acts like a side character instead of a main one, at least in crystalized he got a bit more serious
Kai has always been the butt of alot of jokes though. "Leader" S5 even spends multiple of its episodes trying to tell the audience that Kai is not cut out for leadership
@@Crusty783 but yet kai still got the most focus of the 4 ninja that season. Kai basically was the main character until season 8. He’s still awesome and certainly feels the same, but he’s been sidelined drastically
Nya: New is better Lloyd: New is WAY better Cole: Equally good Jay: Fine, but bring back the eyebrow notch Zane: Equally good Kai: Mixed on his. I associate the new design with his character from S8 onward (which I don't like) so it's never grown on me. I actually like the old hair cuz it reminds me of an anime character. I do like how the new one has a scar though.
If they never changed Lloyds voice actor in Sons of Garmadon I don't think some scenes would be as emotional or impactful, like imagine og Lloyd repeating "The resistance never quits"
SOG and hunted is what actually saved this show considering the redesigns has such a backlash but because this show is a fan favourite, it’s still going strong today. EDIT: the redesigns are a controversial topic, but I love them I think there so much better, but the og’s are always nostalgic
I think the reason Kai's hair model looks weird is that its not based on an actual Lego model. Also I don't mind the scar disappearing, it makes sense given how scars fade over time
@@Crusty783 was it ever confirmed to be a permanent scar? Maybe it was more of just a scratch, that healed naturally over a year. He got it at the end of DOTD and had it in s7, but they were only like days at max apart so it'd make sense that the scar was still there.
My main issue is with Kai. His face looks strange with his bandage and mouth. And the newx Kai hairpiece is garbage, it’s way too tall and makes Kai vehicles difficult to design. The old one is ICONIC and stays on the minifigure really well (also yeh I always have a strand of hair sticking up on my head, don’t know why)
Like many people I was peeved at the redesigns at first as well but I quickly grew used to them. My bigger concern was that they'd all end up with VA changes like Lloyd did in order to more closely mimic the movie (not the actual movie actors, obviously, but sound alikes) but that didn't happen so yay. Jay does mildly annoy me for the sole reason that while the others look similar enough that they can be justified by time passing he looks just different enough that it's kind of hard to justify. I do like that show Kai finally has his scar and Cole being sleeveless makes so much sense to me in hindsight.
I 100% agree with everything you said. Lloyd’s new voice does make sense though as I couldn’t imagine Lloyd’s older voice actor with the new character design
I have a theory to kinda work worth Jay’s new design (not really good, but it could work if you made it) In season 4, there’s a brief mention of his wearing concealer, which was meant to be a “guy wears makeup” joke but we could take it as “Jay hides his freckles” His old hair design was pretty short, so he could just have natural curls And on a lot of the mini figures for him, his eyebrows are his original ginger colour, which could imply that he dyes his hair brown (I miss the eyebrow notch though, give it back)l
The personality traits for the ninja has changed ever since they got their new designs. Kai used to be serious, a well thought out leader and he was cocky, but now it’s taken to a whole nother level. Jay seems to be more immature. Cole’s more laidback and they seemed to have brought back his leader personality in Season 13. Nya’s more hot headed like her brother. She was angry in Season 5 and 6, but sometimes she gets angry when she’s annoyed. I think Zane’s voice got deeper. Lloyd with his new voice is very fitting since he was voiced by a male in the movie and recently, he always lashes out when he’s angry
"A well thought out leader" When he lead the team in S5, he: -spent a full day leading the ninja in the wrong direction, despite having a map -haggled with ronin in order to pay more for the scroll of airjitzu Kai has always been an idiot
@Crusty783 has he been an idiot sometimes? Yes. Has his character drastically changed in the opposite direction and for the worse? YES. Since you use season 5 for comparison, I have an example if his character change for you. In season 5, it is pushed heavily that Kai views Lloyd as a little brother. Kai is willing to risk drowning to save Lloyd. Kai puts himself at risk multiple times when facing Morrow to save Lloyd. In season 8, Kai throws a hissy fit when it comes to giving up their power to save Lloyd. Kai's character has been completely changed in the new seasons, and he hasn't always been an idiot. He has had his idiotic moments, but as seen in s4, he is not a complete idiot.
The old designs biggest problems was that they could have their face put on any other minifig and no one would bat an eye. But the current designs just feel like proper character designs that are uniquely distinct.
I started laughing when you talked about Kai's old hair, and when you started talking about why it looks stupid, I don't hate Kai's old hair, love both new and old, the new hair is pretty neat I guess :)
All of the Ninjago redesigns are better than the original. Especially the wildbrain ones, love that they brought zane's and jay's original hair colours back
@@edz5765 the old designs all use existing pieces, jay's hair has been used on 100+ minifigs, you can just grab most of thair hair and head and put it on a random civilian and also no non ninjago fans would know where the pieces are from
Wait, really? I mean, I have LEGO Jay's current hairpiece in the orange/red hair colour, but as I'm aware, the show hasn't used it. But I remember seeing Zane with his new hair in blonde
The og designs worked and served their purpose and the newer ones are certainly an upgrade, just wish Jay and Nya looked more accurate to their past designs as I can’t tell they’re the same characters if i didnt know But aside from that I’m satisfied with the changes
I think for the transition between designs they could’ve introduced them when kai and nya returned through the time portal in season 7. this would help prove cole’s argument in ep 75 on how wu’s trip could’ve changed their designs.
I never really had a problem with the redesigns, but it was still something that I had to adjust too and I still don’t know which designs I prefer because in one hand Lloyd and Nya looked much better with the redesigns but Kai, zane, Cole and jay looked better with the original designs
I pretty much agree with all your opinions. All the redesigns are upgraded imo. One thing I hate is people dropped the show because Jay has freckles. When that SoG clip first came out, the only thing I cared about was the Ninja were recognizable through their actions. As long as they were the same character, I wouldn’t really care about the redesigns. Also damn it’s been 5 years
LEGO should switch the Hairpiece's colour to ginger again (they could explain that Jay is just dying it). During my baby-toddler years, I was almost blonde, but as time went by, my hair became darker. So I get Jay's change could be natural Also, that hairpiece already exists in that colour, I've two of them.
While I don't think they're perfect, they're definitely an upgrade compared to the previous, especially jay and nya. I think it's really obvious that the designers were trying to differentiate the main cast as much as possible, I think it's perfect because now just by looking at a headpiece with no hair we can all tell which is which ninja at a first glance. giving nya a mole was probably the best way to differentiate her in a low-key way. Giving jay freckles is probably the most character-accurate detail they could have given him, I feel like it fits his personality PERFECTLY.
I personally don't mind these designs as much as I used to, but I still have a few criticisms with them: -Jay's design is so much of a stretch from the original, that it almost changes his personality. I just think he's way less expressive than he used to be, as well as him now looking like a really shy kid rather than the loud jokester he is. - The removal of the iconic eyebrows really caused a problem with the show's iconic nature, as each ninja was distinguishable through just their eyebrows, but now I probably couldn't tell you which was which if I were given the same test.
I remember being really upset about this at first as well. I kept hoping it was fake and that they would reveal that it was all some big hoax. (I wasn't really that involved in social media at the time. I was very depressed when I saw the sets and knew that the designs were definitely changing. What was worse was that with Lloyd being the only one shown in the trailer, I thought they were changing all the character's voices as well. I definitely felt more relieved when I realized they just changed Lloyd's voice to make him sound older. Jumping to today, I have no problem with the current designs. The only thing I really miss is Jay's split eyebrow.
I think I prefer Kais older mouth I dunno there's something about his goofy lopsided smile and frown I like Also with his new mouth are those wrinkles or dimples or what? Like I genuinely don't know what it's supposed to be
And remember when people thought that the Ninja's designs changed, due to some wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, stuff, that Wu probably caused. When in reality, Lloyd's eyes turned Green due to him becoming more entuned with his element, ( As explained in Way of the Departed.) Zane created a new human form with his cloaking device, Nya stopped using lipstick, gained a mole and tied up her hair, Jay stopped using concealer, and let his hair go all Shaggy, and Kai and Cole just changed their hair.
I agree with what you said. I also think that they should’ve put jays eye brow slit, i think was very unique to his character because no one else in the show had it. One thing you didn’t mention was garmadons redesign. I think Garmadon looks much better than he did in season 1-2 and looks cooler with the purple on him. But besides that the video was great :) (I also laughed so hard when you talked about Kai’s old hair. That made my day lol)
This makes me feel like the only person in the community who never had a problem with the redesigns. I always liked them well enough. I didn't hate them or super love them either, but I thought they were generally an improvement and nothing to moan and cry about. Literally every other show ever, live action or animation, has character designs change. It's called being a living human being. Do YOU keep your hairstyle the same for your entire fcking life?! The redesigns don't bother me. What makes me ANGRY is how upset people got over something so trivial. GET OVER YOURSELVES! As I said, people change their hair.
I feel like it would have been better if they used a mix of old and new designs like keep Jay eyebrow slash but change the hair that way it makes sense that they are getting older there , Lloyd eyebrows color did not really need to be changed but I like the green eyes but I really feel making old and new wouldn't really be bad
In my opinion bringing the movie designs was a great idea cuz now it shows that they’re growing older and they’re not teenagers anymore they’re adults now.
I hated the changes at first, but I recently watched the whole series again.. Honestly? The old designs look kind of.. Naked? Empty? Anyway, they really help to make the characters look more unique. They're honestly way better, and I think people that disagree are blinded by nostalgia.
And to this day, people still call seasons 8-10 one of the worst pieces of ninjago media simply because they are butthurt that Kai got actually decently good-looking hair.
Tbh, changing Zane and Lloyd’s design is what kinda saved the show for me. Ever since season four, I’ve always thought that Zane’s titanium design looked weird as heck (like, I don’t need to see the other side of the screen whenever I look at his face, tyvm), and although I had less problems with Lloyd’s design, his face feels weirdly…small? (It’s also generic as crap)
An explanation would helped to underdtand what would happened after S7. All the new desings are such an upgrade, and they finally have their own siluettes, and pieces. Like, in other Lego lines you can call the "Lloyd's hair piece" as the others
I was concerned at first, but Sons Of Garmadon and Hunted basically told me that these are the same Ninja we know and love, despite how different they look.
eh, I think they're a lot better than their old models, since they were litterally just re-using peices from other models. but with these, the characters actually feel a lot more unique, and fits their personalities quite well. although, the only one I really don't like, is the decision to change Jay's hair colour, since it doesn't really make sense on how red hair can just turn into auburn, but they luckily fixed it later with s16 p1 upwards by making his hair lighter. I think the reason why Cole's scar dissapeared after s7, is going to be explained in WOTD since it is during that time. though Nya's new hair peice...eh, its not that its bad, but the pony tail look has been used and re-used for so many female characters, that it often becomes confusing. it didn't exactuly help tell Pixal and her apart, when she had Pixals markings and hair in the seabound finale.
8:40 I know I'm late, but that's because it WAS a baby face; this franchise has a lot of discrepancies between the show's character models and the actual lego minifigures (for example, Jay's new minifigure face is completely different to his old one yet in the show it looks nearly identical if you were to add a notch to his eyebrow). The minifigure versions of Lloyd have noticably different face prints for kid Lloyd and adult Lloyd, yet the show never actually updated to the latter and just used the kid face until the movie came out.
i dont really know what to think of the re designs yet, Im currently re watching the whole show and when I was young I never got past hands of time. Partally because of the re design, I watched like 2 episodes sons of gramadon and then quit. I just couldnt get over the new look and it took away so much enjoyment of the show from me, but Im exited to see how I feel about them when Ill see them again soon
I would've combined the movie designs with the old ones, like how Zane has his old face with new hair, but for Lloyd, I would actually use the face that he had when Morro possessed him but before it turned green because that was actually a different face to his un possessed one, his eye brows were bigger making him look older and I think his eyes and mouth were also a bit different but would use that face with his new hair
crazy how none of them has facial hair in my opinion lloyd had a glow up tbh i liked kai's original look and jays, zane looks the same cole his og design is way better
3:15 I thought you were gonna say it's unsettling like many think, lmao. It does look pretty good, especially in S15 For S1-7 Lloyd, I wish they gave him the updated minifig head used from Rebooted onwards. It fixes the weird smirk and tiny eyebrows, and looks like he's grown more. Instead of just being the young face, for 7 seasons...
I know I'm two years late, but; I've ALWAYS been a fan of the movie designs, and I'm glad they used those designs (albeit with some tweaks that fit the show better) in Season 8 and onwards.
When we first saw the new designs I hated them. Now though, I actually like all of them way better. I also like that they still incorporate the old designs in flashbacks.
Reminds me of the time I talked to some guy on discord telling me that he stopped watching ninjago thinking that the lego ninjago movie was canon to the show prolly cos of the new designs.
I think there is an aspect of the redesigns where they're better simply because they're newer. The animations have a higher budget, they probably put more time into them than the original designs. I don't think there would be any doubts that they're better if it wasn't for nostalgia
I remember watching Cartoon Network a few years ago (I thought ninjago ended at season 6 bc they only had it till then on Netflix) I was surprised it was still running but I was SOOOOOOOOOOO confused and also very happy coz they changed Nya's design, I cannot describe how much I hated it ( -not only that but I also used to have huuuuuuuuge crush on Jay when I was 7 so that made my hatred for Nya worse- ) But I did get used to it eventually. I was also confused that the voces were the same as the classic ninjas but I'm honestly really glad about that too (no offence to the movie cast)
Personally I would have preferred meeting in the middle between movie and show designs. My big problem with the newer designs isn't necessarily the designs themselves, but that they looked SO much better in the movie. Even what, 8 seasons later I feel like they still have that uncanny valley effect. At least to me personally. I do have a few gripes with some of them (like how Zane's face feels a lot cheaper due to shading, and how it isn't as 'reflective,') but overall I think they're an improvement. I just feel like they were misplaced for the most part
For me I still feel the same with the new design. Zane, Cole, Lloyd and Nya look better than the original but Kai and Jay look awful and I prefer their original version.
Wrong opinion on the Kai hair lol. Though the new design is... tolerable, it is still far too over the top and long to conceivably fit inside his hood, which was much less of a problem with the old designs come to think of it. The old design fits his character (courageous, not cocky) much better. It also doesn't help that Kai has not had a decent arc since the redesigns.
I agree! That's why I like the old one better ;) In all seriousness, you are, of course, entitled to your own opinions. I just know that every in-person fan I have talked to prefers the old Kai hair, feeling that the new one is (even in the show) too over-the-top and crazy.
Actually Cole and Jay have "explained" in a certain way, why they could have changed their look when they were talking about time traveling in that temple.
I like Cole, Lloyd, Zane, and Nya better with the redesign. Kai and Jay look just as good as their originals. I Especially like Lloyd's redesign, he looks so much better and older. Season 7 was a Stupid season, Season 8, 9, and 10 were all better.
@@silentghost751 well jay's new design only problem with me is that he is more like a teenager even tho he acts like it sometimes and I don't feel any difference with others than they look more like what their personality says about them.
The people who think that season 7 was the last good ninjago season genuinely confuse me. Most of the people who say that in my experience haven't even seen anything past that or maybe they've seen one or two episodes. I really don't understand why people would think that new design = bad. Not to mention season 7 isn't anything special as is