Minecraft - general discussion

[Alpinemaps]

What's your strategy for this? Flipping or investing?

If flipping you have your answer. If investing I'd pick them up. At 40% off I don't think you'll go wrong.

[Kenxxx]

terrymc - I've read a lot of your posts and I'm sure your experience as an investor exceeds mine.  It seems to me, you are always finding some great deals. I feel the Crafting Box 21116 at $29.99 is a good deal, but not a great one. It's a good seller, but it's a big box, heavy to ship, been offered at about $41 for most of it's life so really $29.99 is sort of like 27% off.  I also wonder about the "collectors' interest" in this set at retirement..? I mean... it's a collection of bricks for "getting creative" ... not really marketed as a specific "scene" .... so will your Minecraft display be incomplete without it? I'm just not sure.  It's probably a safe buy at this price, but - having seen some of the other deals you've posted here - I just bet you'll find a better place to invest your money next week.

[terrymc4677]

22 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

What's your strategy for this? Flipping or investing?

If flipping you have your answer. If investing I'd pick them up. At 40% off I don't think you'll go wrong.

 

10 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

terrymc - I've read a lot of your posts and I'm sure your experience as an investor exceeds mine.  It seems to me, you are always finding some great deals. I feel the Crafting Box 21116 at $29.99 is a good deal, but not a great one. It's a good seller, but it's a big box, heavy to ship, been offered at about $41 for most of it's life so really $29.99 is sort of like 27% off.  I also wonder about the "collectors' interest" in this set at retirement..? I mean... it's a collection of bricks for "getting creative" ... not really marketed as a specific "scene" .... so will your Minecraft display be incomplete without it? I'm just not sure.  It's probably a safe buy at this price, but - having seen some of the other deals you've posted here - I just bet you'll find a better place to invest your money next week.

I'll probably pick them up. I'm fairly certain these will spike during the holiday season, especially since their retail availability should be fairly scarce by then. If they underperform then I'll just hold them for a couple of years and see what happens. It's a low risk gamble. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything since I'm not as familiar with the theme as compared to others. Thanks for the replies, guys.

[Phil B]

10 minutes ago, terrymc4677 said:

 

I'll probably pick them up. I'm fairly certain these will spike during the holiday season, especially since their retail availability should be fairly scarce by then. If they underperform then I'll just hold them for a couple of years and see what happens. It's a low risk gamble. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything since I'm not as familiar with the theme as compared to others. Thanks for the replies, guys.

And if you're into this, 21116 makes a good parter-outer due to the many common, desirable bricks in it. Always a fall-back strategy.

[TheOrcKing]

[TheOrcKing]

 

[TheOrcKing]

 

[Kenxxx]

The recent markdowns on the first series of this theme has gotten me interested again. I'm not buying anything at less than 50% off right now... but seeing these markdowns makes me hope that some of these sets will eventually go EOL.  I still like looking at the numbers: price per brick, etc on these sets... more so than for other themes.  Maybe because I'm more skeptical about the long term interest? If kids and collectors turn their backs on Minecraft, we could be left with just a bunch of brown, green and grey bricks. ..?

Latest Amazon markdowns are: 21113 = $13.99, 21114 = $16.79*, 21115 = $27.59, 21116 = $35.19, 21117 = $39.19.

Crunching some numbers, I find that The Cave is now $.056 per brick, the Farm, 1st Night, and Crafting Box were all sub $.07 per brick at these prices, which is pretty much on par with prices for "Classic" brick boxes.  Because my son has some of these sets (opened), I weighed some boxes and manuals and subtracted that from the total set weight, to see just what we're paying per pound of bricks. The first four sets are now about $25 - $26 / lb. Though the 21117 Ender Dragon looks interesting at $.062 per brick (second lowest), it is still "overpriced" at about $36 / lb.

'Course I don't really believe the price per brick (or per pound) will significantly influence investment value of these sets... just an academic exercise really.

(*21114 held the $16.79 price for just a few days... and is now back to $20.99).

[tacsniper]

Have sets from this theme do well post retirement? I sold a ton of minifigures from The Cave and The Snow Hideout and parted out the rest of the set. I am guessing sets from this wave must be close to retirement with the new sets out and only more new ones coming before Christmas. I am thinking of pick some of these for this Christmas.

[TheOrcKing]

LEGO certainly has done an impressive job bringing the blocky buildable realm of Minecraft to the blocky buildable world we have grown up with. In just a couple years, they have covered almost every area or feature making the question of "where to now?" appear rather difficult.

It took so long for the 1.9 Combat Update to finally happen that to already see new additional content and changes in the upcoming 1.10 update possibly just around the corner is great news for the game and possibly LEGO. 1.9 expanded The End with villages & ships (each I find reminiscent of Dr. Seuss' illustrations for some reason) besides the Shulker mob and harvestable chorus fruit, soon with 1.10 we will have polar bears, buried fossils (made of the new bone block or standard coal ore), refining The Nether a bit by adding more uses for Nether Wart (Nether Wart block and Red Nether Brick blocks) plus the damaging Magma block, and biome specific mobs of Husks (desert zombies) and Strays (tundra skeletons).

Almost forgot 1.9 also gave specific skins representing the different professions a villager can have but for their undead afflicted brethren. This may not change much in the way of possible sets as we now have the traditional long-running Zombie Villager with The Village but you never know what the future may bring.

[cladner]

the majority of 2014 and 2015 Minecraft is being cleared at the last 6 walmarts i visited in the last 2 days at 50% off. this generally portends EOL which wouldn't be that surprising anyway for the 2014 sets but a little surprising for last years.

this theme is a total wild card in both what post EOL performance will be and how long the theme will run.  and how long minecraft interest will run for though i think there will be continued new users and thus potential buyers of these sets.

at 50% off, i have been bulking up.

[trekgate502]

6 hours ago, cladner said:

the majority of 2014 and 2015 Minecraft is being cleared at the last 6 walmarts i visited in the last 2 days at 50% off. this generally portends EOL which wouldn't be that surprising anyway for the 2014 sets but a little surprising for last years.

this theme is a total wild card in both what post EOL performance will be and how long the theme will run.  and how long minecraft interest will run for though i think there will be continued new users and thus potential buyers of these sets.

at 50% off, i have been bulking up.

 

Lego hanging like meat

 

Nice

[CM4Sci]

That looks so boring

How can anyone like LEGO Minecraft.. I'm sorry if you do but that looks soooo bad

[inversion]

57 minutes ago, CM4Sci said:

That looks so boring

How can anyone like LEGO Minecraft.. I'm sorry if you do but that looks soooo bad

So many other worthwhile materials to receive the very-large-set treatment. A 4000+ piece Castle Neuschwanstein is long overdue...

I see this as a result of a kindergartener trying to build something big with the basic bricks he or she has, randomly piling them on top of each other. Alternatively, a combination of basic retail minecraft sets, e.g Attack on Hoth v2. 

Edited May 7, 2017 by inversion

[inversion]

1 hour ago, jaisonline said:

it appears young kids like it.  i can't understand why my 7 yr old would build minecraft lego over pretty much every other theme.  his grandparents buy this theme for it.  i refuse out of stubbornness.

I am compelled to agree. What I noticed is that the bricks and building techniques in the Minecraft sets are making it much simpler and flexible for the kids to experiment, rebuild and rearrange these. The game and its characters provide them a point of orientation and a basis for familiar situations to play out.

As an adult, I don't care about this set. However, it packs heck of a lot of meat and seems to be full of nice situational play and build opportunities. As a kid, I would have gone crazy for this. And don't forget, that unlike most other themes meant for kids, the sets in this one are very easily combined with each other, providing an extra compulsion to buy more and expand the terrain.

The true question here is whether there are enough parents willing to buy expensive toys like this. In my experience and the market research my company did, the market of premium toys and parents' willingness throw cash on these is soaring and the growth is not expected to slow down in the next few years. Apparently, the recent rise of LEGO is believed to be mostly due to this phenomenon. As middle class and above people of generation Y are much more conscious about food, health, personal development than previous generations, the same can be said about parenting and toys. This generation focuses on quality over quantity, and is ready to pay.

Edited May 8, 2017 by inversion

[Rodeogeorge]

Anyone see the new minecraft set?

[donbee]

My kids love the Minecraft sets. They have three smaller sets and I buy some loose animals from Bricklink. They really wanted an Ender Dragon and I picked up a loose set on the Dutch Craiglist. Still have to check if it's complete.

I love these big sets like the mountain or the village but I just can't justify to myself (or the wife) spending 200 euros on it. Too much standard bricks.

When you buy loose animals, do you piece together the individual parts, or do you look for custom sets of the animals? I've been thinking of selling animals, but didn't know how best to list them.

[The Leveller]

Usually I piece them together because in my experience then they are cheaper in the Dutch BL stores. But maybe it's different in your region. I do think that most BL users just buy the whole animal. Just a lot easier.

[Deanfjr]

if anyone is waiting for the Crafting Box 2.0 to come out Aug 1st, Toys r us has it out early.... 

just got one for ourselves to take on our beach trip vacation, this should keep us very busy when idle in the hotel room.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Deanfjr

[Stud-Flipper]

I'm trying to get my 7 y/o nephew a bunch of minecraft sets for Christmas but am on a tight budget. Would it be price efficient to brinklink the pieces together vs. buying the sets built? Any particular sets this would work best for? I'm not super concerned with minifigures and any set specific pieces, so it's not a big deal if I build them and they're missing a few pieces here and there. I'm going more for quantity. 

Also, does anyone know how much it'd cost to buy the pieces to build the ender dragon? just the dragon itself

Edited September 4, 2017 by Stud-Flipper

[Ed Mack]

2 hours ago, Stud-Flipper said:

I'm trying to get my 7 y/o nephew a bunch of minecraft sets for Christmas but am on a tight budget. Would it be price efficient to brinklink the pieces together vs. buying the sets built? Any particular sets this would work best for? I'm not super concerned with minifigures and any set specific pieces, so it's not a big deal if I build them and they're missing a few pieces here and there. I'm going more for quantity. 

Also, does anyone know how much it'd cost to buy the pieces to build the ender dragon? just the dragon itself

My son has discovered Minecraft to my dismay.  The sets are damn expensive for basic builds.  Honestly, a large Creative Box would do well as a replacement.

[TheOrcKing]

And so the latest major update to Minecraft had fallen just a few days ago. I must say villages now are vastly more interesting than before and about time so many mainstay blocks got their proper slab, stair, wall, whatnot treatment. Also world generation in general appears even better seeming more cohesive with less floating islands and weird "worm trails" through the environment. I haven't had to go far down searching for ores aside from diamonds as it should (though I think that could be from the last update like many of the passive mobs such as horses being significantly easier to spot close-by).

Between the much improved villages and expanded Illager lore, we could see some more nice sets down the road.

 

[Ed Mack]

My son really enjoys the new maps and game options.  Easter eggs, cake and treasure is all that I hear him scream about.  I guess that's better than shooting people up on GTA 5 or lighting them on fire in Red Dead Redemption 2.

[Foreman Porgy]

Steve ?

[TheOrcKing]

And so the next major release has finally launched. With 1.16, the Nether has truly become its own unique realm featuring a handful of visually distinctive biomes over the former 'nothing but netherrack' landscape. Bastions and Piglins are in a sense the Village and Villagers of the Nether respectively (except the Piglins will kick your butt should you cross them, haha). Unfortunately the ever-classic Zombie Pigman is no more being replaced by the Zombified Piglin. Though mostly similar there are some visual differences meaning any past Minecraft LEGO sets including the original Zombie Pigman minifigure could see an uptick. Perhaps even bring attention to many of the Nether sets in general.

Anywho, the Nether looks really good and while still quite dangerous actually fun to explore. I can almost imagine a sort of "Netherblock" challenge map (basically the Nether equivalent to Skyblock). For anyone who plays, you do not need to start a new world to check out the new Nether thankfully. Either you can explore further in your Nether where newly generated chunks will use the new code or you can delete the folder in your world save for the Nether. Various videos on YouTube and some general articles about resetting the Nether can help with the process better than me.