What is your favorite LEGO set? (You don't have to own it)

[RH | 4,889]

Since we started talking about the upcoming release of the NES and TV LEGO set, I figured I'd ask if there are any other aficionados of the tiny plastic bricks and what are you guys favorite sets.

Unfortunately for me, the one set I've always wanted but I just can't fork out the money for is the LEGO Architecture series, Fallingwater.  I can appreciate good architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright was the mid-century master.  Anyway, I love this set, and I tried to get it hoping to see it get clearanced at the local Barnes & Noble.  It sat on there shelves for years and then one day, it was discontinued and gone.  It only went up in price from there and I learned my lesson.  If you want a LEGO set, get it, or don't cry when it becomes unaffordable.

So what about you guys?  What is your #1 favorite set?  Let's say if you could only have one, what would it be?

Edited July 14, 2020 by RH

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,055]

I always loved the stuff from the 90's when I was a kid. It was after the blandish sets of the earlier decades but before the constant licensing I saw from them when I worked at Toys R Us 2010ish. They were creative them and had really cool themes like the Aliens, Pirates, etc. my favorite, and one I have the most if not all the sets to was the Egypt theme.

[Brickman | 3,978]

Probably would have to go with 497 Galaxy Explorer. Love the Classic Space sets and this one is my favourite. Loved this theme growing up and I have slowly been trying to get all these sets (finding room to fit them all is an issue now).

My favourite build has actually been the recent LEGO Ideas set Pirates of Barracuda Bay though. A lot of great techniques and I love that you can easily convert it to the ship.

[Estil | 1,261]

As a child I wanted the Police Command Base so so bad...but none of the local stores had it  

[Kguillemette | 1,542]

https://www.ebay.com/i/303615941588?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303615941588&targetid=4581046486094194&device=t&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=395665087&mkgroupid=1239149814203389&rlsatarget=pla-4581046486094194&abcId=1129776&merchantid=51291&msclkid=a5db5341c9c9113805960c4f8345141c

This one. My absolute favorite as a kid. It has a bunch of booby traps you can set for when pirates invade and try to steal your golden treasures! My favorite was to hide an islander in the statue ready to skewer an unsuspecting pirate with a big old spear when they walked by! Being able to pull the support on the bridge causing it to topple over if a pirate walks along it was pretty cool too!

[Kguillemette | 1,542]

On a side note, the SEE museum in manchester, nh has an absolutely astounding lego model of the Manchester millyard. It is massive, about the size of half a football field, and was at one time the largest in the world. Definitely worth seeing if you are traveling through the area! Google some pictures!

[Brickman | 3,978]

1 hour ago, Kguillemette said:

On a side note, the SEE museum in manchester, nh has an absolutely astounding lego model of the Manchester millyard. It is massive, about the size of half a football field, and was at one time the largest in the world. Definitely worth seeing if you are traveling through the area! Google some pictures!

Very cool! Looks to be to minifig scale too, which is always nice.

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

13 hours ago, RH said:

Since we started talking about the upcoming release of the NES and TV LEGO set, I figured I'd ask if there are any other aficionados of the tiny plastic bricks and what are you guys favorite sets.

Unfortunately for me, the one set I've always wanted but I just can't fork out the money for is the LEGO Architecture series, Fallingwater.  I can appreciate good architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright was the mid-century master.  Anyway, I love this set, and I tried to get it hoping to see it get clearanced at the local Barnes & Noble.  It sat on there shelves for years and then one day, it was discontinued and gone.  It only went up in price from there and I learned my lesson.  If you want a LEGO set, get it, or don't cry when it becomes unaffordable.

So what about you guys?  What is your #1 favorite set?  Let's say if you could only have one, what would it be?

Whats it worth now? I have one and really enjoy it. 

[Tanooki | 4,929]

I don't know if I really have one, but I've held onto one lego set most my life as it came out when I was 12.  I still have it like I said, and it has been on display for years on my shelf after picking up a few minor missing parts I lost over time, still have it's original manual too.

Black Seas Barracuda from the original series of Pirates sets.

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6285-1#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

[Foochie776 | 1,051]

Fort Legerado!

 

I still want it, so bad 

[RH | 4,889]

8 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Whats it worth now? I have one and really enjoy it. 

It looks like $150-160 if it's open/assembled but with box and about $300+ new.  This is one I'd actually like to open up new myself and build, so that $300 price point is way out of my range.  I'd settle for an open box, so long as the bags are sealed and the manual is in a new condition.  Even then, I'm guessing this would go for $200-250?  I'm not one to use BrickLink much, but it's current prices seem to be on-par with past eBay sales for this set.  IIRC, it retailed for around $70-90, so that's a steep increase for less than 10 years.

[a3quit4s | 4,090]

I only own one set the technic Bugatti, it is awesome. I should really buy the lambo but it’s been sold out every time I check. 

[RH | 4,889]

1 hour ago, a3quit4s said:

I only own one set the technic Bugatti, it is awesome. I should really buy the lambo but it’s been sold out every time I check. 

I was never a Technics fan, even as a kid, because I felt like those lego were just getting to be to "fancy" and straying away from being real lego.  But, I have to say, those sports cars are amazing.  They've almost won me over.

[Startyde | 175]

This is pure sex if you were an 80's kid. 

[RH | 4,889]

36 minutes ago, Startyde said:

This is pure sex if you were an 80's kid. 

Ooooh, I remember that.  I can't recall where I saw one in person.  Possibly Target, but maybe a Lego shop (I've only been to two maybe 2-3 times in my life) but I remember very-irrationally wanting that thing when my oldest kid had barely upgraded past Duplo.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

The LEGO replica of the Dark World overworld from Link to the Past I built as a kid that I worked on for weeks on end until my mom so rudely packed it all up back in one of my LEGO bins without even asking me if that was OK with me no I'm not still to this day bitter about that what are you talking about

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

I spent a recent visit to my mom's house rebuilding all of my old castle sets with my kids.

I had both of the "big" castles from the flat-baseplate days (crusaders and black knights) as well as a couple of the big forest-men sets, and a lot of little sets in between.

Incredibly, my mom had saved all of the instruction manuals as well as the box for Black Knight's Castle, and we ended up only missing maybe 8 parts total (already ordered them from Bricklink to finish it out).

 

The look of awe on my kids faces seeing those castles come together and open up... and then plug together with the technic studs was just great.

 

 

About a week ago we finally built, as a family, the Saturn V that I've had sitting in a closet.

I'm still waiting for them to be a year or two older before we break out Voltron, though.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

On 7/14/2020 at 10:02 AM, RH said:

  It only went up in price from there and I learned my lesson.  If you want a LEGO set, get it, or don't cry when it becomes unaffordable.

 

Sage advice.

If you have a place to keep the boxes, LEGO are investment-grade

If you can afford it, and even remotely think you'll want it, almost always worth buying and tucking away for later, since the resale value is so strong.

 

Definitely kick myself for not going whole hog on the Ghostbusters and Scooby Doo sets.

[Brickman | 3,978]

3 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

If you have a place to keep the boxes, LEGO are investment-grade

This is my biggest problem. I have around 30 sets and I’m running out of room to display them and also store the boxes.
One trick someone recommended was to carefully cut the tape on both ends of the box and flat pack them. I think I will have to move to this method next, currently they’re packed like Russian dolls haha.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

11 hours ago, Shmup said:

This is my biggest problem. I have around 30 sets and I’m running out of room to display them and also store the boxes.
One trick someone recommended was to carefully cut the tape on both ends of the box and flat pack them. I think I will have to move to this method next, currently they’re packed like Russian dolls haha.

Yeah, back-in-the-day they tended to have rigid cardboard trays inside the big sets, but I've seen a move away from that, at least with the larger sets I've had lately.

But storing unopened LEGO is a better use of most hall closets than storing sheets and towels

[AstralSoul | 502]

I don't know if I have one specific set I want more than the others but the late 80s through the mid 90s was the time I collected Legos and I still maintain the opinion they were the best sets. They were original and had the most personality. The space sets in particular were my favorite before Star Wars came along and basically ruined it. 

Some favorite themes were Blacktron, Blacktron 2, M-Tron, Ice Planet, Spyrius, Unitron, Wild West, Islanders, Pirates, Dragon Masters, Wolfpack, Forestmen, and Black Knights. Among many others I had. I don't know if I'd say it's my #1 most wanted set but I never had the Unitron Monorail system and always wanted it. That's probably the biggest set I wanted but never had.

[Gloves | 11,759]

I don't like Legos. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

23 minutes ago, AstralSoul64 said:

I don't know if I'd say it's my #1 most wanted set but I never had the Unitron Monorail system and always wanted it. That's probably the biggest set I wanted but never had.

I found the old wishlist catalogs from that time, going through old stuff, and the pricing on that one was CRAZY for the time. 

$300 back when the BIG castle sets (Black Knight's Castle) were "only" $68.

In Today's dollars that is like buying the Death Star or the top-end Millennium Falcon.

[Estil | 1,261]

On a related note do any of you guys like the Puzz 3D's?  I got the US Capitol and the Empire State Building (which when I was little I thought was where all the umpires lived!  ) way back in the day and I'd love to some day have the rest of the Towers To Scale set (the Sears Tower is apparently a full yard (three feet) tall).  It would be so awesome if they'd ever do an Enterprise-D (from Star Trek Next Generation) but I don't see much of anything from Star Trek (my wife's a big time Trekkie, especially TNG).  Of course there's tons of Puzz 3D for all the Warkies out there  

[RH | 4,889]

On 6/19/2020 at 1:28 AM, 42 foot tapeworm said:

never played it. never gonna play it. i own a switch the only thing it does is play you tube.

 

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

I don't like Legos. 

IMHO, both of these sayings are just as unbelievable. How... how is this possible?