Holiday gift guide: $100-$200
Posted by Huw,
Our penultimate holiday gift guide looks at sets in the $100-200 price range, of which 35 were released this year, more than in any other year.
If you're looking for gifts at this price you are spoilt for choice, with exceptional adults-welcome sets and top-of-the-range play sets for kids to choose from.
Find out what the Brickset team recommend after the break then let us know what you would select in the comments.
Huw
42144 Material Handler ($149.99, £104.99, 119.99€)
Technic sets nowadays fall into three categories: those that are style over substance, such as 42127 The Batman - Batmobile, those that are over-reliant on technology to operate, like 42140 App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle, and those which packed with functionality and great looking too. 42144 Material Handler is one of the latter, and easily the best Technic set released this year.
It offers an interesting and varied building experience and once completed operating the pneumatics is very satisfying, far more so than tapping on a screen.
It's a tad expensive in the USA but nevertheless if you're looking for something for an older child on the cusp of losing interest in LEGO, this should help prevent that!
MeganL
21333 Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night (£149.99 / $169.99 / 169.99€)
This is the first year that the Friends line had a set in the modular price range (41704 Main Steet Building), which is a great set, and really set the tone for the improved diversity in the Friends universe this year. But the set that I'm giving as a gift this year is 21333 Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night.
The final build is stunning to behold. I have it displayed behind me in my office, so it's in my Zoom background and has generated many compliments. People are always surprised to learn that it's LEGO, and I think I've introduced several people to LEGO as a hobby as a result. Not only is it beautiful on display, but the build experience is fantastic. I love that the painting is three dimensional, the colour palette is spot on, and there are some wonderfully creative building techniques.
CapnRex101
10300 Back to the Future Time Machine (£169.99 / $199.99 / 199.99€)
LEGO fans have expressed consistent desire for a large-scale rendition of the DeLorean time machine for several years and those calls only became louder following the release of 10274 Ghostbusters ECTO-1 in 2022.
Fortunately, 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine satisfies that potential in every respect. The shape of the vehicle is excellent and requires some creative construction methods, while some authentic functions are also cleverly integrated. The price is relatively high, but I think the minifigures and options to display the DeLorean in its different forms justifies that expense.
10302 Optimus Prime and 80036 City of Lanterns also stand out in this category, with the latter continuing the spirit of the extraordinary NINJAGO City sets.
TheBrickPal
10302 Optimus Prime (£159.99 / $179.99 / 179.99€)
LEGO had the most diverse lineup of 18+ sets so far in 2022. This includes licenses that nobody ever expected them to touch, and 10302 Optimus Prime is certainly the craziest example. LEGO and Hasbro finally teaming up felt like an impossible dream coming true, as I have always wanted a Transformers theme to exist. This feels like the first step to that happening for real.
The resulting model looks superb, with so many extra accessories, a nice display plaque, and the ability to switch the robot mode to truck mode without the need to rebuild anything! It does feel a little overpriced, but the sheer quality of what's included is not in doubt. This set is a marvel, and most LEGO fans, kids who like Transformers, or nostalgic adults, would adore this set if you decided to gift it to them.
Of course, there are plenty of other options to consider as well. I very much agree with CapnRex101 that 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine is an incredible set - one of my favourites from this year. I also recommend other licensed sets like 21336 The Office, 75337 AT-TE Walker and 75574 Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls. 71408 Princess Peach's Castle makes a fantastic playset, too. As for another Monkie Kid pick, 80039 The Heavenly Realms is gorgeous, though a bit insubstantial despite a great price per piece ratio.
Alice
21336 The Office (£104.99 / $119.99 / 119.99€)
21336 The Office is an excellent tribute to the TV sitcom. It's packed with so much detail and hidden references which are fun to discover along the build and contains 15 brilliant minifigures. I think it'd make a great gift for a fan of the show, whether they are already LEGO fans or not.
If you don't have a fan of The Office in your life, but you do know a fan of Formula 1 (like me), then I'd also vote for 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car as an excellent gift!
benbacardi
31132 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent (£104.99 / $119.99 / 119.99€)
Creator 3-in-1 sets often provide terrific value for money and 31132 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent is no exception, sneaking into this price bracket with over 1,000 parts. Not only does it include three unique models, it's full of nostalgia for lovers of the early Vikings theme.
The main build is deceptively large, a delight to construct, and looks great on display while also providing plenty of play value. It would make a fantastic gift to build with your children, or for an adult who fondly remembers the LEGO of their youth.
Which of the 35 sets would you choose to give?
66 likes
36 comments on this article
As a BTTF fan, 10300 Time Machine is my favourite set in this price range, despite the fact it has a couple of flaws (e.g. gullwing doors not holding while open). Let's hope the set sells well and motivates the design of another BTTF set so that fans can also have figures from the third film.
The 31132 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent are the one I like. They would look excellent in a castle or medieval LEGO display.
for a hundred bucks, I can highly recommend Santa's Visit as well: 10293. The kitchen, living room furniture, light-up tree and chimney make for a great building experience!
The link to the 35 $100-200 sets released in 2022 takes you to 2021 instead.
Id say 75337 is also a good gift, lots of clone troopers and the best at-te rendition yet.
For me in this price range have to shout out some Monkie Kid sets they often have a stand out in each wave and I love both 80036 City of lanterns and 80039 Heavenly realms. Also for once for this theme I feel the price isn't too bad for what you get (more so UK and euro a bit I see, US still seems a bit steep)
I don't really have any need for it, but I love the viking ship and serpent. Such a great rendition, and the 3-in-1 designers are doing a damn good job lately. Outside of the castle and galaxy explorer, they are putting out the best sets lately.
A little disheartening to think this is the penultimate list with even higher priced sets beyond. 21333 is one of my sets being used for end-of-year bonuses / GWPs, but it has been on my list ever since the IDEAS votes. Beautiful set. Another beautiful set IMO is 75574 Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls. And for those who couldn't afford Ninjago City and the Docks, 80036 City of Lanterns is a nice alternative.
Not a single Monkie Kid set? 80035, 80036 and 80039 all look stunning.
10302 - no question, no doubt, no contest.
@TerryWright said:
"
10302 - no question, no doubt, no contest."
Correct. The DeLorean is cool, no doubt. But Optimus is a truck ... and a robot. That is a clear win.
As noted, I vote for Optimus, but my son is lobbying aggressively for 76949. To be fair, he has a lot of LEGO and has easily gotten more play value out of that set that any other this year. Yet somehow, the structures have remained intact.... It might be a bit overpriced, what with the license and molded dinosaurs, but a 5-year-old's opinion should have some weight when it comes to toys!
My favorite in that price range was 10302 Optimus Prime. The finished 21333 looks cool on display, but I found the build quite tedious. Not much fun. 42144 is so obscenely overpriced that I would never dream of recommending it. That's an 80 Euro set at most, and even that is stretching it. I used to be a huge Technic fan all my life, but I truly hate what has become of the theme.
@ForestMenOfEndor said:
"As noted, I vote for Optimus, but my son is lobbying aggressively for 76949. To be fair, he has a lot of LEGO and has easily gotten more play value out of that set that any other this year. Yet somehow, the structures have remained intact.... It might be a bit overpriced, what with the license and molded dinosaurs, but a 5-year-old's opinion should have some weight when it comes to toys!"
Interesting, I remember someone on here complaining about that set for only having one play feature that doesn’t work very well, as opposed to the Super Mario theme where less expensive sets have play features that work better. This wasn’t a 5-year-old commenting so that might be part of the divide in opinions but idk.
Top 7 faves in this range....
- 10302 Optimus Prime. Finally after seeing so many moc's online of folks building a true transforming Optimus Prime, Lego gives us the official real deal. Great model, little pricey but it's got the right G1 look, transforms smooth and very cool brick built accessories.
- 10975: Wild Animals of the World. Tremendous array of Duplo animals and terrains. Great big Xmas gift the little ones can share.
- 21058: The Great Pyramid of Giza. Wow, what a fabulous display model and fun build. Even though half of the Pyramid, all is here that you need. Excellent details, structure, etc. Great interior and would be a good teaching model too.
- 21333: Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night. For years I've wanted a Lego art piece of a famous painting and it finally arrived this year. Truly a unique Lego build experience and final product with its beautiful color palette is striking.
- 60350 Lunar Research Base. Another great City NASA set. Great builds all around to create the perfect lunar base.
- 80036 The City of Lanterns. Missed out on the NinjaGo City, or want to add to your NinjaGo cityscape, then this is a must get. A really beautiful, colorful highly interactive set with a tremendous amount of great Lego elements.
- 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine. Another great feat of Lego engineering here. Must get for the BTTF fan or any Lego car collector.
@Trigger_ said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor said:
"As noted, I vote for Optimus, but my son is lobbying aggressively for 76949. To be fair, he has a lot of LEGO and has easily gotten more play value out of that set that any other this year. Yet somehow, the structures have remained intact.... It might be a bit overpriced, what with the license and molded dinosaurs, but a 5-year-old's opinion should have some weight when it comes to toys!"
Interesting, I remember someone on here complaining about that set for only having one play feature that doesn’t work very well, as opposed to the Super Mario theme where less expensive sets have play features that work better. This wasn’t a 5-year-old commenting so that might be part of the divide in opinions but idk."
My son enjoys "features" such as winching a crane hook up and down, but when it comes to Jurassic World/Park sets, all he wants are dinosaurs, minifigures to run away from the dinosaurs, and maybe some scenery for the dinosaurs to destroy. He mostly ignores the play functions that LEGO will build into sets, such as exploding walls or the like.
Maybe I've become a miser this year, but most of the sets in this price-range seem overpriced.
...apart from, strangely, the Monkie Kid sets (valeu, @ao_ka)
@TerryWright said:
"
10302 - no question, no doubt, no contest."
same, while all my fellow patriotic normies went to Buckingham palace to celebrate some jubilee, i went to my local Lego store to pick this beauty up.
@Tuzi said:
"for a hundred bucks, I can highly recommend Santa's Visit as well: 10293. The kitchen, living room furniture, light-up tree and chimney make for a great building experience!"
Santa's Visit was released last year, and is in the $50-$99.99 price bracket.
Starry Night, Viking Ship and City of Lanterns are all nice but overall not a very strong year for this price range.
@legoapprentice said:
"Starry Night, Viking Ship and City of Lanterns are all nice but overall not a very strong year for this price range."
I agree. Galaxy Explorer, which is in a cheaper price bracket, is better than anything in this range.
80035 and 75337 are my favorites in this price range.
@ForestMenOfEndor said:
" @Trigger_ said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor said:
"As noted, I vote for Optimus, but my son is lobbying aggressively for 76949 . To be fair, he has a lot of LEGO and has easily gotten more play value out of that set that any other this year. Yet somehow, the structures have remained intact.... It might be a bit overpriced, what with the license and molded dinosaurs, but a 5-year-old's opinion should have some weight when it comes to toys!"
Interesting, I remember someone on here complaining about that set for only having one play feature that doesn’t work very well, as opposed to the Super Mario theme where less expensive sets have play features that work better. This wasn’t a 5-year-old commenting so that might be part of the divide in opinions but idk."
My son enjoys "features" such as winching a crane hook up and down, but when it comes to Jurassic World/Park sets, all he wants are dinosaurs, minifigures to run away from the dinosaurs, and maybe some scenery for the dinosaurs to destroy. He mostly ignores the play functions that LEGO will build into sets, such as exploding walls or the like."
Fair enough, feeding Minifigures to the T-Rex was more enjoyable for 11-year-old me than whatever that harpoon thing was in the T-Rex Tracker. This was during a time where I'd build sets and they'd immediately go to storage, though, so I didn't get to do much of either. I did have a pretty big play feature phase at 12 and 13 but not all kids are the same.
the range where some of this sets should not be in it (and often are actually not ... given massive discounts, they often dip into the 50-100 range, and there, they are excellent gifts.)
independently from that, my imagination of Lego price ranges are more like these (in euros):
up to 10
10 to 30
30 to 70
70 to 150
140 to 300
above 300
I somehow tend to group the "sizes / value / joy" of sets more along these borders than the 10 50 100 200 scheme. for example I find it hard to put a Modular close to 200 into the same range of excitement and investment as the pyramid - while I put the pyramid and the vespa into the same range.
@Trigger_ said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor said:
" @Trigger_ said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor said:
"As noted, I vote for Optimus, but my son is lobbying aggressively for 76949 . To be fair, he has a lot of LEGO and has easily gotten more play value out of that set that any other this year. Yet somehow, the structures have remained intact.... It might be a bit overpriced, what with the license and molded dinosaurs, but a 5-year-old's opinion should have some weight when it comes to toys!"
Interesting, I remember someone on here complaining about that set for only having one play feature that doesn’t work very well, as opposed to the Super Mario theme where less expensive sets have play features that work better. This wasn’t a 5-year-old commenting so that might be part of the divide in opinions but idk."
My son enjoys "features" such as winching a crane hook up and down, but when it comes to Jurassic World/Park sets, all he wants are dinosaurs, minifigures to run away from the dinosaurs, and maybe some scenery for the dinosaurs to destroy. He mostly ignores the play functions that LEGO will build into sets, such as exploding walls or the like."
Fair enough, feeding Minifigures to the T-Rex was more enjoyable for 11-year-old me than whatever that harpoon thing was in the T-Rex Tracker. This was during a time where I'd build sets and they'd immediately go to storage, though, so I didn't get to do much of either. I did have a pretty big play feature phase at 12 and 13 but not all kids are the same."
That was me. I bought the set purely for the dinosaurs, but built the set once before pulling it apart for pieces.
It's more of a praise for the Mario design than criticism of Jurassic World. (Although, having built almost all of this years ones, I wouldn't recommend them for any reason other than the dinosaurs.) I don't buy city, friends, or Ninjago sets very often (Except for the Dragons) so would be interested if anyone can comment on the quality of play features of these kinds of sets.
@R1_Drift said:
"Id say 75337 is also a good gift, lots of clone troopers and the best at-te rendition yet."
Speaking of which, when do we get a review for that?
I don't think buying a licensed model is a smart idea, not without asking the recipient first, as these are very specifics. Either you like "The Office"/ "BTTF"/"Transformers G1"/etc or not, and if you do and a Lego fan, you're planning to or already have them.
The DeLorean didn't make the cut for me this year. Great set, but too many great sets this year and not enough budget. Hopefully all of next year's sets will be awful and I can get it next year--but I somehow doubt it ;)
I know I complained about this during the Optimus Prime reveal, but I still don't see the appeal of it, and I'm a big Lego and Transformers fan. It just doesn't look right to me, and I'd rather spend that kind of money on a true (non-Lego) Optimus.
@bananaworld said:
"
Maybe I've become a miser this year, but most of the sets in this price-range seem overpriced.
...apart from, strangely, the Monkie Kid sets (valeu, @ao_ka)"
No miser, you're right. About 2/3rds of the kits int this range are over-priced imho.
Wow, Star Wars sets seem to be in short supply in these buying guides . . . is that because they aren't good values, good sets . . . or is the theme just generally falling out of favor?
I'm not criticizing the choices . . . they all look like fantastic sets . . . just an observation that got me thinking.
Totally agree about Starry Night. My wife who hates Lego (but supports my addiction) wanted to hang it in her office. She claimed my office already had enough cool sets (really just NASA, she finds Star Wars repulsive). If only she knew how to install a drywall anchor it would have been hers…
Holiday? I don't take Lego on holiday, I'm out exploring the countryside.
Oh, you mean Christmas...?!
I would only consider that Material Handler a good gift at a steep discount, well below €100. Amazon.de currently has it for €68, now that's a good deal! But at it's original price? No way...
If it has to be Technic, I'd much rather go for the 42140 App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle, although mostly because that one is also consistently discounted for around €100. At RRP it would still be a no. Technic has gotten ridiculously overpriced this year.
Apart from the sets already mentioned I think both train sets will be favorites among kids this year (albeit again at a discount), and I think 80109 Lunar New Year Ice Festival would be a pretty good choice (even at RRP!).
@davejbur said:
"Oh, you mean Christmas...?!"Sinterklaas obviously!
;-)
As a starwars fan I’d have togo with the AT-TE, but Optimus Prime and Starry night are in 2nd and 3rd place.