What's the best LEGO set released this millennium?

The 2007 Lego Star Wars set 10178 Motorized AT-AT walker is a phenomenal set. It has the ability to cater to both System and Technic fans. It also has what could quite possibly be the best function on a Lego set ever. IT WALKS ON ITS OWN. I don't know what is cooler than a set that is practically perfect rendition of its film counterpart in terms of function and looks. Excellent for both display and play.

I picked the 5 sets I like to build over and over. We have 1 of the £200+ sets, and thats on the list simply because we build it regularly.

It's so obviously
8703 Sir Kentis

I would say that the top three sets quality wise in the last 20 years are The Saturn V Rocket, The Ford Mustang, and The Pirates Of Barracuda bay. But I think the best set is the Pop-up Book, because I love to see the look of awe on everyone’s faces when they see it for the first time.

@NathanR2015 said:
"I go for 8002 Destroyer Droid."

I'll give a nod to that one--the design was brilliant, and arguably the most complex technic mechanism I'd ever seen (and that includes the 8448 Super Car from the same era).

I want to give a shout out to 3221 , the bright yellow, Lego-branded Lego City Truck. I just love that set and it even comes with little Lego boxes of the set itself. So meta and so very Lego. Aside from that, I'd have to go with what I'm sure will be some popular ones around here: the Saturn V, Benny's Spaceship, and Bag End.

I don't think I'd assume UCS is going to sweep everything. I love my UCS B-Wing and Falcon--but while they're great, I don't think I'd put them in "best ever" category. The Falcon may be iconic of SW, but I don't think I'd say it's iconic of Lego.

One of my favourites:
10182 Cafe Corner,
10185 Green Grocer

While I seriously considered several small and medium sized sets, there is incentive here to nominate what I predict will be crowd favorites, so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Parts heavy sets, highly detailed sets, and game-changing first of their kind sets, all the way.

2017 was a good year, nearly 4 of my 5 set were from that year

It's going to be nothing but large sets, isn't it?

Without categories I don't think it's worth it to waste my time going through the 424 sets I own from this millennium to nominate five I like.

I still doubt that many small sets will make it onto the knockout round. Not because people aren’t nominating them, but because there’s a much larger pool to choose from, whereas we have only gotten a few hundred large, UCS-like sets.

@Mr__Thrawn said:
" 7524

In all seriousness, I chose larger sets but also WALL•E, which is a lovely model. It’s immensely accurate, fun to build, has an excellent selection of parts, and is based on my favorite film of all time."

I almost picked Wall-E too, it is a really fantastic set

That was quite hard, a top 10 would have been ok, 5 is difficult! I think all my choices were above 1000 pieces, but they weren't the really big UCS sets, more like the top set in the theme of that year. I think I could have created a top 5 just from Lego IDEAS though if I wanted, that has produced some real gems, but in the end I tried to spread it between some categories.

Wasn't easy but I managed to squeeze my collection to just five sets that I own.
Edit: Rep Dropship with AT-OT, 2003 Hailfire Droid, 2018 City Hospital, 2013 Cement Mixer, 2017 Y-Wing.

Can we vote for the worst sets, too? Jack Stone, etc.

So tough to narrow down. Down to 6, but really don't want to drop any of them :(

A lot of people just assuming UCS Falcon will win. I didn't even nominate that in my top 5 even though I love that set. If I had to call it now, I'd say the Saturn V or one of the Modulars will take it. I could also see Benny's Spaceship taking it just because I know we have a lot of Classic Space-heads (myself included!) here!

Going through my set collection, I wondered, why I even bought any Lego after 2016... So many sets made me smile upon seeing them, and I got the feeling, Lego sets have been more cheerful back then. Nowadays they seem darker and even the cheerful ones have a strange vibe of forced-ness.

I nominate the roller coaster. That set is just amazing.

It took me a while to get my list down to five sets, but at least in terms of what is my personal favorite it was an easy choice as there is one set that I find so awesome that it is literally miles between this and the next one on my list. I'm not going to say what my favorite is just yet, but I am sure it will not win, even though from experience I know it is a relatively popular set among the community as well.

I did not pick any of the MCU sets, but the smaller sets did get stomped by some of the bigger ones in terms of how great they are. Looking at my list, only 1 set was even a licensed property.

Maybe the new NES set wins XD

i voted, the new ucs falcon, ghostbusters firehouse, james bond db5, pirates of barracuda bay, and the 2017 destiny's bounty.

there's so many good sets! 5 isnt enough :(
i knew i had to pick a star wars one and it was either one of the falcons or the sandcrawler ucs set. went with the falcon because it's just awesome.
the ghost busters fire house has so many scenes from the movies and is a nice looking building. i thought about voting for one of the modular creator expert sets, but i haven't built any. think i'd vote for the diner though.
i wanted to vote for one of the large vehicles. I almost went with the new batmobile but at the end of the day it's just a big black car so i picked the aston martin which is jam packed with hidden play features.
i figured i should vote for a ninjago or bionicle or other lego series with shows/movies set but the only one i like/own was 70618 destiny's bounty.
had to vote for a pirate ship too. didn't want to pick from the pirates of the caribbean sets since i'd already put the falcon and i didn't want to put another disney set. so, between the imperial flagship and the new barracuda bay set, the barracuda's ability to transform and the tear-jerker commercial for it made me pick that.

some of the other things i wanted to nominate were a castle set but i thikn all the ones i liked/own were from the 90's. maybe the viking ship that came with a sea serpent would've been one i'd nominate. i wanted to vote for a train as well but the only one i'd vote for is the disney train since it came with a nice train and a cool station. i want to nominate the winter village series as a whole. i like getting a new set every year to add to the village. the employee exclusive christmas x-wing is another one i'd consider nominating if it'd been available for purchase.

My votes were spread out over five general price points and confined to sets that we own, rather than sets that we want (hello, Ewok Village and most of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings sets): 70620 Ninjago City; 21311 Voltron; 75243 20th Anniversary Slave I; 70676 Lloyd's Titan Mech; and 40320 Plants From Plants. Each of those sets also has a unique reason why it's on the list: awe-inspiring build; can't bring myself to build it, because then I can't build it for the first time again; a very fun build and an excellent representation of one of Star Wars' best ships; a set that this 41-year-old can't help but actually play with every time he sees it; and a set that represents one of the core values that keeps us a family of FOLs. Thanks for the fun challenge!

@Mister_Jonny said:
"This was tough, but I've managed to narrow it down to five. I threw in a bit of a wild card; I won't say what it is, but I do think we should avoid simply talking about the big, expensive UCS-type stuff, or recreations of old favourites. Lego is much more than that, and that's something we shouldn't overlook. "

I completely agree. If the only thing that made Lego such a great thing was big and massive sets I wouldn't be a lego fan. Lego is more than size. And as for recreations, think about the original. For example if Lego made a recreation of the legendary Yellow Castle, you would buy it because you love the original Yellow Castle, not because you like a recreation. If a recreation is special to you then most likely its because the original was special to you.

Very tough to limit this to just 5. So I stuck to the ones I saved up LEGO VIP points to buy / assisted in buying, and those that were my favorites of my favorite genres. But it's tough to see how any of the lower price sets (which are also fantastic) are going to make the final pool.

In looking at the comments, I'm pleasantly surprised that a couple I chose, but didn't expect to make the the final list, are being mentioned by others. It's going to make voting that much more difficult.

I mean my choices where easy, 4 where quite large sets and one collectable minifigure series.

Here where my picks (in order) feel free to diss on me:

71006 - Simpsons House from 2014 - Only fully detailed full on LEGO house we have seen to date
10243 - Parisian Restaurant from 2014 - Absolutely beautiful restaurant detailed perfectly, best in the line of modular buildings followed very closely by the 2018 Downtown Diner
71016 - Kwik-E-Mart from 2015 - Like the Simpsons house this is the most detailed of its kind from LEGO, the shop is packed with amazing details that most miss out plus all the Simpsons references
70618 - Destiny's Bounty 2017 - I mean there are many great LEGO ships but this one tops the list plus is also one of the value sets.
71005 - Simpsons Series 2014 - My favourite LEGO collectable minifigure series ever many fantastic figures detailed amazingly plus a great selection of accessory pieces useful outside of the Simpsons world.

Mindstorms. The concept of programming lego has elevated the entire medium in a way that has never happened before, and potentially never again.

I think one I'll put down will be the ship in the bottle. It was given to me as a christmas present. When I saw it I didn't have any intentions of purchasing it. But now that I own it I see how crazy I must've been. Besides the fact that it's an excellent display piece it wasn't exactly an unusually fun build. There wasn't anything special to the build and it was very easy to build. But I absolutely love that thing. Such a beautiful set which I think all Ideas sets should use as an example. I love the original and unique Ideas sets much better than the ones based off tv shows. They look more like a work of art. And if I could only own one Ideas set that one would be it. It represents Lego and what it should, creations made by your imagination not tv shows and nasa spaceships.

Alot of mine were more childhood favourites, but my absolute favourite would have to be the Imperial Flagship from 2010

@Novelty said:
"I nominate the roller coaster. That set is just amazing."

Have to agree. Definitely one of the greatest sets of all time, let alone last 20 years.

I nominated some obvious sets, such as the Tower Bridge and UCS Slave I, along with smaller sets, like 75280.

vw camper van (that got me out of a 40 yr dark age...), Saturn v and the space shuttle 10213 for building, but for me Farnsworth house and villa savoye were excellent architecture ones.

Voted.
Was quite surprised that only two of my five were Star Wars based but there have been some fantastic builds that have outdone many of my normal staple of sets.
Looking forward to seeing the results.

Along with probably the majority of people, I used a lot of large expensive sets. I know they’re already popular but I only used sets that I personally own and because of that I would be ready to explain why I chose it! However, I did throw in an smaller set, not just to “even it out” with big and small sets but because I really think this one dimensions set is almost perfect even if you don’t use it for the game. I won’t say which one it is though :)

@TheSolitaryDark said:
"I picked the 5 sets I like to build over and over. We have 1 of the £200+ sets, and thats on the list simply because we build it regularly. "

I'd be interested in knowing what these are as I continue to want to do just this but have yet to rebuild any but one.

Its amazing how difficult this is...... I decided to go big and stay home. > 1000 pieces I own (so I know what they were like to build and display) I'm down to 12. Still 3 days to go....

Ninjago city for me, but I think the Docks are almost as good, and together they are amazing. And I'm not even a Ninjago fan!

I also think the Old Fishing Store is the best of the Ideas sets, with the Tree House a close second.

Do individual CMFs count as sets? I think they should. A couple make my top 5.

@Slobrojoe said:
" @GrizBe said:
" @Slobrojoe said:
"I think you’d be surprised how many smaller sets are extremely popular. I get your point though."
"

...Also, do you have to own the set in order to nominate it? It wouldn’t make sense if you said it was the best set in the last decade but you didn’t own it."

Why not? All the sets I will be voting for, I own. But I can easily imagine someone really liking a set that either went out of production before they became interested in LEGO and therefore difficult to obtain, or was/is too expensive. I would place Saturn V in my top 20 sets (not top 5 though) but don't own it.

Besides, how would you know whether someone owned it or not? And what if they previously owned it but don't anymore (because of theft or damage for example)?

Before I change my mind or someone posts a set i have not considered I have picked my 5 based on memories associated.. and the sets 10188 (my oldest set still on display) 9474 (great film I made a large display for this still partially up)10248 (one of my favourite cars) 40179 (its me and my daughter) 70751 (love the architecture)

It isn't easy at all. I would like to have more than 5 nomenees, because there're a lot of fantastic LEGO sets produced since 2000.
I tried to pick not the really best ones, because they would be all of new sets. (newer sets incorporate interesting new building techiques, nice new parts, more details.)
So I nominated sets which were either milestones in LEGO's history or simply perfect LEGO sets.
So my nominees are:

10182 Cafe Corner: The starter of the Modular Buildings series. I know, there're are more beautiful ones from that range, but this was THE Modular Building. (from 2007)

10193 Medieval Market Village: Simply a masterpiece of LEGO, combining the castle theme and beautiful buildings (from 2009)

10199 Winter Village Toy Shop: Again a fantastic idea of a winter scenery with lovely buildings. This was a start of another beautiful theme (from 2009)

8683 Series 1 of Collectible Minifigures: What an idea of the LEGO Group! Another milestone in LEGO history, very popular yet simple LEGO "sets". This range brings a lot of interesting minifigures with a lot of fantastic new accessories (from 2010)

8038 The Battle of Endor: As a Star Wars fan there must be at least one SW set among the top 5. This is the perfect LEGO set with a lot of play features, nice selection of minifigures, and overall a good iteration of an epic Star Wars scene. (from 2009 again. Man, 2009 was a really strong year)

And I had to leave out gorgeous sets like 42043 Mercedes Benz Arocs truck, or 10178 Motorised Walking AT-AT, 7991 Recycle Truck (one of the best 6-stud-wide City vehicles), 4954 Model Town House from the Creator 3in1 series.

I have nothing to lose by revealing them, so here are my personally biased choices of sets I own.
7239
10176
7623
8635
10255

According to my crude database skills it suggests the 5 most owned by everyone, include 3 creator modulars, 1 creator expert vehicle and rather surprisingly an ideas set.

I only needed one slot for 21309 Saturn V

60119: Ferry

An impulse buy that turned out to be a real gem.

Now, that was fun! I ended up deciding on 5 out of maybe 10-15 sets I seriously considered. I'd be surprised if any of them end up in the voting stage, though (well, one or maybe even two could prove to be popular; you never know :).

Interesting to see what sets I own from the last 20 years. Some I nearly forgot about! Anyhow, one challenge for me is that since about 2016 I mainly buy Lego, but hardly build anymore, so most sets from that time period I have no clue whether they'd be worthy a submission...

I listed the Saturn V as the best due to it being a great build, beautiful display model, historic topic, and awesome price point.

There is only one correct answer, and it is Dino Research Compound!

8534- Tahu: Was gonna put Maxilos & Spinax at first for representing the peak of its system in an official set, but Tahu is more representative of Bionicle as a whole, a theme that played a significant part in LEGO's identity throughout the 2000's. Don't know how many thought to put this though.

21332- Pirates of Barracuda Bay: an awesome love letter to the classic Pirates sets of old with all the modern bells & whistles. Plus you can turn the shipwreck back into a modern update of the Black Seas Barracuda! Also my pick for the best Ideas set to date.

10182- Cafe Corner: the start of the ever-popular Modular Buildings which still release yearly to this day.

70816- Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!: Like Barracuda Bay, a great throwback to Classic Space, while also being representative of the high quality builds brought to the table by the movie sets across all four lines.

10242- MINI Cooper MK VII: Was gonna put the Volkswagen Camper Van for just how long it was around on shelves, but I prefer the MINI Cooper myself.

The first one is very easy for me, 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon. It brought me back to LEGO and is in many ways an amazing set. However, it is really difficult to pick four more that I think are the "best" sets. After wondering how I should define "best" in this context, I just decided to go for the ones I like the most and asked myself the question: "If I only could have five sets, which ones would I pick?".

So my other four picks are 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander, 75159 Death Star, 10195 Republic Dropship with AT-OT Walker, and 3287 Takutanuva.

Now I'm a huge SW fan, 3/5 of my picks were SW but none was UCS. I just don't like them, they're fine but not toys in the way I understand it. I want to swoosh around my sets, put minifigs inside, etc.

I was about to nominate Wall-E, but went for the Ecto 1 as 4. It's just such a cool set and it was magic to put that together.

5 was a pick of the last line of Indiana Jones sets. I loved them all, as they brought back the long gone Adventure spirit, but better and more detailed. While all the Indy sets were good, the last line was simply amazing, such great sets.

I own many Marvel sets and City, but I did not pick any of them.

Suprisingly first set which I though about, when I saw this competition, was 31079 Surfer Van. I absloutely love this small set. It has the proper summer vibe, I have a small display place for "seasonal" stuff, and this set fits perfectly among other summer minifigures, boat, beach and my diving team. Many people use this set for photographing on their travels, those photos are stunning, take a look on them in google.

I did not pick any of the UCS either, not even a 1989 Batmobile, which deserved a permanent display place on my desk.
Instead in my list was three Ideas sets, original and great on display. And I simply must chose a Barracuda bay, it is just perfect, nicely detailed, great for displaying but also MOC-ing.

And the last one, it did not come onto my mind until I saw it in comments, is Winter toy shop. Winter village is one of my favourite series, I do not own a toy shop, rather I chose a 10229 Cottage for individual displayng, but I am considering buying remaster of toy shop 10249. 10229 however is not a great pick for this list in my opinion, but original winter toy shop is. It started a winter village theme, which brought us many great seasonal sets.

I am looking forward, which sets will get further, it may be really interesting.

My answers gather some unexpected guests. It takes a village high in a popular series, and also with lots of middle age market ability. I added some attention to a larger city within it's own theme, but I couldn't leave out my favorite SPACESHIP.
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If you're not patient for riddles, and since everyone else is revealing their picks:
1. 79003 An Unexpected Gathering, a simply perfect bookshelf sized Bag End from my favorite book/story The Hobbit.
2. 10236 Ewok Village, probably the best Star Wars playset with a striking similarity to the classic 1983 Kenner set from the vintage Star Wars toy line of my childhood.
3. 10193 Medieval Market Village, in my opinion this was the official/unofficial Lego love letter to Castle AFOLs.
4. 70620 Ninjago City, the value, stunning size, and adorable features of this set make it one of the most fun things to build (and play with) from Lego EVER.
5. 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP, just look at all that classic space glory. LOOK AT IT.

My top 3 were very easy to pick but 4 and 5 were really challenging. I ended up picking:

70620 - Ninjago City - I love everything about this set. The build, the finished product, the multitude of features and funtions, the color pallet. EVERYTHING.

70751 - Temple of Airjitzu - The pagoda-style temple looks fantastic and employs lots of clever building techniques. The carved stone steps, sliding temple door, and the shadow theater are just a few of the sets many highlights.

71006 - The Simpsons House - As others have stated, this is LEGO's finest example of a FULLY furnished, 4-walls-and-a-roof house. Even if you aren't a fan of the subject material, this is one nice house.

70816 - Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!!! - This was the only set I got from The Lego Movie line. The cockpit holds three minifigures, Unikitty's battle station can be easily modified to fit a fourth, and attached to the wings are two detachable space scooters.

40178 - Exclusive VIP Set - As much as I wanted to add Benny's Space Squad to my list, this one just seemed more deserving. The brick-built VIP card is just brilliant and the little Lego Store vignette packs a lot of detail despite its size. Plus, it's a terrific little display piece for just about anywhere.

The first Shield Hellicarrier, and the UCS Millennium falcon for me!!

10182 Cafè Corner
10194 Emerald Night
21302 The Big Bang Theory
21303 WALL•E
21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay

The first one is very easy, Millenium Falcon 75192 of course (if I had to keep only one of the 150 sets I bought since 2000 it would be this one). Then it is hard to pick the 4 others, but I would say Death Star 75159, Tower of Orthanc 10237, Temple Of Airjitzu 70751 and Taj Mahal 10256.

My choice has to be limited to sets I’ve bought and built. Exosuit 21109 is just a perfectly designed set in my opinion, and out of all the UCS sets I own, probably my favourite is the BWing which had a very short shelf life, but is a huge and imposing model, very unusual, but captures what made the original Star Wars vehicle designs so good.

Such a tough choice as I had so many favourites

In the end I went for:

10194 "Emerald Knight". Just a beautiful set

10197 - Fire Station. My first modular building - blew me away when I first saw it.

21307 - Caterham 7 620R. Lovely rendition of a classic car.

10265 - Ford Mustang. Love the detail of the engine and looks great next to the Caterham

21009 - Farnsworth House. An ideal subject for an Architecture set.

I nominated only one: 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245. It has it all: all Technic fans have seen the regular steering system of a car but this one as a push rod just like in real trucks - with Ackerman! It has suspensions everywhere - independent in the front and axle-based on the back. Double tires on the transmission wheels, pistons, lifting cab, transmission-operated mechanical functions including linear actuator and finally, pneumatic!! which operate a very realistic crane with buckets. Now that I've seen other suggestions, I should have also nominated the Saturn V (one of only two models permanently built and on display in my office - the other one being the lunar lander). I am into Technic but I don't have Technic sets permanently built - I display them a couple of months and build another one - currently I have the 42100 Liebherr R9800 on display.

@Lego34s said:
"According to my crude database skills it suggests the 5 most owned by everyone, include 3 creator modulars, 1 creator expert vehicle and rather surprisingly an ideas set."

Very interesting! Once I saw your post I did the exercise and came up with:
Most owned: (1) Parisian Restaurant, (2) Ghostbusters Ecto-1, (3) Petshop, (4) Palace Cinema and (5) Volkswagen T1 Camper Van. You have to wonder if these modulars were bought with the intent to resell them at a profit?

Another interesting search reveals:
Most WANTED: (1) Cafe Corner, (2) Green Grocer, (3) Imperial Shuttle, (4) Super Star Destroyer and (5) Town Hall.

So, truly, modulars are where people put either their hope/wish or their money. I have a few modulars but I still prefer 42043 and 21309!

It was tough, but I came up with five that I OWN. So here goes:
1. Parisian Restaurant- easily the best of the modular building line, excellent detail and colouring
2. Trade Federation MTT: mostly based on the story behind it (which I might have mentioned before) as well as its epic build
3. Race for the Stolen Treasure: Obscure, yes, but I had so much fun with this set when I got it for Christmas. I might have mentioned the story behind it before. It’s still on my bedroom shelf!
4. Police Headquarters: Lego’s best Police station (though the 2011 is pretty neat as well); it really made a 6-yo very happy on his birthday!
5. Bookshop- very recent, but extraordinarily beautiful and very nice NPU.

HM: Central Perk, Millenium Falcon (2015), Desert Skiff (2012)

Sets I want: UCS Imperial Shuttle, Ninjago City, The Temple of Doom, Tower of Orthanc

In no particular order, I voted for:

7699 Armoured Drilling Unit (2007)
This set is an absolute behemoth and it’s packed with playability. It’s got full suspension, a detachable space shuttle with pods that can link up with the main base set, a motorbike that can detach from that, the rear of the main vehicle can be raised to become a launchpad, it’s got a drill that can be moved downwards on its arm to actually drill through sand or dirt, a Zamor launcher turret and an ammo storage box; all packaged together with a decently sized alien craft with adjustable wings, tail and cockpit. Not to mention, 635 parts including six giant hard plastic wheels for just £39.99.

8964 Titanium Command Rig (2009)
Like the Armoured Drilling Unit, this set is huge and extremely playable. For basic functions, the drill spins when the vehicle is pushed, the crane boom can be raised and lowered, the winch on the crane can be reeled in and out and to top is adorned with a pair of flick missiles and a net launcher. But then we get to the crazy stuff. The entire main body is connected to a pair of hard ratchet hinges, allowing the rig to quickly double in size and become a massive drilling tower. The cockpit hinges downwards with the body to stay upright at all times, and the gearbox disengages itself so that the drill can still be spun in this stationary mode. Not only that, but an entire laboratory is revealed, with two white clamps in front of it. From here, the entire crane can be raised up to deposit a caged rock monster in the lab. The clamps can then restrain the cage for the scientists to do some analysis. And the set even comes with a bigfig that can throw rocks with a geared arm. 706 pieces, including 18 giant wheels and a bigfig, for only £59.99.

70006 Cragger’s Command Ship (2013)
Chima’s show might not have been great, but the sets certainly were. This set displays great size and functions, with several rare minifigures and even one exclusive minifigure to boot. Being built on a large unitary hull, the ship can obviously float, but the two side areas detach and slide down the claw-shaped ramps to form armoured dinghies that can also float for a faster pursuit. The rear engines can then move up on a pair of ratchet joints, allowing the entire back of the ship to lift off and become a helicopter with a whipping tail, flick missiles and a rotating gunner position. And even what’s left behind can still be used. The jaw can open up to reveal a prison cell below the dual cockpits, and the engine room and armoury can be found at the rear.

75021 Republic Gunship (2013)
This set is packed with great detail and functions, as well as a sleek and sturdy design. As with all gunships, the doors can open and close, but this time the troop bay doesn’t have a speeder bike taking up the entire area or a hole in the floor and a wall that just cuts off the end of the ship. Additionally, all the turrets can be rotated around, and the larger ones can easily seat a minifigure. Speaking of figures, every single figure in the set is exclusive. Flick missile racks adorn the top, along with a sturdy carry handle intertwined with the technic reinforced structure. The front panels can open to allow access to extra ammo, and even more troops can be placed in the middle area. The cockpit glass is hinged, unlike previous models, and the pilots can be easily fitted in the padded, studless seats.

8744 Visorak Oohnorak (2005)
Just a personal favourite of mine, but still an amazing set. The colours really pop and the short stocky proportions completely contradict what we’re used to seeing with spiders, even his fellow Visorak. The Rhotuka spinner works exceptionally well, and the black ripcord even blends into his body, unlike the other Visorak.

Idk, love that new pirate ship tho

That's a tough question for sure. There are too many great sets in the past 20 years. To name a few: one of the earlier modular buildings, grand carousel, imperial flagship, Medieval Market Village.

Saturn V and the Lego Ideas Fishing Store were by far the most fun I've had building Lego in the last few years. The Saturn V was utterly amazing how it fitted together to produce such a beautiful model. And the Fishing Store was really fun to build, had a beautiful palette and was amazing to look at when finished.

75192 Millennium Falcon
70620 NINJAGO City
70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg!
21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V
21109 Exo Suit

My nomination is [10236] Ewok Village.

By far my favourite set, it offers huge play and display value plus a great amount of details. It contains a lot of minifigures and simply looks wonderful.
still the centerpiece of my collection!

Chose my 5 , staying away from UCS and Modular sets... in no particular order:

7094 King's Castle Siege
7662 Trade Federation MTT
8635 Mobile Command Center
8637 Volcano Base
76057 Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle

Write-in vote for Jack Stone!

LOL sorry, couldn't resist.

It's a hard question. Narrowing down five sets from 20 years, I mean, sure, they've released some stinkers, but there have been some amazing sets. Can I put in Voltron, or some train sets (like 10183, or the original Christmas train, or Maersk)?

This is such a cool idea! I'm looking forward to the poll on Monday. I nominated Hogwarts Castle (2018), Doctor Who, The Upside Down, Ninjago City, and the Chinese New Year Temple Fair.

I love the modular sets and (most) of the UCS Star Wars sets released. However, when I really thought about what truly were the "best" of the past 20 years, no UCS nor modulars made the list. If I was able to nominate 6, Ninjago City would definitely be there. But as it stands, my list ended up as this:
8557 Exo-Toa
7143 Jedi Starfighter
21109 Exo-Suit
42054 CLAAS Xerion 5000 Trac VC
10194 Emerald Night

I think one of the best ways to strategically decide what constitutes "the best" is not to consider the "first" set of its kind or one that "set a precedent" because being the first in a series does not necessarily mean it is an exemplar. Just compare "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back" to appreciate that! And in LEGO's case, I will strongly argue that any memorable "first", like Cafe Corner, the Blacksmith's Shop, or even Tahu, is not as good as what came after. I want to see a maturation of the concept, a peak reached that puts a set head and shoulders above what came before, if anything indeed really came before. To claim something is the best merely because it came first and you have nostalgic feelings for it is foolish and not answering the challenge posed to you.

Furthermore, specifically for LEGO, being the biggest is not necessarily an indicator of exemplary status either. And this is coming from a guy who owns the 2017 UCS Millennium Falcon and several other UCS Star Wars sets. I treasure them, yes, but as great as the building experience was and as impressive as they were to behold when done, they didn't lend themselves to any further enjoyment that comes from LEGO. Namely, the ease and freedom to dismantle a UCS set and build something else is severely tempered by the sheer size and piece count. Also, the playability is virtually non-existent. You can feel your inner child being restrained kindly by your outer adult personality as you look at that Super Star Destroyer, knowing you can't zoom it around the house or leave it overnight on your bedstand or take with you on a family trip. These are great LEGO sets, but they cannot be the best because in their manifest statistical greatness, they sacrifice a little of the soul of LEGO bricks.

Trust me, it pains me that I couldn't include Ninjago City on that list. A true landmark that shatters the modular mold and then recycles it into the foundation of a wonderful vertical temple of fun and adventure. You don't have to know one iota of Ninjago to appreciate this city block that brings both the serious sense of claustrophobic excitement and the playful joys of exploration and high fantasy. Limitless stories can be told by both children and adults on the streets and walkways of Ninjago City, and if one ever got bored, re-arranging the city stores and modules, either by hand or brick by brick, is a breeze.

Hope I get to argue for the others on my list!

Parisian Restaurant: A watershed in modulars. The previous ones were terrific ( I have them all) but the PR had a magnificent level of detail and revolutionized adding new building techniques (like the windows) as well as perfectly balancing size vs. detail. Plus, it has the bonus of being able to work as part of a strip layout or functioning as the final building in a row thanks to its broken roofline with the patio and window on the side.

Saturn V: A marvel. I would advocate this is the best set Lego has ever made. Looks great, rock solid, fantastic building techniques, and one of the funnest sets I've ever built.

60150 Pizza Van: A GREAT set. Reminds me of the vehicles from Town when I was a kid before it was overwhelmed by crime and inflammable infrastructure. The old Beach Bandit, Hot Rod Club, and Pizza to Go would look great next to a vehicle 30 years newer - and I'm speaking from experience having them in my City. a $20 set that's brilliantly constructed, fun to build and play with, and is a genre (food truck) that we need more of.

75192 Millennium Falcon: Cliche, cliche, cliche. Stats and figures. Cliche. Cost. Cliche. Build time. Cliche, cliche, cliche.

Mercedes AROCS: a woefully under-appreciated Technic set that wasn't on shelves nearly long enough. The playability is terrific, it introduced (if I'm not mistaken) new pneumatic parts, and it really opened me up to the possibilities of the Technic range. I'd built a couple Technic sets before, including really enjoying the 24 Hours Race Car, but this is the set that made me say "wow".

"...what you think is the best LEGO set..." In no order: 75218 X-wing Starfighter, 75172 Y-wing Starfighter, 70003 Eris' Eagle Interceptor, 70224 Tiger's Mobile Command, 70656 garmadon Garmadon GARMADON!

10194
7597
7590
7594
21303

@Mr__Thrawn said:
" 7524

In all seriousness, I chose larger sets but also WALL•E, which is a lovely model. It’s immensely accurate, fun to build, has an excellent selection of parts, and is based on my favorite film of all time."

And adorable. You forgot immensely adorable.

I can’t choose a favorite but I will name a few
Stranger Things Upside Down
Tower of Orthanc
Ninjago movie Destiny’s Bounty
Imperial Flagship
Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ

75078! Best set ever, fun, great minifigures and it brought me out of my dark age. I build one every few weeks, I don’t even need the instructions!!!

In order:

10244 Fairground Mixer - still amazed at how they packed functionality into a model while still getting the look right plus the ability to fold-up into two trucks that also look right. My all time favourite set for that reason.

75827 Firehouse Headquarters - chosen in lieu of a modular. These types of highly detailed buildings were instrumental in bringing me back to LEGO. Also a massive nostalgia trip.

60117 Van & Caravan - nostalgia. Reminds me of Town vehicle sets of the 1980s, specifically 6590 . Also one of my first City sets since ending my dark age.

21311 Voltron - my favourite ideas set. Similar reasoning to Fairground Mixer, I'm amazed it looks so good in both mech and lion configurations. Also... nostalgia... again.

75105 Millennium Falcon - although I also own the current UCS model, this is the set that brought me out of a 26 year dark age. I remember going to a friends house in 1990, way before LEGO SW, and he'd built his own Millennium Falcon out of all of his classic space collection. My fuzzy memory tells me it was brilliant. It was probably crap. I've wanted one ever since. Imagine my surprise when I spotted it at my local toy store early 2016... so also... nostalgia.

@GrizBe said:
"Just wondering when this is done and we get the final 16, would it be possible to get a rundown of the rest of the sets nominated posted up at all? I'd be curious to see just how popular some of my choices were with other fans and if they just missed out on the knockout rounds.

If theres too many individual sets to do this, which I'm guessing there might be, could we possibly get a top 50, or maybe top 100 at least?"

I was thinking this too - would be fascinating to see a full list of nominations

loving the average comments from users suggesting everyone will vote for a UCS set.... probably Star Wars but they won't

hmmmmmmm are you seeing it

chortle

2009 hat two outstandig sets:
10194-1: Emerald Night
8038-1: The Battle of Endor

Also:
6869-1: Quinjet Aerial Battle
75218-1: X-wing Starfighter
10237-1: Tower of Orthanc

Runners Up:
Ghostbusters ECTO-1, Parisean Restaurant, Snowspeeder, Y-Wing, CTT, Carousel, Benny's Space Squad, ...

@northgeorgiamasonry You only have to click “post comment” once, sometimes it takes a while for your comment to show up. Personally, I think most of the sets where the principal designer was one of the trio consisting of Markus Kossmann, Jamie Berard or Mike Psiaki deserve to be at or near the top of the list. These designers have proven time and time again how skilled they are in producing brilliant models, either in terms of aesthetic quality or mechanical ingenuity, or more recently, both, as seen in Mike’s 10265 Ford Mustang. The 42043 Arocs, the aforementioned 10265 Mustang, and the 10243 Parisian Restaurant are some of their best works and I could easy get behind any of them as the nominal “best” set of the last two decades.

I appreciated the drop-down menu for the nomination slots - saved having to look up each individual number.

6205-1: V-wing Fighter was also fantastic: You could build so many different ships with the parts!

My absolute personal favorites and top-5 nominees:
75192 Millennium Falcon
10261 Roller Coaster
21309 Saturn V
10194 Emerald Night
71043 Hogwarts Castle

You expect me to pick just five sets out of nearly twenty years worth of Bionicle and Ninjago?

I've limited my choices to the sets I own.

70620: NINJAGO City
No hesitation that this is my favourite. It has walkways, levels, passages, water, cool play features and surprises, weird new techniques. It's colourful and big. It looks spectacular.

10243: Parisian Restaurant
My favourite modular building is between this and Assembly Square but this wins out because the outside area reminds me of one of my favourite bars.

31079: Sunshine Surfer Van
There has been some great smaller Creator sets, but this is my favourite. It's cheerful and packed full of details.

41546: Forx
Mixels is one of my favourite themes. This Forx character looks grumpy and troublesome.

70810: MetalBeard's Sea Cow
The first set I bought after dark ages. Awesome and crazy, a bit steampunk-y.

Honestly I straight up refused to choose UCS and licensed sets, as I don't really see them as normal sets and more like special models. Lego simply is not about licenses. I went with original Lego sets, that have superb design that speaks to both children and adults and boosts the creativity of both. Lego is about building "a new toy everyday" and not building it once and leaving it like that for eternity.

- 7249: There has never been a single system crane truck better than this one. Sure it doesn't have that many parts compared to the sets these days, but the set sold like crazy back then. This set really shows how much Lego city has declined over the years. This set has so much playability in it, because it actually has the size to be able to build lego buildings with it.

- 7709: The best "base set" ever, period. There is a lot in this set in terms of playability, display and even custom models. This set provides you with such a variety of pieces to build your own mechs and fortifications, it's insane.

- 8275: Every kid including me at the time, was drooling over this one. It has an amazing assortment of parts, is very ruggedly built, has a lot of play value. This set alone provided you with all the pieces you needed to build your own tracked construction vehicles. This is a timeless set from the years, where Technic sets were consistently good and Technic was one of the best selling Lego themes.

- 8455: This one is absolutely legendary and the pinnacle of pneumatic Lego. There is so much pneumatics in here, that I honestly don't know how this possibly went through the review stage, without getting thrown out, because of the costs. This kind of set would be absolutely not imaginable nowadays, because Lego is being run by people who never had a childhood.

-8961: This is one of the best playsets ever. The function is just absolutely briliant and is also very well executed. The line overall made a huge impression on people and there are tons of moc's, because of the striking aesthetics.

I voted for The Upside Down. What a unique set! Yes, some UCS sets are bigger and may be better designed, but ultimately they are still big grey blocks while The Upside Down has a new and innovative build technique!

My choices:
The Upside Down
Ferrari F8 Tributo (fantastic car)
Doc Ock’s Fusion Lab (my cousin gave it to me, sentimental value)
Jurassic Park Velociraptor Chase (affordable Jurassic PARK set)
Scarecrow Fearful Face-Off (I LOVE that Scarecrow minifigure)

This one: https://brickset.com/sets/852293-1/Castle-Giant-Chess-Set

And Bilbo Baggins hobbit hole

Thos are in my top2

So hard to choose just 5! Ok, my finalists are:

-Parisian Restaurant
-Ninjago City
-Roller Coaster
-An Unexpected Gathering
-Ewok Village

I nominated all the obvious sets from Creator, Ideas, Technic and SW (UCS of course). And one more Technic that I favored over others.

My best 5 sets that I've actually built would be

1. 10260 Downtown Diner-everything a modular should be
2. 10252 VW Beetle- a fantastic replica of one of the most iconic cars ever.
3. 10220 VW Camper Van-A great display piece with a surprisingly awesome interior.
4. 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs-gave this set away to charity, but it is so great because of the price and how much creativity it inspires
5. 75881 1966 Ford GT40 and 2016 Ford GT- an icon of motor racing brought to life with its modern counterpart

It will be criminal if at least 15 of the 16 final slots aren't taken up by Luke's Landspeeders.

@worriz107 said:
"Oh 70841: Benny's Space Squad For Shore!!

I Image It Will Soon Be A Classic!!

But Chima Is My FAVORITE Theme Of All Time!!

But 5765: Transport Truck From 2011 Is My Favorite Set Ever!!"

5765: Transport Truck was one of the first sets I bought after my Dark Ages. Nice pick!

For those like me who couldn't remember the official name of The Pirate's Bay set released this year, which also doesn't show up under the Pirates theme because it was released as a Lego Ideas set, here you go :)
21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay

@Huw - It really ought to be tagged with Pirates theme also, not just Ideas.

70620 (!), 79003 (!), 10255 (!), 21310, 10229

:)

I think top 10 or even 20 would have made it a bit easier... I had to leave out so many great sets. The majority I have loved have been ideas sets. Ninjago has filled my display area ever since the Ninjago Movie sets they have done an outstanding job. The theme that has suffered the most lately has been star wars but UCS Slave I and Falcon have been outstanding additions. I love alot of battle packs but to me they are not deserving of best set nominations, to me the build has to be truely great to get a mention and battle packs have notoriously lousy or underwhelming builds. More recent builds are more likely to hit the mark with me since I have only been collecting for the last 10 years plus set builds have been getting better and better. Modulars are great but only a few really stand out to me, Brick Bank and Parisian Restaurant. Creator expert sets have been a bit up and down for me but the Mustang is awesome.

Looking at everything maybe the best approach is favourite from top 5 themes. Decision is still hard.

My son loves the 7676 LA-AT Gunship, 10195 drop ship with AT-OT, 8039 venator, 7675 AT-TE and 8098 Clone Turbo Tank. He is saving up for the drop ship which he has been wanting since he first saw pictures.

@Huw said:
"Over 800 sets have been nominated by around 1000 people.

Interestingly, the top 10 hasn't changed much since the first 500 votes were cast. There's been some movement in the lower end of the top 20 but not much.

I'll publish the top 100 after voting closes."

You're such a tease!

What a fantastic idea. With all the debate about UCS and smaller sets I can't wait to see what makes the cut. I'm curious if sets with exclusive minifigs will get more votes.

@Huw said:
"Over 800 sets have been nominated by around 1000 people..."
That's a lot of overlap, looking forward to the results.

@Huw said:
"Over 800 sets have been nominated by around 1000 people.
....
I'll publish the top 100 after voting closes."

Huh.. be interesting to see what they are when its finally revealed as wasn't expecting that variety from that many people.

And thanks for doing a top 100 Huw!

My top one IS Ninjago city 70620 : a real real pleasure to build from the start to the end, a ton of details everywhere... absolutely fabulous.
21322 : Pirates ah ah with nostalgic fiber... A total winner, perfect except the Lost monkey...
70840 : Apocalypse Burg, si fresh, detailed with an original shape, i love it...
21322: the Tree House... My childhood dream, a masterpiece...
And the green grocer 10185, one of the best modular ever...the modular building theme is my favorite...
But this choice is very difficult.
I'm impatient to know the final result.

21310 - Old Fishing Store
21309 - Saturn V
76052 - Batman Classic TV Batcave
75060 - UCS Slave I
21306 - The Beatles Yellow Submarine

@yacoub said:
"For those like me who couldn't remember the official name of The Pirate's Bay set released this year, which also doesn't show up under the Pirates theme because it was released as a Lego Ideas set, here you go :)
21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay

@Huw - It really ought to be tagged with Pirates theme also, not just Ideas."

A great set - didn't make my top 5 though ........ but then again the UCS Tumbler 76023 did - which is so damn cool and I ain't seen anyone showing this love

Assembly Square and WALL-E for reasons said by others I can see, Metalbeard's Sea Cow because of the fantastic absurdity of the build and the final display model, just an absolute riot tbh. Cahdok and Gahdok for the great build, the most fun play features of any Technic/Bionicle model I've ever seen, plus the sheer Bionicle nostalgia!!

I was gonna vote for either the 2013 Mobile Crane or the 2016 Volkswagen Beetle for my fifth, but I've had the cutest little guy sitting on display ever since I had the pleasure of getting him... and even though I know he has no chance of winning, and is unlikely to get even one more vote to be honest, he's just so lovely. Here's to the little guys.

https://brickset.com/sets/40245-1/Octopus

@Koentinius said:
" @julianbricks said:
"Not even going to enter because I already know a Star Wars UCS set will win. sigh."

That's exactly why you *should* vote though."

Worry not, just voted! :)

Ultimate batmobile
Unexpected gathering
Fishing store
Ewok village
Santa’s workshop

I picked based on sets owned & playability. I’m not much for display pieces (I only have one set on display outside of my chaotic LEGO basement ).

I’m sure the sea cow, Apocalypseburg, or Ninjago city would be up there for me if I owned them...

79003 an Unexpected Gathering - Box art, minifigure selection, minifigure printing detail, the build, it is unarguably the best set.
10220 WV Campervan - Such a popular set.
10243 Parisian Restaurant - My personal favorite modular building. The colour scheme is beautiful.
10188 Death Star- With all the minifigs and playability, it is the ultimate play set you know.
75192 Millennium Falcon - It may be too obvious to put on the list but you gotta admit it.

10020 - Santa Fe Super Chief. Very well done all around.

Ewok Village

It seems like An Unexpected Gathering, Ewok Village, and Parisian Restaurant are popular.

@Huw said:
"Over 800 sets have been nominated by around 1000 people.

Interestingly, the top 10 hasn't changed much since the first 500 votes were cast. There's been some movement in the lower end of the top 20 but not much.

I'll publish the top 100 after voting closes."

If only around 800 sets have been nominated by 1000 people, and each person entered in all five slots, then, on average, each set was nominated 6.25 times. Obviously, some have been nominated more than others have.

@Ayliffe said:
" @Fauch said:
"So no classic space, which means there may be a bit of suspense at least"

You say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if Benny's Space Squad popped up at least somewhere..."

My little brother would definitely choose it along with the orange spaceman book lol.

The 2008 Town Plan set (10184) is definitely one of the best sets of all time in my opinion.

Great poll, thanks a lot. I voted simply for my favorite builds, with the one exception of the set I want the most :)

I definitely have some recency bias with my choices, but I chose the recently revealed Nintendo Entertainment System set. It looks like it's going to be amazing, especially for the price.

I tried to include a couple of less obvious ones that are my personal favourites, as well as just picking from the expected sets. @Huw maybe later , after you've featured the winners, you could do a feature of some sets that are only nominated by one or two people to find out why they like them? Just a thought! :-)

I actually nominated the spider-man spider cycle chase because it’s a cheap set with awesome play features, gives you good and bad guys to battle, an exclusive minifig, good minifigs, good builds, and good display ability. Remember, at its core, lego is a toy, and this makes a great play set.

I'm actually surprised so many voted for Wall-E! I love that one and it's on my list too
As for the Space Saturn-V I almost voted for that (and seeing so many of it I'm gonna hazard a guess it'll be in the last picking round) but I went with the brick-scale Moon-Landing instead. It still sits on my shelf ready to be built but it's SO relevant to my interests and I love just looking at it 2d images that I know I'm going to enjoy building it (back in the day I even had one of those glue-buildingset things of that (think airfix))
(just wish I could get moon-baseplates to go with it too :()

I also picked Taj Mahal - I came out of my Dark age much later than it was available and it was something I never thought I 'd ever be able to get a hold of - until LEGO re-released a perfect copy of it so I could! I can grant that it looks maybe a bit out-dated now, but it was such an impressive built that made it an impossible dream of mine that actually was fulfilled!

Now, I didn't vote for any modular or large vehicle, because it would be impossible to chose between them so I just left those out, all of them. There are just too many awesome sets in those two series - I see Parisian Café is a fan-favourite, personally I love the Detective Office one, but I wouldn't be able to pick between several modulars, WV Beetle, London Bus or Mini Morris.

For the same reason I couldn't pick anything in this HP range - I came into my dark age just as HP was first released, so I missed out on basically all previous sets in HP (nor was I even a HP fan back then (ironically it was Lego HP video-game that sparked that interest (so I almost half jokingly included that game - it shows up in the list after all, but decided against it))

My first pick was however, MetalBeard's Sea Cow, it's a ginormous set and it reminded me completely of what it was like to build the Original Black Seas Barracuda as a kid - a set which still today takes me two days to build.

And remaining, I picked the (still not obtained but whoo boy will I) Nintendo Entertainment System - while I don't give one iota about Mario (heck I like Wario better!) the sheer impressive details of the TV alone would have swayed me.
Then there is the whole NES thing, I never owned one myself, my first console was N64 (and uh lego are you listening? MAKE ONE OF THOSE) but it is the most iconic thing and the expansion/MOCability of the games are obvious (I'm personally hoping for a Zelda one!).
Finally it turns out it can be hand cranked and the bit on the TV moved?! Forget videogames, you could re-create basically any Hanna-Barbera cartoon :D
Why not combine with some of these DOTS things and create your own games and shows!

:D

@BulbaNerd4000 said:
"I actually nominated the spider-man spider cycle chase because it’s a cheap set with awesome play features, gives you good and bad guys to battle, an exclusive minifig, good minifigs, good builds, and good display ability. Remember, at its core, lego is a toy, and this makes a great play set."

Now that’s a bit belittling (referring to the last sentence). I’m pretty sure we all know that LEGO is a toy. As for the Spider Cycle, novel choice but personally it is completely lacking in displayability. Just another generic colour-clashed, high-tech mech spider, property of friendly neighbourhood broke teenager Spider-Man. And when separated, the bike looks too tall and the Technic elements are an eye sore while the spider walker is so incredibly skeletal and incomplete.

It's hard to make a choice, but here is my selection:

10184 Town Plane
10193 Medieval Market Village
8683 Minifigs serie 1 to … 20
10255 Assembly Square
42083 Bugatti Chiron

Thanks for creating a great challenge for us to participate in @Huw!
I ranked them in set number order as my OCD would go crazy if I didn't ;)
1. Parisian Restaurant - My first modular and will always be my favorite one. BEAUTIFUL, well-designed, simply AMAZING set. Easily one of the best sets of all time in my opinion.
2. Detective's Office - Another awesome set. Maybe not quite up there with PR but I still had to put on here as it's such an ingenious set.
3. Ferris Wheel - My first Creator Expert set and still one of my favorites. The functions, colors, and design are amazing, and the size was unexpectedly huge after I built it!
4. Assembly Square - on par with PR. In some ways, I almost like this better than PR. Either way, it's an incredible, beautiful, insanely-detailed modular.
5. BB-8 - seems like a weird choice, but I had to go with one of my first Star Wars sets ever. The functions are ingenious and it makes a great display piece!

I started looking at all the sets by year… WHAT IS THIS!?!? I NEED IT: https://brickset.com/sets/EL715-1/Corkscrew-Bottle-Opener

;)

Oh my... That was difficult. After browsing through all the years, I ended up with a list of 27 sets. It would be easy just to choose from all the big and highly detailed sets, there are so many wonderful sets to chose from. I decided though, that it should not be the "only" reason to choose a set. I finally narrowed it down to five sets, based on different reasons:

https://brickset.com/sets/7641-1/City-Corner
https://brickset.com/sets/10211-1/Grand-Emporium
https://brickset.com/sets/10199-1/Winter-Village-Toy-Shop
https://brickset.com/sets/10937-1/Batman-Arkham-Asylum-Breakout
https://brickset.com/sets/7571-1/The-Fight-for-the-Dagger

Ha! I noticed that, too, while browsing. I do not recall seing that earlier. I was also surprised seeing it.
- It was fun to see all the sets from the previous decades, though it often was just a brief look at them.

My final five:
10194 Emerald Night (2009)
10243 Parisian Restaurant (2014)
10265 Ford Mustang (2019)
21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V (2017)
70620 NINJAGO® City (2017)

My guess is that either a modular (most probably Parisian Restaurant), Ninjago City, or Apollo Saturn V will win.

I voted for:
Horizon Express
Firehouse Headquarters
Ninjago City
Downtown Diner
Tree House

I voted for:

Castle Giant Chess Set
Haunted House (from 2014)
The Tumbler
Assembly Square
Disney Castle

I had considered some smaller sets but they just don't compare to the design and the fun I had building the above 5. I think the Castle Giant Chess Set is severely underrated, but it's one of my all-time favorite sets.

Impossible to narrow it down to just 5 sets over the past 20 years! (That’s just one every 4 years!).
There are a lot of brilliant suggestions above, but I’ve gone only with sets I own personally:
(In no particular order, here are my top 9) -

10261 Roller Coaster
10265 Ford Mustang
75192 UCS Millennium Falcon
21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V
10255 Assembly Square (really, almost any of the recent modulars could go here - Diner, Parisian Restaurant)
71006 The Simpsons House
10234 Opera House (surprised no1 else mentioned this one)
10188 Death Star
8169 Lamborghini Gallardo (makes 2 models including a folding hardtop convertible, and looks super-realistic!)