August will see the retail release of the Lego Ninjago Stormbringer set, a robot dragon programmable with Lego’s Boost system. Suggested retail price is just $40.

Boost is an icon-based programming system designed for builders as young as seven. Programming takes place entirely in a mobile app environment.

Stormbringer can walk, move its head, roar, and shoot bolts from its mouth.

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Here are a few pictures of Star Wars toys from New York Toy Fair. Not games but I thought you might enjoy them nonetheless, including the Lego Kessel Run Millenium Falcon ($170, April), Hasbro’s Furreal Friends Chewbacca, and the 4 foot long Jabba’s Sail Barge available via HasLab crowdfunding. [Click for even larger images.]

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This summer, Lego gives Ninjago fans an opportunity to join in on the action with the Quest2Ninjago Wu-Cru Team Challenge tour. Seven stops, plus a finale at Legoland California Resort, will have participants competing in a variety of physical and mental trials where teamwork is emphasized.

• Element Tumbler Puzzle—crack the code by solving four color pattern challenges
• Kai’s Laser Maze—use physical agility to navigate a tangled web of laser rays
• Jay’s Lightning Maze—guide a wand through a maze without touching the lightning
• Mystery Tile Puzzle—correctly place tiles on the board to reveal a secret image
• Madness Mountain—roll boulders down a mock mountain to knock out all the enemies
• Lloyd’s Ninja Build—use Lego bricks to recreate a ninja sculpture
• Cole’s Table Maze—tilt the table to guide a ball through the maze
• Unlock the Chest—find the three pieces to create the key that unlocks the treasure

One team from each city will receive an invitation, travel, and accommodations to participate in the California finale, with the winners there receiving a prize pack that includes the entire 2016 line of Ninjago building sets and a full collection of Ninjago books, DVDs, and apparel.

The Challenge takes place June through August in Austin, Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Seattle. The competition is open to children ages 7-12.

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For 2016, Lego Ninjago toys and the Ninjago series on Cartoon Network will center around a band of sky pirates. So yes, Lego will be doing ninjas vs. pirates!

Among the first sets, out next month, will be the sky pirates’ Raid Zeppelin ($30), a 294 piece attack-dirigible, and Misfortune’s Keep ($80), a 754 piece flying platform.

March will also see the release of Tiger Widow Island ($50) with an ogre-like figure.

For the masters of Spinjitzu next month there will be the 98 piece Cole’s Dragon ($10) and the 350 piece Jay’s Elemental Dragon ($30).

The next batch of Ninjago releases is expected in August. At that time, the company will put out The Green NRG Dragon ($50), the Ultra Stealth Raider ($100), and The Lighthouse Siege ($70).

But perhaps my favorite set of the bunch isn’t even a flying one. It’s the Salvage M.E.C. (August, $40), a ninja-piloted walker!

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Lego Group is looking for an experienced professional to fill the position of Senior Gamification Design Manager in Denmark. The responsibilities of the job include developing incentive strategies for MyLego, overseeing incentive development, and managing the incentive platform. The goal is to “tie together all digital LEGO experiences in meaningful ways which creates deeper consumer engagement and improved consumer life time value.”

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To be honest, it doesn’t seem like there’s much game left in either Lego line. However, since we’re already hooked, here’s what we discovered at Toy Fair…

Legends of Chima is getting a Transformers-like set called Bladvic’s Rumble Bear. The set, which ships in August at $40 retail, converts between a wheeled vehicle and a walking mech.

Also in August, Ninjago will take to the skies with Airjitzu Flyers. The basic $10 sets feature ripcord-powered helicopter like devices that allow Ninjago minifigs to fly (I mean in a controlled way, not like when you throw them at your brother). Six Airjitzu Flyer sets are planned, one each with Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, Morro, and Wrayth. One more flyer will be part of the Ronin R.E.X. flying gunship set (August, $50).

Two other Ninjago sets that caught my attention were the 658-piece Attack of the Moro Dragon (August, $70)—with its large dragon figure—and the 311-piece Condrai Copter Attack (March, $30)—in which Skylor will appear as the orange ninja.

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Scheduled for release in the spring, ahead of the film this summer, are two Jurassic World games from Hasbro.

The Brawlasaurs Battle Set features fighting wind-up dinosaur figures. A small slider on the underside of each figure is used to select bash, bite, or slash fighting styles for a simple rock-paper-scissors type resolution. But the real exciting part is the way the dinosaurs whack in to each other, spinning and knocking each other down.

The Wreck ‘N Roar Dinosaur Game includes tubs of Play-Doh to attach as additional “meat” on the sides of plastic dinosaur toys. The toys also have trigger-handles and operating jaws, so that players then try to bite off as much as they can of their opponents’ meat.

And since we’re on the topic of Jurassic World, here are some pictures of additional Hasbro toys and Lego construction sets also based on the upcoming movie.

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New Lego Legends of Chima sets this year are scheduled for release in two waves, the first to coincide with the launch of season 2 in March, and the second later in the summer, featuring a new Fire and Ice theme.

As Legends of Chima season 2 opens, Legend Beasts will be the focus both on-screen and in-play. Legend Beast construction sets—including Lion, Eagle, Gorilla, Crocodile, and Wolf—come with one minifig, 100-120 pieces, and will retail for $10.

A few speedorz sets will also be released in March. Among those, Web Dash (74 pieces, $13) features Sparratus of the Spider Tribe and a speedorz with six legs. A larger Sparratus’ Spider Stalker set (with, more appropriately, eight legs) is also scheduled for March (292 pieces, $25), as is Rogon’s Rock Flinger (257 pieces, $30).

Season 2 will also see the introduction of the Scorpion Tribe. For them, Scorm’s Scorpion Stinger is a large (434 piece) vehicle set with articulating tail, three minifigs, and retail price of $50.

When Legends of Chima returns again in August, there will be a new theme, Fire and Ice, and new orange packaging to match. Some of the sets scheduled for that wave include Vardy’s Ice Vulture Glider (217 pieces, $20), Sir Fangar’s Saber-Tooth Walker (415 pieces, $40), Laval’s Fire Lion (with oversized elephant figure, 450 pieces, $50), and Maula’s Ice Mammoth Stomper (with detachable vehicle, 604 pieces, $90). But the piece-de-resistance of the series has to be the 1,301 piece, Flying Phoenix Fire Temple ($120), which coverts from building to clawed flying-vehicle using lever-action and Technic-type pieces.

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Scrabble

The final game of the UK National Scrabble Championship was played between two former champions, Paul Allan and Allan Simmons. This time, Paul Allan clinched the title with the play of “bandura” (which is a Ukrainian lute) for a triple-word bingo worth 86 points. (For those trying to figure out how “bandura” is worth 86, the “d” was a blank, the “r” finished “tar”, and the final “a” was placed on the triple-word space and also finished “ta”.)

Chess

Chess continues to be played while the World Championship is underway…

In fact, other matches being played in India to celebrate the Championship included one for blind players, which was won by 16 year-old Sai Krishna, and the Women Grandmaster Tournament.

Ryan Harper of Trinidad & Tobago won the Umada Cup in Aruba.

FIDE selected 13th-ranked Peter Svidler for the open slot in the next Candidates Tournament, bypassing higher ranked players such as Alexander Grischuk (ranked 5th) and Hikaru Nakamura (ranked 4th).

While the FIDE Presidential Board approved plans for six Grand Prix events in 2014, agreements for only four have been signed so far. If the remaining two end up not happening, the two spots reserved in the next Candidates Tournament for Grand Prix winners will instead be selected one from the World Cup and one from the ratings list.

Backgammon

In the open section of the Capital Classic Backgammon Championships in Herndon, Virginia, the winner was Greg Merriman of Michigan.

At the Merit Open International Backgammon Championship in Cyprus, Sergey Erokhin of Russia took home the masters trophy and the team of Haris Christidis and Konstantinos Mitrelis from Greece the doubles trophy.

Collectible Card and Miniatures Games

Fantasy Flight Games’ World Championship Weekend was held in Roseville, Minnesota, where Alvaro Rodriguez of Spain claimed the title of Joust World Champion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. Ryan Jones, though, was crowned Melee World Champion and Overall World Champion. In the Android: Netrunner tournament, the winner was Jens Erickson. Jeremy Zwirn, the 2012 champion of Netrunner and Warhammer: Invasion, this year won at Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. Dennis Harlien triumphed in the tiebreaker for Star Wars: The Card Game. Oliver Franke of Germany moved up from his second place finish last year in the Warhammer: Invasion championship. And in the final game of the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game tournament, Paul Heaver battled back from a two-ship deficit and eliminated his opponent’s last ship with only one hull point to spare.

Rookie and new hometown hero, Luis Navas, won Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix Santiago.

Samuel Marti of Switzerland claimed victory with a blue-green deck at Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix Valencia.

At the Legend of the Five Rings Pacific Rim Championships, Edward Bareng claimed victory for Lion. Alexander Iarstev, playing Scorpion, was the winner at the Legend of the Five Rings South American Championships.

Go

For the fifth year in a row, a Korean team has won the International Amateur Pair Go Championship in Tokyo.

Draughts

The winner of the European Draughts Championship was Peter van der Stap of the Netherlands.

The winner of the Portugal Open was Guntis Valneris.

Other Games

The winner of the 24th World Perudo Championships in London (the game is also known as Liar’s Dice) was Dan Reade.

From a touring series, 14 youngsters were invited to participate in the UK Lego Chima Challenge Championship, where Reggie Pegrum (age 9, from Waltham Abbey, Essex) was declared the winner.

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Announcing a 13% revenue increase in the first half of 2013 (over the same period last year), LEGO cited strong sales in the Legends of Chima line as a major factor.

Legends of Chima has performed well in its launch phase and is already one of the largest LEGO product themes. We expect that the product line will continue to grow through the balance of its first year on the market. The theme has performed particularly well in Asia, where it has been a large contributor to the high growth.

According to Bloomberg, LEGO’s first-half revenue of 10.4 billion kroner ($1.84 billion) raises it to the position of number two ranked toy-maker in the world, above Hasbro but second to Mattel.

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