LEGO NINJAGO Seabound sketch model revealed four years later
LEGO designer Niek van Slagmaat has revealed a NINJAGO sketch model four years after Brick Fanatics learned what may have been from them.
In August 2021, Brick Fanatics shared word of a concept model for 71750 Lloyd’s Hydro Mech that we learned about in an interview with LEGO designer Niek van Slagmaat – which originally depicted the model with a different described design suited for Kai rather than Lloyd.
Now, just over four years later the designer has revealed exactly what the discussed concept model looks like, adding important context to the original interview.
“When I made the very first sketch model, it was Kai’s mech, and it was $40,” Niek said. “So it was quite a bit bigger, and it was red, and looked a lot more like a crab. But because our Seabound sets are all skewed quite high in price – we have the $100 71755 Temple of the Endless Sea and $130 71756 Hydro Bounty – we wanted to make sure that the [cheaper sets] were actually at a lower price point.
“We swapped it to a $20 set instead, and for story reasons, we swapped it to being Lloyd instead of Kai’s mech. And because we did that, I basically had to make the model from scratch, because there was very little overlap there.”
Comparing the newly revealed sketch model to the final set design reveals just how different the two builds are and the only parts that carry over between Kai and Lloyd’s underwater mech are the pointed toes on the feet, the giant claw on the left arm (with a different build) and the cockpit. The crab-like design is especially evident in the sketch build thanks in no small part to the red colour scheme and bulky frame, whereas 71750 Lloyd’s Hydro Mech is more lithe.
Being able to compare the pair offers better insight into the LEGO set design process and while Kai’s mech might have looked different should it have become an official set, now we know what never was for LEGO NINJAGO beyond our original quotes.
Following a dive into the past of LEGO NINJAGO, click here to see what’s rumoured for the future of the theme as 2025 models start to be revealed.
Featured image: Niek van Slagmaat
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