Minecraft

The Bedrock Adventures

A whole vertical slice of the Overworld, from grassy surface all the way down to bedrock.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 21147 · 2018

Pieces644

Minifigs2

Year2018

Set number21147

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The verdict

This is the Minecraft set that finally gave me the thing I always wanted from the theme, actual depth.

You dig down through three connected levels, from the sunny surface, through the mine, all the way to the bedrock floor, and every layer has something to trigger. I love it as a play set, and I think any Minecraft-obsessed kid will too. The one thing that keeps me honest is the price it launched at, because 644 pieces for ninety dollars was always a stretch.

Best for: Minecraft-mad kids who want a set they can actually dig through and play with, not just display

The full review

The Bedrock Adventures is the Minecraft set that got the geometry right for me. Instead of one flat little scene, you build a tall cross-section of the world that reads exactly like sinking a mineshaft in the game. There is the grassy surface up top with its water and a lavafall, the mine level in the middle, and then the dark bedrock floor at the bottom, all linked by ladders you actually climb your minifigs down. The first time I dropped Steve down through all three levels I grinned, because it finally felt like the set understood what mining in Minecraft is, which is going down.

I do have to be straight with you about the money. This launched at 89.99 for 644 pieces, and that math never looked kind, roughly fourteen cents a piece when a lot of those pieces are the small cubes and plates that make the blocky look. A fair number of builders winced at the price and said they could not recommend it at full retail, and I understand that completely. It is not a parts-value bargain, and it is not a set that will wow an adult collector with clever engineering. What you are really paying for is the play features and the sheer amount of stuff crammed into the layout.

So here is how I would sort it. If there is a kid in your life who lives and breathes Minecraft, this is close to ideal, because it plays the way they already play in the game, digging, triggering traps, respawning mobs and blowing up the TNT plate over and over. The three-level design gives them somewhere to actually send their characters. If you are an adult builder chasing display pieces or unusual techniques, this one will not do much for you, and there are better ways to spend ninety dollars. Now that it is retired and climbing on the aftermarket, I would only chase a boxed copy if the nostalgia is real for you, otherwise grab a loose one and let a kid wreck it.

Retired since late 2019, it has crept up in value, but this was always a set to play with rather than to seal away.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building it is genuinely relaxing rather than challenging. It goes together in tidy sub-sections, the surface, the mine and the bedrock floor, and because the Minecraft aesthetic is all right angles and repeated cubes, an eight-year-old can follow the steps and put most of it together on their own. That is a feature, not a knock, this is a set designed to be built and rebuilt by kids. The functions are where the interest lives: the TNT blast plate, the pop-out silverfish, and the little rotating spawner all get assembled as you go, so there is a payoff waiting at each level.

Do not come here for exotic new molds, because the charm is in the printing and the color spread. You get the printed ore blocks and obsidian faces, the green Creeper and Steve and Alex heads, plus a lovely pile of Minecraft accessories: a shield, armor, shovel, bucket, torches, a crafting table, furnace and chest. The single most valuable part in the box is the Alex minifig with the flat silver armor and legs, which collectors still hunt down. None of the two minifigs are strictly exclusive, but the mob assortment, Creeper, cave spider, zombie, bat and two silverfish, is a strong haul to pull out of one box.

Fun facts

01The set is built as a three-layer vertical cross-section of the Overworld, letting you climb ladders from the grassy surface down through the mine to the bedrock floor.
02It packs in eight creatures total: Steve, Alex, a Creeper, a cave spider, a zombie, a bat and two silverfish.
03The rock face hides a spring-loaded silverfish that pops out when you mine it, mimicking the game's infested-block jump scare.
04Released in August 2018 at 89.99 dollars and retired in December 2019, boxed copies have since climbed well above their original price.