LEGO Ideas (nee CUUSOO) is still going strong, and 21362 Mineral Collection is the 70th (!) set in the theme. Ideas produces everything from Minecraft and Sonic sets that turn into whole themes, to one-off properties that are unlikely to ever be a full LEGO partner, to models that might pull some new builders into the hobby. 21362 Mineral Collection seems closer to that last category, similar to the lovely Insect Collection, more likely to provide inspiration for fan models in the same vein, but less likely to spawn a whole line similar to the Botanical Collection – but you never know! LEGO builds follow a grid, and crystals are formed when molecules are arranged in a regular, repeating, three-dimensional matrix… kind of like a grid. Does mixing the two work? Let’s dig into perhaps the most translucent LEGO Ideas sets yet!
LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection | 880 Pieces | Available October 1 | US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The Build
Inside the box there are 7 paper bags and three small instructions booklets, one booklet per display case. Like most Ideas sets, there are no stickers. Each booklet builds one of the display cases followed by two minerals, using either two or three of the bags.
There are two variants of the display case / stand: the outer cases, which are a little taller, and the central stand, which has a one-brick indent on the sides that lets the two other cases slot in relatively securely. In the designer roundtable that The Brothers Brick attended, the possibility of a stud connection to hold the cases together was mentioned, but LEGO designer Jordan Scott said that it simply wasn’t sturdy enough while keeping the desired slim profile to match real mineral display cases. The ability to separate or rearrange them is definitely welcome!
The first instruction booklet begins with information about the fan designer Dario Del Frate, as well as pictures and descriptions of the six minerals included in the set: pyrite, watermelon tourmaline, fluorite, tangerine quartz, rhodochrosite, and amethyst.
Pyrite
It comes in cubes, how hard can it be to make in LEGO? Well, pyrite tends to form with differently sized cubes and set at different angles in the underlying matrix – or itself. What’s a LEGO designer to do? Apparently, turn to bovine intervention. We talk about NPU (nice part usage) frequently in the amazing creations we feature at TBB, but dipping a Minecraft cow’s head – or a “creature head pixelated” – in gold ink is an option most of us don’t have. It turns out to be far from a cheat code though, as the geometry of the piece is decidedly odd and requires clever sideways building and lining things up with the width of a tile to make it work. Dario even challenged-slash-pushed Jordan to add an additional cube to make the pyrite more realistic, and the result glitters.
You might wonder, why is there a paw tile buried in here (and there’s another in the amethyst later)? If you’ve built other Ideas sets or followed the line, you might have noticed that there is usually some sort of reference to the fan designer built into the set as an easter egg – initials on a picture on a wall, something like that. In a set that has “no back” as Dario put it, and very little spare or wasted surface at all, there aren’t a lot of hidden places to tuck something away. So Jordan settled on the paw tiles – one for each of Dario’s cats – which could be hidden in some of the structures.
Watermelon Tourmaline
One of the bigger changes from the Dario’s original design is the switch from black to watermelon tourmaline. The main reason given for this is that black disappeared on the packaging, and yeah, you can even see that on the original submission. As much as we raise our eyebrows at packaging driving a design decision like this, it makes sense – and the watermelon tourmaline crystal is visually striking and gives us one entirely new part as well as trans-clear grille tiles. Dario also shared that real watermelon tourmaline is significantly rarer and therefore more expensive than black, so this is actually a very affordable way to get your hands on some!
The new 1x1x1 2/3 brick with studs on 3 sides joins a family of SNOT bricks that has been growing over the past few years. In this set, a 1x2x1 2/3 could have been used just as easily, and there are some applications where that would provide more stability. We asked about the choice to split it in half instead, and Jordan shared that LEGO’s designers found that the single-module brick was just much more versatile and useful in all kinds of applications – he specifically mentioned wishing it had been available when designing the dragon’s head in Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale. Element design details aside, we’re also impressed with the color layering that gives the watermelon tourmaline softer pink and green shades than those that LEGO makes. If you’re interested in this kind of technique, don’t miss the guide to brick-built water that we shared recently – it’s a key way to create depth and variation, along with subtler color differences.
Fluorite
The fluorite crystal replaces emerald from the original submission. Bringing in watermelon tourmaline introduced a green shade that the emerald duplicated. That left room for something bluer, and fluorite jumped out at Jordan when looking at options. The color also provided a color challenge since LEGO doesn’t make a transparent bluish-green or teal color. This mineral contains the second easter egg – a pink tower and blue turret, a tiny allusion to Dario’s first Ideas submission, the Sleeping Beauty Mini Castle.
With all of the techniques used in these minerals, this one also is the one that came closest to LEGO’s quality control guidelines, with the hinge plate spacing needing to be checked with a microscope! We also get the new right-angle wedge bricks, just introduced in the Black Pearl, in trans-blue. The layered blues and greens do well to represent this very pretty stone.
Tangerine Quartz
This distinctive orange mineral takes advantage of translucent orange bricks with studs on both sides to make a nice hexagonal crystal, though a hexagonal point at this scale would require a new mold so four facets at the top will have to do. Some smaller crystals jut out at adjustable angles using clips and plates with bar handles. The base is an arrangement of bows and wedges to represent the rock the crystal has formed out of. It’s one of the simpler crystals, but still quite effective.
Rhodochrosite
This is the one that, in Dario’s words, “started it all”. He saw a gorgeous sample of this striking mineral and thought, “hey, I’ve got to try and build that”. In LEGO, the black, red, and clear-crystalline (almost silver-looking) colors are straightforward but also quite attractive. Dario advocated to make sure to keep the upside down “super hero stand” bars that represent the quartz crustal matrix that rhodochrosite often forms on. These require multiple upside-down attachments, often utilizing plates with hollow studs and the round tile with bar that fits into them. The result, especially from at least a few feet away, has a good resemblance to glittering quartz needles with the red rhodochrosite nestled in them.
Amethyst
The final mineral, described by the designers as the “hero” mineral, identified early on as the one that would be the centerpiece, is a vibrant purple amethyst. There’s some color layering here to give the look that amethyst often has, with a range between white and deep purple quartz crystal. It’s represented in a tall oval geode, differentiating itself from the other mineral builds by setting the amethyst in a concave surface, studded inside all around with gorgeous crystals. It may just be layered cheese slopes and tiles over some simple sideways building, but the results are exquisite.
Final Thoughts
This is a lovely display set, and it’s extremely flexible. You can rearrange the bases, you can swap the minerals around into almost any position. There are pretty colors, interesting techniques to get even more colors, and ultimately a display worthy of a museum.
And if you’re more into parts, $60 for 880 pieces, many of them translucent, useful brackets and bricks with studs on the side, and versatile brown plates and tiles. It’s great value and a good parts packs for many different kinds of builders. We’ll say it – it’s a gem.
