Minecraft

The Redstone Battle

The whole Minecraft Dungeons squad plus two glowing brutes, and the monstrosity is the reason to buy it.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 21163 · 2020

Pieces511

Minifigs4

Year2020

Set number21163

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The verdict

This was the very first LEGO set based on Minecraft Dungeons, and it swings big by handing you not one but two hostile creatures from the redstone mines.

The Redstone Monstrosity is a genuinely imposing hunk of a figure and the four exclusive heroes are the best part of the whole box. It is not flawless, the monstrosity waddles and a few surfaces are left plain, but if you or a Minecraft kid want a real battle scene rather than a diorama, this delivers it.

Best for: Minecraft Dungeons fans who want big posable monsters to actually play with

The full review

What it is

The Redstone Battle holds a small place in history as the first LEGO set drawn from Minecraft Dungeons rather than the main survival game, and you can feel LEGO trying to prove the spin-off deserved shelf space. Instead of a single build, you get the entire hero party plus the two creatures that stalk the redstone mines, and the moment I stood the Redstone Monstrosity up next to a minifigure I understood the appeal. It looms. It has glowing eyes, chunky reflective plating and a proper sense of menace, and the smaller Redstone Golem beside it reads instantly as its game counterpart. For a set aimed squarely at kids, the monster sculpting is the thing that got me.

The catch

The honest caveats are about movement and finish. The Monstrosity looks the part standing still, but the spikes on its shoulders stop the arms from swinging far, and its stubby legs are anchored so centrally that walking it around turns into a waddle rather than a stomp. The Golem is the happier surprise here, built almost entirely on Mixel ball joints so it poses dynamically and takes wild stances the big guy never manages. The other gripe builders raised is finish. Some pieces are crisply pad printed while others that clearly wanted texture are left bare, and that unevenness makes a few corners of the build feel a little plain against the price LEGO originally asked.

Who it's for

If you or a young Minecraft fan care most about play, about actually crashing these monsters into each other and swinging the axes, this is an easy recommendation and the four exclusive figures alone carry a lot of the value. If you are a display-focused adult who wants a poseable centerpiece that holds a dramatic action stance, the Monstrosity will frustrate you and you would be happier hunting a different creature build. And since the set retired at the end of its run, prices on the secondary market have crept up well past the original 39.99, so grab a sealed one only if the Dungeons connection genuinely matters to you.

The parts story

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

Building this is fast and friendly, which is exactly right for its 8-and-up audience. The heroes go together in minutes, and then the two creatures are really the meat of the session, with the Monstrosity being the one substantial build where you stack up its bulky torso, plate the reflective panels and rig the articulated limbs and grabbing fingers. Nothing here will challenge an experienced builder, but there is real satisfaction in watching that big silhouette come together brick by brick, and the Golem's joint work is a genuinely clever little sub-build.

The standout pieces are the minifigures. Hex, Hedwig, Hal and Valorie all carry entirely exclusive torso and head prints you could not get anywhere else at the time, which is a big deal for a play set and the main reason collectors chased it. The weapon and armor selection is generous too, giving you plenty of axes, swords and gear to kit the heroes out. On value, the price-per-piece was well judged when it launched, and while a few of the larger creature elements would have benefited from printed detail, the sheer quantity of usable Minecraft parts makes it a solid parts haul for anyone building custom mobs.

Fun facts

01This was the first LEGO set based on Minecraft Dungeons, the action spin-off game, rather than the original survival Minecraft.
02The set was designed by Joe Kyde and ran from June 2020 until it retired at the end of its production cycle in late 2021.
03The Redstone Monstrosity stands over 6 inches (16cm) tall, making it one of the largest posable figures in the Minecraft theme at the time.
04All four heroes came with completely exclusive prints, so their torsos and faces were unavailable in any other set.