I think LEGO has done a good job with making a cheap set that still has good play functionality. Most lego minecraft sets have some functionality, but I especially like the ones in this set.

Box/Instructions

The box art is really game-accurate, showing an Iron Golem attacking a Zombie. The instructions, despite 21124 being harder than The Cave or The Dungeon, are still quite straightforward to follow.

Parts

The parts selection is really nice. It has a few smaller pieces, and a few excellent additions to a lego minecraft world, as it is the cheapest set to include a crafting table and a furnace. It also includes a few new printed tiles for the iron golem, a new jumper plate mould, and a new head mould that will be used for Villagers later this year. It also includes a Diamond Pickaxe.

Minifigures

The name of the set is the Iron Golem, so I'll start with that. It is really flexible, but due to that one piece keeps getting slightly dislodged. The piglet is really cute and is a smaller version of the pig. Alex is also included, and I think it's good that Alex (and a Diamond Pickaxe) is included in a cheap set. Zombies, however, are pretty common, so I wish a Creeper or maybe even a Zombie Villager could have been included.

The build

Building it is quite nice. It took me about twenty minutes to build, with not too much difficulty in doing so.

The completed model

The final product has a bit of player-generated structure, along with a mini waterfall, a little mining area (where Alex finds his iron ingots) and the iron golem flip function.

Overall opinion

LEGO now seems to be going for the cheapest sets being 'battle pack's, with last year's dungeon set and this year's Wither set including a TNT cannon. I would like to see this trend continue, possibly with a Witch Hut and some Slimes next year. I think this set is both lego and minecraft merged together correctly. My only critiscm is that a chest could have been included, and maybe ten 1x1 light grey round plates, as in the actual game you need thirty-six to build an Iron Golem.

This is a pretty nice set. The box art actually makes the set look slightly smaller than it actually is but I'm not complaining there. The instructions were relatively easy to follow but I'm not very fast at building and not that skilled or experienced so it took me a bit of time, but I think people who are better at building than me will find that it is really quite easy.

This set contains: 2 mini-figures (Alex and Zombie)

1 baby pig figure (doesn't really count as a mini-figure though does it??)

1 iron golem figure

208 pieces

1 instruction booklet

1 diamond pickaxe

The price (£19.99/$19.99/19.99€) is maybe a little overpriced considering that there is only 208 pieces, but it is a license theme and they are usually a bit more expensive than the usual (i.e City/Ultra Agents/Nexo Knights) so I wasn't expecting it to be cheap.

The play functions in this are pretty good. There is a figure of the iron golem before it has transformed and, if you push it, it will flip around to reveal the fully transformed iron golem. Also there is a function where you can easily pull away one of the stone blocks to reveal some iron ore.

I really like the crafting station with a crafting table, furnace and a torch, I think its a really nice little touch.

The lay out is really nice, with a little waterfall and grass terrain. I find that the terrain is a really nice little touch because with my set I have switched the terrain around a bit because I can take away a little bit of the grass and take some of my other Lego bricks and create something different which is really good.

My only real complaint is that it falls apart really easily and is quite fiddly to put back together without breaking the whole thing.

Overall a really cute set! I would recommend this to 6 and above (as it's quite fiddly when it breaks) if you are willing to pay a bit of money.

This is the entry level set for the newest 2016 wave of Minecraft Legos meant to represent the creation of an iron Golem and also includes a small crafting station, piglet, zombie and Alex.

Box/Instructions

Small box with a single set of instructions, a few loose plates and some un-numbered bags. Box art is straightforward with pictures of all included mini-figures and buildable creatures on the front and play features on the back. As with most of the newer Minecraft sets, the instructions start with all the micro-builds: Mini figs, buildable characters, plants, furnace, crafting box, removable blocks, torches etc. It also includes ideas for rebuilding portions of the set.

Parts

The set comes with a number of Minecraft specific specialty pieces including the pigs head, printed crafting box pieces, a number of special printed tiles for the Iron Golem, a printed pumpkin, diamond pick axe and printed furnace brick.

Minifigures

The two true minifigs are Alex in standard print with no armor and a diamond pick axe and a zombie with no accessories. The micro build creatures are piglet and an Iron Golem, the subject of the set. The minifigs are nothing new, although this is a nice cheap price point to get Alex. The lack of any special prints or accessories keeps this from being anything special otherwise.

The build

The build is composed the Iron Golem, the flipping feature meant to represent his creation, some surround terrain and a crafting area. The Iron Golem an interesting build with some nice printed pieces to add texture. However, one of the printed 1x2 smooth tiles on the front is only held on by one stud and moves all over the place making this a not terrible sturdy build for a high play value component. The mechanism for hiding/creating the Golem is a swiveling plate behind section of terrain the hinges up. You attach the finished Iron Golem to one side of the swiveling mechanism and rotate it down so he lays hidden under the terrain trap door. While he is hidden underneath, the portion of the swivel plate that is facing up has blocks representative of building an Iron Golem on them. This includes a T shaped section of white bricks representing blocks of iron used in the game to create the Golem. On top, Alex can place the pumpkin head which completes the Golem. Once you do this, you can push the iron block and pumpkin construction backwards on the swiveling axle and plate to cause the actual finished Iron Golem to pop up from under the terrain trapdoor in its place. As the Iron Golem clears the terrain trap door, it automatically drops back down and the iron block and pumpkin construction is hidden reasonably out of sight behind the play set. The mechanism works well, although its a little bit cumbersome to reset, having to manually lift the terrain door up and drop the golem back down.

The rest of the build is very simple with relatively basic terrain. There is a hill that hides the Golem underneath it, a tiny section of water with a small water fall, a red flower, a pile of three minable stone blocks with an iron ore block hidden in the middle and a small crafting station with an L shaped wall, decorative wooden fence post and a crafting box and furnace. The last item is the piglet, which is the same head as the full size pig but only uses five total pieces to make the smaller version, which works surprisingly well for its size and fleshes out the set. There is also a single torch.

The completed model

This model is very simple and focuses primarily on the Iron Golem and its creation mechanic. The rest of the set is meant to support the story by providing a simple mining area to find iron ore, a furnace to smelt it into bars and a crafting box to make the iron blocks. There are some green 2x2 single stud plates to have the pumpkin "Growing" on, and all together this provides you with all the basic things you need to create your iron golem. The mechanism works decent and provides a fun play feature and since of the creation coming to life and the mining area and crafting station provide some fun other activities. The piglet rounds it out and adds some character to the set.

Overall opinion

The Iron Golem set provides a simple addition to the Lego Minecraft world and gives you a nice complete story package for collecting materials and creating an Iron Golem. The printed tiles are nice as is the inclusion of the piglet, furnace and crafting box. I appreciated the inclusion of four removable blocks for mining, something that some of the bigger sets even lack, but compared to the similarly priced "The Cave" set, it still has far to few in my opinion. The Iron Golem itself is good, but I did not care for the loose front plate. I also felt like the terrain was a little too simple, largely because it has to hide the golem; but some more texture would have been nice.