Earlier today, the new Ninjago City (70620) direct-to-consumer set was revealed for The LEGO Ninjago Movie and Yahoo had an exclusive first look at the set. They’ve also released some concept art of how to set came to be which shows some of the detailing of what will be included in Ninjago City. If you didn’t see it yet, Ninjago City will have 4,867 pieces and will retail at $299.99 with availability starting on September 1.

Designers Nicolaas Vás and Christopher Leslie Stamp gives us some additional insight on how they created this massive set.

To capture the scope of Ninjago City, we split the model into three sections, each representing a different chapter of the city’s evolution. However, this led to the challenge of blending the levels together into a complete model. For example, we positioned the tower further back on the model, to give the impression of it rising from behind the buildings.

In the movie, Ninjago City is unlike anything we’ve seen before in a Lego set. One of the main challenges with a model like this is the difference in size between the vast on-screen location and the smaller model version.

As both [the movie’s set and the toy model] are built from Lego bricks, our approach was to choose key silhouettes and details which could be rebuilt at a smaller scale and still match the overall look [of the film].

My favorite part of designing this model was the opportunity to include things which we wouldn’t normally have in a Ninjago