The Best Lego Sets for Kids of 2025
Top pick
A fold-up Murphy bed allows Liann plenty of room for her easels and her absurdly cute pet gecko. The many loose pieces in this set tend to scatter, though.
Nova’s bedroom is packed with computer equipment, a swiveling gaming chair, and a bed ramp for her dog, Pickles, which uses a wheelchair that Nova made.
2022 marked the 10-year anniversary of Lego Friends, the company’s successful line specifically marketed toward girls. The sets feature mini-dolls instead of minifigs and are character-driven, with an accompanying five-season animated series full of wholesome activities and gentle life lessons. The decade milestone coincided with Lego taking a deeper look at the franchise and where it should go: “The five characters that we had before had become really beloved by a lot of the audience, but they were also very stuck in their ways and we couldn’t change the fundamentals of who they were,” Fenella Charity, design director at Lego Group, told us. “As personalities, they were all outgoing. They were all really happy most of the time, and they were all always getting on. We felt like friendship needed to be more realistic.”
The new generation of Friends comprises a much more diverse bunch in terms of personality and physicality, with the goal being that more kids might recognize facets of themselves and their real-life friends as they play.
The company created three new skin tones for the mini-dolls, and one character, Liann, has ADHD. Another, Paisley, struggles with anxiety. “We have a huge point of view around how our product supports and enables and empowers kids with neurodiversity,” Carolina Teixiera, Lego’s global brand director of diversity and inclusion, told us.
Because the relaunched line is so heavily character-driven, we selected two of the bedroom playsets for this guide since they’re designed to be reflections of the inhabitants’ personalities. And at $20 each, they also reflect lower pricing. The Liann’s Room set is full of easels and paintings, and it has a Murphy bed hidden behind a bookshelf, a terrarium for her pet gecko, and a skateboard. The set includes her best friend, Autumn, who has a limb difference.
Nova is a coder and online gamer who has 500,000 followers but struggles with feeling awkward in real-life scenarios. The Nova’s Room set features an impressive gaming setup with multiple monitors, along with a ramp leading up to her bed for her dog, Pickles. The pup moves with a wheelchair that Nova designed herself using her engineering skills. Nova’s included friend is Zac, an African-French kid whose varied interests include anime, fashion, and mountain biking.
These sets are recommended for ages 6 and up, but our 5-year-old tester needed only minimal building help from her parent. Tough spots included constructing a sliding wall and snapping some windowpanes into place in Nova’s room, as well as swapping out Pickle’s wheelchair wheels for a different color. When our tester thought that she had misplaced Autumn’s hand after the unboxing, it sparked a clear and easy conversation between parent and child about limb differences.
Liann’s Room
Recommended ages: 6 and up
Tester age: 5
Pieces: 204
Flaws but not dealbreakers: The Liann’s Room set comes with a lot more loose pieces, such as easels and paintbrushes, so things tend to get a bit scattered during playtime. But perhaps this is a deliberate design choice; Liann is a creative person, and some studies have shown a link between messiness and creativity.
Nova’s Room
Recommended ages: 6 and up
Tester age: 5
Pieces: 179
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Our tester wished that Zac had a spinning chair that matched Nova’s so that they could play games together, and also wanted to have a cat along with the dog. (“Because I really like cats.”)
