I Built the ULTIMATE LEGO Minecraft Village

The Minecraft Village. It might just be one of the most easily recognizable sites in the world. They've changed a bit over the years, but no matter where I am, the glow of that village in the distance is always a welcome sight for sore eyes. So it's got me thinking, how can I bring one of these sprawling structures to life in LEGO? And no, I'm not talking about just a couple buildings, but an entire village complete with multiple houses, farms, professions, paths, you name it. This should feel like it was taken straight out of the game. It sounds like it's time for another insane LEGO Minecraft project. I'm going to be making the most detailed LEGO Minecraft Village ever assembled. So hey, we had better get to building. First off, I needed to decide what type of village to do. There are a lot of different varieties, and weirdly enough, I've built at least a little bit of each one before. You've of course got your good old Plains Village. It's humble, but there's some good structures here. Another advantage of going this route would be the variety of plains villagers LEGO has produced. There's farmers and shepherds and a mason and a librarian, though those last two are so new I don't even have them yet. I could also do the Desert Village. The structures are some of my favorites, and LEGO does indeed have two professions I could use to spice up the build, both a farmer and a cleric. However, when it comes to color, there really is not a lot of variety for this biome. It would be a lot of tan. Too much tan. So what about a snowy village? The structures are really quite cozy, and I think there would be a lot of fun techniques I'd get to use to recreate them accurately. However, LEGO's only made one villager type for this biome, which I feel limits me a little bit. The taiga's even worse off, though, since LEGO's only made zombie taiga villagers. An abandoned village could be cool, but I don't really think that's my jam. If I was feeling particularly crazy, I could go the classic route and create one of the original villages. You know, the really blocky ones from before the Village and Pillage update. Seeing these makes me feel like a kid again. I could play Superflat for hours just running from one of these to the next and looting them. Good times. Come to think of it, a Superflat world would have been a hilarious choice for a project. Regardless, I've built my fair share of OG village structures, and I think I want to try something different. That leaves me with one last option, a savannah village. The savannah village really was the one that I've never properly tackled during all of my years of building LEGO Minecraft. I have built one tiny little chaotic farm, but never a structure from the biome. A savannah village would also be a good choice for minifigure variety, as LEGO has three different savannah villager types that they've made over the years. The farmer, the blacksmith, and the mason. Yeah, it looks like the savannah village is the way to go. But not just any savannah, what about a windswept savannah? Now technically villages aren't supposed to spawn in windswept biomes, but if you know anything about Minecraft, you probably know that the game doesn't always conform to its own rules, and it's very possible for villagers to bleed over into these illegal biomes. Like this majestic seed here. No amplified terrain required. This is just the normal base game, and the village is right near spawn. A mountainside village like this is definitely going to set this project apart from anything else that I've done before it too. So a couple things are clear. First I'm going to need a lot of bricks. That means a lot of dark bluish gray for stone bricks, a ton of reddish brown for dirt and coarse dirt, a healthy selection of dark orange for acacia planks, and lots of olive green tiles for the dry grass of the biome. My idea is to create the entire LEGO build block for block in Minecraft first so that I'll have a rough idea of how many elements I need, and more importantly I could get a fairly accurate assessment of how many lights I'll need to illuminate all the structures I've got planned. Yep, you heard that right. This build is going to light up. I had heard from other builders in the space that Light My Bricks was great to work with. So I sent them my shopping list, and would you look at that? They sent me a bunch of lights back. They just asked that I shout them out, so consider my debt repaid. We've got bricks, we've got the lights, we've got a plan, it's time to build. The Savannah Village is going to be built in two distinct phases. There's the ground level, and then there's going to be the upper tiers of the village that climb up the side of a windswept mountain in the center of the display. The entire village will take up four chunks, that's exactly 64 by 64 LEGO studs, which can be perfectly represented using these four LEGO baseplates. And here's a villager for scale. I really wanted to start off with a bang, so I chose one of my favorite structures for the first module, a fisherman's hut. In game, the structure sits upon stilts above a tiny little pond, but I think we can do better than that. I want to have the hut generate on a much larger body of water, a whole lake. That provides the opportunity to do all sorts of fun underwater vegetation too, accomplished here using this sword tooth element. It's a piece I'll always associate with those Hobbit Dol Guldur sets from 2013. Does anyone else remember these? Because I like making things complicated, I wanted to try something different with the water. It would be really cool to make the water as thin and as transparent as possible so that some light realistically could travel beneath the surface and reveal all the fun plant detail below. Unfortunately, in order to do that, I'll need to use some pretty rare and expensive LEGO pieces. Primarily these beauties, 8x8 transparent medium blue plates. This particular element has only been included in six sets, and the transparent medium blue color was actually quietly discontinued a few years ago, meaning that these have become quite desirable. It's primarily been used as ice over the years, but since the 8x8 transparent light blue plate is only being sold by one person in the US, it's going to have to make do as warm liquid water today. Even so, the effect ends up working rather perfectly, and once the plates are tiled off with that light blue, you can't even tell the difference. The village is also going to include a number of player built enhancements, the first being a small bridge connecting this little fishing island to the larger landmass. Even in the best of terrain conditions, village generation can be quite funky. Here, I like to think a player has come through and smoothed things out a bit. I kinda knew what I was getting into when I decided to go with a savannah biome. Olive green is definitely the most natural match for the grass color, but somehow LEGO has never officially produced a 2x2 olive green tile, and it sure seems like they're just intentionally avoiding it at this point. To get things smoothed off, that means I'll be using 2x4 tiles instead, a tile double the size. It's not perfect, but it took a lot less getting used to than I thought. It's helped by the fact that at the very least, LEGO does make a 2x2 jumper plate, that's the one with the single stud in the middle, which I'll eventually attach the grass to. And then there's the issue of the grass stems. I'm not going to dwell on it, but they're also very rare and very expensive. Thankfully, many people supported the olive green grass stem fund, and even donated these in person at previous LEGO shows. We might just have enough to populate the entire village. Only time will tell. Finally, it's time to finish the hut. It's a funny little structure and game. There's almost no space inside, even though it looks decently sized from the ground. It's a complicated build, not helped by the fact that I accidentally destroyed it. Whoops. For the acacia logs, I'm using these profile bricks in old gray. It's another discontinued color, of course. It complicates things, but it's nearly a perfect color match. The roof is disgustingly complicated to build accurately, but accuracy is the name of the game here. It's starting to sound like JT's Sandman. And now it's lighting time. I got some of these pulsing lights to go beneath the water. It'll help you see what's going on down there, and should give the water the illusion of movement too. Three other lights run up the main structure, two to illuminate the torches out front, and one to provide an ambient glow to the interior. It's a great start to our new Savannah village. On to the next module. Module number two is a little smaller, simply taking up a half chunk's worth of space. This time though, I'll have just enough height to play with that I can add a little cave beneath the surface. In the cave, a player fresh to the game is already fighting off a horde of slimes. I'll also hide a buried treasure chest here too, since part of this module will also be underwater. It's a continuation of the lake from the first module, and it'll feature some of the same techniques, like the seagrass, and more importantly, the transparent water. I used up all my transparent medium blue 8x8 plates, but thankfully, I have an even cooler element to use this time around. Behold, this glorious piece. The shape might look pretty ordinary, but I bet you've never seen it in this particular color before. That's because it's never been included in any set. Sometimes LEGO will produce pieces in special colors for their LEGOLAND park models and the like. The extras somehow magically make their way to BrickLink. I got this piece, and also a transparent red one, from Atlanta Brick Co. while I was down in Georgia for the filming of LEGO Masters. Anyway, this piece will give the water just enough strength to work out here. Back on dry ground, it's time to get this area cleaned up. Perhaps my favorite technique I figured out while working on this project was an optimized way of doing a subtly indented village path. Building the pathing section like this allows for it all to be a single block thick. That helps maximize the height of the cave below. And with the bricks going two directions and interconnected the whole way, it's actually surprisingly strong yet. It's as efficient as it gets, and I'll definitely be using this in future modules. Here I'll attach the other half of the bridge to connect to the Fisherman's Hut. For our second structure, we'll be building Small House 1. A simple building that'll have a crafting table with a lit torch on the inside, along with a bed. I've added a baby villager jumping around on it just for fun too. If you're wondering where this dude is from, it's one of the micro-villagers included in the crafting table set. I've also got enough room on the top of this module to add our first acacia tree, the first of many that'll be found in this village. It uses old dark gray once again for its trunk, and dark green for its leaves. The last piece of the puzzle here is an iron golem to defend the village, a custom design that I've been refining over the years. Quite happy with where it's at. Let's get these two modules connected together. Exciting! The village is beginning to grow, but boy oh boy do we have a long way to go. The third module is another half-chunk, but it couldn't be more different, and yeah, this starting base is a giant mess, but I'm gonna get that fixed up. Most of this build is going to be buried beneath the massive windswept mountain at the heart of the village. Yeah, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the crazy terrain plans. As such, I want to make the underground part of this build as interesting as possible, starting off with a mineshaft. It's a small corridor for now, but the plan is to thoroughly expand upon it in future builds. To make things even more exciting, I'm going to add a zombie dungeon hidden in the side of the mountain. There's a lot of fun details in here. I'm using olive green plates to create that look of mossy cobblestone, and the spawner has just enough room in it to put in a little zombie. The dungeon does have two chests to loot, but you'll have to get through quite the army of mobs to get to it. Let's be honest, there's probably just rotten flesh and bones in those chests anyway. The rest of the build is going to be a big cliff wall which will nicely enclose the dungeon beneath it. Eventually, this will get even taller. I'm going to add a bit of village pathing up here, as there will be more village structures hanging out on the mountainside. All in all, it's a simple module, but it's going to play an important role as the display continues to expand. Next, I'm going to further expand along that side with another half chunk. But before we get to that, I've got to answer one of my most frequently asked questions, and that's how do I keep these massive models clean? Well, I use this stuff. It's a keyboard cleaning gel. It's perfect for getting in all the cracks and crevices, and I honestly can't recommend it enough. They don't sponsor me and never have. This is legitimately just a very useful product. It's on Amazon if you're interested. Anyway, back to building. With this module, we'll also be expanding the mineshaft from earlier, this time with a cave spider spawner. You know, this section of the village is turning out to be quite dangerous. Where there's a cave spider spawner, there's bound to be a ton of cobwebs, too. These Spider-Man web accessories work rather perfectly. Someone had suggested that I add some lit redstone ore to the caves, and I really like that idea. I'm hoping it'll bathe this whole area in a creepy red glow. The corner of the module flattens out just enough to provide room for our largest structure yet, the tannery. This building actually has some interesting interior details, like some cauldrons, a butcher block, and a chest. The wiring gets a bit chaotic, as I've got two torches out front by the door, as well as a larger interior light. Thankfully, I've been able to hide them all away, so you get that lovely clean look. You wouldn't even know this lit up at first glance, and I think that makes for a really fun surprise. The structure turned out nicely, too. I especially like the banners out front, which I imagine are meant to be drying hides. I'll add a few figures to the build, including Steve, decked out in leather armor. Believe it or not, this is the rarest set of LEGO armor, as it only appeared in a single set nearly a decade ago. How crazy is that? It's leather armor. When connected to the zombie dungeon build, the mine shafts align nicely below, and you can actually see how it rounds out the cliff above, too. That'll form the platform for the second level of the village. But before we get to that, we've got to finish out this surface part first. I had originally planned for this next module to be a simple farm and another pond, but as you can see here, it just doesn't make for all that exciting of an addition to the world. It had me looking through suggestions for the old world I did, and one thing that stood out to me was the idea of a trail rune. I've never actually built a LEGO trail rune, nor even uncovered one in the game for that matter, but I think it's the perfect way to spice up this section of the village. I decided to make the rune actively being excavated. That way, I have an excuse to show off quite the variety of cool blocks, like some of these glazed terracotta pieces. These are indeed official LEGO elements, and you get no less than eight of them in the Armory set. They're awesome. Hopefully LEGO keeps making more of these in the future. They've got a lot more to go. And of course, I had to add in a bit of sand red, my favorite discontinued LEGO color. In addition to the trail rune structure, I'm also adding some player-built scaffolding to the build, complete with a lamp that will eventually light up. Above the trail rune, you'll find our first village farm. I've even gone so far as to indent the farmland by half a plate, just like I've been doing with the village path. The effect is certainly subtle, but it brings a level of refinement to this world. And you better believe it, it's accurate too. In the farm, you'll find melons. These are indeed official LEGO elements, once again only produced in a single set. They're actually Minecraft player heads. Then I'll also add in some carrots and wheat. As a fun player-built addition, I've made a little scarecrow model based off the training dummy you'll find at the pillager outpost. And of course, I couldn't resist the urge to add in some cute mobs here, like some baby chickens. These make use of the yellow Minecraft axolotl face print. This module connects in front of the small yellow house from earlier, and even the caves line up nicely. You can technically access the slime guy through the back of the trail rune's cave. The next module starts out pretty weird, and that's because I'm incorporating some built-in storage into the base, rather than making yet, you know, another mine shaft. That way, I can store the loose figures and mobs here when I travel with the build. The front wall panel will pop off like this and boom, you get easy access to the inside. A familiar sight in a Minecraft village is a pile of hay bales, a food source that'll keep you fed for a good long while. I knew I wanted to include at least one of these piles in the build, and this seemed as good a spot as any. And next to that, I'm adding one of the most important village structures, the blacksmith. It's another fairly large structure with lots of interior details like a grindstone and a table and chair. I'm doing my best to get that acacia log bark texture wherever I can, even in the interior. As a final touch, I'm adding another acacia tree here too, growing out of the coarse dirt. Connecting this to the larger world only leaves a single half-chunk gap on the surface. Now we're getting places. The last first-tier chunk is pretty ambitious. There's a lot I want to fit into this small space, starting out with a dripstone mineshaft which will connect to the previous tunnel we built earlier. To get the dripstone stalactites on the ceiling, I'm building upside down. It's tricky, but doable. And then I'll have to switch directions again to continue the terrain above it. It's a headache of a process, but well worth the extra effort here. The dripstone biome just makes this particular module feel really special. To complicate things further, a village path runs nearly the entire length of the module in order to connect the blacksmith in the front to the tannery in the back. All the while, the dripstone carries through to the surface, serving as a bit of a clue for what lies below. All of this culminates in an arch bridging across the path. This is going to give us even more surface area to build on as we begin phase two of the project here very soon. On its own, the module is undoubtedly hideous, but once we slide it into place and everything lines up the way it's supposed to, it's pretty satisfying. Just like that, that's the surface level of our village complete. Now let's tackle the mountain. You've probably seen villages generate on the sides of mountains or hills before. Minecraft essentially gives the whole structure a little cliff to sit on, and that's kind of the look I want to recreate as I work my way up the rest of the windswept mountain. And that'll begin with this first funky looking module. No longer will these be based on clean chunk and a half rectangles. These bases will need to be a lot more organic. This build is going to house the essential meeting area, the section of the village that makes a village a village. I was surprised to find that there were four different designs to choose from, but ultimately I've decided to go with the traditional looking well. It's got a bunch of torches, so it'll look great lit up. You probably noticed it in earlier modules, but there is indeed a player built staircase that wraps up through the mountain to provide access to this level. It was kind of a mess being spread out across three different chunks, but it all came together in the end. That staircase is going to continue on here to provide access to even higher levels. No half measures here, gang. This is going to be a tall build. I've also set aside room for another farm here on the edge of the cliff, and there's just enough space for another tree too, so I'm going to add one because why not? This module is particularly fun to attach, and I especially love the waterfalls cascading down the sides to the Fisherman's Lake below. The layers are so cool, and they still feel like something that you could actually find in game. Next, it's time to build up on the section above the dripstone archway. It's another wonky footprint, but hopefully it'll transform into something beautiful. For this build, I was inspired by the Ghast Station, the punniest LEGO Minecraft set ever. As far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty simple set of requirements, a dock for a happy ghast to ride up to, and then a ticket station, represented here with a simple red house. Funnily enough, this is actually just a recolor of the farmhouse we made earlier. There's also an orange variant that you can find in the game, and of course, there's the most important part here of all, an actual happy ghast. So here's the model I came up with. It's once again, unsurprisingly, a complicated build, but I really wanted to capture as much detail as possible, all the while adding some dimension to that harness. With the ghast station module attached, things are starting to really come together now. I love how these all fit together, and the village feels so alive. There's something happening in every nook and cranny, yet at the same time it doesn't feel too messy. There's just one last module to go now, the top of our windswept savannah mountain. Once again, the staircase continues up through the module to the very top. I wanted to do a special structure up here. Savannah villages are pretty humble in nature, but I think this two-story house has just the right amount of pizzazz to be a worthy final structure. I do believe it is the tallest building that you can find in the savannah village, so up here on the mountaintop it's going to be truly impressive looking. I'm assembling it layer by layer, making sure all the windows will be lit as I go. And then, I think we might be done. It's time to get this final module attached to the build. A huge thank you to the hundreds of channel members who crowdfunded this project. It's been a dream come true bringing this one to life. If you want to take a deeper look at how this project came to be, I've got 10 extended length episodes breaking down each module in exquisite detail. Thank you so much for watching all the way here to the end, and I hope you have yourself a great life.