Our favorite Lego sets from 2024

Hundreds upon hundreds of Lego sets came out in 2024, across every setting imaginable - but we've picked out just three that gave us the biggest thrill that year - including a mix of magic, science, and science fiction.

If you like this sort of thing, make sure to read our guides to the biggest Lego sets and most expensive Lego sets ever made - as well as our favorite Lego sets for adults.

Our favorite Lego sets from 2024 are:

1. Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter
2. Lego Technic Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit
3. Hogwarts Castle Owlery 

1. Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter

We wrote about the sublime Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter back in October 2023 when it was first revealed, and the final product that arrived on February 1, 2024 was no less superb than we expected.

'Intricately detailed replicas of awesome vehicles from sci-fi universes' is a category of Lego products with a unique and intoxicating appeal to the type of nerds we have here at Wargamer, and seeing that category expand beyond Star Wars Lego sets is very pleasing indeed.

Frank Herbert's Dune series is foundational to all of modern science fiction - perhaps most evidently in the case of Warhammer 40k, which cribs a shocking amount from Dune's pages - and we think being able to build it in Lego is a wonderful thing.

There's an ever growing cadre of Dune board games to play now, and that's brilliant news. But big, DIY models will always bring something different and joyful to the table, and it's difficult to think of a better subject to start with than this bizarre yet beautiful, bug-winged aircraft.

The set - featuring eight posable insectoid wings, an opening cockpit canopy, and other doodads - came out exactly one month before Dune: Part Two (the second instalment in Denis Villeneuve's new movie adaptation) hits theaters. If you've got the cash to spare, it's one hell of a countepart for the movie.

2. Lego Technic Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit

The Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit Lego set made us grin for so many reasons.

When we were kids (that's the 1990s and early 2000s, by the way; Wargamer's staffed by millennials, get over it) one of the funkiest, shiniest new things in Lego was the concept of motorized, and even computer controlled sets. Nothing seemed more transcendently futuristic and thrilling, back then, than a model that you built, that would then come to life and move on its own.

Well, that was then and this is now. 'Cyber' is for stuffy old people; computers are boring because we've all got one in our pocket; and robots aren't harmless kids' toys any more - they're controlling our central heating, taking our jobs, and gearing up to end human civilization as we know it (probably, maybe).

So what kind of Lego Technic sets do those crazy Danes cook up to capture our childlike wonder and delight now? A goddamn hand-cranked orrery. A self-built plastic working model of the solar system. A 21st century reprise of the favored toy of 18th-century aristocrat scientists and sweaty, ancient Greek number-jugglers.

It's a glorious repudiation of the so-called high-tech information age, and - as journalists who primarily cover analogue games that'll still work after the Great Collapse happens - we're into that! 

3. Hogwarts Castle Owlery

First things first: feel free to ignore this entry if you don't want to buy Harry Potter products. We get it - Potter creator J.K. Rowling has made a large number of overtly transphobic remarks in recent years, and every sale of any officially licensed Potter paraphernalia (including Harry Potter lego sets) will almost certainly benefit her financially to some small degree.

If you don't want to do that, that's fair. If you'd rather make a donation to a trans charity, we can recommend the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.

We're not going to push you in one direction or the other, though - and we were quite taken with the 2024 Hogwarts Castle Owlery Lego set. That's partly because we think it's one of the canonical Hogwarts locations that the movies did a particularly good job bringing to life, aesthetically speaking. But, if we're honest, it's mostly about the owls.

This Lego set includes not two, not three, not four, not four and a half, but five entire Lego owls, including Ron Weasley's stupid tiny owl, Pigwidgeon, "for role-play fun", according to the official Lego store page. At Wargamer, we're something of an authority on role-play fun, and we have to say that, other than the DnD Owlin, the TTRPG space is generally pretty poorly served, owl-wise - so this is welcome news!

Still hungry for Lego? Try our guide to the best Lego board games, or perhaps our list of the rarest Lego minifigures in the world.