![]() ![]() It’s very apparent that these sets were not created by designers with more than a passing familiarity with the game. They’re just a hodge-podge of colors and bricks an earth-toned rainbow warrior of terrain. Even to me, a veteran Minecraft player, the scenes don’t really look like anything much recognizable. Also - and I feel this has to be said - this creates a very mottled and visually unappealing scene. There’s no way the completed set could be picked up. Since my scene was made up of 14 sub-assemblies of terrain, and most are connected to their neighbors by only a single 2×4 brick, the whole is very fragile. Each sub-assembly seems to have a unifying feature of one or two 2×4 bricks overhanging an edge by 2×2, which is used to connect the elements together. Consequently, building a scene is an odd mix of flipping back and forth between instructions books, as book 1 tells you it needs a certain sub-assembly, and then provides a page number for that sub-assembly in book 2. The instructions for assembling the scenes are all contained in book 1, but book 2 is full of building instructions for dozens of small vignettes and objects, which are put together in various ways to create the larger scenes. ![]() I decided to build the second scene, since it seemed to be about the largest and most interesting. The only possible reason I can fathom that LEGO wouldn’t include it in this set is to force fans to also purchase the other sets. This is the most basic of things in Minecraft, and is made of only 4 basic pieces in the LEGO sets. ![]() As I built the accessories, I found it exceedingly odd that this set does not contain a crafting table piece. The first instruction book constructs Steve, a skeleton, red mooshroom cow, oven, torches, crops, fences, etc. Somewhat unhelpfully, the 5 bags are numbered 1, 2, 2, 2, and 2. Inside the box are 5 bags and 2 instruction manuals, and a large rather cool “block translator” poster, which shows LEGO’s equivalent of many of the various Minecraft blocks. It contains instructions for 8 different scenes (you can only build 1 at a time), and inspirational photos for other scenes. Nevertheless, the Crafting Box is an interesting concept for a set. Some would argue that LEGO by its nature already allows that, and I find it hard to disagree with that opinion. The other 5 sets of the new Minecraft line each build a specific scene the Crafting Box is intended to allow builders to re-create the Minecraft experience, with mixing and matching and rebuilding galore. The current lineup of six minifig-scale sets is a valiant - but flawed - attempt at doing what the original set could not. We quickly realized, however, that it would be very hard to do justice to Minecraft at that scale within the price range that the LEGO Ideas (née Cuusoo) program was targeting, namely $30-$40 USD. During the development phase of that set, we started off trying to create a minifig-scale set. I created the first minifig-scale Minecraft creation back in 2011, and was one of three fans involved in the development of the first official LEGO Minecraft set, 21102 Minecraft Microworld. I’m a huge Minecraft fan, and I have a bit of history with combining LEGO and Minecraft. Now, I know many LEGO fans roll their eyes at the fact that LEGO picked up the Minecraft license at all, but I love it. ![]() LEGO hasn’t given us an exact release date, but it should be available in stores around the beginning of November. The set includes 518 pieces, and will be $49.99 USD. LEGO has sent The Brothers Brick a copy of the Crafting Box, one of the larger sets from the new minifig-scale Minecraft line. ![]()
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