In part one, we looked at the development and history of the Classic LEGO® Dragon. Go on, read it now. It was posted nearly 18 months ago. Even if you read it back then, you might have forgotten some of the more salient points. The last variation of this appeared in the Adventurers Orient Expedition 7419 Dragon Fortress in 2004. But how did LEGO Dragons develop from here?
If you have ever gone questing for a dragon, you be aware that you must often undertake some type of side quest before you reach your final goal. Here is the first. There might be several others to come..
You may also be wondering “Why wait sixteen months before continuing with this series?” In short, Lifer interfered, and I ended up delaying my final planned public presentation of this talk by 12 months. That’s now past, and I will now happily put the content out onto the interwebs.
Galidor:
Galidor debuted in 2002 and was one of was one of several trans-media adventures that the company was experimenting with at the time. The primary story was presented in a live action TV series, and the theme featured some innovative toy design. The toys have had a lasting legacy, achieving a cult status over the intervening decades.
Here is one such character: Meet Jim Bluetooth. As you can see, there is not a single stud on display. You would almost be forgiven for thinking he is not made of LEGO bricks and it is only with the deluxe Edition’s additional jets/missile launchers on display that it becomes apparent that that there might be even the slightest bit of ‘LEGOness’ in his lineage.
Galidor, for all its faults brought us an interchangeable click joint system, that would allow medium sized models to hold their position, even in the face of gravity.
These joints, which we also see preserved in the premoulded dinosaurs of Jurassic World, had a brick-based system variant introduced in 2004, which continues to be functional to this day.
But I digress:
As I said, we see these joints in the larger dinosaurs in today’s Jurassic World sets.
But while some of the elements are readily interchangeable, not all elements “click” perfectly with the modern versions.
The LEGO Castle Fantasy Era
This Galidor-inspired technology was key to the modularity of the Castle Dragons, which returned in the Castle Fantasy Era in 2007.
These moulded Dragons had plug-in legs, neck, head, and tail, with scope for adding horns into sockets on the back of the head
These red click joint dragons were initially working with the Evil wizard and his Skeleton army.
Some of the green ones, resplendent in their silver battle helmets, worked as a flying steed for the Royal Knights.
Time passed, and the Fantasy era left dragons behind as Orcs and Dwarfs fought for supremacy, and we entered the age of kingdoms.
The Kingdoms range brought us the return of the Lion Knights and Dragon Knights. Although, on first impressions you might have suggested that the Dragon Knight’s Wizard wasn’t working on the same level as Majisto. However, having rescued Norbert from Hagrid, he had great plans.
The final appearance of a pre molded dragon in Castle themed sets was in 2014’s 70403 Dragon Mountain.
Third Party Themes
Pre-molded dragons were not limited to the homegrown Castle line. They also dropped up in some of the para-castle licenced themes including the Hungarian Horntail from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and in the Hobbit, where Smaug had collected his horde under the mountain.
Ultimately, this pathway for dragon development was an evolutionary cul-de-sac. A dead end. The click-joint, pre-moulded dragon died off, going the way of the dinosaurs.
In the future, it is the brick-built dragons that would proliferate, and in time, the ‘Galidor Joint’ will evolve into something much greater, but more on that in a future post.
And so, when we come back in Part 3, we will spend some time thinking about the days when LEGO models started to move off the grid – unrestricted by studs and click hinges. It’s one step forward in time, then two steps back, when we examine the effect of Bionicle on Dragon development as we look at the Vikings Theme .
This series is based on a talk presented at Paredes De Coura LEGO Fan Weekend in 2023, and then revised for Skaerbark Fan Weekend in 2024. It was finally touched up and polished for Japan Brickfest 2025 and Brickvention 2026. Some sets incorporated in this article (80122; 71822) were provided by the LEGO Group for review and research purposes. Others were purchased at my own expense.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!