Review - 21121 LEGO Minecraft:Desert Outpost από EUROBRICKS

Ακολουθεί review για το παραπάνω σετάκι από τον Mostlytechnic του eurobricks.

Lego 21121 Minecraft Desert Outpost

So, a set of blocks based on a game about blocks and giant pixels. Hm. Nice logo and pixelated background at the top, with a face or something over at the top right corner. Frowning ghost face? Messed up Mickey Mouse head? Not really sure.... As for the set, well, it's a desert outpost. With a river flowing next to it. Um.... isn't that against the rules of a desert?

From the boys - there's lots of rivers in the Minecraftian deserts. And the logo in the corner is a Creeper face, even though there aren't any in this set. And they really like the action of the box front with the TNT flying and such.



On top of the box Lego used one of the minifigs to illustrate the size. It's a skeleton with a blocky head instead of the normal minifig head. And armor. Why's a skeleton need armor? It's already dead! Guess the boys will have to explain that one too. What they can't explain is why Lego used a minifig for scale. Anyone buying Lego sets probably already knows how big a minifig is. It seems to me that using something else from the set would make more sense, but there's not really anything else that would give easy scale. On vehicle sets, a wheel works well. Here, I guess they did as well as they could with a fig with a weapon.

The Back of the Box



The back is a standard display of play features. I won't recite them all since you can see the picture. I do find it a little odd to see the "build your own creation" in the bottom corner and the top center. Isn't that the exact point of both Lego and Minecraft? Do people really need that spelled out explicitly for them these days?

The Contents



3 numbered bags, some baseplates, and a manual. Simple.

The Manual



The manual is book-bound, not a stapled booklet, and nicely made. I'm not in love with the pale green background, more of a traditional light blue fan myself, but it's ok. You can see here there's no problem distinguishing light/dark grey or light/dark tan, but there were a couple times at the start of a section of building that it was less clear since there's only one color in use so far. Also, why are the print colors so far off the brick colors? For kicks I tried placing bricks on the page and it's crazy how different the colors are from the book. My wife and I do photography, so we understand the challenge of making prints match the screen or a physical object. But this is LEGO. They could do it. Once they defined the colors once they'd be pretty much done. So why is it so different? It'd make it easier for those times different color shades are unclear if the print color matched the brick color - just hold the parts to the page! Sort of how Technic sets often have a 1:1 scale axle on the page to help you get the right one from all the different sizes.

The Minecraft Ad



At the back of the manual is an ad for Minecraft, with a 70s looking dude playing along with his daughter on a "Blockstation 500" desktop computer. Personally, I love the style. I've read enough actual ads like that from back in the day to appreciate it. It sorta reminds me of a Pixar movie - it's an ad geared at kids but has lots of hidden details the adults would appreciate. Like the massive beard. And the collared shirt / sweater / jacket combo. And the Apple ][ style computer. Nicely done. The only flaw is a computer of that vintage with a full color screen

The Other Sets



That ad is followed by an ad for the other Lego Minecraft sets. The original micro sets are not included, but the 2014 and 2015 sets are all shown.

The Part List



For those who want, here's the inventory from the set. Yes, there is a brick separator.



The Minifigs



Technically, I think Lego counts the wolf as a fig, but it's not built with the other figs in the manual. You'll see it soon. These 4 figs are nice though. The skeletons get Minecraft heads, and the two other characters are decent. It seems that "Alex" is a female Alex, based on the orange hair printing onto her torso. That is sort of a bummer, since it limits the usefulness of that torso for other things. The weapons and armor likewise are pretty limited to the Minecraft world.

From the boys - You get the two main characters that you can be in the game, so this is a good starting set for someone. The armor and helmets are cool, but it'd be great if Lego could make the armor leggings and shoes.

The Minifigs' Backs


Alex gets the only back printing, and no one has alternate faces.

The Build, 1



The first part of the build is a few small objects. A wolf, I think a crate?, a red torch?, a grey thing, and then 4 other torches. I do like the grooved bricks used for the wolf legs, but beyond that, not sure what I'm looking at here.

From the boys - it's a wolf, tamed since it has a red collar, then a crafting table where you make things in the game. Super useful, you pretty much can't play Minecraft without it. Next is a redstone torch used in redstone circuits. There's also a furnace for cooking both food and other things, and finally regular torches to keep monsters away.

The Build, 2


More small items. Some brown bin thing that based on the box art is a little one-man boat, a few plant things, and then I assume a red bed.

The small bin is a boat used to travel in the water or for fishing. The green cylinders are sugarcane used to make paper or sugar, both very useful in the game.

The Build, 3


And still more small items. First I see what appears to be an unfinished green tree, and then a TNT launcher.

No dad, that's a cactus and a TNT Dispenser.

Ok, I guess I can see the cactus. Still say it looks unfinished, but everything in Minecraft sorta does

The Build, 4


Finally, into the meat of the build. I definitely like the brown flower parts used in the door to give it some interest. And we obviously have a play feature there in the ground - pressing on the smooth section of the tan tile makes the grey tiles flip up. I'm betting the tan blocks fill that grey area and get launched out.

That's a wooden door, not as good as an iron door. Zombies can break the wooden doors. Lego did a good job matching the game doors.

The Build, 5

The build moves on to another platform. This will be the main part of the outpost, so it's a large baseplate with some feet under it to raise it. And yes, I counted studs carefully to put that brown brick right where it's supposed to be, even though it doesn't really matter.

The Build, 6


After flipping the base over, we get to start building some walls and water.

The Build, 7


It takes a LOT of jumper plates to get that offset row of dark grey "brick bricks" in the right place. And that basket thing and grey thing that we build earlier now get a home. Still have no idea what they are...

We answered about the crafting table and furnace earlier dad, we're NOT going over it again.

Remember, I wrote this ALL before talking to you.

Oh yeah. Ok, well, we're not sure why they did the two stud lower walls and 1 stud darker wall sections. That doesn't look like Minecraft to us.

The Build, 8


The door is attached here, and they made a pretty ingenious and discreet doorstop out of a couple headlight bricks with a dark grey tile across them.

The Build, 9


We turn it around and build more of the tower. There's also a bunch of those 2x2 bricks with jumper plates on top piled up here.

That looks like when my chest gets full and I have extra blocks and pile them outside my house since I don't have room.

The Build, 10

After another spin around we get to add the base with the flipper that we built earlier. I'm sure my boys with drive us all insane using it to launch those tan blocks all over the house. We also add the green thing - in context, I'm assuming it's a cactus - and the TNT dropper.

The Build, 11


Let's make a couple more small bases, hinge them together, and give one a splash of blue. And with all those jumper plates, I'm sure there's walls coming.

The Build, 12


I've opened it up here to show what's going on. The bed is in the room, and the weird walls were built as pre-fab sections and put into place.

These walls look better than the other walls. Although the bricks in the windows look more like fences than windows from the game. And the bed is actually too big, but it had to be to look right and fit a minifig.

The Build, 13


Now I've closed it back up, added more walls, and started on the roof. Still weird, and sorta boring. Grey walls get old after a while...

We love the water slopes. It could be bigger, but even like this the boat will slide down and across the blue plate.

The Build, 14


This secondary building gets joined to the main base and a few more accessories are added, like the plants.

The Build, The End


So... the bedroom gets a roof, the tower still looks incomplete, and there's a bunch of creatures around that I don't understand. The tower gets a big door, but the bedroom has just a little swinging panel? You can't really see it in this photo, but there's some water in the back corner. But it's not connected to the water up front! The TNT dropper and the block launcher both work great though, so the playability is nice.

Big fail Lego - Steve has a sword AND a cookie, but you can only hold one thing at a time in the game. There's probably mods that change that, but you can't do this in the official game. And if this is daytime, then the skeleton with no armor would be dead or on fire from the sunlight. Having the redstone torch up with the TNT dispenser is right though, since you need a redstone circuit to make the dispenser work.

The Leftovers


Here's the leftover parts, all from bags 1 and 3. Bag 2 had no little parts, so no extras. Nothing surprising either, but these little 1 stud parts are always nice to have more of.

The Playset


The bases have hinges between sections, so it can open up like this. There's also a seam with a hinge under the bedroom, but the roof holds it together. If you remove the brown roof then that building can split open.

We like the set opening, since it's easier to reach places and play.

The Boat


No idea why in the desert there's a guy in a tiny boat holding a cookie.

Because that's all part of Minecraft, dad. Duh. Why does it have to make sense?

The Alternate Build



Remember how the box talked about "building your own creations" with "inspiration included?" Instead of the alternate models that we see in Creator or Technic lines, this set includes a modified version. First, you remove walls and other parts to get down to this. Then you rebuild with those pieces (and it does use just about all of them) into...

The Alternate Outpost


A much taller tower. But now the TNT doesn't fall onto the launcher, and the bedroom building is looking very incomplete. Neither is a big issue - just turn the top of the tower and use some other Legos to finish the building - but it just feels like a weak effort here to me. On the other hand, it's pretty much what my boys would have done anyway!

The tower is awesome! The TNT flies further from higher up, and it's like a lookout tower to see if bad guys are coming.

See, I was right... My wife thinks the regular model looks better though, and I agree.

The Conclusion
So, what's my conclusion on this model? It's definitely aimed at a specific fanbase, as opposed to things like City. And even Chima or Super Heroes have their source material, but this just seems more specific to me. Those other licenced themes are easier to play with without knowing the source. The price is ok, since you do get several figs and larger parts instead of tons of 1x1 bricks like many sets do.

We think it's great, maybe even better than the other Minecraft sets we have. The TNT dispenser and boat are great, plus the wolf... and you get Alex!

The Ratings

Value: 7/10 - Close to 10 cents a piece, and you get 5 figs and a good size tan baseplate plus other largish plates.

DESIGN 8/10 - Looks very Minecrafty, but a little plain.

Minifigs: 10/10 - Good assortment, new Alex and wolf, and the boys liked that her hair was printed down onto her torse.

Playability: 8/10 - Pretty good on its own, and easy to blend with other Minecraft sets or expand with other Legos.

Parts: 6/10 - Appreciate the flexibility of these pieces for Minecraft use, but it'd be much more limited if you wanted to use them for other purposes. The unique parts are very specific to Minecraft.

Overall: 6/10 or 10/10 - My score is low. I'm not the target market for this, since I've never played Minecraft. My boys on the other hand give it a 10 and are SO glad to have this set.