How we crafted the LEGO® Minecraft® The Crafting Table set

It wasn’t long after the world got its first look at a charming, block-built sandbox game called Minecraft® that its popularity began to grow. In the 15 years that have followed, the game has become a global sensation and the best-selling video game of all time.

Built around the now iconic heroes Steve and Alex and their friends, the game is all about creating new adventures in different biomes where the only limit is your imagination.

Now, you can celebrate the 15^th anniversary of Minecraft with the LEGO® Minecraft The Crafting Table set.

To find out more about how this set was crafted, we spoke to LEGO Designer Isaac Snyder.

Gaming put to good use

Before he came to work on the set, Isaac was familiar with the world of Minecraft and had spent plenty of time on the game.

“I fondly remember playing with my brother and friends,” he says. “It was lots of fun building different bases and exploring the world. Since working on LEGO Minecraft, I have spent much more time playing and learning about the game.”

That knowledge must have come in handy, because Isaac has worked on a lot of sets!

“My first was The Bee Farm, and now I have designed 12 in total,” he says. “Including the Red Barn, the Panda Haven, the Nether Portal Ambush and The Windmill Farm.”

So, with all of this experience, how did he go about designing The Crafting Table?

“I began by exploring multiple broad concepts on what the model could be,” he says. “Then, as a team, we landed on the premise of a crafting table with a scene contained inside it. After that, we spent more time iterating on what that scene should be. Ultimately, we landed on a Micro World, because it was a great callback to the original LEGO Minecraft sets and also let us create a much more expansive scene than would have been possible at minifigure scale.”

Crafting the table

This versatile set features five mini-build modules and 12 Minecraft biomes, including the Taiga with a dripstone cave, Plains with a village, Ice Spikes with an igloo, Cherry Grove with an abandoned mineshaft, and the Deep Dark with a lush cave. The mini-builds and figures can be removed from the main model to enable a variety of customized display possibilities.

The detailed 1,195-piece set is also packed with Easter eggs that Minecraft fans will love.

“The base of the model is built using orange, black and dark gray elements as a nod to the lava and bedrock you find at the bottom of all Minecraft worlds,” Isaac says. “Before you build the Micro Modules, you put together a map which hints at what biomes will be coming later. I enjoyed hiding all types of Overworld ore throughout the Micro Modules.”

Crafting the characters

The LEGO Minecraft The Crafting Table set also comes with eight microfigures, including Steve, Alex, a skeleton, a witch, a Creeper™, a villager, a cow and a pig.

Crafting these figures was one of the more interesting parts of the design for Isaac.

“Getting the characters as small as possible while still being recognizable was our objective,” he says. “And the simple stack of three plates worked perfectly thanks to the distinct color blocking of Minecraft’s characters and mobs.

With a few new decorations, they really came to life!”

A set that builders will love

Isaac and the team worked hard to make sure this set would offer something new for fans of Minecraft.

“It’s an engaging build experience with the mix of crafting table and Micro World sections, and it should bring back lots of great memories of their experience playing Minecraft,” he says. “Plus, it offers a variety of display options with the crafting table side, Micro World layout, or even setting out the individual micro biomes separately.”

And there are a lot of fans out there. We asked Isaac why he thought Minecraft had proven so popular over the years.

“The ability to play however suits you, and the incredible depth to the game,” says Isaac. “If you’re into engineering and figuring out functions, redstone offers endless options. If you like exploring and fighting dangerous enemies, there’s plenty of beautiful environments to discover and challenging bosses to confront. If you want to custom craft your own new biome or ultimate base, also completely possible. And all of the above can be done individually or with friends!”

Sounds a lot like LEGO sets, really. No wonder LEGO bricks and Minecraft are such a good match.

© 2024 Mojang AB. All Rights Reserved. Minecraft, the Minecraft logo, the Mojang Studios logo and the Creeper logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.