The Llama Village Review (21188)

As soon as I saw the pictures for the new LEGO Minecraft wave, I immediately realised we should’ve delayed Minecraft May for this wave, it’s amazing! Luckily our friends as Zavvi managed to send us this set, the biggest of the wave! It’s one of the biggest of the entire theme too! There’s a ton to dive into, so this time I’ll start with the minifigures, which are almost as good as the set itself. The set comes with 9 minifigures, which are listed below:

-Two players, a knight and a farmer
-Two Savannah Villagers, a normal one and a weaponsmith
-A Vindicator
-A Pillager Captain
-A baby pink sheep
-And finally, two llamas, a baby white one and an adult brown one.

Whoo! That’s a lot of minifigures! If I had to pick my top 3 it would be very hard, as almost all the minifigures are unique to this set. But the two new villagers would have to be in the top 3, as well as the knight, who even has a llama on the back of their armour! The minifigures are created over the course of the build, which is unusual for LEGO Minecraft, but I’m not complaining, they’re all awesome!

The set instead begins with a few stalls from the village. There’s a cool looking stone forge, as well as a normal stall for the farmer. There is also a nice little stable for the animals that has an opening and closing gate. As well as the stalls there are also some small base plates with flowers and a well with a bell (haha it rhymes). These connect to the main baseplate that the mega llama is built on to make a mini village.

The first part of the llama (by the way, if you haven’t seen the set already, the giant llama is a big statue that has a Minecraft base inside) to be built are the legs, they’re created in ‘L’ shapes and them stacked on top of each other. The colour scheme is a really nice white, blue and yellow mix, which are also the colours of a wandering trader’s llama, the mob the build is modelled off. The main baseplate has an acacia tree, which is great, but because it is next to the legs it’s pretty squashed and looks a tad weird.

On top of the legs another base is constructed, this is the main floor of the llama’s body. The walls are built on top of this baseplate, but the coolest part has to be the mini balcony/windows that are built into the wall’s sides. They look like little trader stalls and on one side the walls can even open up to access the inside of the llama!

The inside of the llama is decorated with lots of little pieces of furniture and blocks that a Minecraft player would have inside their base. There are some little chairs, some coloured beds with candles next to them, some nice carpets, a crafting table and furnace, as well as a nice bookshelf that has a creeper head. But my favourite part is definitely the fish tank built into the wall! It has a little pufferfish inside and looks super sweet.

The backside of the llama is also open, and there are some vines under it for the player to climb down.

Once the main inside area has been completed, the set is almost finished. There is just a roof and the llama head left. The roof also helpfully comes off, allowing you to access the entire inside of the llama and get a lot of room for play. The llama head is hollow at the bottom and has a little table with a map.

At the top there is obviously the llama’s head and facial details, which I think were nailed really well, along with a play function. By pulling a red piece at the back of the llama’s head. Some blocks of ‘water’ slide down and out from the bottom of its mouth. It’s pretty cool, but as a player of Minecraft myself, I don’t see much practical use for it in the game.

Once you have finished the head, the final thing to add on are some vines and some banners. The colour banners hang from the llama’s neck and ears and really add some colour to the build, just like the real trader llama from the game.

Overall Thoughts

For one of the biggest sets of the Minecraft theme, this set lived up to the expectations. It has a ton of minifigures, all of which are epic and unique. As for the actual build, it comes with a mini village that is modular and can be arranged in many different ways. The village is cool in its own right, but the coolest part of the set definitely has to be its centrepiece, a giant llama! It’s filled with blocks and furniture, but also looks great on the outside too! This was a ripper of a set!

A special thanks to our friends at Zavvi who supplied this set for us to build. Check them out for great deals on LEGO sets.