LEGO - Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale Review: The Ultimate D&D Toy

The LEGO Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale set is an elaborate homage to the original tabletop RPG, complete with classic monsters, countless traps, and an impressive number of fun little easter eggs. Announced as part of Dungeons & Dragons' 50th anniversary celebration, the new set chooses not to recreate one of the game's many iconic locations but instead chooses to craft its own story, allowing its builder (or builders) to build a jam-packed set that touches upon almost every quintessential trope found in a generic D&D campaign. 

Designed by LEGO fan Lucas Bolt, Red Dragon's Tale combines a handful of classic D&D tropes together in one set. The set includes a tavern, a small dungeon filled with skeletons, and a mad wizard's tower. Each of the three buildings is jammed with fun little nods to D&D lore for players to build into the set. The "Inn Plain Sight" tavern's upstairs is filled with mimics disguised as furniture, the dungeon contains hidden treasure, some booby traps, and of course a classic D&D monster or two (a beholder and a gelatinous cube), and the wizard's lair contains a foul ritual involving what appears to be a dragon egg (or perhaps a dragonborn egg, based on the poor innkeeper being trapped in a prison cell with his partner and egg nowhere else to be found.) 

While the set contains nearly 4,000 pieces, I appreciated the general lack of repetition while building it. Because the set contains multiple buildings and creatures, builders won't feel like they're repeating the same step over and over again, which can be a problem with some similarly large sets (Mos Eisley Cantina, I'm looking at you.) I will also note that the red dragon and other monsters really feel unlike anything else I've seen in a large LEGO set. Considering that most "characters" in a LEGO set are represented by a minifigure, I loved that I could open up a bag to build an owlbear or a beholder instead of building layer after layer of walls. 

Outside of perhaps the red dragon, I honestly wouldn't consider Red Dragon's Tale to be a "tough" build. There aren't a lot of elaborate builds within the set, such as moving pieces or K'nex gears, and my LEGO-saavy 9-year old was able to assist without any mistakes throughout the build. 

Honestly, my biggest question about Red Dragon's Tale is whether it would be enough to launch a full Dungeons & Dragons LEGO line. The red dragon, beholder, owlbear, and other monsters are easily the highlight of the set and the red dragon could have easily been its own part. I couldn't help but wonder whether there were plans to make other dragons from D&D lore next, or perhaps a mega-sized Demogorgon or Lilth build. While the red dragon isn't exactly the correct size for tabletop play, the LEGO/Dungeons & Dragons collaboration feels like a natural fit together given that LEGOs naturally make for great terrain pieces and stand-ins for player characters already. 

If you are a D&D fan and love LEGOs and have a lot of excess income or cash to spend, Red Dragon's Tale is a fun set that can serve as the centerpiece of a cool D&D-themed display at home. It's a solid celebration of the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons and potentially is the harbinger of a great collaboration between two classic brands. You can grab the set here at LEGO.com now priced at $359.99. 

A review copy of Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale was provided by LEGO.