The Best Star Wars Lego Sets in 2024 - IGN (2024)

For over two decades, the LEGO and Star Wars partnership has endured and thrived. It is nothing if not consistent; the sets are geared toward every skill level, from beginner to advanced, and all of the sets—even the most rudimentary—are reliably high-quality. The massive ship and droid replicas get the most press. But even the more idiosyncratic sets—like the movie dioramas, for example—still capture the look, feel, and whimsy of their inspirations.

TL;DR: The Best Star Wars LEGO Sets

• Droideka
• TIE Bomber
• Emperor's Throne Room Diorama
• AT-TE Walker
• Millennium Falcon
• Chewbacca
• TIE Interceptor
• R2-D2
• X-Wing Starfighter
• Mos Eisley Cantina
• Millennium Falcon
• AT-AT Walker

But LEGO is a costly hobby—one that requires a selective eye, so that only la crème de la crème makes it on your shopping list. Here are the Best LEGO Star Wars sets that you can buy in 2024.

Droideka

The Droideka are notoriously tough. In The Phantom Menace, two of these droids were able to hold off Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi by themselves and force the two Jedi to retreat. This replica has the droid's classic battle pose, and like in the movie, it can also roll into a ball for additional mobility.

TIE Bomber

The TIE Bomber is a sturdy little build with a good price for its piece count. It has two play mechanics—first, stud shooters in its front that allow you to shoot "lasers," and second, a hatch underneath the vehicle, which that allows you to drop a payload for four torpedoes onto unsuspecting rebel scum.

Emperor's Throne Room Diorama

Released in honor of Return of the Jedi's 40th anniversary, this diorama depicts the ending, climactic scene, where Luke and Vader do battle while the Emperor looks on, cackling evilly. The various Star Wars dioramas are all pretty detailed, but this one stands out due to its iconic symmetry. Other notable dioramas include the Endor Speeder Chase and the Mos Espa Podrace.

AT-TE Walker

The new AT-TE Walker (from Revenge of the Sith) looks exactly like what it is: a heavy artillery unit with a massive cannon. The model has room to seat seven Clone Troopers as they take on the Separatist droid army. Its sturdy, bottom-heavy design makes it excellent for play or display.

Millennium Falcon

Don't get us wrong. If you're a die-hard Star Wars fans with $800 to spare, then the massive 7541-piece Collector's Edition Millennium Falcon (Set #7541) is the one for you. But for the average person, the 1353-piece Falcon is more than wonderful, and it contains most of the bigger version's detail on a smaller scale. You still get a gun turret, a dejarik table, and a trap door, and you'll still have some money to buy a second set.

Check out our list of the best LEGO sets for adults for more options like this.

Chewbacca

Bigger and cuter than you'd think, this massive Chewbacca build is appropriately imposing, and it comes with a signature bowcaster. We built this set back when it launched, and we were impressed by how it used alternatingly colored bricks to create the illusion of musculature and fur.

TIE Interceptor

A complementing, proportionally sized companion to the X-Wing Starfighter (#75355), this TIE Interceptor featured in Return of the Jedi as a defender of the second Death Star. We built this set at its launch, and it is currently available exclusively through the LEGO Store.

R2-D2

I previewed and photographed the LEGO R2-D2 set. It was one of the most challenging build experiences I've had since I started this hobby. The end result, however, is worth the effort. Just keep track of the front and the back of the model, and you'll be fine. R2-D2 has a retractable third leg, a fully rotatable helmet, and a flexible structure that allows it to jiggle back and forth, Kenny Baker-style.

X-Wing Starfighter

We built the X-Wing in celebration of Star Wars Day (2023). It is—by a considerable stretch—the most detailed, intensive model of an X-Wing ever built. It is for display only; make sure you have at least two feet of shelf space to do it justice. It was the most fun we'd had building a set in months, and it comes highly recommended.

Mos Eisley Cantina

• Also at The LEGO Store

A "wretched hive of scum and villainy" indeed. This recreation of an iconic movie scene—a testament to the power of practical special effects, costuming, and makeup—is wonderful and comes up a whopping 21 mini-figures, including three members of the Cantina band, Greedo, Ponda Baba, the iconic bar patrons, and a massive Dewback that's hunting for two droids.

Millennium Falcon

LEGO sets usually have a short production lifespan; the old sets get retired to make way for new ones. But the massive Millennium Falcon, which weighs in at 7541 pieces and launched in 2017, is still going strong. It's constantly on backorder, and for good reason; it's a modern classic amongst the LEGO faithful. It comes with two crews—the original crew, with Han, Luke, and Leia, and the sequel crew, with old Han Solo, Rey, and Finn. And it's got fully realized interiors in addition to its articulable exterior. In 2017, back when this set launched, adult sets were the exception and not the rule. This was a groundbreaking testament to what LEGO could be. Today, with so many other sets that reach its level of complexity, it's a fulfilled example of what LEGO has become and one of the most expensive LEGO sets you can buy.

AT-AT Walker

And lastly, here's the best of the prohibitively expensive sets: a massive, 2 foot tall LEGO AT-AT Walker. Open the main compartment, and there's room for 40 minifigures—a platoon big enough to take down the Rebel base. There's even a co*ckpit and gun turret in the head. The entire model is articulable, but the LEGO AT-AT is definitely an adult build for posing rather than play. It is extremely imposing in person, sure to dominate any dwelling space it occupies.

How Many Star Wars LEGO Sets Are There?

There have been a lot of Star Wars LEGO sets over the years and more and more new options arrive every year. currently, there are a total of 64 LEGO Star Wars sets available at the LEGO store with options from pretty much every movie and show in the series.

Why Star Wars and LEGO is a Perfect Fit

Lots of times, when LEGO creates a set, it is an uncanny approximation of something real. The artistry is in making these bricks, rods, pins, and gears fit together and do something that perhaps, they weren't originally meant to do. But when it comes to Star Wars LEGO sets—especially the more massive ones—the vehicles and droids look unusually "native"—as if LEGO itself was conceived with Star Wars in mind. It's why the 4784-piece Imperial Star Destroyer looks more like a genuine Star Destroyer rather than a "LEGO" Star Destroyer.

This is part auspiciousness; the Star Wars universe is very angular, with clean lines that lend themselves to the LEGO aesthetic, And this also part effort; the designers put an outsized amount of time into "greebling"— the attention to micro surface detail that makes a monochromatic surface look layered, technically functional and interesting.

LEGO Star Wars sets, in other words, are in a class of their own.

Looking for more LEGO builds? Check out our roundup of the best LEGO Disney sets and the best LEGO Batman sets.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.