Designer insight: Michael Svane Knap
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Many LEGO set designers use our BrickLists feature to maintain a list of the sets they've worked on and often provide interesting insights about their involvement.
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Michael Svane Knap wrote this about their work on 71735 Tournament of Elements:
The Tournament of Elements is one of my personal favorite seasons. With this set, I wanted to mimic a bit of the same style of a set that I did with the gamers market where it's a figure pack with a smaller build to it.
However, I wanted to beef up the build a bit more and keep it as close to the reference of the interior in Master Chen's palace as possible. The build itself is made so you have the opportunity to connect more together and create a full circle, in that way you could create the iconic scene where the elemental masters have to find one of the first Jade blades. The intention was to throw in as many references to the individual story beets as possible within the restraints of the size of the set.
The centerpiece is inspired by the Jade-blade holder in Chen's palace. The Book is a reference to Claus's spell book with the page that he uses to transform into Anakondrai. The small crate has a pair of rollerblades as a reference to the Ninja Roll episode. The tree to the side is a reference to Gravis's fight against Turner, I had it in pink for a long time but changed it to green to fit better with the colors in the set.
The Two Asian vases on the second level are a reference to the fight Jakob and Skylor have, the idea is that you can hide the Jade-blade in one of the vases and have one guessing which one it's in to play out the fight your self. From minifigure side, we planed quite early to have unique characters in the set with the opportunity to put in the remaining elemental masters. Because of production issues, we could not fit Camille in the set.
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13 comments on this article
Huh, that’s interesting-so Camille was initially meant to be in this set. I admire that dedication; too bad Legacy is over. Would have been nice to get the Serpentine War era masters besides Ray and Maya.
Mmm, story beets.
This guy should work ok more buildings. Recent ninjago playsets were really weak with no propper room to stand figs (excluding city series)
I wonder why we only got one anacondrai cultist.
Oni Titan and Skeleton Dragon are fantastic sets!
Really enjoyable set. Thanks for sharing your insights
@beige2 said:
"I wonder why we only got one anacondrai cultist. "
Possibly the same production issue that prevented Camille’s inclusion. Or maybe they figured it was unnecessary, since the Elemental Masters and Ninja do spend quite a bit of time arrayed against one another.
@SearchlightRG said:
" @beige2 said:
"I wonder why we only got one anacondrai cultist. "
Possibly the same production issue that prevented Camille’s inclusion. Or maybe they figured it was unnecessary, since the Elemental Masters and Ninja do spend quite a bit of time arrayed against one another."
In the other sets only eyezor appeared. They could have at least added clouse
This was a great read about the work the designer put into the set. Really packed in a lot of detail to a skeletal set made to sell figures. Great work
I got this as a Christmas present last year--not exactly my normal theme, but I really enjoyed it, and it's still built (a rare honour for a modern, non-Star Wars, set). A job well done as far as I'm concerned.
I haven't been into Ninjago since after Skybound, but this is really cool to read as a Lego fan - this kind of passion and attention to detail is what helps make Lego what it is at its best.
One of the best mid range "minifig pack". Every part of those minifigs is easily used for Napoleonic Era builds, Native Americans, Indians, well, ninjas, even post-apocalyptic ones. The build itself is also marvelous and substantial. Of course that's why I love Ninjago sets. Almost always they are fit for any use and a mocer's dream!
I remember playing this level in Lego Dimensions and finding the game lackluster. Figures were cool though.