Review: 21149 Minecraft Alex BigFig with Chicken
Posted by iso3200,
Now, to the second of our Minecraft Bigfig reviews and I'll be looking at 21149 Alex with Chicken. To be honest, I could almost cut and paste my previous review of 21148 Steve with Parrot as this is pretty much an identical product with a new skin, so if you haven't already, I'd advise having a read of that here.
You get 160 pieces for your £12.99 / €14.99 / $14.99 and there's little more to say. Click through to find out more.
Here's the front of the box.
And here's the rear.
Again, there are 3 bags inside with a small instruction booklet...
...and this is what the selection of parts looks like.
Examining things more closely reveals some recolours. There's a 4x4 Plate with 2x2 Cutout and 1x2 Brick with Axle Holes in Sand Green plus some 1x1 Tiles in Teal. There's a new mold for a huge sword, an orange 1x2 Brick with 2 studs on 1 side which I can only find in 10717 Extra Large Brick Box and 3 of the new 2x2 T-plates.
It takes around 20 minutes build a 135mm high Alex with a neat little chicken. It's a very good rendition of the source material again.
Alex suffers the same fate as Steve from the rear being quite ugly. The technic arm moving mechanism on her back is also identical.
The articulation of Alex is identical to Steve – arms swing back and forth on axle pins and the legs move back and forth mounted on two ball joints each. The head rotates 360 degrees and angles side to side. The head has the same SNOT connection on top for adding your own armour.
The chicken is very cute and features articulation on the neck.
But note that posing Alex like this is only possible by using the 6x6 plate, else the figure topples over.
A sitting down view shows how the new 2x2 T-plates fit as feet.
The sword can be swung up and down by using the technic mechanism on the rear, but if you want to lock it into position for certain poses you'll need to grab an extra plate from your parts bin to hold the mechanism down just like on Steve. It's no biggie, but for the sake of one extra plate and a page in the instructions it surely could have been included to show as an option.
And finally, here's Alex with the rest of the series.
Overall
Summing up, if you're only buying one of the series there's little to choose between Steve and Alex – it's just a personal preference. This is another competent model reflecting the game character perfectly, but I'm still not sure if these are playthings or posable ornaments.
LEGO must be applauded for giving us something new, but the AFOL in me is not feeling fulfilled. I'm sure the series has been the subject of a few focus groups and therefore the market identified, but I don't think that market is me.
This is one for Minecraft aficionados to consider but not an essential purchase for anyone else.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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28 comments on this article
Gotta be honest, I like the chicken.
But I DISPISE the rest of it.
Nice detailed review!
The concept of these figures is reasonable, but making two nigh on identical characters? C'mon, LEGO. Surely something really different to Steve like a Creeper would be a better bet for aesthetics, if not for shifting units to 8-year-olds?
When you review the Skeleton can you compare the Magma Cube to the one from The Nether Railway? I'm curious of its size.
I think these are pretty neat, though the skeleton looks the best.
Eh, I don't get it either, but that's fine. To be honest I feel the same way about the Barbie sized buildable figures too, but if other people like them that's cool. One less temptation for me though.
@kinto
I don’t like or understand the appeal of most buildable figures, but it’s undeniable that some are pretty well done, (Scout Trooper and Speeder Bike, K2SO, Darth Vader, the Skeleton above).
I thought they were scraping the barrel with Brickheadz. My goodness, not only do these look unfinished but they show zero creativity on the part of the designer.
@Mr. Thrawn..
Yeah, the scout/speeder bike is one that I eyeballed for a while but never pulled the trigger on. And I'm in no way trying to dismiss what other people like, I'm just not the target market in this case. My nephews will go bananas for these though.
@Aleydita
Have you looked at the source material?
Yes, and I'm pretty sure the backs of the figures aren't covered in anti-studs.
If I had to choose between the two, I would choose this one, but only for the chicken and the sand-green parts. Then again, thankfully I don't have to choose...
This set is absolute trash. Please don't buy it! The back looks terribly unfinished, and the price isn't great either. Minecraft is one of the worst LEGO themes in my opinion. Now that they made those stupid figures, I hate it even more! Really, they should just discontinue LEGO Minecraft. It had it's run, don't push it more then necesarly! With those buildable figures, they are just setting up space for more LEGO Minecraft. Please LEGO, just end this stupid theme once and for all. If bearly any people play Minecraft anymore, and they still keep the theme! Just end it. That is all I ask.
Hello, while this is a great review on your part I would love to see the Dorado Showdown reviewed, have a great New Year.
@aleydita
That's fair, the back could be done better. It still seems unfair to say there was zero creativity on the part of the designer, when it's a pretty accurate model.
^"Please don't buy it!"
WTF ??!!
Almost the same case as cherry picker.
@ iriz
Some people don't quite understand business.
NEAT!
I LOVE MINECRAFT
Only interested in the chicken and magma cube.
@LegoDavid: Uhh, you clearly don't have a clue what you're talking about. As of this summer, Minecraft was still being played by 91 million players per month: https://www.businessinsider.com/minecraft-has-74-million-monthly-players-2018-1 And the Minecraft sets have been highly successful — they're not going to cancel the entire theme just because some people DON'T like it, any more than they'd cancel their other successful themes on those grounds. I'm sure it'll run its course in time but there's no rush to get rid of it as long as kids are still enjoying it.
In the meantime I feel like you'd be able to enjoy LEGO a lot more if you just made peace with the fact that there will always be themes that aren't made with your personal tastes in mind, and there's nothing wrong with that. A theme that doesn't affect you one way or the other shouldn't make you this angry…
And I don't really get all the people talking about "not understanding" the appeal of buildable figures in general. Surely whether or not you LIKE them, their appeal shouldn't be hard to understand. I mean, they're basically all the fun of action figures plus the fun of building, same as how LEGO cars or trains or houses are all the fun of toy cars or toy trains or dollhouses plus the fun of building.
@ Aanchir
I agree. I meant that I didn’t understand the appeal of specific figure designs (ex. Han Solo or Finn), more than not understanding the overall line.
I appreciate themes I don't like, they give my wallet a chance to breathe.
There is a lot of hate here for this! Lego shouldn't discontinue these sets, if they're selling then TLG is making money. Everyone always forgets that we make up but a small portion of Lego's market and really, we get pretty well catered to with all the UCS, Modular and Expert lines. Why do you begrudge Lego being a children's toy and making products children want to buy at price points children can afford???
Not my kind of thing but I'm sure there are those that will love them! On to the next review!
I personaly think this set is an AMAZING comparsion material.
Alex Action Figure from Jazwares (Which is honestly bad in terms of quality) cost as much. And it,s WAY smaller. Matell model costs around 24$! That's EVEN MORE, while they are similiar in size.
Looking foward to Creeper and Enderman for sure!
@Star Wars Fan: I mean, they’re two totally different characters with different outfits, hairstyles, and facial features. They look similar by virtue of both being ordinary people and not monsters or skeletons, but how different is that from Emmet and Rex in The LEGO Movie 2, or Captain Phasma and a standard Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or differently colored LEGO Space astronauts?
What’s more, I think it sort of makes sense getting the standard player characters out of the way in the first series, and leave the baddies and NPCs with more uniqueness/novelty for subsequent series that will have to stand out from what’s already available.
Don't make them! Don't buy them! They're evil!!! AHHH!!
Okay, you would think that for, like, an additional $5 USD, LEGO could have made the back not as ugly and actually have some appeal. The chicken, though? I think that LEGO should consider releasing a mini-series similar to this, but only animals. Possible ideas: Wolf, Spider, Creeper, Polar Bear and Cub (because the baby polar bears do not have overly large heads) Ocelot, etc. I would buy those ones ;)