New Legends Of Chima Lego Sets - Release Date & News

Today we are taking a look at the brand new Legends Of Chima Lego sets to be released in 2013. This new theme is replacing Ninjago and Lego are hoping that over the next few years the Legends Of Chima sets will be some of their biggest sellers. In this article we will check out what new sets are going to be available in 2013 and we will also talk about release dates and prices for these.

Since 2010 Lego Ninjago has been one of the most popular themes that Lego have been running. We have seen various exciting Ninjago sets, but over the summer of 2012 Lego announced they would be bringing the range to an end and an exciting new theme would replace Ninjago. Fans were not happy about this as they really loved the Ninjago toys, however Lego have stuck to their decision and recently announced that Legends Of Chima will indeed be the brand new theme. So what can we tell you about this?

As with most Lego themes such as Ninjago and now Chima there is a story that the toys are based on. So obviously kids who want to collect these new builds want to know what the whole thing is about. So here is a little bit of what the new theme will be based on.

Chima is a land where a very intellectual race of creatures live. These creatures are part human and a mix of other things ranging from rodents to bird like animals. They live in impressive buildings and drive around in amazing vehicles, but now the peace of the land is under threat. The people of Chima have discovered a mighty power known as Chi. This Chi is very much sought after due to it's immense power for both creation and destruction. Now a struggle between good and evil will take place with those who do good wanting to protect the mystical power while the evil creatures want to misuse it and put the entire land in danger.

That is a brief overview of the basic story. Obviously we will soon learn more about individual characters and their abilities. There is certainly plenty of scope for Lego to expand the storyline and get lots of interesting characters involved, thus creating plenty of new sets. So what kind of new sets are we likely to see with the first wave?

So it seems as though Lego have brought out a new theme that will be very similar to what we were used to with Ninjago. The theme consists of characters that look part humanoid and part rodent, obviously when we know more about the story behind the series we will let you know. The sets also appear to have a battle theme to them, much as the Ninjago ones did. One set we have seen previewed has two vehicles which look like a cross between motorbikes and helicopters. It looks as though you can shoot the vehicles out and they fire up a ramp into the air and then collide with each other. It may well be that we see Legend Of Chima games and battle packs much as we were used to with Ninjago. Lego are obviously aiming these toys at the same audience so they don’t want to move to far away from what they have had success with in the past.

Although it is still very early days there have been some sets mentioned that we could well be seeing. The two sets mentioned are Chi Battles 70113 which is the set with the vehicles that fire up the ramps. This is said to contain over 400 pieces and two minifigures although this has not been confirmed yet. The other set is Lennox’s Lion Buggy 70002 and we are assuming that Lennox is going to be one of the main characters. The Legends of Chima sets are now available online and you can pick these up from places such as eBay. Price are about what we assumed they would be so not bad value at all.

Along with these two sets that are almost certain there are another 12 new sets pencilled in for release in 2013. These include ones such as Crawley’s Reptile Gripper, Eris’ Eagle Hunter, Laval’s Lion Quad and Speedorz Fire Ring. As you can see from the names of these it looks as though many of the new sets will be in the form of vehicles, again something we often saw when we were getting Ninjago. We now have pictures for some of these sets so we have added this to our page.

When it comes to a release date for this new theme we have not been give anything definite. We do know that there will be one more wave of Ninjago released early in 2013 so we would expect Lego to wait until this one is done before they start with the Legends Of Chima release. So we could be waiting until spring or even summer before we get a release date for this new theme.

UPDATE - Despite what we suspected it seems that Lego have decided to release the Chima set early so they are now popping up online and in stores. So as of January you can buy these new Lego builds. Time will tell how popular they are and how they do in comparison with Ninjago.

The move away from Ninjago is a very controversial and brave one from Lego. To end one of your most successful lines after only a few years is a big risk. Fans all over the world have been busy posting on forums voicing their displeasure at the decision. Lego have the experience and knowledge to know how the market works though, if they think this new theme will sell better then it could well do.

We are assuming that Lego will introduce a whole storyline to go with the Legends Of Chima release, much like they have done with Ninjago. It will be interesting to see just how well these new sets go when they do finally get their release date. Although some people are not happy about the decision we are expecting this new theme to be very successful over the coming years. With this first wave of new sets Lego will be wanting lots of hype and publicity to give Legends Of Chima a really strong start which will set it up for the next few years.