I must say that I really do enjoy building these sets, they tend to have a lot of play features, brightly coloured and unique pieces, and fit alongside one another with ease to create a nice looking display!

Box art – front & back

Our latest acquisition released not to long ago and for the first time adds the Nether to our growing play and display area. The LEGO Minecraft The Ruined Portal (21172) set incorporates both the lush green grass and recognisable Minecraft elements found when playing (dirt and stone etc), and a portion of the Nether, including its crimson red trees, teal floor covering, and native mobs.

Numbered bags and instruction manual

The set itself comes in three numbered bags, in also incudes an instruction manual, obviously. Thankfully no stickers in sight, which I think is what als draws me these line of sets, I don’t recall any of the sets we’ve had having stickers, yay!

The Build:

Bag one – Making a start on the base

Bag one makes a start on the base and adds a couple of sizeable plates either side of the main structure which represents Lava and Water. It maybe a little confusing as the two Worlds are You’ll separated by the Portal, once it’s built, but where the two elements mix make Obsidian, allowing you to finish the Ruined Portal, again irs strange but best to not think about it too much and enjoy the build and playability.

Also started is the basic mechanism that holds the Portal in place later in bag two.

A note to all that build this, please use a stable and solid surface as the amount of plates and bricks that overlap tend to loosen over the course of building the set and you’ll find bits underneath falling off. It may just have been us but there’s one part in particular that is help by only a couple of contact points.

Bag two – Expanding the land

Bag two fleshes out both wides of the World, and covers part of the build that houses the mechanism. We also start to see some classic Minecraft building techniques here with the natural steps up to the Portal itself, green grass on one side and the harsh reds and teal colours on the other.

A small amount of foliage is added to each side in the form of a wild flower and two mushrooms. We also get a Furnace which can either be ‘on’ or ‘off’ thanks to the two alternative prints either side on the small build – And yes these are printed parts, get in!

Furnace

Bag three – Finishing the Ruined Portal

Bag three, being the final bag, finishes off the set nicely and we can finally see the Ruined Portal! 

I decided to show you the Portal finished rather than ‘ruined’ as I’ll run through the procedure needed to restore it a bit later on.

As you can see from the above image the steps up to the Portal are added, along with a tree on the Nether side. I really like this style of tree and it really suits the whole look & feel of Minecraft, the colours are also gorgeous with hints of orange here & there.

Above the Portal you’ll find a slab of Gold, although this isn’t in keeping, sizewise, with other blocks but it does represent what you’d find in an actual game of Minecraft, and I do appreciate these little details a lot!

This sets main playable feature is the Portal itself, which you start off with mining the resources needed in order to rebuild the Ruined Portal.

Every Minecraft play knows you need obsidian to fill in the gaps, and as you’ll see in the set images there is plenty nearby, simply mine those blocks and place them in the remaining space and hey presto a working Portal, although LEGO have yet to supply us with a Flint & steele tool.

See the handy guide below on how to get your Ruined Portal looking brand new!

Fixing the Ruined Portal

To activate the Portal and travel to the Nether simply lift up the stone (grey) blocks and you’ll see two cool new transparent purple bricks slide up and lock into place. This is where that basic mechanism, that you built in bag one, comes into play.

To release the portal and walk through it just give the lever at the back a little nudge up and the whole thing will shimmy back down into its original position. Be careful as you may need to gentle ease some bricks apart to allow the portal to fall freely without getting stuck.

Lever mechanism

The Minifigures and Mobs:

Being a big Minifigure collector I like getting new and exciting characters to add to the collection, although Steve isn’t new he comes with brand new armour, Netherite. He is also packing some serious heat with a matching Netherite Sword and Diamond Pickaxe. 

Along with Steve we also get a bad guy in the form of a Wither Skeleton, luckily for Steve the Skeleton is only equipped with an Iron Sword.

Both Minifigures look amazing and the prints on Steve’s head and torso and the Wither Skeleton’s head is great and looks crisp and detailed, pretty standard for these generic characters.

Steve and a Wither Skeleton

You also get two Mobs, one Purple Sheep and one Baby Hoglin, both new for this set, so that’s something, right?!

It is good to get new animals to add to a growing LEGO Minecraft display but I feel they’ve missed a trick with them both, I can’t quite mut my finger on it but I just Dont like them. Perhaps it’s the parts used or lack of, or maybe their colour is slightly off, who knows but I guess for the price of the set, £27.99, it’s not too bad and worth including.

Purple baby sheep and baby Hoglin

Conclusion:

Overall a fantastic little set and a great addition to the golrowing LEGO Minecraft collection. The built isn’t too stressful as my 5 Year old Son did most of the construction himself.

The mechanism for lifting and lowering the Portal works well although it sometimes temperamental and catches on the sides of parts as it goes down, gently twisting and easing the plates and bricks apart does the trick though.

Both Minifigure are good but the real bonus here is the inclusion of the Netherite Armor, Sword and Trousers/Boots. It’s so good to expand on the range of armour available to Steve and Alex!

If you have this set lease let us know your thoughts on it, did you enjoy it? You can leave a short review below after you register for an account.

Thank you for joining us and reading our review of LEGO Minecraft The Ruined Portal (21172), a somewhat underrated theme but nevertheless a good set!

You can grab the set from LEGO.com and other reputable retailers here:

LEGO.com UK (£27.99)