Now that I’ve completed writing up articles filled with all of the news and photos of the LEGO Scooby-Doo, Jurassic World and Legends of Chima sets, I can move on and give some other popular themes the attention that their Summer 2015 sets so richly deserve! First up, we’ll travel back into the world of Minecraft, which will be expanding with another four sets this summer. And we’ll begin with the set that–despite still being in the prototype form–caught my eye the most: the fiery LEGO Minecraft Nether Fortress 21122 set!

One of the cool things about being invited to visit the official LEGO booth at the New York Toy Fair is that you can see things there that you’ll never see anywhere else in the entire world. Case in point? Half-finished, still-in-development prototype sets, such as the ones displayed at the 2015 Toy Fair for LEGO Minecraft!

This was my very first time seeing work-in-progress set prototypes in-person, so I was pretty awestruck by the momentous occasion.

Just how unfinished was the LEGO Minecraft 2015 Nether Fortress set at the Toy Fair? Well, check out the minifigures that were on-display! They’re, uh, not exactly on-model to the Minecraft video game! (Nor will those figures actually be released with the set–they’re just placeholders until prototypes of the real minifigures included with the set are ready to go.)

And speaking of the Nether Fortress’ minifigure selection…

The Nether Fortress Minecraft set will contain five characters: a super-cool brick-built Ghast figure and a brick-built Blaze mob, as well as minifigures of Steve, Alex and a Zombie Pigman. The inclusion of a LEGO Minecraft Alex minifigure here is especially exciting, as it’s the first appearance of the Minecraft female avatar in minifigure form! Finally!

This set will also include a brick-built portal, some nice-looking translucent orange fire elements, a walkway for a no-doubt epic duel to take place on, a treasure chest, a variety of weapons and more. But my favorite part of the set is probably just getting so many dark red and orange bricks in one place–I really love the atmosphere created by the Nether’s color scheme!

And the Ghast figure on display looks a lot like a white Micro-Manager from the LEGO Movie, doesn’t it?

Now for the bad news. The 21122 The Nether Fortress set is, well… overpriced. The set contains 571 pieces for a hardcore $79.99. That’s over 14 cents per piece! I know that licensed sets tend to have a high price-per-piece, but Minecraft LEGO sets really shouldn’t have a higher cost per brick than more expensive licenses like Star Wars and Marvel and such.

There’s no particularly huge pieces in this set, so I’m really not sure what to attribute the extra cost of this set to, other than perhaps the handful of specialized pieces that the set contains.

The LEGO Minecraft Summer 2015 sets–including this Nether Fortress 21122 set–are scheduled to be released in August 2015 (which means we’ll be seeing the earliest shipments of the sets appear in July 2015). That’s a bit of a wait, considering the previous wave of sets first began hitting in November 2014, but at least we can begin the countdown and know that the new sets are now only a scant three months away!

Albeit in unfinished form, how do you like the LEGO Nether Fortress 21122, Minecraft fans? Does the Nether Fortress look promising to you, or are you put off by the abnormally high price-point of this Minecraft set?