LEGO Games 3841: Minotaurus

Product Information

The head is copied directly from the Bull I designed from this set. When it came out so well, I was inspired to make this MOC as well. Part of the cleverness of the game is that you can also move sections of the walls about – adjusting the walls of the maze slightly so that they can be jumped over, instead of having to go round them. The Minotaur is a creature from Greek Mythology, who had the head of a bull and some combination (variations on a theme) of bull and human for the rest. It definitely had hands, and in most version had bull-legs, but only two, unlike the centaur. Having more pieces in play means that it’s easier to ‘distract’ the Minotaur – if you only have one piece, the person playing the Minotaur will logically pursue that piece only.

I stayed out of the building of the board (see above for why), but could tell that the builders of the family enjoyed this part. The concepts of the game are quite straight forward, but there’s lots of flexibility to adjust how easy it is to get through the maze.The centre has a raised area – this is where the Minotaur figure is at the start of the game, and where you want to get to.  The game will allow up to 4 players – each starts from a different corner – but it works fine with just 2. In the case of this game, the building is fairly straight forward – you are building low walls around the sides of the board, and some walls inside the board, which form the maze itself. The Minotaur was used by King Minos of Crete to terrorize the residents of Athens. It lived in the famed Labyrinth and the people of Greece had to send their sons and daughters as sacrifice. In the end the son of King Aegeus, Theseus, who volunteered to be sent as sacrifice, managed to kill the Minotaur and get out of the Labyrinth using a ball of string he brought with him. As with other games with multiple pieces, you can decide how many pieces to have in play at a time.  It’s possible to get each individual figures to the centre, one by one, but you may find that it works well to start one off, then move a second one out a bit, and so on. We also appreciated the encouragement to experiment with the game, and make it our own – not many games directly invite you to do that.

Another factor Junior Player really liked was the permission to make up your own rules. If you want to adjust it so that e.g. throwing a 6 two times in a row gets you further, or gives you a penalty, for example, you can – or really whatever you fancy. You, and other players, are trying to get to the centre of the maze – the Minotaur is there to stop you. If it does, you lose a (Lego) figure, but you have three, so you have more chances. The point of the game is to maneuver each of your three game pieces from your home base to the center base of your corresponding color in as fast a time as possible. Typical gameplay will have each player rolling the d6 once, moving that many spaces (or obeying the rule of the side they roll) and then passing the die to the person to their left. Each turn that p layer can really only move one of their pieces, so it takes a while to move everyone towards the middle. For the building enthusiasts among you, part of the fun is that you effectively build the game before you play it.  So imagine a square base board as the starting point – you build up the maze onto this with Lego pieces.I’ll leave you to look up the proper story of the Minotaur– it’s not entirely child-friendly. Think instead of a maze, underground. Somewhere, in its heart, is a beast – bull on the top half, human on the bottom half.

As the Minotaur, you capture another figure by moving so that your go would include going over the space that the figure is on.  When another player throws grey, they can take over being Minotaur, and move it from where it stopped on the board (rather than having to start from the centre again). I looked for the Greek story of the Minotaur and the eight year old and I read it together so that he understood where t he game came from. I think including the story in the game would be a valuable addition. My favorite is the version called "Theseus and the Minotaur" that is in comic book like format in the book Greek Myths by Marcia Williams. Early readers and established readers alike would enjoy it, learn about classical Greek myth/literature, gain a better understanding of the game, and maybe enjoy recreating the story in creative free play with the pieces. Read full review Realistically, you could use the same maze setup with a different Lego baddie – Darth Vader instead of the minotaur, anyone? Parents will also appreciate the potential to put the lid on at the end, and know that all the Lego is in one plate (unlike most other household Lego).The figures you move through the game are small, so this can be a little fiddly, but is fine once you get going.