I don’t play Minecraft. There’s just something about the idea of building my own fun that fundamentally does not appeal to the lazy gamer in me, and I’d rather have something self-contained and pre-fabricated dropped into my lap for my thumbs to enjoy without the obligatory planning and construction stages thrown in.

But in a massive contradiction, I love LEGO, and still ache to buy every brightly coloured set that populates the shelves of my local supermarkets and toystores (which is why I do buy them…). LEGO’s lastest official announcement has put those two contrasting stances on a collision course, thanks to the unlikely sounding marriage of the Scandinavian construction blocks and the massively popular Minecraft.

When you think about it, Minecraft is just a clever new LEGO, which allows players to actually play out the fantasies that LEGO only facilitated in the player’s mind’s eye, but there is still something decidedly odd about the idea of a LEGO set dedicated to a game which is all about constructing things out of blocks. I’m pretty sure there will be some kind of quantum singularity opening in response to the release, but the sets at least do look pretty good, and fans will no doubt flock to them…

And here it is split into its four pieces…

Here’s the official press release:

BILLUND, Denmark – The LEGO Group and Mojang have released purchase details and pictures of the LEGO® Minecraft™ Micro World today.

The new set, which was the first to receive 10,000 votes of support from users on the global LEGO CUUSOO idea collection platform, will be available for purchase in summer 2012, but can be pre-ordered from today, exclusively through Mojang retail partner Jinx.com for $34.99 €34.99 at http://www.jinx.com/LEGOMinecraft. The sets will also be sold in select LEGO brand retail stores and the LEGO online shop from summer 2012.

“LEGO Minecraft Micro World is designed to celebrate the essence of the LEGO concept and the Minecraft gaming experience,” said Paal Smith-Meyer, Head of the LEGO New Business Group. Each set features four cubic modular vignettes that can be connected to recreate the Minecraft experience in LEGO bricks. One Minecraft block is represented as one 1×1 LEGO plate with a tile on top — not a perfect cube, but the best approximation at the chosen scale.

LEGO Minecraft Micro World includes two of Minecraft’s most iconic characters, Steve and a Creeper, represented as “Micro Mobs.” The model presents a standard for building a Minecraft world that can be configured any way the builder likes.

The surface of the modules comes off to reveal mines and hidden resources beneath. Fans can build their own landscapes, stack cubes on top of each other, to build the world of Minecraft as they wish.
The product was developed in collaboration with four LEGO fans: Chris Malloy, Michael Thomas, Kyle Tingey, and Bjarne Panduro Tveskov. These fans developed concepts alongside LEGO designers and helped shape the product into its final version.

Upon seeing the physical model the first time, Mojang founder Markus “Notch” Persson exclaimed: “Woohoo!”

LEGO CUUSOO is a website where LEGO fans can submit their ideas for new LEGO products and collect votes to make their ideas become a reality. They can also vote for other users’ ideas. It can be found at http://lego.cuusoo.com.

Ideas that are supported by 10,000 votes have a chance of being selected to become part of the LEGO Group’s product portfolio. Consumers who have their ideas chosen will earn 1% of the total net sales of the product.

Mojang will donate the 1% proceeds from LEGO CUUSOO to charity.

For more on the co-creation process for LEGO Minecraft Micro World, see the LEGO CUUSOO blog at http://legocuusoo.posterous.com.

To pre-order a set – which will cost you $34.99 – you must like the LEGO Minecraft Facebook page.

 

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