The Best Pop Culture LEGO Sets for the Big Kids in Your Life
There are few children’s toys that have the staying power of LEGO. The LEGO Group has been around since Danish businessman Ole Kirk Kristiansen started the company in 1932. Though LEGO remains a family-run business to this day, a lot has changed since those early brick-laying days.
Part of keeping up with a changing world is creating modern products for a modern audience, and this brand excels at keeping its toys current and fun for both new and vintage generations. With the holidays approaching, we’re tallying up all the fun LEGO sets we hope to receive as gifts this year. Note: while we’d love to collect pop culture favorites like Jerry’s apartment from Seinfeld or the set from Sesame Street, sadly, both designs have been retired (for now). Never fear; there are plenty more LEGO sets created from movies, television, and pop culture available from the LEGO shop right now.
Metkayina Reef Home
Kids of all ages will have a great time recreating their favorite scenes from Avatar: The Way of Water with this Metkayina Reef Home set. Inside the box, you’ll find minifigures of Neytiri, Kiri, Ronal, and Tonowari, all ready to explore the coral reef, an underwater cave with glow-in-the-dark plant life, and sleeping quarters inside the home. This set is expandable, so you can build your own Pandora by adding other sets (sold separately).
Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage
Fans of Disney’s Hocus Pocus movies will run amok with this adorable LEGO Sanderson Sister’s Cottage set. Features include a working water wheel, which makes pink “smoke” emerge from the chimney when turned. You can also open up the house to peek inside the sisters’ inner sanctum. Mix up a spell in the cauldron, relax by the lighted fireplace, and peruse the “Book of Spells.”
Six minifigures come with the set, including a tiny Thackery Binx, in cat form.
The Friends apartments
Could we BE any more excited? This popular Friends Apartments LEGO set comes with two apartments: Monica and Rachel’s and Joey and Chandler’s. There are about a thousand tiny details that make this set the perfect gift for the Friends fan on your list, including the guys’ matching recliners, the “Original Buffay” painting, and a turkey for Monica and Joey to wear on their heads on Thanksgiving. Grab a fork and eat Mrs. Braverman’s cheesecake off the hallway floor. You know you want some!
The Home Alone house
This may be one of the more expensive items on this list, but it’s also one of the coolest LEGO sets ever made. For real.
The LEGO Ideas Home Alone set gives builders full access to the McCallisters’ house from the Home Alone movies, allowing kids of all ages to relive Kevin’s epic battle against the Wet Bandits. Explore the many booby traps in the house, take the zipline to Kevin’s treehouse, and square up against the scary furnace (with glowing lighted brick). In addition to the five minifigures, the set also comes with the bandits’ modular van.
At 3,957 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO Ideas set so far. Plus, according to their website, “the bricks are divided into bags following the movie’s plotline, so you can relive the story as you build during the holidays.”
Fun!
The Back to The Future time machine
This Back to The Future time machine LEGO set features three versions of everyone’s favorite DeLorean. One includes a lightning rod and a plutonium chamber, as in the first film, while the second has the hover conversion and Mr. Fusion, and the third has a circuit board and whitewall tires. All are powered by your imagination … and 1.21 gigawatts of power. Dr. Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown and Marty McFly minifigures are included.
Lord of the Rings Rivendell
We’re heading to Middle-earth … right after we finish second breakfast! This awesome Lord of the Rings Rivendell set has 6,167 pieces, so only serious LEGO builders need apply. Visit the Shards of Narsil, view the paintings and statues inside the great hall, and take a glance into Elrond’s study. This massive set comes with 15 minifigures, so it’s as good for play as it is for display.
Natural History Museum
Okay, this Natural History Museum set might be better than visiting the real thing. Fewer crowds, anyway!
While it’s not labeled as a Night at The Museum set, kids will still see the similarities and enjoy playing with this fun and educational set. Check out the curator’s office, astronomy exhibits, and ancient artifacts. Finish your day with some star gazing through the telescope, throw a bone for the dinosaur, and be sure to stop to smell the cherry blossoms out front.
The Office
Know anyone who has seen every episode of The Office multiple times? (Raises hand) If so, here’s the perfect gift!
The Office Lego set includes the whole gang of coworkers and a slew of references to all our favorite inside jokes. Michael’s desk and the conference room bump out separately, but the main room is just as you remember from the show: cramped, lacking privacy, and reeking of Phyllis’s stinky perfume.
Accessories like Kevin’s famous chili, a stapler in gelatin, a Dundie trophy, and a “World’s Best Boss” mug complete the theme.
The Infinity Gauntlet
Some LEGO sets are more for displaying than for actually playing, and this LEGO Marvel Infinity Gauntlet is one of them. Marvel’s Avengers fans will enjoy building this accurate model of the Infinity Gauntlet, but they’ll love displaying it on their shelf even more. Standing 12.5 inches high, it’s a memento that’s sure to spark lots of conversation.
Pac-Man Arcade
Children of the ’80s, this one is for you! If you grew up plugging quarters into the Pac-Man (or Ms. Pac-Man, in my case) machine at your local arcade, isn’t it about time you owned your own version? The Pac-Man Arcade set was made for nostalgic adults like us, and it promises to be “a rewarding project recreating the iconic maze-chase cabinet arcade game, considered by many as the most influential video game of all time.”
The Pac-Man Arcade set is part of LEGO’s Icons product line, which are intended for adult LEGO builders. After all, why should kids have all the fun?
(featured image: LEGO)
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