Review: 21250 The Iron Golem Fortress
Posted by Huw,
Our guest reviewer for one this year's largest Minecraft sets is Billy, aka WellBillt:
21250 The Iron Golem Fortress promises excellent minifigures, a towering display piece and a massive play feature, but does it deliver?
Summary
21250 The Iron Golem Fortress, 868 pieces.
£94.99 / $109.99 / €104.99 | 10.9p/12.7c/12.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
The set's modular aspect allows for lots of post-build fun and it looks great on display
- Excellent playability
- Fun transformation feature
- No stickers!
- A standard/unchallenging build
- Some ladders would be neat
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
This set includes two skeleton horsemen, a Charged Creeper, an iron golem, a Crystal Knight and a Golden Knight. It feels a tad pedantic of me to say that only the two knights are technically conventional minifigures, which seems a bit sparse for a set of this size, but regardless of where you stand on this, there are still six characters here to play with (and a seventh if you count our larger friend, who we’ll be meeting later on!).
The skeletons have the standard LEGO skeletal body, but square heads with medium lavender helmets. Here’s a word of warning for the uninitiated: make sure you’re sticking those helmets on the right way around, because they’re an absolute nightmare to remove again!
Also, as someone who does not own many Minecraft sets, can I just quickly rave about how satisfying those heads slide on? It’s all about the little things.
The Crystal and the Golden Knight have printing on the backs of their torsos, although there’s nothing in the way of leg printing or arm printing, which I feel the Golden Knight in particular would have really benefitted from.
The Stone Golem is technically a mini build rather than a minifigure, but it felt right to include them here. A combination of clip pieces, Technic bricks and a printed tile create an immediately identifiable figure with plenty of articulation, which can be tricky at this scale.
My favourite aspect of this little build was the modified plate piece with the minifigure neck connector. To my knowledge, this has only appeared in a small handful of sets, but I can imagine a lot of MOC builders having a field day with this element!
Accessories include two swords, multiple bows, an axe and a shield. Out of these, only the shield, which belongs to the Golden Knight, is unique to this set; it’s printed onto a 2x3 tile (there’s a little transparent connector you can place on the back so it can be held!). You’re invited to pack a few of these accessories into a chest, although, frustratingly, none of the tools fully fit inside.
The Build
The building process for this set hit just the right balance for me. There were a handful of fun techniques involving jumper plates and SNOT methods to keep things interesting, but for the most part, the build was very straightforward; there was a lot of studs-on-top construction to the point where the experience felt borderline therapeutic. In fact, much of this build felt very old school, particularly with the amount of what my partner calls “proper bricks”.
Oh, also, there are no stickers. Hurray!
An existing LEGO mould for a skeletal horse does exist, although these last appeared in the late noughties to my knowledge. As much as I’d love to see that mould reintroduced, these brick-built creations better match the Minecraft aesthetic and the use of hinge pieces allow better articulation; you can move the head and the back legs up and down, although the front legs stay where they are.
Outside of the fortress are two cute little flowers, some fencing and jumper plates which make it easier to pose characters. A small pair of hinged gates grant entry into the interior.
Let’s take a short tour of the interior space for this set. At the ground floor, we have a workbench, a chest and a small, simple stove, which can all be taken out relatively easily.
On the next floor up, we have two beds in different colours. I’m assuming these are for the two knights (the bedsheets seem to correspond nicely), but I’m sure the skeletons would appreciate a kip too if you asked them. You can’t remove the next floor from this section, meaning this room is a little bit more enclosed (some might say “cosy”!).
Finally, on the top floor, we have two printed tiles that appear to represent a map, alongside two lamps which you can see from the outside. The lamps are a bit of a pain when utilising the transformation feature; because they’re more exposed, it’s far easier for them to ping off.
Overall, the interior seems fairly sparse (I don’t know what other fun side builds you could incorporate here admittedly!), which is emphasised by the amount of space you have. Far too often, LEGO interiors are very limited in their depths, so this development of at least six studs (rather than, say, four) is a welcome one! It’s also worth taking into account that the empty space presents a lot more in the way of play opportunities.
There are no ladders to take characters from floor to floor, which is a shame because they wouldn’t take up too much space and would seem like a bit of a good fit for a Minecraft set.
The biggest play feature of this set, of course, is the transformation: removing and slightly reassembling some modules allows you to display a towering giant. This creature has ratchets on its arms, meaning it can be articulated without you worrying about the arms falling back down. It’s a shame that the head doesn’t swivel too, but I get that there are limitations if you want this build to double as a fortress.
The process is quick, simple and can be reversed at ease for play thanks to the use of jumper plates and modified plates with fewer studs. Perhaps most impressively of all, the remainder of the build still looks like a complete (albeit less expansive!) set.
For its size, The Iron Golem Fortress is surprisingly easy to pick up and carry, although I’d recommend being careful about where you’re picking it up from due to the modular elements.
For folks interested in what pieces are left over, here you go! It’s the usual array of 1x1 pieces for the most part, alongside the much coveted brick separator.
Conclusion
For LEGO Minecraft fans looking for some cool characters and accessories, this is a no-brainer. The set will also be attractive for parts collectors hunting for those “proper bricks” and younger or newer builders aiming to step up their game whilst not coming across anything too challenging.
Price-per-part-wise, this set looks to be priced about right (only just!), but when it comes to the build itself, I don’t know if this necessarily feels like you’re getting the bang for your buck. Although constructing this set was fun, simple and relaxing, it was pretty much over before I knew it!
That said, the modular aspect of this set does allow for lots of fun post-build, particularly in terms of play, options and poseability. It’ll certainly look lovely on your shelf too!
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14 comments on this article
A well rounded review, and a nice little set.
It's funny. We were talking about Harry Cane in RMotD, and he then shows up in the RSotD. People were talking Minecraft in RSotD, and here's a brand-new Minecraft review. This is getting spooky!
Been checking this site for over 15 years. My first comment ever is to say that this article taught me what the noughties meant.
Very nice review, cheers
I have no interest in Minecraft but enjoyed the review nonetheless.
The pictures of the accessories and the spare parts were very interesting. Can that please become a standard feature of Brickset’s reviews?
@Zink said:
""unchallenging build" I'd say a problem I generally have with modern LEGO sets is that the builds are too complex and therefore don't encourage play with the bricks. I for my part hope to see more less-challenging builds in the future."
I'm glad LEGO themselves somewhat realised that having basic pieces availble easier is important as well , while the Classic theme certainly isn't new, there does seem to be a change of direction, with LEGO offering more basic bricks again sets like 11030 : Lots of Bricks being entirely focused on just bricks, and other sets like 11032 : Creative Colour Fun , with cheaper color focused options like 11028 : Creative Pastel Fun or 11027 : Creative Neon Fun . (and while some the colors are bright, but still cut down from like 20 colors to 10 or 6 in a box. , I think nougat is a fine alternative for brown as well for "wood" looking things.
Of course Classic still has some very "varied" type of sets with few pieces of the same type, with 11029: Creative Party Box being really focused on variation and smaller builds.
I think in terms of kids these days, there's more options then before, from 4+, to Classic, to 5+ onward many themes.
Its so clear this was supposed to be copper golem.
@Zander said:
"I have no interest in Minecraft but enjoyed the review nonetheless.
The pictures of the accessories and the spare parts were very interesting. Can that please become a standard feature of Brickset’s reviews?"
I was going to say exactly this. I guess it's not that big a deal, but it's nice info to have.
Looks to me like part 6326164 (https://brickset.com/parts/6326164/brick-1x2-no-90) is supposed to represent the blast furnace and has only appeared twice previously. That's nice to see, but I'd have hoped it'd have come with an armourer villager to match, though this isn't a "village" set, but making it a jungle villager would have seemed appropriate with all the vines and bright green plates.
The Iron Golem is erroneously and abruptly referred to as a "Stone Golem" in the section discussing its figure.
Stone Golem? Wa happened? You even got it right the first time it was mentioned! Besides that though, nice review about something I’ll get… eventually.
"In fact, much of this build felt very old school..." That's one thing I always enjoyed about Minecraft sets, besides my enjoyment of the game they're based on. They always reminded me of very old-school (as in, the Town Plan era) Lego. Granted, that era was decades before I was born, but still... Not that I don't enjoy the modern, greatly expanded parts palette, but there's still fun to be had with just basic bricks.
Haven't looked to much into the Minecraft set but this one looks neat. Also, makes me want to play Miecraft.
Sometimes I regret not getting into Minecraft--either the Lego theme or the original game. This set, and the discussion about "proper bricks," really crystallizes the attraction! Thank you for the review!