I keep finding myself in wonder of the worlds of LEGO and Minecraft, especially when they intersect. That’s why I’m having so much fun with the LEGO Minecraft kit The Iron Golem. Not only is it a fun and fairly faithful representation of the Minecraft world, it comes with some of the most interesting pieces for a builder like me. Because LEGO and Minecraft embrace similar concepts, it’s all too easy to fall in love with the corporeal manifestation of cubes on the table.
As ever, LEGO stands alone very well, as does Minecraft. So how does this kit bring the two worlds together? With creative and innovative re-imagining of LEGO elements. Particularly, the minifigs are out of sight. With unique cubic heads for Alex and the zombie, these two minifigs evoke the 8-bit feel of Minecraft. The baby pig uses the same concept, being an adorable addition to any farm.
The iron golem, as you can imagine, is the primary element of the kit. Building it was fun and used pieces that allow faithful interactions with the Minecraft world. There’s even a red flower for it to present to others. The golem is made up of 36 pieces, including several plates printed in the iconic 8-bit designs of a Minecraft golem.
Of course, golems don’t start existing in a vacuum, even in Minecraft. You need a village or a bunch of iron. It’s a lot of fun to build the golem and watch it come to live, too. With The Iron Golem, builders stack their 4 iron blocks and add a pumpkin, just like Minecraft. Of course, there’s no programming magic in LEGO, right? This time, though, there’s some LEGO magic.
Add the pumpkin to the top, push the build away, and out pops your newly created iron golem! Now you have company in your battle against the invading zombie. That’s a good thing, too, because all Alex has is a diamond pickaxe–not ideal for battling. At first, I had no idea what the iron blocks or flip-motion were, but my son told me the white blocks were meant to be iron, it clicked. After I finished construction, I flipped the iron golem back and forth a dozen or so times, enjoying the flick immensely.
Now, this is an inexpensive kit, which makes it great for gifts, but not for creating a lot of new builds. To help with that, there are some inspiration materials included. More helpful to me, though, was my large collection of gray, blue, and brown 2×2 bricks. It was lots of fun to reassemble the kit with my own flavor. And that’s the beauty, to me. Some kits are so specialized that they don’t add to your overall collection, or even to each other. With the LEGO Minecraft sets, they combine well with each other, or even with your general collection.
Now, I know I’m a bit of a unicorn in some groups, in that I don’t mind adding bricks to a kit permanently, or even taking the entire kit apart and adding the pieces to my generic collection. That’s how I have fun, though. For now, I’ve only added bricks to The Iron Golem, and will likely be building a LEGO Minecraft collection box. Mostly, this would be composed of 2×2 bricks with notable exceptions–doors, banners, glass windows, and others are great additions to the series. Of course, my LEGO Minecraft Crafting Box (21116) is the base of that collection, but there’s tons of room for adding mass-purchased bricks of appropriate colors, too.
Enjoy The Iron Golem kit, builders, and tag me on Twitter; I’d love to see your creations! Happy building.
