Female Ninjago Minifigures

Great analysis!

I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something.

Great article! This is generally something I would like to see Lego do better in too

Great article! Ninjago's definitely a step up from Exo-Force in this regard, but it still has a way to go.

In story terms alone, I actually think having Nya become one of the ninja was a bit of a mistake, because she seemed to be on a trajectory for a more interesting arc. Prior to discovering she could control Water, she was already a competent fighter (arguably more competent than the ninja, though this was forgotten every time she needed to be used as a damsel in distress/bystander to one of the ninja's developments) and a genius-level mechanic. It's been a while since I watched the early seasons, but didn't she design and build all of their mechs, vehicles, and even their base? A lot of that either stopped outright or just got quieter after she became the Water Ninja, and I feel like she was done dirty here. She was essentially on track to replace Sensei Wu as the leader of the team, but isntead became the least-developed of the ninja (correct me if I'm wrong, but we haven't had a Nya-focused season since Hands of Time, which she shared with Kai, right?)

I'm also disappointed Skylor didn't become more of a regular. Having a hero who's still learning not to be a villain is a great wrench to throw into a team dynamic, and they could have told a bunch of interesting stories with it. Even if she didn't stay with the ninja long-term, I think she and they could all have grown as a result of conflict she might have presented. Plus her power is an interesting one, since she can mimic any other elemental's abilities: could this present an identity crisis over time, since she's essentially a power thief by nature? Can she do any good of her own? That kind of thing.
(I'm also not going to get into how despite inheriting her dad's wildly successful noodle restaurant chain, she appears to be a waiter, and not the CEO????)

Dogshank is still one of the most interesting women in Ninjago, at least for me. You don't see a lot of material aimed at kids that involves huge, burly women. The orc/ogre type are almost always coded male, so this was a neat inversion.

I don't have much to say about female characters past this point, because I think this is where I dipped out of the show, but I will say that the designs for Akita, Aspheera and Empress Harumi are just astonishing great minifigures. It's the smallest of consolations and doesn't really make up for a lack of representation, but it's something that at least their designs aren't afterthoughts. Akita in particular is one of the most interesting minifigures the show's produced for years.

Just my two cents. Again, great article and a great subject!

@Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas?."

That’s absolutely NOT the question. Let’s assume only boys are interested in Ninjas. The question then is why should they not have female protagonists to play with? Why do we not teach boys, through play, that women are of equal value, ability and importance?

As much as I dislike it, even Lego is driven my market forces and minifigures in sets (not just Ninjago) will always be targeted to deliver the best return ££, be that gender mix or which sets get the rarer or highly sought after figs. And the focus groups and marketing teams will be setting the agenda on that.

Agree with @Jack_Rizzo from a story point of view Samurai X was an identity completely carved out and made by Nya for her own identity, I think there is a quote from her in Season 2 when Wu thinks she could be the green ninja that she actually prefers being Samurai X for the exact reason it is her own thing. Making her the water Ninja felt forced, as well as the shows story felt like Wu was forcing her to be the water ninja rather than Samurai X. if a female ninja was wanted then Skylor should have stuck around taken that place.

Also, fun fact Nya is actually in more episodes of the show than any other character.

Lego is on the right track. Compare that to Mattel and Barbies for example, which are still overwhelmingly female. They have a long way to go before they reach equality.

Analysis of Friends coming next?

I assume the general rule for LEGO themes is that lines aimed at boys can have no more than one female main character, while LEGO themes aimed at girls can have no more than one male among the main characters. LEGO Elves, for example, was the complete opposite of Ninjago, having all but one of the main characters be female.
It's really sad to see that, but let's face it, LEGO doesn't care about gender diversity in their play themes. For them, all that matters is getting kids to buy their products.

@LegoDavid said:
"I assume the general rule for LEGO themes is that lines aimed at boys can have no more than one female main character, while LEGO themes aimed at girls can have no more than one male among the main characters. LEGO Elves, for example, was the complete opposite of Ninjago, having all but one of the main characters be female.
It's really sad to see that, but let's face it, LEGO doesn't care about gender diversity in their play themes. For them, all that matters is getting kids to buy their products. "

Though at the same time you have to wonder if the marketting people at Lego know what theyre doing. One only has to think about Lego trying super hard to integrate play themes with Smartphones not realising the kids that prefer smartphones over lego wont care for Lego if theres some tacky apps along with the set. Theres propably even more marketting missteps.

Same with the "GIRLTHEMES" all of them are based around Dolls, ignoring that Girls who want to play with Dolls and not Lego wont decide for Lego even if Lego has pseudo dolls in some sets

@SMC said:
"Analysis of Friends coming next?"

Would rather have an analysis of Harry Potter considering thats a theme popular with both genders, explaining why its so sucessful at that. Even if liscensed

The best solution might be for Lego to represent all minifigs as gender- neutral, multi- ethnic figures. Hmm... perhaps they could have an unrealistic skin tone across the range- bright yellow?- and all have the same shaped body. Maybe there could be just two dots and an arc for the facial features? Life used to be so much simpler.

There's absolutely no way that anything can possibly go wrong in this comments section

@Pongo said:
"Is Lego a socially responsible brand? Should it help to mould social attitudes or merely respond to them? It's an international and intentionally diverse product so it sells to many varied types of sociology. Whose values is it representing? There are a lot more petrol cars represented than electric ones.

The problem is, of course Lego isn't a just a toy manufacturer any more- every theme has to have a backstory and every minifigure has to have an identity. This means the answer is, of course, "whichever makes us the most money". It's time for government legislation: here's hoping.

Luckily, no non- movie Lego characters seem to be sexually active*. Thank the Great Brick for that!

*Are there any gay characters in Star Wars? in anything from Disney?"

Relationships and sexual activity are different things, and I'm glad LEGO isn't so prudish as to not have things like babies in pushchairs, couples in Ninjago (Nya and Jay, from memory) or 40197 Wedding Favour because it implies sexual activity somewhere down the line. We need to be teaching kids that the two aren't mutually exclusive, that one isn't the be-all that defines the other, as it creates a lot of unwelcome pressure later in life (whether you're just nervous or you're asexual).

Plus, desexualising the basics of relationships in general is good for homosexual representation, which has a history of being oversexualised by heterosexual writers/creators. DC and Harry Potter both have gay characters, but Star Wars' scant few (Doctor Aphra, the two lesbians from Rise of Skywalker) haven't made it into minifigure form. I think that's a topic for another day though.

@Pongo said:
"The best solution might be for Lego to represent all minifigs as gender- neutral, multi- ethnic figures. Hmm... perhaps they could have an unrealistic skin tone across the range- bright yellow?- and all have the same shaped body. Maybe there could be just two dots and an arc for the facial features? Life used to be so much simpler."

Nawwww I never want to go back to the days before bigfigs. Hulk! Thanos! Killer Croc! Even that flame yellow one from Nexo Knights!

We were seriously cheated with Mr Incredible though. They had that great bigfig in the video game only for him to be a regular-sized minifig in set form...still looked pretty good though.

@Pongo said:
"The best solution might be for Lego to represent all minifigs as gender- neutral, multi- ethnic figures. Hmm... perhaps they could have an unrealistic skin tone across the range- bright yellow?- and all have the same shaped body. Maybe there could be just two dots and an arc for the facial features? Life used to be so much simpler."

This ended because of liscensed themes essentially. Instead of just having yellow smiley faces minifigures had to look like characters and also actors in a way

I absolutely agree with your points in this article, but in the interest of thoroughness, might not 70596 Samurai X Cave Chaos be worth a mention, as a large set “belonging” to Nya?

@Mechalex said:
" @SMC said:
"Analysis of Friends coming next?"
Is this a little bit of whataboutery sneaking in?"

And rightly so!! As a hetero cis male who is a big fan of friends, I'd LOVE to see more male minifigures in the friends line.

I did not like this article. I thought it was too passive "obsessive". Overall, it was pointless to read.

Males are even more under-represented in Lego Friends. And do you remember Lego Elves? That was feminist activism at its worst, as it almost completely excluded male characters.

All this said with sarcasm :).

Oh no! Everything must always be equal, all the time no matter what!!!

@Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something."

As the father of three girls, the answer to your question is yes, absolutely. Ninjago is my youngest’s favorite tv show (she is 8) and although she loves all the ninja, she too questions why there aren’t more female representatives—its punishment to be the one to play with just the boy figures.

@masterbricker said:
"Oh no! Everything must always be equal, all the time no matter what!!!"

Can’t we start with things being equal at least some of the time rather than never?

@LegoDavid said:
"I assume the general rule for LEGO themes is that lines aimed at boys can have no more than one female main character, while LEGO themes aimed at girls can have no more than one male among the main characters. LEGO Elves, for example, was the complete opposite of Ninjago, having all but one of the main characters be female. "

Wouldn't be surprised if this was an unspoken rule at some point, but I'd like to think that the needle's moving further in the right direction with newer themes - Hidden Side in particular jumps to mind as a really good example since the goodies have a completely 50/50 split of lads and lasses (not counting the ghost dog, granted).

Back on the subject of Ninjago though, it seems like they've stuck themselves in a rut by wanting to add more female goodies but also having no interest in actually keeping said female goodies around - it's understandable that not *everyone* the ninja meets can automatically join the team (otherwise we'd have a main cast of 20 or so by now!) but it's very telling when every couple of seasons a new female ally pops in, is paired up with the highlighted ninja of the season (most often as a forced love interest with said highlighted ninja too) and then pops back off to never be seen again, with maybe a quick cameo or two later on if they're lucky.

Now with the benefit of the doubt you could get away with doing that kinda arc once, maybe twice, but when pretty much every newly-introduced female goodie gets this treatment every other year? That's when my alarm bells start a-ringin'.

My kids are big fans of Ninjago. I was hoping that Lego would at least make a $10 “Arcade” set with Nya because I wanted to grab a little gift for my daughter earlier this year. I do recognize that companies have to tailor products for what sells, and I’m fine with that. But I was annoyed that they didn’t sell a single small set with Nya, which seems like a minimal risk to take if it didn’t sell well.

Bionicle ran into the same issue, in part because the story was set in a world that was biologically engineered; it was designed to have an almost permanent 1:5 female to male ratio with the water tribe and a few other groups making up all the women in the story. Fortunately the water tribe did churn out several of the franchises most famous characters (Gali, Macku, Nokama, Hahli, etc...) but it was still weird that the entire female representation in the story was limited to one tribe for most of the first 8 years of the story. Even once we got to the Av-Matoran (the light tribe) which was the first major story group to have male and female characters in the same tribe, the only major female we got from them (Gavla) wore blue armor... just like all the water tribe before her. Again this repeated in 2009 on Bara Magna, which was not an artificially created world and who's characters reproduced sexually and again the only major female character (Kiina) was once more from the water tribe despite the opportunity for her to be associated with any other element. The villains Makuta Gorast in her green armor and Roodaka in her black armor were the only female Bionicle sets to get sets to not be water tribe characters, and Vezok one of the Piraka was the only male character ever associated with water powers in G1.

The short lived 2015-2016 reboot fared much better. Yes Gali was the Toa of Water again, but the franchise finally introduced females from new elemental tribes; Korgot (represented in set form as 70781: Protector of Earth) was the first female Bionicle set that was a heroic character and not also from the water tribes (likewise the Protector of Water Kivoda was a dude, showing that in the reboot men were also represented in the water tribe). Finally Harvali from the short-lived tie in novels was an archeologist from the Jungle tribe, and while she never showed up in set form she did demonstrate that G2 was a bit more balanced in its representation than the original Bionicle was.

Let’s not ignore that chikdren have different interests in toys. The time of thumb being, ninjago appeals to more boys, friends appeals to more girls.

I think the best analysis of gender equality in LEGO should be done in themes like city, creator, and creator expert. Those are the most generic sets LEGO offers. Magnifying in one on theme purposely marketed to one group isn’t a fair way to analyze LEGO as a whole

@Eightcoins8 said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
"and who's characters reproduced sexually "

Its a good argument in itself, but that part baffles me. Is that canon?

"

100%. Greg Farshety, the writer, confirmed it as a canon on a fan board or something a couple of years after the sets ended.

I recently ran across something that mentioned a similar subject coming up during development of the 3-3/4" G.I. Joe line. They basically expected this to sell exclusively to boys, but still wanted to work female characters into the toy line. The concern was that they'd just end up with a few pegs in the boys' toy aisle that were stuffed with female action figures that wouldn't sell. The cheat they came up with was to, at least to some degree, pack female characters with vehicles. If you like the vehicle, and you want to buy it, the female action figure comes with it whether you want it or not.

With this in mind, it starts to make a lot more sense that female minifigs have often been exclusive to the most expensive sets, going back to the first instances of female minifigs in genre sets. The perception is that this was done to make the female minifigs hard to obtain, but it may actually be a case of using the size of the flagship sets to force boys to own some female minifigs. If you pack one by herself in a small set, kids can just avoid that set altogether, but if you want the giant base for all your other minifigs...well, guess what?

CMFs started out with a scant two minifigs in the first wave of 16 (and of course they were a cheerleader and a nurse). Immediately, they upped the number to three per wave with S2 (witch, lifeguard, and pop star), and over the next couple years they finally pushed it to roughly 1/3 of every subsequent wave* being female as of S6. The thing is, diversity is like broccoli. You can tell kids it's good for them, but you can't make them like it. And if you get too pushy with it, and don't figure out a way to make it fun, you'll just reinforce their dislike until it becomes hatred.

Before they closed down in the US, I was walking through TRU and saw a mother and her young daughter walking past the LEGO area. The mother pointed towards it and tried to get her daughter interested in looking through the various LEGO sets on display, but the little girl quickly dismissed it as being "boys' toys" before heading towards shelves that were engulfed in pink packaging.

The CMF theme is a great way to see exactly what happens when you give kids a choice. They were successfully increasing the percentage of female minifigs. The thing is, it didn't really deter kids from seeking gender-exclusive minifigs, which I've experienced firsthand when being asked to identify minifigs for kids at our local LEGO Store. Girls _always_ asked for "any girl minifig". They didn't care which one it was, as long as it wasn't male. Boys, on the other hand, were usually asking for specific minifigs, which "coincidentally" happened to always be male characters. Stuff like TLM may actually subvert those tendencies just because you've got a pair of characters of mixed gender who are clearly the main characters in that movie, so suddenly both characters become desirable to boys and girls. I found it rather surprising that whenever I set up my full lineup of Batman-related minifigs, it's mostly girls who ask where Emmet is (I include different versions of Wyldstyle in the lineup because she's LEGO Batman's ex-girlfriend).

But they kinda shot themselves in the foot with Friends. They finally found a way to tap into the girls' market in a way that has never worked before...but they switched to minidolls instead of minifigs. Suddenly, there's a barrier that segregates boys' sets from girls's sets. Minifigs and minidolls often require different accessories because differences in their design make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to share gear. Girls are responding well to lines like Friends, Elves, and Disney Princess, but all three of these leave them with hordes of female minidolls and a mere handful of males, but more importantly it creates a divide between their collection and the most gender-diverse themes, like City/Town and CMF, while boys don't have the same problem making the jump from more action-oriented genre themes.

*German soccer, of course, being excluded, since the team is all males.

These types of articles always baffle me. Representation doesn't matter in a kid's toy.
Do you want to instill particular values in your children? I recommend parenting rather than insisting on products or the government to do it for you.

@xboxtravis7992
How did we sneak another essay on Bionicle lore into this? I thought that was reserved for RSotD articles to explain to people like me what we’re looking at.

Because we all saw how good female ghostbusters did... Do not overthink this, there are other problems in the world ... And no,this will not solve them,rather just mask them,while real problems continue to thrive

@Eightcoins8:
It actually started much earlier, with the Pirates theme. Can't have clean-shaven scurvy dogs, after all. It still took a few more years before they shifted away from the vacant-eyed stare of the classic smiley altogether, and it's possible that started with LSW. Skintones really grew out of LSW, though. Sure, NBA was the first to introduce them, but LSW had yellow minifigs (plus light-grey for Vader) until NBA, and then suddenly the slip one brown human into the mix...and the next thing you know someone is deciding that licensed themes will have to use realistic skintones going forward. A lot of us saw that coming, between Lando and Mace Windu, but not the timing or specific circumstances.

@B_Space_Man:
They have produced these small action sets for Nya before. She got her own spinner pack in 2011, a Dimensions Fun Pack in 2015, a Spinjitzu Master pack of her own in 2018, and got paired with Wu for a Spinjitzu pack last year. They have sales data on how well the character performs compared to the five boys going back a full decade. If they're not constantly including her in these little action packs every time, it's probably because the sales just aren't as robust.

@ohrmazd said:
" @Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something."

As the father of three girls, the answer to your question is yes, absolutely. Ninjago is my youngest’s favorite tv show (she is 8) and although she loves all the ninja, she too questions why there aren’t more female representatives—its punishment to be the one to play with just the boy figures. "

Just wanted to chime in and confirm that many female kids in my family love ninjas and Ninjago. AND that their fathers find it hard to track down enough Nya minifigs to keep them satisfied.

Ultimately, I wonder if suggesting that Lego should have MORE female characters in this franchise predicated on people duffing each other up sounds like it might be a crowd-pleasing unifying force in our divided world :-) Something the left and right can get behind, for different reason.

Great article! I agree that it would be great to see increased representation of women and girls in the Ninjago theme. And truth be told, in a lot of cases it should be easy to add more female characters without any other meaningful changes whatsoever.

Consider that in 2012, Ninjago featured 17 uniquely printed Serpentine minifigures as baddies — and despite most being used as generic filler in the TV series, they were still all identified as male. In the grand scheme of things, is there any reason to think buyers would have minded if at least a few of these Serpentine had been female? The same can be argued for other largely generic enemy troops the ghost warriors in 2015 or the Ice Emperor's army in 2019, especially since most of the generic "footsoldiers" in those years tended to share just one or two head pieces between them — it'd be easy enough to include one female-coded face print among those.

One thing your article is missing that I probably would've mentioned is descriptions of the roles that different female minifigures fill. For example, while General Machia and Aspheera were the only female minifigures among their respective factions, they are pretty significant in that they are the leaders of those factions. Conversely, Cyren from the 2016 Skybound series remains the only low-ranking female underling among Ninjago's villainous factions. Most other female Ninjago villain minifigures like Bansha, Dogshank, and Ultra Violet have ranked somewhere in between "head honcho" and "lowly henchwoman".

Another thing worth noting is that in some cases, the creators of the TV series seem to have recognized this dearth of female characters and sought to correct it themselves. There were several more female minifigures among the Sky Pirates and Sons of Garmadon in the show than there were in the sets. Granted, the animators tend to make up a number of non-set characters like that for crowd scenes, but at times it seems they've found it worthwhile to improve the gender ratios when doing so.

@Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something."

In a 2014 interview with the Hageman brothers — the lead writers of the TV show at the time — they say that "something like 30% of our viewers are female": http://deadshirt.net/2014/01/03/the-e-list-dan-and-kevin-hageman-talk-ninjago-the-lego-movie-and-how-to-write-a-screenplay-with-your-brother/

There are also a lot of girls and women on social media who create Ninjago fan art and fan fiction. While none of that is any sort of decisive evidence for how much girls or women are likely to spend on Ninjago sets compared to boys or men, I definitely wouldn't disregard their interest in the brand.

@Bmuralles said:
"These types of articles always baffle me. Representation doesn't matter in a kid's toy.
Do you want to instill particular values in your children? I recommend parenting rather than insisting on products or the government to do it for you.
"

I don't see anything baffling about it. People who are fans of a particular product line like to talk about stuff they'd like to see that product do more of in the future. That certainly seems more sensible than acting like any change which MIGHT "instill particular values in children" is inherently unreasonable to want, even when it would make the product more enjoyable.

Given that the number of female characters in Ninjago has already fluctuated so much over the years (from about 1/20 in 2011, about 1/35 in 2012, , there's no reason to assume that the theme's current gender ratios are somehow perfectly optimized to generate the strongest possible sales. So why assume that the costs of adding more female characters in future waves would outweigh the benefits?

After all, even if you don't care one way or another whether a toy encourages positive attitudes among kids, minifigures in a particular faction being able to stand out better from one another is hardly a bad thing.

My 14 year old daughter got into Lego many years ago through the Friends theme. She likes mini DOLLS better than mini FIGS. But she wants something more ninja like and way less pink. Elves was nice while it lasted but it's gone. Really what she wants is mini doll warriors. Ninjago with female minidolls. If you can make that happen Lego will keep the girls that grew up with Friends and want something more kick-ass now that they are teens.

@CarolinaOnMyMind said:
" @xboxtravis7992
How did we sneak another essay on Bionicle lore into this? I thought that was reserved for RSotD articles to explain to people like me what we’re looking at. "

Everyday is a good day to sneak an essay about Bionicle lore into the comments! :)

Although considering Bionicle set many of the tropes that Ninjago would follow, its probably the most apt comparison to Ninjago; i.e. Lego product to Lego product.

@Sandinista
I got in arguments with my sister as a kid because she wanted me to play all my Bionicle's as boys and her Barbies as the girls, and I kept trying to explain Gali was a girl and she told me "its a robot and a boy toy, its a boy."

Although she did teach me how good the Toa looked ridding along in Barbie's Volkswagen Beetle car, we still joke as adults about how much time we spent playing "Bionicle-Barbie" as kids.

@Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something."

Others have already responded generally to your question and comment better than I could have myself, so no need to go there, but I've got to comment on the way you've written your post which was open, and honestly inquisitive. Spot on.

Thank you for the article. I believe that girls should be represented in boys' themes and the other way around. I also acknowledge that this is difficult to pull off. Nevertheless, LEGO should try to do it and we should keep pointing it out when they don't :)

To answer all the Friends comments, the percentage of the male minidolls has varied through the years from 3.3% all the way up to 19.4%, depending on the year.
(I've written more detailed analyses of the LEGO Friends minidolls by years in the HispaBrick Magazine and on my website brickomotion.com for those interested)

We only get Ninjago episodes via Netflix, so we've only just started watching the Dragon Hunters season and are about halfway through.

I've been really pleased by the prominence of female characters in the storylines so far, with Skylor taking on Garmadon 1 on 1 to save the city, Harumi facing deep self-assessment as Garmaddon's second in command, Faith driving the entire Dragon Hunter plot and saving the ninja, Jet Jack as the most capable enemy in the clan, Mistake having easily the best powers and repping the Oni single-handedly, Ultra Violet terrorising the population, and Nya responsible for bringing Lloyd back from rock bottom.

The Mad Max vibes I was getting from the accompanying sets meant I went in very hard very early and I think I have them all (and it's my favourite wave by far). This meant I wasn't carefully choosing a handful of sets to get the most characters, so I've no idea if the female representation and distribution in the sets was as good as I feel it is with the series. I'd like to think it was but I doubt it given Huws take on the topic as a whole.

We have a boy of six and I go out of my way to positively reinforce cool, strong, interesting female characters in our play time because I know the majority of the world will be pushing a very different message to him for the whole of his life. He knows for sure Nya is my favourite member of the team, mainly because she was off on her own saving the day as Samuri X without needing a team around her, then she became a ninja too and despite the late start is just as powerful as all the male ninja.

In reading these comments I was kinda grossed out to learn that the only two women in the first collectible mini figure series were a nurse and a cheerleader... Lame.

Well, it’s nice to see this has actually prompted a good bit of commentary!

@Jack_Rizzi greatly appreciate your comments and perspective.

@bnic99 Just another example of the show team making significant improvements to what they’re given to work with.

@SMC not from me, thanks.

@SpaceCadet you make a good point. I think my gripe was that Nya hasn’t really had ownership in a set name since dropping the Samurai X identity. In fact, story wise, she wasn’t even Samurai X anymore when that set was released, nor did the set play any role in the special based on that particular wave of sets.

@Brickking6077 I’m sorry to hear you feel that way. This was simply a topic that had caught my attention and that I felt like sharing. I could, perhaps, have considered a means of a solution to the problem I felt like bringing up.

@xboxtravis7992 ah, the good old days. I must confess that when I first got into Bionicle I was in a dumb “I don’t like girl characters” phase, and so avoided all the blue sets for that reason. Fortunately my sister got into it for a bit and helped me get over that before too much time had elapsed. I honestly like the idea of more equal gender representation in that theme as well, but it’s a bit late...

@Sandinista same thing happened with me and Nintendo’s Samus; nothing feminine about that armor, which admittedly is pretty practical.

@Bogdanst wasn’t saying there aren’t other problems; just sharing some thoughts. In any event, that Ghostbusters story simply flipped the gender ratio of the original and made the token guy the receptionist/ghostly possession victim, from what I’ve heard.

@Aanchir Great comments-you always bring some good points to Ninjago discussion. You make a good point about my failure to talk much about the roles of female characters. I guess I just boiled it down to the physical minifigure aspect of things.

@ComfySofa you hit a nail on the head-despite the best efforts of some great creators, there are others who will try to downplay or even demean girls in the media your son encounters. Starting off with that good foundation is quite commendable, and echoes well my own reasons for writing this article in the first place.

@Icepacklady:
And that's another way they hampered themselves with the minidolls. Try doing martial arts poses when your characters all have monolegs, and their wrists are fused. They've incorporated a couple of warrior-types in the Disney Princess theme, with Merida and Mulan, but minidolls don't really lend themselves well to an action-oriented theme, and you've got to convince not only The LEGO Company, but all of their retail partners across the globe, that girls will actually be drawn to a combat-intensive theme when many of them are convinced that sparkly unicorns and fairy princesses are the only surefire way to move product. That's a massive ask.

If they'd stuck to minifigs, they could just make the "boys'" themes more gender-neutral and let the market go where it may. Give it a few years, and they could use the VIP program to produce hard numbers on what girls are actually buying. But by splitting the themes across genders by inclusion of minifigs vs minidolls, they basically leave a lot of girls feeling stuck with the minidoll-based sets and wanting something more like what they see in the minifig range, but unwilling to simply ask for them (or dealing with parents who keep nudging them back to the minidoll sets).

@Bmuralles said:
"These types of articles always baffle me. Representation doesn't matter in a kid's toy.
Do you want to instill particular values in your children? I recommend parenting rather than insisting on products or the government to do it for you.
"
Of course representation matters in children’s toys, through play and role modelling they will form most of their ideas about the way the world works. Getting it right from a young age is vital.
Not all parents are good at parenting. Since we will all have to live in the same society as those children I think helping them learn the right values is incumbent on us all. It baffles me that people like you don’t think that.

@ComfySofa:
It got better. Right away, S2 produced a female lifeguard (a gender-neutral role, which would get a male counterpart in a later wave). S3 had a female snowboarder and tennis player, also before their male counterparts were released. S6 even had a female surgeon (while there's nothing about the minifig itself that differentiates her from a surgical nurse, the character is specifically identified as a Surgeon in the official literature), which is a role that has never been repeated at all in the CMF line, or really to the same level in any other theme (there have been plenty of male physicians, but no male character in full surgical scrubs).

Yes, there have still been a lot of female minifigs in "girly" roles (including a second cheerleader, a zombie cheerleader, an aerobics instructor, the pop star I previously mentioned, and a socialite diva), but there have been zookeepers, warriors, explorers, athletes, and even villains. Some minifigs have been female only because there's no male equivalent (Lady Liberty), but there have been plenty of instances (particularly among the sports-related minifigs) where both genders have been represented, and females seem to lead the way as often as males.

@SearchlightRG:
No, I watched the flopped Ghostbusters reboot. Besides the incredibly awkward setup where a male director took a story written and filmed by men, about men, and changed it to an all-female cast with no reference back to the original because he didn't want to make it look like they were reliant upon men, the littered the opening scenes with a bunch of woke jokes that fell flat with most viewers. The male receptionist was basically a bumbling idiot, where the original Jeanine had a bitingly sarcastic wit, and could hold her own with the boys.

I've seen comments and reviews written by women who were so offended by the gender revenge agenda that they said if the exact same movie was released today with the male/female roles reversed, women would have burned down the theaters in outrage. After watching it (in spite of the fact that my DVR tried to prevent me by deleting the first two recordings I made before I got back to them), I have to agree. We've hit a point in society where "equality" is one group telling another group that they have to step back, become subservient, stop feeling pride in their own achievements, and let those who have been oppressed in previous generations take charge. This movie exemplifies that philosophy to a T.

Long before that movie nearly tanked a franchise, guys loved Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner. It's been proven for decades that you can have strong female characters without packing them in a revenge fantasy. Somewhere along the way, that concept got lost. If you want anyone to listen to your message, it can't be, "Let me punch you in the face because I'm carrying all of the repressed anger of my ancestors."

I wonder if this has more to do with Ninjago naturally cycling through the cast than LEGO skewing it one way or another.

I mean, I'm a 20 year old dude, but I kinda doubt LEGO is trying to intentionally give female Ninjago fans the short end of the stick. I think when female characters do come in they try to make them interesting. In the case of Nya, I actually like her more as time went by and she got to shine more. Pixal is my all around favorite as well.

But let's be real here. Ninajgo is targeted at boys. I'm not saying girls can't or shouldn't enjoy it, but there's quite clearly a target demographic with it. That's.. not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. Friends is quite clearly targeted at girls and has male representation heavily skewed towards girls, and that's alright. It's got it's own demographic to appeal to, though I suppose the male characters and it's compatibility with more traditional minifigures keeps the door open for males to enjoy some of that line as well.

But if this article is intending to call LEGO out on some form of bias, I don't personally think that's entirely fair to LEGO anymore. One example where I think they've shown great improvement on representing both sexes is LEGO City. Each set has someone likely get a relatively balanced amount of males and females, and women are also much more up front and center within various professional roles.

@Pongo
@Jack_Rizzo
To add onto the talk of sexuality in LEGO

Yes there have been some gay Disney characters turned minifigs. Off the top of my head in Star Wars Rouge One Chirrut and Baze were in a relationship. Other licenses have also gotten us queer characters. Dumbledore is gay and Marceline is bi, for example.

As far as LEGO original characters go, the only confirmed one is Vhisola from BIONICLE. Granted all romance and sexuality in BIONICLE was de-canonized later on in favor of the machine's being asexual, but when the Adventures books were first released in 2004 it was made quite clear she had a crush on her teacher Nokama, going so far as to construct a shrine for her and nearly killing herself when the later became a Toa and had to "go to war" in a way.

There's also an argument that Orde from BIONICLE is a metaphor for being transgender, and they spend a few paragraphs talking about how he's the only male Toa of Psionics. In fact, in the Matoran Universe (but not Spherous Magna) gender is entirely a mental construct. All the physical bodies are identical but the A.I. inserted are given gendered traits and pronouns based on the Great Beings' concepts of masculinity and femininity, which was honestly a pretty progressive way to view gender.

Of course, subtext is also a thing and people have picked up their own inklings of character sexuality throughout the years. Personally I think that Jet Jack and Faith from Ninjago Season 9 and Basil and Majisto (specifically in LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed) have romantic coding, and Skales from Ninjago Season 1 has quite a bit of flamboyancy. Up until Harumi came around I actually saw a lot people claim Lloyd Garmadon was AroAce. But odds are nothing will ever be confirmed.

@Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas? I mean, I could see this being an issue if there is a market for girls, but after reading this I don't know why this is troubling or flawed. Please help me understand if I'm missing something."

I feel like there would be more girls interested in ninjas if there were more ninjas that were girls. However, there in lies a paradox where girls aren't interested in ninjas because there's not many girl ninja and so companies don't make more girl ninja because girls aren't primarily interested and so the pattern continues.

@ALEGOMan said:
"who actually cares tho? too many apparently, stop complaining about the most pettiest things, what next? no trans lego?"

Clearly all the people discussing this care, myself included. Those of us that care about the next generation don’t think this is petty. We are aware it’s not the major issue of the day but it is a relevant issue concerning our hobby. On your final point yes I would like to see a more diverse LEGO universe with the whole LGBTQ spectrum, the important/telling question is why don’t you?

@PurpleDave duly noted.

@PixelTheDragon I mean, I would appreciate it if Lego could be a little more diverse, and particularly if they could show Nya some more love. But I don’t know that I ever exactly intended this as “calling them out”. Even if it was, how many actual Lego employees with any sort of pull in that regard frequent Brickset?

@Spartan_Ghost I alluded somewhat to P.I.X.A.L.’s Samurai X figures, without name dropping her specifically. My analysis kind of skipped over the theme’s first few years, because before 2015 we only got one or two female Minifigures a year, if that, from Ninjago. That was pretty sad, so I moved ahead to when things, in my opinion, started to improve. Looking back, it might have helped matters in this area if Zane had ended up as P.I.X.A.L.’s digital assistant while she took his place as a Ninja...

@GSR_MataNui personally, I didn’t care much for the 2018 villains. This article was also more centered on the sets, and without watching the show you’d never know Heavy Metal was a girl, unless you got that magazine release that gave her a hairpiece. I’m also not a fan of the Munce from the show: I don’t consider female characters a plus if they’re going to be scantily clad barbarian women.

@jsworpin said:
" @Wasthereonce said:
"I guess the question is: are girls interested in ninjas?."

That’s absolutely NOT the question. Let’s assume only boys are interested in Ninjas. The question then is why should they not have female protagonists to play with? Why do we not teach boys, through play, that women are of equal value, ability and importance?
"

I must disagree with the latter comment. Themes like Ninjago have their own target audience which the Lego designers engineer the theme accordingly. Now, if a girl likes Ninjago, then great! There is nothing against girls enjoying Ninjago.

However, a lack of perfection in the gender ratio does not mean that Lego is in the wrong. Every theme has its own focus, which by nature equates to a gender imbalance. Saying that Ninjago is flawed means that virtually every other Lego theme is also flawed. I have never heard a serious complaint that the Friends and Elves lines lack male representation. If anything, Ninjago is actually overrepresenting females since ninjas were overwhelmingly (and perhaps purely) male.

I encourage you to realize that these products are designed for KIDS [although some of us TFOLS and AFOLS enjoy them :) ] and can't be taken to seriously.

@PurpleDave said:
"I recently ran across something that mentioned a similar subject coming up during development of the 3-3/4" G.I. Joe line. They basically expected this to sell exclusively to boys, but still wanted to work female characters into the toy line. The concern was that they'd just end up with a few pegs in the boys' toy aisle that were stuffed with female action figures that wouldn't sell. The cheat they came up with was to, at least to some degree, pack female characters with vehicles. If you like the vehicle, and you want to buy it, the female action figure comes with it whether you want it or not."

Being an avid collector of G.I.JOE back in the 80s, I’m going to call this one not accurate.

There was only female character packed with a vehicle: Cover Girl, the driver of the Wolverine Armored Missile Vehicle.

The rest - Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Jinx, Baroness, and Zarana - were carded.

To my recollection, there weren’t pegs full of the female characters to be found in the stores, and I’m sure that was due to the high quality of the writing of the comic, cartoon, and file cards included with each figure. The female characters were every bit as compelling as the males without the need for the whole males-are-bumbling-idiots trope. They were strong, capable, confident, professional, witty, and above all, interesting.

That’s all LEGO really has to do - introduce complex, interesting female characters - like Nya or P.I.X.A.L. or Dogshank - that enrich the story of Ninjago and both the boys and girls will want their sets because the characters can add to their own adventures. It’s not really all that difficult.

@Slithus_Venom said:
"This is not a flaw, most Ninjago fans are male, so most characters are male. There are still some female fans, and some female characters. I don't see any problems; this article is dumb.

And I agree with @masterbricker"

Was it really necessary to add the “dumb” part? I understand if you don’t share my opinion, but that’s no reason to be demeaning.