First, I am a Minecraft fan. Second, I'm not a big Lego Minecraft fan. As an adult these are way too simple, hence the age (6-14) range for the sets. I do like the Creeper figure, although I wouldn't call it a brick built figure. It was more like a regular mini-fig build. The TNT concept with the “exploding” brick was a nice concept as well but it does not execute as well as I would like. It tends to get stuck quite a bit and doesn't throw the item as well as I think it should. The little trinkets in the treasure chest are “nice to have” items (ie…melon slices), but they get lost very easily due to their small size. Watermelon prints are always nice to have, even if they are square...very Minecraft specific. Even though the terrain build is simplistic, it is very well done. The shades of color mixing together actually makes it look like grass, dirt, and water, just like in the game. Stone is done in a gray color, of course and all the base terrain looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye. My issue with it is that it is just too simple for an adult.

If you have children, these Minecraft sets are excellent, but then again, there are small parts in it. I realize that it says for ages 6-14, but no true LEGO person pays attention to that...LOL. These sets are just so low in price they are hard for a LEGO junkie to pass up. I have 2 now, just because they cost so little, and it puts a little more LEGO in my office. All that said, this is a good time consumer for an experienced builder and a good basic LEGO learning experience for a new builder.

I have enjoyed playing Minecraft since I was first properly introduced to it in 2012. I have put countless hours into the game since then, building crazy structures and villages. However I was never really tempted to buy Lego’s Minecraft theme. Something about them just didn’t seem to appeal to me, the blocky design reminded me to much of an old school era of Lego which was before my time, and I really couldn’t see myself spending money on the larger Minecraft sets when more tempting sets from the Star Wars and Marvel themes beckoned my wallet. I ignored the Minecraft theme until last summer, when my uncle brought one of my younger cousins to visit our home. With him he brought the Nether Railway set he had recently got as a gift, and I helped my cousin build the set and played with him a bit with that. It was one of the first times, in a LONG time I had really been around a kid playing with Lego; and it was wonderfully hilarious and imaginative time; and it kind of opened up my mind a bit more to the Minecraft theme. The Melon Farm as a small $15 “battlepack” sized set was the perfect chance for me to finally bite and buy at least one Lego Minecraft set; both for my own love of the game and perhaps a reminder of that insane childish wonder I witnessed watching my cousin build a Minecraft set a few months earlier.

Figures

Steve, an almost omnipresent figure in the Minecraft range, Steve captures the character’s classic look in the video game with a thick pixelated beard, blue shirt and purple pants (in the current base Minecraft game Steve is clean shaven, making Lego’s bearded version a nice throwback to the classic days of the game). The head piece is new to me, but should be familiar to anyone who has a prior Lego Minecraft set. He comes with a whip piece and a carrot to represent the “fishing pole with carrot” from the game.

Villager, the honking, emerald trading, farming and door-lusting denizens of Minecraft are the closest to “civilization” a player of the game can see outside of the player’s own builds. Lego’s figure is pretty spot on, with an awesome torso piece showing the folded arms. I imagine MOC builders are using these new torso piece to create robed monks (I think the white torso from the more expensive Minecraft sets could be used as a Lego straight jacket to…). The head is pretty cool, with a long nose molded into it; although some of the printing is weird… especially the white and tan pixels on the head. Does this villager have leprosy? Sure looks like that a bit with those random pixels! But I digress… I have the Villager on display currently in the doorway of the pub in my Detective’s Office set… since doors seem to have such an arousing affect on him... Besides I am sure he just comes with this set to replace the potato and carrot growths with bland wheat farms anyway... better to leave him by the door of the pub even if the love hearts coming from him creep out the other patrons a bit.

Pig, a cool brickbuilt animal; I like the mold used for the head. This pig comes with a saddle, explaining why Steve came with a carrot on a fishing pole… this is Minecraft’s classic pig riding! Long before horses, donkeys, mules, and llamas were introduced in the game; swine were the prime Minecraft animal of labor. Which mostly resulted in meandering in circles a bit then falling off a cliff ... As it turns out using a carrot on a fishing pole is NOT an efficient form of guiding a pig. I wish the set came with one more pink plate though, so I could switch out the saddle piece for a more classic looking Minecraft pig (because really, who rides pigs in Minecraft these days?)

Creeper, if there was ONE figure from the theme I wanted to get even before this set came out; it was the Creeper. The iconic exploding leaf monster of Minecraft, the Lego version is pretty spectacular. Using the same head piece as Steve, the body is also a unique mold with a peg to mount a minifigure head on top, SNOT bricks to cover the body in tiles, and legs posed in a ‘walking’ position. Awesome figure, and I almost wish the set came with more of these guys so I could amass an army of these to terrorize my Lego city…

The Build

So one of the reasons I didn’t gravitate to the Minecraft sets before, was in part because the theme has a very VERY old school Lego style. Not a lot of SNOT or crazy technics to get in cool curves, but instead a very classic look with sharp 90 degree angles, lots of 2x2 and 2x4 bricks, and plates stacked on top. Not the most compelling build, but basic building tricks are included to allow a few of the play features in the set. (Yes, I am aware though that the blocky style is very game accurate... still...)

When finished, there are a few interesting things to note. The set includes two melons; the green color doesn’t really match the yellow melons currently in game, but looks more like a real world Watermelon, such as the novelty cube melons they grow in Japan. The melon’s use the same cube piece previously mentioned for Steve and the Creeper’s heads. There is a printed banner that has a melon shape on it, to designate that this farm, well… grows melons! Now I see why it’s called the Melon Farm… ;) A few of the new flower petals are included for the potato plants growing to the side of the melons, and a hole in the ground allows one to plant a Lego carrot then harvest it. A few printed tiles for harvested melon slices can be put in the included chest. Finally, a small lever on the back can be struck to blow off a bit of the set representing the after effects of a Creeper blast.

Final Verdict

At $15 this is a good spot to dip into the Minecraft theme, and get four desirable minifigures along with a decent build. I figure though, that this set is really intended for the hardcore Lego Minecraft fans, as the Melon Farm can be strung together with the larger Farm set released this year and the Chicken Coop to create a Minecraft farming diorama. So without the other sets to accompany it… there really isn’t much point in displaying this little set on its own. As it stands now, the set sits on a storage shelf with some of my other random sets, since I really have no place for it elsewhere in the collection.

But the four figures justified the purchase for me. I am glad to have these iconic characters from the game in such a cheap set, and adding the four of them together into my Lego City helps to further the pop culture kitsch of that display (I mean, I already have the Lego Movie cast, Spider-Man, Halloween monsters, and the Wicked Witch in the city! Minecraft isn’t going to look out of place there).

Ultimately, I gotta say this is a middle of the road set. It does its job well, but doesn’t excel in any way that make me more interested in the theme. Honestly, my experience with my cousin I previously mentioned has me more interested in the thought of maybe someday buying another Lego Minecraft set than the Melon Farm gave me. However, I do recommend this to any Minecraft fan looking to try out a bit of the theme in a low cost/low risk set which provides a great figure pack at the end of the day.

2/5

The playability and price lack due to the price per part ratio. The parts are good and the building experience was average.