VBBN

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone! Glad you all enjoyed the review, and also glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't find this set all that great. Certainly the biggest problem with these sets is trying to find a balance between Minecraft and lego. This set takes one of the least interesting environments of Minecraft, and mixes it with a dragon that unfortunately has just about the same amount of poor articulation as the in-game character... Even as a parts pack it doesn't feel worth it to me, basically you get a few tan baseplates, the diamond steve (which, let's face it, will be in future sets most likely, same with Endermen), and the batmobile wings. At a price of $70, it's hard to say anything here is a good deal. By the way, I just did a count in the instructions and found that the set has 634 pieces, including a brick separator. 81 of those parts are black 2x4 bricks, and 48 of those parts are purple 1x1 studs.

I would try to make your entry as original as possible. Yes a cultural influence is acceptable. 1) You can do whichever you choose. 2) Yes that is fine, just please provide on of the images in your entry post. 1) As TheOneVeyronian showed, yes 2) "structurally sound" isn't easy to judge based on photos, so as long as it looks good in photos then it's fine.

I don't know how I can take this article seriously when the author's last name is Brick.

Set name: Ender Dragon Set number: 21117 Pieces: 634 Price: $69.99, €69.95 Release date: November 2014 Minecraft and Lego are practically made to be combined. The micro world sets were a neat, albeit expensive, way to introduce fans to the idea of Lego Minecraft, but now the theme has expanded into the minifigure realm. And really, it's the minifigures that are the star of this line to me. Steve, the enemy mobs, the farm animals, they all look quite awesome to me. The sets may leave something to be desired in many fans eyes. They are more basic looking, due to the overall look of minecraft itself. Today we will be having a look at a set that contains the largest character of the wave, the Ender Dragon. The way I see it is, the Ender Dragon is the big bad of this wave. Next we will likely see a Ghast in a Nether set as the big bad, and likely a Wither after that. Packaging and Contents Box Front The front of the packaging displays the set in action, with a nice Minecraft themes banner strung along the top. I find it strange that the "trophy egg/exit portal" part of the set isn't included in the photo, but instead is pictured on a separate inset. I must say, this set wasn't exactly sent to me in the best packaging- bubble wrap and packing wrap don't do a whole lot when the set is thrown around, and you can see where the box has been heavily damaged. (Good thing I'm not a box collector..) Also take note that this is the European packaging, so there is less set info on the front of the box. Box Back The back gets a bit more interesting, because the build of the set is in fact different. The baseplate design for the towers has changed around with the bottom portions being removed, and we once again see them stressing to "build your own creations." Contents Bags are numbered 1-4, with an unnumbered bag containing the wings and three 8x16 baseplates, and a loose 16x16 baseplate. Instructions The instructions are a fairly large large booklet, once again having the nice picture of the set, set against the very awesome purple environment of The End. And, again, the portion of the set with the exit teleport/egg is not to be seen here. Apparently Lego didn't want the egg to be in pictures with the dragon, since it's essentially a trophy for killing him. Alternate Model The instructions feature a small little rebuild, but honestly I have no idea what this thing is even supposed to be. Minifigures Steve With this set, you get Steve suited up in Diamond armor, the most expensive armor set in the base game. It's a fitting suit for him to wear, as by the time you reach The End you'll not only likely have this armor, but you'll need it. Here you can see Steve without the armor on. The head is a new piece, a large, square head with the same attachment point on the bottom as a standard Minifigure head. The legs and torso are not new, though I'm not a fan of the torso print. Steve doesn't have sleeves in the game, and I think this set would have benefited from The Simpsons style short sleeve arms. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I wish they would have not even bothered to do the blue shirt and just made his whole torso the same light azure as the rest of the armor. Armoring Up The torso armor and helmet are both new. The torso armor attaches like a usual vest-style armor piece, and the helmet attaches to the head via friction, similar to a minimate. Rest assured, it is very secure. Armor Front Armor Back New Weapons Something I really want to get a lot of is the Minecraft themed tools the sets include. With this set, you get a diamond sword and a bow, but with the appropriate Minecraft styling. With Weapons Both weapons fit comfortably in a minifigure's hands. Enderman Body The Enderman uses a new body piece, which comes with prebuilt legs. This means that the legs are a solid piece, so no movement there. Enderman Enderman Front The Enderman uses the new square head with a simple eye print, and also hold a block of end stone in his hands. Due to the weight of the end stone, his can't stand up without being mounted on something. You can also see a side and back view. Exit Portal Base The start of the exit portal uses some tan with trans blue acting as the portal pieces. Completed The exit portal is completed with the dragon egg and torches. It's not a complicated build, but it's effective. Ender Dragon Torso Construction The torso utilizes an interesting mechanism to make the wings of the dragon flap. First you build up the stomach of the torso and put in the pivots for the wings. Mechanism Housing More parts are gradually added around the top of the mechanism, creating a square opening for the "button" Button Added Basically how this works is, when the wings are put on, the weight pulls the picots down, and pushes the button up. When you press the button, it then pushes the wings up, and when you let go they fall back down. No complicated stuff here, but very cool and concise way to implement the feature. Torso Final The torso is finalized with a slew of tiles to give it the smooth, blocky look of the in-game character. Legs The legs are, once again, very simply built using some click hinges and some SNOT work to give the smooth and blocky look. Legs Final Arm Construction The arms are built with hinges as well as a mixel joint. Again, this is very basic and doesn't look extremely visually interesting, but it is what its supposed to be. Arms and Legs Added Now he is starting to take shape. Tail Components There are 4 different builds used to make his tail, with one of the builds repeating three times. It's not the most inspiring build and as I will explain later, the useage of hinges leaves something to be desired poseability wise, but the overall look isn't too bad. Tail Together Printed Pieces The Ender Dragon comes with a printed 1x2 brick and 2x2 tile with his eyes and mouth. Head Construction The head's build included a bar hinge, giving the dragon an opening mouth. Head Final I quite like the finished head, it has great shaping and the printed eyes really complete the look. Head and Neck Added All that's left is the wings! Dragon Front After a few neck pieces are built in a similar fashion to the tail, we slap on the wings and have a completed Ender Dragon. He is very linear, offering mostly only up and down hinge movement. The only deviations from this are outwards at the hips, and of course his ball joint shoulders. Something that some may find of value in this set is the wing pieces- They are in fact the ones released with the older UCS batmobile, and fetch quite high prices on Bricklink. Dragon Profile From a profile shot, the Dragon is quite well done, with the signature gray spikes and blocky shape. You can also see how the button for the wing mechanism looks here when the wings are down, the gray block acts as his third spike. Dragon Back From this angle you can clearly see the wings, and I'll take this moment to describe my distaste with them. Now yes, it may be too much to ask to have gotten a new wing mold considering this is the only set those wings would ever have a use in, but I almost wish lego had scrapped the flapping feature and just made brick built wings. The gray "bones" on the in-game model's wings are quite a significant thing to leave out of the toy, and overall the wings don't mesh so well with the extremely blocky dragon. Please do share your thoughts on this in the comments, will you be modifying his wings or leaving them? Dragon Posed This is really the best I could do to getting the dragon into something more visually interesting. The lack of sideways motion in the next and tail seriously limits what you can do. The End Floating Platform Now I haven't played the vanilla version of the game in quite some time, is this even a thing? From what I can tell its a floating chunk of obsidian with torches stuck around it. I could understand if they just threw this in so the minifigure has a way to actually get to the dragon, something that is a challenge in the game as well. Steve on Platform End Stone Base The base of The End portion of the set uses quite a fair bit of tan. if you need tan plates, this set has a generous helping of them- Two 8x8 vignette plates, two 8x16 plates, and a 16x16 plate. Obsidian Tower To save you from repetition, here is how the smaller tower is constructed. the medium and large tower are basically the same thing, just with changes in the order of blocks to studs and with some 2x4 black plates for support throughout them. The gray tile is where the beacon will sit- so you can easily remove it later. Beacon Two of the beacons are built in this same manner, for the small and medium towers. Light beacon For those not familiar with the game, these beacons at the top of the towers are a protection for the Dragon. They fire a purple light (as seen on the box art) which heals the dragon. You have to destroy them before you can kill the dragon. The largest tower in the set uses a red light brick to imitate the beacon firing. Sure, you could think of it that way. Somehow. Light mounted The only way to activate the light is by pushing down on the beacon. Three Towers A shot of the three towers. All of the beacons look the same once placed inside of the towers. On baseplate Here we have the finished diorama of The End Finished set Overall, The end set is a real tough one to recommend. If you aren't a fan of the game, then I feel like this set is a rough one to sell. With other sets you get a mine scene or a small house or something, but with this you get three black towers and a dragon. The dragon doesn't have a lot of poseability, the towers don't offer much play value, and overall there isn't a whole lot to display here unless you care about The End and the game. At a steep price of $70, this is a set I would only recommend if you are a strong Minecraft enthusiast, or really find some value in the parts included. You do get some interesting parts like diamond armor and a diamond sword, but most likely we will see this in future sets as well. As always, a big thank you to Lego for generously sending us this set to be reviewed!

Oh dear Autocorrect on my phone did that, but how the word tahu ended up in it's suggestions is interesting..

A rahi is acceptable, yes. Just remember when judging we will look for the baddest villains out there, so if you can make a rahi the baddest thing out there go for it!

I do quite like the new singer for Flyleaf- I can't say she's better than Lacey was, but she's not worse.

Any non lego components in an entry will result in disqualification. As long as a scratch built mask is made out of lego with no parts modification then that is of course fine

Yes, 2015 parts are allowed.

I remember I quite liked the structure of his legs, and he looks good from most angles. I went ahead and took your post out of the entry thread(since this isn't being entered, it would indeed be a DQ)

Deeplinked for you all to see

Yes you may upload your images to any hosting service you choose, just please remember; -Post one of those photos directly in the entry thread(I know the first few people didn't do that, I will amend that) -That photo should be 800x600, 640x480, or any other size within those restraints Then you may link to wherever your images are hosted

1) Yes, that is considered Bionicle/technic/constraction 2) by that rule we mean only one entry could end up in the winning pool. When we choose the initial five from each site to send to Lego, all five entries would be done by different people. You couldn't win first and second place, for example.

Alright everyone here is an extra something I have thrown together for the winners of the contest here on Eurobricks; New tags! For the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placers from our site respectively. I also have made a black one, how to obtain this will be described later, but it is not related to the contest. The entry thread is only for submitting entries, not for discussion of the entries. Your post was a discussion post.

Mixel balljoints are considered constraction. Most other components in mixel sets are system however. "Illegal" connections are fine as long as they do not require modifications of parts.

Hau tags handed out to arc & Jaywalker! There will in fact be some new tags quite soon to keep an eye out for. Any Hero Factory sets.

They could really go either way, however given the amount of viking horns, spikes, etc that have been released in constraction themes, they would be acceptable as constraction.