Little-known fact (because I just made it up): This set was the inspiration for Zane.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Double ninja! "

The mor of them there are, though, the less of a threat they are. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu

Body movin', body movin'
A1 sound, and the sound's so soothing
Body movin', body movin'
We be getting down and you know we're Krush Groovin'.

We need to bring back Zane with eyelashes, pronto!

No, THAT is not a "White Ninja's Tank", this is:
https://www.mudah.my/hasbro-g-i-joe-rapid-rollers-storm-shadow-111518905.htm
(Sorry that it's a 'sale site', but could find it on a 'non-list' site...)

70616 be like: “…Gam-gam?”

So it's a ninja-y sort of a day then?

That's even worse than the Bob Semple tank!

I’d make a comment about the noise and clunkiness of a tank seems at odds with the stealth and guerrilla tactics of a ninja but I see no tank here. Entirely possible a pimped out wheelbarrow could be very stealthy, assuming he ever manages to get it to go anywhere since it won’t with him sat on it like that

What is the purpose of this machinery?

The white ninja in this series was the princess, and a singular character. Lego had a weird habit of showing the set elements and the minifigure in the packaging art twice in this era, which I called customer service about at least twice as it was misleading for packaging contents.

To those complaining about the 'tank' feature: this set is also listed under 1269 without the tank label.

@Atuin said:
"Ninja (despite the obvious historical inaccuracies) still was way more my taste than Ninjago.
I don't even know why. Maybe I'm too old?

Ninjago both feels too silly to me (with the whole story tone and that series) and not silly enough (with the over exaggerated details on some torsos, the relationships and stoyline in the cartoon) as opposed to something utterly silly (like Mixels or FreeStyle).

I just have a hardtime connecting to Ninjago at all.

And the fact it blocks off all other remotely historical Japanese themes from being made (like Ninja) really doesn't help."

There are Ninjago sets I do like, but I think most of Ninjago just has too much going on for me. I don't find the feudal aesthetic meshes well with all the fantastical jets and mechs and monster trucks. I want to say the Ninja stuck more to "historical"-looking builds and the skeletons got all the wacky vehicles in the earlier years of of the line, though.

Ah, the white ninja princess. I have the figure from the minifig collection vol 5, but that print wasn't great and the figs were of cheaper quality plastic.
This is one of two (3 with the other version of this one) sets with this character. It was nice that there was a way to get it without getting the kargest set of the wave. But as the whole wave wasn't available in my country, getting any is still very hard. Or rather, expensive.

The cart is nothing unusual, but those brown axes are uncommon and the flag only appeared in this year of Ninja. So, nice! ...or not, if you want to part it out on Bricklink.

Still a better tank than the latest Star Wars Juggernaut! :D

I had kind of aged out of Lego by the time the 'Ninja' series started, and didn't get back in until years later. Why were almost all of the sets in this line seemingly released twice? Nearly every build in the subtheme is listed under two different names/set numbers. For example, 1269-1 and 3076-1, 1185-1 and 3017-1, and 1099-1, 1184-1, and 3016-1. The last one looks to be the same set under 3 different set numbers and 3 different names.

Is this ninja wearing scale-mail underneath their outfit? Scalemail, that notoriously stealthy armour-type. Say, what's that noise over there? Is that a cat rummaging around in the silverwear-drawer? Is it a set of cymbals being kicked down some stairs? Must have been the wind.

Then again, I suppose realism was off the table the moment this ninja decided to go on a raid while wearing bright white and also, while piloting a tank. Of sorts. Maybe this ninja's job is to serve as distraction, the spycraft-equivalent of a rodeo-clown.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @mikesray said:
"I had kind of aged out of Lego by the time the 'Ninja' series started, and didn't get back in until years later. Why were almost all of the sets in this line seemingly released twice? Nearly every build in the subtheme is listed under two different names/set numbers. For example, 1269-1 and 3076-1, 1185-1 and 3017-1, and 1099-1, 1184-1, and 3016-1. The last one looks to be the same set under 3 different set numbers and 3 different names. "

Only the small sets; once you get to the main wave, sets only have a single release each. In most of those cases, one was the boxed general release and the other was a bagged version that was exclusively packaged with Kabaya sweets in Japan, as recently examined in this article: https://brickset.com/article/122805/throwback-thursday-promotional-kabaya-lego-multipacks

For some themes the Kabaya sets were unique models, e.g. Insectoids and Rock Raiders, while in other they were all-but the same as the normal versions of the set, just in different packaging and with a different number; Life on Mars is another example of a theme where this happened. Ninja got kind of a combination of the two, with the sets containing minifigures from the theme's first year, as well as today's RSotD, getting both releases, while e.g. 3074 and 3075 were unique to the Kabaya packaging. (I don't know why the Robber Chief's one got a third release though.)

Speaking of: To be fair - as on several other the Kabaya sets too - this name is probably a poor translation from Japanese; Bricklink, for example, calls this set the much more appropriate "White Ninja's Attack Cart"."

Interesting. Thank you!

A vehicle so lacklustre the photographer put it aaaaaaaalllllll the way in the background.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Lore is light on the second and last year of Ninja; but the basic gist seems to be that the White Ninja Princess, seen in this set, is leading the Red Ninjas in rebellion against a corrupt emperor. Other than one page in the US Mania Magazine, however, I haven't seen any story media about this wave, so it seems like the details are really left up to fan interpretation.

Still, I'm happy to see Classic Ninja get featured any day :D"

I always figured the corrupt emperor the Red Ninja Clan and white ninja princess were fighting was the same as 7419 Dragon Fortress from Adventurers Orient Expedition

@Rimefang said:
" @ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Lore is light on the second and last year of Ninja; but the basic gist seems to be that the White Ninja Princess, seen in this set, is leading the Red Ninjas in rebellion against a corrupt emperor. Other than one page in the US Mania Magazine, however, I haven't seen any story media about this wave, so it seems like the details are really left up to fan interpretation.

Still, I'm happy to see Classic Ninja get featured any day :D"

I always figured the corrupt emperor the Red Ninja Clan and white ninja princess were fighting was the same as 7419 Dragon Fortress from Adventurers Orient Expedition "

Orient Expedition was set in 1910s / '20s China (even though they hadn't an Emperor anymore by that point!) while Ninjas are from feudal Japan, and the Ninja theme is part of Castle. Ninja theme is also probably set in the 1600s-1700s. (give or take)

@Rimefang said:
"I always figured the corrupt emperor the Red Ninja Clan and white ninja princess were fighting was the same as 7419 Dragon Fortress from Adventurers Orient Expedition "

I thought the emperor was meant to be the guy on the horse in 3053, since that set's called Emperor's Stronghold and he's the only non-Ninja character included. Then again, his card in the 3346 Green Ninja minifigure pack calls him a Samurai Lord and describes him as "a fair and righteous man"... not sure if that's also canon (meaning the emperor never appeared in a set and therefore the second year of Ninja only featured heroes as its new minifigures) or if it's a case of lore differing between regions / sources.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @Rimefang said:
" @ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Lore is light on the second and last year of Ninja; but the basic gist seems to be that the White Ninja Princess, seen in this set, is leading the Red Ninjas in rebellion against a corrupt emperor. Other than one page in the US Mania Magazine, however, I haven't seen any story media about this wave, so it seems like the details are really left up to fan interpretation.

Still, I'm happy to see Classic Ninja get featured any day :D"

I always figured the corrupt emperor the Red Ninja Clan and white ninja princess were fighting was the same as 7419 Dragon Fortress from Adventurers Orient Expedition "

Orient Expedition was set in 1910s / '20s China (even though they hadn't an Emperor anymore by that point!) while Ninjas are from feudal Japan, and the Ninja theme is part of Castle. Ninja theme is also probably set in the 1600s-1700s. (give or take)"

My headcanon aligns more with TimeCruisers. When The Lego Movie came out it confirmed my headcanon.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @Rimefang said:
"I always figured the corrupt emperor the Red Ninja Clan and white ninja princess were fighting was the same as 7419 Dragon Fortress from Adventurers Orient Expedition "

I thought the emperor was meant to be the guy on the horse in 3053, since that set's called Emperor's Stronghold and he's the only non-Ninja character included. Then again, his card in the 3346 Green Ninja minifigure pack calls him a Samurai Lord and describes him as "a fair and righteous man"... not sure if that's also canon (meaning the emperor never appeared in a set and therefore the second year of Ninja only featured heroes as its new minifigures) or if it's a case of lore differing between regions / sources."

That guy is cataloged as the Shogun on Bricklink. There have been times when Japan had both a Shogun and an Emperor, so they aren’t exactly the same thing, but at times were effectively similar roles. The Emperor would be the official ruler by right of birth, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be an effective and powerful leader. The Shogun would be the Daimyo of one of the various clans, who gets officially named the military leader of Japan. Problem is, if the entire military follows not-the-Emperor, it’s pretty easy to sideline the Emperor and basically run the entire country under threat of force (hence why POTUS is Commander In Chief, so the US doesn’t have to worry about the military overthrowing the elected government).

If you’ve heard of James Clavell’s Shogun novel, or the two TV miniseries that were based on it, Toranaga is loosely based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who, having managed to secure the position of Shogun at a time when the reigning Emperor died and left a juvenile heir under the governance of a council of regents. Ieyasu and his heirs ruled Japan by military force from 1603-1868, at which point the last Shogun handed control back to the official Emperor. Based on the timeframe the Ninja theme is supposed to take place in, I would guess that the Shogun minifig might be modeled after Ieyasu, except that the Emperor at that time was not a corrupt despot who needed to be overthrown as it sounds was the case for the Ninja theme.

@PurpleDave said:
"That guy is cataloged as the Shogun on Bricklink. There have been times when Japan had both a Shogun and an Emperor, so they aren’t exactly the same thing, but at times were effectively similar roles. "

The official Lego sources I've seen all identify the guy from 6013 as the Shogun, during the theme's first year at least. The set name of 3077 does also identifies the guy we're talking about as a Shogun, but I don't know how that correlates... I'm not familiar enough with Japanese history to know if the title of shogun could be held by multiple people at once or not. If not, it may be either a misidentification, or that guy could be a successor to the first year's Shogun since there's no clear indication of how much time has passed in-universe between the first and second year's set waves.

(The guy from 3344 is also identified on his card as a Shogun Warlord, but the minifigure packs were never referenced in other lore so no idea how he fits in.)

The Mania Magazine page on the second-year sets doesn't explicitly identify the white-torso guy, but the text box describing the emperor is right next to a picture of him, so it seems like the intended conclusion to draw is that it refers to him. According to that description he's an external invader to the "land of the ninja", and a different person from the Shogun who is mentioned as as someone who this emperor robs from.

I don't exactly know how this all adds up coherently in-story, though.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"The official Lego sources I've seen all identify the guy from 6013 as the Shogun, during the theme's first year at least. The set name of 3077 does also identifies the guy we're talking about as a Shogun, but I don't know how that correlates... I'm not familiar enough with Japanese history to know if the title of shogun could be held by multiple people at once or not. If not, it may be either a misidentification, or that guy could be a successor to the first year's Shogun since there's no clear indication of how much time has passed in-universe between the first and second year's set waves."

The full title of the Shogun translates to “Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians”, and the position was both appointed by the Emperor and hereditary. It really doesn’t allow for shared office. There were three distinct shogunates, historically, and there were a few gaps within them when there was no shogun (as well as longer gaps between shogunates), but I don’t see any real overlap. And since the position is hereditary, any overlap should really only occur during a transition from one shogunate to the next, except both of those spans were restorations where power was ceded back to the Emperor.

"The Mania Magazine page on the second-year sets doesn't explicitly identify the white-torso guy, but the text box describing the emperor is right next to a picture of him, so it seems like the intended conclusion to draw is that it refers to him. According to that description he's an external invader to the "land of the ninja", and a different person from the Shogun who is mentioned as as someone who this emperor robs from."

That…doesn’t make sense. Emperor of Japan is supposed to be by divine lineage, so a gaijin would never be allowed to hold that office. You’d have to straight up William the Conqueror over the country, which China tried to do for centuries with no luck.