To end the celebration of the 50 years of the LEGO brick, here are the best sets in history. Handpicked from Lugnet—the biggest LEGO database—based on their popularity, these 229 sets belong to the most iconic lines—LEGOLAND Space, Town, Castle and Pirates—plus three of the most popular ones—LEGO TECHNIC, Star Wars and Racers. From the most significant to the most amazing and complex, from the late '70s to today. We can't get ourselves to pick the Best of the Best. Jump, see them all and decide for yourself (plus the official LEGO video of 50 years of the brick). I remember the first time I played with LEGO bricks. Shiny, perfectly smooth and with that unique smell of plastic, which back then I imagined was probably captured by magic elves in Denmark. Today it's almost the same—shiny and perfectly smooth, except the elves are now blue-eyed buxom Danish Valkyries in skimpy LEGO swimsuits.As someone who grew in the Golden Age of LEGO, I just can't decide on any particular model as the Best LEGO Set EVER.
I have to confess a soft spot for LEGO Space, yes, but also for TECHNIC. And of course, although this is way later in my LEGO career, Star Wars. But the soft spot for all those old models from the late '70s and early '80s is the key here: even if I sound like a total nerd, seeing some of these give me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy—some even make me teary. It's not like the Galaxy Explorer, the Space Command or the big TECHNIC Helicopter were all that special. It's what happened around them what makes them special, the countless hours I spent with my brothers and father building a thousand combinations of vehicles and weird buildings. It's all that fun, all those days of complete and most absolute happiness which comes back just by looking at the box photos of those sets. And that's what makes them so special, so emotionally charged. They bring back the best in me.Today I marvelled again at the popularity of that simple LEGO brick timeline, and I guess this, the emotional link, must be the reason why LEGO stories are so popular among all our readers.
Not because LEGO bricks are cool, which they are, but because they are inevitably linked to intimate memories, to happy memories, the best memories, shared with family or friends or completely personal.For all that: happy birthday LEGO, and thanks for all the bricks. So what's your favorite set? If you can't find it, what are we missing? Tell us in the comments (and don't forget to check Lugnet for all the LEGO sets in all lines in history. The ones in the post may be the best, but they are just a fraction. The 25 most valuable Lego sets of all time, from the Millennium Falcon to the Statue of Liberty Lego bricks aren't just for stepping on and screaming in horror. They're also quite the commodity. The beloved building toy has spawned a secondary market where rare sets can be worth thousands. With the help of Jeff Maciorowski from the Lego investing site Brickpicker, we present to you the 25 most valuable Lego sets in history. Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon: $3,987.40
Statue of Liberty: $1,998.87. Imperial Star Destroyer: $1,744. Death Star II: $1,656.87. Rebel Blockade Runner: $1,199.20. Castle Giant Chess Set: $1,128.20. Y-wing Attack Starfighter: $1,067.60 Super Star Destroyer: $881.33. Vader's TIE Advanced: $673.20. Marina Bay Sands: $657.40. Get the Slide Deck from Henry Blodget's IGNITION Presentation on the Future of Digital Read Business Insider On The Go Available on iOS or Android See All Jobs » Thanks to our partnersOur community, 4486 want it Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon Our community, 9111 want it Our community, 3930 want it Our community, 3846 want it Our community, 7007 want it Our community, 5515 want it Our community, 3785 want it Our community, 5295 want it Our community, 5210 want it Our community, 6664 want it Our community, 5805 want it Our community, 3556 want it Our community, 1926 want it
Our community, 3170 want it Our community, 6277 want it Our community, 2130 want it Our community, 848 want itHome > Awesomeness > By Joe Warner on November 14, 2014 Back in the 1990s, LEGO was the struggling toy brick company that adults looked back on nostalgically, but couldn’t make a buck. Until 1999, when LEGO started to license the brick out of it. Then things started rocking, and 15 years later, LEGO has produced a dizzying array of licensed sets from a number of A-list pop culture properties including Star Wars (one of the first), Harry Potter, Batman, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Simpsons and even Back to the Future. The list goes on. This year saw the introduction of The LEGO Movie licensed sets, which was kind of like, whoa, dude, it’s like turning in on itself! But LEGO is not all about the licensed toys. There’s still the classic and long-running LEGO City, LEGO Space, LEGO Castle and LEGO Technic themes, as well as more recent popular themes like LEGO Architecture, LEGO Creator, LEGO Mindstorms, LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Legends of Chima and the girl-friendly LEGO Friends.
LEGO Pirates are also coming back in 2015 after a 6-year hiatus. There’s even LEGO Ideas (formerly known as CUUSOO) which is a program that produces fan-submitted ideas through a Kickstarter-like process. That’s how the LEGO Minecraft and Back to the Future sets were born. We are truly now in the Golden Age of LEGO, and everything is awesome! Let’s take a look at 20 incredibly awesome official LEGO sets from the past 10 years. (Hey, we had to limit this somehow. Otherwise, this list would be huge!) Special thanks to Brickset for their awesome LEGO site and passionate users! Taken from this year’s big hit The LEGO Movie, Metal Beard’s Sea Cow is an over-the-top mishmash numbering over 2,700 pieces. It’s the largest set from the series and is already considered one of the best ships ever produced by LEGO. It also includes the all-important double-decker couch. Release year: 2014 | Price: $250 – Amazon Released in 2011, this Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars set contains over 3,000 pieces and is no longer in production.
eBay is your only hope to find it now. Release year: 2011 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Born out of the LEGO CUUSOO site (now known as LEGO Ideas), the iconic BTTF DeLorean Time Machine is a fan-submitted design that became an official retail set. Numbering 401 pieces, the set features the famous gull-wing doors, the flux capacitor, Marty McFly and his skateboard and of course Doc Brown. This is a great time to be a LEGO fan! Release year: 2013 | Price: $35 – Amazon A treat for movie buffs, this 2,196-piece Expert set is inspired by movie palaces of yesteryear. It’s part of the Modular Buildings series where you can piece together different sets to form a city block.Price: $150 – Amazon Indiana Jones and LEGOs: awesome! This fun 554-piece set recreates the iconic boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and contains a minifigure for Jock, Indy’s pilot as well as one for the unfortunate Satipo who famously implores Indy to “throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!”
Yeah, that didn’t end well. Release year: 2007 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Since its release in late 2012 to coincide with the release of The Hobbit, the 652-piece Unexpected Gathering set has won praise from LEGO and Tolkien fans alike. It’s as detailed as the movie scene it recreates is long. Which is to say, it’s very detailed. Release year: 2012 | Price: $63 – Amazon Containing nearly 3,000 pieces and priced over $300, the Sydney Opera Set is a faithful rendering of the landmark structure, aimed squarely at adult fans of LEGOs, aka AFOLs. Standing nearly a foot tall, the set doesn’t have minifigures and the instruction booklet contains text and illustrations about the history and construction of the opera house.Price: $320 – Amazon Just a year after it was introduced, the Ewok Village, with its near 2,000-piece count, is already in the firmament of greatest Star Wars LEGO sets ever made. Say what you will about the cinematic worthiness of Ewoks, but they make very entertaining toys.
Price: $250 – Amazon With no specific instructions and over 1,200 white and transparent pieces, the Architecture Studio is aimed at the builder who likes to use their own inspiration to create memorable LEGO sets. You get 73 different types of building bricks and a thick book that teaches you about architectural concepts. This is a long way from Star Wars LEGOs!Price: $160 – Walmart Containing 865 pieces and 8 minifigures, the classic Black Seas Barracuda set is so good that it got re-released in 2002, 13 years after it was first introduced, and thus makes it eligible to appear on our list! Release year: 2002 | Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace Another Star Wars set, another Ultimate Collector Series toy, 2,500 pieces of pure awesome. Release year: 2010 | It has just recently gone out of production, but the 2064-piece Haunted House is destined to become a sought-after commodity among LEGO builders. It’s been praised for the attention to detail, creativity, unique minifigures and the way it opens like a dollhouse.
Consisting of over 1,000 pieces, the Medieval Market Village is a tavern, blacksmith’s workshop and open market with various animal figures, including two cows and a rat. For Castle fans, this is considered the best of the modern sets. Release year: 2009 | Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace This set boasts a mind-blowing 5,195 pieces, giving it the second-highest piece count after the Taj Mahal (#3 on our list). It’s also the largest sized model (33″ x 22″ x 8.3″) and most expensive set ($500 retail) ever made commercially available by LEGO. Release year: 2007 | As featured last year right here on The Checkout, the Tower of Orthanc is a ridiculously awesome set featuring six floors containing over 2,300 pieces and Treebeard the Ent among many other delights. It’s an amazing-looking LEGO set.Price: $250 – Amazon With the highest piece count of any LEGO set ever at a jaw-dropping 5,922 bricks in all, the Taj Mahal had to be on this list.