LEGO Minecraft's January 2026 wave should look familiar, as the team are focusing on giving some of the theme's earliest sets a much-needed remake.
Much of next year's first LEGO Minecraft 2026 sets are references or even direct remakes of sets that are up to 11 years old in 2026, showcasing just how the theme has come, and what hasn't changed since the start of the game-inspired range.
It's not an example of a lack of creativity and new concepts from the LEGO Minecraft design team, despite appearances, but a chance to reinvent existing concepts and update them with the current era of strategies within LEGO Minecraft and all kinds of new elements.
From an expanded zombie dungeon to additional features in one of LEGO Minecraft's most iconic sets, read on for a look at how LEGO Minecraft has grown over the past decade, via the 2026 set and concept remakes.
Zombie dungeon – 2015 vs. 2026
2015's zombie dungeon build took fans underground in a desert biome with a simple, but effective recreation of the in-game structure, complete with a chest and spawner, both of which are much larger than they should be relative to the minifigures. The chest should have been a single-block chest, but at the time no element existed to properly match a chest of this size. 2026's
The spawner presents a bigger challenge to downscale. While the 2015 builds opted for a spinning miniature figure just like you would see in the game, this has been eschewed in the 2016 set for the sake of accuracy. The lack of this play feature means that the spawner can now be its proper size, incorporating a static figure in the middle instead.
Another major change between the 2015 and 2026 sets is the way the zombies spawn in. The 2015 dungeon build features a dropping wall function, which in turn changes the layout of the room when the zombie is not present. This isn't an issue in the 2026 set, as the designers have amended this by making the wall section spin, instead of drop. This means that the rom looks the same no matter what, though the newer effect isn't quite as action-packed.
End portal – 2016 vs. 2026
The End portal is finally back in 2026, following the first appearance of one in 2016's 21124 The End Portal. The LEGO Minecraft designers are reinventing the wheel in 2026's
While the 2016 set tasked you with dropping a minifigure into the frame, and sliding it away, this left the port itself without the ominous black void that makes it so iconic.
The 2026 version incorporates this void, but now with a flipping feature to empty the frame with a single flick, in turn catapulting the minifigure out of scene. It's no more elegant than the functionality of the 2016 set, but with the benefit of properly recreating the filled portal frame, rather than leaving it empty.
The Wither – 2016 vs. 2026
The Wither is finally back after a decade, but the main builds between its 2016 and 2026 sets differ greatly, making only the Wither figure itself comparable.
Thankfully, there are a wealth of differences between the Wither models. Both need an additional plenty to stand it up, due to the otherworldly design and the LEGO Group's inability to defy the laws of gravity and make the figure float without some kind of support. The 2016 figure opted to recreated the rib-like design with segmented plates and tiles while the 2026 figure uses Technic pieces, exchewing some of the grey in the otherwise all-black figure.
It's an interesting strategy from the LEGO Minecraft design team a decade later, but it's not necessarily more convincing than the 2016 design. What is an overall improvement is the upside-down heads used to recreate the creature's second and third heads. This removes the additional bar beneath the heads, suspending them as they should be, while retaining some degree of movement for play value.
Chicken Farm – 2016 vs. 2026
The clearest remake in the 2026 LEGO Minecraft selection is
The original set incorporated an egg-dropping function, which made more sense when the chickens had a space to lay the eggs in the giant chicken build. The 2026 is more nonsensical in this respect, manifesting the eggs from thin air, but the ability to drop seeds into the enclosure adds more play vbalue to the build.
It's also worth noting that the LEGO Minecraft team has more than doubled the spaces the chickens can roam in their enclosure in the 2026 model, while also removing the stairs that would allow the chickens to freely escape the pen in-game. 2026's take on the coop isn't more accurate entirely, but the LEGO Minecraft team has still used it as a chance to improve on the original set, without completely overshadowing it.
Small taiga biome build – 2020 vs. 2026
While it's not quite as direct of a remake as some of the other sets in this list, 2026's
The inclusion of a TNT block in both builds demonstrates the effectiveness of exploding features in smaller LEGO Minecraft sets, showcasing that while much of LEGO Minecraft has changed, some things never change.
LEGO Minecraft's next wave of sets launch on January 1, 2026, and you can read our reviews of the full selection by clicking here.
These LEGO sets were provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes.
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