LEGO Minecraft The Nether Fortress (21122) Review

For my other review of the new summer 2015 wave of LEGO Minecraft sets, I have The Nether Fortress (21122) which is the largest set in the wave. The set will be available on August 1st and it contains 571 pieces and retail for $79.99. Again, this set was sent in by the LEGO CEE Team for me to review.

Box

Like with The Snow Hideout (21120) that I previously reviewed, the box has the LEGO Minecraft border across the top with the artwork of The Nether Fortress underneath. On the back of the box, there are some closeups of the set details as well as the advertised alterate build which is included with the instructions. The contents of the box include six bags numbered 1-3. There are also three loose plates and a packaged instruction booklet.

Minifigures

There are three minifigures and a couple of buildable mobs in the set: Steve, Alex, the Zombie Pigman, a Blaze, and a Ghast.

Steve is the same minifigure that we’ve seen in many previous sets with the blue torso and purple legs. He also has a diamond chestplate and helmet along with a diamond pickaxe. Nothing too special about him.

Alex is an alternate default skin of Steve which has her with a green torso and brown legs. She also has some pixilated printing on the torso as well as on the head. She also wears a diamond helmet but no chestplate. Also, Alex has a diamond sword to use against the mobs in the fortress.

The Zombie Pigman is probably the most detailed minifigure in the LEGO Minecraft sets. It has a mostly pink skin tone with printing that resembles rotting flesh and bones. Its accessory is a golden sword. This is the only set to contain this particular minifigure so if you want an army of them, it’ll probably get pretty expensive.

The Blaze is a mob that’s only found in The Nether Fortress. It is created with two modified 1×1 bricks with studs on 4 sides, aka the Travis Brick, with yellow nozzles in each stud. The head has some detailed printing of it burning.

Finally, the Ghast is a brick-built mob that is made of of mostly tiles on the outside. Inside the Ghast is a stud shooter that shoots fireballs out of its mouth. What’s unique about this mob is that there different printed 2×4 tiles to change out the Ghast’s face, which by the way looks very accurate to the game. The bottom of the Ghast has eight tentacles made of 1×2 plate with clip. This is sort of incorrect as the Ghast in the game has nine tentacles.

Build

The Nether Fortress is a fairly large structure that can easily be recognized by Minecraft veterans. On the left side, you have the Nether Portal which uses a nice trans-purple window panel piece that was used in only one other set, the Ultra Agents AntiMatter’s Portal Hideout (70172).

Adjacent to the portal is a lava waterfall that is made mostly of orange 2×2 bricks with some 1×1 trans-orange bricks here and there. You can make the lava fall by pulling on a Glowstone block that are on the side of the mountain.

As you progress to the right of the Nether Fortress, there is a bridge walkway up top and at the end of the tower, there’s a chest filled with treasure waiting for Steve and Alex including a golden sword and a couple of diamonds.

Halfway in the set, there are a couple of hinges to fold the set into a “L”/right angle shape to give it a different look, depending on what you want.

You’ll notice throughout the set that there are decorative builds such as Nether warts, Nether quartz, and mushrooms to give the set some video game authenticity. You can also see some 2×2 plates with jumpers in various places where you can put those elements.

Results

The LEGO Minecraft The Nether Fortress (21122) is a decent enough set that Minecraft fans would probably be interested in picking up. There are some neat features and elements that could be useful in other builds. The minifigures and mob builds are very nicely made and are probably the best part of the whole set. One downside is that the price of $79.99 might be a deterrent for what you actually get. One thing that is missing from the set that I thought would be a good inclusion is the Blaze spawner. You can’t really have a Blaze without the spawner, right?

Overall, decent set with a lot of dark red bricks but a little overpriced for 571 pieces. If you can get it at a discounted price in the future, it’s worth picking up. Will any of you be picking up this set when it’s available next week?

Again, thank you to LEGO for sending the set in for me to review.

[easyreview title=”The Brick Fan Scoring Summary” cat1title=”Design” cat1detail=” ” cat1rating=”4″ cat2title=”Playability” cat2detail=” ” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Value” cat3detail=” ” cat3rating=”3″ summary=” “]