Just like last year, I’m kicking off my Best of 2023 lists with a look at some of my favorite LEGO sets from 2023.
I have no doubt Cameron is weary of the amount of space many of these sets and my ever-growing collection take up, but the good news is that we added a storage shed in the backyard this past year so I’ve been able to start getting a lot of the boxes and instructions and whatnot moved out there. I probably can’t keep the sets themselves out there since it’ll get way too hot in the summer but it’s a start.
Anyway, first let’s look at some dishonorable and honorable mentions that didn’t make the top twenty.
Dishonorable Mentions
Gringotts Wizarding Bank – Collector’s Edition (76417)
First, JK Rowling sucks and Trans Rights are Human Rights.
Second, this set just looks so stupid. Like, I appreciate that it was designed to have the top Bank portion be able to standalone, but then why not just make this into two different sets. The lower half of the underground vault just makes this set look bad to me.
Captain America’s Shield (76262)
Don’t get me wrong, this would be right at home on my bookcase alongside my LEGO Mjolnir and the Infinity and Nano Gauntlets, but not for $200. And it just looks like it would be a painfully repetitive build in the same way that I don’t really have much interest in ever building the Eiffel Tower set from 2022.
Honorable Mentions
Batcave – Shadow Box (76252)
Catch me on a different day of the week and this Batman Shadow Box set might land in the Dishonorable Mentions. It’s definitely an interesting concept to mash up a play-set design with a bookshelf showpiece based on the Burton Batman films, but between the $400 price point and the knowledge that a substantial portion of it’s almost 4,000 pieces are just black bricks and plates for the shadowbox itself, I don’t know that I’ll be picking this one up any time soon.
The Botanical Sets: Wildflower Bouquet (10313), Dried Flower Centerpiece (10314), Tiny Plants (10329)
The continued expansion of the Botanical series of sets, however, are regularly in my LEGO Wishlists. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a plant guy, but I can absolutely be a LEGO plant guy and enjoy the bit of decor they can add to a room. And since I’ve got my mom fully hooked on LEGO too, these always make for a great gift option for birthdays and holidays.
Mario Character Pack Series 6 (71413)
I’ve managed to avoid getting into the Mario character packs, in large part because I came in around series 4 and I know the completionist in me would want to go back and pay an arm and a leg for the older ones. But I’m giving them an honorable mention here because my sister excitedly shared that she had gotten into them and was collecting this series specifically.
Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser (75367)
This is absolutely a beautiful set but it is A) too expensive for my budget at the moment and B) too large to even pretend like I can display it anywhere (even though, yeah, it would mostly just sit in its box next to the other Ultimate Collector’s Series ships I have.
Concorde (10318)
My dad was a pilot and then airplane mechanic for many years before he retired so my sister and I went in on the Concorde set for him for a Christmas-Birthday combo gift. I imagine some combination of my mom and I will have to help him build it because I doubt he has the patience for it but it looks like it’ll be a cool thing for him.
Tales of the Space Age (21340)
I’m definitely a fan of the increasing collection of LEGO Art I can display, much like the Botanicals. I also picked up the Hokusai – The Great Wave set earlier in the year. Eventually I’ll get that hung up, along with these pieces and the Starry Night set and have a nice little gallery building.
Spider-Man Final Battle (76261)
Just missing out on this year’s top twenty is this set from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Presumably in an effort to prevent the plot details of that movie from leaking, we didn’t get LEGO sets until well after the fact and this is a nice culmination of the end battle. Although, I don’t know how I feel about LEGO getting more into the set expansion market with the 2024 addendum set #76280 Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle that is designed to be added onto this earlier set.
Okay, now onto the list proper:
20. Death Star II (40591)
Since this year’s May the Fourth promotion (and some of the LEGO Star Wars offerings in general) was centered around the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, this incomplete Death Star II was a great Gift With Purchase for the promotion and has earned a spot on my shelf alongside the Dioramas.
19. The New Guardians’ Ship (aka The Bowie, 76255)
As much as I love Star Wars ships, they could use a bit more color so when I was building The Bowie for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, I was so happy to have a ton of magenta and teal bricks instead of a bunch of shades of gray and black. It would have been nice if this set had Rocket, Groot, and Gamora to fill out the Guardians crew but Adam Warlock was a nice inclusion (weird that none of the sets had the High Evolutionary though).
18. Star Wars Helmets: Captain Rex Helmet, Clone Commander Cody Helmet, and Princess Leia (Boushh) Helmet (75349, 75350, and 75351)
This year brought another few helmets to add to the Star Wars collection (there were some others like Marvel’s Star-Lord too but I’m probably just going to stick with Star Wars for the time being). With a lot of the most iconic helmets already released, this year brought a couple of Clone Wars offerings with Captain Rex and Commander Cody, as well as Leia’s disguise as the Bounty Hunter Boushh. I’ll be curious to see where they go next or if they start veering into Droid heads like C-3P0 or R2-D2.
17. Star Wars Dioramas: Emperor’s Throne Room Diorama and Endor Speeder Chase Diorama (75352 and 75353)
Continuing on with the Star Wars collections, I’m now excited for the new Diorama sets that we seem to get each year. This year gave us two Return of the Jedi sets in honor of the movie’s 40th anniversary with the Endor Speeder Chase and the Emperor’s Throne Room. My only gripe is probably that the Throne Room didn’t have any of the red Praetorian Guards but whatever. I imagine 2024 will start heading to the Prequels with maybe a Podrace or Duel of the Fates diorama from The Phantom Menace.
16. A-Frame Cabin (21338)
The first of a handful of non-licensed sets to make my list this year, I just think the rustic design of this woodsy A-Frame Cabin is cool. Like the Tales of the Space Age set in the honorable mentions, I absolutely love when a set gets through the LEGO Ideas process and gets enough love on its own merits, without needing to tie into some pre-existing property. So shout out to fan designer Andrea Lattanzio on this one!
15. Villain Icons (43227)
I think this is such a fun and creative way to highlight some classic Disney villains through a bookshelf-ready collection of “books”, knick-knacks, and even a Little Mermaid “VHS tape.” While it wasn’t my favorite of the Disney 100 sets (more to come on those), I definitely love the approach they took for this one.
14. Walt Disney Tribute Camera (43230)
In addition to my multiple Disneyland trips this year, I also got to visit Walt Disney World for the very first time, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company. So this Walt Disney Tribute Camera was a wonderful way to marry my Adult Fan of LEGO love with my Adult Fan of Disney love. And I particularly love all of the frames in the film strip with LEGO-ified Disney film imagery.
13. Temple of the Golden Idol (77015)
As noted with the Star Wars dioramas above, I really like these sorts of sets as nice and easy display pieces that I can pop on a bookshelf and enjoy after building. I built this one in the lead up to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over the summer. I grabbed the other Indy two sets as well (sadly the rumored Temple of Doom mine cart set got scrapped), but this one makes the list for its display-ability.
12. X-Wing Starfighter (75355)
The big new set for 2023’s May the Fourth promotion, of course I was going to get the X-Wing. I grabbed a used Collector Series A-Wing late last year and already have some of the bigger ships like the Star Destroyer and Millennium Falcon (and I grabbed 2022’s Razor Crest during the LEGO Holiday sale) so I’m looking forward to getting these all built and displayed someday.
11. Ghost & Phantom II (75357)
As mentioned earlier, as much as I love Star Wars ships, I absolutely wish they had a bit more fun with the color and got away from all of the grays and blacks. So the Ghost/Phantom combo released for the Ahsoka series (as well as Ahsoka’s ship) were a nice change of pace. And since I’m unlikely to ever drop a ton of cash on the original Ghost and Phantom set that was released back when Rebels was on, this is a nice addition to the collection.
10. Disney 100 Series Minifigures (71038)
After a rough pull with the 6-pack minifigures for one of the recent Series sets wherein I got three identical 6-pack boxes from a 12-figure series, I was very worried about how many boxes I might need to buy for the 18-figure Disney 100 series. Especially, because in the lead-up to the release, I picked up full sets of the previous two Disney series since they came out before my love of LEGO was reignited. So I picked up four 6-packs to start, fully expecting to have to grab more or purchase some one-offs from Bricks and Minifigs. But miracle of miracles, I opened the first box and got six unique figures (as is usually the case), then the second box had another six figures, and finally, each new figure I opened in the third box was unique as well and I managed to get all 18 figures with a 6-pack box to spare! (Amazingly, I had similar luck with the Marvel Series 2 set later in the year where I bought three 6-packs, but managed to get all 12 figures in the first two boxes I opened.)
9. House of the World 1-4 (40583, 40590, 40594, 40599)
On the one hand, I hate the psychological warfare that LEGO used in 2023 with their House of the World Gift With Purchase sets and the ridiculous $250 threshold price. By establishing the first one as House of the World I, it was a given that more would be released throughout the year so if you were gonna go in on one, the completionists were almost certainly going to drop $1,000+ over the year to get them all.
On the other hand, they are adorable and I love them.
8. Eldorado Fortress (10320)
Much like the Lion Knights’ Castle set from 2022, I’m a sucker for the sets that remind me of the big sets I wanted, but couldn’t afford, when I was growing up so I absolutely picked up the Eldorado Fortress set and was immediately flooded to the summer I spent in Michigan with family and the huge pirate sets that my cousins had in their basement.
7. Jazz Club (10312)
Well dang it! The Jazz Club set just looked too good for me not to get it. And just as I’ve feared, it has led me down a path of wanting to collect all of the modulars. So after buying this one, I went ahead and started picking up some of the previous years’ sets and even got a couple of the older, retired ones from my local Bricks and Minifigs. I really hope they stick to only releasing one of these sets a year…
6. Natural History Museum (10326)
Crap. As much as I love the design of the Jazz Club set, the late year release of the Natural History Museum set looks even more up my alley. I’m guessing they shifted the release from the usual January to November in order to try and get the sets sold for the holidays. But I already had my shopping done so this is on my “to get in 2024” list as I foolishly got sucked into collecting these.
5. PAC-MAN Arcade (10323)
Having picked up the Nintendo Entertainment System and Atari 2600 sets in the last few years, of course I had to pick-up the PAC-MAN Arcade set. Absolutely love the look of this set and just sort of fear that they’ll end up doing a series of other Arcade sets that I’ll be inclined to get just like the dang modulars.
4. Yavin 4 Rebel Base (75365)
Somewhere in my office closet is the Mos Eisley Cantina set from a few years back because I’m a sucker for sets with a ton of minifigs (spoilers for my top three). So the 12 figures in this one (combined with a relatively affordable price point) checked that box for me this year on the Star Wars front. The big Ultimate Collector Series ships are nice, but when they only come with a figure or two, it just hurts a bit more to spend that much money on them.
3. Disney Castle (43222)
In last year’s list, I gave the 2016 Disney Castle an honorable mention for the fun time I had building it with the family as part of a 2021 Christmas gift. With that one still happily on display at my parents’ house, I gave the family the 2023 version this past Christmas and offered to display it at my place once it’s all done and built. Looking forward to another Disney easter-egg filled set with the updated Disney World 50th Anniversary color scheme and Prince and Princess-based minifigures.
2. The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell (10316)
Since I wasn’t collecting LEGO when Lord of the Rings was big or when previous LOTR sets came out, I’ve just had to enjoy those collections via seeming them occasionally in a Bricks and Minifigs store or through the old LEGO Lord of the Rings game on my PlayStation 3 (I figure that or – more likely – Harry Potter will be the next ones to get the LEGO Skywalker Saga remake treatment). But dang this Rivendell set is a beauty. I haven’t actually picked up the set yet but it’s near the top of my “To Buy” list so maybe I’ll cash in some VIP/Insider points and get a discount going for the next cool Gift With Purchase I want to nab.
1. Avengers Tower (76269)
It seems fitting that a spiritual success to the Daily Bugle set from a few years back that helped get me back into LEGO would end up taking the top spot this year with the multi-era Avengers Tower having a ton of minifigures, just like the Daily Bugle. Maybe someday, I’ll even find the time and space to build my little Marvel city-scape and get the Avengers Tower lined up with the Sanctum Sanctorum and Daily Bugle sets.
So there’s my list. Let me know what some of your favorites were in the comments or on Twitter.