REVIEW: 21117 Ender Dragon

[VBBN]

Set name: Ender Dragon

Set number: 21117

Pieces: 634

Price: $69.99, €69.95

Release date: November 2014

Minecraft and Lego are practically made to be combined. The micro world sets were a neat, albeit expensive, way to introduce fans to the idea of Lego Minecraft, but now the theme has expanded into the minifigure realm. And really, it's the minifigures that are the star of this line to me. Steve, the enemy mobs, the farm animals, they all look quite awesome to me. The sets may leave something to be desired in many fans eyes. They are more basic looking, due to the overall look of minecraft itself.

Today we will be having a look at a set that contains the largest character of the wave, the Ender Dragon. The way I see it is, the Ender Dragon is the big bad of this wave. Next we will likely see a Ghast in a Nether set as the big bad, and likely a Wither after that.

Packaging and Contents

Box Front

The front of the packaging displays the set in action, with a nice Minecraft themes banner strung along the top. I find it strange that the "trophy egg/exit portal" part of the set isn't included in the photo, but instead is pictured on a separate inset. I must say, this set wasn't exactly sent to me in the best packaging- bubble wrap and packing wrap don't do a whole lot when the set is thrown around, and you can see where the box has been heavily damaged. (Good thing I'm not a box collector..) Also take note that this is the European packaging, so there is less set info on the front of the box.

Box Back

The back gets a bit more interesting, because the build of the set is in fact different. The baseplate design for the towers has changed around with the bottom portions being removed, and we once again see them stressing to "build your own creations."

Contents

Bags are numbered 1-4, with an unnumbered bag containing the wings and three 8x16 baseplates, and a loose 16x16 baseplate.

Instructions

The instructions are a fairly large large booklet, once again having the nice picture of the set, set against the very awesome purple environment of The End. And, again, the portion of the set with the exit teleport/egg is not to be seen here. Apparently Lego didn't want the egg to be in pictures with the dragon, since it's essentially a trophy for killing him.

Alternate Model

The instructions feature a small little rebuild, but honestly I have no idea what this thing is even supposed to be.

Minifigures

Steve

With this set, you get Steve suited up in Diamond armor, the most expensive armor set in the base game. It's a fitting suit for him to wear, as by the time you reach The End you'll not only likely have this armor, but you'll need it. Here you can see Steve without the armor on. The head is a new piece, a large, square head with the same attachment point on the bottom as a standard Minifigure head. The legs and torso are not new, though I'm not a fan of the torso print. Steve doesn't have sleeves in the game, and I think this set would have benefited from The Simpsons style short sleeve arms. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I wish they would have not even bothered to do the blue shirt and just made his whole torso the same light azure as the rest of the armor.

Armoring Up

The torso armor and helmet are both new. The torso armor attaches like a usual vest-style armor piece, and the helmet attaches to the head via friction, similar to a minimate. Rest assured, it is very secure.

Armor Front

Armor Back

New Weapons

Something I really want to get a lot of is the Minecraft themed tools the sets include. With this set, you get a diamond sword and a bow, but with the appropriate Minecraft styling.

With Weapons

Both weapons fit comfortably in a minifigure's hands.

Enderman Body

The Enderman uses a new body piece, which comes with prebuilt legs. This means that the legs are a solid piece, so no movement there.

Enderman

Enderman Front

The Enderman uses the new square head with a simple eye print, and also hold a block of end stone in his hands. Due to the weight of the end stone, his can't stand up without being mounted on something. You can also see a side and back view.

Exit Portal

Base

The start of the exit portal uses some tan with trans blue acting as the portal pieces.

Completed

The exit portal is completed with the dragon egg and torches. It's not a complicated build, but it's effective.

Ender Dragon

Torso Construction

The torso utilizes an interesting mechanism to make the wings of the dragon flap. First you build up the stomach of the torso and put in the pivots for the wings.

Mechanism Housing

More parts are gradually added around the top of the mechanism, creating a square opening for the "button"

Button Added

Basically how this works is, when the wings are put on, the weight pulls the picots down, and pushes the button up. When you press the button, it then pushes the wings up, and when you let go they fall back down. No complicated stuff here, but very cool and concise way to implement the feature.

Torso Final

The torso is finalized with a slew of tiles to give it the smooth, blocky look of the in-game character.

Legs

The legs are, once again, very simply built using some click hinges and some SNOT work to give the smooth and blocky look.

Legs Final

Arm Construction

The arms are built with hinges as well as a mixel joint. Again, this is very basic and doesn't look extremely visually interesting, but it is what its supposed to be.

Arms and Legs Added

Now he is starting to take shape.

Tail Components

There are 4 different builds used to make his tail, with one of the builds repeating three times. It's not the most inspiring build and as I will explain later, the useage of hinges leaves something to be desired poseability wise, but the overall look isn't too bad.

Tail Together

Printed Pieces

The Ender Dragon comes with a printed 1x2 brick and 2x2 tile with his eyes and mouth.

Head Construction

The head's build included a bar hinge, giving the dragon an opening mouth.

Head Final

I quite like the finished head, it has great shaping and the printed eyes really complete the look.

Head and Neck Added

All that's left is the wings!

Dragon Front

After a few neck pieces are built in a similar fashion to the tail, we slap on the wings and have a completed Ender Dragon. He is very linear, offering mostly only up and down hinge movement. The only deviations from this are outwards at the hips, and of course his ball joint shoulders. Something that some may find of value in this set is the wing pieces- They are in fact the ones released with the older UCS batmobile, and fetch quite high prices on Bricklink.

Dragon Profile

From a profile shot, the Dragon is quite well done, with the signature gray spikes and blocky shape. You can also see how the button for the wing mechanism looks here when the wings are down, the gray block acts as his third spike.

Dragon Back

From this angle you can clearly see the wings, and I'll take this moment to describe my distaste with them. Now yes, it may be too much to ask to have gotten a new wing mold considering this is the only set those wings would ever have a use in, but I almost wish lego had scrapped the flapping feature and just made brick built wings. The gray "bones" on the in-game model's wings are quite a significant thing to leave out of the toy, and overall the wings don't mesh so well with the extremely blocky dragon. Please do share your thoughts on this in the comments, will you be modifying his wings or leaving them?

Dragon Posed

This is really the best I could do to getting the dragon into something more visually interesting. The lack of sideways motion in the next and tail seriously limits what you can do.

The End

Floating Platform

Now I haven't played the vanilla version of the game in quite some time, is this even a thing? From what I can tell its a floating chunk of obsidian with torches stuck around it. I could understand if they just threw this in so the minifigure has a way to actually get to the dragon, something that is a challenge in the game as well.

Steve on Platform

End Stone Base

The base of The End portion of the set uses quite a fair bit of tan. if you need tan plates, this set has a generous helping of them- Two 8x8 vignette plates, two 8x16 plates, and a 16x16 plate.

Obsidian Tower

To save you from repetition, here is how the smaller tower is constructed. the medium and large tower are basically the same thing, just with changes in the order of blocks to studs and with some 2x4 black plates for support throughout them. The gray tile is where the beacon will sit- so you can easily remove it later.

Beacon

Two of the beacons are built in this same manner, for the small and medium towers.

Light beacon

For those not familiar with the game, these beacons at the top of the towers are a protection for the Dragon. They fire a purple light (as seen on the box art) which heals the dragon. You have to destroy them before you can kill the dragon. The largest tower in the set uses a red light brick to imitate the beacon firing. Sure, you could think of it that way. Somehow.

Light mounted

The only way to activate the light is by pushing down on the beacon.

Three Towers

A shot of the three towers. All of the beacons look the same once placed inside of the towers.

On baseplate

Here we have the finished diorama of The End

Finished set

Overall, The end set is a real tough one to recommend. If you aren't a fan of the game, then I feel like this set is a rough one to sell. With other sets you get a mine scene or a small house or something, but with this you get three black towers and a dragon. The dragon doesn't have a lot of poseability, the towers don't offer much play value, and overall there isn't a whole lot to display here unless you care about The End and the game. At a steep price of $70, this is a set I would only recommend if you are a strong Minecraft enthusiast, or really find some value in the parts included. You do get some interesting parts like diamond armor and a diamond sword, but most likely we will see this in future sets as well.

As always, a big thank you to Lego for generously sending us this set to be reviewed!

[Hive]

Great review, horrible set. I cannot comprehend how such an abysmal set can even sell at this price. Worst set of the year. But eh, LEGO probably know what they're doing.

[MECHALEX]

This is fascinating. I don't know Minecraft (My brother keeps trying to get me to play but I suspect it'll eat more time than I have to spare) so my first impression is that this is a Lego set you'd buy for someone you dislike or who enjoys playing with a literal representation of a nightmare. All that cruel angularity!

[Risgrynsgrot]

Great review! In-depth, beautiful pictures..

As for the set - Ew Just one minifigure (I don't count the static Endermen) and a pretty boring Dragon, and some tan plates and three black pillars. 70 bucks? Quite a small set for that price. Even a die-hard Minecraft fan would hesitate purchasing this..

[Peasantseverywhere]

I love Minecraft and these lego sets and although i agree with all these comments, and i indeed think it is the worst set of this wave, please please please don't let you be put off from buying the other sets as i have them all and they are all absoloutley freaking fantastic !!!!!

[MAB]

Awful set but .... re-releasing the Batmobile dragon wings. Excellent.

A pair of them new on bricklink is currently about half the value of the set or more.

Edited October 30, 2014 by MAB

[TheOneVeyronian]

I have no interest in Minecraft and the set as a whole doesn't have a lot going for it for me, however I do kinda like the dragon. Having said that though, the dragon could do with some serious modding. It can't be too hard to swap out the up/down click hinges for something a bit more flexible for instance, and neither would it be too hard to create some blocky brick built wings (I could do that if I can find a reference image) and use the black dragon wings for something else (if only I hadn't bought some back in April... I feel insanely stupid now. Well I guess more UCS Batmobiles can be built now ).

I think it might be worth me having a play around with the dragon in LDD when the instructions are released online. Otherwise, I'm going to wait for a discount as £59.99 is insanely overpriced for what you get (even if it does have insanely expensive wings)

[Slurpifier]

Thanks for the review! Gave me a more insight on the set.

Pretty terrible set, the Endermen are a plus, but the Ender Dragon is a no go, the wings are just, not right at all.

[Erik Leppen]

Wow, this has to be the worst set in history. At least the other Minecraft sets (The Micro Worlds) had some sort of artistic value to people not interested in Minecraft (in my opinion), but this just looks like what a five year old put together. I'm surprised even when Minecraft fans would want to buy this (also given the price).

That said, the review is excellent. Clear pictures, and a detailed description of what's there. Good job on that :D

[Zulithe]

is anyone able to pin down a release date for these? Is it November 1st? 15th? when?

[klinton]

I'm kind of shocked at the responses here. I'm not all in for these Minecraft sets, but this one is a must have for me.

[Peasantseverywhere]

^ Me Too

[Legogal]

Fantastic review with incredible photos! Congratulations!

This is even harder to do for a set you are not thrilled with.

An excellent use of a review to tell the rest of us about the product. Does not matter whether or not we like the set; we just need to know the details of it, and you aced that objective. Thanks!

[LegoFjotten]

Thanks for the review. Not very interested in Minecraft sets, but this set was kinda like a nasty car accident... you know you shouldn't look but still do.

[Sisilisko]

Thanks for this review!

My kids got this from my mom yesterday. The 6-year old loved the build. He is a minecraft entusiast in a 6-Gear old way. He builds and engages in the game bit he doesn't really grasp the whole. That said I should stress: he loved this build!

As for the Lego set he will probably not play with it. He doesn't really get the "ender dragon exit portal" stuff. He is not in the age group, the set ranges from 8-11 I think. However if a 6-year old won't play there is little play to be found.

His younger brother loved the hideus dragon. Off it flew, up and away and hade to come to bed with him.

So yes. Lego knows what they are doing I guess. And I feel old since I can't find myself liking the artwork of this set. And to be honest I hope to get to borrow the baseplates for my bulids.

/S

[GandalfofHoth]

I think TLG is going to have a hard time drawing the line between, game accurate, and a good build. The enderman is pretty accurate, but he can't move without being mounted. The dragon is ugly, but the dragon in Minecraft is pretty ugly as well, and I think the lego version is fairly accurate. But the cost, and the rest of the set are what I see wrong with it, There's not much else besides the towers, and they look like something I could MOC up pretty quickly, so spending 70 dollars on this, is out of the question for me. I think this theme will struggle with finding the balance between accuracy, and looking good, because the game wasn't really focused on looking good when they created the game, but I'm not giving up on Lego yet.

[The Kumquat Alchemist]

I'm curious, how much of the dislike stems from the price, and how much from the bad design?

Though certainly lackluster in build compared to the other Minecraft sets, I think it would hold up decently if not for the outrageous price tag; due to what in-game elements are being replicated in this set, LEGO didn't have much freedom for variety or interesting builds.

Edited November 1, 2014 by The Kumquat Alchemist

[Sisilisko]

The price tag must come from the licence, right?

I think my dislike mostly steams from the cost (I just Know what my Mom spent, it is outrageous). It is not worth it! There is no wow-factor. It is clumsy.

The build was ok in the same way a city truck (which I'd never buy for myself) is ok.

I am clearly not Target group.

/S

[Hammerstein NWC]

Great review! I don't understand why the Lego mine craft sets are so ugly? Having watched my nephews play the game it seems the game is blocky but entirely smooth.

IMO these sets are so incredibly ugly? If the scenery was entirely tiled it would look a lot more like the fame to me but I guess cost would be extremely high.

Why not just sell the Minifigs and animals like CMFs? I feel a bit sorry for the designers who are doing the best job they can with such strict price and part limits.

I'm confused as to the age range this is supposed to appeal to? Hardcore dans aside who would buy this?

[Zerobricks]

To be honest it doesnt not look that impressive... Its missing a soul, there is no charm and its also expensive.

[N8ster2]

I think the set looks okay. The minifigure looks weird though. Even it looks okay i'm defiantly not getting it.

[VBBN]

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone! Glad you all enjoyed the review, and also glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't find this set all that great.

Certainly the biggest problem with these sets is trying to find a balance between Minecraft and lego. This set takes one of the least interesting environments of Minecraft, and mixes it with a dragon that unfortunately has just about the same amount of poor articulation as the in-game character... Even as a parts pack it doesn't feel worth it to me, basically you get a few tan baseplates, the diamond steve (which, let's face it, will be in future sets most likely, same with Endermen), and the batmobile wings. At a price of $70, it's hard to say anything here is a good deal.

By the way, I just did a count in the instructions and found that the set has 634 pieces, including a brick separator. 81 of those parts are black 2x4 bricks, and 48 of those parts are purple 1x1 studs.

[TheBrickPal]

You received the worse set to review. I mean, seriously LEGO. The three small sets look fantastic, the Crafting Box is cool when you don't follow the instructions, and the Mine is beautiful. This is just... ugh. Great review, though.

[WhiteFang]

Thank you VBBN. You have done an excellent job to depict this review in a good illustrating manner, despite of my first impression of this being a not-so-interesting set, as compared with other Minecraft sets. Still, this set which I believed is a milestone set for Minecraft sets, similar to meet the Dungeon boss as what you have explained. I will think you will have to be a true blue Minecraft fan in order to appreciate this set to the fullest. I will agree that the new Minecraft LEGO accessories are very interesting and nicely done but I don't think it can be justify to spend so much money to acquire them by buying this set especially when there are many other appealing LEGO Themes/Sets out there.

[just2good]

Phenomenal review! At first, I didn't like this set, but your review has made me like it more than I did before. I'm amazed there's a whole new mould for the Endermen- didn't notice that before.