LEGO Yu-Gi-Oh! is on the way — and a fan will design the first set thanks to a new LEGO Ideas challenge.
The LEGO Ideas It’s Time to Duel! challenge has opened for submissions; the contest is themed around Yu-Gi-Oh! and gives builders the chance to see their creation turned into an official LEGO Ideas set. The contest is open now through March 10, 2026.
Specifically, the contest is centred around the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime and requires builders to focus on Battle City and Duelist Kingdom tournaments — that means that builds will have to be based on those two arcs from the show, narrowing the scope of the challenge.
There is a strict range for the piece count allowed for each project — models can be no smaller than 400 pieces but no larger than 2,000. This prevents the winning build from being little more than a polybag while ensuring the official set is within the realm of reasonability in terms of piece count and price.
Within those criteria, though, the sky is the limit. Builds can be display models of duellists and monsters, dioramas with moving parts or displays packed with monsters.
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The winning build will be treated just like a LEGO Ideas project that reached 10,000 supporters and was approved by the design team. That means the build will be retooled by LEGO designers and released as an official LEGO Ideas set, bringing Yu-Gi-Oh! into the brick world for the first time. Besides the honour of having their project turned into a set, the winning builder will receive 10 complimentary copies, 1% of total net sales (which is more than it sounds), and credit within the set materials.
There will be four runner-up winners that won’t get to see their projects turned into sets, but they will receive a prize pack of LEGO sets to recognise their efforts: 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine, 21359 Italian Riviera, 21349 Tuxedo Cat, 21365 Love Birds and 21376 Orange Cat. Not too shabby of a consolation prize.
The submission phase is open right now, from February 3 all the way until March 10, 2026. Submissions will then close and LEGO Ideas experts will evaluate all the models, choosing five finalists to advance to the Fan Vote beginning on April 14, 2026.
Fan voting will be open through April 28, 2026, letting LEGO Ideas users vote on their favourite project. It is worth noting that the winner of the vote isn’t guaranteed to be the one made into an official set — the LEGO Ideas team has the final say. But winning the fan vote is a good way to go about getting approved.
The winner will then be announced no later than September 10, 2026.
Submissions are open now and will run through March 10, 2026, closing at 6am EST. Head on over to the LEGO Ideas Challenge page for the nitty-gritty legal guidelines and to submit your Yu-Gi-Oh! set idea.
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