Best year of Lego?

[Darth_Bane13]

Obviously this is pretty subjective, based on what themes you like and when you grew up. I think 2009 deserves to be in contention, for licensed themes you had Star Wars in it's golden age, Indiana Jones, and Spongebob. For unlicensed themes you had Power miners, Space police 3, Bionicle, pirates, and Fantasy Era Castle.

[SpacePolice89]

For me it is 1989. Many of the sets and themes I love are from that year or where available in 89. SP 1 came out that year, Futuron was still available and got new sets and the same applies to Blacktron 1. It was the first year of Pirates and Eldorado Fortress is one of my favorite sets. Town and Castle had great sets also. The only major thing that is missing from 1989 is 9v trains which I like very much. In general I like sets from 1978 to 1998 and especially sets from 1984 to 1997.  

Edited January 29 by SpacePolice89

[Driver Brandon Grumman]

I'm a City set collector. For me, the best years were probably 2021-2023 because of the deluge of awesome buildings we got for those years. We got several home sets, all three first responders (police station, fire station and hospital) along with a emergency hq which could double as a 911 dispatch center. We also got the first ever school and grocery store sets for the City theme - though the latter two were already there in other themes. We also got probably the best train station out there; converted mine into a bus terminal. There are other buildings too. 

[Murdoch17]

2 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Obviously this is pretty subjective, based on what themes you like and when you grew up. I think 2009 deserves to be in contention, for licensed themes you had Star Wars in it's golden age, Indiana Jones, and Spongebob. For unlicensed themes you had Power miners, Space police 3, Bionicle, pirates, and Fantasy Era Castle.

I would tend to agree with 2009, it's smack in the middle of LEGO Renaissance era (my own term) of 2005 - 2014.  CITY started in 2005 and things began to turn around, and at the other end The Lego Movie started the trend of Lego being taken seriously by the main stream (speculating investors, aftermarket going nuts, etc. are among the downsides to this!), along with the TLG becoming more like a large corporation than a family run business around this time too.

My LEGO timeline map goes like this:

wooden era - 1930s to 1960s

innovation era - 1958 to 1978

golden era - 1978 to 1995

declining era - 1995 to 2005

renaissance era - 2005 - 2014

gone mainstream era - 2014 - 2020

post-covid / adults welcome era - 2020 - ?

Edited January 29 by Murdoch17

[BrickBob Studpants]

There are multiple years in hold in high regard, ordered chronologically:

• 2008: Very nostalgic year for me, with SpongeBob, Indy, and SW all having really memorables waves!
• 2012: The Lord of the Rings finally got sets, the Hobbit also had a great first wave, Star Wars was on a roll with that Jabba’s Palace and some cool TCW sets, and both Marvel and DC had their big return!
• 2014: The LEGO Movie, need I say more? The Hobbit sets were also fantastic additions, especially the Smaug set, and Simpsons had their debut with the first (non-sports) licensed CMF series. Rebels had really cool sets too and I miss the times we had 4 yearly battlepacks
• 2015: TFA had a fantastic first wave, Marvel shined with the AoU sets, and DC had awesome JL comic-based sets.
• 2017: The LEGO Batman movie had some of the best DC sets to date, The Ninjago Movie sets were also excellently designed, and TLJ got plenty of cool sets.
• 2018: The big return of Harry Potter with one of my favourite CMF series to this day, and the Solo sets were top-notch as well. Infinity War also had a great range of sets. And I never forget the moment we finally got a Minecraft chicken after waiting for 4 years!
• 2019: TROS had some really solid sets, but what makes this year special to me is the Upside Down, which still firmly sits in my top 5 sets ever released. The LEGO Movie 2 also provided some instant classics.
• 2023: The glorious yet short-lived return of Indy alone makes this year memorable, but we also had a couple really good Marvel sets like the Final Battle from NWH, some solid Mando S3 sets, the fantastic Ahsoka sets, the JP anniversary wave, the return of LotR with Rivendell, plus the long-awaited Gringotts! Oh, and Sonic came back with a full theme!
• 2024: The SW anniversary was fun, Marvel had some bangers, and the sets from the survey leak were all impressive (particularly Barad-dûr, the Snow White Cottage, Burrow, Deku Tree, Simba, and Jabba’s Sailbarge). Plus the debut of Animal Crossing!
• 2025: Babu Frik and TROS Palpatine alone elevated this year for me, but we also had the debut of the fantastic One Piece sets, the new Black Pearl, the large-scale Mario Kart set, our first Star Trek sets, and the return of Simpsons!
• 2026: It’s early, I know, but this year will easily go down as one of my faves as well. More Zelda, Stranger Things, Minas Tirith, Luigi, M&G, One Piece S2, Pokémon, and now Shrek? And even more new themes? Sign me up

[Toastie]

Best year of my LEGO experience, not set:

1965 - Got my first LEGO set. The real LEGO era: Envision.

1998 - Real Mindstorms - the RCX got me into robotics. Best LEGO set ever.

2010 - Joined Eurobricks and learned so much about LEGO and TLG. As well as alternatives. Best website ever. Countless friendly, helpful, encouraging, inspiring, mature, young, crazy, serious, enlightening, challenging (in the most positive way), people I met and I am meeting. Best staff ever. And LEGO has made that happening. Not a set, but a community, I don't want to miss. A community, that has friendly replies even when revisiting from years ago.     

2022 - Learned from Evan and Alex on EB, two such enthusiastic energizing individuals, who taught me that TLG introduced robotics as early as 1986. I have turned to that era almost exclusively because of them. Best LEGO era.

2024 - Emanuele and Family from Italy visited our home in Germany. We have been EB friends before, because we were both active for a long time here. Emanuele being the master builder, me the admirer of his skills. The ties have become so close: LEGO is not about sets, it is about sharing a mindset.

2026 - No LEGO purchases anymore. Well, exception: <€10 "sets". And used stuff of course. But: There are uncountable LEGO bricks in my attic, I simply stopped buying these overpriced sets. Shelf-beauties from China: Yes, telephones, winter sets, Steam Punk!!! Glitzy stuff ...

One-Set summary: 1998 - the RCX 1.0

Best regards
Thorsten

 

[JesseNight]

For me it's mostly the 1987-1989 period.
I loved the space themes of the time (last bit of CS, Futuron, Blacktron 1, and Space Police 1). I loved the new 9V light & sound system (loved the lights, hated the sounds lol). Loved the Monorail. Loved the late 80s Castle and the new Pirates ships. Those were my golden years.

[Darth_Bane13]

6 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

I would tend to agree with 2009, it's smack in the middle of LEGO Renaissance era (my own term) of 2005 - 2014.  CITY started in 2005 and things began to turn around, and at the other end The Lego Movie started the trend of Lego being taken seriously by the main stream (speculating investors, aftermarket going nuts, etc. are among the downsides to this!), along with the TLG becoming more like a large corporation than a family run business around this time too.

My LEGO timeline map goes like this:

wooden era - 1930s to 1960s

innovation era - 1958 to 1978

golden era - 1978 to 1995

declining era - 1995 to 2005

renaissance era - 2005 - 2014

gone mainstream era - 2014 - 2020

post-covid / adults welcome era - 2020 - ?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the declining era. It was before my time so I'm not as familiar with it, although I know they were doing bad financially during that time. All the other era's makes sense to me though. Interestingly the renaissance era arguably directly matches with the Star Wars golden age.

[danth]

8 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

For me it is 1989. Many of the sets and themes I love are from that year or where available in 89. SP 1 came out that year, Futuron was still available and got new sets and the same applies to Blacktron 1. It was the first year of Pirates and Eldorado Fortress is one of my favorite sets. Town and Castle had great sets also.

I'm inclined to agree with this. It was a glorious time.

7 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

My LEGO timeline map goes like this:

wooden era - 1930s to 1960s

innovation era - 1958 to 1978

golden era - 1978 to 1995

declining era - 1995 to 2005

renaissance era - 2005 - 2014

gone mainstream era - 2014 - 2020

post-covid / adults welcome era - 2020 - ?

Hmm, interesting, I like it!

[SpacePolice89]

4 hours ago, danth said:

I'm inclined to agree with this. It was a glorious time.

Indeed it was!

12 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

LEGO Renaissance era (my own term) of 2005 - 2014.

That is a very good term. During those years unlicensed and licensed sets managed to coexist in a meaningful way. I wish that the renaissance era hadn't ended so soon. 

Edited January 30 by SpacePolice89

[SpacePolice89]

5 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the declining era. It was before my time so I'm not as familiar with it, although I know they were doing bad financially during that time.

In 1996 I didn't notice anything bad and loved the great Town, Trains, Castle, Pirates and Space sets. The 1997 catalog struck me like a knife in the back, mainstream Town was heavily junior zed and the introduction of UFO made me lose interest in new Space sets. The second wave of the Armada era Pirates sets didn't even get released in Europe. Divers was great and Fright Knights okay. In 1998 it was even worse, RES-Q/Extreme Team and Aquazone were the only quality themes available. In 1999 I only bought some of the Trains sets and focused heavily on MOCs and bought second hand sets from yard sales and thrift stores. In 2000 it felt like Lego was dead (regarding new sets) and I gave up hope about ever getting new sets that I like and that continued to the renaissance era when I regained interest in new sets. In 2001 something fantastic happened, 10000 Guarded Inn and the Legends sets and I also discovered the online AFOL community. I started buying sets like crazy from Bricklink especially all the sets I had wanted over the years. Today I mostly buy old sets from Bricklink (about 90% of the Lego I buy), In the renaissance era I started buying more new sets again but when the renaissance era ended I went back to buying almost everything from Bricklink.

[Wolfpack]

Anything before 1999.

If I had to choose, I would say 1990 or 1991. Great town, castle, pirates sets, monorails, no burps etc.

Here you can see a catalogue from 1990: https://images.brickset.com/library/Catalogues/c90uk.pdf

Edited January 30 by Wolfpack

[Mylenium]

In  so many words: Huh? In those ten years I've been doing LEGO I'm sure I could recount great sets just as I can remember really bad ones, but never would I say that any particular year has been the best year, best theme or whatever...

Mylenium

[Darth_Bane13]

5 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

In 1996 I didn't notice anything bad and loved the great Town, Trains, Castle, Pirates and Space sets. The 1997 catalog struck me like a knife in the back, mainstream Town was heavily junior zed and the introduction of UFO made me lose interest in new Space sets. The second wave of the Armada era Pirates sets didn't even get released in Europe. Divers was great and Fright Knights okay. In 1998 it was even worse, RES-Q/Extreme Team and Aquazone were the only quality themes available. In 1999 I only bought some of the Trains sets and focused heavily on MOCs and bought second hand sets from yard sales and thrift stores. In 2000 it felt like Lego was dead (regarding new sets) and I gave up hope about ever getting new sets that I like and that continued to the renaissance era when I regained interest in new sets. In 2001 something fantastic happened, 10000 Guarded Inn and the Legends sets and I also discovered the online AFOL community. I started buying sets like crazy from Bricklink especially all the sets I had wanted over the years. Today I mostly buy old sets from Bricklink (about 90% of the Lego I buy), In the renaissance era I started buying more new sets again but when the renaissance era ended I went back to buying almost everything from Bricklink.

This was an interesting read. I think the late 90s still had a few good themes like Western, Ninja, and the introduction of Star Wars in 1999. I can see how those years were a step down though.

[MAB]

I'm going to go for 2012.

This was a sweet spot between middle and modern times. It was the start of LOTR. Modulars were now taking off and becoming detailed - it was the year of Town Hall but past ones like Fire Brigade were still available. Advanced Models / Creator Expert was doing well, sets like Emerald Night were still (just about) available on shelves often heavily discounted, there was the Winter Village collection doing well by now but all still available (just), Sopwith Camel, VW Van, Maersk Train. Friends gave something for younger girls. There were fun but cheap Super Heroes (DC) sets. A lot of decent small Creator sets. CMF was peaking at Series 6-7-8. Ninjago had some decent sets. Star Wars had relatively cheap swooshable ships. There was Joust for Castle fans plus battle packs and Kingdoms Chess - the ultimate battle pack. Some of the better games were released. Cuusoo / Ideas was taking off. Monster Fighters, Dino. PQ and Alien Conquest were still available, . There were some fantasic GWP with low thresholds. Here, it was easy to get lots of great polybags with a newspaper purchase. And best of all, LEGO wasn't all that popular (still before The LEGO Movie) so there was no rush to buy, easy discounts available, and often heavy discounts and LEGO was not over-saturated like it is today with seemingly everyone into it.

[Darth_Bane13]

5 hours ago, MAB said:

I'm going to go for 2012.

This was a sweet spot between middle and modern times. It was the start of LOTR. Modulars were now taking off and becoming detailed - it was the year of Town Hall but past ones like Fire Brigade were still available. Advanced Models / Creator Expert was doing well, sets like Emerald Night were still (just about) available on shelves often heavily discounted, there was the Winter Village collection doing well by now but all still available (just), Sopwith Camel, VW Van, Maersk Train. Friends gave something for younger girls. There were fun but cheap Super Heroes (DC) sets. A lot of decent small Creator sets. CMF was peaking at Series 6-7-8. Ninjago had some decent sets. Star Wars had relatively cheap swooshable ships. There was Joust for Castle fans plus battle packs and Kingdoms Chess - the ultimate battle pack. Some of the better games were released. Cuusoo / Ideas was taking off. Monster Fighters, Dino. PQ and Alien Conquest were still available, . There were some fantasic GWP with low thresholds. Here, it was easy to get lots of great polybags with a newspaper purchase. And best of all, LEGO wasn't all that popular (still before The LEGO Movie) so there was no rush to buy, easy discounts available, and often heavy discounts and LEGO was not over-saturated like it is today with seemingly everyone into it.

I totally agree, 2012 is one of my favorite Lego years.

[BrickBob Studpants]

6 hours ago, MAB said:

And best of all, LEGO wasn't all that popular (still before The LEGO Movie) so there was no rush to buy, easy discounts available, and often heavy discounts and LEGO was not over-saturated like it is today with seemingly everyone into it.

This gives off strong “I liked this band before it was cool” vibes

[Peppermint_M]

Hmm.

I am tempted to say 2008, Agents was a very cool theme, Exo Force was looking good with a Jungle theme and a slightly tweaked form factor. Speed Racer combined two of my loves (Speed Racer and LEGO, I used to love the cartoon and the 90s reboot as a kid). I had a job and lots of spending money. I think the fact it was the year I really had money to spend on myself, a lot more than before. I turned 20 that year (Never had a dark ages) and one of my younger brothers was old enough to appreciate LEGO as a medium more than just as a playset, so we bonded well despite the 13 year age gap! Building together and showing him more complicated builds.

Oh, and I joined EB in 2008...

Yeah! 2008 

[MAB]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

This gives off strong “I liked this band before it was cool” vibes

Definitely,  it is a bit of that. I still enjoy building LEGO but I really don't like the buying side as much now because LEGO news is everywhere. Sets are built and reviewed months before they are released and sometimes I'm bored with them before I've actually seen one in store, let alone bought it. And even worse are the youtube experts that keep getting recommended to me that have been into LEGO for a whole year.

But there is the advantage that I still have plenty of sealed sets from back then that those people that have driven up the price of LEGO are willing to pay way more than I ever expected they would be worth.

I think I prefer buying used LEGO at bootsales / flea markets more than buying new sets these days. At least that way there is some excitement about what might be in there.

[Kit Figsto]

On 1/29/2026 at 1:03 PM, Murdoch17 said:

wooden era - 1930s to 1960s

innovation era - 1958 to 1978

golden era - 1978 to 1995

declining era - 1995 to 2005

renaissance era - 2005 - 2014

gone mainstream era - 2014 - 2020

post-covid / adults welcome era - 2020 - ?

I've thought about this myself and I would generally agree, though there are certainly some exceptions.  I think that some later-90s themes fit in more spiritually with late 80s/early 90s stuff - Western, the desert and jungle waves of Adventurers, Rock Raiders, UFO, Insectoids, and Aquazone, to me, feel more early 90s, even though they came later

I don't think that there is one objective "best" year of LEGO, as it depends a lot on your own personal preferences, but I think that the most common answer for this, at least among AFOLs (when I say AFOL here, I'm referring more to those that see it as a hobby versus a more casual collector) would probably either lay sometime in the 80s/90s or in the late 00s/early 2010s.

A few that jump to mind for me personally are 1993 (some legendary Pirates sets, Dragon Masters, great Town offerings, and Ice Planet 2002), 2007 (Fantasy Era Castle, Mars Mission, Exo-Force, a bunch of great City, Racers, and Star Wars sets, Aqua Raiders), and 2008 (continuation of most of the previous year's themes, plus Indiana Jones, Agents, and a great Batman wave). 

For me, I think the run from about 2006-2011 was my personal "golden age" of LEGO.  That was when I really caught the bug as a kid, and seemingly EVERY big birthday/Christmas gift was the large LEGO set that I'd been wanting, all of my allowance money went towards LEGO, and most of the time I spent at friends' houses was building/playing with LEGO.  Thankfully, I still own a good amount of my sets from this era, though I've had to re-buy a few over the years as some of my childhood originals were lost/donated/parted out at various points.  To me, that 2000s/early 2010s era had the best of both worlds - imaginative themes and worlds, but the design language was also a lot sleeker without being TOO much in that smooth/realistic direction, which I find that a lot of sets today are for me.  Again, just my personal preference, though!

[jimmynick]

I think 2000 is up there. Knight's Kingdom and Arctic were mindblowing for my little brain at the time.

[SpacePolice89]

17 hours ago, jimmynick said:

I think 2000 is up there. Knight's Kingdom and Arctic were mindblowing for my little brain at the time.

Arctic was a very nice subtheme with many excellent sets.

[Carrera124]

For me, it's 1990, because:

• it's the final year of the grey 12V train era
• classic town still 4w
• iconic sets like 6399 Monorail and 8094 Control Center were launched
• (Europe only) the model team series was launched officially
• M-Tron series was launched

[JesseNight]

@Carrera124 I think you're off on the Model Team launch, it's been around since 1986 with sets 5510 (Offroad 4x4), 5540 (F1 Racer), and 5580 (Highway Rig). And I'm from Europe too.

[SpacePolice89]

1990 is a very good choice! All the years from them mid 80s to mid 90s had exceptionally good sets and themes in large numbers.