Looking for the best Lego sets for adults? Whatever the adverts might tell you, everybody’s favourite Danish construction blocks aren’t just for kids. Stacking tiny plastic pieces together or rummaging around a big box of blocks to find the single piece that keeps evading you will always be satisfying, regardless of your age. Lego might be a toy, but you’re still allowed to have fun while paying your taxes.
The best Lego sets for adults come in all shapes and sizes. Some are mammoth models that are as impressive as they are large, others are licensed sets that recreate the iconic characters and locations of your favourite movies, and more still are just plain gorgeous to look at. We’ve rounded up the best sets that would make a fine addition to any upstanding adult’s home.
That’s not all Lego has to offer, though. Check out the biggest Lego sets to ever release if you’re not yet convinced that the toy is big business in more ways than one. Or, have a peek at the best Star Wars Lego sets if you’re a fan of the galaxy far, far away.
These are the best Lego sets for adults:
Buy NowTokyo Architecture
For a touch of class, consider Lego’s Architecture series. The line recreates the most iconic buildings and landmarks from across the globe, transporting them into miniaturised plastic skylines. Save yourself the trouble of flying halfway around the world to gaze up at a building by constructing the thing in your very own home.
The best of them is Lego’s Tokyo Architecture set. Featuring the Tokyo Tower, Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Chidorigafuchi Park, Shibuya Crossing, and more, it packs the staple landmarks of Japan’s capital into the perfect display piece. Under 30cm tall, you won’t need to clear a whole area of your lounge just to show off this skyline.
Buy NowNASA Apollo Saturn V
The Lego Saturn V is a spectacle to behold. Standing over 100 cm tall, split into its three removable rocket stages, and packing a lunar lander inside, this is a love letter to the spacecraft. It’s also the dream Lego set for any adult who wanted to become an astronaut when they were younger (so, everyone, basically).
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This is very much a display piece. The kind of Lego set for which you clear a space in your living room, before proudly introducing every visitor to your incredible model at any opportunity. But we couldn’t talk about the Lego Saturn V without mentioning its not-so-subtle easter egg. This set contains 1,969 pieces. Did you get that?
Buy NowLego Nintendo Entertainment System
Bring one of the most influential games consoles of all time back into your living room. An impressively authentic replica of the Nintendo Entertainment System, its controller, a cartridge, and a CRT TV set to ‘plug’ it into, this Lego set might be the greatest combination of nerdy interests to ever be released.
No detail is skimped on. The console opens up just like the original, letting you feed the cartridge inside. The controller, too, exactly matches the dimensions of the original, and features pressable buttons. Best of all, however, is the TV. Crank the side handle and 8-bit Mario will move across the screen.
Buy NowDinosaur Fossils
It’s a well-known fact that adults love old stuff, and there’s not much older than dinosaurs. The Lego Dinosaur Fossils set is a museum exhibition in a box. It contains ‘skeletons’ of a T. Rex, Triceratops, and Pteranodon, alongside a minifigure of a palaeontologist and a human skeleton – Lego museums are much darker than ours.
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Not a huge set, nor an expensive one, this kit works so well for its style. The skeletons look like dinosaurs without losing any of their blocky appeal. It’s Lego at its best: a set that’s similar enough to the real thing, but not trying to hide the fact it’s made out of tiny plastic bricks.
Buy Now1989 Batmobile
A lot of Batmobiles have been designed over the years, but Tim Burton’s 1989 offering might well be the best. It’s sleek, it’s slick, it’s got two batwings protruding from its rear for no discernible reason. Most importantly, it looks just as brilliant made out of Lego, as it does spinning around the streets of Gotham on the big screen.
This Lego 1989 Batmobile‘s main draw is its detail. Every inch of the chassis has been meticulously rendered in block form, making it a superb display piece. But it’s not static. Slide open the cockpit to reveal the intricate interior, pop up the front pair of machine guns, or reveal the car’s hidden grappling hook. Throw in the three included minifigures – Batman, the Joker, and Viki Vale – and this set’s a must.
Buy NowInfinity Gauntlet
If Lego isn’t just for kids, Marvel definitely isn’t. Is there any single item from the last ten years of superhero movies more iconic than the Infinity Gauntlet? Coveted by Thanos, and used to murder half the universe, you can now build this weapon of mass destruction yourself, and hang it around your home for all to see.
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The detail is brilliant, but the gauntlet’s posable digits make it shine. Standing over a foot tall, the included stand makes it look something like a trophy; fitting for the most powerful glove in the universe.
Buy NowFlower Bouquet
Flowers brighten every home, even when they’re made out of bricks. Mixing daisies, asters, roses, and more, the Lego Flower Bouquet is a spectacle of springtime colour, and quite possibly the perfect gift for an avid green thumb. With a unique range, there’s no other Lego set quite like it.
Unlike your everyday plastic plants, this doesn’t look tacky. It’s not trying to disguise its artificiality or pass off as the real thing, which makes its studded petals and plastic stems that much more satisfying. Plus, this bouquet won’t need replacing and we don’t recommend watering it.
Buy NowCentral Perk
Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Chandler, and Monica – the whole gang is here as tiny little plastic people, sitting in their tiny little plastic cafe. It’s one of the most iconic sets from sitcom history, complete with every minor detail or fleeting reference you could think of.
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Lego Central Perk really is the ultimate set for a Friends fan, but doesn’t fare badly as a stellar set in its own right. It’s large but not cumbersome, decked out with details, and even has a removable couch area so you can display the main cast separately.
Buy NowShip in a Bottle
Another entry in the ‘household items but made out of Lego for added flair’ category, the Ship in a Bottle might be the most peculiarly inventive item on this list. From the miniature ship itself to the sea of blue studs that it sits on top of, from the carefully designed stand to the ‘cork’ that plugs the bottle’s end, this is a set that pushes Lego to its limits.
It also answers that age-old question of how exactly miniature ships are squeezed through the narrow necks of bottles in the first place. It’s not magic, the bottle is built around the ship, of course!
Buy NowJames Bond Aston Martin DB5
Lego’s version of the most iconic, charming, and gadget-packed car in film history is arguably the greatest toy vehicle to ever release. The Lego James Bone Aston Martin is just as you remember it from Goldfinger: revolving number plate, front-wing machine guns, ejector seat, and a six-cylinder engine under the hood.
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Not only is it an authentic recreation of Bond’s Aston Martin, it’s an elegant model in its own right. A must for James Bond fans? Probably.
Source: Wargamer
