Minecraft Advent Calendar - Day 1

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Happy December, dear Brickset readers! This year marks my first time covering a set for our Advent Countdown... if you don't count 2016's 40222 and 2017's 40253, the Christmas Build-Ups, which were not traditional LEGO Advent Calendars. Those were certainly interesting!

This time, I get to cover the first LEGO Minecraft Advent Calendar, 21280. Let's hope it's only the start of a long tradition, as the game offers so much potential for small seasonal builds (or just generic, but useful ones).

I'm so excited for the twenty-four days ahead, so without further ado, let's begin...


First off, I guess we should take a quick look at the packaging. It's about what you'd expect from the Minecraft theme, but with a bow and some holly on the border. The festive scenes on the front and back show just some of the contents we can expect this month!

The mat display and doors behind the opening flap look nice, with a cute wintry background.


We start off with a minifigure, which is always welcome! Alex is here, wearing a wonderful Creeper sweater. There's also a red and yellow gift, along with some seeds and a stick. Those will come in handy for planting crops and crafting.

The Alex minifigure has the usual head and leg pieces, but the bright green printed torso is exclusive to this set. I love the pattern of the Creeper face, although the hair printing makes the torso less versatile than I would like.

The aforementioned accessories aren't special, but they are good to have.

I am going to use a 1-5 range for scores here, because why not...

Overall - 4.0 - Despite some minor issues, this is a great start to the calendar.

18 comments on this article

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By in United States,

Great Halloween sweater, but a little late.

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By in Netherlands,

Man, Black Widow's seen better days.

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By in United Kingdom,

moments like this, I really wish 33291 was still in production

a lot more square if you ask me

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By in United States,

Definitely the most substantial so far! Great start to what could be the best Advent Calendar of the year.

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By in United States,

Sweet wheat seeds! …and a stick. ….not sure what the block is. …Minecraft is all about the lil accys. They do all have a meaning.

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By in United States,

@StyleCounselor said:
"Great Halloween sweater, but a little late."

Or a little early, since the pumpkin was still green when they carved it.

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By in United Kingdom,

Didn’t realise that was hair printing, looks like someone threw an egg at the creeper face…

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By in Puerto Rico,

I must have been so out of the loop, there is a Mincraft Calendar and the first day is cool?

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By in United Kingdom,

The “1-5”, always an underrating ranking system for LEGO advent calendars.

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By in United States,

I didn't even notice the Creeper design! Also, I'm not sore why they included two seed tiles (and the spare).

@quincy said:"Sweet wheat seeds! …and a stick. ….not sure what the block is. …Minecraft is all about the lil accys. They do all have a meaning."

The block is a present. I sort of wish they'd used a https://brickset.com/parts/design-2821 with a double-jumper on top, even if that wouldn't have allowed for the stripes, you'd still have something to put the seeds in. Better yet, use that new chest piece, as seen in 21583, although that might not have been available when this calendar was being designed.

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By in United States,

Lots of accessories along with the minifig. I'm impressed.

Is there not a Marvel AC this year?

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By in United Kingdom,

What a waste of an otherwise decent torso.

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By in United States,

@LuvsLEGO_Cool_J said:
"Is there not a Marvel AC this year? "

No. Blessed be!

Seriously, the last couple looked like they were designed on the walk to the parking lot on the Friday before a long vacation as some unpaid intern ran after, shouting that they weren’t allowed to leave until they turned in a final design.

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By in Denmark,

@TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't even notice the Creeper design! Also, I'm not sore why they included two seed tiles (and the spare).

@quincy said:"Sweet wheat seeds! …and a stick. ….not sure what the block is. …Minecraft is all about the lil accys. They do all have a meaning."

The block is a present. I sort of wish they'd used a https://brickset.com/parts/design-2821 with a double-jumper on top, even if that wouldn't have allowed for the stripes, you'd still have something to put the seeds in. Better yet, use that new chest piece, as seen in 21583, although that might not have been available when this calendar was being designed."


Chest was indeed not yet available for us to use

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By in Netherlands,

This day's window is planting the seeds for a good calender

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By in United States,

A solid start to the new advent calendar. As a long-time Minecraft fan and player, I'm just excited.

Considering that chests turn into gift boxes around Christmas, I like the scale of the gift here. It's not perfect but really really close. And yes, creeper sweater Alex is just so fun. Makes perfect sense as another skin option for the game.

Santa Warden when

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By in Poland,

Maybe they could use the new chest piece next year to make a seasonal chest (Like in the game)?

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By in United States,

Yay, Craftmine finally has an advent calendar, and a good one too. Shame it costs so much.

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