Review: 21125 The Jungle Tree House
Posted by Huw,
By all accounts Minecraft sets have been hugely successful for LEGO, and no doubt for Mojang/Microsoft too. According to a recent press release, "Star Wars, City, Friends, Super Heroes and Minecraft ranked among the top five properties of the year in the U.S. market."
This year, six sets are being produced, one of which is rumoured to be a large direct-to-consumer set. The other five will be available in March, and LEGO has kindly sent us four of them to review.
Today I'm taking a look at 21125 The Jungle Tree House. Later in the week CapnRex101 will cast his eye over 21123 The Iron Golem and 21124 The End Portal, and a guest Minecraft expert reviewer will take a look at 21126 The Wither next week.
Minifigs and creatures
The set provides two minifigures: Alex and Steve. Both feature the the same head and torso as last year's incarnations but Alex has silver legs. I believe this is the first time non-printed minifig legs have been produced in this colour. Steve has a silver helmet and an axe which is new in silver.
A Creeper and skeleton are provided, which are identical to last year's.
The sheep appeared in one of the original Minecraft sets in 2014, The Farm, but the ocelot is new. It introduces a new head piece. I'm told that ocelots are tamable mobs that can be turned into cats, which are useful for keeping creepers away.
Construction
Parts are divided into four bags. Bag one contains the minifigures and the parts to build a variety of small details, such as obsidian blocks and what I'm told are cocoa pods (the orange cubes).
When parts from bag two have been used up, the model is starting to take shape. It's an irregular area which has Minecraft's characteristic 'unfinished edges' to encourage kids to modify and extend it.
Parts in bag three build the foundations of the tree house.
There are a couple of kinetic features that are worth pointing out at this stage. A pivoted section in the base allows the bottom of the steps to the tree house to be toppled.
A mechanism can be pushed along a pair of hidden Technic rods to operate a trap door just in front of what becomes the tree house's bedroom.
The completed model
Parts in bag four complete the construction of the bedroom and surrounding trees.
Apparently it's a cocoa pod...
The third kinetic feature of the set is demonstrated by Alex below. The waterfall can be used as a lift and once the platform is in its top position, it can be held there by a pivoted Technic piece. Quite how a waterfall comes to cascade out of a tree is anyone's guess, though...
It doesn't look too bad from the back.
In common with other Minecraft sets, as well as instructions for the main model, additional building inspiration is provided in the manuals. In this case most of the parts added from bag 4 are removed, plus a few others, which are then reconstructed into what you see below. No, I'm not sure what it is either, but the wall with the LEGO Minecraft logo/Creeper head in trans green looks pretty cool...
Verdict
Looking at it from an AFOL's perspective rather than that of a Minecraft fan, it's not really a display set but to me, it's one of the more appealing Minecraft sets by virtue of its colour scheme. There are no less than 120 2xn bricks, around 120 dark orange parts, seven 8x8 and 8x16 plates and a plethora of other useful parts in earthy colours. It's therefore a great parts pack.
The Minecraft fan is likely to find much to like in the set too, given it contains both Alex and Steve, a super-cute ocelot and two of the main antagonists. There are few play features -- trap doors, lifts and wobbly bits -- that will provide interest for a while, but I suspect the most fun will be had by modifying it or tearing it apart and building a new terrain for the minifig characters to explore.
I like Minecraft sets. They are the epitome of the basic ethos of the LEGO system packaged to appeal to a demographic that may have been weaned on video games. This is another fine example.
I know it's obvious but I'm obliged to tell you that this review is an expression of my views and opinions.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set to review and Minecraft expert JudgeChuck for help with it.
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29 comments on this article
Thanks, Huw! Great review and perspective; as a parent of 3 Minecraft-obsessed kids, these sets give me a chance to join them in the world of Minecraft, while also enjoying LEGO builds that are more reminiscent of how I played with them as a kid (i.e., basic bricks, etc.). Excited to see the ocelot and am looking forward to more MC reviews! Thanks!
"Quite how a waterfall comes to cascade out of a tree is anyone's guess, though..."
Because someone emptied a bucket of water up there, d'oh!
Thanks for the review. I will probably be picking this one up when march comes around. By the way, the green design on the wall for the rebuild is supposed to resemble a creeper.
I think I'm too old...
So - Stan, how do you tame a horse in Minecraft?
great review, good set. but does somone know how many pices this set have. it looks like much.
Really like all the nougat parts. Might be the first Minecraft set I get if a deal arises.
Heaven's Huw, I wouldn't go as far as calling myself an expert! You should see what some of the real experts are able to do with the game, it's incredible.
Anyway, with all the close-ups, this looks even nicer than the previous views that we have had before, so I'm now really looking forward to getting it.
The ocelot is a draw, of course, as are the new plant pieces, iron axe and leggings.
Nice review, thanks! :-)
Still not a fan of Minecraft sets (I love the game, but the thought of stacking 2x2 bricks seems uninspired). Still Huw, your photos show a better side of the set than the official pictures do, and if I were a parent I probably would buy these for my kids.
Heck, I guess for as much as I deride the sets, I still want to Bricklink myself an army of Creepers to wreck havoc on my modular buildings. :)
I need this because Babou needs to be in my lego collection.
how much is it?
This is probably the only 2016 MC set that is interesting me so far, but it looks pretty darn good. Do we have a piece count and/or price point for this one yet?
Both Smyth's Toys and Amazon.co.uk have it for £74.99.
All 2016 Minecraft set prices released so far seem to be:
21123 The Iron Golem £19.99
21124 The End Portal £49.99
21125 The Jungle Tree House £79.99
21126 The Wither £29.99
Wow! They are pricey! On that basis, I'm not sure I'd pay that for it or give it a good value for money score.
I haven't seen figures put on the number of parts yet, so it's difficult to gauge value, compared to the earlier sets, or indeed other LEGO sets.
The first wave were all below 10ppp, while the second wave were between 9 and 12ppp, so I'm hoping that they are trending towards the prices for the first wave, of course.
Huw,
You mention that there are a lot of dark orange parts.
I'd like them to be dark orange, but they look more like MDF in the photos.
I believe the parts you are referring to are in Medium Nougat / Medium Dark Flesh, depending on your colour nomenclature.
@Huw In the US they're notably cheaper at $19.99, $59.99, $69.99 and $39.99 respectively. Aside from the enormously overpriced Wither they're actually really good in terms of value, both in parts, size and playability from what I know. This set in particular seems to offer a lot more than the previous two sets at that price point.
Also, mistake here, The Fortress is coming out in September for whatever reason. Seems like an awkward place given it's after most other retail releases and presumably The Village.
I can't believe that 21125 The Jungle Tree House would sell for £74.99 (apologies, I typed the price incorrectly above) in the UK and $69.99 in the US. Do you have a source for these prices?
^with the way pricing is going these days who knows, it could very well be true. Hopefully for your sake it won't be that bad.
Whoa. This is the only 2016 Minecraft set I like, and I'm not remotely disappointed... it looks really good, has some fun features, and a load of nice parts. I still don't like the minifigs though...
^The pricing doesn't work. Either the UK price is too high, which is possible, or the US price is too low:
21123 The Iron Golem £19.99 / $19.99
21124 The End Portal £49.99 / $59.99
21125 The Jungle Tree House £79.99 / $64.99
21126 The Wither £29.99 / $39.99
I can understand the rest of the prices, even for The Iron Golem, just, but for the largest set to be almost half the price (£45 equivalent)? No, I can't see that.
Well, we'll know soon enough.
According to the Brick Show's video from the NY Toy Fair, the prices as per LEGO's signs are:
- 21123 Iron Golem, $19.99 (208 pieces); 10 cents PPP
- 21124 End Portal, $59.99 (559 pieces); 11 cents PPP
- 21125 Jungle Tree House $69.99 (706 pieces); 10 cents PPP
- 21126 The Wither, $39.99 (318 pieces); 13 cents PPP
While it may be expensive (and the set not to my tastes) I did learn a new word "obsidian" and what it means today, who said Minecraft Lego isn't educational ;)
What does Direct to Consumer mean? Aren't they all directly to the consumer?
Honestly I think it would have been nice to have a wolf as well since they included the skeleton so that the tamed mobs could chase the hostile ones. Then kids could make a scene of the wolf and ocelot fending off the mobs while Steve and Alex are away.
^^ It means LEGO will sell it directly to consumers itself, and not via Walmart, TRU or anywhere else.
i.e. a 'hard to find' set at shop.LEGO.com.
This is basically a smaller, blocky version of the Ewok village......maybe good for a Star Wars/minecraft war scene perhaps, ewoks vs creepers to the death!!!!!! :D
@Dalek135 But the players in this set appear to be just starting out judging by the items they have and rather small shelter. I'm not sure if it would make much sense for a wolf to be there anyways.
$80 CAD for the Jungle Tree House, you say? If my local Walmart has it tommorow, I'm picking it up or some bigger Skybound Sets.