Lego Ninja (stylized as ''LEGO Ninja'') is a discontinued theme and product range of the construction toy

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

. Launched in 1998, the collection was its own theme. It had many elements of the ninja warriors from feudal

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The majority of the sets were released in 1998 and 1999; however, three small sets of

minifigure A Lego minifigure, often simply referred to as a Lego figure or a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine made of special Lego bricks produced by Danish building toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and ha ...

s were released in 2000 as part of the "Mini Heroes Collection." After this, the theme was discontinued, and was effectively replaced by the "Knights Castle" theme in 2000.

Background

The Ninja theme was released as a sub-theme of the

Lego Castle The Lego Castle theme is a segment of the broader Lego product line that encapsulates a Middle Ages, medieval world concept, prominently featuring Knight, knights and Castle, castles. Launched initially in Europe in 1979 and later introduced to ...

theme, which from 1984 had started to develop into specific factions. Lego Ninja immediately followed the Fright Knights theme, which had been in production from 1997 to 1998. In contrast to Fright Knights, Lego Ninja took its influence from a more realistic starting point and was set in mountainous Japan with medieval buildings.

Construction sets

A total of 29 toy sets were released as part of the Ninja theme, which centred on three distinctive groups; the ninja, the samurai and the robbers. The toy sets featured a variety of buildings and vehicles, including fortresses and boats. The ninja crest was yellow with a black wingless dragon. The Samurai had blue banners bearing a golden fan. The robber's crest was a red, black and silver bull's head. The ninja minifigures were designed in a variety of colours, including black, red, grey, green and white and featured grey shoulder plates. In contrast, the samurai were dressed in black, blue and silver, and the robbers were dressed in red and green.

Legacy

In 2010, Series 1 of the Lego Collectable Minifigures Series contained a ninja minifigure clearly based on the theme. A year later, in early 2011, Lego released the

Lego Ninjago Lego ''Ninjago'' (stylized as ''LEGO NINJAGO''; , ) is a List of Lego themes, Lego theme that was created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group. It is the first theme to be based on ninjas since the discontinuation of the Lego Ninja th ...

theme and associated television series ''Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu'', which took heavy inspiration from the Ninja theme.

References

{{Lego

Ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

Ninja parodies Products introduced in 1998 Products and services discontinued in 2000 Japan in non-Japanese culture