Gregory Todd Farshtey (born July 14, 1965) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

writer, best known for his work on the

Bionicle Bionicle was a line of Lego construction toys, marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line originally launched in 2001 as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of Lego's biggest-selling prop ...

series of novels (2003–2010), the Bionicle comics (2001–2010), and the

Ninjago Lego Ninjago is a Lego theme that was created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group. It is the first theme to be based on ninja since the discontinuation of the Lego Ninja theme in 2000. Whilst it retains some elements of the previous ...

graphic novel series.

Literary career

Gregory Todd Farshtey was born in

Mount Kisco Mount Kisco is a village and town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous with the village. The population was 10,959 at the 2020 United States census over 10,877 at the 2010 census. It serves as a ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and subsequently grew up in nearby

Monroe, New York Monroe is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 21,387 at the 2020 census, compared to 39,912 at the 2010 census; the significant fall in census population was due to the secession of the town of Palm Tree in 2019 ...

and Stamford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. In high school, Farshtey began writing seriously, where he wrote and edited a weekly satirical newsletter, Lunatic News and World Report. After graduating with a

B.A Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

. in

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

from the

State University of New York at Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The colle ...

, he worked as a reporter and sports editor before securing an editorial position with

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product line ...

. Over the next seven years, he authored or co-authored over 35 roleplaying game books and helped to create the '' Shatterzone'' and ''

Bloodshadows ''Bloodshadows'' is an original pulp adventure gamebook by West End Games that was published in 1994. It was the first setting book for WEG's MasterBook game, which used rules elements used earlier in their Torg, TORG and Shatterzone games. It was ...

'' roleplaying game universes. He also authored a handful of short stories: the anthologies ''Dragons Over England'' (1992), ''Strange Tales from the Nile Empire'' (1992), and ''Shattered and Other Stories'' (1994); and three novels: ''The River of God'' (1992), ''Hell's Feast'' (1994), and ''Demon's Dream'' (1996). Farshtey joined the Lego Group in late 2000, writing for the ''Lego Mania Magazine'' and the Bionicle comic series. He now writes and edits six editions of the bi-monthly ''Lego Club Magazine'' and ''Lego Club Jr. Magazine''. Farshtey is the author of over 80 books, including novels set in the Bionicle, Exo-Force, and Hero Factory universes, the Ninjago graphic novel series,short stories for Chima, Ninjago, and the Bionicle comic series which has over 2 million readers. His work has been published in English, Russian, Chinese, French, Polish, and German, among other languages. He also wrote the story for the Bionicle DVD movie, '' Bionicle: The Legend Reborn'' (2009). He has made numerous public appearances at San Diego Comic-Con, bookstores, and libraries. Following the LEGO Group's discontinuation of the original Bionicle line of products in 2010, Farshtey first intended to continue the story by writing online stories. However, after the launch of Ninjago, he was unable to complete this project. He was the Editorial Director at the

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

Company. Farshtey is divorced and lives in

with his daughter and his cat. On March 1, 2022, Farshtey announced on his LinkedIn account that he would be leaving LEGO in July after working for 22 years at the company.

References

External links

Greg Farshtey Article on the BIONICLEsector01 Wiki
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farshtey, Greg Living people 1965 births 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers American children's writers American comics writers American male novelists American people of Russian descent American science fiction writers comic book editors Role-playing game designers Lego people People from Mount Kisco, New York People from Monroe, New York State University of New York at Geneseo alumni Writers from New York (state) Writers from Stamford, Connecticut