There’s been a lot of speculation about the first LEGO CUUSOO set, so the official announcement is a welcome relief. The set is due out this summer.
The set splits into four sections.
See all the photos in my photoset on Flickr.
Here’s the official press release:
LEGO® Minecraft™ Micro World details unveiled, available for pre-order
BILLUND, Denmark – The LEGO Group and Mojang have released purchase details and pictures of the LEGO® Minecraft™ Micro World today.
The new set, which was the first to receive 10,000 votes of support from users on the global LEGO CUUSOO idea collection platform, will be available for purchase in summer 2012, but can be pre-ordered from today, exclusively through Mojang retail partner Jinx.com for $34.99 €34.99 at http://www.jinx.com/LEGOMinecraft. The sets will also be sold in select LEGO brand retail stores and the LEGO online shop from summer 2012.
“LEGO Minecraft Micro World is designed to celebrate the essence of the LEGO concept and the Minecraft gaming experience,” said Paal Smith-Meyer, Head of the LEGO New Business Group. Each set features four cubic modular vignettes that can be connected to recreate the Minecraft experience in LEGO bricks. One Minecraft block is represented as one 1×1 LEGO plate with a tile on top — not a perfect cube, but the best approximation at the chosen scale.
LEGO Minecraft Micro World includes two of Minecraft’s most iconic characters, Steve and a Creeper, represented as “Micro Mobs.” The model presents a standard for building a Minecraft world that can be configured any way the builder likes.
The surface of the modules comes off to reveal mines and hidden resources beneath. Fans can build their own landscapes, stack cubes on top of each other, to build the world of Minecraft as they wish.
The product was developed in collaboration with four LEGO fans: Chris Malloy, Michael Thomas, Kyle Tingey, and Bjarne Panduro Tveskov. These fans developed concepts alongside LEGO designers and helped shape the product into its final version.Upon seeing the physical model the first time, Mojang founder Markus “Notch” Persson exclaimed: “Woohoo!”
LEGO CUUSOO is a website where LEGO fans can submit their ideas for new LEGO products and collect votes to make their ideas become a reality. They can also vote for other users’ ideas. It can be found at http://lego.cuusoo.com.
Ideas that are supported by 10,000 votes have a chance of being selected to become part of the LEGO Group’s product portfolio. Consumers who have their ideas chosen will earn 1% of the total net sales of the product.
Mojang will donate the 1% proceeds from LEGO CUUSOO to charity.
For more on the co-creation process for LEGO Minecraft Micro World, see the LEGO CUUSOO blog at http://legocuusoo.posterous.com.
Special congratulations to TBB’s own Chris Malloy for his involvement in the launch of the first global LEGO CUUSOO project!
Let the inevitable discussion ensue.
Woot.
they look great. I’ve never played Minecraft, but I’ve always been on board with this idea. The modular concept is great, and I’m all for the excessive amounts of 1×1 tiles in harder to come by colors:) I’m glad Kansas City will be getting a Lego store this summer!
This exceeds all of my expectations. I will probably end up scraping it for all of those awesome 1×1 tiles. Great work Lego. Great work indeed.
I was never keen on this idea but I have to say it’s turned out pretty well. And it’s an awesome 1×1 tile and plate megapack.
Well, at least it looks like it’ll be a decent parts pack. Hopefully at a good price/part ratio.
@ Catsy:
On the LEGO Minecraft Facebook page, the image indicates 480 pieces for $34.99. So, pretty good! It isn’t quite at the level of the brick only sets, but that’s probably to be expected.
http://www.facebook.com/LEGOMinecraft
…a reasonable part scaping set I guess, although I think I’ll just stick with BrickLink on this occasion ;-)
Thanks to their choice of micro scale, I expect we’ll see a flurry of fan-made extensions to the concept to start appearing very soon, covering all the block types that this set doesn’t cover, popular mods, and so on.
–> I eagerly await to see who comes up with the first decent Enderman at this scale!
Of course, the minute my kids see the picture of this set, I can kiss goodbye to any semblence of order to my Lego workshop. I just know they are going to ransack it to create massive micro minecraft landscapes. But if it gets them away from actual Minecraft for a few minutes in the day …I am all for it!
Iain.
Seems like the challenge of building these sets are not there.
Though some small parts are desirable … the challenge of building these sets are not there (almost zero playability/build-a-bility value) . I rather buy the parts separately from bricklink.
I dont see any 1×1 slopes there, which are high on my wanted list for smooth MOCs. :[
Looks pretty realistic although I have never played Minecraft before. Should’ve included some piggies. :)
Technically, this is NOT the first LEGO CUSOO set – that was the Japanese submersible.
This is the first worldwide set, maybe, or US set, but you need to qulaify the word “first”
“This is the first worldwide set…”
Thus the word “global” in my own comment at the end. As a Japanese-speaker myself, I’m well aware of LEGO CUUSOO’s history and origins. ;-)
Yah that is awesome and cool. I play Minecraft and the game is awesome, and I also build with Legos and that is awesome. So now that they are combined they are Double the Awesome.