The Great Devourer. The most ambitious, most expensive big bad ever conceived for LEGO. A snake, city and and army all in one.
After the success of The LEGO Movie, NINJAGO was planned to launch next and this unseen first version of Garmadon’s army was born from The Great Devourer, shed like living scales from a colossal serpent that had swallowed entire worlds.
Imagine going inside the Devourer and finding a chaotic fusion of everything and everyone the beast had ever consumed. Twisted into a 360 degree living city where people continue to live and work. Brick by brick, creature by creature, the digested remains of a thousand devoured realities smooshed into a perpetual, inescapable dungeon…
…but also “VERY funny AND whimsical” said the ever-changing staff of writers to increasingly unconvinced and ever-changing Warner execs.
Defying all expectations – it was funny. Laugh out loud, embarrassed crying funny and far-exceeding development pitches for Batman Movie. Wait, why are we getting Batman Movie dev pitches?
What remains are fragments of concepts: striking character designs, ambitious army-building ideas, and rare concept models.
Scale Warriors remains one of the boldest swings LEGO and its partners ever took for a NINJAGO project. Lost to time before fans ever knew they existed.
Garmadon character concepts
Scale army building
Creature concepts
Scale Warrior Concepts for Testing
Early NINJAGO movie concepts preserved direct continuity with the Masters of Spinjitzu series, gaming and products, letting the movie feel like a true extension of the world fans already loved. Fans lost more than a canonical NINJAGO Movie, more than a symbol of LEGO, it marked the end of NINJAGO.
Sounds dramatic but this is only the beginning of the popgrit story.
We are ex-LEGO
creators, designers and leadership sharing our experiences and documenting history, products and the artifice of brand.
