CopMike

Review: 21102 Minecraft Micro World

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Set Information

Name: Minecraft Micro World

Number: 21102

Theme: CUUSOO

Release: 2012

Parts: 480

Figures: 0 (but 2 brick built characters)

Price: GB £34.99 | US $34.99 | EUR €34.99 | SEK 399 | DKK 299.95 | NOR 349.50 | CAD 39.99 | AUD $49.99 |

Description from LEGO Shop@Home:

Create, explore and play in a Minecraft microbuild!

Build a mini model of the game that’s sweeping the Internet with a LEGO® microbuild version of Minecraft! Selected by LEGO CUUSOO members, this build features a cool design with lots of 1x1 LEGO tiles and 2 buildable Micromob characters: Steve and Creeper.

• Includes 2 buildable Micromob characters: Player and Creeper

• Build a Minecraft microworld with 1 stud tiles in a variety of colors for a realistic pixilated design!

• Build the model that LEGO® CUUSOO members requested!

Background information about Minecraft

From Wikipedia:

Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang.

Minecraft is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Gameplay in its commercial release has two principal modes: Survival, which requires players to acquire resources themselves and maintain their health and hunger; and Creative, where the player has an unlimited supply of resources, the ability to fly, and no concept of health or hunger. A third gameplay mode, named Hardcore, is essentially the same as Survival, but the difficulty is locked on the hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing the player to delete his or her world upon death.

Now let´s go to the set review :classic::

The Box

The box has a more squared shape than we´re used to see. It measures around 12 x 12 x 14 centimeters and weigh about 310 grams.

Here are some pictures from the different angles:

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Front

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Left side

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Back side

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Right side

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Top side

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Bottom side

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Close-up of the bottom

The Parts

There are six polybags containing all the parts, they practically fill the whole box. So for once we don´t need to complain on the size of the box not matching the contents :thumbup:. The polybags are not numbered like we´re used to nowadays but that´s not a problem when building the set, the parts can all easily be found when put on the table (at least I thought so :wink:). Here are the contents of the different polybags:

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Larger plates & bricks and the new brick separator.

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Mostly bricks and medium sized plates & tiles. In this bag is the 1x1 green Creeper brick.

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1x1 tiles and smaller plates, and especially the 1x1 tan plates with the Steve eyes & mouth print on its sides. Notice there are two of each!

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Close-up of the Steve plates.

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Lots of 2x2 corner bricks and 1x3 bricks. And a lonely 2x3 plate :laugh:!

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1x1 plates and tiles. A total of 63 1x1 green tiles which up 'til now either only has been in hard to get special sets or in the LEGO games (and then only one in each set!).

I personally give that a big :thumbup:!

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And last but not least more 1x1 plates & tiles and some other small bricks & plates & tiles.

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We need a close-up of the Steve tiles and the Creeper brick, don´t we :laugh:? And yes - the print on one of the plates isn´t that great but the other three were ok.

The Build

Ok, first things first. It´s not like any ordinare build which has lots of different parts in colors & sizes. It´s basicly a large amount of 1x1´s and then some. But you know what? I really enjoyed it :sweet:! Small and quickly built modules with basic SOT-technique (Studs ON Top :tongue:). Sometimes it´s good to go old school!

Here are the four different "modules" built in the order of the instructions, each one consisting of a 6x6 base in greyish colors and a top in brownish/greenish colors:

Module One:

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The base

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The top

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Finished

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Finished & stacked

Module Two:

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The base

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The top

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Finished

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Finished & stacked

Module Three:

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The Base

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The Base close-up. Notice the 1x2 plate with cheese slopes, it only connects to one stud. I guess this "technique" wouldn´t be allowed in a regular set.

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The Top

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Finished

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Finished & stacked

Module Four:

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The Base

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The Base close-up - same technique as above.

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The Top

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Finished

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Finished & stacked

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The Creeper and Steve

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The whole set finished and the modules put together as shown in the instructions

You can of course connect any module to any other module in any way you like, and you can also stack two or more base modules on top of each other before putting a top module down.

The Extra Parts

You get nine extra 1x1 plates, six 1x1 tiles, a cheese slope, two technic pins and of course the two Steve plates.

And then it starts to get a bit weird :wacko:! You also get seven extra light bluish grey 1x1 tiles - the build only uses two so that´s extra if you ask me!

And then ......... You get thirteen (yes 13!) extra dark bluish grey 1x1 tiles when the build uses zero-zip-zilch-nada at all!! That´s extra extra :laugh:! I´d love to see this more in other sets, like having two to three extra Jabba the Hutt in the upcoming Jabba´s Palace :thumbup:!

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The Instructions

There are two booklets each consisting of 24 pages. They measure about 20 x 12.5 cm in size and weigh around 30 grams. In the first one there are two pages with some Minecraft & CUUSOO information, otherwise it´s the ordinary look and layout.

You can download them here also from TLG:

Booklet 1

Booklet 2

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Front of booklet one

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First inside page

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Second inside page

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Front of booklet two

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Random page

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Another random page

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The inventory parts list page

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The whole Minecraft set displayed again :sweet:!

The Final Verdict

Design - 7/10 Simple and clean with no surprises.

Building experience - 8/10 As I wrote above I enjoyed the build. Because of the simpleness but still non-repetitive build that you sometimes find in larger sets, I give this rather high rating, bash me all you want!

Parts assortment - 6.5/10 Nothing really special, except of course for the Creeper brick and the Steve plates. But the 63 green 1x1 tiles gets my attention and adds the 0.5 rating.

Value - 6/10 If you look at it by strictly going on the PPP-rule (price per part) it gives you $0.073 ratio. Compare that with some other newer sets like the Sopwith Camel ($0.11), the LOTR Attack on Weathertop ($0.14) or maybe City Mining Truck ($0.13) it´s not bad at all. But as I mentioned above the parts assortment is to common and has nothing really new & useful for Moc´s, so that why the rating gets as low as a six.

Overall inpression- 6.875/10 I started this review by saying this set is basicly a lot of 1x1´s and then some. That makes this set not so exciting for the ordinary AFOL. But I understand that the Minecraft fans will buy at least on set each to build and have on the side of their computer when they play the game, I know I would. And I really like that this is a CUUSOO set! IMO it´s a good set to start off the more worldwide use of the CUUSOO concept. Now we´re ready for bigger and more fun-to-build sets!

So my final werdict words would be: A nice little niche set that regardless of the rather low PPP is overpriced for what you get in experience/parts BUT I think it will sell well because of the hardcore Minecraft community.

I hope you enjoyed the review! And a big thanks to the TLG CUUSOO Team and especially Tim C :wub:!

Edited by Rufus
Indexed!

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Nice review, thanks. UK gets the short end of the stick with pricing for some reason. $35/€35 isn't unusual, but £35? It'll actually be cheaper to imprt from Europe for once. Lower prices would have encouraged people to buy more than one, and build their own worlds like the game does. But the high price makes that difficult to justify.

You mention about the overhanging 1x2 plates - I think they'd be fine in a normal build. R2D2 has pieces just slid in, not connected at all.

Edited by mrklaw

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Nice review.

It's just about what I expected it to be. Which isn't a particularly good thing. :sceptic: Accurate, I suppose, and for what it is it can't get much better. Cool box, certainly. :laugh:

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Can anyone comment on weather this is a good value for 1x1 tiles and plates? I'm thinking it is because 1x1 tiles usually fetch for 10 cents a piece and 250+ of them is like $28 on average. 1x1's are not very common in sets so I think this would be a good way of getting some at a reasonable price. I'm a minecraft fan, so will probably end up buying this anyway, but if I were to get these parts of bricklink, I'm almost sure I'd pay about the same if not more. For me these parts would be useful.

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Indeed, it appears to me this set is worth getting purely as a parts pack (I haven't ever played Minecraft, so the model doesn't really mean much to me, though I do think it's neat-looking), for both the piece count and parts selection, as well as the printed elements unique to this set. I think I'll have to get it.

Nice review! (But doesn't it technically belong in the Licensed forum?)

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Those extra gray tiles, maybe they are supposed to be placed on the grey studs on the top ?

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No idea about the game but the review may have tilted me towards getting one.

If not for the green 1x1 tiles in the end.

Thanks!

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I will be buying this as a parts pack, and the box is really cute too. It is very uncommon to get a lot if 1x1 plates and tiles in a set and I do use them a lot. Once the Bricklink inventory comes up for this set, I think we will see the "part out" value if the set to be quite a decent value. Though at $29 I think they would be able to sell a lot more, that's just my opinion though.

Great Review by the way!! Very informative with perfect photos.

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Thanks a lot for the review. I already wanted the set but now I want it even more! :D

Anyhow, there is a little error here:

The Instructions

You can download them here also from TLG:

Booklet 1

Booklet 2

Both links are the same. The first one is correct, the second one should be:

Booklet 2

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I wish they had used this set as an opportunity to produce more lime green 1x1 plates, since those have only been in one set to date, but I do love that other rare-ish parts are in such abundance here. Great review CopMike!

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Anyhow, there is a little error here:

Both links are the same. The first one is correct, the second one should be:

Booklet 2

Thanks - fixed :sweet: !

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It will be interesting to see how the price compares to a parted-out price on Bricklink, once the full inventory is posted to BL. Might make a good parts pack, but hard to know right now given the small and relatively cheap parts. Maybe if it goes on sale, it will be a good deal.

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While it costs way too much for me to even consider buying it, I have to admit it has its charm. It doesn't really look like any established style of LEGO (official or MOC), so in that way I think it's a success since it broadens the idea of what you can do with LEGO. Shame about the price though, I think it would've been quite nice as a bookshelf piece.

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Thanks for that excellent and thorough review!

As I voted for this on Cuusoo pretty early on, getting this is a priority and a no-brainer for sure. (Frankly, I quit my last MC-gaming-session mere minutes ago ;-) )

But here's the bad news: Where in hell (or when in this universe) is that going to be on TLC's german shop site?! As of now, it's listed nowhere, unless my eyesight is getting really blurred and I overlooked it.

The micro Creeper and Steve? (Yes! That "?" is intentional!) are adorable and the overall structure gives away, what MC is all about. That whole model pretty much looks quite like my last single-player world I started... Good stuff!

If only the price was a (big) LITTLE lower... :-((

Be well you all!

Cutty

edit: I can not believe I really wrote "quitted" instead of "quit"... my english is seriously in danger of going down the drains for the worse... mega-shame on me!!!

Edited by Cutty

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The build looks really boring, and Im not a Minecraft fan, but its a good parts pack, and costs less than I expected, particularly when considering LEGO has to pay the makers of Minecraft, and, I think, the guy that posted the idea on Cuusoo. I'll probably get it for that reason.

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Those extra gray tiles, maybe they are supposed to be placed on the grey studs on the top ?

Actually, I checked that today with the CUUSOO team and it´s to be able to moc the set. They are not used in the build following the instructions but will come in handy when you put your own touch to the set :sweet: .

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Very nice! It's a nice little set, but I will not get this. Great for Minecraft fans though :classic:

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Excellent review, 'CopMike'! :classic:

I'm kinda split on buying this set... I'm not sure if I should pay $35 for a set of a game I don't play. :grin:

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I can't wait to get mine! I know many of you guys say it is not work the price, part selection is not stellar, etc. etc. I do not see that as the meaning of the set. As a Minecraft fan and a player, I really like this set as a collector's item and that it is a cool little desk top accessory. I want to buy this set and add more modules to it, make a small Minecraft world on top of my desk. :thumbup: Thanks for the review!

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Excellent review 'CopMike', interesting design, cute I say it is....but not the tiger's cup of tea sorry perhaps I'm not geek enough for it.

Handy parts pack I guess, though like I wrote....cute set. A vibe from it reminds me of it being more cartoon-ish than a video game.

Maybe I don't get the idea of it, but I won't be buying Minecraft. :blush:

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Nice review! I was and still am going to pass this set. It just hold nothing for me, except maybe the tiles.

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Great review, this pretty much covered everything I need to know.

LEGO seems to want every last penny of mine this year... Superheroes, LOTR, Palpatine's Arrest and Minecraft simultaneously? Not fair! :tongue:

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