This year marks the 15th anniversary of Mojang’s Minecraft. The game was first playable in 2009 before a wider rollout in 2011. The survival crafting game and the LEGO Group have an eventful history. The game was created out of a love of playing with LEGO® bricks. At one point there were talks held to marry the two brands and craft a digital LEGO landscape with biomes inspired by classic LEGO themes. Although that didn’t pan out, it didn’t stop the two companies from working together. In 2012, Minecraft became the source of inspiration for the first licensed LEGO Ideas set with the Minecraft Micro World. This new partnership proved successful and the LEGO Minecraft theme began soon after and has seen a steady release of sets ever since. To celebrate Minecraft’s milestone, the first 18+ LEGO Minecraft set has been released which is inspired by those first micro worlds sets. Here’s a closer look at The Crafting Table.
Product Details
Set Name: The Crafting Table | Set Number: 21265 | Pieces: 2090 | Theme: Minecraft
Number of Bags: Bags x 10 (plastic) + Loose elements | Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Stickers: Sheet x 1 | Characters: Steve, Alex, Creeper, skeleton, witch, villager, cow & pig
RRP: £79.99/$89.99/89.99€/129.99AUD/119.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online and LEGO Retailers
As mentioned above before the LEGO Minecraft theme introduced minifigure-scale sets, the first sets inspired by the game were microscale dioramas of different Minecraft biomes. A single 1×1 plate represented a single block of Minecraft’s world. This scale worked perfectly for replicating the unique landscape and characters from Minecraft. The same scale has been revisited for this special set. But instead of focusing on a single world, The Crafting Table brings together several classic Minecraft lands and displays them within the bows of a Crafting Table.
The basis of the set is a cube, but lacks two of its sides allowing the interior to act as a canvas for various Minecraft environments. These five sections can be removed and represent 12 biomes. These include the Deep Dark, Lush Cave, Swamp, Plains, Forest, Cherry Grove, Desert, Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Dripstone Cave, Ice Spikes and River.
Some of the environment spills over to the edges of the surrounding shell, which also features a basic sky-like background. The exterior of the Crafting Table replicates the basic design of the equipment found in the game. As you build this up, you’ll notice a few odd element placements but they are there to add a trio of pixelated tools to the walls of the build.
The outer part of the Crafting Table is also used to display two platforms. These not only display a group of brick-built characters but they are also used to show various ‘loading’ messages. There are six 6×2 plates which carry the Minecraft logo and in-game messages. Unfortunately, these are achieved with stickers. These sections can be connected to any side of the cube, offering different display options.
Doubling back to the brick-built characters, there are 8 different in-game characters. These recreate Steve and Alex, along with other NPCs such as a Creeper, Skeleton and a pig. Thankfully, the details on these are printed. Having to place stickers on such a small area would be a nightmare.
To make the set look a little more like a Crafting Table, it’s finished off with a separate ‘lid’ that sits on top of the Crafting Table frame. This connects via a couple of jumper plates, which allows it to be easily removed to access the interior scene.
It’s an interesting way to mark the 15th anniversary. You’d expect some vast playset but I think this is a more fitting tribute to the popular game. The LEGO Group forms a big part of the game’s overall history, from the early days of possibly owning Mojang to working with the Minecraft makers to create playsets, buildable characters, magazines and those early Ideas sets, which kicked the partnership off. It’s also a great set to sit alongside other gaming-related builds. To learn more about the history of LEGO Minecraft, I highly recommend listening to the LEGO Games Bits N’ Bricks podcast.
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