LEGO Minecraft: The Coral Reef 21164 Review!

In most aspects of Life it’s the smaller things that tend to be missed or skipped over in favour of bigger or better things. The same can be said for LEGO sets, this one nearly passed me by entirely!

If it wasn’t for a quick midnight browse on Amazon I still wouldn’t of know this existed. I like to think I’m somewhat clued-up on LEGO releases, especially the new 2021 sets, perhaps it was the overwhelming number of new releases announced that this little hen slipped through the net.

My young Son (5) absolutely loves anything and everything about Minecraft and he has a handful of LEGO sets, of course, on his shelf. So having stumbled upon this small and inexpensive set I knew he’d like it and ultimately want it, after a slow but school work filled week he deserved a treat!

The box

The build:

As small builds go this 92 piece set is full of colour and fun, and great for adding onto your other LEGO Minecraft sets. It’s also ideal for new comers who aren’t quite sure what to expect or familiar with the massive World of Minecraft!

The build

Its foundations are made up of three 6×6 plates, two tan and one dark gray. This represents the bottom of the ocean where the Coral Reef sits, along with a chest and a Drowned.

I’ve always liked Minecraft and as LEGO Minecraft goes it’s a perfect match, both primarily being ‘block’ oriented. The ease of which this, and any other set can simply clip or join onto an existing set is great, it opens up the World you create and allows for unlimited playability.

After assembling a few blocks of Coral and popping them into place you then stuff the chest with goodies. As it’s centred around the ocean a fish and sea pickle takes up most of the space inside. You slot the chest into the alcove, with the rubber stopper poking forwards, you can now turn the circular 2×2 yellow brick and out shoots the goodies!

Argh, there be the treasure

It comes complete with two sea creatures, both Puffer fish, one deflated and the other inflated.

Both tiles are printed and look pretty decent, as with most Minecraft designs they’re blocky (intentional) and flat. These are colourful and bright the depict the in game Pufferfish great.

Big fish, little fish…

Don’t let the size of this set put you off, if you’re into LEGO and of course Minecraft it’s a great addition to any fans collection. The build, colourful parts, and playability is top notch for something so small. The Minifigures are another good reason to have this set.

The Minifigures:

Included are two character Minifigures, one is protagonist Alex, she accompanies Steve and together they build, fight, and survive the harsh World of Minecraft.

Alex

Alex sports some rather nice trousers, a pale shade of purple called medium lavender. The pasta colours always grab my interest, with sand green and blue being top of my list, they’re great colours to build MOC houses etc.

The helmet is bright green and if my Minecraft knowledge serves me correctly it represents a Turtle shell helmet, which allows you to last a little longer underwater.

Drowned

The other Minifigure is a dreaded Drowned, who show up night or day and hide underwater waiting to pounce.

I find this Minifigure fascinating, more so than the others as it is a largely looked-over character, the whole colour palette is cool looking from the minty green arms and head to the dark reddish brown legs and torso. The printing on both is crisp and detailed, as you’d expect from LEGO.

These two Minifigures will be added into my Son’s ever expanding Minecraft collection and will no doubt be morphed into some sort of Alex/Steve/Zombie abomination.

Conclusion:

The set might be small but it is really enjoyable and packs a lot of bright & colourful parts and two great Minifigures into it.

The build enables you to build a small part of an under water World and a Coral Reef. Being both LEGO and Minecraft you can obviously connect this to other sets to expand your block World.

You get two cool Minifigures, Alex and a Drowned, included and their colour palettes, designs, prints, and accessories are great.

I must say that LEGO Minecraft is really growing on me, and I can’t wait to expand mine and my Son’s collections!