Welcome to the July 2021 edition of Power Rankings! July was a slightly quieter month in the LEGO world with releases, but it was certainly not without drama and controversy!
After the flurry of new June launches, we had a bit of a reprieve, with only the 10282 Adidas Superstar, Frozen Castle and 21328 Seinfeld being the major exclusive releases in the month.
That said, we did get a whole ton of awesome new announcements and reveals such as the UCS Republic Gunship, Volkswagen T2 Camper Van, Marvel Minifigures Series and more!
To help you catch up on all the LEGO news and headlines you may have missed here’s a handy recap of all the news, reviews from this blog, and the broader LEGO Fan Media Community.
If you want to catch up on previous Power Rankings, check out June, May, April, March, February and January 2021 Power Rankings to get up to speed on highlights from the first 6 months of 2021.
July 2021 LEGO Power Rankings
Unlike June’s Power rankings which saw quite a lot of movement from the massive debut of new sets released, July’s Power Rankings have so far remained the same, as I didn’t think July’s new releases were worthy of cracking the Top 10.
I may sneak the Frozen Castle into the list once I finish building it but we’ll see in coming months.
With the Top 10 of 2021 more or less congealing and firming up, I’ve also introduced a new Top 10, this time for sets under the US$50 price-point, which I think belong in their own category.
Top 10 LEGO sets as of July 2021
- 21326 Winnie the Pooh [Review] [Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★]
- 10281 Bonsai Tree
- 80107 Spring Lantern Festival [Review] [Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★]
- 40516 Everyone is Awesome [Review] [Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★]
- 21327 Typewriter
- 21325 Medieval Blacksmith
- 76178 Daily Bugle
- 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery
- 71741 Ninjago City Gardens
- 31120 Medieval Castle [Review] [Rating: 4/5 ★★★★★]
Top 10 LEGO below US$50 as of July 2021
- 10281 Bonsai Tree
- 40516 Everyone is Awesome [Review] [Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★]
- 10280 Flower Bouquet
- 31117 Space Shuttle Adventure
- 71747 The Keepers’ Village [Review] [Rating: 4/5 ★★★★✰]
- 76188 Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile [Review] [Rating: 3/5 ★★★✰✰]
- 75305 Scout Trooper Helmet [Review] [Rating: 4/5 ★★★★✰]
- 31116 Safari Wildlife Tree House
- 80200 White Dragon Horse Jet
- Harry Potter Moments Books
Putting the top 10 under US$50 was a lot of fun, but also a lot more challenging than I expected as there are quite a lot of great display and playsets at this pricepoint.
I also think this under US$50 price point is a really important one for LEGO as not everyone can afford to drop a couple of hundred dollars each month on the latest and greatest.
I’ll be adding to this list and the rankings will shift as new sets get released or if I change my mind, and they’ll be updated in tandem with the primary Top 10 LEGO Power Rankings list.
What are Power Rankings?
Essentially, they’re commonly used in sports leagues like the NBA to track and compare the best/worst performing teams, often changing weekly based on results and how teams play.
I often get asked via email or on social media what the best sets of the (insert current) year/month are, and I usually rattle off what I personally like, so to start 2021, I’ve decided to start a regular series where I track and rank what the best 10 LEGO sets are at the end of each month.
This isn’t meant to be scientific or data-driven (some of these I haven’t personally built/own yet) – just my personal opinion of what I think are the best LEGO sets of 2021!
Of course, for a more comprehensive evaluation of LEGO sets, you can read my LEGO reviews for more detailed opinions. For sets that I’ve reviewed, I’ll also include the scores next to the power rankings, but it’s quite unlikely that I’ll get to review every amazing set of 2021 – I sometimes build and miss out reviewing due to time/scheduling issues.
The Extra Pieces Podcast is back for Season 2!
The Extra Pieces podcast (hosted by yours truly and Richard from the Rambling Brick) is back for Season 2!
In Season 2, we catch up on all the great sets we’ve had the pleasure of building and reviewing such as the UCS Republic Gunship, Brickheadz Pets and also chat about the demise of LEGO Vidiyo!
To listen to the Extra Pieces podcast, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts from:
For everyone that has subscribed and been listening, thank you so much! If I could ask you for a huge favour – if you’ve been enjoying the podcasts, do consider leaving us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! That would be super helpful to help improve our discoverability!
Notable LEGO headlines – July 2021
The major news stories in July was of course the botched Bricklink Designer Program launch, where only the Castle in the Forest set sell out almost immediately due to the lack of purchase, but the rest of the sets too. What also caught fans off guard was glitches, and also the fact that there were regional caps for sets, and not every country got to order them.
Thankfully, the negative feedback got addressed quickly, with a second round set for August, sans Castle – which everyone wanted.
Secondly, we also got confirmation that LEGO Vidiyo would go on hiatus, as LEGO and Universal look to reset the theme, and do a post-mortem of what exactly went wrong with the lacklustre augmented-reality meets TikTok theme.
Lastly, another odd occurrence was that brief moment when the blog’s comments section got overrun by pro-gun Americans who were frothing at LEGO’s swift condemnation of an American company selling a LEGO glock customisation kit. Never had to deal with gun nuts in the comments before, and I hope I never will again – that was a strange week.
- LEGO 10290 Pickup Truck revealed!
- Spoiler Warning! New LEGO Spider-man No Way Home, New Asgard, and What-If sets revealed!
- First look at new LEGO Technic sets coming in August & October 2021!
- Missed out on Bricklink Designer Program? The sets were limited by design (RLFM Days 2021)
- LEGO Seinfeld (21328) officially revealed!
- Bricklink Designer Program Update: More sets* to be released
- List of LEGO sets retiring soon [Updated July 2021)
- Summer vibes abound with LEGO’s Volkswagen T2 Camper Van (10279)
- “Completely abhorrent” LEGO slams American firearms customiser for LEGO glock
- First look at LEGO 75309 UCS Republic Gunship, which bears an unfortunate printing error
- The Incomplete Saga – What’s Up With LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga?
- LEGO Vidiyo in its current form is dead. RIP L.L.A.M.A
- LEGO Marvel Minifigures Series revealed featuring characters from Loki, Wandavision and What If!
- LEGO Star Wars The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge (75319) officially revealed!
- An interview with LEGO Minifigures team Astrid Graabæk and Mark Tranter (RLFM Days 2021)
July 2021 LEGO Reviews
- Review: LEGO Brickheadz Pets Ginger Tabby, Cockatiel, Hamster (40480, 40481, 40482) – 11 July
- Review: LEGO 76200 Bro Thor’s New Asgard – 14 July
- Review: LEGO 75309 UCS Republic Gunship – 19 July
- LEGO at the Olympics – Revisiting the Team GB Minifigures for Tokyo 2020 – 23 July
- Review: LEGO 40492 La Catrina “Day of the Dead” Brickheadz – 31 July
Interesting LEGO articles and videos from across the web you should check out
- Raised baseplates: a short history of CRAPP – Brickset
- Yellow LEGO Minifigs Excludes Not Includes – Shytimeismytime (Youtube)
- LEGO®: Builder’s Journey [Review] – The Rambling Brick
- Chinese man builds Beijing’s Forbidden City using 700,000 Lego bricks – South China Morning Post (Youtube)
- LEGO Masters heads to China – Variety
- LEGO Ideas Bicycle – Sleepycow (designer of the Ideas Piano)
- LEGO brick dimensions and units – Tips and Bricks
- Why do LEGO sets have stickers instead of printed parts [Feature] – The Brothers Brick
- LEGO MINECRAFT CRAFTING TABLE TUTORIAL – Tiago Catarino (Youtube)
- Lego Barn Find VW Beetle Herbie MOC – hachiroku (Youtube)
Read July 2021 LEGO reviews
It’s been a busy month for reviews! In case you missed anything, check out all sets I’ve reviewed in July 2021 below!
Thanks again to everyone who has participated in the conversation, on the blog, Facebook, Instagram and my Youtube channel.
If you enjoy my work, please feel free to Buy Me a Coffee!
Trying to pick a Top 10 in the sub $50 category – that’s always going to be tough!
No Brickheads though ? No Love for Pets or Pandas ? Be keen to see if La Catrina can squeeze in there next month.
Glad you have expanded the scope as I love this part of the blog.
Yeah, I have the niggling feeling that I’ve missed out a few great ones.
Brickheadz are a tough one as they’re pretty niche, and I try to keep these lists as generic as possible, but La Catrina is 100% going to make it in next month. There’s going to be quite a lot of movement with Bro Thor, La Catrina and even the new Slave 1!
The under-$50 is SO important for LEGO: not just because tht’s far more likely to be quick-decision/affordable land for adults (in USD, I rarely buy anything over $40 without significant pondering, and infrequently), but that’s a realistic ceiling on a kid’s spend-abilty. Granted, they’ll beg or save for some exceptionals, but kids’ individual spending means are generally limited.
Yup, and I also like how they’re really quick builds that you don’t have to invest much time or space into.
I’ve found myself really enjoying sub-$50 sets this year, and hope we get more Adult-focused builds at this price range, instead of the usual hundred-dollar monstrosities!