Result: What are your favourite smaller sets of 2023?

Alrighty then. Both my picks came in first. Makes up for the second place finish with the minifig.

seeing Majisto so low makes me sad to see how it turned out.
I remember the Excitement when it was first rumoured. and hoping for it to follow the Forestmen's Hideout, Blacktron Cruiser and Tahu as a modern re-imagining of a classic, to then see it turn out looking a bit more like a mess.
Glad I pulled the trigger on Rivendell when able to triple up on Blacktron, Tahu and a vip part pack, rather than wait for Majisto as I had originally planned.

This is appropriate timing for me, as I just placed an order that included 77013. Glad to see that 77012 (and 40580, in the GWP poll) placed highly as well.

So glad to have more than one of these.

For Favorite GWP, I believe the Blacktron Cruiser had a lock on the win; it’s a great-looking set, it goes with the modernized Galaxy Explorer, and the nostalgia-factor is simply too high. I voted 6487483: Marvel Taxi because I think it complements Avengers Tower nicely, but I knew the Cruiser would take the win.

For Favorite Set Under $40, I voted 76245: Ghost Rider Mech & Bike because it doesn’t get more badass than Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider in a Hell Mech on a mech-sized Hell Cycle. The 501st Clone Trooper Battle Pack comes very close, and the addition of a mummy to Escape from the Lost Tomb gives it that shot of excitement it needs to be more than a display piece. The idea of Fighter Plane Chase is a good one but the aircraft is just too wonky, which I guess comes from not being accustomed to designing real-world military aircraft.

That Blacktron GWP is bad. I got two of them, driven by nostalgia, and it's a bad ship design, its too long, too flimsy and the cargo bay is closed with flag pieces in an unusall way and these flags won't stay in place (not to mention the ugly stickers). It's a nice parts pack, but as a model it is far from perfect in every aspect. Im still mad at how bad it is. The Indiana Jones Tomb on the other hand is the best value Ive seen in a while from regular lego set. Here we have good figs, lots of pieces, hidden stuff to play with and reasonable stickers. On a side note- I happen to shine blacklight in this set and there are two different orange types of plastic- one stays dark and the other reacts with blacklight. Kind of strange.

I need that Land Rover for my collection!

@WemWem said:
"LEGO Indy maybe the saddest story of the year, TBH."
The really sad story was Dial of Destiny and how shite it was. I though crystal skull was bad enough...
But yes, as you said, the franchise is dead so that's it for Indy :-(

As for Blacktron, I'm too old for that. In my time Space was grey and blue, not black. As a set is mediocre, easily worse than half the sets on that list. But hey, free parts...

77013????????? That set was AWFUL comparded to old one. It looks unfinished, like they designed much more expesnive set and cut it on half.

I agree that is was weaker than normal, I had a hard time choosing a set that stood out to me in that category. I'd give Tales of the Space Age honorable mention--that was the one I wanted to vote for in this category, but it was $50, not $40. There were very good sets, but none really felt great. The winner was a good choice--quite a bargain for what you're getting.

@WemWem said:
"It’s not fair that Indiana Jones is splitting the under $40 vote by having 2 sets under $40. /s"

What does that have to do with rigging the vote so Castle always beats Bionicle?

@xboxtravis7992 said:
"Honestly LEGO didn't put any effort into advertising the theme at all, compared to the big bang status the original Indiana Jones sets had (big waves, big LEGO Club spots, TWO tie-in video games)."

I mean, let’s be honest, there. One and a third games. One and a half, tops.

"Maybe LEGO knew Dial of Destiny would be "just okay" (I finally watched it over Christmas on Disney+ with my family and I do have to admit it is better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at least)…"

No. No, no no, no, no, wrong. Yes, given how frequently Indy seems to get betrayed by trusted friends, it was an interesting twist to see him ending up having to work with someone who openly had no interest in cooperating, but the plot was too messy. She’s the only person who knows how to find all the keys to locating this great treasure, and yet she immediately starts taking bids on each and every item as soon as it comes in contact with her hands? If you know where to find the four torn up pieces of a $10,000 bill, do you auction off each scrap for a few Benjamins, or you you take the complete set to the nearest bank and cash in big time?

Then they ended up not accomplishing a single thing by going back in time. They didn’t save anyone, they didn’t stop anyone, and things would have played out pretty much the same way if they sat at home watching TV the whole time. And what then is the point of the device, if the person who designed it never planned for it to work as everyone assumed? Your city is fighting for its very survival, and you invent a fantastical device that lets time-traveling tourists come back and say hello? Basically, they put all their effort into making sure the red herring worked, so you wouldn’t guess the twist, and absolutely no effort into making sure the twist worked or was even justifiable. I rank it slightly higher than the Transylvania episode of Young Indy, and then only because they killed Mutt.

GWP result is really unsurprising, this was one completely obvious category. Now I’m expecting what will be the result of all sets :-)

Yeah the Blacktron one winning is really not a surprise

@CapnRex101 said:
" @Phoenixio said:
"Not even a comment about Moving Truck? Non-licensed and non-classic themes deserve the love too, especially for a second position!"

I have nothing to say about it really. I agree it is an excellent set and deserves to rank highly, but it does not really tell us anything new about what people want from gifts-with-purchase."

I'd say the second place is a surprise to me. In the related comments section I thought people were more vocal about the Bionicle set and there were less that mentioned the moving truck.

I'd be interested to know who bought the moving truck because it belongs with the Jazz Club. Given the content of the truck one could say it's also interesting for owners of the Boutique Hotel. And possible reason number three: the taxi, moving truck and retro food truck seem to form a cool collection on their own. More please!

If it wasn't for the first Space Police sets I wouldn't have had any Blacktron Minifigs. I went from classic Space to Futuron and skipped Blacktron. So I didn't feel the need to try to get the Blacktron Cruiser.

I had no dog in the other poll, so I went with Polly the parrot. Look and behold: two dogs raising their paws!

Enough silly stuff, congratulations to the winners!

@DoonsterBuildsLego said:
" @Feroz said:
"I'd say the second place is a surprise to me. In the related comments section I thought people were more vocal about the Bionicle set and there were less that mentioned the moving truck.

Enough silly stuff, congratulations to the winners!"

Bionicle fans have learnt to keep their heads below the parapet ;-)"

Well, that's what mortars are for!

Pleased to see that both my faves for these categories won! The blacktron cruiser's a great set - to those saying otherwise, what don't you like exactly? There are stickers yes, but only 5 of them, which isn't much of a burden given it's a freebie. Those complaining about the look - leave out the cargo section, it looks much better without it. If it had been a retail set I'd probably have bought 3 or 4 of them, and it works very well alongside the Galaxy Explorer.

As for Indy; well if the rumours are true that the 3 sets are all we're getting well they are 3 great sets, and I'm not remotely surprised to see both the small ones on the podium here. The Dial of Destiny was marketed so badly here that I wasn't aware it had been released until seeing an ad on Disney+ a few months ago, which speaks volumes. Not got round to watching it yet - I do hope it's better than the crystal skull but that's not a high bar to clear...

Speed Champs didn't have a great year IMO. The best one was the F1LM but that was in a twin-pack, and whilst the Solus had some amazing techniques in it, it isn't a car that many people care about (or even know about). Of the individual releases, I'd say the Pagani was the best; but it wasn't ground-breaking in a way that a few have been in recent years. Much like Technic - it's been a good year for new parts there, not so much for sets.

@lordofdragonss said:
" 77013????????? That set was AWFUL comparded to old one. It looks unfinished, like they designed much more expesnive set and cut it on half."

I own the old one and it didn't look that much more finished (by the look of things). The new one, however, does look a lot bigger.

It was only when I looked at the images again I did notice the new one has surprisingly few snakes though. The old one could be littered with it, although it had less room for them to be on a floor.

@Judgeguy said:
"If you don't care about classic space, the Blacktron cruiser suuuuucks. I just happened to get one by chance and can't wait to flip it in a few years. It's not even worth building."

Theme aside, it's a decent build with a very nice array of play functions for its size.

Since most prices have gone up, I suggest making the catagory “under 50€/$. Or I even prefer more price catagories like the holiday gift guide: under 20, 20-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200 and up.
Nice to the Blacktron GWP win, hoping we see more Blacktron sets in the future.
I voted for the mclarens, although in € it was already €50 instead of the $40.

@bnic99 said:
" @bananaworld said:
"Thank you, Indy, for making sure pointless, boring cars didn't get fawned over again this year!"
Have you built any of the Speed Champions sets?
Some of them are really good, not a car guy myself, but got 76895 a few years back on discount, and was blown away with its detail, smoothness and how some of it is put together"
Thanks for the tip; I'm sure the builds are indeed great, with some lovely techniques, but I can get a feeling of satisfying building from plenty of other sets without resorting to building something from a theme I fundamentally disagree with.

I did find it surprising how few sets as a % fell under the $40 threshold, but I've no idea if that's a trend as I don't often buy that many smaller/play sets. Is there an easy way to look at prices? Be interesting to see a bell curve.

While I don't personally agree, the Blacktron Cruiser is well deserving of the first place (it was a full print / zero stickers away from being my favorite). The Temple (and the plane chase on 3rd place) shows clearly we have a love for adventures - we most likely want it without a franchise so the price can be halfway decent.

@yellowcastle said:
" @oukexergon said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
" @PurpleDave Raiders would have ended the exact same as well had Indiana stayed home to listen to the radio. Beloq and the Germans would eventually have found the Ark, then opened it on that desolate island only to have all their faces melted off. If anything the Ark potentially making it to Berlin then melting Hitler's face off as he tried to open it would have done even more good, had Indy not gotten involved. "

Not true. Without Indy, Marion likely would not have survived. And the little idol would still be in the opening temple."

Also, the US would not have the Ark stashed in a secret warehouse."
And Top Men would be out of a job.
"

Which in turn would devastate the Hard Knuckle industry.

Would've opted to get the Blacktron Cruiser if it wasn't so reliant on stickers, which I absolutely hate. Since I already own a few OG Blacktron figs, this lookalike didn't manage to win me over to shill out the extra dough on Lego. That said, it is nice nostalgia bait, but the moving truck just looks nicer to me (and yes, it has stickers too, but you can easily leave those off without it hurting the overall aesthetic of the set).

Also, am I the only one who feels some of these GWPs are a lot better than most retail sets under $ 40?

If the other Indy set, the Temple gets the top spot or close, shows you how loved the Indiana Jones theme is.
I assume the sales were low on all the sets but like me, who bought EVERY Indy set Lego made, it's a shame they never did not ONE Dial of Destiny set. Not one. Unbelievable. Like you'd think the Tuk-Tuk chase, or the tomb of Archimedes with some play features would've been sweet.
Ah, I'm still depressed that most probably, we'll never see another Indy set from Lego.
Just gotta' Moc the big scenes they never made (Crusade's train, Petra/traps/grail, tank battle and Dial's opening motorbike chase, Tuk-Tuk chase, NYC astronaut parade, Archimedes Tomb, underwater ship ruins w/eels, and the big daddy bomber vs. Roman Warship w/ Archimedes weapons).

Interestingly, the free market has a different assessment.

The highest resale prices are for the Death Star and Gringotts.

The lowest resale is for the Scary Island followed by Bonc and the Magic Maze.

@StyleCounselor said:
"Interestingly, the free market has a different assessment.

The highest resale prices are for the Death Star and Gringotts.

The lowest resale is for the Scary Island followed by Bonc and the Magic Maze."
Possibly due to lower numbers out there and higher and/or more specific original buy requirements?

I myself voted for the excellent moving truck.

@StyleCounselor said:
"Interestingly, the free market has a different assessment.

The highest resale prices are for the Death Star and Gringotts.

The lowest resale is for the Scary Island followed by Bonc and the Magic Maze."

Those two come from licensed themes, and there are a lot of completists out there for both. There are far fewer active completists for legacy themes. I missed Scary Island, and had to pick it up at a show, so I'm actually thankful that the resale value is low. The maze, I just skipped.

Majisto came in Australia with a ridiculous qualifying price. Since I have the original it was an easy pass.

I can see why Blacktron Cruiser won, although I voted for Moving Truck. Regardless, I'm happy it received the recognition it deserves with a 2nd place.

As for the other poll, I voted for Escape from the Lost Tomb. As a fun concept, I can totally see Indy driving the Land Rover.