D&D General Official Lego Set for Dungeons & Dragons Coming Soon

Lego announced the release of the officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons build set Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End.

The 3,745 piece set includes a partially collapsed tower, a castle wall, and a tavern with removable roof. For characters, the set has six minifigures for a Dwarf Cleric, Gnome Fighter, Orc Rogue, Elf Wizard, and an NPC Dragonborn and Innkeeper. You’ll also build models of Cinderhowl the Red Dragon (who can also be perched on top of the tower) plus a beholder, a displacer beast, and an owlbear.

A free adventure will also be available from D&D Beyond and the Lego website on April 1st as a digital download making use of the terrain. To celebrate the release, Lego will host a live stream of the adventure with Anjali Bhimani (Ms. Marvel, Overwatch 2), Ginny Di (YouTuber and cosplayer), Luis Carazo (Candela Obscura, Outbreak: Undead Rag & Bone), Jordon Scott (LEGO Designer), and Lucas Bolt (designer of this set, see below) on April 6, 2024, at 12 noon Eastern.

The set was designed by Lucas Bolt aka BoltBuildz as part of the Lego Ideas program in a contest launched in 2022. The winner was announced in January 2023 with a preview of the set. As part of the contest, Bolt will receive 1% of net sales of the product, complimentary copies, a D&D prize package, and other considerations.

The set will be available for sale starting on April 4, 2024, for a retail price of $359.99.

 

[Dire Bare]

Colour me skeptical of this.

I certainly believe your friends still have their old childhood Lego blocks, and I believe their kids are playing with them, but I don't really believe they'll have successfully maintained them as "sets". Creative kids playing with Lego extremely rapidly destroy any attempt to keep something as a "set". A Lego set is either a collector's piece which is not played with meaningfully, or becomes "real Lego" and is broken down into its constituent parts. And for the latter, the pricing on this sort of thing isn't really reasonable for anyone outside of the top 10-15% of earners in the US, and a smaller percentage in other countries. I'm not suggesting Lego need to lower the price on a clear luxury item like this, but if you're purchasing merchandised/branded Lego sets on the basis of "generational toys", especially if you're trying to keep them together as sets, rather than letting them become blocks, I think you're kind of gaslighting yourself.

For some folks, sure.

But for LEGO nerds, the "sets" are very much maintained.

My brother not only kept all of the LEGO pieces he played with as a kid, but he kept all of the instructions for the sets and would often bag special pieces so they wouldn't get lost in the mix. Granted, my Dad encouraged that behavior, but my brother took to it readily enough.

Now my brother is old, like me, and has passed his LEGO collection on to his son, who is similarly inclined. They continue to purchase new LEGO sets to construct and play with together. And they keep it all organized, and they have a LOT of LEGOs . . . .

And my brother isn't alone in how he's maintained his childhood collection. Although I'm sure for most kids and families, everything just goes in a big box once the initial build has lost its luster.

And even when kids/families don't maintain "set integrity" . . . those blocks still hold a lot of play value. For me, I didn't keep instructions like my brother, but I did bag special pieces and had different buckets for different LEGO themes, such as Space and Castle. So, as a kid, when I wanted to build new spaceships or moon bases, all of the appropriate pieces were in the same bucket, even if I lost the original instructions. I didn't keep my LEGOS however, I wish I had so I could have passed them on to my nephew.

 

[Dire Bare]

This. Especially if you make it permanent (e.g. gluing the pieces together), LEGO structures are extremely sturdy. It's part of why stepping on the bricks with bare feet hurts so much!

Reminds me of the FFXIV LEGO Crystarium sculpture they like to show at Fan Fests.

GLUING LEGOS!?!?!



When I was a kid, I had a friend who would treat his LEGO kits like regular model kits . . . once they were built, they stayed built. He didn't glue the pieces together, but when I came over to play, I learned quickly NOT to de-construct his LEGO kits . . . . This kid had an entire LEGO city constructed in his basement, complete with spaceport and ancient castle, it always reminded me of folks with model train set-ups in their basement . . . .

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Although I'm sure for most kids and families, everything just goes in a big box once the initial build has lost its luster.

Yeah I think that's the norm for families with more than one kid.

I did see parents who maintained Lego sets (and let's be real, it was down to the parents, if they hadn't made it happen, it wouldn't have happened), but at least during my childhood during the '80s and '90s, those kids were never "Lego kids" as a result of this, because that's incompatible with creativity. Instead they'd get upset or scared if people tried to do anything creative (even mildly) with their Lego (because they knew they'd never to reverse it), and didn't willingly play with it (or only played with some non-set stuff).

That's distinct from keeping blocks organised by colour or style/theme or the like when you store them, note. It's a completely different vibe to the parent who "encourages" (makes) the kid put all the Lego back in that specific box, with the instructions, sometimes even back into the plastic wrappers, despite them being opened, to just having a really nice, organised-ish Lego storage system where the grey blocks go here, the big flat bases go there, and so on. The former is antithetical to the creative and experimental aspects of Lego play, whereas the latter tends to be compatible with it (even, potentially, to support it, especially at slightly older ages where kids may have more of a clear idea what they want to create). We kept it somewhat organised along those lines, and I see that with friends and their kids.

Re: Passing on Legos, my parents, I think having stepped on one block too many, secretly gave all our Lego (and most of our other toys!) away to the home for orphans (this is not a joke lol) whilst the three of us were at school - to be fair I'd largely grown out of it (I was 12 or 13), but my brother and sister were more than a bit miffed! I don't recommend this as a parental tactic, because it definitely impacted us and made us significantly more reluctant to part with anything - because it was basically like having a part of your childhood just deleted, without your buy-in.

 

[cranberry]

Over $300. Yikes...

I spent enough on Lego when my son was a child.

 

[GrimCo]

Colour me skeptical of this.

I certainly believe your friends still have their old childhood Lego blocks, and I believe their kids are playing with them, but I don't really believe they'll have successfully maintained them as "sets". Creative kids playing with Lego extremely rapidly destroy any attempt to keep something as a "set". A Lego set is either a collector's piece which is not played with meaningfully, or becomes "real Lego" and is broken down into its constituent parts. And for the latter, the pricing on this sort of thing isn't really reasonable for anyone outside of the top 10-15% of earners in the US, and a smaller percentage in other countries. I'm not suggesting Lego need to lower the price on a clear luxury item like this, but if you're purchasing merchandised/branded Lego sets on the basis of "generational toys", especially if you're trying to keep them together as sets, rather than letting them become blocks, I think you're kind of gaslighting yourself.

Sets, as in, all the pieces are there, in decent condition and you can assemble castle or a ship if you find old instructions. LEGO sets were damn expensive when i was a kid and by proxy, very precious to us, so most of us took great care of them. Big set like castle cost half average monthly salary and you had to go to Austria to buy them, cause Balkans and early 90s. So you build it, play with it, rebulid it, but you took care not to lose anything. My mom kept box full of my old legos for years. There are some dragon knights and fright knights (complete Witches manor brother and I got for christmas one year). Legos are treated like precious family heirloom

 

[wedgeski]

But it's what the market will bear, and Lego's primary market is now middle-middle-through-upper-middle-class families with significant disposable income, rather than the broader market it aimed at in say, the 1980s.

I agree on your general points. A lot of Lego is now aimed at the nostalgia/collector market. The huge boxes have huge price tags. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford them once in a while. Spending a few hours with a complex build is a joy, and they're great display pieces for showing off your nerd.

But there is also a ton of Lego, in the non-collector's channel, that is cheap, and colourful, and generic, and exactly the Lego I remember from 40 years ago. That being said, I also remember lusting after the Space and Technical Lego sets of the '80's that my parents could never afford. There has always been attainable vs. unattainable.

 

[wedgeski]

I did see parents who maintained Lego sets (and let's be real, it was down to the parents, if they hadn't made it happen, it wouldn't have happened), but at least during my childhood during the '80s and '90s, those kids were never "Lego kids" as a result of this, because that's incompatible with creativity.

Anecdotally, I kept all my sets intact and boxed, with no pressure to do so other than I was constantly breaking things down in order to remake them. I know they were complete, because I verified and sold a bunch of my old '80's Lego last year after recovering it from my mum's attic.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can't say a right opinion if the set is a good product to be sold to collectors and speculator, but we as players we sould question what products will help the new generation of children to discover and start to love D&D franchise.

* How could LEGO bricks be used by children to create new D&D monsters?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

GLUING LEGOS!?!?!



When I was a kid, I had a friend who would treat his LEGO kits like regular model kits . . . once they were built, they stayed built. He didn't glue the pieces together, but when I came over to play, I learned quickly NOT to de-construct his LEGO kits . . . . This kid had an entire LEGO city constructed in his basement, complete with spaceport and ancient castle, it always reminded me of folks with model train set-ups in their basement . . . .

Hey, I'm not saying I would do it. But I also wouldn't buy a $350+ LEGO set. Even accounting for inflation, which would reduce that to ~$200, that's about twice the maximum I'd ever have considered for a LEGO set (though that would have been my parents buying it for me when I was a child.) This is pretty clearly meant as a collector's item.

I agree on your general points. A lot of Lego is now aimed at the nostalgia/collector market. The huge boxes have huge price tags. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford them once in a while. Spending a few hours with a complex build is a joy, and they're great display pieces for showing off your nerd.

But there is also a ton of Lego, in the non-collector's channel, that is cheap, and colourful, and generic, and exactly the Lego I remember from 40 years ago. That being said, I also remember lusting after the Space and Technical Lego sets of the '80's that my parents could never afford. There has always been attainable vs. unattainable.

Indeed, though my favorites were always Ice Planet 2002. The blue/orange/white contrast really popped, and their status (pacifist scientists trying to stay out of the conflict between the other two LEGO Space factions) appealed very much to a young Ezekiel.

 

[mach1.9pants]

GLUING LEGOS!?!?!

LEGOS!?!?!

Lego, Lego kits, Lego sets, Lego bricks. Never Legos!