Review: 21139 The Nether Fight
Posted by iso3200,
Next in the series of our Minecraft reviews is another cheap offering, 21139 The Nether Fight priced at £12.99. After enjoying it's counterpart 21138 The Melon Farm I have high hopes that this one packs in some good value and serves as another decent entry level set. Let's find out if that is the case.
We've got the same adult hand sized box that looks inviting. This one contains 84 pieces and there are 3 minifigs within.
The rear shows the play functions – this time it's TNT for exploding things and mining.
Here's the box contents in full. There's an extra 5 parts – nothing exciting – but the right pieces to build an extra mushroom and add a flame. For printed parts there's some TNT but no new elements.
The minifig line-up is Alex with Armour, a Wither Skeleton and a Zombie Pigman. Once again it's a little annoying to see Alex but I do understand why she's included in an introductory set – though the lack of helmet comes across as penny pinching. The good thing is that she comes with Flat Silver legs, which is a fairly uncommon colour. She also has an enchanted axe recoloured in Medium Lavender which makes a nice change from the previously available options.
The Wither Skeleton with his long legs and black block head has only been in one set before and the Zombie Pigman is simply a cool figure – I'd be happy to own multiples of both of these so inclusion at this price level is great. There's also a magma cube – another useful element to own as a multiple.
So what of the model? A very quick build yields this result. For a 12x12 vignette, it's got plenty of places to pose the minifigs across different levels. There's some mushrooms, flames and magma. I like the colour scheme of the Nether Worlds, but it can be rather garish at times – fortunately the designer has got the balance about right here. With the limited amount of bricks at hand it'd be all to easy for it to burn your eyeballs but the Greys help to break it up just enough.
To one side we have the play function which is robbed directly from 21138 The Melon Farm. It's exactly the same see-saw arrangement designed to fling things up high.
This time you can pop some netherrack on it. There's also a 2x2 jumper for adding the magma block or TNT if desired.
It works exactly as expected.
Or if you fancy it, barbecue pork could be on the menu. Obviously I enjoyed myself far too much here.
Overall
Again I think LEGO have come up with a good introductory set and priced at £12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 it's not too bad a value for money – though we AFOLS will likely never pay retail price will we? We mustn't forget though that this is an IP based set so will always have an extra "tax" on it.
The Wither Skeleton is the most desirable figure here and the Zombie Pigman is well worth having extras of too. It's potentially an army builder if picked up at the right price or on a 3 for 2 deal.
It falls ever so slightly short of 21138 The Melon Farm as that gives us some new elements alongside a desirable figure. The Melon Farm also offers us the buildable pig, whereas the equivalent object here is the Magma Cube. For me, the pig wins every time.
However, for kids this has very good playability and that's probably the best measure to go by for a set of this size and theme. Three minifigs and some TNT to explode? That's a fine recipe.
I'd therefore say it's another successful outing and I'm already looking forward to building the sets at the next price level up.
What are your thoughts? Please let us know by liking this article and commenting below.
37 likes
21 comments on this article
Just an FYI but Alex is a she
^Ta. Corrected.
Once again excellent review and absolutely stunning photography!
"...Alex but I do understand why he's included ... He also has an enchanted axe..." got the legs one but missed these two I think. ETA: seems to be fixed now, thanks!
Ha love the fun photography.
The current Minecraft releases seem to be excellent value and have some interesting biomes - I might have to pick up a couple.
Great review, thanks! Love the action shots. Just a little gripe: "We mustn't forget though that this is an IP based set so will always have an extra "tax" on it." That's not true, though.
Wonderful reviews as always. These introductory sets are actually not all that bad, compared to other sets I've seen.Though, my only question is, why did you put the Alex figure in the lava? In minecraft, one would surely die in lava without a fire resistance potion.
The price is a complete rip-off, nothing else. Tz... 84 Pieces for 14.99 €?! Never ever.
@sirventricle Perhaps it's just the way I worded it, but what I mean is that Minecraft is a licensed IP therefore the sets tend to cost more than in-house themes. There's a couple of 2018 City sets with 4 minifigs and similar piece counts that cost £3 less for instance. @shirhac's comment seems rather relevant to this point :-)
@Renaissance Ravensly Yes, that was very amateur of me wasn't it ;-) I will try harder next time :-)
These reviews have been great. Not sure I'll be getting any of these new MC sets, just because I have too many other things I want to buy at the moment, but who knows. Looking forward to any future reviews like this!
I just picked up the 'Nether Portal Set' 21143 in a real life toyshop. It was priced at £19.99 with an additional 10% off - which seemed like great value and I was happy to let the 6 year old spend his christmas money on it.
It was only when I got it home I realised it's a ~£50 set and must have been mis-priced!!
These little sets with a few minifigs do seem to represent reasonable value, but overall I feel the Minecraft sets are about 13rd overpriced at RRP and I'll need a deep discount on amazon before I buy more.
But he *really* loves Minecraft! (and to be fair, I've been playing it for 6-7 years as well).
Enchanted axe! Only a matter of time before we get a mansion now!! :D
Wondering how those black skeleton legs would kook on K-2SO. Might be able to ignore the toes for the extra height and posability. Not sure how they could be attached though...
I like your review style, I'm looking forward to more. It has been said before but the photos are great. I really appreciate the picture with all the parts laid out.
Two objects caught perfectly in flight - time for the triple?
Great photography and your nails are to die for.
Calling that set "not too bad a value for money" is ridiculous. At a PPP ratio of almost 20 cents it even tops most overpriced Star Wars sets.
It's a complete rip-off for a couple of boring standard bricks and three "minifigs".
And it's not as if there weren't small Minecraft sets with reasonable value. Just take 21141 as an example.
My son chose both this set and the melon farm set - over some large sets as his first minecraft lego - we have large amount of normal lego which we can build scenes and buildings... but it was a great cheap way to get a selection of mincraft minifigs to start his world off!
This set is an excellent army builder, all the common Nether mobs save for the Blaze in one $15 pack! Ghasts are relatively rarer and much larger so I don't mind them being in the high end models.
Good review and great photography!