Enter the characters you see below Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. This article is about the line of Lego toys. For the 2017 film, see The Lego Ninjago Movie. Lego Ninjago is a Lego theme that black friday 2020 lego created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group.
The theme focuses on a group of six teenage ninja, led by the legendary Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon. The main ninja characters are defined in the story as “Elemental Masters”, which means that they each possess elemental powers. Ninjago enjoyed phenomenal popularity and success in its first year, and a further two years were commissioned before a planned discontinuation in 2013. However, after a brief hiatus, the line was continued after feedback from fans and has been in production ever since.
The main focus of the line is the formation and consequent exploits and trials of a group of teenage ninja, battling against the various forces of evil. The theme originally introduced five main characters with an original storyline set in a fictional world that fused the ninja theme with dragons, modern vehicles and futuristic mech-robots. The origin of the Ninjago theme lies in the earlier Lego Ninja theme, which was released in 1998. This theme was based on Feudalistic Japan and featured ninjas, fortresses, catapults and horses. It originated in the Lego Castle theme that had been in existence since 1978. The focus on ninja was also the direct result of ethnographic research of children’s interests.
The Ninjago product development team in Fort Lee, New Jersey spent several days monitoring groups of eight to ten-year-old boys to gauge their reactions to various concepts and storyboards, including ninjas, underwater adventures and futuristic cities. During the development process, the Ninjago team took a trip to the Iga Ninja Museum, located three hours to the north of Tokyo, Japan in order to get inspiration for the theme. This allowed the designers to gather historic details from the 15th century ninja building, whilst also developing ideas about how to give these historic elements a contemporary appeal. The initial story concept for the theme originated in a rough sketch created by Tommy Andreasen on a Friday evening in 2009. The sketch depicted several elemental ninja and the word “Spinjago”. This idea was later developed into the fictional martial art of “Spinjitzu”, which was a combination of the words “spin” and “ninjitsu”.
The development team later used this as the basis for the minifigure spinner action toys. The Ninjago theme then employed the use of an original story that would appeal to young teenage boys, by creating a cast of characters that focused on a group of ninja heroes and a wide variety of villains. Senior Creative Manager, Tommy Andreasen commented, “It wasn’t until we started developing a fantasy theme that we saw it actually can become a building toy as well. The ninja characters were given different coloured costumes and unique elemental powers, which gave them distinctive personalities. The team also came up with the concept of “Spinjitzu”, which was the main fighting method in the story. Andreasen commented, “we wanted to make sure that it was something that would look great on TV, lightning coming out of tornadoes and stuff like that.
The toy representation of that was the spinner”. The introduction of skeletons as the main villains in the storyline was also the result of research with children. The children in the research groups were given the choice of six options, including monkeys, skeletons, robots and lizard people. The overwhelming preference was for skeletons, which the children considered to be “real” fantasy villains. Writers Dan and Kevin Hageman came up with the initial idea for the ninjas’ distinctive flying base, Destiny’s Bounty.
Their idea was that it would be a “windmill that turned into a helicopter and flew around”. However, the idea to use a junk ship for the ninja base was suggested by Tommy Andreasen. The brand name “Ninjago” was formed from a combination of two words: “ninja” and “Lego”. Andreasen noted that this fell into place naturally, saying “It’s universally recognised, it works in any language and it has a good dynamic to it. It’s short and to the point.
We added ‘Masters of Spinjitzu’ to it just for flavour”. The Lego Ninjago universe incorporates a fictional written language that has been displayed on numerous occasions in both the Ninjago television series and in the Lego Ninjago construction sets. The written language uses a unique alphabet of symbols that resemble the visual style of Chinese characters. Lego Ninjago was developed as a Big Bang project with a goal to double the sales of the previous Big Bang product line, Lego Atlantis. This was particularly ambitious, as no Lego theme had ever achieved this target, not even the successful Bionicle theme. With its initial launch in early 2011, the Ninjago line was intended to continue for a limited run of three years. However, the strong sales performance of the line combined with the company’s increased engagement with online communities resulted in The Lego Group reversing this decision.
In February 2021, Design Manager Michael Svane Knap commented on the ongoing appeal of the theme by stating, “When Lego Ninjago was originally created more than 10 years ago, it was as much luck as it was skill that made us get to where we are today. Everyone involved back then was quite new and inexperienced with creating a franchise. The series was created by Michael Hegner and Tommy Andreasen. The main characters featured in this theme are based on the central characters of the Ninjago television series.