Miniatures: Lego?

[Bungo_Underhill]

It seems that Lego has been successfully releasing ranges based on popular IPs including Super Heroes, Star Wars and Harry Potter and will be launching an LotR line this summer. They've already made their own foray into the RPG-type scene with Heroica.

Their Minifigures "blind booster" distribution also seems to be quite popular.

I was wondering if having DnD mini's done in this way would work for people. Lots of monsters could be done as Minifigures - from Kobolds through to Mindflayers and Lego already have a number of medieval type models in their Kingdoms line along with animals, dinosaurs, monsters and undead from various ranges. They even have a few Dragons.

Pulling these existing models together into a D&D range with the addition of the Mind flayer etc. seems like it could work to me. And could be a way of getting the younger crowd familiar with the D&D IP.

Now I don't know how Hasbro would feel about working with Lego - it looks like Kre-O was launched specifically so they could do "Lego" Transformers themselves. But perhaps they could take the idea and do Kre-O D&D?

Any Thoughts...

 

[Li Shenron]

We're all both D&D and Lego fans in my family, and IMHO there is no need for Hasbro to work with Lego, because Lego already has plenty of stuff that is totally useful as minis for D&D. Having used Lego before in D&D I can tell you the following:

- there is an enormous amount of Lego minifigs for both PCs and monsters from various themes, some of which are perfect while others may require a little bit of imagination to adapt (e.g. AFAIK there are officially no "devils" in Lego, but you can use some Star Wars or other theme's minifigs to great result)

- there may be a problem with availability because Lego doesn't usually keep the same theme around for longer than a couple of years (except classic stuff like City), so for instance Orcs are out of production, although some different ones will come with LotR theme; this means that you may need to look at the secondary market

- secondary market for Lego minifigs means that you're pretty sure everything is available, but the prices can be high (outrageous for Star Wars minifigs, so forget about those)

- cost for using Lego in D&D is HIGH, definitely higher than WotC random plastic minifigs... think about 2e/3$ per minifig, however that's only if you buy those as singles (such as Lego's "Collectible Minifigures" series), but if you buy Lego sets for the minifigs inside then of course you have to buy the whole box...

- the best thing about using Legos for D&D is the total freedom... you can build your own dungeon or whatever, then disassemble it when finished and build something different; same with the minifigs, you can customize them (to a certain extent: hairpiece+head+torso+legs) and add/remove all accessories

- keep in mind however that building structures (even just a couple of dungeon rooms) is damn hard, you'll need a lot of pieces and it's VERY time consuming!

- the minifig accessories are the icing on the cake: think that if your PC switches from bow to sword in the middle of a battle, you are going to do exactly that to your minifig... this is not only nice but it's actually useful to keep in mind what everyone is holding, and where objects are located for example if dropped

- for medium creatures just use the minifigs, for small creatures you can just default to shorter legs, for large and bigger you can build them with bricks; it's more difficult to make smaller-than-small creatures tho

- BONUS: I've seen people doing pretty nice additional D&D props with Legos... for example using a small baseplate with coloured bricks to represent HP and durations of conditions, and to hold all your weapons and tools carried in the backpack; there is no limit to useful ideas you can think of

 

[Glade Riven]

It might get me to buy Kreo, unlike the Transformer stuff because you have to take it apart to transform it. Then again, I'm kinda crazy. Kreo Transformers do seem to be selling this time around (Unlike the first time Hasbro tried "lego" transformers).

Oh, there's a thriving used market for Legos, and some parts you can even get in New condition.

 

[The Red King]

It is a good idea if you either already have a lot of legos, or have lots of $$$ to throw at that. Legos are not cheap.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

As far as I know, the LotR Lego elves are the first Lego figures to sport pointy-ears. I thought the dwarves and hobbits were the first ones to fully support shorter bases, but my kids tell me I'm behind.

They've also added a few weapon innovations in the last year, including some nifty scabbards.

Personally, I think if Lego kept adding a few new innovations each year to their fantasy/medieval themed sets, they could then start a separate, recurring line of miniatures sold in packs. What has made this not much of a good idea up to now was the breadth of the mini-figures they have done, but now the breadth is pretty wide.

Heck, you can do a passable mind flayer by robbing from the Pirates line.

 

[MacMathan]

DnD Kreo would be a lot of fun I think and help spread the game to younger players. 3d dungeon sets, traps minis it would be great for Hasbro to get on board with leveraging DnD in new areas

 

[Sunseeker]

I think the overall design of lego is useful, it can certainly be used to build a castle, a dungeon, a cavern, or a town, but I think the people, that superbly simplified style that LEGO people have is not fitting to a more serious natured D&D game.

 

[rkwoodard]

yep

It is a good idea if you either already have a lot of legos, or have lots of $$$ to throw at that. Legos are not cheap.

+1

My son is getting into Lego Ninjago which has really cool Ninjas, Skeletons, and snake men.

I am going bankrupt. Lego is very good about only putting the coolest figs in big sets.

But the weapons/item switch outs are really cool.

 

[Fifth Element]

- for medium creatures just use the minifigs, for small creatures you can just default to shorter legs, for large and bigger you can build them with bricks; it's more difficult to make smaller-than-small creatures tho

You could use the mini-minifigs that come with the various Lego board games.

 

[Li Shenron]

You could use the mini-minifigs that come with the various Lego board games.

Yes, we have about a dozen of the green ones that come from the Heroica games, the downside is that they don't have arms so cannot be equipped