Review: 21120 The Snow Hideout
Posted by Huw,
21120 The Snow Hideout is one of four Minecraft sets to be released on the 1st of August, and is the second and last one we will be reviewing here.
As its name suggests the set recreates a small abode in a snow biome, so introduces some variety to the theme.
Minifigures
We are provided with three minifigs: Steve, a creeper and a snowball shooting snow golem.
Steve and the creeper are identical to those that appeared in last year's sets, which will either be great if you don't already have them, or disappointing if you do. Steve is equipped with a pick axe and shovel.
The snow golem, however, is brand new. It's a brick-built structure with a pumpkin head which, as far as I can tell from the Minecraft wiki, appears to be accurate. The arms are formed from 1x1 plate shooters. The 1x2 brick and 1x1 tile with buttons are printed.
The completed model
The model itself, like all Minecraft sets, is quick and easy to build by virtue of the fact the bulk of it is made from 2x2 or larger bricks.
The watery section and many of the small details are built first from bags numbered 1, including the crafting box, furnace, tree, glowstone lamps, coal ore and water blocks.
The dwelling is built from parts in bags numbered 2 onto a 16x16 white plate.
There are quite a few transparent parts; of particular note are the 2x2 transparent light blue bricks which I haven't seen before and look fantastic.
In common with other Minecraft sets the edges have been left 'unfinished' (bricks sticking out from the sides) to encourage expansion.
The dwelling is hinged and the roof lifts off to enable access to the inside
It's very sparse inside, housing just a crafting box and a furnace.
Outside there's a small mechanism under the four white 2x2 with 1 stud tiles
Press down on the 4x4 with 4 studs tile in front of them and they are displaced. Presumably this is to mimic the ice breaking and is best activated when the creeper is standing on them.
Verdict
So, that's about it. I'm sorry the review is a bit brief, there's not really a lot more than can be said about it, although I'm sure a subject matter expert would have more to add :)
If you're a Minecraft fan yet to buy a LEGO set this would make a good one to pick up given it contains the main characters, a dwelling and other key aspects of the game like the crafting box.
If you're a fan and own all of last year's sets you will no doubt love it given it introduces a new biome, and it will make a great addition to your collection, although the reuse of last year's minifigures will be disappointing particularly given that the other sets just out contain new ones.
If you're not a fan, you'll probably find more compelling sets to spend your money on given that it's not a particularly attractive set in terms of parts, playability or displayability.
This concludes our reviews of the new Minecraft sets but if if you want more, head on over to DrDave's GimmeLEGO blog where he's just posted a review of 21121 The Desert Outpost written with the help of his Minecraft-mad son.
Thanks to the LEGO CEE team for providing the set for review.
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18 comments on this article
I just don't get it but I'm sure Minecraft fans are loving these. Some nice parts in this set that I could find uses for, unlike the Nether Fortress set. That's as positive as I can be about these!
Nice review, the 'furnace' is probably a piece of Netherrack as it burns infinitely when you light the top. My only complaint would be the Snow Golem's arms are a bit thick and chunky, although I do appreciate that they tried to add the snowball-throwing feature that occurs in the game to add playability.
These sets are beautiful.
It's not bad, and the snow golem and a few parts are awesome. But I don't really like this $35 igloo. :/
Those are torches, not glowstone lamps ;)
I'm not interested in/ knowledgeable about Minecraft at all so I will not comment on the set itself. On Huw's photos, I did notice however that the printed buttons on the snow golem are a bit spotty. The same can be seen on the wolf's printed eyes in the set that Huw refers to in the last paragraph.
I know the pictures are big but still...
In my opinion the Minecraft theme isn't that good
^^ Yes they are a bit spotty, and in fact they are worse on the spare 1x1 tile.
I wish people who don't play Minecraft didn't always complain that these aren't any good. These are designed for the people who play Minecraft and have nothing in them, on purpose, for people who don't. Lego does not make their sets for everyone. Complaining that there's nothing good in the Minecraft sets when you don't play Minecraft is like an AFOL complaining that there's nothing good in a Juniors set. It is completely designed with the exact opposite person of the complainer in mind.
I agree with LordofLego.
I am a new returnee to LEGO, after many years, now that I have my own children.
I also dabble a bit with Minecraft, for a bit of fun and so, when these sets came out, I bought one to see what it was like, both for me and my children to enjoy and, personally, I think that they have recreated the feel of Minecraft in physical form extremely well. The bricks are relatively basic and so won't appeal to AFOLs who are into realism, MOCs etc, but the scope for creating unique Minecraft-inspired vistas with these sets is fabulous.
I will certainly be picking up all four new sets, as they will all add to our current setup immensely.
As LoL says, if you don't like them, perhaps they're not aimed at you! :-)
As for the review, it's a shame that you do mainly only get figures that have been seen before, but the Snow Golem is a welcome addition. I certainly have plenty of Steves! The problem is that LEGO are sort of "damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don't". Which sets should have a Steve and which shouldn't? Not including Steve means that they are possibly forcing people to buy a set that they don't want to get one. Either that or pay the ridiculous prices that people are charging on eBay for individual figures. Now, I know that LEGO's own Bricks and Pieces service is another option, but it would still be expensive to just order one Steve from there.
All IMVHO, of course! :-)
Thanks for the review--it's nice to get some additional pictures. I'm not a Minecraft player and have none of the sets so far, but I've had my eye on this one. Even though it is mostly basic bricks, the colors are great, especially the transparent blues and greens, and I've been thinking about doing a Hoth MOC, so all of that white is appealing.
Also, as the review notes, the minifig selection is cool if one hasn't picked up Steve or a creeper yet, and the snow-golem is great. Combined with a fairly decent price ratio...I may pick this one up.
Now this is what a Minecraft set should look like. I've built snow forts in game and this covers all the essentials. Well done Lego!
The review may have been a bit brief, but it was a lot easier to read/understand and contained more information than the Eurobricks review.
Looks like a nice set. Will certainly pick it up if I can, if only for the transparent bricks and the Reddish-Brown stud shooters. No problem about the review being brief, there isn't much I could say about this either. It could have been a bit bigger like The Nether, but that might have put off the price / LEGO's budget.
All in all, a nice set and certainly one I'll try to hunt down.
What's the RRP?
@David_Tennant_Lord They throw snowballs in the game, I think that's what they were going for but it honestly reminds me more of a guy in an action movie dual wielding huge machine guns in his hands!
So glad all the Nether Fortress comments saying "IT'S TOO UNDETAILED I DON'T LIKE, THIS THEME STINKS, THE COLOR OF THE SET IS ALL WRONG, IT'S JUST BASIC BLOCKS" did not carry over to this one. Actually putting this next to the Elsa's Ice Castle could be a pretty fun thing to do.
I don't play and don't care about the Minecraft, but when i see these sets, i just see a good donor for the blocks. The pieces are very good. It's like buing a Classic box of pieces. But instead of getting 20 pieses of 20 colors each, you can get a nice ammount of a single color pieces which is awesome. I have not yet analyzed the prices tho.
But on the other hand, if i want a tons of white blocks, i would have to buy 10 buckets of Classics (ending up with colors i dont really wanted), or a couple of minecraft sets with a targeted color i need.
P.S. Bricklink goes out of scope for getting pieces. When you add the postage fees for the orders, they get much more expensive than these sets.
I play Minecraft, but these sets are a mixed draw for me. They just look like a bunch of Lego brigs thrown together, if I had the bricks I honestly could have MOCed this when I was 10... I like the creeper fig though, some nice new parts (for me at least since I was living out of the country and just barely came back and discovered this theme.)