Ninjago Advent Calendar!

[Lyichir]

I thought I'd share a project I'd been working on for a while! This is a Ninjago-themed Advent Calendar I designed to put on Lego Cuusoo. I put a lot of work into designing a variety of small and interesting models based on the theme. I did my best to make it with the same sort of constraints as the other Lego Advent Calendars. It has a similar part count, no new molds, and a limited number of recolored parts and new prints. Each model is simple and small in scale, and I took efforts to make sure that there was plenty of play value from the first model onward.

I'll link to my pictures on Flickr, since I've already given them detailed descriptions there. Also, if you would like to see this as a set, I encourage you to support it on Cuusoo!

Full Photoset on Flickr

All Contents (pictured)

Day 1 - Kai

Day 2 - Anvil

Day 3 - Toy Mech

Day 4 - Weapon Rack

Day 5 - Zane

Day 6 - Snowball Catapult

Day 7 - Toy Helicopter

Day 8 - Snowman

Day 9 - Cole

Day 10 - Punching Bag

Day 11 - Toy Driller

Day 12 - Lamppost

Day 13 - Jay

Day 14 - Video Game

Day 15 - Toy Jet

Day 16 - Fireplace

Day 17 - Lloyd

Day 18 - Presents

Day 19 - Toy Trike

Day 20 - Christmas Tree

Day 21 - Nya

Day 22 - Tea and Cookies

Day 23 - Sleigh

Day 24 - Sensei Claus

[CM4Sci]

Saw this on CUUSOO and commented. Really cool!

-Sci

[LegendsOfNinjago]

This is awesome! I would sooooo buy this!

[Tobias_Jay]

Very cool! I love those mini models!

[Lord Vladivus]

Awesome, love the clockwork mini models!

[Sir Brickalot]

That's amazing! I would love to have one!

[DraikNova]

The mini-vehicles are absolutely beautiful. And what's more, I'm pretty sure the parts for the mech (my favorite of the bunch) exist, so it's actually buildable.

Edited December 21, 2013 by DraikNova

[Lyichir]

The mini-vehicles are absolutely beautiful. And what's more, I'm pretty sure the parts for the mech (my favorite of the bunch) exist, so it's actually buildable.

Actually, the sleigh, fireplace, and jet are the only models that require parts in new colors, and the jet only needs them by mistake (I forgot to verify whether the new 1x2 curved slope existed in blue). I tried my best to stick to parts that existed unless a new part would give me options I wouldn't have otherwise.

[DraikNova]

That's great to hear. I'm also kind of surprised you based the copter off of the new 2014 Ninjacopter. It seems much more like the 2011 Skelecopter that came in the Lightning Dragon set to me.

[Lyichir]

That's great to hear. I'm also kind of surprised you based the copter off of the new 2014 Ninjacopter. It seems much more like the 2011 Skelecopter that came in the Lightning Dragon set to me.

It's only really based on the Ninjacopter conceptually (in that it's a helicopter vehicle for Zane). I needed a toy vehicle for him that wasn't too much like any of the others, and seeing that that part existed in warm gold inspired me to make it a helicopter. I was much more concerned about the vehicles being visible for what they were than for making them match any existing vehicles closely.

[Agent Fusion]

Loving that mini mech, and I believe I have the parts to build it, so that's great. I would suggest an enemy minifig also, such as a stone soldier, nindroid or even a skeleton.

[Lyichir]

Loving that mini mech, and I believe I have the parts to build it, so that's great. I would suggest an enemy minifig also, such as a stone soldier, nindroid or even a skeleton.

Thanks! There are three reasons I didn't include an enemy minifig. The first was that the scene I created worked better as a somewhat peaceful scene. The second was that I was running up against the limit of how many figs I could conceivably include, and didn't want to have to cut Nya (the least important character to the calendar as a whole, but also the only girl). The third was that I wanted to put this on Cuusoo, and so if it were produced as a set (possibly years later), I would want it to be easily adapted to that year's characters.

In my early designs for the calendar I considered making the snowman a snow-skeleton, with the traditional stovepipe hat. I decided against that since it was hard to make a bony skeleton without just using regular skeleton parts (which would essentially be adding another fig), and because I was inspired by pictures of Japanese snowmen made of two snowballs with a bucket hat, and had to choose between a western snowman with a Ninjago twist or an eastern snowman (which would need to be more basic to convey the right image). I opted for the latter.

[Agent Fusion]

Oh, I see, good luck on Cuusoo, I'll be sure to support.

[ShadowWolfHount]

They look great but I don't see it going anywhere any time soon and you know what I think of them on there picture on flickr.

Plus I would like to see a Chima Advent Calendar, I may make one later.

[Blondie-Wan]

Ok, I've thrown in my own support. Good luck!

[Lyichir]

They look great but I don't see it going anywhere any time soon and you know what I think of them on there picture on flickr.

Plus I would like to see a Chima Advent Calendar, I may make one later.

I've been working on one of those on LDD too! It's much harder though. The setting is less conducive to holiday imagery (with more of a tropical flavor to the plants, and less humanlike architecture and customs), it's more difficult to split days between at least five completely different tribes, and scaling down animal-like vehicles is much harder to do while making them recognizeable. Currently I've got six figures (Laval, Cragger, Eris, Razar, Worriz, and Gorzan), each with a sort of "shrine" that stores their signature weapon. I've also tried to make a distinctly-Chima tree for day 24, but while I have an idea of which parts I want to use (the 1x1 plate with horizontal tooth in lime and dark green for foliage and a golden Chi crystal on top), actualizing the design has proven much more challenging. It's probably better that I focus on the Ninjago one anyway; it's at 70 supports, and it'd be great if I could get it to at least 100 so I can get some official Cuusoo feedback.

[Aanchir]

I've been working on one of those on LDD too! It's much harder though. The setting is less conducive to holiday imagery (with more of a tropical flavor to the plants, and less humanlike architecture and customs), it's more difficult to split days between at least five completely different tribes, and scaling down animal-like vehicles is much harder to do while making them recognizeable. Currently I've got six figures (Laval, Cragger, Eris, Razar, Worriz, and Gorzan), each with a sort of "shrine" that stores their signature weapon. I've also tried to make a distinctly-Chima tree for day 24, but while I have an idea of which parts I want to use (the 1x1 plate with horizontal tooth in lime and dark green for foliage and a golden Chi crystal on top), actualizing the design has proven much more challenging. It's probably better that I focus on the Ninjago one anyway; it's at 70 supports, and it'd be great if I could get it to at least 100 so I can get some official Cuusoo feedback.

Well, actually, LEGO only gives feedback at 500, 1000, 5000, and 10,000 supports. And I'm not sure if they even leave comments at 500 supports anymore. I don't see any such comments on more recent projects to meet that threshold.

[ShadowWolfHount]

I agree with Aanchir, your not going to be getting any Official Cuusoo feedback with 100 supports, maybe even with 500. Plus just using LDD you may not going to getting a lot of supporters and it would be good if you make what Sensei Claus would look like instead of just him having the normal santa claus body piece (just saying).

Edited April 16, 2014 by ShadowWolfHount

[Master_Data]

You should try to render that somehow in a rendering software and touch it up a bit. And you can always replace one of the builds with an enemy version of the build.

Great set!

[Lyichir]

Well, actually, LEGO only gives feedback at 500, 1000, 5000, and 10,000 supports. And I'm not sure if they even leave comments at 500 supports anymore. I don't see any such comments on more recent projects to meet that threshold.

My bad, I forgot. Oh well.

You should try to render that somehow in a rendering software and touch it up a bit. And you can always replace one of the builds with an enemy version of the build.

Great set!

As much as I would love to, my only computer is a Macbook and unfortunately, LDD2POVRay doesn't exist for Mac (nor does POVRay itself, for that matter. And LDD still hasn't updated with the new Ninja costumes (complete with new hair and masks) for that matter.

In any case, I'm just about ready to close the book on this project. The new rules for Lego Ideas (the successor to Lego Cuusoo) include deleting any projects that fail to reach the threshold in a year, and there's no way this will make it in time. The good news is that if I decide to redesign the project afterward, I could tailor it to the current year's sets instead of keeping it vague (although again, that possibility is predicated on getting access to higher-level rendering software, having LDD update with new parts in a timely manner instead of waiting until almost summer for parts from first quarter sets, and other considerations I haven't even gotten to a state to bother with yet).

[DuckBricks]

LOVE the mini Earth Driller!

You should include Dareth or some baddies for them to fight, but otherwise it AWESOME!