There are a few clear-cut contenders for the best LEGO set of 2025, but don’t overlook these 10 underrated releases from the past 12 months.
Not every LEGO set gets the same platform when it’s revealed – some are buried between tens or dozens of others – and even those that are given a moment in the limelight may not appear so glamorous at first glance. Within each of those cases though there are some genuine gems that you could well have overlooked in 2025.
So as much as anything, here’s a reminder that they exist – and, if you have already taken a cursory glance and dismissed them, a reason or two why they’re worth reconsidering within the wider context of the 2025 portfolio.
10 – 31170 Pink Flamingo
This relatively small Creator 3-in-1 set may not be as instantly eye-catching as some of the theme’s more majestic animals, but 31170 Pink Flamingo is worth a look-in not only for its affordable price tag, but also its funky colour scheme and its interesting alternate builds. The flamingo is matched beat-for-beat by the cockatoo and axolotl, so that this ends up being one of those great Creator 3-in-1 sets you’ll want to buy three times. Good thing it’s cheap.
9 – 76976 Spinosaurus & Quetzalcoatlus Air Mission
While Jurassic World: Rebirth may not have arrived to the critical reception the filmmakers were surely hoping for, it did do solid numbers at the box office – and its tie-in wave of LEGO sets were actually pretty good, at least as sets dictated by the budgets of their giant moulded dinosaurs go.
8 – 40824 Sweetheart Tweety Bird
The LEGO Group has just revealed another Looney Tunes-inspired seasonal build for 2026 in the form of 40920 Bugs Bunny, and that’s as good a reason as any to give 40824 Sweetheart Tweety Bird another look. This 412-piece buildable character is a LEGO Store exclusive themed around Valentine’s Day, and as a collision of seasonal sets and licensing it’s not only something unique and interesting but also fairly reasonably priced.
7 – 42642 Friendship Movie Night
LEGO Friends continues to knock it out of the park on the whole year-on-year, and 2025 was no different. There are plenty of these sets you should give a second chance even if you’re not into mini-dolls, but if you just want to dip your toe in the Friends pool there are worse places to start than 42642 Friendship Movie Night. It’s one of the cheapest sets ever to include a light brick, and the outdoor cinema would drop very nicely into a wider LEGO city setup.
6 – 77241 2 Fast 2 Furious Honda S2000
All eyes were on Formula 1 in the world of LEGO Speed Champions in the first half of 2025, so our first taste of something more traditional came in June with 77241 2 Fast 2 Furious Honda S2000. But even this was an outlier of sorts, returning to the well of movie-based cars a year and a half after Brian’s Nissan Skyline – yet Suki’s Honda proved to be another home run for the theme, not least for being its first pink car.
5 – 31216 Keith Haring – Dancing Figures
Is LEGO Art the most daring theme around right now? It’s certainly one that refuses to stay in one lane, which is ironic given that most of its early output focused squarely on mosaics. Its evolution over the past few years has brought us some very cool display pieces, though, and while 31215 Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers rightly gets the plaudits in 2025, there’s a lot to be said for
4 – 60459 Airplane vs. Hospital Bed Race Car Pack
The smallest of LEGO sets tend to be forgotten about (except when you’re trying to pad out an order for a gift-with-purchase), and that’s especially true when it comes to the LEGO Group’s in-house themes. But City is great at bringing us cute, quirky and – most importantly – fun sets that remind us why we all gravitated to LEGO as kids in the first place, and
3 – 75428 Battle Droid with STAP
As Rob pointed out recently, 75428 Battle Droid with STAP stands to be one of 2025’s most overlooked LEGO Star Wars sets. That’s thanks not only to a price tag that’s hard to reckon with, but also its release in the middle of July (outside the usual January, May and August waves) and its random scaling (it’s not compatible with other recent buildable droids). For all that, though, it’s still an excellent build – particularly the droid half of the set – that definitely feels underrated among the wider portfolio.
2 – 71495 Mateo vs. Cyber Brain Mech
LEGO DREAMZzz risks being overlooked in general, but do so at your own peril because it’s dropped some real bangers lately (and more are coming in 2026). From this year’s selection we’re pretty fond of 71495 Mateo vs. Cyber Brain Mech, because while mechs are ten a penny in LEGO in general, this one does some interesting things with both its aesthetic and build techniques to make it stand out from the pack.
1 – 76300 Arkham Asylum
When 76300 Arkham Asylum was first rumoured, plenty of us were hoping it wouldn’t be confined to a single 32x32 baseplate and the restrictions of a modular building. So when it was revealed, the initial reaction was a bit deflating: here was a cramped take on the Gotham City building that suffered from the same limitations as 2024’s 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion, with a greatest hits minifigure line-up we’d mostly seen before.
But take a closer look and the finer points of this LEGO Batman set begin to come to the fore. There are small design touches from top to bottom that, together with the minifigures, really help to bring the entire scene to life. The architecture is still a notch above the X-Mansion even if it’s not on the same level as regular modular buildings. And anyone new to LEGO DC will surely be satisfied by the character line-up, which only really omits Two-Face (and perhaps Batgirl).
If you haven’t already, give Arkham another chance – or any of the sets on this list, because in one way or another they should all be on more fans’ radars as 2025 comes to a close.
Check out all of our reflections on 2025 in LEGO here, from the most expensive sets to our favourites of the year.
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