My son and I are fans of Minecraft. We play the game together regularly and we both enjoy the sets that LEGO® has been producing. When I saw that they were releasing buildable characters in an action figure size, I knew that I had to get my hands on some.
On a recent trip to the LEGO store, we each chose one of the BigFIgs (the LEGO group’s name for the line). My son wanted 21149 Minecraft Alex BigFig with Chicken, mostly for the chicken and the diamond sword. I chose the skeleton.
Right from the box, I can see that the designers have captured the essence of Minecraft’s skeleton. He’s just a bundle of bones with a bow. Even the face is just right. I’m not sure what’s up with the magma cube sidekick, but I’m willing to roll with it.
Not a lot in the box, a couple of bags of elements and the annoyingly folded instruction booklet. It would be nice if they could sync up the sizes so that they didn’t have to fold it in half to fit it in the box.
A few fun and interesting elements in the set. They’ve created some new elements to represent weapons and tools for this line. That big, pixellated arc is for the bow. It’s a plate thick with open studs on the back side too! Those new snot brackets are going to be super useful and they seem to have been developed to solve the problem of making these BigFigs stand on their own. I’m dubbing them ‘foot brackets.’
The build here is a lot of fun. A mix of click-hinges and mixel joints give the skeleton just the right amount of articulation. The bow is a simple, effective build that should be transferrable to the other BigFigs. My son and I really like the helmet, which is removable and will also work for the other figs. I’m looking forward to the design of an armor that can fit over their standard torso.
The magma cube is a great little build. It shares some design with the magma cube in 21130 Nether Railway, but uses simpler techniques and incorporates a foot bracket into the underside.
This was a great set. I’m continually struck by the skeleton’s charm and I’m looking forward to finding somewhere around the house to display him.
The price per piece just barely dips above 10¢, with 142 elements (only three extra) in a $15 set. Certainly no deal breaker for me and I can certainly see buying the set just as a parts pack with all the tiles and brackets and joints included.
Keep building and enjoy!
