Set Review ➟ 21118 The Mine
Set: 21118 The Mine
Ages: 8+
Pieces: 922
This is the biggest box of the new wave of Minecraft® related sets. Minecraft is a very well known game about breaking and placing blocks in an imaginary world. This new wave of sets are made to a minifig scale, a far better option than the micro scale sets of past years, in my opinion. I was new to Minecraft, but I played some worlds before building this set, and I must say that the LEGO® designers made an outstanding work. There are many similarities between LEGO constructions and Minecraft world, it is like a world full of 1x1x1 bricks, that can be combined in infinite ways.
Let’s talk about the set. It depicts an abandoned mine, like the ones that can be found in the most deep caves of the Minecraft worlds. It is a big box, with a great amount of pieces, in order to build several levels of a small Minecraft scene.
There are several levels. The top one is fitted with 2 trees and some grass blocks, like the surface of Minecraft. Under this, there is another level with elements of the mine, with some interesting resource blocks. The bottom level contains rail tracks with a mine car.
Minifigs
We have 5 minifigs: Steve, one skeleton, one zombie, one creeper and a spider. They come with some weapons and tools, like the iron sword, iron pickaxe and a bow. Steve wears the iron helmet and iron armour. They are awesome, and very close to the game characters.
The building process is very interesting, as you feel how the blocks could be used in many variations of the original sets. The abandoned mine pillars are recreated with a very interesting technique, and the waterfall is a perfect decorative element for this set. The set itself have some very interesting features. For example, the mine car can be moved swiftly in its rail tracks.
The system is very simple, but it works very well. There is also a feature to imitate an explosion of the TNT blocks that works very well.
The Mine is made up by many modular elements, that can be combined in smaller scenes or different positions with only small changes, so there are a lot of possibilities for this set. Of course, you can combine this set with others to enlarge your world. It is a fantastic idea, and it is very funny to try to recreate some of your Minecraft structures with the LEGO bricks.
There is an interesting element that amaze me: the blocks. They are recreated with 2x2 studs by 4 or 5 plates high elements. This set comes with have some grass and gravel blocks. But there are some resource blocks also, like diamond, coal and redstone blocks.
If you are not fan of Minecraft, this set can be a great opportunity to get a very interesting assortment of parts, with many bricks, plates and tiles that can be used in countless constructions. In short, I think this set is great, regardless of if you are fan of Minecraft or not.
I hope LEGO will add some small sets to increase the blocks we can use in our customized Minecraft worlds built with LEGO bricks.
2094
