NINJAGO Development Models
Posted by CapnRex101,
LEGO products invariably go through numerous revisions during development, refining different aspects of the building experience, functionality and appearance.
NINJAGO models are also subject to such adjustments and LEGO has kindly provided images which show the conceptual designs for several sets throughout the theme, as well as several notable components. See how 70727 X-1 Ninja Charger, 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle and other sets were developed after the break...
9444 Cole's Tread Assault
My immediate reaction upon seeing this image of the concept models for 9444 Cole's Tread Assault was surprise at closely the original design resembles Batman's famous Tumbler. The similarities do remain visible across the finalised model, although not nearly to the degree that they did initially.
Additionally, the changing colour leads me to wonder the designers considered assigning this vehicle to Kai. That would not necessarily be surprising as Cole's vehicles traditionally appear more focused upon brawn than speed, unlike his Tread Assault which seems exceptionally aerodynamic.
9445 Fangpyre Truck Ambush
Zane's snowmobile appeared in 9445 Fangpyre Truck Ambush and evidently passed through numerous revisions, despite its modest size. The apparent indecision surrounding whether to use a printed 4x4 rock element or its plain trans-medium blue equivalent appears particularly interesting. Eventually, the element without printing was selected.
This vehicle subsequently returned in 70667 Kai's Blade Cycle and Zane's Snowmobile, after growing considerably in both scale and detail.
9450 Epic Dragon Battle
Designing the Great Devourer likely commanded particular responsibility given its importance during the early seasons of NINJAGO. These models demonstrate how its scale was adjusted, presumably to accommodate greater articulation and improve the balance. While the size of the original design is impressive, I doubt it would have been suitable for play.
The colours were also updated, gradually introducing more lime green and dark green which supplanted the standard green shade. I find the resultant contrast much more appealing than using less dramatic colours, as exhibited on the earlier development models.
70727 X-1 Ninja Charger
The majority of LEGO products are assigned their price before design commences but I think 70727 X-1 Ninja Charger may have been in development before the price was decided, given such dramatic variation here!
It seems that the motorcycle transformation function was not always included as each earlier design lacks that prominent feature, instead accommodating multiple minifigures.
70737 Titan Mech Battle
Zane's elegant Titan Mech has attracted notable attention recently with the release of 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle, although the first incarnation appeared in 70737 Titan Mech Battle. However, this development model appears closer in scale to the modern set than the version from 2015, presumably because fewer parts were originally required for Mech-enstein.
The completed design was considerably smaller and less detailed than the conceptual model presented above. However, I am pleased that the set designers decided against including the original weapon which resembles a bladed umbrella!
70747 Boulder Blaster
70747 Boulder Blaster might be considered among the most distinctive NINJAGO vehicles, due in particular to the rotary spring-loaded shooter mounted towards the front. However, this model reveals that was not always part of the design as the aircraft instead featured a classic propeller.
This surprised me because the spring-loaded shooters form an integral part of the completed design, hence I had always imagined that the vehicle was constructed around them from the beginning. Evidently that was not the case.
71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle
Niek van Slagmaat has recently published several photos on Twitter, documenting the models he designed when developing 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle. As you can see below, the mech went through dramatic alterations. Niek has described that he started by remaining rather close to the original design.
Subsequently, Niek was invited to create something which differed more considerably from the model released during 2015, before eventually settling upon a compromise between them both. You can view his original sketches for the model, as well as his additional commentary, on Twitter.
Element Development
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32 comments on this article
Love the original Boulder Blaster. It’s so cartoony, I love it.
tbh i think the original headpiece for pythor looks a lot better
I like saying Element Development. Element Development, Element Development, Element Development...
I wonder if there are any prototypes of the knee joints in making Zane's mech. I'd love to hear their thought process of making of strong knee joint and what factors, including aesthetics and physics, allowed them to achieve it for Zane's mech.
Regarding the colors of the prototype Tread Assault, I almost wonder if early drafts of the ninja vehicles were given a generic “Ninjago” color scheme (like the Destiny’s Bounty or various temples from the first year) instead of being color-coded to the individual ninja. These definitely aren’t all the iterations the set went through, because I’ve seen other prototypes that featured a more detailed “transformation” for the “snake mode”.
I also think the “three motorcycles” shown alongside the Ninja Charger are variations on the bike that would go inside, not a separate concept for the full set that would include all three instead of the car.
Seeing how these models come together is fascinating, even if I am not a follower of Ninjago. And although the sets form the core of the product, they are but a small part of the overall product development that takes place in the years leading up to their release.
I just realised: it's a very Ninjago day at Brickset!
Has anyone spotted elements in the prototypes that are rare or unreleased colors? That has always interested me in terms of what actually exists, even if unavailable to the ordinary LEGO fan.
I'm getting a little bit of a 10192 Space Skulls vibe from the third-from-last picture.
It looks like some of those X-1 Ninja Charger concept models got recycled into Monkie Kid last year.
Absolutely wonderful articles! Thank you for sharing these!!!
Those last two versions of the Titanium Mech is so Gurren Lagann that I now hear the main theme when I look at it. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH!
I want Lego to publish a book detailing set development and prototyping for pieces because I love seeing the evolution of ideas. This article will do for now, though- great stuff!
Amazing stuff!
I really like the boulder blaster original because it looks like a 1930s/WW2 era plane which I love! It appears Im not the only person who has tried using that stupid City helicopter windscreen/cockpit piece mounted semi-flat to resemble the cockpit cover of a plane of that era.
Id love to see versions of this article for other themes as well! Especially something like the modular buildings!
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"Has anyone spotted elements in the prototypes that are rare or unreleased colors? That has always interested me in terms of what actually exists, even if unavailable to the ordinary LEGO fan."
The Boulder Blaster prototype has gold hero factory robot legs on it, if I'm not mistaken.
I love the fact that The LEGO Group was willing to share these developmental images with Brickset and all of the site's fans. Is that normal practice? Everything I take away from their corporate behavior suggests that they would be reluctant to do so because it might give away some trade secrets I can never understand. Regardless, thanks to TLG and to Brickset for a brief, but fascinating, look into the evolution of Ninjago from concept to product!
LEGO is justifiably protective of their prototypes. I imagine these are being shown because of their age, but I recall seeing the Nexo Knights prototypes on one of the 2016 Inside Tours. We were strictly forbidden from bringing in cellphones, probably more due to the presentation we were shown, but it is worth noting the prototypes never left the room.
A lot of the same design process and even parts usage was seen in those Nexo Knights sets, by the way, as what I'm seeing here with these Ninjago sets. I always find them fascinating to see.
Hopefully this summer, when BIONICLE turns 20, we get a day or so to see some prototypes from the early days of BIONICLE. Those I'm sure will be wild to behold!
I think this also gives some insight to how LEGO Ideas sets change from the submitted concept to the released set. Internally they are very used to making substantial changes to a set to go from a proposal to release. We just usually don’t get to see it.
@jol said:
" @Galaxy12_Import said:
"Has anyone spotted elements in the prototypes that are rare or unreleased colors? That has always interested me in terms of what actually exists, even if unavailable to the ordinary LEGO fan."
The Boulder Blaster prototype has gold hero factory robot legs on it, if I'm not mistaken."
Those aren’t unreleased though, they appear in 44019 , 44023 and 44028 .
The red bananas on the middle Titan Mech’s forehead, however, are unreleased.
It's interesting that the first mockup of set 9444 used dark grey Kopaka swords from set 8536. Surely those pieces/molds had long since been retired by then?
@Dash_Justice said:
"It's interesting that the first mockup of set 9444 used dark grey Kopaka swords from set 8536. Surely those pieces/molds had long since been retired by then?"
The mold popped back up in 2010 so that's probably why it was on the table https://brickset.com/parts/design-32552
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"Has anyone spotted elements in the prototypes that are rare or unreleased colors? That has always interested me in terms of what actually exists, even if unavailable to the ordinary LEGO fan."
In the first prototype for Cole's thread assault, you can clearly see two dark grey Bionicle Kopaka sword pieces. That piece never appeared in that color in any official sets.
Also the first iteration of Zane’s snowmobile appears to contain gold Quaza Spikes.
In the second prototype for Cole’s Tread Assault, can anyone tell me what that gold piece is near the middle of the front? I really can’t tell if that’s one singular piece, and if so, whether or not it’s a prototype mold. It almost looks like it was broken off from an existing piece.
Midget police Zane on his tiny snowmobile
Great article. As someone who struggles with the build revision process, seeing the progression of designs is really helpful.
Anybody interested in more detailed insight surrounding the development process for a set might wish to read our interview with Mike Psiaki about the design of 10265 Ford Mustang: https://brickset.com/article/43725
He showed and discussed several prototype models along with the idea of painting pieces, which may be the situation with certain non-production elements shown in this article.
This is one of the coolest articles you have ever done. I really love it.
@TheWackyWookiee said:
"Love the original Boulder Blaster. It’s so cartoony, I love it."
I agree! The cartoon look adds a lot to the set!
It’s great to get a look into their design process. Having studied architecture it is very familiar to me, although I always had trouble letting go of an idea.
I’d be interested however in seeing the process for designing a Star Wars set. Obviously they would still need a process, but they wouldn’t have the freedom to change the look too much. I imagine it would be more of an exercise in engineering, although creating more accurate designs I’m sure leads to many iterations as well.
We could've had a closed-mouted Pythor. We were *this* close!
@Hitscan:
Sounds like you should head over to Unbound and support The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks, which is officially sanctioned by The LEGO Company, who will be granting the author unprecedented access to the people involved in designing LEGO elements. Better hurry, though, as May is the last time you can support the project, and I don't know if this book will be printed for the general public.
@Schmopiesdad:
They do occasionally roll them out, especially for major milestones (10 years of Ninjago, if you hadn't noticed). In this, and many past cases, there's not a lot you can glean from them, since they usually reflect only past projects, which have often even been retired by the time we see early development images like these.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
I believe Bionicle technically already is 20, as the Turaga and original Kanohi pack released around this time 2001 in Europe. Summer is when the entire 2001 wave launched in the US, after which Europe finally got all the Toa/Rahi sets in maybe August? I'm not really sure exactly which months they got releases in Europe, but I know they got a huge head start on collecting the Kanohi...except for the fact that two entire sets of Turaga Kanohi got run in Toa colors, and there were two exclusive transparent colors of Kaukau, which meant they probably had to buy another pile of mask packs just to fill in those gaps with the proper colors, while we in the US had to pay hefty prices to acquire all of these short-lived Euro Misprints.
@Nightbeat339:
I have no idea what it is, but they were beyond molding prototypes some 20 years ago. I saw my first LEGO rapid prototype at NYTF, when they were producing their first AT-AT for Star Wars. The Snowtrooper helmets were grown in a vat of some sort, as you could clearly see the distinctive terracing that results when you produce a piece one layer at a time. Whatever that is, by the time they start cutting an injection mold, they've got to be pretty serious about bringing that element to market, and really just need to figure out how to mold it cleanly.
@CapnRex101:
It 100% is the case. Look at the front of the red prototype for Cole's Tread Assault, and you can see two triple curved wedges that have been painted dark-red. The first time I saw that done was also at NYTF, when I think the Toa Metru sets had common limb elements that had been painted dark-bley, and was flaking off pretty badly from the ball joints.