LEGO explains why the Dungeons & Dragons set is so expensive: ‘We didn’t want to compromise’

The LEGO designers behind 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale explain why the set is so big and expensive – and how it upended the LEGO Group’s traditional budget considerations.

Revealed earlier this week, 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale launches April 1 for LEGO Insiders and retails for £314.99 / $359.99 / €359.99. That’s a hefty price tag for what is so far the LEGO Group’s one and only Dungeons & Dragons set (not counting the Mimic Dice Box gift-with-purchase), which is designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tabletop roleplaying game.

But for LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan Scott and the set’s lead designer Mark Stafford, that status as the sole D&D set was all the more reason to go big or go home.

“If we had scaled it down, I think we would have lost a lot of the charm and detail,” says Jordan. “And it is celebrating 50 years of Dungeons and Dragons, so we really wanted to go big with the first model. Maybe it’s the last model we’ll ever do. Maybe it’s not. We don’t know – we need to see how this is going to perform. But we didn’t want to compromise on the first and potentially only time that we do something.”

“If this is the only D&D set ever made, we wanted it to be the most LEGO D&D it could possibly be,” adds Mark, before revealing that he effectively put the cart before the horse for 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale. “When it was built from the submission idea, I didn’t skimp on anything. I even slightly expanded parts of it to make it the most it could be, and the price for once came afterwards in this case. 

“It was like, ‘This is what it needs to be [and] this is what that’s going to cost us to make.’ That sets the price point.”

Most LEGO sets are designed to a specific budget, but there have been a handful of exceptions over the years. Perhaps the most memorable of those is 75192 Millennium Falcon – still the most expensive LEGO set of all time, tied with 75313 AT-AT – which was also designed as the ultimate version of the freighter first and foremost, without as much initial consideration to what the final price might be.

For 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale to fit in everything from Lucas Bolt’s contest-winning entry – from the dragon and tower to the tavern and all the necessary characters and monsters – Mark and the team had to go above and beyond. But as Jordan says, that doesn’t mean this is the only LEGO Dungeons & Dragons experience that might ever exist. If it performs well, more could be on the cards – and the designers know that there’s scope for smaller and cheaper sets.

“I’d love us to do some others at more accessible price points,” Mark agrees, before Jordan adds: “There’s so much more that we could do. I mean, there’s another nine colours of dragon alone that you could make, and all the monsters – there are over 2,000 monsters in Dungeons and Dragons. That’s quite a lot.”

Basing demand for a wider Dungeons & Dragons theme on a cost-prohibitive model may not give tabletop gamers the most optimistic outlook, but the arrival of a D&D Collectible Minifigures series later this year will hopefully allow the LEGO Group to better judge the wider market. And the fact it’s prepared to devote a coveted CMF slot to this franchise at all suggests it has confidence in the IP, so watch this space…

21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale is available from April 1 for LEGO Insiders and April 4 for everyone else. Orders from April 1 to 7 will receive a free Mimic Dice Box (while stocks last). While you’re waiting to order your copy, check out our in-depth review of the brand new LEGO Ideas set.

• LEGO explains changes to 21348 Dungeons & Dragons
• Five things we spotted in LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons

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