LEGO® Minecraft "The Dungeon" Review

You have mined down a few levels and are starting to find some great deposits of iron and coal. Everything is going great until you hear that unmistakable groan of a zombie. You decide to punch through a few more walls before heading to the surface and... you wind up at a monster spawning cave/dungeon.

That seems to be the premise of this LEGO® Minecraft set. It's not a very large set (I think it may in fact be the smallest at 219 pieces), but it's still a lot of fun. It's also an inexpensive way to try out the Minecraft sets as these can be found for $20 or less (as of 2015).

Build

This set took me about 30 minutes to build. The base construction is wider than it seems, which gives the whole set a nice footprint. There isn't much height to it; it only goes up to six blocks high in the main dungeon area. There are two doorway openings for the mini-figs to go through. Above and on the outside, there are sand blocks and a small lava pool with a cactus. This is kind of an odd choice but I suppose there was a reason behind it, although I've never seen that in the game.

The set includes a "Steve", two zombies, and... bricks.

This set has two movable play features. The first is the monster spawner, which has a representation of a zombie being made inside the spawner. You can spin a drum built into the base to make this spin around, but that's all it does. I feel like all the pieces and gears involved in this could have been put to better use.

One of the cool movable features let's the zombie
"spawn" into the dungeon. This is activated by flipping a brick
on the backside.

The second moving feature is also related to the monster spawner. Basically, it's a way to have the zombie hidden from view, then you flip the assembly forward to make the zombie "spawn" into the dungeon. This is a much cooler looking, and functioning, feature on this set.

Value

I think the value on this set is about right for the bricks and figures included.. For $20, you get 219 pieces and that includes three mini-figures. You also get one iron pickaxe.

It's an easy guess that you get a Steve with this set, but I was more excited about getting a couple of zombies, since I had none.

The only negative I have with this set is the rebuild options. On the box (as is with all the Minecraft sets) it's prominently displayed that you can "Build your own creations!", but I just do not see any rebuild options here. The only official changes they give you are to take some of the sand pieces and make a stair step down to the dungeon. 

Overall, this is a nice set that is fun to build and has some fun play value. It also makes a nice display piece that's great to look at. 

LEGO® Minecraft: "Crafting Box" Review

The LEGO® Minecraft Crafting Box was my very first set of the series. I was drawn to the interesting packaging and the encouragement to build anything you want! Plus, as I said in the First Night Review, I really love the unique colors you get and the transparent bricks.

To me, the Crafting Box reminded me more of the basic (basic being a positive here) sets I had when I was a kid. It includes a lot of basic 2x and 4x bricks and very few specific ones that have limited use. The official piece count is 518, but it really feels like you get more than that once you start building.

And, that's what this set is really about: building, taking apart, and building again. There's not really a "correct" model to make, or even a best one. Much like the game, I have built something and then went back and modified it over and over until I was happy. Then I took it apart and started all over!

What I really dislike about this set are the instructions. There are eight official builds included in the two booklets. However, the instructions are split between the two books.

So, for example, to build a waterfall piece in a desert biome, you would refer to one book. For the larger part of the set, you would refer to the second book. It wasn't hard, but it certainly wasn't fun.

After we built several of the official builds, I decided to dismantle it all and start fresh. This was much more satisfying than anything the instructions provided, and I think that's the real value of the set.


For my own creations (MOC), I opted to build as vertical as I could, while still having a large "land" base. That's just what I enjoyed making.

You get two mini figures with the set: a Steve with diamond pickaxe, and a skeleton with bow and arrow. You get one exclusive (so far) with this set, a Mooshroom. One odd thing to me though is why they decided to make the weapons and tools jagged and pixelated looking. I understand this is to match the game, but it just doesn't look right.


Value

The US price of this set is currently $49.99, which is not bad considering what you get. There are lots of great bricks here, 518 to be exact, and lots of rebuild value. I would have liked to have another mini-figure included at this price point; perhaps a zombie.

The instructions can be a little messy, so I say just look at the inspiration pages and pick some elements you like. Then build! That's why you would buy this anyway!

LEGO® Minecraft: "The First Night" review

When I first saw the LEGO® Minecraft sets at a big box store, I didn't really know what to make of them. I hadn't played Minecraft (I only vaguely knew what the game was), and I didn't own any LEGO® sets. Actually, I hadn't even put together a set since I was 12 years old.

My initial thought was that it was kind of silly. I knew Minecraft was a game about nearly unlimited building, and here was a building set by the most popular brick company in the world.

But soon after our LEGO® collection began to grow by almost a set a week, and I was playing the Minecraft game any moment I could. I knew it wouldn't be long before I had to have a set!

What I really love about these sets, and why I wanted them so badly, was the type of bricks included. I especially love all of the transparent bricks, both colored and clear.  It was those cool transparent blocks (and the bright orange lava) that made want these sets.

Before I get into what I like and dislike about the set, let me state (along with everyone else who reviewed this set) that this is NO ONE's first night in the Minecraft game. No one. Perhaps an experienced player, but not a first-timer. 

The first shelter I ever made wasn't a hole in the dirt, or in a cave, but I didn't make anything close to this elaborate! Does anyone really have time to gather resources for a full house, including cobblestone, planks, a bed, AND sand for windows in 10 minutes? (For the two people out there who haven't played Minecraft, you only have 10 minutes of daylight before monsters attack)

Construction

The First Night has your standard LEGO® instructions. Other than the door and hinge on the house, there are no other moving parts (like trap doors). Overall it took me about 40 minutes to complete, but I'm kind of slow.

As I said before, I really love the bricks included in these sets. They give you great colors and lots basic 4x4, 4x6, and so on. I do love the transparent bricks, and how they are used on the tree builds. 

The pickaxe is included with the set, but if you want
you can still "craft" one.

What's cool (or annoying) about the Minecraft sets is that some of the sections are designed to be moved around to create different landscapes. The roof of this house is made of two separately built pieces that can be taken off and placed to the side of the house, the front, the side (you get the idea). You can simply sit these pieces somewhere or attach them to the build.

It doesn't actually look like anything in the game, but that's OK. This is the LEGO® interpretation of Minecraft; it's not going to be a one to one ratio (can you imagine how expensive that would be?).

The two sections of the roof are removable and
can be placed around the model any way that you want.

What is disappointing with the Minecraft sets is that most of the build is based on single blocks placed one on top of the other.

For example, the wall sections were three to four blocks high without any interlocking with the next block. Trees are built with the square four stud blocks five or six high. With no real structure, these tend to break off easily from the model. I have knocked trees over just casually trying to adjust something or place a mini figure somewhere.

It isn't so bad once you have the roof section pieces in-place, as these are long and do solve the fragile structure problem. But it doesn't help the trees.

Play Value

I'm a little older than target age that would play with a set like this. But if I were a kid, I think I would be really happy playing with this.

 

As for the mini-figures, you get a Steve (also included with every set), a Creeper, and a pig mob. Steve comes with wooden tools: a pickaxe, an ax, and sword. A wooden sword? The wooden pickaxe I understand, and maybe even the ax, but I doubt anyone makes wooden swords.

The house has two ways to play/display. Closed, you get the cool looking structure, but it isn't very big. But if you open the back up, the interior is accessible and the whole set seems a little larger.


Value

Overall this is a nice set if you like Minecraft and LEGO®. I bought mine for $39.99 US dollars (plus tax). For that price you get 408 pieces and the mini-figures. There were a few extra pieces leftover from the build, but nothing special. There isn't much included in the way of rebuilds, but there are certainly enough bricks included to make some great models.

There are some full printed pieces, such as the crafting table and the furnace, but nothing really unique. I think that's what is most appealing about this and the other Minecraft sets: it focuses more on building and creating and not specific pieces that have little other use (other than the Creeper).

Overall, if you are a fan of building, Minecraft, and LEGO®, this is a great set to get. It's a great start to a collection.