The full LEGO Dungeons & Dragons experience now costs a pretty penny

The LEGO Group’s limited-run Dungeons & Dragons promos are already commanding high prices on the aftermarket, making the full LEGO D&D experience almost immediately cost-prohibitive.

If you’ve had your eye on 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale for more than just a new fantasy build – which is to say, you want to actually play the tabletop game – you’ve now got two choices: either plump for the lesser experience, knowing that something better is out there; or pay through the nose for the bonus limited-edition items on the secondary market.

The 56th LEGO Ideas set launched on April 1 to LEGO Insiders and April 4 to everyone else, by which time one of its limited-edition add-ons – 5008325 Mimic Dice Box, which was free exclusively when purchasing 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale – had already sold out. The physical copy of the set’s accompanying adventure book, available in the Insiders Rewards Centre, has also since sold out in some regions.

And while neither of those items are essential to enjoying 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale, either as a LEGO set or a basis for a roleplaying adventure, they do enhance the experience. But like most limited-run LEGO promos, they’re only going to do so for those with the deepest of pockets; whether to have bought into the set on day one, or to buy the add-ons through the aftermarket.

The latter option is obviously the most expensive way to go about it at the moment. But given the relative scarcity of 5008325 Mimic Dice Box, it’s also the only way to go for most people. The chest is selling for an average price of £65 on BrickLink at the moment, while some copies on eBay have sold for as high as £99.99 in the UK – or nearly a third of the price of 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale.

The physical copy of the tie-in adventure book is also fetching around £40 in the UK and up to £80 in the US. That’s despite the fact it can still be redeemed directly from LEGO.com in the UK – but is likely a consequence of needing 2,700 points to do so, which can only be earned by spending more than £330 through official LEGO channels (or £165 during double points events). It also means forgoing the £20 discount voucher you could have claimed with those points.

The net result though is that anyone discovering 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale a day, week, month or year from now is going to find that the entire LEGO D&D experience is not readily accessible, and that seems like a strange thing to say just eight days after it arrived on shelves.

This obviously isn’t the first time the LEGO Group has conjured up a limited-run gift-with-purchase for a set. But the experience feels a bit more egregious here for two reasons: first, that this is the company’s first excursion into D&D, and enjoying a complete collection is somehow already going to be out of reach for a lot of people; and second, that the Venn diagram of tabletop enthusiasts and collectors is probably pretty close to a full circle. More than ever, this feels like the LEGO Group not reading the room.

All that said, if you’re not quite so concerned with owning the official items, the good news is that you can basically fudge your own versions of these promos. 5008325 Mimic Dice Box includes four exclusive printed eye tiles, but there are plenty of alternative pieces that still do the job – and the rest of the model can be pieced together from spare parts.

The Red Dragon’s Tale adventure book, meanwhile, is available for free in PDF form through the Insiders Rewards Centre. So you can still play through the campaign: it just won’t be with a physical copy. That is unless you print it out, or perhaps even take it to a local printer who might be able to create a unique hardbound copy for you (the official version is only a softcover). Just saying.

Otherwise, you’re now looking at spending anywhere up to £180 on top of 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale to get the full, official LEGO D&D experience, just one week and change on from launch day…

21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale is available now at LEGO.com for £314.99 / $359.99 / €359.99.

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