Minecraft

The Deep Dark Battle

The Warden is the reason to buy this, and honestly, that's plenty.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 21246 · 2023

Pieces584

Minifigs2

Year2023

Set number21246

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The verdict

The Warden is the whole point here, and I mean that as a compliment.

He is fully brick-built, poseable in a way most Minecraft mobs aren't, and he rises up out of the deepslate when you turn a knob, which never stopped being satisfying for me. The ancient city around him is a touch plain and the price runs high for the piece count, but if a Minecraft fan in your orbit fell in love with the deep dark biome, this lands. Casual builders chasing display value should look elsewhere.

Best for: Minecraft players who got obsessed with the deep dark biome

The full review

What it is

The deep dark is the scariest corner of Minecraft, the one where the music stops and you learn to walk slowly, and this set gets that feeling more right than I expected from 584 pieces. It builds the ancient city ruins in dark deepslate grey, threads sculk through the stonework, and then hides the real star underneath the floor. The Warden is what got me. He is fully brick-built, stands over nine centimeters tall, and when you turn a knob on the side he rises straight up out of the deepslate like he does in the game. I sat there working that knob far longer than a grown woman probably should.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the price, because it is the one thing that keeps this from being an easy yes. At 64.99 dollars for 584 pieces, this is one of the pricier Minecraft sets by piece count, and a good chunk of that budget is going into the Warden rather than the environment around him. The ancient city itself is honest but plain, more backdrop than centerpiece, and once the Warden is standing there is not a lot of structure left to admire. You also get just two minifigs, the Arbalest knight and the Netherite knight, so this is not the set for anyone chasing a crowded scene.

Who it's for

If someone in your life went deep on the 1.19 update and came back talking about sculk sensors and the thing that hunts you by sound, this is the set that speaks their language, and the Warden alone will make their day. Kids around the recommended eight and up will get real mileage out of the rising figure and the exploding tower. If you mostly want a dense, clever display build for the shelf, or you measure sets in pieces per dollar, I would gently steer you toward a different Minecraft box. This one is about the character, not the architecture.

The parts story

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

The build splits into two moods, and the Warden half is the good one. Putting him together is a proper little study in bracket-and-plate engineering, everything locked down so his arms and head can be posed and re-posed without popping off, which is exactly why reviewers keep calling him virtually indestructible. The ancient city section is simpler, mostly stacking deepslate greys and slotting in sculk detailing, so younger builders can manage it while the figure gives the adults something to chew on.

The dark palette is the quiet win in the parts breakdown. You get a generous pile of deepslate-grey and dark-turquoise sculk elements that are perfect for anyone building spooky or cave dioramas, plus the little printed and molded touches Minecraft does so well. The chest tucks away a bone, a healing potion, and two snowballs, and the mechanical bits (the lift knob and the explosion trigger) are the sort of function pieces that are handy to have in the parts bin later. For value, you are paying a premium, but a fair share of it buys that one-of-a-kind Warden.

Fun facts

01The Warden and the deep dark biome arrived in Minecraft's 1.19 Wild Update in 2022, so this 2023 set was among the first times LEGO fans could build the game's newest and most feared mob.
02The brick-built Warden stands over 3.5 inches (9 cm) tall and rises up out of the deepslate when you turn a knob, mirroring how he emerges in the game when a sculk shrieker is triggered.
03The set launched at 64.99 dollars and has since retired. Sealed copies have climbed to around 100 dollars on the aftermarket, up roughly 54 percent over the original price.