Minecraft

The Modern Treehouse

The tallest treehouse Minecraft ever gave us, with a charged Creeper hiding at the bottom.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 21174 · 2021

Pieces909

Minifigs4

Year2021

Set number21174

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The verdict

This is the most convincing brick-built jungle tree LEGO Minecraft has made, and the height of it genuinely surprised me when I stood it up.

A hidden Technic spine runs through the whole trunk so it never wobbles, and the four little rooms rotate around it like a proper cross-section of a home. I'll be straight with you, the base looks a bit bare next to the game and the price always ran high, but if you love the blocky world this one earns its shelf space. Best for Minecraft kids who want the big centerpiece build rather than a small skirmish set.

Best for: Minecraft fans who want a tall centerpiece build over a small battle scene

The full review

What it is

The first time I got this treehouse standing on its feet I actually took a step back, because the height is the whole point and photos really undersell it. This is the closest LEGO Minecraft has come to recreating those tall jungle trees to scale, and it reads as a jungle tree from across the room, all cubed green canopy and a chunky trunk climbing out of the grass. Four rooms live inside and around that trunk, a kitchen, a library, a study and a bedroom, each one packed with the little pixel-shaped furniture and accessories that make this theme feel like the game come to life. There is bedding, there are tools, there is even TNT, and the rooms swing around the central spine so a kid can actually reach in and play rather than just look.

The catch

I want to be honest about where it falls short, because it does. The base is the weak spot. In the game a jungle floor is a riot of vines and dropped leaves, and here it is mostly plain grass with not much clutter, so the bottom of the model feels emptier than the glorious top. The launch price also ran high for 909 pieces, and while the sheer height goes some way to justifying that heft, you are partly paying for the ambition rather than the part count. The hidden Technic structure that keeps the trunk so satisfyingly rigid comes with a trade, too. It threads through the whole build and locks a lot of it in place, so you get less of the freeform rearranging that makes other Minecraft sets so endlessly hackable.

Who it's for

So who ends up happy here. If you or the young builder in your life loves the Minecraft world and wants one tall showpiece to anchor a shelf, this is a lovely pick, and the rotating rooms give it genuine play value beyond display. It is also a manageable build, a couple of hours across a hundred-plus clearly illustrated steps, so it suits a Minecraft fan who wants something substantial without a marathon. I would steer away if you are chasing intricate detail or a set you can tear apart and rebuild a dozen ways, because the Technic backbone quietly says no to that. And since it retired at the end of 2022, you are now shopping the secondary market, so weigh what you are paying against what you actually want from it.

The parts story

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

Building this is a steady, friendly couple of hours across just over a hundred steps, and the instructions are lovely and clear the whole way. The heart of it is that Technic frame you assemble first, a proper internal skeleton that runs up through the trunk and out into the base, and it is honestly the most satisfying part to build because you can feel the model getting stronger as it grows. Once that spine is in, the rest is classic Minecraft cube-stacking, the greenery, the trunk texture and the four little furnished rooms, and it never gets fiddly enough to frustrate a younger builder.

For parts, the headline is the minifigures. You get four, and two of them are exclusive to this set, the panda and ocelot skins that were brand new to the theme when it launched, alongside a standard Zombie. The real collector pull is the charged Creeper, which had not appeared since 21137 The Mountain Cave back in 2017, so it is a genuinely rare face to pull out of the box. Beyond the figures, the value is really in the volume of those blocky recolored plates and slopes that give the canopy and trunk their pixel look, plus the animal builds and stacks of authentic accessories that let you dress every room.

Fun facts

01The charged Creeper included here was its first appearance since 21137 The Mountain Cave in 2017, making it one of the rarer minifigures in the theme.
02A hidden Technic structure runs up through the trunk and across the base, and reviewers found the tree held firm no matter how far they pushed it.
03Two of the four minifigures, the panda and ocelot skins, were introduced to the LEGO Minecraft theme with this set.
04The Modern Treehouse released in June 2021 at 119.99 US dollars and retired in December 2022, standing as one of the tallest builds in the range.