Introduction

The appeal of depicting Vikings for a Danish toy company is obvious, and Vikings were a natural fit for the LEGO® Castle theme (product line), given that these seafaring warriors were Danes, Swedes, Geats, and Norwegians, but it took until 2005 for The LEGO® Group to depict Vikings, accept for a model that appeared at an exhibit over fifty years ago.  The LEGO® Group’s Vikings product line consisted of seven sets released between 2005 and 2007.  Although it could be considered a theme unto itself, which seems to have been The LEGO® Group’s intention, many LEGO® fans consider it to be a subtheme of the old LEGO® Castle theme.  [The LEGO® Group released sets in the LEGO® Castle theme from 1978 to 2014 and has teased its return with Collectible Minifigures™ and the release of castle sets in 2021 and 2022.] Rather than making the LEGO® version of the Norse raiders a faction within a LEGO® subtheme and release them in sets that pitted them against another faction or factions, the way there were sets that pitted the Lion Knights and Black Falcon faction against each other in the 1980s or the Crown Knights against an army of undead skeletons and an army of goblins and trolls in the Fantasy Castle (2007-2009) subtheme, the LEGO® Vikings Minifigures™ were released exclusively in LEGO® Vikings sets that pitted Vikings against monsters from Nordic mythology.  [This neatly sidestepped any awkwardness Danes might have felt in pitting the Vikings against a LEGO® Castle faction knowing that in most foreign countries most boys who would have received such sets would have assumed the Vikings as raiders were the villains.[1] Despite being criminals, Vikings are popular figures in Western popular (”pop”) culture like pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy, ninjas, and Mafia ”men of honor”.] Certainly, Brickipedia treats LEGO® Vikings as a LEGO® Castle subtheme on the LEGO® Castle homepage, but Brickipedia is made by fans, not The LEGO® Group, and on the LEGO® Vikings Webpage, Brickipedia treats it as a “related theme.”

Its production run coincided with two LEGO® Castle subthemes: Knights’ Kingdom II (2004-2006) and Fantasy Castle (2007-2009).  Notably, the helmets worn by the dwarf faction from Fantasy Castle were very similar in shape to those worn by the warriors in the Vikings subtheme.  Subsequently, The LEGO® Group either teased the revival of this LEGO® Vikings theme or subtheme or paid tribute to it with the release two Vikings and one Viking Woman in the Collectable Minifigures™ theme in 2011, 2012, and 2020.  Further, BrickWarriors and Brick Forge, two small firms that produce weapons, armor, and other accessories for LEGO® Minifigures™, have also released arms and armor appropriate for turning any Minifigure™ into a Viking.  In 2021, Brickmania®, the company that purchases LEGO® kits to repurpose the pieces to produce custom kits such as tanks and has been so successful at it that there are Brickmania stores across the U.S.A., returned to its roots with the release of a Viking longship and several limited-edition ancient Rome kits.  In 2022, The LEGO Group released the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent (Set #31132). 

Figure 1 Caption: Long before the LEGO® Vikings theme of the LEGO® System, model designer Dagny Holm made this LEGO® model of a Viking longboat and Vikings for an exhibition in the 1960s.  The card in front of the LEGO® longship and Vikings reads, “The Danish Educational Toy of World Fame.”

The LEGO® Vikings Theme or Subtheme

The discontinued LEGO® Vikings product line was separate from any of the LEGO® Castle product lines.  It was inspired by both Nordic history and mythology.  It included several dragons, a wyvern, a sea serpent, and a monstrous wolf that appeared to be machines rather than living creatures like something out of Disney’s Adventures of the Gummy Bears (1985-1991).  They were comprised of LEGO® Technic and LEGO® Bionicle elements.

These monsters, with names taken directly from Norse mythology, were similar in terms of aesthetic and the elements the LEGO® Designers employed to LEGO® BIONICLE (2001-2010, 2015).  That theme, which had a narrative, in turn, used LEGO® TECHNIC pieces and added ball-and-socket joints for the creation of elaborate biomechanical figures. 

The LEGO Group stated, “The Viking theme launches a new technique to build large monsters or creatures out of a combination of LEGO® System and LEGO® Technic elements.”

Some of the Vikings were armed with the kind of fantasy swords introduced in the LEGO® Castle subtheme Knights’ Kingdom II (2004-2006).  All of them wore horned helmets where the horns were white, indicating they were supposed to be real horns rather than metal projections shaped like horns. In real life, Norse kings and other high-status men may have worn ceremonial horned helmets on very important occasions, but every Viking did not charge into battle with a horned helmet, the way Vikings are depicted in pop culture.

In most cases, the larger part of the helmet, which was supposed to be made of metal, was gray-colored, indicating they were made of iron or primitive steel.  The exception was the Viking King.  The part of his helmet that was supposed to be made of metal was gold-colored.

Viking Warrior and the Fenris Wolf (Set #7015) featured the monstrous wolf more commonly known as Fenrir.[2] The Viking Warrior was armed with a sword, battle axe, spear, and shield.  The shield, which was from the LEGO® BIONICLE theme, was interesting because it was gray, indicating it was supposed to be made of metal, whereas the other shields in the theme were supposed to be wooden.  It also had a hole in the center so the spear could be slipped through it.

The 112-piece Viking Boat vs. the Wyvern Dragon (Set #7016), released in 2005, pitted a longboat against a wyvern.  A wyvern is a mythological, dragon-like creature with two hind legs and wings in place of forelegs.  The monster that came in this set met that description.

The 225-piece Viking Catapult vs. Nidhogg Dragon (Set #7017), released in 2005, pitted two Viking Warriors with a catapult against Nidhogg Dragon.  He had four horns.  The retail list price was $19.99.

The 585-piece Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent (Set #7018), released in 2005, pitted a Viking longboat against the Midgard Serpent from Norse mythology, another one of Loki’s children.  The set included six Minifigures: the Viking King and five Viking Warriors. 

The longboat with dragonhead prow had a cloth sail with the Midgard Serpent on it.  This was not, as stated by Brickipedia, the first galley produced by The LEGO Group.  That distinction belonged to the Viking Voyager (Set #6049) from the Crusaders (1984-1990) faction of Classic Castle.  That galley also featured a dragonhead prow.

The LEGO® Vikings longboat was, however, wider, longer, and more realistic in every aspect.  The design for this longboat was recycled for a Troll war galley in Troll Warship (Set #7048) from the LEGO® Castle subtheme Castle II (2007-2010), also known to fans as “Fantasy Castle.”  That set, incidentally, pitted a troll warlord with a crew of five Troll Warriors and a Giant Troll with a Dwarf prisoner aboard their two-masted war galley, against the Lead General of the Crown Knights flying on an armored Dragon.

The Viking King came with a cape in this set.  He had white hair printed on his head.  This included thick eyebrows, a thick mustache, a soul patch, and chin beard. That mustache connected to thick sideburns and chin beard.  He had an open mouth in a snarl.  The part of his horned helmet that was supposed to be metal was gold-colored.  The Viking King’s printed chest had a gorget, and a mixture of plate and chain mail armor with a bandoleer belt running under the gorget to the left hip.  His sleeves were black, and his pants were brown. 

One of the Viking Minifigures had a printed face with brown facial hair with bangs, a mustache, a soul patch, and goatee.  The printed chest included a battle axe tucked into a bandoleer belt worn diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip over a chain mail armor. One of them, with gray facial hair, had a breastplate.  A third, with facial scars, had a knife tucked into the bandoleer belt printed on his chest.  The fourth Viking Warrior (the fifth Minifigure™ in the set) had a chain mail hood under his helmet.  The fifth Viking Warrior had a bare chest under a gorget and a single piece of plate armor that were strapped together.

The 1,019-piece Viking Fortress (Set #7019), released in 2005, featured a hall surrounded by a palisade inspired by a Danish ring fortress built circa 900 A.D.  The set included the Fafnir Dragon from the Icelandic Völsunga saga.  He had three horns.  The Fafnir Dragon was attacking the fortress in question, which the Vikings defended with two catapults.

The six Minifigures™ were the Viking King (with his cape), and five of his Viking Warriors.  Two of them, the one with facial scars and the one with a chain mail armor hood, had breastplates. 

The other three were the one with battle axe tucked into the bandoleer-type belt on his printed chest, the one with the knife tucked into the bandoleer belt on his printed chest, and the one who had a bare chest under a gorget strapped to a single piece of plate armor.  The retail list price for this set was $69.99.

The 312-piece Army of Vikings with Heavy Artillery Wagon (Set #7020), released in 2006, had seven Minifigures armed with a mixture of swords and poleaxes.  It included the Viking King, but he lacked his cape.  He carried a sword and a round shield.  One of the Vikings had gray hair (printed on his head).  His printed chest included a battle axe tucked into a bandoleer belt worn over chain mail armor.

The 505-piece Viking Double Catapult vs. the Armored Ofnir Dragon (Set #7021), released in 2006, pitted three Viking Warriors with a double catapult against Ofnir the Dragon.

This dragon had four horns like the Nidhogg Dragon, but in that case, one was on the snout, one was on the center of the head, and there was a pair of horns at the back of the head.  The Ofnir Dragon had all four of his horns at the back of his head in two pairs.  The Wyvern, Nidhogg Dragon, Fafnir Dragon, and Ofnir Dragon were interesting departures from the LEGO® construction toy aesthetic.  They were made of many pieces, unlike the smaller green or black dragons that came before – from LEGO® Castle sets of the 1990s in the Dragon Masters (1993-1996) and Fright Knights (1997-1998) subthemes – and the larger dragons that came afterward – from more recent LEGO® Castle sets in the Castle II (2007-2009) and Castle III (2013-2014) subthemes, LEGO® Harry Potter™ (2001-2007, 2010-2012), and LEGO® The Hobbit™ (2012-2014) – which were made of a few, relatively large parts.[3]

One of the Minifigures appeared to be the Viking King with an iron or primitive steel helmet instead of a gold helmet and without the cape.  The other two Viking Warriors were the fellow with the chain mail armor hood and the fellow with the bare chest under his gorget and single piece of plate armor.  The retail list price was $39.99.

The 179-piece Vikings Chess Set (Set #G577), released in 2006, had twenty-four Minifigures™, four brick-built knights, and four brick-built rooks.  The set included two kings and two queens.  The gray-haired queens were the only women in the Vikings theme.  The retail list price was $49.99.

There were two Viking keychains.  Viking Key Chain (851584), released in 2007, consisted of a Viking Minifigure™ on a keychain.  He wore a horned helmet and a cape. 

The part of the helmet that was supposed to be metal was gray-colored.  His printed chest had plate armor.

Viking Commander Key Chain (4294114), released in 2006, consisted of the Viking King Minifigure™ (with his cape) on a keychain.  The retail list price in the U.K. was £3.99.

The LEGO® Play Wear & Weaponry product line had a Viking costume a young boy could wear.  The Helmet of the Vikings (4493786), released in 2006, was a horned helmet made of soft material.  It had a retail list price in the U.K. of £4.89.

Released in 2006, Shield of the Vikings (4493785) was a round foam shield that was colored to look like it was made of wood with gold trim.  It featured runes and two undulating serpents with bright eyes and tongues that might have been flames. 

The retail list price was £5.99.  The Viking Cape (851941), released in 2007, was a blue cape with a gold Midgard Serpent. 

Figure 2 Credit: Courtesy of The LEGO® Group Caption: The LEGO® Vikings Set #7019 (Viking Fortress Against the Fafnir Dragon) was modeled on real Danish ring fortresses built around 900 A.D.  It was a palisade that came with six Minifigures™ (a Viking king with red cape and five Viking warriors), Fafnir the dragon, and a smaller dragon. One speculator is trying to sell it for $250 on eBay while another is trying to sell it through Amazon Marketplace for $369.37.

Figure 3 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: Released in 2005, the 585-piece Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent (Set #7018) pitted a Viking longboat against the Midgard Serpent from Norse mythology, one of Loki’s children. 

Figure 4 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Figure 2 Caption: These are Vikings rowing the longboat from Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent (Set #7018).

Figure 3 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: The 112-piece Viking Boat vs. the Wyvern Dragon (Set #7016), released in 2005, pitted a longboat against a wyvern.  A wyvern is a mythological, dragon-like creature with two hind legs and wings in place of forelegs. 

Figure 4 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: The 312-piece Army of Vikings with Heavy Artillery Wagon (Set #7020), released in 2006, had seven Minifigures armed with a mixture of swords and poleaxes. 

Figure 5 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: The 505-piece Viking Double Catapult vs. the Armored Ofnir Dragon (Set #7021), released in 2006, pitted three Viking Warriors with a double catapult against the Ofnir Dragon.

Figure 6 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: The 225-piece Viking Catapult vs. Nidhogg Dragon (Set #7017), released in 2005, pitted two Viking Warriors with a catapult against Nidhogg Dragon.

Figure 7 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: This is the Fafnir Dragon from Set #7019.  The monsters from LEGO® Vikings were made of a combination of parts from LEGO® System and LEGO® TECHNIC.

Figure 8 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: This is Fenris Wolf from Viking Warrior and the Fenris Wolf (Set #7015). At the Battle of Ragnarök, Fenrir, sired by Loki, is destined to kill his grandfather, Odin. He will be killed, in turn, by his uncle Víðar, the god of vengeance. 

Figure 9 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: Compare the aesthetic of the Wyvern, Nidhogg, Fafnir, and Ofnir Dragon to Smaug the Golden from The Lonely Mountain (Set #79018), released in 2014, as part of LEGO® The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and other dragons in recent LEGO® Castle.

Viking Collectible Minifigures™

Years after the Vikings theme ceased being on store shelves, there was a Viking Collectible Minifigure. Released in 2011 with Minifigures Series 4 (Set #8804), the Viking’s

As with most Collectible Minifigures™ (and all Minifigures™ before The LEGO® introduced realistic skin tones) the Viking had a yellow head, arms, and hands.  He also had a torso that was brown and gray and a pair of legs that were mostly tan and brown. 

His printed face consisted of eyes consisted of eyes comprised of white pupils and black irises; a grimace that bared white teeth; and reddish brown or orange facial hair: eyebrows, a mustache, and sideburns. There was a break in his left eyebrow to allow for a light brown scar.

The Viking wore a silver-colored helmet with pearl gold horns.  The silver-colored part was somewhat conical in shape, as with the Viking Minifigures™ from the Vikings theme or subtheme.

The torso was printed to indicate he wore a mail hauberk (shirt of chain mail) under a brown leather vest.  For some reason, he wore a baldric (a belt that goes diagonally across the chest to hold a weapon or horn) that was supposed to be over his chainmail shirt and under his vest.  A second belt stretched across his waist, again over the chainmail shirt and under the vest. Both belts had gold buckles.  The waist belt also had what might be a coin purse.  He wore dark brown fur knee pads over tan pants. 

He was armed with a two-piece battle-axe and circular shield.  His battle-axe differed from the poleaxes of LEGO® Castle sets because instead of being a single monochrome piece that would be gray or black or brown to indicate if it was supposed to be made of metal or wood, it consisted of (1) a gun-metal gray axe blade that clipped to (2) a short brown bar to realistically depict a metal blade attached to a wooden handle. 

The circular shield was brown to indicate it was wooden and had a stud in the center.  It is the same shape as the plain brown circular shield held by the Highland Battler (clearly inspired by Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Sir William Wallace in Braveheart) but it was decorated.

His official biography reads, “Raised on heroic ballads of sea serpents, forest trolls and fire-breathing dragons, the fearless Viking sees monsters everywhere – and the most important thing he knows about monsters is that when a Viking sees one, he’s got to fight it!  With axe and shield in hand, the Viking happily plunges into battle like a shouting whirlwind of clattering, clashing leather and iron. He’s ready to take on any monster he spots, and it can take some explaining to get him to understand that plenty of monsters aren’t really all that bad!”

Obviously, this figure would be compatible with the 2005-2007 LEGO® Vikings sets.  Given the inclusion of monsters, he and those sets or elements from those sets are at least somewhat compatible with tableaux from the Fantasy Castle subtheme, which included dragons, goblins or orcs (”trolls”), trolls (”giant trolls”), undead skeleton troops, and dwarves.  However, given that those LEGO® Viking monsters appear to be biomechanical, some A.F.O.L.s (adult fans of LEGO®) and T.F.O.L.s (teenage fans of LEGO®) may find their juxtaposition with monsters or other supernatural figures from Fantasy Castle sets to be jarring.

Figure 10 Credits: Courtesy of The LEGO Group Caption: Viking came with Minifigures Series 4 (Set #8804) in 2011.  He wore chain mail armor under a brown leather vest (printed on his chest), and was armed with a battle axe and a round shield.

The Viking Woman from Collectible Minifigures™ Series 7 (Set #8831) had a head topped by long, blonde hair and a horned helmet.  As with the Viking, she wore a silver-colored helmet with horns, but in her case they were white horns which indicated they were supposed to be from a real animal. 

She had yellow head and hands, dark brown torso, light brown arms, and dark brown backwards slope that represented her dress.  She had a blonde hairpiece.  Her horned helmet consisted of a gray piece that represented metal and two white horns.  She was (unrealistically) armed with a short sword and shield.  Her chest was printed to represent a belt around her waist and shoulder straps for her dress. 

As with most of the women in LEGO® Castle and LEGO® Pirates, she had a backward-facing slope to represent the skirt of her dress rather than a pair of legs.  Her necklace and belt (printed on her torso) were gold-colored.  She was armed with a shortsword and a circular shield.[4] 

Obviously, this figure was compatible with the Viking from Series 4, as well as the 2005-2007 LEGO® Vikings sets.  She would also make a suitable gift for a fan of Wagnerian opera.

This Minifigure™ was the shieldmaiden of mythology that inspired Éowyn in the second and third volumes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (played by Miranda Otto in Peter Jackson’s films).  The Viking Woman looks very much like an opera singer playing the Valkyrie Brünnhilde from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), an adaptation of Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs).

Figure 11 Credit: Courtesy ofThe LEGO® Group Caption: Armed with a sword and a round shield, Viking Woman from Minifigures Series 7 (Set #8831) had long, blonde hair and a horned helmet.  Like most women in LEGO® Castle and LEGO® Pirates, she had a backward-facing slope representing the skirt of her dress. 

              

Confusingly, The LEGO® Group’s next Collectible Minifigure™ Viking, released in Collectible Minifigures Series 20 (#71027), was called ”Viking” like the one from Series 4.  This Viking from Series 20 was compatible with the LEGO® Castle theme and LEGO® Vikings subtheme, just as with the Viking from Series 4 and the Viking Woman from Series 7. 

He had a red-brown beard piece and red eyebrows printed on his face.  The expression printed on his face was fierce. 

His helmet was dark gray aside from gold-yellow around the eyes, suggesting gold chasing.  It was more realistic than previous helmets made for Minfigures from the 2005-2007 LEGO® Vikings™ subtheme and Viking from LEGO® Collectible Minifigures Series 4 and Viking Woman from LEGO® Collectible Minifigures Series 7 because his helmet did not have horns.

He wore a blue cape.  In terms of the printing on his torso and legs, he was supposed to be wearing a light gray torso over a dark brown undershirt that was the same shade of brown as his boots.  There was blue on the chest to indicate where his cape was tied around his neck and was held in place by a gold brooch.  He wore two belts, a belt along his waist and a baldric that ran diagonally across his chest from his right shoulder under his cape to his waistbelt.  His hands are yellow, which indicates he is not supposed to be wearing gloves.  He also wore a gray pendant which was probably supposed to be iron.  Taken altogether, the signs are he was a leader, perhaps a chief, if not a king.

             The Viking carried a circular shield and was armed with a spear.  This spear has a gray speartip and brown shaft, which indicates it was supposed to be a metal (probably iron) speartip atop a wooden shaft. 

The shield had a blue and white color scheme.  The rim was dark gray and there were small circles along it that suggested bolts.  There were cracks in the blue, suggesting a wooden shield on a metal frame.

Figure 12 Courtesy of The LEGO® Group Caption: This Viking was released as part of Collectible Minifigures Series 20.

Viking Flames was a video game in 2012 that pitted Viking Woman against Evil Knight from Series 7.  He looked like a more detailed version of the Shadow Knights from Knight’s Kingdom II, but with a boar’s head on his shield instead of a scorpion.

Land of the Vikings is an attraction at LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort in Berkshire, England, which opened in 2007.  It replaced Amazing Mazes, an attraction that featured three mazes. 

While Land of the Vikings retained one of the mazes, a Tudor-themed hedge maze that was re-branded as Loki’s Labyrinth, two water rides – Vikings’ River Splash and Longboat Invader –replaced the other two mazes.

Land of the Vikings also incorporated the existent Spinning Spider, which opened in 1996 as part of Wild Woods.  The rest of Wild Woods became Pirates Landing in 2010, and was rebranded as Pirate Shores in 2014.

BrickWarrior, BrickForge, and Brickmania

BrickWarriors is an outfit based in Wilmington, Delaware that sells accessories like helmets, swords, shields, and rifles to supplement existent or defunct LEGO® themes, including LEGO® Castle, LEGO® Vikings, LEGO® Lord of the Rings™, LEGO® Pirates, and LEGO® Western; some themes that The LEGO® Group has teased with Collectible Minifigures™, like ancient Greece and ancient Rome; but also some themes that do not exist and never have existed such as prehistoric times, the First and Second Great World Wars, gangsters, or Steampunk.  I have found helmets and other accessories they make for ancient Rome, LEGO® Castle, and LEGO® Vikings to be highly satisfactory. 

BrickWarriors Viking Helmets come in steel gray, black, or pearl gold and can accommodate either horns or antlers.  As of this writing, they are on sale for $1.25 and normally they sell for $1.50 each. These helmets are somewhat conical in shape.  As with the great helm-type helmets that BrickWarriors makes for knights, the eye holes in the Viking helmet are shaped and positioned in a way that gives the helmet a fiercer look than with helmets produced by The LEGO® Group, but they do not align with Minifigure™ eyes, if that matters to you.  Horns or antlers are sold separately unless you buy the BrickWarriors Viking Minifigure Accessories pack.  The options are moose antlers, deer antlers, ram hors, or crescent horns.  Personally, I have paired the helmets with either moose antlers or crescent horns.  BrickWarriors moose antlers come in white and black, and these BrickWarriors helmets look good sprouting either white or black antlers.  The option of adding antlers to a Viking armed with BrickWarriors armor makes him formidable looking and real-life warriors and soldiers (and athletes, for that matter) have sought or do seek a psychological advantage over opponents.  The helmets have masks worked into them to protect much of the face, including fang-shaped projections that flank the warrior’s mouth.  Unfortunately, unlike with the Viking helmets made by The LEGO® Group, BrickWarrior helmets do not accommodate beard pieces. 

In addition to Viking helmets, BrickWarriors also makes breastplates, swords, battle axes, and round shields for Vikings.  Currently, the breastplates, called Viking Armor on the BrickWarriors Website, comes exclusively in steel gray.  Formerly, they also came in black and gold, and I am reasonably confident those options will become available again because they seem to restock a few times per year. It is made to look like plate armor worn over a chainmail shirt and includes large pauldrons to protect the warrior’s shoulders.

The Viking Longsword comes in steel gray, black, and brown. They have somewhat v-shaped crossguards.  I would assume the brown Viking Longsword is meant to be the kind of wooden sword with which warriors might practice swordsmanship (as Roman legionaries did).  These Viking Longswords are significantly larger than the shortswords The LEGO® Group produced from the 1970s to the 2000s.  They are also wider and longer than the great swords produced by The LEGO® Group in the 2010s, such as with LEGO® The Lord of the Rings sets.  However, the new longsword included with LEGO® sets such as the Medieval Blacksmith are a bit longer than the BrickWarriors Viking Longsword.

Currently, the Viking Axe comes in steel gray, black, and pearl gold.  At some point in the past, it also came in brown.  It would be hard to imagine even the greatest Norse king wielding a gold axe in battle, but it could be used to stage a coronation ceremony or Viking funeral.  The same goes for the pearl gold helmet and breastplate.

The Viking Shield is supposed to come in a variety of colors, as if a wooden shield were painted a single color.  Unfortunately, only dark red shields are currently available on the BrickWarriors Website.  In the past, it has also been sold in green, black, blue, purple, orange and white.  I have only gotten the shields in dark red and green, but in both cases I was quite pleased with the results.

The aforementioned BrickWarriors Viking Minifigure Accessories pack includes two gray helmets, two pairs of black moose antlers, two gray breastplates, two gray longswords, two red shields, and two gray battle axes.  Unfortunately, it is currently sold out on the BrickWarriors Website.  Personally, my introduction to BrickWarriors came by way of one of my brothers buying one of those BrickWarriors Viking Minifigure Accessories packs via Amazon.

In the past, BrickWarriors sold two custom Viking Minifigures™.  These were Viking, and “Viking Santa.” The retail list price for each is $50.  However, both are sold out.

BrickForge™, an outfit located in Mayflower, Arkansas, produces a helmet that has a simple but elegant design that seems more realistic than the helmets produced by either The LEGO® Group or BrickWarriors.  According to the Website, it is inspired by the Spanglehelm-type helmets. The BrickForge™ Viking Helmet comes in black, bronze, pearl gold, and a light gray identified on the Website as “Trusilver.”  I have a black helmet, and it looks great.  A Viking Minifigure™ wearing it stands out in a group of Vikings with LEGO® Group and BrickWarriors helmets.  Unfortunately, the noseguard comes too far down to accommodate a beard piece.

In 2021, Brickmania® returned to its roots with the release of a Viking longship and several limited-edition ancient Rome kits.  This Brickmania® set complimented The LEGO® Group’s Vikings theme, which consisted of released in 2005 and 2006.  The Drakkar – Viking Raiding Ship, designed by Andreas Eggen and Umar Akmurzajev, consists of 1,059 LEGO® and Brickmania® elements.  [A Viking longship was called a “drakkar.”  Norsemen used these longships to carry out raids, to undertake trade, and carry out voyages of exploration, as well as to make long-distance journeys.] The list price is $990.  It comes with a crew of thirteen custom Minifigures™.  All of them look great, but, but six of the crew members are warrior women, which is simply ahistorical.  Brickmania® never released any free-standing or loose Viking Minifigures™ apart from the Drakkar set.  When I began this article, there was one in stock on the Brickmania® Website, but since then it has sold. 

Unlike the Minifigures™ that The LEGO® Group released with the Vikings sets and the three Collectable Minifigures™, which all had yellow heads and hands, the custom Brickmania® Minifigures™ have realistic skin tones for Nordic people.  Consequently, I would not recommend displaying the Brickmania® Drakkar right next to a tableau formed out of Viking sets released by The LEGO® Group and/or Collectible Minifigures™ or Minifigures™ armed with BrickWarriors or BrickForge armor or the mix of realistic and unrealistic Minifigures™ will appear incongruous. 

The LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent

In 2022, The LEGO Group released the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent (Set #31132).  The set has 1,192 pieces and is for builders nine-and-over.  The retail list price is $119.99.

Notably, The LEGO® Group released the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Medieval Castle, a smallish castle that belonged to the popular Black Falcons faction of the discontinued LEGO® Castle theme in 2021 before the release in 2022 of the Lion Knights’ Castle.  Therefore, the release of the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent may portend the release of more LEGO® Vikings sets in the future.

There are, of course, three configurations.  Firstly, there is a Viking longship, a brick-built cow, and the Midgard Serpent.  Secondly, there is a lodge, the brick-built cow pulling a plow, and a winged monster.  Thirdly, there is a monstrous wolf (akin to Fenrir) that appears to be larger than a LEGO® elephant and a tall pine tree.  The Midgard Serpent and the monstrous wolf do not look like mechanical machines like the monsters from the Vikings theme, so in that way they may be said to be “more realistic.”

The set has four Minifigures™, two men and two women.  Unrealistically, the women as well as the men are armed.  The two men are wearing horned helmets like the Minifigures™ from the Vikings theme, the Viking from Collectible Minifigures™ Series 4, and the Viking Woman from Series 7.  They are white horns, as with the LEGO® Vikings theme or subtheme and the Viking Woman from Series 7. 

One of the women is bareheaded and has a brown hairpiece.  The other has a blonde hairpiece topped by an open winged crown, so perhaps she is supposed to be a queen or princess.  One of the men has a red beard-and-mustache piece and the other one, with a face printed with gray facial hair, has a tan fur collar piece like the one around the neck of the Snow Guardian released as part of Collectible Minifigure™ Series 22.

There are four hand weapons in the set.  One is a great sword of the type that The LEGO® Group released with LEGO® The Lord of the Rings sets.  Another is a gray spear as if it was fashioned from a single piece of metal.  The other two weapons are battle-axes.  One of these battle-axes is similar to the one carried by the Viking from Collectible Minifigures™ Series 4.  The other battle-axe is interesting because it consists of two clip-on blade and instead of a bar the handle is an upside-down redish brown antenna piece, which gives the battle-axe a realistic top.   

 

Jonas Kramm’s Viking Longship

In recent years, several talented A.F.O.L.s have submitted proposals for LEGO® Viking sets to The LEGO® Group via the LEGO® Ideas platform. The way that works, if you’re not familiar with it, is that fans submit plans for proposed sets, other fans can vote for them, and if they reach 10,000 supporters, The LEGO® Group will consider having professional set designers make them suitable to bring to market.

Jonas Kramm, a German LEGO® designer and social media influencer with 49,000 followers on Instagram (as of this writing), submitted a proposal for a Viking Longship for LEGO® Ideas in 2020 that received 20,000 supporters but The LEGO® Group did not approve it.  Subsequently, he gave away the plans for it on his Website.  When built, it measures 11.9” x 7.3” x 10.5”.

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[1] The bravery of Viking explorers is indisputable.  Vikings founded Dublin and they provided the princes and larger ruling class of Kiev, Moscow, and other city-states of Byzantine Russia. York, the important city in northern England after which New York is named, began as the capital city of a Danish colony in Anglo-Saxon England called the Danelaw.  The Normans who would go on to conquer England, Ireland, and Sicily started out as a group of Vikings who adopted French culture and the Roman Catholic version of Christianity as part of the terms of receiving what became the Duchy of Normandy as a fief from the French monarchy in return for defending France from their fellow Vikings.  The Varangian Guards who famously protected Byzantine emperors were originally Vikings, although later some of them were Anglo-Saxons. Vikings colonized Iceland, Greenland, and, briefly, the eastern shores of North America (the colony of Vinland).  However, the Vikings are often romanticized in pop culture much like the pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy.  We must not forget they were also murderers, rapists, and plunderers who raided cities, towns, villages, and monasteries.  They carried off both people and things.    They conquered the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, western Scotland and the Isles, eastern Ireland, and nearly all of England.  Cnut the Great, who was a Christian convert, later did succeed in conquering the whole of England in 1016 and used it as a springboard to become King of Denmark in 1018 and King of Norway in 1028.  Vikings founded Dublin, but they founded it as a slave market-town.  What did they do with the many slaves they kidnapped?  The Vikings kept some slaves to work their farmlands; they forced some women to become their “wives;” they sacrificed some slaves to their gods, including Thor; and they sold yet other slaves to Muslim Arab slavetraders.

[2] This creature, sired by Loki, was the father of the monstrous wolves Sköll (who chased the horses that pulled the chariot that carried the sun) and Hati Hróðvitnisson (who chased the horses that pulled the chariot that carried the moon).  At the Battle of Ragnarök, Sköll and Hati are destined to succeed in their quest, plunging the world into darkness.  This will precipitate their father, Fenrir, killing their great-grandfather, Odin. Fenrir will be killed, in turn, by Odin’s son (and therefore Fenrir’s uncle) Víðar, the god of vengeance.  Note for the first American edition of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis renamed the wolf Maugrim, the chief servant of the White Witch, Fenris Ulf, but since 1994 HarperCollins has left out his revisions, presumably to harmonize the British and American texts.

[3] The LEGO® Harry Potter™ subtheme Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ (2005) had a Hungarian Horntail dragon in the set Harry and the Hungarian Horntail (Set #4767), as seen in the Warner Brothers film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), an adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, published in 2000.  Smaug the Golden appeared in The Lonely Mountain (Set #79018), released in 2014, as part of LEGO® The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), a subtheme of LEGO® The Hobbit™.  Smaug was depicted as a wyvern, as seen in the Warner Brothers-M.G.M. co-productions The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), two of Peter Jackson’s three films adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, originally published in 1937. 

[4] The shortsword was a re-use of the Roman gladius with which the Gladiator in Collectible Minifigure™ Series 5 was armed, although hers was a lighter shade of gray.  A gladius the same color as hers would appear with the fourth Roman Collectible Minifigure, the Roman Commander, in Collectible Minifigure™ Series 10.