How to Build a LEGO Leprechaun Trap That Really Works!

There are a lot of ways you can make a leprechaun trap as one of your St. Patrick’s Day activities. Making one out of LEGOs is one of the most fun! Using LEGO bricks keeps kids engaged throughout the entire project. They are a favorite STEM toy in our house. I designed a really easy LEGO leprechaun trap you can DIY with spare parts at home.

If you want to recreate this LEGO leprechaun trap exactly as I designed it, these are the parts you would need. There are 128 total pieces in the initial design, which includes a four-piece leprechaun minifigure (fun, but not required) and ten pieces of “gold.”

A star (*) next to a color means the piece must be that color, or something close to it, for the sake of the design (such as the rainbow). But most pieces can be any color you happen to have.

• 1 – 16×32 baseplate, bright green
• 4 – 2×10 bricks, green
• 9 – 1×10 bricks, green
• 10 – 1×8 bricks, green
• 2 – 1×4 bricks, green
• 3 – 1×4 plates, green
• 1 – 1×2 plate, green
• 3 – 1×3 plates, green
• 1 – 1×5 plate, green
• 2 – 1×1 plate, green
• 2 – 1×10 plates, green
• 2 – 1×1 plates with horizontal-grip open O clip, green
• 2 – 1×2 plates with 2 horizontal-grip open O clips, green
• 4 – 1×2 plates with closed-end bar handle on the side, green
• 2 – 1x1x5 bricks, blue*
• 1 – 1x1x3 brick, blue*
• 1 – 1×1 brick, blue*
• 1 – 1×6 raised arch, blue*
• 3 – 1x1x5 bricks, green*
• 2 – 1×1 bricks, green*
• 1 – 1×6 brick, green*
• 3 – 1x1x5 bricks, yellow*
• 3 – 1×1 bricks, yellow*
• 1 – 1×6 brick, yellow*
• 3 – 1x1x5 bricks, orange*
• 5 – 1×1 bricks, orange*
• 1 – 1×6 brick, orange*
• 2 – 1x1x5 bricks, red*
• 1 – 1x1x3 brick, red*
• 1 – 1×1 brick, red*
• 2 – 1×1 plates, red*
• 1 – 1×4 plate, red*
• 8 – 1x1x1 ⅓ brick with arch, red*
• 1 – 1×6 tile, red
• 1 – Utensil pot cauldron, black
• 5-10 – 1×1 round plates, gold*
• 2 – 4×6 lattice doors for frame, grey
• 1 – 7×3 ladder with 2 clips, grey
• 1 – 8×8 plate with grille and center hole, grey
• 1 – 1x4x3 brick, white*
• 18 – 1×1 bricks, white*
• 1 – 1x6x5 panel, white
• 1 – leprechaun minifigure (hat, head, torso, short legs) – optional

Once you have your pieces ready, this should be a pretty quick build for you and your kids.

Bonus Special Piece

In my real-life build, I ended up adding one extra piece my husband came up with to make the doors move on their own.

• 21-link (16 M) chain, medium stone grey

Your LEGO leprechaun trap will still look awesome without it, but if you have one, you can sleep soundly after setting out your trap. No need to stay up late and shut the trap on the leprechaun yourself! 😉

Sometimes, you have to just start building a LEGO project with the pieces you have in front of you and see where it leads. And there’s nothing wrong with that method! But my husband has a ton of spare LEGO parts I get to browse through for bringing my vision to life.

So I started by designing my plan with BrickLink’s free Studio software, which allows you to search for specific parts you know you have as well as browse a catalog of all possible parts. After an initial design, I dug through my husband’s stash to see what he actually had – and found some cool pieces I hadn’t even thought of that would make my LEGO leprechaun trap even better!

So I went back to the Studio app and tweaked the design, then started building with the pieces I had on hand. The colors of my parts don’t all match the app design, and that’s okay! I just chose colors available to me that fit the St. Patrick’s theme as best as I could.

The rainbow was the trickiest part. We didn’t have a lot of 1x1x5 – or even 1x1x3 – bricks on hand, so I ended up piecing together an enormous amount of 1×1 bricks to recreate the look.

I also didn’t have a LEGO cauldron – or even round corners – to use as my pot of gold. So I just put together a couple of black 1×4 bricks with a couple of black 1×2 bricks and tucked my gold 1×1 round plates inside. Feel free to get creative and make modifications based on what you have to work with!

I created a 49-page PDF of detailed instructions for assembling the exact LEGO leprechaun trap I created in Studio! You can get it from my shop.

Print a Custom “Free Gold” LEGO Sign

Fill out the form below to have the little sign I designed sent to your inbox! You can resize it to fit any panel that you have on hand, but it will fit up to a 1x6x5 panel at 1.75” x 1.75”. I just printed it on regular copy paper, cut it out, and used a loop of Scotch tape to attach it to the panel.

Video of the Build (Simulated and Real-Life)

Watch this video to see my complete real-life build of the trap, as well as a rotating simulation build (courtesy of the Studio app) and a demonstration of how the LEGO leprechaun trap works!

Leprechaun Trap Ideas and Tips

Don’t Take Legos to School!

If you’re making a leprechaun trap for a school project, I don’t recommend using LEGOs for it. Especially if your child is in kindergarten, first grade, or even a bit older – many of your LEGO pieces are likely to be lost! Save the LEGO leprechaun trap to set out at home the night before St. Patrick’s Day, and create a different one for school out of recyclables that aren’t as valuable.

Check out my shoebox leprechaun trap for a school-friendly project, or get inspired by several other leprechaun traps!

If you don’t have a LEGO panel for putting up a sign, or you just want more signs to decorate your trap with, I’ve got a lot to choose from! You can get a couple of free leprechaun trap signs here, or get some cool premium designs in my shop.

When setting up a trap at home, you want to have something ready to put out to let the kids know that a leprechaun did stop by (but managed to escape). Download a free leprechaun trap note template and handwrite a letter from the leprechaun. Or get one of my fancy note designs from the shop that you can edit in Canva (a free software) and print at home!