The Brickset 2015 Holiday Gift Guide
Posted by Huw,
To help you find the perfect present this season we have compiled a series of Holiday Gift Guides, highlighting our pick of the best offerings this year from LEGO, and which we will be publishing in the run-up to Thanksgiving in the USA.
We have chosen price points to suit all your gift-giving needs and today will kick off with sets under $25 (£20). Read on to find out what Brickset's contributors have picked from over 220 retail sets released this year in that price bracket.
CapnRex101: 60083 Snowplough Truck (£17.99 / $19.99 / 19.99€)
The City 'Great Vehicles' range consistently offers a variety of fantastic sets annually so I always look forward to buying a few of them in January when they are customarily released.
60083 Snowplough Truck was one such innocuous purchase but it quickly became a favourite as it is still the only set released this year which I cannot fault in the slightest. The model looks brilliant, with realistic styling but also some exaggerated features and a bright colour scheme, while the play functions work perfectly without interfering with the appearance of the vehicle.
MeganL: 41099 Heartlake Skate Park (£17.99 / $19.99 / 19.99€)
While I have a lot of fondness for 41097 Heartlake Hot Air Balloon, with the colourful balloon and secret surprise by the waterfall (something I really enjoy about Friends sets), my recommendation for this category is 41099 Heartlake Skate Park.
For $19.99 it offers quite a bit with the beach pier, the skateboard half-pipe and ramp, the various skateboard props and a vending machine. It even has a cute dog! The colours are great and the stickers complement the set nicely without being gratuitous (though most are not necessary if you are very anti-sticker).
I had a great time playing with this set, so I imagine most kids would as well. For me the star of the set is the vending machine - it works!
LostInTranslation: 10684 Supermarket Suitcase (£19.99 / $19.99 / 24.99€)
My pick for under $25 is the Juniors supermarket suitcase, which is an ideal gift for any child just getting into LEGO or who likes building everyday settings, which you would expect to find in City, but are sadly lacking in that theme.
It's only a basic shell of a building but has some really nice details and interesting minifigures and can be expanded nicely with basic bricks from a child's random stock. From a parent or grandparent's perspective it also practically packs away into a plastic carry case. But why oh why did they make it pink?!
SprinkleOtter: 31034 Future Flyer (£17.99 / $24.99 / 19.99€)
My top pick for a set under $25 is 31034 Future Flyer. It's not often that a Creator set catches my eye, but Future Flyer definitely stands out in a crowd. Future Flyer can be rebuilt into a futuristic jet or a sleek open-top car. Future flyer has some interesting build techniques to satisfy AFOLs, while also having more than enough playability to please younger builders.
But the real icing on the cake for me is the fact that Future Flyer has working knee joints - a rarity in brick-built mechs since Exo-Force ended. Future Flyer has few rare parts, but the parts he does have are useful and plentiful. At 237-pieces, Future Flyer hits the ~10c per piece sweet-spot.
DrDaveWatford: 31031 Rainforest Animals (£12.99 / $14.99 / 14.99€)
For me the best sub-$25 set of 2015 has to be 31031 Rainforest Animals. The primary build consists of three models - a vibrant parrot, a cute frog and a fly - all of which have bags of personality.
The parrot in particular is a fun build, and it features what might be a unique play-feature in the history of LEGO models, namely a 'waste disposal' mechanism which is activated by lifting its tail feathers....
When you are bored of the primary build, instructions are included to build a couple of alternative models - a fish and a chameleon - from the same elements. Overall, the set feels like a steal at £12.99/$14.99 for 215-pieces - definitely my favourite set at this price point.
TheBrickPal: 41547 Wuzzo (£2.99 / $4.99 / 3.99€)
Mixels is still pretty popular, so why not make somebody's holiday with one of the little guys? With Wuzzo, you get the best Weldo tribe member, one of the best sets of Series 6, AND one of the best sets from the entire theme.
Plus, he's a chainsaw! Throw in the included King Nixel for some conflict... and then what's not to like?
Not only is Wuzzo good for kids to play with, but any AFOL would love to use the many interesting parts for MOCs!
HearItWow: 75901 Mystery Plane Adventures (£19.99 / $19.99 / 24.99€)
LEGO has an excellent assortment for 2015 in the under $25 range, but the set that stands out for me is 75901 – Mystery Plane Adventures from the Scooby-Doo line.
You can find sets with a greater piece count at this price point, but it’s hard to find one that includes three minifigures, including the iconic Scooby and Shaggy, a horse and a nicely detailed plane that uses some hard-to-find colors and includes flick missiles.
Scooby-Doo has very broad appeal, from kids who are just discovering the new Be Cool, Scooby-Doo series to adults who remember the show from Saturday mornings, which makes this set a great gift for any fan over the age of 5.
Huw: 10694: Creative Supplement Bright (£17.99 / $19.99 / 19.99€)
I've reviewed dozens of sets this year but perhaps the one I had the most fun doing was this. (Read my review here).
It's laden with mostly pastel-coloured basic bricks and slopes, over 300 of them, so it's bound to inspire creativity in whoever it's gifted to.
Kids may be naturally drawn to sets filled with expensive minifigs and few parts but I bet most 5-7 year olds will get more enjoyment out of a set like this where they can let their imagination run riot.
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We've made our choices: what would you have picked from this list?
The guide will continue on Wednesday with sets in the $25-$50 price range.
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39 comments on this article
I have the snow truck and it's a beauty, planning to get both the new Tie and X-Wing plus a couple of Pick a Brick pieces once sales starts.
I genuinely can't choose... There's so many good sets...
This is SO useful, you guys! Thank you all for giving such a good range of possibilities to people trying to figure out what to buy for someone else. And it's made me want to pick up a few of these sets for myself as well!
If you're near a Meijer in the U.S., 41099 Heartlake Skate Park is on sale for $14.99. Not sure how long the sale lasts though.
Cool! On a different note I think brickset should a do a best set of the year.
I have the parrot, and it is definitely worth it. Future Flyers is also very impressive, but I don't like the other sets in this list much.
The parrot is a great set. Both my kids (age 3 and 6) love making it poop the crackers.
Having a look through the list, seeing what I've picked up, what I've been tempted by & what I've passed on, it's between two.
The creative supplement bright that Huw recommends
or
31032 Red Creatures. The dragon has been popular with both my girls & was even used for a Lego version of Room on the Broom
@ Ultimate Equinox
How would we choose? As Huw said, there are over 200 sets under $25 alone!
Are you guys starting with the $20 sets and working your way up? I'd like to see your gift recommendtions on polybags--those go great in stockings!
Probably the snowplow.
Interestingly, aside from when it was launched, the snowplough hasn't been in UK stores since, at least near me. Surprising considering it was only released in January this year.
We bought two of the parrot sets and had a blast building other little insects and animals with the parts after making two versions of the sets in the instructions. These are fantastic critters and inspire you to come with so many others. All ages would like this set, and it is great to buy several for the family and friends and hold an animal building party like we did. Way to go choosing this one among so many wonderful choices!
I'd pick 70790: Lord of Skull Spiders. I picked it up in the Brighton Store while on holiday in May, and I really love it. The 70791: Skull Warrior is still my favourite, but this one offers a great range of playability, and, to a MOCer, the challenge of making it as large as it is in the Bionicle animations.
I second the Snowplough Truck, it is such a nice set. And very playable also.
70790 would be in my list of the worst sets of the year! I hated it and broke it down almost as soon as I built it and couldn't be bothered to review it even, it was that bad.
@ResIpsaLoquitur, in hindsight we should have started at < $10, as we have in the past.
Trouble with polybags is that they are limited availability: we've stuck with normal retail sets in the hope that they'll be more widely available still, although whether that's actually the case, given that as some commentators above have noted, January sets are already hard to find, is another matter.
Hmmmm. I think a few more ideas could have been:
Any of the Bionicle Toa (they are all in the price range, and are rather well built, particularly Gali)
Something Ninjago in that price range? ( I don't follow Ninjago, but I know all my cousins are addicts to it).
Reys Speeder would be good for a teen or adult collector. Has some good SNOT for a $20 build.
I agree with Brickset choice of the Snowplow, that's one I would like to buy! Even as an adult I like the Snowplow 's look. Also I wasn't aware of the parrot or the pastel bricks, but they sound interesting now that I know about them.
( P.s. 70790 is that bad? I've seen a lot of Youtubers, Eurobricks, and BZpower members call it their least favorite Bionicle set of the new wave; yet to hear it from Huw (a big time not-constraction fan) sounds like a nail in the coffin. I'm still kind of interested in 70790 though, just as I guess I would have bought Wall-E had there been no recalls...)
^^Huw, just a note on polys--in the U.S., Target (which is everywhere) seems to have a lot of polys in perpetuity. Right now mine are glutted with the City space buggy and race car, and now have loads of the TIE Advance Prototype. Some of mine still have polys that are 1-2 years old or more--I'm still finding old Chima polys and even the original TIE Fighter poly from 2012 or so.
Of course, that's U.S. specific--I can't speak for anybody's poly availability outside of that.
The only set under 25€ I bought this year is flinx's ultimate phoenix, although it is a bit high on the price per piece and has only 2 (very good) minifigs, the final model is pretty large and nice looking and has nice posability too.
That was almost my pick, it's a great set but, well, Chima's as good a dead now.
I'd probably have chosen 70786 Gali - Master of Water, 41076 Farran and the Crystal Hollow, or 41097 Heartlake Hot Air Balloon. The choices in this list are pretty nice as well, though! I think it really goes to show that even though so many people feel like LEGO is getting too expensive, there are lots of great sets to be had even at the lower price points.
Great choices!
Wow, I'd forgotten that under $25 is a BIG range since that encompasses all $20, $12, and $10 sets too. If I had to peg a REALLY cheap set, I'd go with 70818's Double-Decker Couch. You get half of the Lego Movie's main characters (including a Benny who's only available in two very expensive sets), a car, a waffle, and a bunch of sand blue pieces which I don't think are too common. If you're keeping it under $25, you could throw in Batman & Super Angry Kitty attack to get three more characters and a Micro-Manager and still keep it under budget. I believe both of these are still in stores.
Thank you for this. Great idea, and some great sets picked - I own 4 of them! There are indeed some great sets at the affordable end of the market. I love the creator animal/insect sets in particular, and my children have loved playing with them
I don't know what I would pick, if it had been under £30 then I would've picked the hulkbuster but that's for next time!
Rainforest Animals has been a huge hit in this household, with the preschoolers as well as the grown-ups. I can't recommend this one enough.
That said, there's a certain amount of intimidation for new(ish) builders when it comes to breaking down a LEGO-designed model to turn it into something else. Huw's comment about the "Classic" set above is spot on: there's likely far more building and rebuilding that's going to happen when you give a kid (or me) a set of basic bricks.
Actually LEGO Minifigures/LEGO Dimensions packs can also be pretty good gifts!
I agree the Snowplough is a great choice, still have it in box waiting to build this winter season. I would also include the Service Truck, which is $24.99 I believe. That's a really great vehicle set as well.
Snow Plough and Mystery Plane are the best sets in this list. The Scooby Doo sets are amazing. I like this idea. Looking forward to the next edition.
Wow, there's so many great sets for under £20. I keep choosing my favourite and then others remind me of different great sets. If I had to choose it would be the Airjitzu flyers - I've had so much fun with my son and nephews, plus other kids at parties.
Double-Decker Couch would have been my pick.
The Snow Plough, Skate Park and Future Flyer are all favorites from this year. All of the Great Vehicles were good and provide good basics for all sorts of MOC's. I made a whole series of Avengers/Shield type vehicles from the 60082 Dune Buggy SUV. I think the 60073: Service Truck should have made the list, however. It's my favorite. I like the Future Flyer so much I have 3 of them. Great part selection and excellent for stop-motion animation.
I have the 31031 and it's beautiful and fun. Nice picks !
31032 Red Creatures. The dragon is great. I'm going to pick up 31031 Rainforest Animals next, based on what people are saying here. 3-in-1 creators are great little sets that offer fun builds and excellent value for money.
Interesting to see that Scooby-Doo was the only licensed/action theme amongst all those. Was that deliberate? I'd imagine Star Wars/Ninjago/Super Hero lego sets will be extremely popular with most kids, so just wondered if this was a deliberate decision to broaden the net to other sets people might have missed?
I look forward to these articles as well as Dr. Watford's sets of the year on his blog.
@Andhe - It is purely coincidental on this occasion.
I think I would've picked 70411 Treasure Island. I just feel like it packed all the stereotypical, cartoony and fun pirate play and more, giving the capabilities for loads of epic journeys, bloody battles or plain, peaceful quests to get rich, but offering something sizeable, colorful and varied so it still looks great. Plus you get a good variety of figures to go with it, and at only $20, it seems like a no-brainer.