Lego Ninja On the Way

Don't look now, but Lego is ready to add a Japanese themed series to their expansive set of product lines. Having already tackled mining, undersea exploration, medieval times, urban life, space, pirates, and ancient Egypt--not to mention a series of high profile product tie-ins--it stood to reason that they would eventually revisit Japan. I say revisit, because I have a vague recollection of a samurai series that was on the shelves about a decade ago. By the time I warmed up to the idea that it might be cool to have a plastic replica of a stone garden lantern, the series had long disappeared from shelves.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of man-child who has been holed up in the basement since the start of the century waiting for some Japanese Lego to play with. But I do have a son who is a huge Lego fan and receives their monthly magazine. When I saw the teaser ad on the back cover, I couldn't resist the siren call of the biwa to see what they have planned.

Ninja of the World Unite!

My first visit to www.ninjago.com landed me on a page with the flags of 23 countries, and variations of the question, "Ninja are from everywhere. So, where you from?" Not finding Canada on the list, I had to make like a Hollywood actor and pretend to be American so that I could access the rest of the site. This took me to a page with four cards on it, three of which are active, promising to answer the questions, "What is Ninja?", "Where is Ninja?", and "Are you Ninja?" The curious will have to return on or after December 1, 2010 (or is it Jan. 12, 2011?) to learn the final question. [Edit: Dec. 6 The fourth card, Meet the Ninja, is active. It introduces you to the heroes and villains of the Ninjago world.]

A suitably wizened looking sensei guides us through the answers to the first question. The text effects a stereotypical attempt at approximating an "Oriental" accent with such bon mots as "To ninja, everything is weapon." This unfortunate effort is leavened by such witty elements as the "Is your mother a Ninja?" quiz (sample question: "Does your mom slice bread with a sword?")

The "Where is Ninja?" card takes you on a tour of the milieu that the toy sets will be built around. The images suggest that the Ninjago world is for fans of comic book fantasy. Lego was probably wise to take this approach to avoid cries of "historically inaccurate!" from the History Police. I imagine they don't want a repeat of the controversy that greeted their Lego Kingdoms series*.

Further exploration leads site visitors to a set of online games called "The Four Paths." They are simple mouse controlled games that feature a helpful sheep right out of a Murakami novel who will protect you from harm every time you run into it.

All in all, it looks like a promising series that will appeal to a large enough subset of Lego fans to turn a profit. Based on what I've seen though, my own purchase decisions will be based strictly on whether or not my Atlantis-loving son's eyes wander. That is, unless they produce a plastic stone lantern for my miniature Zen garden . . .

* There was no controversy. I just made that up.

Related Posts: Attack of the Purple Ninjas (it's funny, I promise)
Meet Japan's Lego Master

Travis Belrose is the author of The Samurai Poet, a work of historical fiction set in 17th century Japan. Learn more here.