LEGO Ninjago Magazine Issue 138: Dragon Jay and the Eleven-Piece Paper Bag

You slit the tape, slide the little paper bag off the cover, and tip eleven pieces out onto the table. Torso, legs, head, hood, a golden katana, a handful of small parts. Two minutes later Draconus Form Jay is standing next to the rest of the shelf, and the thing that strikes you is how small a package it took to get there. That's the whole appeal of LEGO Ninjago magazine issue 138 in one motion — a gift that arrives flat, taped to a magazine cover, and ends up being the reason people hunt the issue down two years later.

Official artwork for the L0002200 Dragon Jay covermount included with Issue 138. Image via the Ninjago Wiki, under licence from the LEGO Group / Immediate Media.

What the Magazine Itself Delivers

Underneath the covermount, issue 138 runs the format the UK edition has held steady for years: a self-contained NINJAGO comic — this one titled "Enemy Threat," set in the Dragons Rising timeline — plus a double-sided pull-out poster, sticker sheet, and a run of puzzles, code-breakers and character activities pitched squarely at the current cast. Competitions round it out.

None of it assumes you read the previous instalment, which is why these still work as a one-off purchase for a young reader as easily as a checklist entry for an adult collector. The comic is the part that quietly appreciates: these strips aren't collected into graphic novels, aren't reprinted, and aren't posted online. An intact copy is the only realistic way to read "Enemy Threat" a few years from now.

Draconus Form Jay, Piece by Piece

The covermount is catalogued as L0002200 — a paper bag rather than a foil pack, and an eleven-piece build that resolves into Draconus Form Jay with a golden katana. That accessory matters more than the piece count suggests, because magazine gifts routinely drop the weapon to keep the parts budget down. This one keeps it.

Context is what makes the figure worth having. In Dragons Rising Season 4, the Draconus Form is Lloyd's own True Potential; the rest of the team only reaches it through their connection to him. Jay is the first of the group to get there after Lloyd, which is why his version arrived one issue ahead of the Dragon Lloyd covermount in issue 139 and well ahead of Dragon Nya later in the run. On a shelf, Jay reads as the moment the transformation stopped being one character's power and started being the team's.

Practically, that gives you a clean collecting thread rather than a colour-swap problem. If you already own Dragon Lloyd, Dragon Jay isn't a duplicate idea — it's the second entry in a short, deliberate sequence, and the gap is visible when it's missing.

The Lloyd Card Hiding in Plain Sight

Issue 138 also shipped with a limited-edition Lloyd trading card. This is the detail worth pinning down before you commit to a second-hand copy, because the cards aren't a permanent feature of the line. Plenty of issues don't carry one, most listings don't photograph it, and a fair number of sellers genuinely don't know it was in there. A copy without the card isn't the same object as a complete one — and if you're building a run rather than a display shelf, that's the difference that will bother you later.

Why This One Got Away From People

Issue 138 landed on UK shelves in the window between issue 137 in late January 2026 and issue 139 in early April, published by Immediate Media as a newsstand exclusive. It was never sold through LEGO retail channels and never reprinted. Newsstand distribution also pulps unsold copies rather than warehousing them, so surviving supply is only what collectors and specialist stockists deliberately held back during the on-sale window. Mags Direct, one of the main UK routes for single copies, has already sold through — the shelf there now starts at issue 140.

That's the mechanism behind why UK-exclusive magazine gifts get scarce fast, and it applies whether or not the figure itself was ever remarkable.

One Practical Tip Before You Buy

Decide first whether you want the figure or the issue, because they are two different purchases. Loose Draconus Form Jay figures circulate on their own and are easy to identify from a photo. A complete issue — magazine intact, paper bag sealed and still attached to the cover, Lloyd card present — is a meaningfully scarcer object, and sellers routinely photograph the figure while describing the magazine. Knowing which one you're actually after will save you a bad listing.

Track It Down

Start with our LEGO Ninjago collection to see what's currently in stock, then work through the wider LEGO magazines archive for other UK-exclusive issues worth closing gaps on. If importing these is new territory, our LEGO Ninjago Magazine guide walks through how it works and what to expect on arrival. And whenever a listing for LEGO Ninjago magazine issue 138 turns up, ask for one photo showing the paper bag still fixed to the cover with the trading card alongside it — that's the version worth paying attention to.