Ninja sets - why so popular / pricey?

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:12 am

Dopefish wrote:I know one of the Throwbots had a black katana to represent a machete.

Actually, the katana was teal, and the only set that a teal one came in (as far as I know).

~smcginnis

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:57 am

Basically, it's all a function of supply and demand. Demand is high because the sets were reasonably good and really don't have a direct parallel within LEGO to syphon off demand (it may be Castles, but not within the usual context). Lots of unique and desirable parts, cool figs, good play value.

Supply is low because it was only in production for a short time (effectively two year of new sets). Now, demand within western society is going to be less for Japanese feudalism than European feudalism, but look at the many years and continuing production of such to satisfy demand.

Basically, good sets but not a lot of them.

Dopefish · Post by **Dopefish** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:11 pm

smcginnis wrote:
Dopefish wrote:I know one of the Throwbots had a black katana to represent a machete.
Actually, the katana was teal, and the only set that a teal one came in (as far as I know).

~smcginnis

Nope. It was black. Had to check up on it on peeron, though, and there WAS one of those bike robot things who had a teal one.

Post by **JoshWedin** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:03 pm

Dopefish wrote:Nope. It was black. Had to check up on it on peeron, though, and there WAS one of those bike robot things who had a teal one.

Yes, a throwbot had a black one and the Swamp roborider had two teal katanas.

Also the castle accessory pack in 2002 had a couple of katanas and Jabba's Palace (4480) had four black ones used as droid legs (2003).

I think that is all, but I am a little bleary this morning.

Josh

Scnicker · Post by **Scnicker** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:55 pm

And the sets with +500 random pieces had a few black katanas in them as far as I remember. At one time, I used to build Japanese MOCs (dig up older threads for my Samurai Village) and it's quite fun, but the down point is that it is limited what you can do with the theme and also it requires a lot of roof pieces.

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:27 pm

Dopefish wrote:Nope. It was black. Had to check up on it on peeron, though, and there WAS one of those bike robot things who had a teal one.

JoshWedin wrote:Yes, a throwbot had a black one and the Swamp roborider had two teal katanas.

Oh, my bad. I forgot those horrible Roboriders even existed, and so I didn't bother to check Peeron or Bricklink.

~smcginnis

Peppermint Pig · Post by **Peppermint Pig** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:56 pm

Um...Peppermint Pig, that wasn't my point at all. We were talking about whether or not Ninja should be considered part of Castle, not having a discussion about whether or not Vikings built defensive structures. I know they did. I was speaking tongue in cheek when I suggested that Vikings weren't part of the Castle Lego world.

I understand. Just like to analyze things.

I'm very open to a variety of genres when considering what fits into castle.

Basically, it's all a function of supply and demand. Demand is high because the sets were reasonably good and really don't have a direct parallel within LEGO to syphon off demand (it may be Castles, but not within the usual context). Lots of unique and desirable parts, cool figs, good play value.

Minus the baseplates on the castles, which aren't always useful.

Time to browse Bricklink for unusual items!

Azaghal · Post by **Azaghal** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:24 pm

TwoTonic Knight wrote:Demand is high because the sets were reasonably good and really don't have a direct parallel within LEGO to syphon off demand.

The Adventurer Orient Expedition sets had a similar . . . flavor to them, and are (in my opinion) just as cool. This makes me wonder if there was a drop in demand for Ninja when the OE was in the stores, although I doubt anyone cares enough to check (including me

).

As for why Ninja sets are so popular in the first place? Several people have pointed out that ninja (ninjas? ninjae?) are popular in and of themselves, and this seems as good a reason as any.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:18 am

Azaghal wrote:
TwoTonic Knight wrote: As for why Ninja sets are so popular in the first place? Several people have pointed out that ninja (ninjas? ninjae?) are popular in and of themselves, and this seems as good a reason as any.

I always loved the great Japanese Ninja TV series "Kage No Gundan" (Shadow Warriors - which preceeded 24 for slaughtering half it's regular cast by many years). Sonny Chiba's Lord Hanzo puts in an appearance in "Kill Bill". Finding the DVD's in this country is either an impossible or really expensive task.

Dopefish · Post by **Dopefish** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:34 am

Azaghal wrote:
TwoTonic Knight wrote:Demand is high because the sets were reasonably good and really don't have a direct parallel within LEGO to syphon off demand.
The Adventurer Orient Expedition sets had a similar . . . flavor to them, and are (in my opinion) just as cool

Although I agree that they are great, they very much do not have the same flavor. Okay, sure, the Chinese ones have some (obviously) Asian overtones (duh), but that's CHINESE overtones as opposed to Japanese ones. >_> Big difference.