LEGO Dragons

The first LEGO Dragon appeared in 1993, in the sets from the Dragon Knights line. This was a Castle line, which featured a group of knights who were allied with the dragons, and who were led by the wizard Majisto.

I always thought that these were "bad guys," for a number of reasons. Number one, they were allied with dragons. Number two, their dragonny helmets looked mean. And number three, their castles were black. These reasons added up to a pretty shady bunch in my mind, nothing like those righteous defenders of honor, the Lion Knights, who I made their chief enemies. (I made all of this up, by the way. But I think it holds water!)

The LEGO dragons that appeared in this first line were four pieces, and had red wings that flapped, and a mouth that opened and closed. The mouth also had a slot for a fire piece, so your dragon could toast a few peasants.

If there was any doubt about the Dragon Knights being bad guys, there was certainly non about the Fright Knights. Majisto could have just liked black, I guess, and I could see him being a harmless old man. But there's no way the Fright Knights could be anything but evil.

Not only are they allied with dragons, their dragons are black!

The black LEGO Dragon was the same piece as the Dragon Knight's dragon, just cast out of black ABS. There was also a green dragon featured in set 6037, Witch's Windship.

After the Fright Knights, no more (new) dragons appeared until the Viking line, in 2005.

These new dragons were bigger, tougher, and far less polite than the old dragons. Fortunately, the Vikings were rough and manly, and also very well armed. The Viking Sets typically included a Viking fortification or vehicle/ship, and a terrifying monster for it and it's inhabitants to do battle with.

Several of these monsters were dragons. The dragons from this line were more articulated, and could be posed much more realistically. They were also significantly bigger than the older LEGO dragons.

The latest LEGO Dragons are from the so-called Fantasy Era Castle Sets. These sets are usually a fight between knights and orcs/trolls/ But occasionally, the trolls bring along a dragon!

These newer dragons are big and red, but less articulated than the Viking dragons. They would certainly be very scary if you were a minifig!