LEGO NINJAGO designer explains why new mechs were ‘hard to get right’

The designer behind the latest pair of LEGO NINJAGO mechs says the model was ‘hard to get right’ – but allowed the team to push the envelope like never before.

Revealed as part of the LEGO NINJAGO summer 2023 line-up today, 71794 Lloyd and Arin’s Ninja Team Mechs combines two mechs in the one set – and then literally combines them into one giant mech. It’s a fresh concept for a theme that refuses to play things totally safe even 13 years into its lifespan, and introduces one of two brand new characters for NINJAGO’s post-Crystalized era.

The 794-piece model also gives NINJAGO veteran Lloyd a slight makeover, and in doing so repositions him within the wider narrative of the new Dragons Rising TV show. Simply put, there’s a lot going on here – and that made it a tricky prospect for designer Niek van Slagmaat.

[bdproduct search=’ninjago’ sort=’discount’ numberOfRecord=’4′ brand=” sliderMinValues=’0′ sliderMaxValues=’750′]

“This one was quite hard to get right, because this is a concept that we wanted to do with a mech inside of another mech,” Slagmaat tells Brick Fanatics. “It was a big challenge, [because] this model needs to sum up, ‘What is the new NINJAGO TV show?’ And it’s old meets new, where Lloyd specifically becomes more of a mentor, so he has the hat, the cloak and the sandals that you’d normally associate with a mentor character.

“And then we have the new kind of young whippersnapper Arin, who is in a bright yellow mech with a dragon face on the front of it, and it can disconnect. And then you can close up the cloak to be a proper grouchy old man.”

What you might have noticed from across the summer wave is that NINJAGO is going to strange new places for this soft reboot, and as one of the headline products of this range – in summing up the new Dragons Rising show – 71794 Lloyd and Arin’s Ninja Team Mechs takes full advantage of the creative potential on the table.

“We really try to make sure that when you look at these sets, you felt like this is something we hadn’t seen from NINJAGO before, which we of course try to do always,” Slagmaat adds. “But this being kind of a reset in the story allowed us to really push that aesthetic and go a little bit further than we’d normally get to, which I think is super fun.”

One clear way in which 71794 Lloyd and Arin’s Ninja Team Mechs pushes the classic NINJAGO aesthetic is in the plank-like sandals on its feet, which Slagmaat says are inspired by Japanese footwear. But you might not immediately notice the ways in which the designer has toyed with things like the mech’s proportions, as well as some of the key iconography for its characters.

“We really tried to push things to 11 with this model, taking all the icons that we normally use, but kind of blowing them up: really big fists, very skinny arms, and then big feet, a big hat and a cloak,” Slagmaat says. “And then a weapon that both reminds you of Master Wu’s staff but also still has a blade on it for Lloyd. This was a very interesting model to design.”

The question now is: will 71794 Lloyd and Arin’s Ninja Team Mechs be just as interesting to build? We’ll find out when it launches on June 1. Keep an eye on Brick Fanatics for our review before then, and click here to check out the entire wave of LEGO NINJAGO summer 2023 sets.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.