The Best and Worst of 2019

[Legocity2713]

Best Theme: Harry Potter. Even the Advent Calendar is good! 

Best Minifigure/Figure: Lenny from TLM2. Love how vibrant the pink is.

Best Set: 76125 Iron Man Hall of Armor. This set is a dream come true since 2013. Fantastic fan service with so many easter eggs and great minifigures.

Worst Theme: Minecraft. Also, Hidden Side isn’t the fantastic Monster Fighters replacement that many have it cracked up to be.

Worst Minifigure/Figure: Riddler. Lime green with orange sideburns is not a good look.

Worst Set: Out of what I own, 76128 Molten Man Battle was most underwhelming. Looked like a hodge-podge of parts, no real place to hold it, felt very top heavy, and had a lot of weight placed on its loose joints. Figures weren’t anything special either besides Mysterio.

Most Anticipated for 2020: Lego City 60249 Street Sweeper. Its weird being so excited for a $10 set but it reminds me of visiting my parent’s homeland of Croatia as a very young boy and seeing street sweepers similar to these.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Legocity2713

[Robert8]

Best Theme: The LEGO Movie 2

Best Minifigure: Sweet Mayhem

Best Set: Sweet Mayhem's spaceship. Really unique set

Worst Theme: Marvel Superheroes 

Worst Minifigure: Thanos bigfig. I still can't believe TLG couldn't afford to make a proper Thanos bigfig

Worst Set: Wooden minifigure

Most Anticipated for 2020: CMF Series 20, China Sets

[danth]

 

On 12/7/2019 at 7:12 PM, tafkatb said:

Best Theme: The LEGO Movie 2

Yes!

On 12/8/2019 at 9:01 AM, Mylenium said:

Best Set: 70828 Pop-Up Party Bus (so much fun to build and play)

Agree!

12 hours ago, Legocity2713 said:

Best Minifigure/Figure: Lenny from TLM2. Love how vibrant the pink is.

100%!

Worst Theme: Star Wars. The same tired designs over and over again. The good movies are 40 years old and the new movies are terrible. Let's move on, people! 

[Lego David]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Worst Theme: Star Wars. The same tired designs over and over again. The good movies are 40 years old and the new movies are terrible. Let's move on, people

Finally someone who has spoken the truth! I 100% agree with this!

[LegoDW]

• Best Theme: Creator expert....most interesting builds
• Best Minifigure/Figure: Flintstones Series 19 mini figs, dog walker the best with Lego brick dog poop.
• Best Set: Harry Potter train, with two sets you can make a very nice train
• Worst Theme: Hidden Side....just don't get it. Shrimp Shake a great set.  Worse theme is Brick Heads....just don't get it.
• Worst Minifigure/Figure: all the Lego movie stuff Series 19 Care Bear fig, its not horrible just not my tastes
• Worst Set: Benny's house
• Most Anticipated for 2020: Hoping for a new creator expert Amusement park ride as the Carousel is retiring.

Edited January 15, 2020 by LegoDW
Changing my ranking to include late releases

[Vindicare]

2 hours ago, LegoDW said:

• Best Theme: Creator expert....most interesting builds
• Best Minifigure/Figure: Flintstones
• Best Set: Harry Potter train, with two sets you can make a very nice train
• Worst Theme: Hidden Side....just don't get it.
• Worst Minifigure/Figure: all the Lego movie stuff
• Worst Set: Benny's house
• Most Anticipated for 2020: Hoping for a new creator expert Amusement park ride as the Carousel is retiring.

Ouch...all the movie minifigs? Sweet Mayhem is pretty great, & was my first introduction into the world of The Wizard of Oz minifigs, Golfin’ President Business(the prints & new golf club)...I could go on.  Clearly I love the minifigs. 

[tafkatb]

So it just occurred to me that the year-end best-of lists are always focused on themes, sets, and figures, but does anyone have a favorite part introduced this year? As a lover of all things pumpkin spice I really like the new pumpkin found in Hagrid's Hut and The Upside Down, but ultimately I think my vote goes to 49307 Plate 1x1x2/3, Outside Bow. A part I didn't know I needed until I got it, it's especially useful in microscale builds but also as a detailing element for stuff like the roof of the Heartlake City Restaurant.

[Lego David]

23 minutes ago, tafkatb said:

, but does anyone have a favorite part introduced this year?

If I were to pick a favorite part introduced this year, I will definitely go with this one.

I am really glad that despite CCBS's supposedly dead status, they are still giving us a few CCBS-compatible pieces with Ninjago.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Lego David

[LegoDW]

18 hours ago, Vindicare said:

Ouch...all the movie minifigs? Sweet Mayhem is pretty great, & was my first introduction into the world of The Wizard of Oz minifigs, Golfin’ President Business(the prints & new golf club)...I could go on.  Clearly I love the minifigs. 

We got Dorthy, Lion, Scare Crow and Tin Man from the last collectors set...loved them.  Just not into the Lego movie stuff.  Agree Minifigs are the best!

[Digger of Bricks]

11 hours ago, tafkatb said:

So it just occurred to me that the year-end best-of lists are always focused on themes, sets, and figures, but does anyone have a favorite part introduced this year?

Huh, good point, perhaps I'll account for such for my own rankings...  

• Best D2C Set: 75810 The Upside Down
• Best Non-D2C Playset: 70830 Sweet Mayhem's Systar Starship!
• Best Theme: Creator Expert
• Best Minifigure: Either Clutch Powers from 40342 or Michael Keaton's Batman from 76139
• Best Collectable Minifigure (CMF): Series 19 Jungle Explorer
• Best Minidoll: Sweet Mayhem/General Mayhem
• Best Part: 42862 & 48165,  Left & Right Roof Tiles 3X3, Deg. 45/18/45
• Most Disappointing: Series 19's Galactic Bounty Hunter (final product had inferior printing compared to render)
• Most Anticipated for 2020: Series 20 (set no. 71027) and the mysterious "Leaf" theme (set no. 71360-71377)

P.S. Later on, I might share my own "honorable mentions" for most of those categories. 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Digger of Bricks

[blackdeathgr]

Best Theme - Hidden Side/bricklink AFOL 
Best mini - Sherry Scratchen-Post & Scarfield
Best Set - Dinosaur Fossils (Ideas)
Worst Theme - Superheroes
Worst Mini - CMF Firefighter
Worst set - Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage
2020 - The Pirate Bay (Ideas) / Mandalorian Battle Pack

[DuckBricks]

Best Theme: Don't know anything at all about the game or story, but going with Overwatch. A really impressive lineup of insanely detailed minifigures, new molds, and really cool mech builds that were somehow priced really well too. Add a triple-molded bigfig into the mix, and I'm sold.

Best Minifig: Ice Emperor from Ninjago. Really slick dual-molding for the Helmet/Armor and overall a great concept and execution of an evil Zane.

Best Set: 75810 The Upside Down. Really interesting and unorthodox design from a license I never expected to see in LEGO form. 

Worst Theme: Hate to say it, but Marvel Superheroes. It seemed like the theme was really at odds with itself: the majority of the sets had builds ranging from good (Quinjet) to decent (Molten Man, War Machine Buster) to unnecessary (Avengers Bike, Helicopter, HQ), but with largely really, really unimpressive and undetailed minifigures. The Quantum suit figures were a complete joke, and it sucks that for certain dead characters like Cap and BW, it will be a while until we get MCU suits from this film, if ever. At the same time, we had the Hall of Armor set, jam-packed with amazing minifigures and an Iron Man fan's dream, but with a really boring and lackluster/repetitive build. As much as I like Marvel and collected all the sets, it was a real mixed bag for me, and the lack of a good D2C or bigger adult-oriented set was the final nail in the coffin.

Worst Minifig: Probably Happy Hogan; I understand not wanting to make new prints, but there were a bunch of preexisting recent hair and head combos that are far, far better than the weird, beardless, generic official one. This isn't even a concept art/MCU being secretive issue; dude's been around since 2008 and looks basically the same in all his appearances.

Worst Set: The Star Wars "Action Battle" sets are clearly not targeted at me, so I won't fault them for that, but it seems like a strange gimmick to put such a heavy focus on those ancient Technic competition cannons and I can't help but feel like they took up slots where more interesting Star Wars stuff could have been put out.

2020 Most Anticipated: Aside from what's already been revealed, like Gamer's Market or Mandalorian Battle Pack, I'm super curious to see how those rumored busts for Star Wars and Marvel turn out, as well as the strange "Leaf" and "Zebra" adult-oriented themes as well as the cryptic Bionicle 2020 hints Faber has been dropping heavily on his Instagram.

[Vindicare]

18 hours ago, legozebra said:

Best Theme: Don't know anything at all about the game or story, but going with Overwatch. A really impressive lineup of insanely detailed minifigures, new molds, and really cool mech builds that were somehow priced really well too. Add a triple-molded bigfig into the mix, and I'm sold.

Excellent choice. Like you, I have no idea about the game, but the sets are fantastic. I have a few & they’re all great. Those mech builds are definitely some of, if not the, best builds I’ve seen. 

[N_RF BRIX]

I won’t say the worst ones as there are so many sets released annually that are not within my taste (e.g. Friends, Technic) that it would be impractical to single things out. However:

Best Theme: Lego Movie 2

Best Set: Winter Village Gingerbread House

Best Figure: this one is definitely hard to single out so I'll just go with the best sub theme of miniatures which for me are the Avengers Endgame figures (all figures from the Endgame wave in early 2019 and the figures from the Hulk Helicopter Rescue set)

Most Anticipated for 2020: Lego Ideas and the CMF series (bar the DC one)

[Hive]

On 12/7/2019 at 2:05 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

 

• Best Theme: Hidden Side
• Best Minifigure/Figure: Demogorgon
• Best Set: 75810 Upside Down
• Worst Theme: Forma (worst theme of the entire decade)
• Worst Minifigure/Figure: The big, overly expensive wooden one
• Worst Set: 10267 Gingerbread House - not actually the worst set, but the one that disappointed me the most
• Most Anticipated for 2020: Pirate Bay, with 10270 Bookshop as a close runner up

 

[Koori]

Best Theme: Hidden Side

Best Set: 10267 Gingerbread House

Best Minifigure: huey dewey and louie

Worst Theme: Lego Friends

Worst Set: I really don't like Friends lego...

Worst Minifigure: CMF Rainbow Bear

Most Anticipated for 2020: 10270 Bookshop 

[TeriXeri]

2019 was a year I didn't really have a theme to collect as Nexo Knights ended in 2018, so most my sets were City/Creator 3-in-1 and some LEGO Movie 2 + Speed Champions F40 / 911

Worst would be unfair to list things I don't collect like Licensed or Technic, but overall I'd say the Wooden Figure was the worst LEGO product of 2019.

• Best Theme: Creator 3-in-1 
• Best Minifigure/Figure: Lime/Darkblue jet-pack+helmet Rex Dangervest (Emmet Dream House set) but I also really liked the City Space figures for 2019.
• Best Set: Just listing sets I collected : 

1. Benny's Space Squad 
2. Emmet's Dream House
3. 3-in-1 Townhouse/Petshop

• Most Anticipated for 2020: 

1. Creator 3-in-1 Toyshop
2. Leaf theme
3. Summer sets , hopefully including a City People Pack or another 3-in-1 building.

Edited January 2, 2020 by TeriXeri

[The Brick Boss]

Trigger warning. I'm going according to the City theme, which I follow the most. 

• Best Theme: This year, it was tied between Fire and Space. 
• Best Minifigure/Figure: To be fair, all the minifigs were awesome to me. 
• Best Set: 60228 Doughnut Shop Opening 
• Worst Theme: Sky Police - I actually have the collection. Ended up breaking them down for parts. Good thing I didn't put the stickers on. 
• Worst Minifigure/Figure: None 
• Worst Set: 60210 Sky Police Air Base - that one was more about the plane included than the base itself. 
• Most Anticipated for 2020: 60255 to 60258. That's the entire Race theme. Overall, I think 2020 is when I pick almost everything up. 

Edited January 2, 2020 by pooda