Minecraft

The Sky Tower

Three floating islands, a diving pilot, and a cat who has no idea how high up she is.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 21173 · 2021

Pieces565

Minifigs1

Year2021

Set number21173

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The verdict

The floating-island idea is what sold me here, because instead of one square Minecraft base you get three little islands hovering on clear rods, and rearranging them is half the fun.

It is a proper play set rather than a display piece, so grown-up builders after clean engineering may find it thin, but children who love the game will get hours out of it. The Pilot with elytra wings and a firework rocket is a genuinely lovely touch that other Minecraft sets did not have. For the right kid this is a small joy.

Best for: Minecraft-obsessed kids aged 8 and up who want to actually play, not just display

The full review

What it is

The Sky Tower takes the one Minecraft feature that always looks magic in the game, those islands that just hang in the air, and pulls it off in plastic. You build three separate floating chunks, a blacksmith's house, a taller tower, and a little garden island where you can grow vegetables, and each one sits up on clear rods so it genuinely appears to float. The first time I set all three next to each other and clipped the Pilot mid-dive between them, I got why this one clicked with children. It is not trying to be a serious architectural build. It is trying to be a playground, and on that count it delivers.

The catch

I will be honest about where it falls down. This is Minecraft, so the building is exactly as square and repetitive as you would expect, lots of stacking 1x1 and 1x2 pieces to make cube-y shapes, and if you came for satisfying technique you will not find much of it. At 565 pieces for the original 59.99 dollar price, the value felt slightly stingy next to what LEGO gave you in other themes that year, and a few builders said the same. It is also unapologetically a play set. There is no grand finished model to sit on a shelf and admire, which is fine if you know that going in and a small disappointment if you do not.

Who it's for

So who should track one down now that it is retired? Any child who lives in Minecraft, honestly. The reconfigurable islands, the phantoms to fight, the cat to look after, and that firework-boosted Pilot add up to exactly the open-ended play the game is about, and it rebuilds a dozen different ways. If you are an adult fan hunting for a clever engineering session or a display piece, this is not your set and I would point you at a bigger, meatier build instead. But as a gift for a Minecraft kid, it is a warm little pick that earns its keep on the carpet.

The parts story

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

Building it is quick and forgiving, roughly one to two hours, and it splits neatly into the three islands so a younger builder can knock out one section, feel finished, and come back for the next. Most of the work is the familiar Minecraft rhythm of stacking small bricks into cubes and cladding them in the game's signature textured tiles, so do not expect fiddly sub-assemblies. The clever bit is the transparent rods and clip pieces that hold each island aloft, which is what makes the whole thing feel like it is defying gravity when you are done.

The standout here is the Pilot's kit rather than any single rare brick. That elytra-wing element, the netherite helmet, the firework rocket, and the trident were gear you simply did not get in other LEGO Minecraft sets at the time, which made this a quiet must-have for fans building a collection. You also get two molded phantoms and an orange tabby cat, so the creature count punches above the part total. Nothing here is a grail piece for parts collectors, but the printed Minecraft faces and the accessory spread are the reason to grab it.

Fun facts

01The set ran a short life, released on 1 June 2021 and retired at the end of 2022, giving it only about 18 months on shelves before it left production.
02Phantoms, the two flying mobs included, are the creatures that attack you in the game when your character has not slept for several in-game nights, so the set is quietly rewarding bad sleep habits.
03The Pilot's firework rocket is a real Minecraft mechanic: you use fireworks to boost yourself forward while gliding with elytra wings, which is exactly the flying fantasy this set is built around.
04The set was designed by LEGO's Joe Kyde and carried an original RRP of 59.99 dollars, 54.99 pounds, and 59.99 euros.