LEGO NINJAGO designer explains Legends concept models

The concept models for a new LEGO NINJAGO Legends set showcased recently have now been explained by a member of the design team.

Senior concept designer for LEGO NINJAGO, Niek van Slagmaat, has taken to X (formerly Twitter) again for another round of insight into a recent round of LEGO NINJAGO sets. This time, he's covering a build which we recently saw the concept models for, thanks to promotion for a recent NINJAGO series.

71846 The Fire Knight Mech plays a huge role in the new Monstrosity series, which focuses on Kai's journey following the Merge. It has now been confirmed, as speculated, that Kai and the element of Fire weren't always going to be the focus of this set.

"Initially, 71846 Fire Knight Mech was gonna be Jay’s," writes Niek on X. I started off exploring a NINJAGO mech with more of a knight aesthetic. I did a bunch of these sketches before I started building."

Whether the focus on Jay would translate to the Monstrosity series is not known, but it's worth noting just how closely tied to Monstrosity 71846 The Fire Knight Mech is from the mech to the monster. Notably, one of Niek's early sketches features a weapon planted in a monster's mouth, similar to the pose in the official set.

"Part of the first explorations were a bunch of different models. Here are two of them. The one on the left was done by our design manager, Heiko and the one on the right by Lee and myself. In these concepts, it was a mech with a monster companion instead of an enemy."

While a monster remained a part of 71846 The Fire Knight Mech's identity, it took on a much different form than the draconic designs depicted, and has more tragic context than that of a companion to boot.

After we saw these concept builds last week, it's good to have the explanation for them, and it increases the insight into 71846 The Fire Knight Mech. The new LEGO NINJAGO set is available now for £109.99 / $119.99 / €119.99, launching two months earlier than the rest of the summer 2025 NINJAGO sets in the US.

Featured image: Niek van Slagmaat

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