when i typed iconic, i mean it has to be well known, maybe continues to age well, considered impressive, maybe "break-thru" when introduced, etc...

 

my 10 in no particular order...

 

10181 Eiffel Tower - height

375 Yellow Castle - first castle

6080 King's Castle - from 1984. took 375 and improved upon it

10179 UCS Mill. Falcon - large and accurate.

10181 Death Star - playability and size

10189 Taj Mahal - total size

6390 Main Street - decent set when released in 1980

497 Galaxy Explorer - early space (guess here as i didn't collect space)

10182 Cafe Corner Street - 1st modular

700/1 Gift Package (1st locking brick set? 1949 to 1965 with some changes during that span)

 

i'm on the fence about...

4558 Metroliner (1st 9v train?).

Lego's first two Pirate ships ever from1989 (6274 Caribbean Clipper & 6285 Black Seas Barracuda)

10196 Grand Carousal - looks awesome and has PF built in

Hmm. Interesting. Why the batmobile? I was actually thinking about the first Batman 1 batcave for my list. That set did prove Lego can do superheroes

 

It was more of a personal choice. My first big lego set  We need to have more than the top 10 though. 10 is too little

1. Simpson House

2. UCS Imperial Shuttle

3. Parisian Restaurant

4. Imperial Flagship

5. Sopwith Camel

6. UCS Millennium Falcon

7. Unexpected Gathering

8. Tower of Orthanc

9. 10181 Death Star

10. Winter Village Cottage

Honorable mentions: Diagon Alley, Tower Bridge, Medieval Market Village, Taj Mahal, White House, Delorean

These are based off of my own build experiences, not future value predictions :)

Small Reminder...

when i typed iconic, i meant it has to be well known, maybe continues to age well, considered impressive, maybe "break-thru" when introduced, etc... It doesn't need to be a list of sets that you had the opportunity to own or build. For me, I've only build 2 sets on my list and one another.

Glad to see at least one person has the Imperial Flagship.

Glad to see at least one person has the Imperial Flagship.

I considered it for my "iconic" list. Decided against it for the original 2 Pirates ships. Tough call. The IF is awesome.

Looking at these lists and thinking back to my own, the 2000-2009 had many great sets. ...and this is despite the company near total downfall (2002/2003) in that same decade. One or the Friends sets should prob make the "iconic" list since it has been a successful break-thru for Lego.

I seriously doubt if anything produced since 2010 will be iconic as say, UCS Mill Falcon or the Taj. Depending on the lifespan, my best bets are prob the Sidney Opera house due it's size and striking sloped roofs and Super Star Destroyer (size) The Simpsons house is also an excellent attempt and had a 10198 feel. Wait.. I just remembered 10120 (VW T1 Van) as it's been very popular.

Here's my list.  It contains many already mentioned

 

10179 UCS MF

10030 UCS ISD

497  Galaxy Explorer

10189 Taj Mahal

6769 Fort Legoredo

10182 Cafe Corner

10225 R2-D2

CMF Series 1

6081 King's Mountain Fortress

3187 Butterfly Beauty Shop

1. UCS Millenium Falcon - Everyday of the week and twice on Sundays
2. Taj Mahal - Epic sized, iconic and awesome

3. Sydney Opera House/Statue of Liberty/Eiffel Tower - throw a blanket over these iconic landmarks, released at different times but certainly attractive
6. Cafe Corner - the first of the modulars but certainly has lead to further improvements in making building far more intricate and eye catching
7. UCS ISD - a geek's wet dream when it was initially released
8. Tower of Orthanc - a set that transcends into geekdom, massively tall and stunning. 

9. VW Campervan - a stunning rendition
10. Imperial Flagship - an amazing, highly sought after ship that is well detailed.

The hardest part for me was working out what to leave out. I could have easilly swapped in the Technic Tow Truck and Live Star somewhere but the Parisian Restaraunt, Green Grocer, Sopwith Camel, etc etc etc, (I can go on and on) would all deserve a place as it comes down to personal preference.  
 

Here is my Top 10 for sets that seem to be the most iconic or memorable for many.

• Haunted House
• Cafe Corner
• Sydney Opera House (the BIG one)
• Millennium Falcon
• Winter Village Toy Shop
• Butterfly Beauty Shop
• Castle (6075)
• Galaxy Explorer (497)
• Black Seas Barracuda
• Fort Legorado

Thanks Orc.

Hey veteran Brickpickers, I / we would like to hear your lists.

1. Giant chess set. 2. Taj mahal 3. Parisan restaurant 4. Pet shop 5. Haunted house

6. Grand emporium 7. Sea cow 8. Camper van 9. Millenium falcon 10. Green grocer

No particular order

1. Giant chess set. 2. Taj mahal 3. Parisan restaurant 4. Pet shop 5. Haunted house

6. Grand emporium 7. Sea cow 8. Camper van 9. Millenium falcon 10. Green grocer

No particular order

Nice list. Why the Sea Cow? It just arrived...

All time sets In order...

 

UCS Falcon

Cafe Corner

Greengrocer

Fire Brigade

Taj Mahal

Eiffel Tower

Tower Bridge

VW Beetle

VW Camper

Minecraft The Forest

 

 

New/current sets in order...

 

UCS Falcon Second Edition ? (I keep hearing rumours of this and there's no smoke without fire, this is why I offloaded my 10179 last year)

Grand Emporium

Superstar Destroyer

R2-D2

Petshop

Palace Cinema

Tower Bridge

VW Camper

Maersk Triple E

Mars Rover (I just can't stop ordering these!)

 

 

If the new UCS MF doesn't happen, everything else shifts up one place and Simpsons House goes 10th.

In random order:

Statue of Liberty because it was the first of the big landmarks

Taj Mahal

UCS Millenium Falcon

Cafe Corner because it started the modulars. Prefer Green Grocer because better interior though.

Green Grocer. Best modular in my book although Parisian Restaurant and Pet Shop come close.

Black Seas Barracuda. My favorite set as a kid although only my cousin had it. Did get the reissue though.

Emerald Night. Nicest train.

Tower Bridge.

Battle of Helm's Deep. I have tower of Orthanc too, and it's amazing. But Helm's Deep just depicts a better scene from the movie.

Nr. 10 undecided.Haunted House, camper van, another modular, Orthanc, all good candidates.

I tried to spread them out over a variety of themes. Here are the top ten iconic sets from my childhood to present day:

 

1. 6769 Fort Legoredo - Western

2. 5571 Giant Truck- Model Team

3. 10188 Death Star- Star Wars

4. 8880 Supercar- Technic

5. 6071 Forestmen's Crossing- Castle

6. 4558 Metroliner - Trains

7. 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase - Space

8. 10182 Cafe Corner - Modulars

9. 6285 Black Seas Barracuda - Pirates

10. 9474 The Battle of Helm's Deep- LOTR

 

I believe these to be the defining sets for each theme

Yellow Castle

Unexpected Gathering (the defining set of both LOTR and The Hobbit)

Black Seas Barracuda

UCS Falcon

VW Camper

Surface Patrol (6880...small but iconic)

Town House (6372...as far as I know one of the first houses for minifigures)

Haunted House

Fort Legoredo

41999 Crawler

I don't know if these sets are iconic for Lego as a whole, but they are iconic for me.  Some are from my childhood, some brought me out of my dark age.

 

1) Black Seas Barracuda - the first lego ship, still holds up today

2) Eldorado Fortress - Awesome looking fortress, very nice for the time, and I think it still looks great today.

3) Medieval Market Village - One of the sets that brought me out of my dark age, great to see more civilian castle sets.

4) 6990 Monorail Transport System - Made my Christmas one year, one of my prized sets and I still have it set up in my home 25 years later.

5) Black Monarch's Castle - One of the best of the older castles IMHO.  Nice colors, breaks the mold from the grey castles.

6) Haunted House - Unique theme, great build techniques, awesome display piece.

7) An Unexpected Gathering - One of the most iconic locations in LotR and Hobbit in Lego form.

8 ) 10210 Imperial Flagship - Another set that took me out of my dark age.  This thing is so detailed that most people don't realize it's Lego until they get up close to it.

9)  Camouflaged Outpost - One of the quinessential forestmen sets.

10) UCS Falcon - I don't own it, but I've seen it in person and it is massive, detailed, and accurate.  Shows what can be done with these little bricks and pieces.

 

Honorable mention:

9493 X-wing - There have been numerous variants done on this ship, but I think this one will stand out as a classic. Helps that it had a lifesize model built and displayed in times square.

Orthanc, Ewok Village, Modular Buildings... really any large Lego exclusive.  Lego saw the emerging adult market and starts to create large, expensive, detailed sets to appeal to that audience.

Next week sometime I'm going to take all the top 10 lists and produce a frequency graph of how often each set was picked, so we can get a meta-list of all opinions.  So if you haven't put in a list, have a go now. 

Galaxy explorer

Yellow castle

Townplan

UCS Falcon

Santa Fe train

Townhouses 1484

Market St

Blacksmith

VW Beetle

BTTF

In no specific order:

10228 Haunted House

10179 Millennium Falcon

10220 VW Camper Van

10237 Tower of Orthanc

10225 R2-D2

70810 MetalBeard's Sea Cow

10214 Tower Bridge

10188 Death Star

442009 Mobile Crane MK II

10221 Super Star Destroyer

In no particular order

 

Cafe Corner Street

Emerald Night

Market Street

Imperial Flagship

Medieval Market

Tower of Orthanc

Grand Carasol

Millennium Falcon

Death Star

Fort Legorado

I'm taking iconic to mean just that, as opposed to 'my favourite' or the ones I think were the best sets. Though I'll admit I am a little biased towards the ones from my youth, which I think was Lego's golden age (mid 70s to mid 80s). I'm not much of a fan of licensed themes or minifigs either to be honest. I guess younger folk would have less issues with licensed themes, it's the age we live in after all... but they're not really for me.

Weirdly I have nothing from the 80s in there, but I still think of Technic, Space and Town stuff to be more typically '80s' Lego than 70s, or at least that was when I was exposed to it.

 

So in order of release.... (yes, I have way too much time on my hands, but hey...it's Sunday haha).

 

 

3 Basic set (1973)

 

I think these 70s Basic sets are just classic Lego and really cemented it as a hugely popular toy. Every kid I knew had one of these sets in the late 70s. I'm picking 3 because it was my first big Lego set, but I think they're all great. Give a young child one of these sets today I'd bet they'd still get endless enjoyment from it.

 

 

 

390 1913 Cadillac (1975)

 

These old Hobby range vintage cars were the biz when I was very young, though a bit before my time. This was big boys Lego and maybe even Lego's first attempt at attracting older fans. I think they still have a great charm and look great on display.

 

 

 

853 Car Chassis (1977)

 

Arguably not even the best Technic car, but I think this was a big set for Lego, and the flagship of the first Technic range. Lots of people my age would have drooled over this set as kids. I vaguely remember a Lego TV commercial at the time in which this would make a brief appearance, and I would almost crap myself when it came on. A bit before my time again, I ended up getting 8860 which was also great.

 

 

 

600 Police Car (1978)

 

The first appearance of the iconic minifigure which we all love (or in my case hate haha. I never liked minifigs, even as a kid). I suppose the whole Lego Town range which followed was pretty iconic really.

 

 

 

497 Galaxy Explorer (1979)

 

The boss of the Classic Space range and starting to fetch mad prices these days. I wasn't really a huge Space fan as a kid but got a few smaller sets for the cool pieces. I mostly used it to try make crappy Millennium Falcons and X-Wings, as did a lot of kids at the time I suspect.

 

 

 

5571 Giant Truck (1996)

 

I think these Model Team sets were great, the most realistic Lego sets up to that point. The 90s and 00s were Lego free decades for me, but I would have loved this set as kid.

 

 

 

10030 Imperial Star Destroyer (2002)

 

Gotta have at least one Star Wars set in there and I think this one got a lot of older people back into Lego. Probably the only licensed theme I have any time for. If Lego Star Wars had been around in the early 80s, I may never have left the house.

 

 

 

10182 Cafe Corner (2007)

 

I don't know how anyone who likes Lego could not like the modulars, and I see these as being future classics. Cool building techniques, they look great and fun for all ages. Lots of Lego win in these.

 

 

 

10220 VW T1 Camper Van (2008)

 

I think this has been a very popular set and even people not into Lego think it's cool. I was torn between this and the Taj, but I'm putting this in as it's the first set I'd built in 30 years. It's an iconic vehicle and I think will be an iconic set in years to come.

 

 

 

21050 Studio Architecture (2013)

 

Lego getting back to what it does best and a surprise hit which I think resonated with a lot a lot of older people like me. No licensed theme or exclusive minifigs... just proper, old-skool Lego which encouraged people to use their imagination (which is what Lego used to be all about). It reminds me of the old 70s Basic sets, which kinda brings me full circle.

I think this one will become a bit of a cult classic in years to come, as will the other big Architecture sets. I wish it had been released in Europe too, but if anything it will just add to its cultish desirability, especially for us Europeans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tractor boy,

Great list. Yes, you hit the hammer on the nair's head with what "iconic" means.

Great list.

The only change I would have made was either the yellow or king's castle.

Tractorboy that was a great list. I love your thought process behind all of your choices, even if I may have replaced a couple, you should add a paragraph or two and release that as a blog. I was never able to get a Galaxy Explorer as a kid, I remember drooling over it while looking through the old catalogs that used to come with sets, by the time I was able to save enough cash to pick one up it dissapeared. Such is the way of things, not long after I started noticing girls and all my Lego was boxed up with the rest of my childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

Tractor boy,

Great list. Yes, you hit the hammer on the nair's head with what "iconic" means.

Great list.

The only change I would have made was either the yellow or king's castle.

Thanks! I actually had the 375 yellow castle in there funnily enough, but took it out for the VW Camper haha.

 

Yes, that was a great set too, one of my friends had it and it was a lot of fun.