Result: What are your favourite smaller sets of 2025?

The Happy Plants are great, although I kind of wish I hadn't recently replayed "The Binding of Isaac".

Not remotely surprised by the Spacebaby - I've yet to bricklink it but I'm definitely going to. I am surprised by the other one though, I didn't think that Happy Plants, good though it is, would be anywhere near the top. The Horizon set is incredible value (for Lego) and the Lambo twin-pack I also enjoyed (although admittedly the two cars do look pretty similar to the non-enthusiast!). The Panda family is a great set as well - in fact I've got it and the lucky bamboo sitting on my desk alongside 2024's CTF calendar.

This has made me rethink getting the Flying Machine too..

MyThe ones I voted for won the GWP poll and took second in the cheaper set poll. I'm liking the results so far!

I'm very pleased for Happy Plants getting the top spot, and for da Vinci's Flying Machine making second. Both of these I originally nominated.

No surprise about the Space Baby winning. I'm disappointed the Federation's Shuttlepod didn't get voted favorite GWP. Maybe that Space Baby can go terrorize some planet like at the end of "2001".

Both are cute sets that definitely deserved the win!

Of course the two sets I voted for are at the bottom...

I do like 10363, but 25% of it is the stand, which seems a disproportionate amount.

one of my choices won and I think it was actually the 1st time I voted for classic space in a brickset poll. though the star trek shuttle looks good too, I hesitated, but felt it was less special than the space baby. don't remember if I voted on the 2nd poll, but if I did, I guess it was the speed champions 2 pack

Happy Plants FTW!

@PDelahanty said:
"Speaking of GWP availability, the fiasco over GWPs in the US last week REALLY annoyed me. First the Creel House GWP sells out…but they don’t give you the Hat Parade GWP if you get the house so you get NOTHING. Then after the set sells out (and isn’t even backordered), the GWP comes back, but you can’t get it because it’s impossible to order the set.

Lego really needs to fix their supply issue to meet demand and stop running out of exclusive GWPs after mere hours! …and if they re-introduce a GWP, there needs to be a way for people who bought the set after it originally ran out to get it. (I’ve stopped buying if I missed out on the GWP in case it gets reintroduced again…like had happened multiple times now.)"

If the GWP came back, you should immediately contact them and ask for one to be sent to you gratis. And it _may_ happen anyways. I was trying to pick up another 40448 in mid-January a few years ago, and it was in my cart when I added my purchase, but I delayed actually placing the order by an hour or two. By the time I got ready to actually make the purchase, it was gone. They ended up sending me one attached to that order anyways, as a separate shipment.

Congratulations to the winners!

I wonder if the Star Trek Shuttle Pod would have gotten more votes if it was less trouble to require it. Going to build a classic Space version.

+1 for disliking that the cheaper set category has gotten a higher price. That's on Lego of course, not Brickset.

Oh just realized both top sets were designed by former BZPower members. Cool stuff!

I voted for Upscaled Space Baby, Happy Plants, Medieval Dragon and teal Classic Spaceman, though I doubt the latter two will win their categories. I reckon Tudor Corner and Wolfpack Beastmaster will. After coming to that conclusion, I fed the nominations thread into an AI engine and it predicted Tudor Corner and Wolfpack Beastmaster, too.

All hail giant space baby.

At my place, artificial plants are a big no-no. But those two were allowed to pass. The colours are non-aggressive and very subdued; yet they appear very clearly in a see of green and even if the design is minimalist, you can tell from afar those pot-plants are smiling. I build it with my mom during the recent holidays - she enjoyed that quite a lot for such a small set. (my first ever Botanicals, I liked it as well)

I have a good sample of both groups. Generally top heavy for the below 50 sets and mostly bottom heavy for the GWPs. The only one missing I'd like to have is the shuttle pod - I'll get the parts and eventually, someone (some company) will make the stickers (which are very good quality).

@PurpleDave said:
" @ScholtzTKO :
$50 was the low end of expensive sets in the 1900's, when gas cost under a buck per gallon. If you're balking at that now being a cheap set in 2026, you might need a better job.

@alLEGOry_HJB2810 :
Do we know for a fact that all of these parts are being designed at the behest of the Botanicals line, or is it possible they're just taking advantage of new elements as they become available? Even if they appear first in a Botanical set, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. 8008 beat the Toa to market with the first Toa torso element. Likewise, 21317 surprised everyone with new hats for the minifigs, when Ideas was still under a strict ban on creating new elements. Then when 71024-1 and 71024-2 came out, they admitted it was the CMF team who actually called for the new hat molds.

I'm not denying that they could be making new foliage elements just for the Botanical theme. I honestly don't know, and I'm genuinely curious now.

@Feroz :
It's really on the last half century of inflation, and also on AFOLs who display their MOCs in public showing people what's possible with the system. Not only did that help spur the shift towards Icon-sized sets that cost upwards of $200, but many of those same AFOLs now work as set designers, brought that wealth of experience and knowledge with them, and put it all to use."

Well your comment towards me was terribly rude, but considering I don't even need to have a job (I do anyhow), I hope you enjoy overpaying for children's plastic blocks... You must really put a lot of worth into incredibly overpriced toys. I don't anymore. You are the problem.

Neither of these were what I voted for but they’re both great sets and worthy winners. Congratulations to the Lego designers involved in creating them and everyone who successfully voted for their faves. Honestly, the shortlists were great this year - maybe one across all four shortlists I’d not be the happiest to see win, but even that is so much to do with my personal taste I think I’d consider myself churlish.

I doubt it *needs* to be pegged to $50, since there’s no shortage of great cheaper sets and the winner itself is less than half that, but it does seem to be a little below the point sets stop getting a chance at the best overall lineup and that’s as good a reason as any to peg the threshold where it is. There’s no midtier category for the sets to go in otherwise, and there are sets between $30 and $50 that certainly deserve the recognition of a nomination.

@Feroz said:
"Congratulations to the winners!

I wonder if the Star Trek Shuttle Pod would have gotten more votes if it was less trouble to require it. Going to build a classic Space version.

+1 for disliking that the cheaper set category has gotten a higher price. That's on Lego of course, not Brickset."

It's on inflation, too.

@Hiratha said:"There’s no midtier category for the sets to go in otherwise.."

I wouldn't mind at all if Brickset would introduce a new category in these polls, something like "Favorite set between fifty and one hundred dollars."

@ScholtzTKO said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @ScholtzTKO :
$50 was the low end of expensive sets in the 1900's, when gas cost under a buck per gallon. If you're balking at that now being a cheap set in 2026, you might need a better job.

@alLEGOry_HJB2810 :
Do we know for a fact that all of these parts are being designed at the behest of the Botanicals line, or is it possible they're just taking advantage of new elements as they become available? Even if they appear first in a Botanical set, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. 8008 beat the Toa to market with the first Toa torso element. Likewise, 21317 surprised everyone with new hats for the minifigs, when Ideas was still under a strict ban on creating new elements. Then when 71024-1 and 71024-2 came out, they admitted it was the CMF team who actually called for the new hat molds.

I'm not denying that they could be making new foliage elements just for the Botanical theme. I honestly don't know, and I'm genuinely curious now.

@Feroz :
It's really on the last half century of inflation, and also on AFOLs who display their MOCs in public showing people what's possible with the system. Not only did that help spur the shift towards Icon-sized sets that cost upwards of $200, but many of those same AFOLs now work as set designers, brought that wealth of experience and knowledge with them, and put it all to use."

Well your comment towards me was terribly rude, but considering I don't even need to have a job (I do anyhow), I hope you enjoy overpaying for children's plastic blocks... You must really put a lot of worth into incredibly overpriced toys. I don't anymore. You are the problem."

bro you didnt need to say all that

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Hiratha said:"There’s no midtier category for the sets to go in otherwise.."

I wouldn't mind at all if Brickset would introduce a new category in these polls, something like "Favorite set between fifty and one hundred dollars.""

I would also be fine with that, but I try not to volunteer work for people that aren’t me so I edited that option out. It would be nice, though.

@PurpleDave said:
[[ @ScholtzTKO said:
[[Well your comment towards me was terribly rude, but considering I don't even need to have a job (I do anyhow), I hope you enjoy overpaying for children's plastic blocks... You must really put a lot of worth into incredibly overpriced toys. I don't anymore. You are the problem.]]

People who...

There was an article....The reasons why you think LEGO sets are too expensive now include...

"A buncha stuff"

Cool story bro. More like a novel. You must be paid by lego

@ScholtzTKO said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @ScholtzTKO said:
"Well your comment towards me was terribly rude, but considering I don't even need to have a job (I do anyhow), I hope you enjoy overpaying for children's plastic blocks... You must really put a lot of worth into incredibly overpriced toys. I don't anymore. You are the problem."

People who...

There was an article....The reasons why you think LEGO sets are too expensive now include...

"A buncha stuff"

Cool story bro. More like a novel. You must be paid by lego"

Maybe you need to change hobbies. Take up zen meditation or something of that nature."

@ScholtzTKO said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @ScholtzTKO said:
"Well your comment towards me was terribly rude, but considering I don't even need to have a job (I do anyhow), I hope you enjoy overpaying for children's plastic blocks... You must really put a lot of worth into incredibly overpriced toys. I don't anymore. You are the problem."

People who...

There was an article....The reasons why you think LEGO sets are too expensive now include...

"A buncha stuff"

Cool story bro. More like a novel. You must be paid by lego"

Because obviously, only a Lego shill would bring facts to a discussion, rather than opinions."

@yellowcastle said:
"Telling someone that they should get a better job because they feel LEGO is getting too expensive is not cool.

That being said, all the reasons for why we may feel LEGO is getting too expensive are spot on."

It's not because the OP said they feel it's too expensive. I get that. I've had to write off acquiring sets I really wanted just because there are so many these days that I want, and then I also build MOCs (which I don't take apart, so every one requires buying more parts). It's never been a budget product. At time of release, 6075-2 would have taken two days of pre-tax US federal minimum wage to buy. Oh, and one other thing I forgot to mention in that is that earnings haven't kept pace with inflation, and the more they try to close that gap, the bigger it grows.

No, the pushback was over citing the use of $50 to close the top end of the "small sets" range as proof that LEGO sets are overpriced. I mean, a few sets are overpriced. I've said before that I'm pretty sure they learned to use Disney pricing to quell the feeding frenzy on certain sets, particularly battle packs and CMFs. But I mean the minifig has weathered nearly five decades of inflation at this point, and the main thing that has pushed LEGO set prices higher in that time hasn't been inflation. It's been the growth in the size of sets released in the last 26 years. 6075-2 was a huge set for its time, and something that would have been a flagship set for many subthemes in the 80's and 90's. Now it's a fairly unremarkable set that's infrequently even the most expensive in its wave. Again, it's not that the sets have gotten more expensive. They've just grown larger, at both ends of the scale.

@yellowcastle said:
"When we added the award for lower dollar range in 2020, the bar was set at $40 where it stood until this year. As such, $50 seems a reasonable new baseline after 5 years."

And that just makes the original comment worse, when you consider that "small set" was never defined as being under $10, or even under $20. The purpose of adding this category was simply that sets under $150 never stand a chance to get recognized for their greatness when they go up against a field of $200+ competition. I went back through the previous Best Set winners, and the cheapest to ever take the crown was 21325 at $179.99. Limiting the lower poll to $50 still basically leaves everything between $50-150 shut out of contention.

"But the trends with affordable LEGO are concerning. These last 3 years offered the least amount of sets under $40 since 2011. That trend is about the same these last 3 years if you look at under $50. When you factor in the greater number of sets being released each year, the concerns only increase."

Keep in mind that today's $60 set is roughly equivalent to the $15 set from the first year with minifigs. The issue isn't whether they're offering the same quantity of sets below that price point, but whether they're offering _enough_ sets. 2011 had both Hero Factory and Ninjago spinners. HF accounted for 23 sub-$50 sets, and Ninjago launched with 14 spinner single-packs. That's 37 sets that give you one character plus accessories, which is essentially what you get in a CMF packet. It was also the first year with three waves of CMFs. 48 CMFs was nearly their peak, if you exclude regional exclusives like Team GB and DFB. Current waves have been cut down 25% for several years now. Between those three offerings, 2011 set a high bar that they shouldn't be expected to meet or beat with the current range of sets. It's also been a while since we saw the last Mario blind packs, there's no equivalent to either Dimensions or Vidiyo, and that leaves polybags carrying an outsized burden in this category. Polybags, which are still $5, and still contain models that are roughly the same size as they did when the polybag category was first introduced.

"This might be an interesting article @Huw @CapnRex101 ."

Oh, I'd probably be just as interested in that as I was the last one, but I recall most of the comments were people trying to refute hard data with perception and opinion. I'm also pretty sure that last article covered a lot of that information, so it might only be a matter of needing to bring the data sets up to date. Unfortunately, the person who wrote the original article kinda disappeared after doing so.

@PurpleDave said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"When we added the award for lower dollar range in 2020, the bar was set at $40 where it stood until this year. As such, $50 seems a reasonable new baseline after 5 years."

And that just makes the original comment worse, when you consider that "small set" was never defined as being under $10, or even under $20. The purpose of adding this category was simply that sets under $150 never stand a chance to get recognized for their greatness when they go up against a field of $200+ competition. I went back through the previous Best Set winners, and the cheapest to ever take the crown was 21325 at $179.99. Limiting the lower poll to $50 still basically leaves everything between $50-150 shut out of contention.

"But the trends with affordable LEGO are concerning. These last 3 years offered the least amount of sets under $40 since 2011. That trend is about the same these last 3 years if you look at under $50. When you factor in the greater number of sets being released each year, the concerns only increase."

Keep in mind that today's $60 set is roughly equivalent to the $15 set from the first year with minifigs. The issue isn't whether they're offering the same quantity of sets below that price point, but whether they're offering _enough_ sets. 2011 had both Hero Factory and Ninjago spinners. HF accounted for 23 sub-$50 sets, and Ninjago launched with 14 spinner single-packs. That's 37 sets that give you one character plus accessories, which is essentially what you get in a CMF packet. It was also the first year with three waves of CMFs. 48 CMFs was nearly their peak, if you exclude regional exclusives like Team GB and DFB. Current waves have been cut down 25% for several years now. Between those three offerings, 2011 set a high bar that they shouldn't be expected to meet or beat with the current range of sets. It's also been a while since we saw the last Mario blind packs, there's no equivalent to either Dimensions or Vidiyo, and that leaves polybags carrying an outsized burden in this category. Polybags, which are still $5, and still contain models that are roughly the same size as they did when the polybag category was first introduced.

"This might be an interesting article @Huw @CapnRex101 ."

Oh, I'd probably be just as interested in that as I was the last one, but I recall most of the comments were people trying to refute hard data with perception and opinion. I'm also pretty sure that last article covered a lot of that information, so it might only be a matter of needing to bring the data sets up to date. Unfortunately, the person who wrote the original article kinda disappeared after doing so."

I ran the numbers for under $30 and the trends maintained. Reducing the number of impulse potential sets is simply not great for so many LEGO families.

@yellowcastle said:
"I ran the numbers for under $30 and the trends maintained. Reducing the number of impulse potential sets is simply not great for so many LEGO families."

All the singlepacked spinners were under $10, and most of the Hero Factory sets were under $20, so I wouldn’t expect those numbers to change unless you can filter them out for 2011. Again, the question isn’t whether there are less sub-$50 sets now, but whether there are enough. If kids are getting everything they’ve asked for, and there just aren’t any left that they want by Christmas, then the answer to that question is that there aren’t nearly enough. If most of them don’t get even half of what they asked for, you could argue that there are too many, and that they’re cannibalizing each others’ sales. Look at the AFOLs who grew up on Bionicle or Hero Factory, and most of them struggled to keep up with the inexpensive sets from just one theme. I suspect what they’ve been finding the last few years is that decreasing the sub-$50 range hasn’t resulted in less sales overall, but stronger sales for each set in that category. Conversely, evidence suggests they haven’t yet reached the point where $200+ sets have oversaturated the market, as each new set can bring in a bunch of new customers. Overall sales would increase, while per-set sales wouldn’t see much change. It’s when overall sales go up and per-set sales tank that you know you’ve taken things too far.

I don’t believe they show up in the price filtered searches and I’m unsure if they’re available in all regions but there’s a solid chunk of magazine cover mounts every month ranging from small builds to minifigs with accessories, and those are cheap. (And the comics in the magazines are funny and cute.) (Plus it’s a really handy way to fill in gaps in your minifig lineup if you can’t, say, afford every single 80 quid Ninjago set.)

Just to clarify, this was the first time I went through the smaller sets listed and I felt there were far less cheap options compared to previous years.

@Hiratha said:
"I don’t believe they show up in the price filtered searches and I’m unsure if they’re available in all regions but there’s a solid chunk of magazine cover mounts every month ranging from small builds to minifigs with accessories, and those are cheap. (And the comics in the magazines are funny and cute.) (Plus it’s a really handy way to fill in gaps in your minifig lineup if you can’t, say, afford every single 80 quid Ninjago set.)"

I wish those magazines were easy to find here. There are several of the magazine gifts on my wanted list, most of which are minibuilds.

@CapnRex101 said in the article:
"We are now ready to announce the results in both categories, with nearly 6000 votes between them."

The vote totals under the diagrams are 3846 and 2921, that's nearly 6800 votes between them.

The outcome of the voting doesn't really surprise me. The difference in number of total votes between the different polls kind of does.