LEGO The Great DEKU Tree Review

It is no secret that I absolutely love building LEGO sets in my free time, and that is highlighted by the number of sets I have on display in my board game room. A few of these sets have been sent to be lately by The LEGO Group, including the LEGO Grand Piano, 3-in-1 Wild Animal Giraffe, LEGO Fortnite Peely Bone, and more. There have been a few crossover designs that have interested me in the past, and again, thanks to the LEGO Group we have been able to review the LEGO Sesame Street set and the LEGO NES with TV set. When LEGO Super Mario was announced, I was intrigued, although LEGO ultimately prioritized play over display with those sets. When LEGO announced the Great DEKU Tree 2-1 Set, however, I was about to crack open my piggy bank and see if I could afford it.

There is no getting around this discussion – the LEGO Great Deku Tree 2-1 set is very expensive, well over $300 in Canada. There is a lot of set here, and 4 exclusive Link and Zelda minifigures. But still, for most The Legend of Zelda fans, this set is probably well outside their price range. It’s worth noting here that The LEGO Group sent this set over to us for this review, although our opinions are our own.

The Great Deku Tree is a 2-1 set, allowing you to either build The Greak Deku Tree from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The core of both sets is relatively the same, although there are about 2 or 3 additional bags of pieces that change between the two sets. You’ll notice this change primarily in the ground area around the Great Deku Tree (less ground cover with Ocarina of Time, more with Breath of the Wild) and the different coloured leaves (pink in Breath of the Wild, and deep green in Ocarina of Time). We ultimately decided on the Breath of the Wild set as we felt it was the better, more visually appealing build. However, many of my family members who LOVED Ocarina of Time said they would have opted for that build instead.

Regardless of which you build, all four minigures are available to be built, and can be displayed throughout the set. This includes young and old Link from Ocarina of Time, and Link and Zelda from Breath of the Wild. They way I have the set setup on my shelf is using Zelda and Link from Breath of the Wild, standing around The Great Deku Tree; I’ve then put old and young Link from Ocarina of Time into Link’s house, which is a fairly solid recreation of hte house you wake up in when you first start Ocarina of Time.

Building this set was such a fantastic time, not only because the build was interesting and fun – one character you build is actually built upside down! – but also because of all the cool easter eggs you can enjoy as you build. Whether that’s the awesome printed Korok’s you discover in Breath of the Wild, or the mini builds of the Skulltula spider and Deku-Baba from Ocarina of Time. Putting these together was a lot of fun, and was also a really great trip down memory lane, mostly when building the Ocarina of Time items as opposed to the Breath of the Wild items, which I experienced just last year for the second time.

The way pieces are used is phenomenal, with a bit of basic building mixed with technic building to make the mouth and eyebrows of the tree move – it is a talking tree, after all!

I understand the hefty price of this set the longer I build it. First and foremost, it is a licensed LEGO set, so obviously the cost on licensed sets is a bit higher than on sets that are not. Second, the set comes with 4 unique minifgures not found anywhere else. You want these figured, they are only available here. Not only do the figures have unique torso and pants, but they also have unique accessories as well, including the Master Sword and the Deku shield and the Sheikha Slate. Add to all of this the plethora of printed pieces like the Korok seed faces and you’ve got a TON of unique pieces in this massive set.

On the shelf, The Greak Deku Tree is a phenomenal set to look at, and a must own for any serious Legend of Zelda fan. There are too many easter eggs to mention here, but almost every bag had us oo’ing and aw’ing at the build technics, the masterful design, and the numerous things that made us think fondly of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild! Plus, the 2-in-1 design allows this set to appeal to a variety of gaming generations – how cool is that!