D&D Lego comes full circle by rendering the tabletop game's deadliest block in brick form: The dreaded gelatinous cube

An image of a Gelatinous Cube, a square ooze, rendered as a Lego set in a preview for an upcoming series of toys.

(Image credit: LEGO / Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast)

We've come full-circle—or full cube, as it were. There's something about this recently-announced set by Lego ideas that's tickling my poetic sensibilities. It's a block, represented by blocks. Now we just need a Minecraft mod porting this exact set inside it, and we'll be three meta-layers deep.

The cube will release alongside the fan-made Dragon's Keep: Beyond Journey's End set as part of the TTRPG's 50th anniversary—likely as part of an upcoming Lego Ideas set. As for when it's slated to release, all we've got is a "Stay tuned!"

The cube itself is one of D&D's more iconic monsters—recognisable enough to make its way into the Dungeons and Dragons movie. It's an ooze with the unfortunate quality of being basically invisible until you step into it, at which point you're trapped within while its juices slowly digest you.

You can bust out of the cube by making a DC12 strength check—or have a mate yank you out with a similar check, though that'll come at the cost of them taking acid damage. The real fear comes from going unconscious while you're in one of these things. Every turn the cube takes, you'll suffer acid damage—automatically failing a death saving throw.

If you get unlucky, you could suffer an automatic save on the cube's turn, take your turn right after, roll a natural one and be dead-as-a-doornail before anybody can do anything. Basically, you probably want someone with a high Wisdom (Perception) score in your party—but anyone familiar with the concept of a 10 foot pole could've told you that.

It has not been confirmed whether Lego will be including a free satchel of digestive fluids that deal 21 (6d6) acid damage to you, though given how family-unfriendly that'd be, I doubt it. I'm more curious to see how the problem of its gelatinous form is handled—the preview we've seen is obviously just a 3D mock-up.

We could get a brick of resin with some Lego pieces shoved inside, but if I'm being perfectly honest I don't see the point if you can't plonk your own figures in there to die a horribly-imagined death. Whether it'll be a cheaper alternative to the official Hasbro one (at $33.99) remains to be seen.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.