How to Build Your Dragon: LEGO® Icons How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless

Imagine the scene: you’ve been taught your entire life to live in fear of dragons, and then you find yourself face-to-face with a fearsome Night Fury.

If you, like Hiccup, feel a connection with this dragon, you know you will try many things to gain his trust. With plenty of fish, and even more bonding time, you will soon learn how to train your dragon.

If you’ve got goosebumps, then you’ll love the LEGO® Icons How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless set, inspired by the Universal Pictures stunning live-action reimagining of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, soaring into theaters on June 13, 2025.

To find out all about it, we chatted with designer Jae Won Lee.

How to design your dragon

How to Train Your Dragon has become a fan-favorite in people’s hearts and homes. We started by asking if Jae knew of the film franchise before starting on this set.

“I am a huge fan of How to Train Your Dragon,” said Jae “The story of Vikings and dragons coexisting was a fresh idea and was especially convincing because the main character and Toothless were friends, not masters and servants. It was like the relationship between me and my dog.”

With this existing passion, Jae was the perfect designer to bring Toothless to life with LEGO bricks.

Next came the design process.

“The first thing that came to mind was the scene where Hiccup and Toothless communicate when Hiccup puts his hand on Toothless’s forehead and they become friends,” says Jae.

This moment, simple in many ways, inspired the process that focused on emotional connection rather than technical sophistication.

“When LEGO fans first encounter this set and start putting the bricks together, I want them to feel that moment of connection. I thought about how to make a simple, effective build, rather than a design that is overly complicated or requires flashy techniques.”

Bringing life to the bricks

Anyone who is aware of Toothless knows that he has an expressive and adorable face capable of being playful and even funny.

Jae knew that capturing this would be crucial.

“The most important part of any character design is the face,” says Jae. “LEGO bricks have various elements that can implement various character expressions and, after thinking about and sketching Toothless’s expression, I found the characteristic parts. For example, the big eyes and mouth, the thick tongue and the protrusions on the head were important design elements for recreating expressions, and I conducted numerous mock-ups to implement the expression by combining elements.”

Toothless is agile and nimble, and so beyond just the facial expressions, we wanted to create a sense of motion.

“In order to be able to move his head from side to side and open and close his jaw, we had to use the simplest techniques possible, and because the model has a large head, it was difficult to find the overall balance and center of gravity.”

After working so hard on it, we wondered if Jae had a favorite part of the set.

“My favorite detail is the cute wagging tongue, which – if replaced with the fish included in the set – would look like a scene of Toothless biting a live fish as the fish’s head and tail would wiggle.”

How to display your dragon

This 784-piece set includes a fish and plasma-blast accessory, plus a saddle and repaired tail fin. The Toothless figure allows you to pose the head, jaw, wings and tail for a dynamic display and will make a great gift for anyone who loves dragons (and, let’s face it, who doesn’t?).

If you’re looking for a dragon friend, then Toothless will make a perfect decoration for your home and office, or a perfect gift for fans of How to Train Your Dragon. No training required!