Because let's face it: it's a problem.
According to Brickset, there are 340 sets tagged mech. That doesn't seem that bad, especially with how long LEGO has been around. However, looking at the dates of most mechs, and you'll see a recent congestion of mechs in the past decade, and especially in the last half-decade. It's a frustration I've really felt as a Ninjago fan, but on my trips to the LEGO store, I've noticed the problem is bleeding into other franchises.
At the moment, Dragons Rising Season 2 sets are being released, and out of the 13 on shelves so far, 7 are mechs. Even more infuriatingly, there are next to no affordable sets that aren't mechs. Unless you want to commit to buying a large, expensive set, your options are a brickbuilt Ryu, or mech. Looking outside of Ninjago, I see mechs that just plain don't make sense. The new Sonic sets give Knuckles, the powerhouse of the Sonic Team, a mech.
In Ninjago, we have 65 mechs. Mechs aren't something new to Ninjago, in fact, they've been around since the pilot. However, the mechs were used a lot more sparingly. In Season One, we see Nya don the mantle of Samurai X, using her mech to help the Ninja. Samurai X would later get retired, as they retconned Nya into being a Ninja instead, and the mech is given to PIXAL. Samurai X makes sense, Nya isn't treated equally to the boys and the idea of her being a ninja is hardly explored. She is also shown to be good with technology, as she often handles the Destiny's Bounty.
In Season Two, we see the Golden Mech, which is a big deal. This mech is the one used by the First Spinjitzu Master (who is practically God in the Ninjago world) and we see Lloyd, the chosen one, overpowered twelve year old he is, take it and... Well, I'd like to say he beat up the Overlord with it like his grampy did, but it got destroyed pretty quickly. I don't really think the mech was necessary, and it served little than to give Season Two another set (which it desperately needed, as the season had barely any sets to its name) but it's inoffensive to me.
In Season Three, we see one mech with Cole's mech. It makes sense, Rebooted lets the Ninja hack vehicles with their technoblades, and it's a techy based season.
In Season Four, we have Jay's Electromech. This mech comes from a battle in the Tournament of Elements where Clouse and Jay battle with mechs. It makes sense there as they're given the mechs as part of the tournament.
Day of the Departed is where the mechs start to get more frequent. We get three mechs, the Chenosaurus, Samurai X (again) and the Salvage MEC. Despite the amount of them, I don't mind them again. The Salvage MEC feels thematically appropriate to Ronin as a character, and the imagery of Chen riding this weird robot T-Rex chair hybrid is hilarious.
Season Seven is sparing to us, just bringing us the Iron Doom, the big bad mech the villains use. I don't mind this one either, as it plays a pretty central part to the plot, and doesn't feel forced to sell toys.
Before Season Eight, we had the Ninjago Movie, which showed no mercy with mechs. The mechs actually play a big part of the movie, not in actually being important, but to illustrate how so not ninja the Secret Ninja Force is. Every. Single. Ninja. Gets a mech. And so does Garmadon. He gets two, because we love him so. And his pawns even get a mech! So, so many mechs. I don't mind the mechs, again, they all feel very unique. They're not all the typical anthro robot mech suit. That's a trait I can apply to these other mechs too, they either are once a season, or they stand out and feel unique to others in their season.
We go back to once a season with Eight and Nine, with Samurai X (again) and Oni Titan respectively. The Oni Titan feels organic, as a physical representation of Garmadon unlocking his true potential and harnessing the power of Creation over Destruction (even if it's to pummel his son into dust).
We follow this once a season trend all the way up to Crystallized, the final season of main Ninjago. Okay so, where's the mech problem, Jesse? Sounds like they're under control. Let's get into the remaining lineup.
Dragons Rising Season 1 introduces us to three mechs, four if you count Lloyd and Arin's combining mechs as seperate.
Season 2 gives us EIGHT mechs over SEVEN sets. I think this series is where people have really noticed the congestion of mechs, as practically everybody dips their toes into the mech pool.
Alongside, we have CORE and Legacy. Legacy I won't touch on as it consists of mostly remakes of older sets. CORE brings us ELEVEN mechs. That's a lot.
The mech problem is bad enough some characters need disambigation pages on the Ninjago Wiki, because they have so many mechs associated with them.
Now I don't think mechs are necessarily bad. In fact, one of my first Ninjago sets, and one I hold dear to my heart is a mech. Jay's Electromech was a magical set for me, it was cheap, it was an iconic moment from the show, and the play features on it introduced me to LEGO in a really fun way.
I find the issue with mechs now is they don't feel all too unique from eachother. This was really noticable with Arin's new mech. It is a near identical twin to the 4+ Legacy release of Jay's Electromech (a set infamous in the community for being bad), with the large single piece legs and sawblade hand. And in this, it kind of feels as if LEGO is just using these easy big pieces to make simple mechs for money. Ah! What a groundbreaking revolution, LEGO is trying to make money. I know. They wouldn't make these sets if they didn't sell well. I just wish there was more variety with the mechs. It's not impossible, out of the eight from Season Two, Kai's Climber Mech felt pretty unique with its extra arms for, well, climbing. But the rest of the mechs feel very same-y, using the same parts, just different colour schemes. Back in the main series, the mechs all looked different, you could take two mechs and put them next to eachother and they'd be constructed pretty differently.
There's not much that can be done to stop LEGO making mechs, they sell well for a reason. With the big pieces, they can be pushed out as safe 4+ sets for a cheap price. And I don't think that's a bad thing, kids deserve fun sets. My concern is with them taking up too many releases for a line. Again, I'm jaded from Dragons Rising, where the majority of the lineup was mech after mech. I can't really give a conclusive point, all I can say is, vote with your money.
...Unless you're one of those crazy collectors, in which case, email me your secret to infinite money!
