What Is LEGO Legends Of Chima?
What Is LEGO Legends Of Chima?: A Look At A Dead Theme
Legends of Chima was an original LEGO theme that ran between 2013 and 2015. It was, to be frank, doomed from the start: It was pitched as a replacement for LEGO Ninjago, a theme introduced in 2011 that is still going strong in 2023.
Like most themes from this time, Chima had a special subtheme within its theme: Speedorz. This minigame was played with one-wheel motorcycles powered by a ripcord, used to surpass obstacles and complete challenges to earn Chi crystals.
It also featured an Ultrabuild subtheme, representing some of the characters when they "Chi up" - this subtheme is built in the same style as the Bionicle and Hero Factory sets, using the CCBS system from Hero Factory. These cropped up around summer 2013 for six of the Season One characters and returned in summer 2014 for a handful of the Season Three characters (two of which had Season One Ultrabuilds).
Legends of Chima takes place on the continent of Chima, under the watchful eye of the floating Mount Cavora. Mount Cavora dispenses powerful Chi in the form of water, which solidify into orbs that are used by the Tribes of Chima to power their machines, strengthen themselves in combat, and even return the Season Three baddies from the dead. This land is the home of anthropomorphic animals who evolved by originally drinking the Chi water after Mount Cavora rose into the air, though not every animal drank the water. There are eight primary Tribes, and thus, eight Legend Beasts who did not drink: Lions, Crocodiles, Eagles, Ravens, Gorillas, Wolves, Bears, and Rhinos. We also meet an unevolved-yet-English-speaking plover, a Skunk, a Fox, a Peacock, and the Beaver Tribe. But don't be fooled - as far as the narrative is concerned, the most important Tribe is the Lions.
In-universe, Speedors are the fastest mode of transport. They can hold one person comfortably (though you can shove a second person in if necessary) and are the preferred vehicles for the competitions each month for the Golden Chi, a more powerful Chi orb that can terraform a small area of land or spontaneously create things. To make things more equal, or at least as equal as possible, each month there is a Market Day and a tournament held for each Tribe to enter one member to compete for the Golden Chi. Usually this is a race, however alternative tournaments such as jousts are known to occasionally take place. They don't appear often in the TV show, but they appear in the Speedorz sets and in the opening of Laval's Journey.
An important thing to know is that this is a very male character-heavy show. I cannot emphasize enough how few female characters we get. Most of the women in this show are either doormats, villains, or aren't allowed to have their full personality as shown in the Character Encyclopedia. (A friend of mine requested that I add Eris as the exception to the rule.) We don't even get to meet a solo female Tribe leader until Season Two, and she's one of the villains. This is a big flaw with LEGO's original themes, but also a lot of popular shows with larger casts from the 2010s.
There's also a distinct lack of children seen in this series. We see one female Gorilla child with a minifigure, one male Wolf child without a minifigure, and a Season Three Tribe child with a minifigure.
The First Tribes
Lions: The guardians of the Chi who ensure that it is shared equally among all of the Tribes. If they were a D&D character, the Lions as a whole would be Lawful Good paladins. They are led by a king.
Crocodiles: The only amphibious Tribe who tend to be both the Lions' greatest allies and worst enemies depending on what stick their king has shoved up his ass this month. They are led by a king and a queen until fuckery happens but they return in Season Two.
Eagles: The smarty-pants Tribe who have basically the only library in Chima (until...) and are led by a council rather than a monarchy.
Ravens: The rogue capitalists who love a good money-making scheme. Their loyalty can and has been bought several times over. They can and will steal anything not nailed to the floor, and then they'll steal the floor too. It's unclear how they determine who's in charge, but it seems to be whoever styles themself as the most fancy at the moment.
Gorillas: The hippies who will go apeshit (ha) on you if you harm nature. Absolute powerhouses in combat. Overuse the terms "dude" and "dudette" because that's what the early-to-mid-2010s thought a hippie did. They don't exactly have a leadership, but they listen to their elders.
Wolves: Where do I even start with these guys. It's highly implied that they eat people, they go mad during the Hundred Year Moon, and they've been known to betray even the Crocs, who they signed a pact with back in the day. Yet somehow they pull it off quite well. They're a pack without a leader, but they do have a "diplomat" in Worriz, who was voted the "most personable".
Bears: They spend most of their time sleeping, which is the in-universe excuse for why these powerhouses aren't involved in the plot. They also didn't get minifigures until late Season Three was airing and the theme was close to dying, and they only got two minifigures at that time. It's also unclear how their leadership works, or if they even have any. They have access to a mystical dream realm in which they play and communicate with each other.
Rhinos: They are, unfortunately, the dumb muscle group. Though it's mentioned that there are multiple female Rhinos who are much smarter than the male Rhinos, the only one we meet is Rinona, who is Rogon's sister. They don't know who's in charge, but they figure it's Rogon because Rogon remembers coming from a "fancy" family.
Beavers: These are workaholics who consider vacations to be punishment. If you even mention something being broken, expect a small hoard of these little creatures to appear to fix it. They didn't get minifigures until around the same time the Bears did, and they only got one. They also seem to have a leader, but it's unclear who that leader is. I suppose that their leader would essentially be a boss?
Season One: Laval Makes Bad Decisions, Crooler Makes Worse Ones
Laval is the Prince of the Lion Tribe, son of King Lagravis (or LaGravis, depending on which spelling you're going with; this is a running theme with character names). Cragger is the Prince of the Croc Tribe, son of King Crominus (who is PROBLEMATIC but that never gets addressed) and Queen Crunket (local doormat of a woman who did not deserve her life drama). Crooler is Cragger's technically-older-sister who was overlooked by their parents during their literal hatching because Cragger's egg went a boot-scootin'. Somehow, Crooler is the villain.
Lots of shit happens. Crooler uses a magic plant to mind-control her brother. Their parents fall into the Gorge of Eternal Depth during the war, followed by a bunch of Chi that Laval throws down. Crooler eventually runs out of magic plants, Cragger and Laval make up their friendship break and stop the war, and BAM, Season Two hits when Queen Crunket returns on the back of the mythical Crocodile Legend Beast with bad news and bearing the banner of Season Two.
The Crawlers, a.k.a. the Dark Tribes
Scorpions: Vicious and adding a sinister edge, the Scorpions are highly aggressive, even considering the other two Tribes. They are led by a king with a general, but they also have a arachnid centaur-looking motherfucker named Scutter and he's great. These guys are, hands down, my favorites.
Spiders: The master engineers and builders, who also serve as the strategists. They are obsessed with beauty, and no one encompasses it more than their dear Queen Spinlyn, who is another arachnid centaur-looking motherfucker.
Bats: Making up the bulk of the army and never seen speaking other than to Scorm, the Bats are kinda a nightmare if you think about them too long. Supplementary materials refer to them as blind, but the TV show doesn't bother with that. They're considered the lowest-ranking among the Crawlers and have the toughest Bat as their leader.
Season Two: Laval Makes More Bad Decisions, Scorm Follows His Lead
As it turns out, introduction to Chi orbs also causes evolution, but an incomplete one based on how fucked up the Crawlers are. The eight Heroes of Chima (one from each Tribe) plus Rogon's sister make their way to the Outlands past where the Tribes usually roam and meet an exiled Lion named Lavertus. I'm gonna go ahead and spoil this plot twist, but Lavertus is the brother of Laval's dad and was exiled because he was in love with Crunket, so Crominus used a persuader plant to make Lavertus steal Chi and be exiled forever before Crominus married Crunket.
Remember how I said that Crominus never experiences the consequences of his actions?
But yeah, it turns out that Crooler had access to persuader plants because Crominus kept cultivating them. And now the Crawlers have evolved, stopped up Mount Cavora with the Spiders' webs to steal the Chi, and captured the Legend Beasts. Needless to say, everything falls apart for them by the end of the season because this is a series where the heroes always win in the end. Laval takes pity on Scorm and gives him a single orb of Chi to rescue himself from the cave-in he caused. Scorm is obviously unused to literally any sort of kindness and, following in Laval's footsteps, throws the Chi orb down a chasm while swearing off of Chi.
This awakens Season Three's villains.
The Ice Hunters
Saber-Tooth Tigers: Make up the bulk of the Ice Hunters. Led by Sir Fangar, who started all of this mess. Has a traitorous general but this never actually comes to any conclusion during the TV show because the different LEGO departments apparently are forbidden from speaking to each other and have to crunch out this stuff at light speed.
Mammoths: The bigguns of the Ice Hunters. Features the biggest biggun, Mungus. Led by a queen and the mother of Mungus and Mottrot, but this is undermined in that the rest of her Tribe doesn't respect her calls. Also very Southern US-coded in accent.
Vultures: The air support for the Ice Hunters, but also are naturally lazy and unambitious. Veeeeery exaggerated in a single area, such as patience, optimism, or pessimism. Led by Vardy, though it's not clear what title is ascribed to him.
Ice Bears: Only introduced late in Season Three, the Ice Bears are the unstoppable barbarians who were only awakened by Sir Fangar as a last resort. Have beef with the modern Bears. Led by their token archer/vehicle operator Icebite.
The Fire Tribes
Phoenixes: The secret guardians of Chima who actually do fuckall until the ground Tribes finally just kick in the door and demand help. They provide special Fire Chi to help defeat the Saber-Tooth Tigers and are key to the Deus Ex Machina in the end. Led by a king of great wisdom but little action.
Cat Guides: Composed primarily of the Tiger Tribe but with a token Leopard and a maneless Lioness, who gets shoehorned in as Laval's love interest despite being way more interesting outside of her potential relationship with him. Led by the last Tunnel Cat, Tormak, who is the adoptive father of aforementioned Lioness and did a bunch of shady shit to rescue and protect her but you can't really blame him because he actually did shit.
Season Three: No One Here Is Responsible
A lot happens in this season. The Ice Hunters wake up and start freezing everyone and everything. Mount Cavora secretly had Tribes on it this whole time. Fire powers for our protagonists, flipping Season One's idea of "blue=good red=bad" literally on its head. A completely unnecessary weird love triangle where it's actually an old man creeping on some young adults. The reveal that the reason Mount Cavora started doing its thing is because Fluminox refused to sacrifice himself in the first Great Illumination to stop the Ice Hunters, turning them into ice zombies and raising Mount Cavora and creating Chima as we know it. The second Great Illumination that fixes and unzombifies and unfreezes everything.
This is not a very kind summary of Season Three, but it's the main parts.
Looking Back
Looking back on Chima now as a grown ass adult, I can't help but notice some problems with it. The usage of Tribe alongside Chinese-looking lettering alongside the flagrant use of "insane" and "crazy" to write off the villains and the indication that stupid people are unfit to make their own decisions and the idea that entire communities can be all "idiots". It is very much a product of its time. But I keep coming back to it. It's so simple, so straight to the point.
It's a story about good and evil.
It's a theme that was killed quickly by its parent company.
In the end, it's a story made to sell toys. And that will always be the primary goal for LEGO.
Thanks for walking down the road of my own nostalgia with me.
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