Spinjitzu Masters Tour

All was calm in the land of Enfield, Connecticut, the morning of Friday, June 3: birds were chirping, the sun was shining brightly, and happy children all across town were daydreaming about which awesome LEGO creations they would build next. Shortly before lunchtime, however, the peace was interrupted as a dark force from the Underworld entered the atmosphere. Although the weather was hot, goose bumps were raised and blood was chilled as kids in Enfield felt an ominous breeze blow through town. If one listened closely, they could even hear the battle cries in the wind: Lord Garmadon and his evil team of skeletons were staging a takeover on the Town Green! They wished to fulfill Garmadon’s villainous desires to capture Enfield and rebuild the city in his own terrible image!

Who would protect the sacred Four Weapons of Spinjitzu- the most powerful artifacts in existence- and save the children of Enfield from the evil battalion of Lord Garmadon?!

Meanwhile, back at the Dojo, Jay, Cole, Zane, and Kai were practicing their stealthy ninja moves under the watchful eye of Sensei Wu when, suddenly, the Ice Dragon came rushing from the sky and landed in the grass with such a force the ground shook beneath their feet. The Ice Dragon began breathing ice into the air around them, while flapping his wings wildly and nudging the young ninjas with this icy tail. Kai smoothed his hair and said to the dragon, “Whoa- hey bro, calm down- you almost froze my ’do and it took all morning to make it look this perfect!” Nya, Kai’s feisty sister who is also no stranger to battle, rolled her eyes and slapped her forehead as Jay turned to Sensei Wu and said, “Hey dude… Uhhh, I mean, Sensei Wu, I think the Ice Dragon is trying to tell us something.”

Sensei Wu calmly approached the Ice Dragon, gently patted his neck and asked, “Come now, my dragon friend, what upsets you so?” After listening to the dragon for a few moments, Sensei Wu gasped- nearly dropping his delicious pot of steaming tea- then turned to the ninjas and bellowed, “Oh no! Lord Garmadon’s henchmen have escaped the Underworld! Quick, get ready! WE ARE GOING TO ENFIELD!”

Many, many children from all over the Northeast came to the Dojo at the Enfield Town Green on Friday and Saturday. With the help of Manny, Vivienne, Kareem, Kim, and Matt- allies of Sensei Wu who travel America vowing to eternally protect the sacred weapons and defend the forces of Good- the kids repelled the wicked forces of Lord Garmadon using their clever Spinjitzu secrets! Sensei Wu also asked all the children to bring a canned good or other donation to the Dojo that benefited the Enfield Food Shelf – ensuring that fellow ninjas and their families have plenty to eat!

The tense combat between good and evil continued well into late afternoon Saturday. After showing off their clever battle techniques, the best of the best spinners fought against the strongest and meanest enemy that the children of Enfield have ever seen!

As he angrily gazed upon the scattered mounds of bones from his skeleton crew, Lord Garmadon knew he had lost… This time! Curses! Why did he ever let that bonehead Nuckal lead his effort?! He must remember to take care of him later!

Fleeing from the battle zone, Lord Garmadon shook his fist at the ninjas and yelled, “You may have defeated me in Enfield, but the summer is young and I will have my way! The battle is not over!” Then, with a flash of lightning, Garmadon and his evil group vanished.

Later that night, as all the unsuspecting children slept cozily in their beds, the ocean turned black, and the fish belly-up, as Garmadon and his crew entered the Atlantic, secretly swimming their way to make trouble in Norfolk, Virginia. Letting out an evil cackle, Garmadon rubbed his hands together and whispered, “Oh yes, ninjas, I will see you very, very soon…”

Stay tuned for more updates from Sensei Wu’s team as they travel the United States this summer to master the art of Spinjitzu and protect the sacred weapons!^[2]

Greetings, Ninjas!

The Spinjitzu Masters Tour was back in action last weekend! We arrived in Norfolk, VA on June 9th for the Norfolk Harborfest and were SO excited that the 2nd event was a HUGE success! On our first day at Harborfest, we had over 500 Ninjas come out to practice spinning! The second day was even bigger, with over 1,300 Ninjas! We even set up an enormous LEGO Dojo near the harbor! Our friends Kai, Cole, Jay and Zane, who all stood guard of the Dojo – were all made completely out of LEGO bricks! Below is an insider’s look at what you can expect from our Tour this summer:

Once you arrive, you'll enter the Dojo and have the chance to choose which ninja you want to be for the day. Then, consider yourself very lucky - because you'll watch an exclusive clip about Ninjago! Afterwards, you'll head outside to build the perfect spinner, practice your technique, and then battle against other ninjas on-stage!

When we were at Harborfest, there were plenty of other fun activities going on around the Dojo as well, including live music and a dog jumping contest! There was also a really talented balloon animal maker who came by with a special gift for us: Kai made out of balloons!! After we closed up the Dojo on the first night, we hung the balloon version of Kai outside the door to help stand guard! Check out the pictures to see for yourself.

Well, that's it for us, Ninjas. Another successful Tour stop in the books! The tour team is heading off and we hope to see you at the “Art in the Park” festival in Plymouth, MI. We’ll be there from July 8th - 10th, so come on out and meet your favorite Ninjago heroes!!!

See you soon!

Manny, Vivienne, Kimberly, Matt and Kareem^[3]

Attention all fans of Ninjago! Sensei Wu has a mission for you! You must learn how to unleash the power of Spinjitzu.

Come and visit us on tour this summer to learn how!

Here is a video to help you in your preparation. Good luck pupils!^[4]

We’re happy to announce that the Spinjitzu Masters team is back together! Our whole group – Manny, Vivienne, Kareem, Matt and Kim –arrived in Plymouth, MI on Thursday, July 7. We flew in from all around the country - with some of us coming from Charlotte, California and even Texas! After spending a few weeks apart, we were all anxious for a reunion in Michigan.

Our first day at Art in the Park was on Friday, July 8, and everyone was so excited about the turnout! Over 1,650 young ninjas and their families visited the dojo, including kids from all over Michigan- and even a few from Canada. Our biggest turnout yet!! Kim had a feeling that it was going to get crowded, so she helped keep the team nourished with homemade PB&J; sandwiches. YUM!

When it came to ninja favorites – we noticed that the kids in Michigan seemed to favor Kai and Zane, and many children shared that although the Skeleton Army are the "bad guys,” they still like the cool way they look- especially Nuckal's oversized head! As one kid stated, "He's a bad dude, but he's wacky like me, and so I like him!" (P.S. Vivienne is a big fan of Nuckal, too!)

Art in the Park offered lots of other fun activities – so after the dojo experience, kids were able to have their face painted at the cool face-painting booth near the LEGO tent. One kid even had his face painted to look like Zane! It was awesome!

Since we had so many enthusiastic Ninjago fans at the event, we asked some of the families in Michigan to tell us their favorite Ninjago stories, and here’s what we heard:

- One young ninja LOVES Kai so much, that he made his family call him 'Kai' for two months! His mom even addressed all of his Christmas presents to Kai! - Another mom told us that her kids read about the event in the LEGO magazine months ago and have literally been "X-ing" out the days on the calendar, counting down until the event day!

One of the big hits of the event was the brick Ninja models that stand guard of the dojo. We've had several kids engage in healthy debates about how many bricks were used and how much the statues weigh. So much mystery surrounds the LEGO ninjas! If anyone is planning to come to one of the next tour stops, you’ll have to give us your best guess on how many bricks are in one Ninja model!

Time to head to bed and rest up for tomorrow. We’ll keep you posted with more updates in the next post. Stay tuned!

- The Spinjitzu Masters Team^[5]

News: this just in! The Spinjitzu Masters Tour was featured on, not one, but TWO news stations in the Plymouth area: WJBK Fox 2 and WXYZ News 7! Fox 2 came out to the dojo and filmed all the kids in action, especially those who used their best spinning techniques. Two of the Ninjago tour staff, ninjas Vivienne and Kareem, were interviewed over at WXYZ News 7. Both news stations aired stories over the weekend about the awesome Ninjago event. I think we might be famous now!

The enthusiasm for Ninjago- and LEGO as a whole- was top-notch in Plymouth! Over 5,200 young ninjas visited the dojo over the weekend. And boy, was there a lot of excitement to go around. Not only did kids master the art of Spinjitzu on the battle tables all weekend long, but we saw lots of activity at the Nintendo DS station, where kids could practice their virtual Spinjitzu skills while playing Ninjago Battles.

We also met a ton of LEGO fans who had great stories to share! One family brought a photo of a LEGO bedroom they built using over 4000 bricks (see blog photos)! How AWESOME! Another young ninja named Nick loves Ninjago so much that his family now calls him Nick-a-Jo. And believe it or not – another kid showed us his golden retriever puppy that he had named after his favorite Ninjago ninja, Zane!

One of the coolest parts of Art in the Park was that families were able to buy LEGO souvenirs at the gift shop, located inside the dojo! We saw lots of kids sporting their new Ninjago headbands while posing for their free Polaroids next to the LEGO ninjas!

Thanks to all the young ninjas in Plymouth who came to our event! Our next stop is at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio from July 28th – July 31st. We can’t wait to see what the next stop brings!^[6]

Hey Ninjago fans! Check out a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Spinjitzu Masters Tour!

See what other kids are talking about by getting an exclusive look inside the Ninjago tour brought to you by LEGO Club TV!^[7]

Like the ninja warriors Zane, Kai, Cole, Jay and, of course, Sensei Wu, the Ohio State Fair 'kicked-off' with a bang! In just the first day, we had over 1,500 young ninjas visit the dojo!

Here are a couple of our favorite LEGO fan stories from Ohio:

- A great lover of martial arts, one Columbus kid was a true ninja master; he held a black belt in karate and showed of his awesome skills by demonstrating how to do the splits and a high kick.

- Proving that you are never too old to act like a kid, one mom told us about her son, David, who went off to college and has been collecting LEGO products since he was a young child. As a reward for all of his good college grades, she bought him his favorite Ninjago set, Ice Dragon Attack, at the awesome LEGO gift shop located within the dojo. When a nearby kid heard this, he said, "SWEET! David is one lucky guy!"

Kids told us that they read about the Spinjitzu Tour in the LEGO magazine and they watched the Ninjago cartoons online, "…about a ZILLION times!" And only the coolest mom in the world, Becky Taylor, drove her sons Mitchell and Spencer all the way from Florence, South Carolina after they too read about the tour in the LEGO magazine.

Several times throughout the day, sounds of a marching band filled the air, but the dojo's backyard was buzzing with Spinjitzu energy all weekend long! We had not one, but TWO giant crowds of summer camp kids visit our tent. The ninjas kept on coming throughout the day and who can blame them? After all, we were the 'coolest' place in town thanks to our icy cold air conditioning inside the tent! The tent was so refreshingly cool that, upon entering, a girl asked Kareem, "Can I work in here with you all day?" But why work at the dojo when you can spend it making new friends while mastering the Art of Spinjitzu?!

During the off hours – when they were not busy battling on stage or building spinners – tour team members Vivienne and Matt had a great time in the hospitality suite counting how many cubes of cheddar they could eat before they were full, while Kareem, Kim and Manny had a hotdog-eating contest! For the record, we all won because we lost count after a few minutes. In true State Fair fashion, we made like the carnival game workers and tried to guess each other’s weight after the contest was over. Never fear; we worked off all the food during our intense Spinjitzu battles in the Area 3 Underworld.^[8]

Not only were young ninjas excited for the Spinjitzu tour at the Ohio State Fair, but the parents were as well! We had two young ninjas, Tyler and Kylie, show mom and dad how we separate the Masters from the ninjas at the Battle Zone. There was plenty to keep their kids entertained before and after the Ninjago experience, as the tent was set in the prime location of Kiddieland, next to the Giant Slide, with the petting zoo, pony rides, pig races and just across the way from the carousel. The tent was also just a hop, skip and spin away from the Live Shark Encounter, the NASA Glenn Exhibit, and the starting point for the helicopter rides!

During the weekend, the Ninjago tent had visits from summer camp kids, a Boy Scout troop, a marching band, and families who came from many miles away. We also had children of police officers and army personnel, kids who rode horses in the rodeo, and lots of cool characters from the face painting station. Some serious LEGO fans wore their very own LEGO t-shirts to the dojo.

Over 8,200 children and their parents visited the LEGO tent this weekend. This was a great opportunity for many of them to challenge mom and dad at the different stations of the dojo’s backyard. One young ninja, Nicholas, battled it out with his dad at the Nintendo DS station, as they played the coolest new release from LEGO, Battles Ninjago!

Kim, Vivienne, Kareem, Manny and Matt had countless kids tell them that the Spinjitzu Masters Tour was their favorite stop at the fair. As one boy told Kim when she asked what his favorite part about the Ninjago tent was, "Every part of the tent was my favorite." With the help of our great local Spinjitzu Masters, it did not take long for our young ninjas to master the Art of Spinjitzu before leaving the dojo to enjoy the rest of the State Fair.

For a job well done, Matt, Manny, Kareem, Kim, and Vivienne treated themselves to a ride on the Sky Glider, which gave them a bird’s eye view of the entire Ohio State Fair. As they rode to the sunset, they waved goodbye to their new friends at the LEGO Gift Shop – Sensei Jenn, Erin and Aaron – who were enjoying a batch of deep-fried Oreos.

Indianapolis, here we come! Ninja-GO!!!^[9]

August 5, 2011

Ninjago has arrived at THE place to be in Indiana: the Indianapolis State Fair! Set up next to cool exhibits such as a soccer challenge field, The Stars of Peking Acrobats, and the Lunchables Tour, the Ninjago tent was quite the hit at the fair! Despite being one of the most popular attractions, the line to enter the Dojo moved quite quickly, letting everyone get in on the action.

Over 1,500 young ninjas visited the tent on Friday, with many eager to show off their spinning techniques. In the Underworld, where kids “Battle for Honor” on stage, there was a lot at stake during each battle. Brothers and sisters, cousins, and even friends from all around, battled each other for rights to the front seat on the way home from the fair, a bedroom cleaning, and even a trade for a week’s worth of chores! The main stage was a great way for friends and families, to challenge each other! Our team took turns calling all the incredible play-by-play action!

Of course, everyone was a winner at the Ninjago tent because every kid received a special gift just for visiting the Dojo. Most sibling rivalries ended shortly after everyone finished their Spinjitzu Battles, and kids received an awesome Ninjago battle mat poster! A few young ninjas were ready to display their enthusiasm with several family pictures in front of Jay, our blue ninja.

Another favorite part of the tour was...well, the tour itself! Joshua had so much fun that he asked emcee Matt if he could battle for a place on the Ninjago tour, especially because there are three awesome stops left: Missouri, Oregon, and then our last stop: LEGOLAND in California! Joshua even challenged Erich from our Gift Shop to some intense battling to prove his skills set!

Although we can't bring any kids on tour with us, they can still follow the rest of the tour by keeping up with the Ninjago blog!^[10]

August 7, 2011

The Spinjitzu Masters tour was a huge success in Indianapolis, and the team was excited to hear such great input about LEGO Ninjago from all the fans that came out to visit! Nearly 6,000 young ninjas mastered the Art of Spinjitzu this weekend!

A crowd favorite was the battle mats that the kids receive after their spinning battle. As one young ninja stated, "I LOVE spinning! I want to win so many of these that I can use these as wallpaper in my room!"

Below is a list of some of our other favorite Ninjago stories from the weekend:

• A young ninja told us about the ultra-cool Ninjago-themed birthday party he had; his mom decorated all the cupcakes to look like the faces of the four ninjas!

• We heard about schoolyard spinning battles at the local elementary school. Each day, classmates bring their spinners with them to school and have lunchtime spinning battles!

• One young ninja had his parents bring him all the way from Chicago, IL. He came decked out in his Kai gear complete with the power of the fire headband and Kai tee shirt!

And like many of our young Ninjas at the LEGO Dojo, a boy named Geoffrey showed us his Ninjago stance. Careful – he's quick!

With our life-size ninjas built from LEGO bricks on-site, everyone had the opportunity to take a picture with their favorite ninja. Huge LEGO fans like Jackson showed us their awesome ninja stances in front of Jay, the blue Ninjago ninja!

During our off-hours, the tour team – Manny, Vivienne, Kareem, Kim and Matt – managed to take a small trip to the soccer tent, where we had an unofficial soccer match and played for bragging rights of who is the best player! And although the fun had to end temporarily as we wrapped things up at the Indiana State Fair, we are ready to start it all back up at the next stop: the Missouri State Fair!

See you soon you, ninjas!^[11]

August 11, 2011

The Spinjitzu Tour has officially kicked off in Sedalia, Missouri and, boy, what a fun day we had! Close to 1,700 kids visited the Ninjago tent on Thursday, and after receiving their cool prizes and having intense battles on the main stage, no kids left the tent without a smile! Located next to a circus featuring dog and pony shows, and in front of an awesome horse-riding rink, the Ninjago tent had a lot of excited visitors.

When one ninja was asked on a scale of one to ten, just how excited he was to visit the tent, he replied, "On a scale of one to ten, I am 'YEAAAAAHHHH' times excited!" I guess that means a lot! After all, the tent is the best place to show mom and dad how a real ninja masters the art of Spinjitzu. And that's exactly what Jimmie did when he brought dad on the battle stage! The battle stage is also a great place to hash out sibling rivalries. Wesley and Luke tried to settle their sibling rivalry while having a blast!

Perhaps it was the scorching weather or maybe all fair-goers desire to be cool, but the crowd favorite on our first day in Sedalia was Zane, the Ninja of Ice! Many young ninjas showed us fresh ninja moves in front of their favorite ninja!

The tour team- Manny, Vivienne, Kim, Kareem and Matt- also made sure to take full advantage of the Sedalia Day Specials at the fair: $2 ice cream, corn dogs and soda pops!^[12]

August 14, 2011

What a great four days we had at the Missouri State Fair! Over 6,000 kids visited the tent the Spinjitzu Masters Tour this weekend!

We had a lot of characters enter the dojo! Some of our favorites include:

• One boy- whose tenth birthday happened to be on Sunday- said that after he visited the Ninjago tent, it was the best tenth birthday he's ever had! After all, there was so much to do!

• Apart from the building and battling stages, one set of siblings were mesmerized by our full Ninjago building display which was a crowd favorite.

• On Friday, we had unfortunate spots of rain, and an ever-so-helpful boy in line offered to help us mop up rain, if it would mean that he could come in faster!

We saw a lot of creative spinners being built at the Dojo: ninjas with bones used as weapons, skeletons with extra long chains, and even a Sensei Wu body with a Lord Garmadon head! With all those cool spinners, Kim had an awesome time showing kids like Miranda how to master the art of Spinjitzu!

Ninjas from all over the Midwest came for a peek at the life-sized LEGO ninjas and to spin on the main stage. As huge LEGO fans, Brody and Mason convinced Dad to drive down 12 hours all the way from Minnesota so they could hang out at the dojo! As one visitor told us, "The LEGO tent is THE BEST place to hang at the fair!" He even challenged us to some real ninja moves!

Once things were over at the fair, the team headed back to the hotel where they wished they had the protection of real ninjas! According to local legend, Hotel Bothwell- where Vivienne, Matt, Manny, Kim and Kareem stayed during the weekend- is haunted by a ghost from the 1950s! The team spent a lot of time together at night telling ghost stories! And hands down, Vivienne was the biggest scaredy-cat of the bunch. She was so frightened from Kim's ghost stories that she slept with all the lights on! If only she had the company of her many cats back home.

With the tour almost over, the team is preparing for our next stop at the Oregon State Fair – which is hopefully ghost-free!^[13]

August 26, 2011:

The day kicked off in true Spinjitzu style at the Oregon State Fair! We had over 1,100 visitors come through the tent on Friday! Although the fair was actually located in Salem, Oregon, we had many families drive from all over the Northwest just to come and see us like Elora and Jasper Benzakein!

The LEGO® retail teams from the Washington Square store in Tigard, Oregon and Bellevue Square in Bellevue, Washington came out just for this event to sell their best LEGO® goodies inside the tent. Additionally, Soren and Justin (from the Bellevue store) handed out "free high-fives" all day long! After getting their free high-fives, young ninjas Jieran and Kate Hostetler bought some awesome Ninjago spinners so they could take some of the action home!

Soren from the retail team was the biggest connoisseur of fair food by far; each day he made it his mission to try something new that was deep-fried. On Friday, he ordered a two pound bowl of fries!

There were so many awesome attractions next to the tent including lumberjack-themed competitions, a massive slingshot, and paintball target practice. With all these cool attractions, the tour team (Manny, Vivienne, Matt, Kareem and Kim) felt especially honored when several kids throughout the day tell them, "This is the whole reason we came to the event!"^[14]

August 28, 2011

Close to 4,500 people visited the tent over the weekend, and what an awesome time we had!

We had the coolest, most enthusiastic kids visit from all over the Northwest! We had DJ and Kati Paredes, and Ellen Coburn drive all the way from Idaho to show off their awesome ninja moves! Tommy Caro from Forest Grove, Oregon even wore his own karate outfit to the tent to REALLY get into the spirit of the event! Like Tommy, Henry Clarke from Portland, Oregon managed to pick up a cool wooden ninja sword while at the fair!

We also heard some great stories from one family about how their LEGO® bricks had been passed down from their grandmother, to their mother, and now to the grandchildren! We had some enthusiastic families visit the tent and, on the main battle stage, mothers challenged sons, fathers challenged daughters, cousins battled cousins...and everything in between! Even if this was their first time battling, we had plenty Masters of Spinjitzu to teach young ninjas like Eathan Whitaker from Birkenfeld, Oregon how to sharpen their spinning techniques!

To celebrate an event well done, the tour team—as well as the awesome LEGO® retail team inside the event—treated themselves to ice cream cones at the fair and a ride on the fair sky tour ride!

Thanks for making the events so great, Salem, Oregon! The tour is packed and super excited for our next stop…LEGOLAND!!! We hope to see you there!^[15]

September 2, 2011

What better place to end the Spinjitzu Masters Tour than great LEGO Mecca, LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, CA!! Close to 1,700 kids visited the Ninjago tent today, and many visitors traveled from all over the world to be a part of the Spinjitzu Masters Tour. We had families from Australia, Sweden, Canada, Japan, China, and Mexico spinning their way into Ninjago history!

We had young ninjas from far and wide stop by the dojo to train with our Spinjitzu Masters. It didn't take Luke from Cypress, CA long to master the spinning! So much so, that he battled and beat out Matt from our team in all three rounds!

In addition to all the incredible fun to be had at LEGOLAND, the Ninjago Scavenger Hunt was a gigantic hit! Kids hunted through the LEGO MiniLand in search of Ninjago characters who held the secret clues needed to solve the Scavenger Hunt puzzle. If they solved the puzzle correctly, they were entered into a drawing to win an awesome Ninjago prize pack! There will be four prizes awarded throughout the weekend.

We had some really enthusiastic kids visit the tent on Friday! Christian from Laguna Niguel, CA came to LEGOLAND dressed head to toe as a black ninja! He looked just like Cole! We had some huge Ninjago fans that also told us that they had been waiting all summer long for the Spinjitzu Masters Tour to come to San Diego, just like Matthew and Michael from Oceanside, CA. Many kids told us that they has been following the Ninjago series in every way possible: in the LEGO Club Magazine, online at www.LEGO.com and even on Cartoon Network. We're pretty sure kids like Miles from Los Angeles really enjoyed hanging out with our team on the last weekend of our Ninjago Masters tour.^[16]

September 5, 2011

Over 8,000 kids visited the Ninjago dojo in LEGOLAND, California this weekend! The LEGOLAND MCs were super-friendly and made the final stop on the tour all the more special!

For those of you who have never visited LEGOLAND, we'd definitely recommend it! LEGOLAND has 60 incredibly cool rides, shows and attractions. There so many awesome LEGO models throughout the park, as well as an amazing water park and aquarium. As one excited parent told us in the Ninjago theater: "Everything here is just so AWESOME!!!" Our Ninjago event fit in perfectly with the family fun that can be found throughout the park. After all, we had the Battle arena where kids like Laird and Sofi from Boulder, CO could challenge their parents to Spinjitzu!

Alas, what a bittersweet feeling it was for the traveling tour team: Kim, Kareem, Matt, Vivienne, and Manny! This will be our very last blog entry for the LEGO Ninjago Spinjitzu Masters Tour! That's right kids, after traveling all summer long from Connecticut to Virginia, Michigan to Ohio, Indiana to Missouri, and finally from Oregon to California, we are closing the doors to the Ninjago dojo and heading home.

We want to thank all the awesome and enthusiastic parents and young ninjas who visited our tent and made the summer so fun for all of us! Keep practicing your spinning technique and always remember: Spinjitzu is inside each and every one of you! Ninja-GO!^[17]