Ninjago's Stealth Move Onto Toy Shelves

Back in November, I was a little bit ahead of the curve on the Lego Ninjago release. Since it officially hit shelves, I'm now a little behind. No matter, visitor stats show that people are still hungry for information, so here's what I've got as of January 22.

Despite the official launch of Ninjago, the rollout has been a little slow. I went down to my local Toys R Us this week, and all they have is a small teaser display on a little end cap. There were no larger box sets side by side with the older themes. If you are really hungry for Ninjago, you already know that websites like Amazon and Toys R Us have everything in stock and are taking orders, but it's just not the same as holding a box in the store and knowing whether the toy is right for you or your kids. From what I can infer though, supplies are tight right now, based on the lack of shelf stock and the difficulty I had trying to land a sample to review and give away in an on-line contest.

Whether I'm right about inventory or not, the latest issue of Lego Club Jr. magazine shows that they are serious about this product launch. Ninjago is featured on the cover, and three more pages inside are devoted to a cartoon and a colouring activity. My sons have shown no interest so far, but you never know with kids.

Although I didn't buy anything during the aforementioned toy store trip, I did find the answer to an important question: Why the ninja theme? From what I can tell, it has almost nothing to do with evoking Japanese history, and everything to do with firing a shot across the bow of the Japanese toymakers of Yu-gi-oh cards and Beyblades. The blister packs I saw each contained a buildable ninja (good guy) or skeleton (bad guy), a set of trading/playing cards, and a spinning disk. Lego's attempt to take on profitable playground fad toys makes sense, but one wonders how successful they will be.

Can a brand known for construction, creativity, and role playing branch out and challenge those known for collecting, competition, and customization? School children have an unerring eye for the original toy and quickly weed out the imitators. Will they see the amalgam of Lego, cards, and "Spinjitzu" as unique enough to start a new fad, or will it fade into obscurity? It is now up to the littlest consumers to decide.

And what about those undead villains that populate the Ninjago universe? When I first heard about the theme, I had been hoping that the characters would have been drawn from Japanese folklore. Who wouldn't want to see a Lego kappa? I can't complain about the skeletons though, because they are far easier to typecast in the bad guy role.

When I play Lego Atlantis with my eldest, we take turns casting the divers and the "guardians of the deep" as the villains. After all, who can blame the shark warriors for protecting the keys and jewels of their underwater kingdom? The same goes for Power Miners, where the putative bad guys are the rock monsters, even though it's the miners going into their cave to take all the resources. But I'll leave it to a graduate student to write a thesis about the hidden colonial narratives that Lego reifies in these two toy lines because it will give me more time to battle the motorcycle riding undead armies threatening Japan.

So are you seeing more Ninjago product on the shelves in your area? How do you rate this line's chances of success? Feel free to leave a comment below.

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