Posted by Last week I reviewed the seven player characters in the LEGO Dungeons and Dragons Minifigure Series. This week I’ll be looking at the other five D&D minifigures. These figures are all NPCs, with four of them being important named figures. I was incredibly impressed with the first seven figures, and I’m just as impressed by these five.
The only unnamed figure is the Mind Flayer. Despite being arguably the simplest figure, he’s probably my favorite. I’m a big fan of Lovecraftian tentacled eldritch horrors, so I like the Mind Flayer’s aesthetic. Turning to his design, it’s very simple. He doesn’t have any capes, hoods, weapons, or props aside from a little Intellect Devourer. The printing on the chest and leg pieces are clean and stylish. I can definitely see the chest being repurposed to make more lightly armored custom figures. The Mind Flayer also gets a custom molded headpiece, and it’s very accurate to the source material. Finally, the Mind Flayer comes with a little Intellect Devourer (that can be placed on other minifigure heads as a hat piece), and it’s an awesome little inclusion. I can definitely see an appeal for collecting multiple Mind Flayers and Intellect Devourers for custom builds.
Turning to the first named figure, we have Count Strahd von Zarovich. I’m familiar with Strahd by name, though he’s never appeared in any D&D games that I’ve been a part of. The minifigure looks pretty good. He has a surprising amount of accessories, including a sword, glass, and black rat. The printing and details on Strahd’s body look good as well, and his navy blue cap really ties everything together. My only real complaint with Strahd is that his legs are a little loose, or at lease the one that I got has this issue. It doesn’t detract too much from the figure, especially since I’ll be displaying mine, but it is worth noting as a potential concern.
The next figure I’ll be looking at is Szass Tam. Szass Tam isn’t a figure I’m familiar with, so when I first saw him I thought he might’ve been Vecna. That being said, Szass Tam is still a great figure. Having a Lich included in the roster adds some nice variety and creature/enemy/villain representation. Szass Tam comes with two accessories: a translucent orange spell piece and a translucent red skull. I like the spell piece a lot; it looks really cool and versatile for what it can represent. I don’t mind the skull, but the red color can make the black facial details hard to see at times. As for Szass Tam’s design, it’s relatively simple, but the simplicity really makes the details pop. For example, his chest has some nice shadows on it. And much like with Strahd, Szass Tam’s cape/cloak really ties the design into one cool and cohesive figure.
The Lady of Pain is another figure I’m not familiar with in D&D. Just like with the other figures in this collection, she has a very unique design. Her body printing is just as detailed as you would expect given the quality of the other figures, with there even being printing on the back of chest and leg pieces–pieces that are covered by a cape. Her cape is also rather different, being divided into four hanging strips. Her orange color is distinctive and makes the figure stand out. One interesting design choice is giving her figure a plain black head with a custom mask piece. Seeing as I’m not as familiar with the figure, I’m unsure what they could’ve done instead, but a quick Google search returns a mix of images of her with a mask and a normal face. Regardless, the mask is pretty cool. It’s rather rubbery, which makes sense given its spiky and angular nature. Finally, she comes with a cubic gate (technically two due to extra pieces) accessory, which is a cool little inclusion if nothing else.
The final figure is Tasha the Witch Queen. Tasha is another figure I’m somewhat familiar with, even having used a few of her spells before. Her body printing remains on the same level of detail and quality as the other figures in the set. My favorite piece is her combined hat/hair piece. It looks really good and it’s also just cool to have a character with both hair and a hat. Tasha’s other accessories include a book and a little cauldron. The book is one of the newer books pieces where she can hold it easily, and you can open it to see a spell contained inside (I think it’s Tasha’s Hideous Laughter but I could be wrong). The book looks good and does what it needs to. I have a more mixed opinion on the cauldron. On the one hand, I really like the purplish pink flame inside; it’s unique and looks really cool. On the other hand, I really dislike how the fire piece just sits in the cauldron and can be displaced easily when moving her. It’s definitely not something that ruins the figure, but it is a little annoying.
Overall, the entire Dungeons and Dragons LEGO Minifigure Series is worth buying. As I said last week, the seven player characters all look great and have some really unique pieces, and that sentiment still applies to the five NPC figures. If you like LEGO and/or Dungeons and Dragons, I cannot recommend these figures enough. They have a level of quality and detail that really elevates them above some of the other LEGO Minifigure Series in the recent past. I can’t wait to get the official D&D set and display these figures alongside it, or maybe even build my own little MOC to display them all in.
Broad Scope Entertainment 