Dan in my team asked on Twitter for some recommendations for big build Lego under around £150 to stay occupied during COVID-19 self-isolation / quarantine.

Given his interests are space & Star Wars & buildings, and his preference was for something both fun to build and to display, I of course spiralled into a full evaluation of the stupidly large number of Lego sets I have built in recent years (having had a sudden realisation that I could now *afford* Lego!).

Here’s what I came up with…

TLDR

For if you just want my best pick at each price point (UK prices, but hopefully it’ll automagically take you to the right country store for you if you’re elsewhere):

• £65 new International Space Station
• £70 flappy shouty Porg
• £85 Passenger train £85 (30% off) super cool & radio controlled!
• £90 Harley Davidson Creator Expert
• £100 Slave I 20th anniversary edition £100 (10% off)
• £120 NASA Saturn V rocket is one of my favourite builds ever, repetitive but in that wonderfully meditative way [Amazon warehouse price]
• £150 stunningly pretty Kessell Run Millennium Falcon
  

The Fuller Story…

For recommendations from each category, and a few wildcards…

Star Wars

• Classic Millennium Falcon & Kessell Run Millennium Falcon is gorgeous too (these builds are pretty similar tho so I’d pick one rather than grab both); should be gettable for around £150 [sometimes cheaper from Lego direct]
• Slave I 20th anniversary edition £100 (10% off)
• The X-wings are all really good fun to build and clever in how the mechanisms work ~£90
• This Porg is really cool and when you push his tail he opens his mouth & flaps his wings ~£70
• The way BB-8’s little head bobbles in exactly the right way gave me a lot of joy, sadly quite pricey now I think because it’s no longer actively produced
• I haven’t built it yet, but I can only imagine this Yoda will be delightful too £78 (13% off)
• Darth Vader’s Castle set complete with a cute lil tie fighter ~£120

Space

aka the Lego in The Moon Meeting Room @MakingMonzo 😉

• NASA Saturn V rocket is one of my favourite builds ever, repetitive but in that meditative way [I’d go for the Amazon Warehouse option, ~£120]
• NASA Apollo Lunar Lander another really enjoyable build, might be cheaper from Lego direct, ~£85
• New International Space Station is eagerly anticipated on my to-build pile
• Deep Space Rocket & Mars Expedition set [On-callers built this at a social IIRC]

Cool Transport

• Passenger train £85 (30% off) super cool & radio controlled!
• Creator Expert Harley Davidson (@ellywilliams got me this for my birthday and I am super stoked to build it!)
• And in general other Creator Expert vehicles are all lovely complex rewarding builds

Nice Buildings

• Trafalgar Square £60 (25% off) detailed & complex like majority of the larger Lego Architecture sets
• Marvel Sanctum Sanctorum. Really fun build, loads of little action scenes, but looks expensive because no longer produced I think :-/ This Avengers Compound Battle is almost as good (though I’m probably still fondest of the Thor Ragnarok arena, not least because my wife realised I was having a tough time stuck at home injured whilst she was on a 6 week biz trip to Hong Kong and had it delivered to cheer me up 😍)
• Hogwarts Great Hall £85 (again Elly really enjoyed this one, and it fits together with others like the clocktower)

Wildcards

• I love the Creator 3-in-1s and I’m excited to build this Pirate Rollercoaster soon
• Other cheaper 3-in-1s that are also great include the Space Shuttle ~£50 and this Fast Racer (£27)

If you end up getting and building any of these, would love to know how you enjoy them, so let me know in a comment here or on Twitter yeah?