The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Hello, my fellow LEGO fans! How are you? How’s life?

Good? Great? Awesome!

Today is the last blog about the BEST LEGO SETS EVER!!!

If you haven’t been following along, I searched the internet looking for which LEGO sets are considered the best. I found many lists on many websites and along with checking a couple forums I determined a top 10. This top 10 was determined by the sets that were most often found on these lists.

3 weeks ago I said 10188 Death Star was #1 because it appeared on almost every list I saw and was usually at or near the top.

2 weeks ago I rounded out the top 3 with 10189 Taj Mahal and 10179 Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon.

Last week I gave you 3 more sets in my top 10: 6285-1 Black Seas Barracuda, 10237 The Tower of Orthanc, and 7783 The Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freeze's Invasion.

Finally, I have the last 4 sets from my Top 10 LEGO sets ever. These aren’t necessarily the bottom 4, they’re just the last 4 I’m mentioning. I have no specific order for this list except for the #1 spot.

And here they are, in no particular order.

6085 Black Monarch’s Castle

Black Monarch's Castle contains a large castle, four horses and twelve minifigures, including four knights on horseback, four archers and four guards. There are 695 pieces and it was designated for ages 8-12. It was released in 1988 and sold for $68.

It was released as part of the Castle theme, but under the specific Castle faction of Black Knights. The Black Knights “faction” ran from 1988-1994.The Castle theme, started in 1978 and still runs today, making it one of the core themes of LEGO. It is the 3^rd longest running theme. 

So what makes this set so awesome? Well I’ll let someone who actually has built it tell you. Here is a review from brickset.com:

If you like the castle theme, this is an essential set. I think one of the reasons that this set is liked so much is because of the large number of minifigs (12), a good amount of weapons (lots of swords, lances, bow and arrows, axes, and spears), and a super large amount of good classic bricks.

Overall, one of the greats, maybe the greatest, castle Lego has ever produced. Oh, I do hope they re-release this!

And that fan is not alone in his praise for this classic LEGO set. From 35 reviews on brickset.com, Black Monarch’s Castle averages 4.9 stars out of a possible 5. I also found it on 4 different "best" lists of LEGO sets.

The set has of course long since retired, but it is available on ebay for $172. Might want to grab that quick because if you want to buy it new, Amazon is selling it for $2,447.84…plus $4.99 for shipping. But there are also a few cheaper options if you’re okay with buying used.

To see the castle and its knights in action, check out this stop motion video of the build and some play action:

10185 Green Grocer

Green Grocer was released in 2008 as part of the Modular Buildings sub-theme of the Creator theme. It has 2,352 pieces and 4 minifigures. It sold for $149.99

The Creator theme has been around since 2001 and is focused on the creative construction of System parts as opposed to playability functions of minifigures as in most other themes. The sets are typically based on buildings, cars, or creatures.

The Modular Buildings sub-theme was started in 2007 and features large, detailed, connectable, buildings, aimed at adult fans of LEGO. To date there have been nine sets ranging from fire houses to town halls.

LEGO’s Description:

Expand your LEGO neighborhood or start a new one with the Green Grocer! Designed in a modular style, this colorful and lively building features a grocery store and classic apartments that can be built, rebuilt and rearranged to suit your own LEGO town. Detailed architecture includes realistic interior, courtyard access, a roof terrace and fire escape, lots of windows and doors, and much more!

• Build a street layout by combining Green Grocer with 10190 Market Street and 10182 Café Corner!
• Top 3 floors lift off to reveal inner rooms!
• Grocery store features a blue and white awning, cash register, bins for bread, vegetables and fruit, refrigerator and tiled floor!
• Apartments have lots of details like bay windows, fireplace with tools, grandfather clock and windows that open to the fire escape!
• Stairs lead up to the apartments and to the roof terrace!
• Roof terrace has chairs, umbrellas, grill and flowers!
• Check the mailboxes for letters!
• Fire escape ladders move up and down!
• Access the courtyard behind the building!
• Street features lampost, fire hydrant and light fixtures!
• Includes 4 townspeople minifigures, plus a cat and rat!
• Measures 14" high and 10" wide!

They seem very excited about the rat. Here is what a fan from brickset.com was excited about:

I got this set for Christmas as a gift from my parents. I love the detail from the fridge to the fire escape. Everywhere there is detail. One my biggest pet peeve with Lego is that they make these nice kits and models but they don’t last very long or they fall apart and pieces disappear. But like its counterpart this set is extremely well put together and looks great next to my café corner. This set also introduces us to even more innovated building ideas that I never used before. It was a challenge to build as well as time consuming I wouldn’t recommend it for younger children to build alone due to the massive amount of pieces and time that is required.

This set had 29 glowing reviews on brickset.com and was featured in 5 different “best” LEGO set lists I found. You can get it on Amazon starting at $899.99. You can get it new on ebay for $1300.

Here’s a fun stop-motion video of the build:

4842 Hogwarts Castle

The fourth LEGO version of Hogwarts Castle was released in 2010 for $129.99. It contains 1,290 pieces and 11 minifigures.

LEGO’s Description:

The Dementors have the Hogwarts™ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry surrounded, and an epic battle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort is looming! Harry and Dumbledore face He Who Must Not Be Named while Professors McGonagall and Flitwick try to keep the school safe. Explore this essential Harry Potter set to discover incredible details like Dumbledore’s office with sliding spiral staircase, the Slytherin and Gryffindor common rooms, and so much more!

Includes Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and 9 minifigures exclusive to this set: Lord Voldemort, Professor Dumbledore™, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Argus Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris and 2 Dementors

• Dumbledores office features the Sorting Hat, Gryffindor’s Sword, a Basilisk fang and secret sliding stairs
• Gryffindor common room features fireplace with Sirius Black’s face
• Tom Riddle’s book hidden in the knight’s armor
• Restricted section of the library included
• Astronomy Tower and Vanishing Cabinet
• Great Hall decorated with Slytherin and Gryffindor colors
• Other thrilling pieces include a vanishing cabinet, sliding stairs, and the Great Hall.

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I of course love the idea of this set. Me want!

The one humongous disappointment with this set for me is that it does not have a Ron Weasley minifigure.

W. T. F. you guys!!!! How is that even possible?? There are 2 dementors, but no Ron?? Argus Filch and his stupid cat, but no Ron???

It’s a travesty!

But anyway, let’s see what people actually liked about this set.

Ebay made a list of the Top 7 LEGO Sets of All Time and listed Hogwarts at #1. Here’s what they said:

This is the fourth version of the Hogwarts Castle from one of the most successful movie franchises of all time. This version of the castle incorporates elements from all of the movies in the series as opposed to focusing on the movie most recently released. It is also the most intricate, detailed, and developed version available. The castle is comprised of four areas, the Common Rooms, the Astronomy Tower, the Great Hall, and Dumbledore's Office.

Cultofmac.com had this set on its list of “Gorgeous LEGO sets” and said this:

There are four different incarnations of Harry Potter‘s Hogwarts Castle, but the best is the fourth version, which ups the painstaking detail to previously unimaginable levels. Essentially, it combines the best things about the first three versions of the Hogwarts sets — while coming with a superbly generous 11 minifigs.

It’s on eBay for $350 and Amazon for $624.99.

Here is a video review of the set:

6990 Monorail Transport System

Monorail Transport System is a Futuron set released in 1987. It contains a Monorail track with two way stations and a train, a small cargo spacecraft, two containers and five Futuron astronaut minifigures. (Three yellow astronauts and two blue astronauts). It has 731 pieces. It sold for $155 and was designed for ages 8-12.

Futuron was a subtheme of LEGO Space released between 1987 and 1990. The theme concerned a group of peaceful civilian space explorers that competed against the astronauts from Blacktron.

Space is a science fiction-based theme introduced in 1978 featuring Astronauts, aliens, robots, and spaceships. It is one of the most expansive themes in LEGO's history, and contains over 362 individual sets. Space, along with Town and Castle are the core themes and have been running constantly for over 35 years.

I found it on 4 different “best” set lists. It averages 5 stars on brickset.com with 13 reviews. Here is what one fan had to say about 6990:

Simply fantastic. A fully functional space monorail and two bases in one set. Great play features without having to resort to silly things like flick-fire missiles. The train transports a crate of materials to the lower base, which opens up via a hand crank to accept the cargo. A smaller manned transport is included to take the crate off to its final destination. The upper base includes several computer terminals, and a working lift to load more cargo onto the monorail. Radar dishes are attached to the side of the track to further flesh out the base.

I know 1987 seems like a long time ago to you youngins, but they could do some pretty cool stuff with LEGO sets back then. (FYI, 1987 was before I was born, so I’m super young and cool too.)

Check out how the Monorail Transport System works in this video:

Despite its age, you can find 6990 on Amazon right now for about $450. I also found it on eBay for $400.

And that's my top 10 LEGO sets ever! Totally unofficial, but I think all 10 are special, whether or not you think they are the best ever. 

So for the last time, what are your favorite LEGO sets? Do you own any of the ones I talked about?

Here are some other LEGO sets that I found to be very popular, but didn't make it to the top 10:

Town Plan

Medieval Market Village

Back to the Future Delorean

Imperial Flagship

Imperial Shuttle

Grand Carousel

Tower Bridge

Walking AT-AT

Technic Grand Prix Racer

And that's my look at the best LEGO sets of all time.

Until next time............................I have some pretty big news. Any guesses???

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*