The first LEGO Minecraft sets were micro-scale cubes comprised of hundreds of tiny tiles that were a pain to piece together. The new minifig-scale sets come together much faster. Want to see?
Some people think LEGO Minecraft misses the point of both LEGO and Minecraft, and in the case of the odd LEGO Minecraft Crafting Box I agree. But the new staged sets, like the First Night set I'm putting together here, isn't about exercising creativity. It's about capturing memories in LEGO form — in this case, those early moments when you've just started the game and have to get a shelter built before night falls and everything goes to hell.
Now in my case the First Night set may have well simply been a hole in the side of a mountain with two blocks of dirt instead of a door, but then we wouldn't wind up with so many splendid clear window blocks, perfect for re-purposing at a later date.
Putting together my first micro-scale LEGO Minecraft set took three hours of painstakingly tiny clicking. The First Night here went together in an hour, which I've condensed down to a couple of minutes via the magic of time-lapse video.
It was quite a fun build, and what I wound up with captures the spirit of those early days in Minecraft quite nicely.
It's a nice little shack. The terrain pieces on top both come off to form independent platforms for play purposes, and the whole thing splits open to reveal a lot of little details.
In fact this set has quite a lot of play potential, especially for a box that only costs $34.99. I've been disappointed by older LEGO sets for a lot more money. Plus, none of them had a pig.
The biggest problem I have with the LEGO Minecraft The First Night set is that it combines with the other new LEGO Minecraft sets. Now that I've purchased one, I've pretty much committed myself to getting the rest. "That's not a real problem, Fahey." Yes it is. Believe me.
Video music: "Sunflower Dance Party" by Kevin MacLeod