Parts of Darkness: One man's journey into the madness and mystery of Legends of Chima

[thoroakenfelder]

For some time, every time that I have heard the Legend of Chima mentioned, it's been half joke, half cautionary tale. The conventional wisdom says stay away, stay far away. There's a few people that are wild enough, dangerous enough or wily enough to have made some money on Chima. They say buy cheap enough and you can make money on anything. I began to wonder about the non-licensed LEGO Intellectual Properties. What is it that makes Chima such poison? Why are these LEGO sets reviled? I felt like I had to know more. I felt like I had to understand what makes one series less desirable than another.

I decided to start with what I know of Chima. In the early days, LEGO was giving out Speedorz for free with purchases. I know because I got some. I was able to sell those eventually making about $5 each. As far as I was concerned, I made money, though not much, and notably less than LEGO was trying to sell the same thing for. My buy in was good, free with purchase. That doesn't tell me much though. I didn't keep the Speedorz because I was uninterested in LEGO sets that weren't really building sets. Now that those sets were long gone. I needed something else. I had to go further. Maybe the denizens of the land of Chima could help.

Half forgotten memories of something that I sold off as an afterthought weren't going to do it. I had to look deeper. I had to follow the trail. I unearthed a handful of minifigures that came in a bulk lot, and a couple that were part of Target cubes that I had purchased. Nature's mistakes some might call these poor twisted creatures. That is, if there was anything natural about them in the first place. Anthropomorphic animals that wear animal head helmets. Are the helmets supposed to be part of them, or some representation of the animals that they once were? How could I know? I took off the helmets and was happy to see the dual sided heads, until I realized that they were worse than useless. The Chima helmets cover the entire head. No face is visible when they are wearing the helmets, but when you take them off, these freaks become some kind of grotesquerie with two faces. Every single Chima is like Professor Quirrel and Voldemort. It doesn't really matter how good or bad the figures are when something fundamental like creating dual faces without a reason slips by. Sure, you can turn the head around so they'll be angry, but the angry face will be just as hidden by the helmet as the happy face. This is worse than Batman's sweatband. I fled the tiny freaks with their shoulder armor and wings (fire wings are awesome by the way) and their transparent limbs and zombie-ish body damage. Is this why people didn't travel down into the dark heart of Chima? Is this what stops most people? My journey almost ended there, but I had to push on. I had to get to the heart of it.

I had to observe. I had to see what the children saw, so I unleashed the torments of the cartoon upon myself. I thought that I knew what I was getting into. I've watched more than my fair share of licensed toy cartoons. I've seen the LEGO Movie and the LEGO Super Heroes videos. I thought that I knew what to expect. I thought I was prepared. I was wrong. The cartoon is dreadful. It's poorly executed nonsense. The main "hero" (Laval) is an idiot and the main antagonist (Cragger) is an easily manipulated fool. As far as I can tell, the "Chi" is some kind of naturally occurring steroid with hideously addictive properties. The Lions are the kingpins and the Crocodiles are the meth addicts that live in the swamp trailer park, constantly jonesing for their fix. The rhinos are dumber than a bag of hammers and the gorillas are too stoned to be effective at anything. The wolves are thug, the eagles are the lion's enforcers and the ravens are some kind of group of mercenary scavengers, easily distracted by shiny things. There's a collection of animals that just said no at some point hundreds or thousands of years before. Somehow, not taking the drugged water made them stronger and longer lived. I have to stop there. I can't relive the unspeakable horrors of this cartoon anymore. I lost days in there to madness. Was it a symptom of that madness to continue this foolhardy quest? It probably was, but I had come this far. I had to see it through.

I needed to get a feel for these monstrosities myself. I had to build them to see if there was beauty buried within. I couldn't believe that they were all terrible. The underlying parts were the same as sets and themes that I enjoy. I found 2 sets on my shelves, but that wouldn't do. I couldn't do it with just a couple sets that I had found on clearance. I needed to dive deeper. I put out the call for sets that were cheap, expecting people to be thrilled to get their money back out of these beasts. Strangely, no one stepped forward. The only offers that I received were full retail offerings of used sets through Facebook and a few scattered offerings of new sets at a markup. People who spoke ill of Chima, still seemed to believe that there was something there of value. Was conventional wisdom just a blind that people hid behind, believing that there was still money to be made down the road? Was money back worth less than the effort of digging out the hated sets in order to convenience a stranger? Probably the latter. But, I found a few more sets on clearance, and found someone dumping his collection on ebay and dove in to the murky depths. I had to build, the fever of madness was upon me. It would be either glory or grotesquerie, but my journey would be over soon. Soon I would know the truth. . .

The brightly colored packaging was appealing. Warm orange and cool blue mutually highlighted each other. The packaging though, only hid what was inside. I had to open the packaging to see what lay within. I started small with a battle pack and a legendary beast. Strangely, the legendary beast was enjoyable for such a small set, better than many other $9.99-$12.99 sets that I have built. The small ones were harmless and easily dismissed. I was hunting bigger game. Surely as I worked my way up the ladder, I would be exposed to the depravity of this theme. As I built the sets, I looked for simplicity of design including large elements that made them easier to put together. I looked for play elements that were more important than functionality. I immersed myself into the ideas of this theme. I went native, thinking of how the ability to change a vehicle from one form to another might make sense. A large boat that could actually float made less sense to me than vehicles that looked like birds that would never fly. I pulled ripcords and launched Speedorz at targets, at each other, at my cats before succumbing to the darkness inside.

I awoke, surrounded by animal head helmets and dual sided heads placed in a row before the greatest darkness. My eyes wouldn't focus upon it for the longest time. I forced myself to look. There I beheld something that I wish I could forget, even here at home, long after my ordeal. My eyes rested upon Worriz' Fire Bike, and I knew fear. I am told that I spoke two words only, but I lost some time there. They say that I said "The horror."

When I came back to myself, I was clutching my Star Wars minifigures to my chest tightly. Someone knew how to restore my sanity. Brief glimpses of the dark heart of Chima still haunt me at night. The truth is, there's nothing inherently wrong with Chima. The same pieces were used by the same designers to create a theme aimed at children. The builds run the gamut from clever to uninspired. The minifigures are highly repetitive, I'm not entirely sure I can tell a main character from one of the faceless hordes. I enjoyed the build aesthetic where everything looked to some degree like the animals that used them.

As an adult, we had no anchor or inroad. We could jump in to the deep end, as I did and find something to enjoy about them, but it's like candy. You can enjoy it while you're building it, but it's easily forgotten. As far as a future, children (especially modern children) have a very short memory. Very few children will return to the world of Chima to recover their youth as they graduate up through the themes. Adults weren't the original market and inherently knew it, so they didn't really get behind it. There's nothing wrong with Chima, but there's nothing really right about it.  

When you look at the whole line, the problem suddenly crystalizes. This theme was supposed to take the reigns from Ninjago. Ninjago was supposed to fade away and allow for Chima's Pre-eminence. Something happened that allowed Ninjago to continue. Ninjago outlasted Legends of Chima. I've watched Ninjago with my kids and seen the sets that they've built, and I realized that while they are both juvenile, it seems that Ninjago was treated with more respect by the company. Fans, young and old can tell when they are being respected and when they are just being given a new product for the sake of change.

I can look at the sets that I have built and appreciate them for some things. I'll try to ignore the problems with the minifiures. I'll play with them with my kids and try to forget the terrible cartoon. I'll try to forget how incredibly stupid the characters are. I may not try too hard to reassemble things if my kids smash them. It's time to move on and forget the confusion, the fear and yes even the beauty. I'll try to forget that somewhere out there, Worriz waits with his fire bike.

 

EDIT: (I never intended for this to be a typical dog whistle where I jump on and make fun of Chima. I was actually fairly curious about the theme and decided to try it out. My final feelings are mixed because it serves its purpose, but it doesn't really excel. Nothing that I built was terrible or truly worthy of disdain,just not worthy of praise either.)

---

[jaxman]

Excellent write up.  For everyone's benefit, I'll include this:

TL;DR Chima sucks, Ninjas are cool

[Armor]

Your lucky to have survived the ordeal. 

[jaxman]

Just now, Armor said:

Your lucky to have survived the ordeal. 

He may have survived, but I think it changed him.

[Will 4]

Those ravens seem smart people targeting shiny things.

This reminds me of bionicle a weak tv series trying to save a line. The problem I have is this if I give this to a kid they cannot instantly tell good guy from bad guy as oppose to Ninjago where its obvious as you showed the Chi concept thing is hard to understand where as Ninjago to start with focused on golden weapons (shiny) so the kid knew what the sides were fighting over giving them an instant knowledge which is what Kids want as oppose to something they have to look up. They are identical with a play element added with the spinner from the start but these have slowly been killed off and it is more set based. The other point is that the foe has changed in Ninjago meaning kids want the new enemy or Ninja from skeletons to snakes to ghosts to pirates with a bad color scheme

From my TFOL perspective the Ninjago line contains ninjas and has some sets that would attract an AFOL as oppose to Chima it also contains some unique elements and some good Japanese architecture in some buildings.

Great review I would consider therapy now after that TV series

[exciter1]

I finally was able to delete all 40 episodes or so off the DVR.  My son didn't even complain.  Now I'm trying to disassemble a few sets and put them away, although he's still attached to his Chi Temple and Ice Stronghold.  I made money from my Chima purchases.  Some sets I wish I still had, or purchased more.

[Val-E]

If Lepin haven´t, you had better not.

[thoroakenfelder]

THis was originally going to be a blog article, but I didn't feel like it was worthy of the front page.

[fuzzy_bricks]

I agree that the characters are all window lickers that belong on the back of the bus with Turg.

I don't mind most of their other cartoons, but this was just the worst.  The one character that I bothered to see if they made, they didn't....Shadow Wind.

[TheOrcKing]

The only fault of the line I can agree with was the poorly executed television series. The designs for the characters and their respective vehicles were good, the underlying premise supporting their world was interesting, all this setting the stage for something greater than unfortunately it turned out to be. The stories were barely chains of events happening haphazardly and the inhabitants had less depth than an empty shot glass.

I will admit some of my judgment on the TV show stems from my own ideals of how it could have been instead of what it was. I suppose looking across what they had laid out, to me there felt to be much potential in something closer to the maturity of Bionicle (the original with issues of DC comics alongside the releases). Now I do not mean 'dark', just simply smart with a little edge. Though I am unsure of what LEGO's true inspiration was for Chima, perhaps they should have looked harder at an older animated series that got it right called Thundercats. By today's standards the animation can be stiff and maybe 'dirty' but the characters and worlds were fleshed out. A few odd moments to be sure yet altogether well done.

Well, I think I have ranted enough about the show. Anyway the minifigures are great even if, yes, you cannot see the expressions under that "head helmet" of theirs making the double-sided printing seem more pointless on their own at least. These characters have made cool critters filling my fantasy world. Haha. I still have yet to find a use for the actual Speedor wheel assembly however several random ideas have popped up in thy mind.

[thoroakenfelder]

If they had just done the heads as full animal head pieces instead of helmet, I think it would have been better.

[HandyHand]

Nice story, @thoroakenfelder. Funny and interesting to read.  

Now the question I have is ... Will Nexo Knights fare a better fate than Chima? At least with Nexo Knights the good guys and the bad guys are easily distinguishable, both in looks and in use of colour. I also think the NK theme has more general appeal than the Chima theme. I haven't watched any Nexo Knights TV-series though, and I have no idea how kids these days pick up this theme. Do they like it as much as Ninjago?

[thoroakenfelder]

2 hours ago, Haay said:

Nice story, @thoroakenfelder. Funny and interesting to read.  

Now the question I have is ... Will Nexo Knights fare a better fate than Chima? At least with Nexo Knights the good guys and the bad guys are easily distinguishable, both in looks and in use of colour. I also think the NK theme has more general appeal than the Chima theme. I haven't watched any Nexo Knights TV-series though, and I have no idea how kids these days pick up this theme. Do they like it as much as Ninjago?

My kids only exposure to the nexo knights cartoon so far has been in the legoland 4d cinema, and it was actually kind of terrifying to them. I don't know if that has impacted their interest in the toys, but they both would rather talk about ninjago.

[Phil B]

19 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

My kids only exposure to the nexo knights cartoon so far has been in the legoland 4d cinema, and it was actually kind of terrifying to them. I don't know if that has impacted their interest in the toys, but they both would rather talk about ninjago.

My son really likes the Nexo Knights game on his tablet, but since he discovered you can scan the entire catalog of shields directly from the internet, he doesn't need the sets. Only ones he has are 2 freebies: the Royal Guard and Ultimate Lavaria. I do think he has his eyes on a set or two for purchase - have to wait until he publishes his Christmas wish list.

[Val-E]

7 minutes ago, Phil B said:

My son really likes the Nexo Knights game on his tablet, but since he discovered you can scan the entire catalog of shields directly from the internet, he doesn't need the sets. Only ones he has are 2 freebies: the Royal Guard and Ultimate Lavaria. I do think he has his eyes on a set or two for purchase - have to wait until he publishes his Christmas wish list.

When Lego outsmart themselves.....