It feels like there’s always been some The Legend of Zelda set proposal bouncing around on LEGO Ideas, ever since the ancient times of the Sheikah before us. And while it’s not releasing within that theme, there’s certainly much excitement for the first LEGO entry into this Nintendo property. Offering two different builds, referencing either Breath of the Wild or Ocarina of Time, LEGO The Legend of Zelda 77092 Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 comes in at 2,500 pieces with release on September 1st. The set is already available for pre-order, retailing for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99 on the LEGO website. It may also be available from third-party sellers such as Amazon and eBay.

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A quick note on these reviews

From the title of this review (and this section for that matter), you can probably tell what’s going on. We’re going to cover each of the two builds separately. This first one will dig into the Breath of the Wild version, with the pink flowery leaves and lush surroundings. Part 2 will dig into the Ocarina of Time variant. This was determined primarily because of how the instructions send you through the build, creating a fork fairly early on where you determine which Deku Tree you’d like to construct. And as such, it operates like two very distinct builds with some overlap in style. Be sure to come back tomorrow to read up on the elder-tree based on N64 graphics, but for now we continue with the Koroks’ best friend.

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The unboxing

While mine was damaged during shipping, the Great Deku Tree still stands proudly on the front of the set box. All of the trademark features of a set targeting adults is here: the band of single-color bricks along the bottom of the box, the black background, and a detailed insignia labeling the contents inside. The front features the Breath of the Wild-version of our wizened arboreal.

Flipping the box around, we see the alternate, Ocarina of Time build, along with some close-up features from both iterations. Notably, none of the inserts cover any of the play features (and yes, there are a few). But don’t worry, we’ll be sure to cover them later.

The box is a clamshell design, something we’re seeing more and more in large sets (>$100 USD). I remain a fan, though I know others dislike the lack of structure and the annoying lip around the outside of the bottom half.

There’s a single novel of an instruction booklet included, with many pages dedicated to talking up Nintendo’s intellectual property. Usual interviews with the designer are set aside for large pictures from the video games and some concept art as well.

The rest of the box is 23 numbered bags and one unnumbered bag with some large 8×16 plates. There are no stickers in this set, instead relying on some truly exquisite printing. We won’t use all of the bags for the Breath of the Wild version of GDT, and you may notice a little skipping about in bag numbers as we go through each iteration of the build. But know that the instructions are very clear on what to do at each step.

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The build

We begin with construction of the Master Sword-holding platform that sits in front of the Great Deku Tree in BotW. Bag 3 brings this to life with several ferns, flowers, and mushrooms. It feels very on-theme with the look of the game’s Korok Forest. I also appreciate the use of dark turquoise for the shallow water all over the scene, first applied here with one big 8×16 plate.

Bag 4 completes the triangular platform that holds the sword. We’ll take a look at the new mold for the weapon later on. The geometry here is fantastic, utilizing some floating “connections” to make the equilateral triangle work on the square grid of studs. The ever-musical Hestu is here as well, shaking some mighty maracas that actually work thanks to a 1×1 round plate loose in each one.

We’ll come back to the front section later on to finish it up, but for now we march into bags 5 and 6 to make the base under the Deku Tree. Nothing too crazy here in terms of technique: just a later of plates, bricks, and then plates again.

With bag 7, we start on the construction of the great tree itself. At this point, there’s not much to it except some rough structure, but angled bits on the corners and some hanging vines in the internal cavity promise bigger things down the line.

There’s an immediate payoff to those 45-degree angled plates when we start bags 8 and 9. As height is added to the stump, the exterior is rounded out with some rounded panels. This same technique is applied on the far sides of the build, creating cavities in the side of the tree for us to fill later on. Another round of vegetation is added, matching in style and quantity with the front platform built earlier. And with the exception of that front platform, this is where the instructions force us to choose a path: BotW or OoT? Once again, we’ll be following the Breath of the Wild version from here on out.

Bags 10 and 11 combine for our next step, forming the Deku Tree’s face and rooted mustache. The assembly of this step is surprisingly Technic-heavy, as there’s a play feature that allows the tree to talk to our young hero, Link. We’ll have a chance to look at it in action before we’re through. This bag also includes one of the most-notable recolors in the set, printing the minifigure paper diner cap in brown for GDT’s eyes.

Bag 12 focuses on details, loading up the interior of our arboreal friend with tons of goodies like a bed, cooking fire, and Korok buddy. It also fills the two cavities formed earlier on either side of the trunk with some goodies. One side showcases both styles of Link’s glowing blue bombs, and the other holds the Sheikah Slate

We press onward into bag 13, fleshing out more of the trunk’s back and sides. It’s a fairly quick bag, but one of the steps that remains the same regardless of which Great Deku Tree you’re building.

With bags 14 and 15, we tackle probably the biggest stylistic differences between this character from Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. Three massive roots stick out from this version of the tree, plunging into the water below. Within the game, they do much to add to the size, grandeur, and age of this ancient character. And here it feels quite the same. It’s a great application of some difficult-to-use pieces in dark tan, along with plenty of odd angles to give a more natural vibe.

Slowly but surely, we continue to grow this tree ever higher. Bag 16 brings us even closer, adding a small room to the top of the trunk. It’s an impressive amalgamation of angles and brackets making up this bit. Definitely some techniques in there that I’ll be stealing!

In the penultimate steps use bags 17 and 18 together to give our king of trees a proper pink crown, as well as flesh out that newly-made alcove in the last step. Another Korok lives up there, ready to give us a side quest to complete. We also see one of the many pink fairies that light up this section of the Korok Forest. The leaves are nothing terribly new, following the same pattern for trees that we’ve been seeing for a few years now, but in the colors of pink and light nougat.

Finally, bags 19 and 20 close out this video game icon with some surrounding trees. All four of them are of different heights, but share the same basic framework for the trunk, branches, and leaves. The two largest trees each hold a bird’s nest, and the smaller two down by the triangular platform hold an acorn, in case you wanted to do some crafting with either of those items.

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The minifigures

While the entire set comes with four minifigures, we’re going to focus on the two from Breath of the Wild in this part of the review. Link and Zelda are of course fully unique to this set, featuring custom headgear. Their dark azure torsos have front and back printing, as well as dual-molded arms. Their prints are quite game-accurate, although Link does rock quite a few sets of armor in the game. Both of their legs are also dual molded to resemble boots. And the faces are printed on both sides, with expressions that definitely match each character. Their weaponry includes a custom-printed round shield and the custom molded Master Sword. We’ll take an even better look at it in part 2 of this review.

While not exactly minifigures, let’s also look at the other chatacters featured in this version of the set. Hestu has got to be one of my favorite parts of the set, with his uneven “hairdo” and bushy “eyebrows.” The other Koroks have some brilliant face prints that will definitely find homes in some other creations for me. I can just hear their “Ya ha ha” as they spring forth from hiding with another Korok seed for me. Finally, on the far right, is another shot of that fairy. While it’s certainly not Navi, it’s great to see these pseudo-items presented in the set as well.

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The finished build

With this version of the Great Deku Tree fully assembled, I’m immediately transported back into Breath of the Wild. It’s not entirely to-scale, as the tree from the video game is absolutely massive and contains several rooms to explore. However, this version is certainly an appropriate LEGO-sized version with tons of detail.

Now that it’s all assembled, we should absolutely have a gander at the included play feature. While the Great Deku Tree doesn’t have all that much dialogue in BotW, you can work the lever on his back so he can imbue all his wisdom to Hyrule’s hero. Both the mouth and eyebrows go up and down. Quite the animation for this Hylian Ent.

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Thoughts and recommendations

I’ll save my thoughts on the set as a whole for the end of Part 2 of this review, and instead just compare this version of the build with the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time. I should first admit that I’ve put significantly more time into Breath of the Wild than OoT, and recognize that it could be biasing my answer. But I also think that this iteration of the tree also benefits from the heightened graphics of the Switch when compared to the N64, and how that then effects the source material. At play is also a shift in the purpose of this character/location between the games and the motivations in the games themselves, requiring a more fleshed-out scene for the open-world version of Hyrule.

So, with all those caveats and addendums in mind, I do find this version of the Great Deku Tree to be the best and most display-worthy. However, given all the nostalgia wrapped up in that blue ocarina, I don’t blame anyone for taking the other path. And speaking of, make sure to come back tomorrow to read the second half of this review. We’ll try to destroy the root of Ganondorf’s curse with the Ocarina of Time iteration of the Great Deku Tree.

With 2,500 pieces and a release date of September 1st, LEGO The Legend of Zelda 77092 Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 is available for preorder on the LEGO website right now, retailing for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99. It may also be available from third-party sellers such as Amazon and eBay.

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