Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fourth entry into "The Fantasy LEGO League", Naruto! You can see the "rules" of these posts here.Must-Have Minifigures (A+): The world of Naruto is filled with a diverse collection of ninja masters, toad sages, and multi-tailed demons. Three man squad battle packs! I can see them all jumping from tree branch to tree branch now, ready to cross kunai with Orochimaru himself (in minifigure form, of course).
Propensity for Vehicles (F): There are no vehicles of mention in the entire series. LEGO Naruto would be primarily set piece driven similar to a Castle or Kingdoms theme.
Preexisting Fan-Base (B): Both the manga and anime are popular in the US and Japan. Elsewhere? I don't really know, but who doesn't like Ninjas?!
Depth of Theme (A): The manga series has progressed through several storylines and followed the main characters through many stages of growth. At a minimum you could support a licensed collectible minifigure series or two from the first season alone.
Kid Friendliness (B): Older kids and teens would definitely find the license appealing. Parents may frown on the sometimes violent themes for younger children.
Likelihood of License (C): Naruto is currently licensed across many merchandising arenas, LEGO shouldn't have difficulties here. It does appear that the rights to different aspects of the license vary from company to company. Getting all those ducks in a row might be difficult.
Overall (C+): Killer figures, does not a profitable theme make. As I've mentioned before, this could make for an awesome series of collectible minifigures. I myself would like to see a Konohagakure set with miniture ramen vendor. This could also bring the Ninja theme back in a big way.
Custom Options: Not a lot of options, but there some. Exo-force hair is always good for anime characters; however, the only colors currently available are red, bright green, black, blue and dark purple. Hazel developed a custom kunai knife, but I didn't see much else. BrickForge and other custom retailers have a few items like this sai and hook swords.What do you think? Is Natruto destined to become the Kohage of LEGO sets, or should it have a chidori plunged into its heart?
"Ja mata" for now...
(Pictures from Wikipedia and BrickForge)
