LEGO Minecraft The Crafting Table Building Set for Adults - Gift for Christmas - Collectible Display Set for Minecraft & Video Game Fans - 21265

LEGO for me is Minecraft in the real world, this set was a delight to build, it's very accurate to in game details, and while it is challenging to get all the pieces straight, it's worth it in the end!

I'm one of these grown-ups who grew up with Lego and now have a room full of adult Legos. My daughter grew up with both Lego and Minecraft, so this was a must-buy for me. Even though this is marketed for adults, my daughter built this herself at age 9 (she let me build one or two bags to be nice, even though she didn't need to). It's a brilliant piece. While other Minecraft sets are more literal interpretations of the Minecraft world, this one is a little more abstract. What's brilliant about it is that even though the biomes are reductive, they're stylized in ways that you can immediately tell what they represent. The cherry grove biome with its pink trees, the ice spikes biome with its giant blocks of blue and white ice, the villages with their gable roofs, and even the adorable little representations of characters like Steve, Alex, and mobs, all reduced to three 1x1 thin square blocks. Each of the biomes is its own standalone piece, but they all come together to form the diorama. It's one of the most brilliant designs I've seen, and it all fits within a 5.5" x 5.5" x 5.5" cube. We buy a lot of licensed products, but Lego is one of the few that you can tell really share passion for the brand, perhaps thanks to their shared creative DNA. This set is full of little details and surprises, such as the slanted "quotes" you see on the splash screen of the game and the "proper" shade of green for oak, spruce, and birch trees. One of the most clever builds are the caves...you build part of a lush cave, a dripstone cavern, and an abandoned mineshaft, but they're all hidden in the corner so that only the builder knows they're there. This definitely falls under one of my top 10 builds, and bear in mind that I've build hundreds of sets over the years. Highly recommended.