Top 10 LEGO trends of 2022

Remember when we spent our summer vacations and free time after school fiddling around with LEGO blocks, and sometimes painfully stepping on them with our feet? Fun times, right? But, LEGO is no more considered child’s play! Master builders, artists, and LEGO enthusiasts all over the world are creating impressive LEGO builds that’ll blow your minds away. They are a result of their hours of dedication, attention to detail, hard work, and creativity. They can be considered works of art, and I love scrolling through these creations, admiring them, and feeling an intense surge of satisfaction at their perfection. And, we’ve curated the best of the lot for you to drool and go gaga over!

1. The LEGO Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE

Using over 100,000 LEGO pieces, designer Ekow Nimako imagines the Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE a Ghanaian metropolis 1000 years in the future. This artwork is the centerpiece for his exhibition titled Building Black Civilizations and showcases details like nothing you have ever seen before, almost reminiscent of the Game of Thrones title sequence!

2. Planterior

Planterior keeps the shape and size of a traditional bulletin board and integrates a gardening system into its structure to bring greenery to any workspace. Describing Planterior’s inspiration in their own words, Dasol notes, “Due to the influence of fine dust and COVID-19, people, who do not have the opportunity to access plants outdoors, are increasingly putting plants into their homes…Home gardening and plant territories are gaining vitality [as a result].”

3. The LEGO DeLorean

Designed and built by LEGO creator Mr. Platinum using 2800 LEGO Technic pieces, this absolutely delightful mini replica of the DMC DeLorean from Back To The Future comes complete with a detailed exterior as well as interior, functioning doors, glowing lights, and a Bluetooth controller that lets you remotely drive the little car around! The LEGO DeLorean is a stunning MOC (My Own Creation) that boasts of functioning headlights and taillights, glowing pipes around the car’s periphery as well as on the inside, motorized doors that open on command to reveal the detailed interiors, and for good measure, repositionable tires that become horizontal to resemble the car flying through space and time.

4. The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery

The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery is a stunningly detailed little kinetic machine that doesn’t just replicate the movement of the earth and moon around the sun, it also factors in the earth’s axial tilt, tracks moon phases, demonstrate solar and lunar eclipses, and aims at being as astronomically accurate as possible. Made from a staggering 2303 pieces, the Sun Earth Moon Orrery uses 70 Technic gears to allow the cosmic bodies to move realistically and can either be manually controlled using a hand crank or electrically via an RC motor.

5. LEGO Animal Sculptures

Mitsuru Nikaido, a Kurashiki-based artist, makes sculptures of different animal species from LEGO building blocks. When constructing his sculptures, the Japanese LEGO enthusiast tends towards a cyberpunk aesthetic and gray-scale color palette to highlight his signature style. His varied collection includes LEGO sculptures of walruses, Huntsman spiders, crayfish, cicadas, triceratops, beetles, shoebills, and even microscopic water bears.

6. The LEGO Sony PlayStation 5 replica

The LEGO Sony PlayStation 5 replica is the brainchild of LEGO Master Builder Rolling Bricks, who submitted their project to the LEGO Ideas forum – a crowd-sourced initiative by LEGO to help creators make new designs with LEGO’s vast catalog of bricks. If accepted and appreciated by the LEGO Ideas community, the project gets the green signal from LEGO executives and turns from a fan-made design to a LEGO kit that people can actually buy off shelves and online stores. With 489 votes from the LEGO community, the PS5 replica still requires roughly 9,500 votes to be considered by the LEGO officials, although from the looks of it, it’s pretty easy to build one on your own, with a few simple brick shapes!

7. The LEGO M 1000 RR

The sizeable LEGO interpretation of the M 1000 RR measures a little under 18 inches long and 10 inches tall. The set is made up of 1,920 individual LEGO pieces which in itself will be a satisfying exercise to put together. This LEGO Technic set – the largest ever bike set – will be nirvana for model building enthusiasts and biking affectionate owing to the extent of realism that’s mirrored. There are functional intricate components, including the 4 piston engine, three-speed gearbox, steering wheel, upside-down fork with the rear swingarm suspension, and the dashboard with three display options. That’s further honed by the red, white and blue color scheme and iconic BMW branding, gold-colored drive chain, paddock stand, and a pit board for the genuine racing flair.

8. LEGO Homeware Collection

This entire collection is crafted from FSC-certified red oak, and each product is available in two variants – a soaped oak and a dark stained oak finish. Every product is almost a recreation of the original LEGO brick design. They’re like super-sized LEGO with light and dark alter egos! They are designed to scale and follow the original brick dimensions, hence they can even be stacked! The products mimick quite a few of the iconic LEGO elements – from the single stud to other easily recognizable pieces. And of course, all the items have been embellished with the iconic LEGO lettering! The full collection consists of a Wall Hanger Set (set of three), a picture frame, a book rack, two Desk Drawer options – 2×2 and 2×4.

9. The LEGO Ideas Antique Cash Register

Built to absolute stunning detail, the LEGO Ideas Antique Cash Register models itself directly on the National Cash Register Model 452 – a popular cashier’s machine from the 19th Century, designed and developed in Ohio at the start of the era of retail businesses. The LEGO variant, however, is the brainchild of a Master Builder who goes by the name of dimexart, and uses a whopping 2055 pieces to come together.

10. The LEGO Imperial Light Cruiser

The latest LEGO sets include the Moff Gideon’s Imperial Light Cruiser (which I’m surely going to add to the collection), Imperial Armored Marauder, and the bounty hunter Boba Fett’s Starship. The highlight of them all is the Imperial Light Cruiser (75315) which comes with a bridge (doubles as a handle for flying action), large spring-loaded shooters, and dual mini TIE Fighters. How could the LEGO set not have the main leads – that’s why it also comes with The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda minifigures along with the infamous villain Moff Gideon, Fennec Shand, Cara Dune, and the Dark Tropper too.