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LEGO Ninjago Movie contest & new sets!

Just the other day we talked about two new contests for teen and adult LEGO fans on LEGO’s ReBrick website, and now there is a third contest you can participate in to flex your creative muscles; the LEGO Ninjago Movie – Ninja for a Day contest. I thought to mention this event separately, as there is a lot to discuss. 🙂

First, let’s talk about the contest itself. The LEGO Ninjago Movie – Ninja for a Day is a stop-motion brickfilming contest, similar to what ReBrick ran before The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie. The challenge is to create a 15-30 second LEGO stop-motion brickfilm that will depict a snapshot in the life of Ninjago City. Besides other awesome prizes, the winning entries may also get incorporated into the upcoming film.

To give contestants an idea of what Ninjago City looks like, ReBrick gives the following description: A thriving pan-Asian metropolis that blends the best of a dozen cultures into one population of happy Ninjagans. The city itself is built upon its history, so that the lowest levels of Ninjago City appear ancient, with each higher level becoming more and more modern, until the top layer resembles modern Hong Kong or Tokyo. The citizens enjoy this mashup of cultures eating Pad Thai Sushi Tacos and shopping at Gong and Guitar Center. It is an island metropolis and thus has a thriving wharf-seaport. The infrastructure and mass transit is varied, so that a citizen can travel on foot, via roads, aboard a suspended hanging train, or even float upon a series of elevated canals that connect the city. In addition to tai chi at sunrise, getting a tan at Ninjago City’s beach, or having a bite at one of the festive culture-blending food carts, the one thing all Ninjagans have in common is the need to rebuild their city after the Evil Lord Garmadon attacks (and the Ninjas defend their city with their giant vehicles and mechs, typically destroying many structures in the process). This happens frequently so LOTS of rebuilding is always taking place. Ninjagans take the destruction in stride, rebuilding their city with flair and always a dose of LEGO humor.

What LEGO is looking for in brickfilming entries is Ninjago action and humor, creative and cool rebuilding, attention to The Ninjago Movie theme, and overall Ninjago look and feel. An important note for this contest is that you can only include entries with music and sound you have created yourself. Entries with copyrighted or even free sound audio will get disqualified. The winners will be required to deliver their video-file stripped of all audio to Warner Brothers for possible integration in The LEGO Ninjago Movie. There are other rules as well, so if you are interested to enter this contest, make sure you check them out here: LEGO NINJAGO FOR A DAY CONTEST DETAILS. The deadline to enter this contest is May 10th, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. EST.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie – Ninjago for a Day contest will have six grand prize winners. As mentioned above, one of the prizes is that the winning brickfilms may get incorporated fully or partially into The LEGO Ninjago Movie. Winners will also receive the entire LEGO Ninjago Movie collection and one exclusive LEGO Ninjago Movie mystery mystery set valued at $300 (to be revealed at a later date). In addition, winners will get The Art of The Ninjago Movie book signed by the filmmakers, and signed LEGO minifigures from the movie.

The contest itself is a fun challenge for LEGO Ninjago fans and brickfilmers, so if you feel inspired, give it a go! Your brickfilm may get immortalized in one of the most anticipated LEGO films. The contest announcement is also significant because this is the first time we have a chance to see one of the upcoming sets related to the movie (the #70615 LEGO Ninjago Movie Kai’s Fire Mech). Of course, we have seen the mech in the film’s trailer (see links at the end of this post), but it’s always interesting how the related LEGO sets look like. The box peeking out behind Kai’s Fire Mech is the #70612 LEGO Ninjago Movie Green Ninja Mech Dragon. While we can’t see this set in its full glory, based on the trailer, we can expect it to be even bigger than the mech.

Speaking of big, another exciting news from this contest is the mention of an exclusive LEGO Ninjago Movie mystery set. Based on the price of $300, it appears that the set will have at least 3,000 pieces, which will make this the largest LEGO Ninjago model to date. To give you a comparison, the beautiful and very large #70751 LEGO Ninjago Temple of Airjitzu released in 2015 was 2028 pieces and $200. So this new set is going to be even bigger! There is no word yet what the set is going to be about, but expect something awesome! 😀

It is also worth mentioning the minifigures in The LEGO Ninjago Movie sets. While the pictures are a bit small to make out all the details, we can see that the ninja get new head-wraps and ninja-suits. One notable feature of the head-wraps is that they give the minifigures’ heads more freedom of movement that the previous solutions. Also notice that #70615 LEGO Ninjago Movie Kai’s Fire Mech includes some civilians, which are always nice to have.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie is going to be the big thing this fall (release date, September 22nd), which is already getting Ninjago fans and LEGO fans in general super excited. The LEGO Ninjago Movie sets should be released prior to the movie, so hopefully, we will know more soon about both the regular selection and the mystery set. In the meantime, you can also check out the currently available selection at the LEGO Ninjago section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to The LEGO Ninjago Movie? And what do you think of the mech? Are you planning to enter the contest? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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The magic of LEGO Star Wars photography

(Written by Connor Yoho)

My name is Connor, I’m a 21-year-old recent college graduate with a degree in film, residing in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. I do video editing for a living, working on various commercials and short films.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of LEGO, with my collection mostly consisting of LEGO Star Wars sets. The first set I owned was the #7139 LEGO Star Wars Ewok Attack from 2002. It was a small set with 2 Ewoks, a Stormtrooper, a Scout Trooper, a speeder bike, and a catapult. Even though the set was small, I remember playing with it alone for hours. My favorite LEGO set so far is the newest iteration of the Star Wars AT-ST (#75153 LEGO Star Wars AT-ST Walker), and my favorite minifigure is the LEGO Star Wars Death Trooper.

What led me to start doing LEGO photography began around my sophomore year of college. Like all other cool college kids, I had an Instagram account, but I rarely used it. However, one day, as I was looking around Instagram, I discovered the work of Vesa Lehtimäki, who had these amazing images of LEGO Star Wars Storm Troopers. I thought to myself, “Wow! You can do that with LEGO?!” I decided then and there, that once I go home during school break, I was going to take a crack at LEGO photography myself.

I started shooting pictures on a 60-degree, beautiful and clear Christmas day (Pittsburg weather and Global Warming – what can you do?). I grabbed a handful of minifigures and got to work. (I have included some of my photography in this article, and if you are interested, you can see more at my flickr gallery and on Instagram.)

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work in LEGO photography. I’ve also drawn a lot of inspiration from various members of the toy photography community, which helped me to put a unique spin on my own creations. I would specifically like to mention Vesa Lehtimäki, Kyle Hardisty, and Matthew Callahan (UPDATE: this user deleted their Instagram account), as they influenced me greatly. If you are interested in toy photography, I highly recommend taking a look their galleries. They each possess a distinct style that really makes them stand out. I also recommend checking out Vesa Lehtimäki’s beautiful photography book, LEGO Star Wars: Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy.

As you have probably noticed by now, I mostly take pictures outside. When I go out to shoot, I generally have an idea in my head of what I want to create, but sometimes I just wing it. I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i digital camera with the kit lens and sometimes a 50 mm, along with a mini-tripod, bounce board, and a can of compressed air. Why the compressed air, you ask? Well, an idea I got from Matthew Callahan was using compressed air to shoot dirt and gravel at your figures in order to make the image feel more intense and alive. I try to use this effect as a way of visualizing what we imagined the scene would have looked like when we were kids playing with LEGO. Sometimes making blaster sound effects with my mouth helps as well. 😀

I hope you found this little write-up interesting, and perhaps you may even consider getting into toy photography yourself. If I have any advice for anyone just starting out, it’s this; don’t let lack of fancy equipment hold you back. It doesn’t really matter what kind of camera you have. You’d be amazed at what you can do with even just a camera-phone! I used to worry that my camera wasn’t good enough, but after a few photo sessions, I was proven dead wrong. Another advice I could give is that everything takes trial and error. Don’t be too hard on yourself if your shots aren’t super amazing when you start. Remember; you are learning. Start simple, notice what works for you, and add little improvements as you go along. And, most importantly, have fun! This is a hobby that will allow LEGO fans to get even more creative with their LEGO bricks and minifigs!

What do you think? Have you ever tried LEGO photography? How did it go? Do you have any thoughts, questions, tips or tricks you would like to share? Feel free to add them in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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