LEGO Dungeons & Dragons minifigures, before and after

71047 Dungeons & Dragons offers official LEGO versions of classic Dungeons & Dragons characters, but tabletop gamers have been building their own customs for years. Let’s compare… LEGO and Dungeons & Dragons are natural bedfellows, so it’s no wonder that there’s an entire community dedicated to making the two worlds collide. The legodnd subreddit has been around for a long time, before the LEGO Group came up with the concept of official sets, and avid tabletop role-playing enthusiasts have been creating their own LEGO Dungeons & Dragons minifigures for years. And while some of those customs are truly impressive, given that they were choosing from limited official elements, how do they compare to the LEGO Group’s interpretations of the same classes, races, and named characters, as well as collectible minifigures that have spent their budget on new prints and parts? In short, they’re better than you’d expect. Here are some examples: Githyanki Image: ASortaOkayBuilder While the Gith in the LEGO group are paired with the Warlock class, reddit user ASortaOkayBuilder has given the Githyanki an Eldritch Knight-inspired twist, using the knight’s legs and sorcerer’s torso from the Black Falcon. The real points of comparison here, however, are the head and hairpiece. The former is taken from a rare LEGO Star Wars: The Old Republic minifigure (which does an effective job of including the Gith’s facial patterning), while the wig is borrowed entirely from the Orc from Lord of the Rings. This creates a convincing aesthetic that is close to the greenish-yellow skin “green” of the Gith. In contrast, the official LEGO version is the classic minifigure yellow, at the request of Wizards of the Coast (choosing from various suggestions from LEGO designers). The 71047 Dungeons & Dragons minifigure also comes with a hairpiece introduced in 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Tale of the Red Dragon. Here it is repainted yellow to match the headpiece. It’s certainly a different interpretation, but it’s hard to say one is necessarily better than the other. Tiefling Image: Nunyabiz8107 Dungeons & Dragons customizers have had to get pretty creative with their parts in the past, and a great example is this three-year-old tiefling from reddit user Nunyabiz8107. The horned headpiece is taken from the 80015 Monkie Kid Cloud Roadster demon minifigure, which nicely captures the idea of ​​a LEGO tiefling. This minifigure is a paladin. Meanwhile, the 71047 Dungeons & Dragons tiefling is a sorcerer, a mystical class that, according to the designers, inspired the very different purple and orange color scheme. But the key part here is the new headpiece with horns, which, as a dedicated and specifically designed element, is obviously more suitable for tieflings. The shorter hair also makes it more versatile in combination with the shoulder accessories throughout this series. Szass Tam Image: tiagocf This early Red Wizard of Say (or Szass Tam) by tiagocf on the legodnd subreddit combines a red robe and cloak with a pale head, and is pretty close in shape to the official LEGO minifigure. It’s also five years old at this point, so the designers had to do their best with an even more limited selection of parts, but overall it’s a convincing attempt at the iconic Dungeons & Dragons character. That said, it’s not unfair to say that the official LEGO version is much better, from the rib cage-less torso to the high-collared dark red cloak to the facial print with a frown and red eyes. 71047 is one of the simpler Dungeons & Dragons minifigures, with no new molded elements and a printed trans-red skull accessory that is a regular minifigure head, but like this custom version, simplicity is key. Strahd von Zarovich Image: ASortaOkayBuilder Image: ASortaOkayBuilder ASortaOkayBuilder is back with two different versions of Strahd von Zarovich, both of which are on par with the official LEGO minifigures thanks to the wealth of vampire LEGO elements released over the years. The vampire head is borrowed from the Scooby-Doo series (i.e., on the other side is a goofy old man’s face, perfect for adventurers unmasking the villain), while the leg and torso elements are borrowed from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings sets. The official Strahd minifigure is a bit more subdued in comparison, but it is much more colorful, incorporating red, blue, brown, and silver throughout his outfit. His neck hair is printed to match the villain’s long hair (there are two versions due to issues encountered by custom builders), while his cape has no jagged edges. His skin is also light grey instead of white. Overall, it makes for very different Strahds, but it’s hard to say one is better than the other. Mind Flayer and Intelligent Devourer Image: Kevin_Yu Official LEGO Given the very specific elements used in the Mind Flayer and Intelligent Devourer, you’d be forgiven for thinking they would be impossible to realise from existing pieces. But legodnd user Kevin_Yuu managed to do just that almost two years ago with the clever use of pieces from the Mind Flayer’s head, a previous Collectible Minifigures alien character, and the Intelligent Devourer, taken from the 2013 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set 79100 Kraang Lab Escape. Both are wise choices that were well received by the 2023 D&D community. It feels a bit redundant to point out that the new LEGO pieces are much more appropriate, given that the designers had free reign to create new elements for 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s still interesting to see how the official interpretation of this character and his companions compares to the earlier custom creations. And that’s probably true of all the minifigures we’ve presented here. None of them are necessarily better or worse, just different. The good news is that 71047 Dungeons & Dragons unlocks this fantasy tabletop world even for those who aren’t interested in building custom characters, providing a shortcut to the best LEGO D&D minifigures. And let’s not forget about customization, since the series is built on the concept of combining parts of different heroes and villains. To see all the different combinations possible with 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, go here. Also, don’t forget to download Brick Search before you go looking for blind box characters. The app’s Minifigure Scanner helps you find exactly what you’re looking for by revealing the contents of each Mystery Box. Available to download now on iOS and Android. Featured image (left): ASortaOkayBuilder Support the work of Brick Fanatics by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Author Bio Chris Wharfe I consider myself a journalist and a LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not actually the case. But journalism runs in my veins. It’s like some kind of weird literary blood that will one day lead to stress-induced cardiac failure. It’s like smoking, but worse. Thankfully, until then, I can write about LEGO.