The strategy behind Lego’s new collab with “Dungeons & Dragons”

After weeks of teasing, Lego has finally unveiled its collaboration with Dungeons & Dragons to celebrate the legendary roleplaying game’s 50th anniversary.

The 3,745-piece set, called “Red Dragon’s Tale,” is based on a winning design created by Lucas “BoltBuilds” Bolt for a Lego community contest, and will be available for purchase starting in early April for $360.

Here’s what that moolah gets you:

• A modularly designed castle with a tower, bridge, and tavern with a removable roof.
• A red dragon – “Cinderhol” – as well as six minifig adventurers: an orc rogue, elf wizard, dwarf cleric, gnome fighter, Dragonborn bard, and a “human with an anime-protagonist haircut,” to quote The Verge.
• An adventure book, available free via digital download or physical paperback for Lego Insiders, that you can play along with using the set.

Collabs aren’t just for influencers. Lego has tripled its team of digital experts over the past three years, and is focused on establishing content/game partnerships – but always with the goal of tying digital touchpoints back to physical play (like with this D&D set).

And this approach is working. On the back of its deals with Harry Potter and the Epic Games-owned Fortnite, Lego’s growth outpaced the broader toy market by ~10% in 2023 – a year that CEO Niels Christiansen described as “the most negative toy market in more than 15 years.”