This page is Under Construction! When I first got into the Lego Ninja Theme, I thought to myself that it was too bad that the sets and parts weren't a little more historically accurate. However, the more I have been researching, the more I have come to realize that the Lego parts and models were designed with some basic notion of historically accuracy. In this section, we will examine some of the aspects of Lego Ninja designs and how they compare to the real thing. NOTE: Please do not use any of these images without my permission. Weapons If there is one area where the ninja pieces are least accurate, it is in the weapons. Lego chose to create only a single new piece for the lego theme, the katana. All other weapons are preexisting pieces from other themes (such as Castle). This is unfortunate, because there were a wide variety of weapons used extensively by the Japanese warriors that are not represented in the current Lego Theme. Let's look at these weapons in detail. Katana The katana is the single specialized weapon piece that Lego introduced for the Ninja Theme. It currently exists only in two colors, light gray and black. Black Katana Gray Katana   Bow and Arrow with Quiver Bow Although the bow was used widely by samurai, it appears in only one Lego Ninja set and even then without the quiver. This is unfortunate because historically, the bow was widely valued as a powerful ranged weapon and was a weapon whose mastery required a great amount of skill. As a result, bowmen were very valued in feudal society. The absence of the bow from a majority of these sets is an indicator that the Ninja theme probably represents the early Edo period where bows were not seeing much use due to an increased reliance on the spear and the Arquebus. Spear The spear saw heavy usage as a replacement for the bow. It could be used to unmount samurai and was an excellent hand-to hand weapon. Historically, real Japanese spears look nothing like the Lego version. They were many times longer, some as long as 4 meters, although the average was 3 meters, and had a longer thinner tip. Spear Arquebus Black Arquebus Brown Arquebus Cannon Contrary to my expectations, cannons really did exist in feudal Japan. Halberd Although the Japanese warriors in feudal Japan used many long bladed polearms, none resembled this piece borrowed from the Castle theme. This piece is widely used in many of the ninja sets for traps, but is not seen wielded by soldiers (thankfully). Halberd Pirate-Style Pistol Although I could find no pictures of authentic pistols in any reference material, I have found written evidence that the Japanese had a number of small pistol-like flintlocks. These were typically presented to emperors and regents by the Portuguese as gifts and did not see widespread use by troops. They may look something like the ones included by lego (borrowed from the Pirate theme.) Since these were of European origin, it could be possible that these are somewhat accurate. Black Pistol Brown Pistol Accessories and Miscellaneous Lego Nobori Flags Historic Nabori The Lego Nabori flags are built to attach at the top similar to the real nabori flags. The Lego versions are slightly shorter than their real-life counterparts and are more complex in their designs, but otherwise, it is not a bad representation.