The Village ©2016 LEGO Group

The next direct-to-consumer set has just been announced: 21128 The Village. It's the largest Minecraft set yet; a 1600-piece box of what looks to be predominantly 2x2 bricks and large baseplates.

Read the press release and my opinion after the break and see more images on the set details page.

21128 The Village, 1,600 pieces.

US $199.99 - CA $249.99 - DE 199.99€ - UK £169.99 - DK 1899.00 DKK

Released June 1st, May 18th for VIPs.

Build and protect The Village!

Join forces with Alex at the busy Minecraft village, including a variety of biomes plus a watchtower, library, blacksmith, butcher and marketplace. Enjoy hands-on Minecraft adventures featuring your favorite characters and objects with this LEGO Minecraft set—designed for young fans of the highly successful sandbox video game.

Includes 4 minifigures: Steve, Alex, zombie and a zombie villager, plus a Creeper, enderman, pig, baby pig, iron golem and 2 villagers (a farmer and a librarian).

The Village features rainforest, snow and desert biomes, and includes a watchtower, library, blacksmith, butcher and a marketplace.

Fold out the library and butcher's buildings and lift the marketplace roof to access the interiors.

Grab your iron sword and prepare for battle!

Build the iron golem to help protect the village.

Accessory elements include a crafting table, water bucket, emerald-ore-style elements, 2 pumpkin heads and a chest with emerald-style elements.

Weapons include a sword and a pickaxe.

Set your imagination free—rebuild the set for more LEGO Minecraft creations!

Measures over 5” (15cm) high, 19” (49cm) wide and 17” (44cm) deep.

It's interesting that the press release states specifically that it's "designed for young fans" because I don't think this is going to appeal to many AFOLs, particularly at $200 / £170 when there are so many better sets to spend that sort of money on. And how many parents drop 200 bucks on toys for their kids, particularly in the summer? Still, the regular Minecraft sets have proved to be big sellers so I guess LEGO must know what it's doing.

However it does look to be a good, if expensive, parts pack, with loads of medium nougat bricks and tiles which one can never have too many of.

I can't see anything too exciting in the way of new parts although the villagers are constructed using (what I think is a) new torso piece (with fixed folded arms?), that's reminiscent of the armless minifigs from 1975.

The 6-pronged foliage piece, '6097232: Stalk W. 1,5 Shaft And 3,2 Shaft' is new here in brown which could be useful.

This year's direct-to-consumer sets have been a bit of a mixed bag, haven't they? The Brick Bank and Ghostbusters HQ have been well received by AFOLs, but the Batcave and Hoth have left us wanting, and while there's nothing essentially wrong with this one, I think its appeal is limited.

What do you think?