Best and Worst year of Lego Star Wars?

[Darth_Bane13]

I'm curious to hear others thoughts on this. For me 2013 is the best year, the selection was great with prequels, clone wars, OT, Old republic, and this was before all the Disney stuff. The builds were also starting to get really good during this time, many still holding up to this day. Worst year is probably any of of the last few years, just not a fan of all the 18+ sets, Disney show sets, or the downscaled builds.

[Lordhelmet]

51 minutes ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I'm curious to hear others thoughts on this. For me 2013 is the best year, the selection was great with prequels, clone wars, OT, Old republic, and this was before all the Disney stuff. The builds were also starting to get really good during this time, many still holding up to this day. Worst year is probably any of of the last few years, just not a fan of all the 18+ sets, Disney show sets, or the downscaled builds.

2013 might be my favorite year for Lego.  LOTR was awesome, and Star Wars had a really good year, but I do think 2015/2016 with the rebels and rogue one sets were right there with 2013 for Star Wars.  Most of my favorite sets are from those years.

Least favorite - either early years (if I remove the nostalgia they are just not as good as modern sets) or this year. I am only interested in 3-4 sets this year.  Most years (since the modern style of minifigures) have 5-7 sets that interest me.

[TeddytheSpoon]

Ooh good question. Off the top of my head I was gonna say 2016 because of the Rogue One sets, but looking at it 2017 might have it beat. Some of my favourite sets - the Y-wing, Republic Fighter tank, UCS Snowspeeder - all came out that year. 2019 was pretty solid too but it's mostly carried by the anniversary sets.

I might come back to this once I've had a closer look at other years.

[CloneCommando99]

Best: either 2015, 2017 or 2022

Worst: 2025

[CF Mitch]

For me, the best year is probably 2013 as well.
Lot's of AotC sets and some more SWTOR sets, all of great quality back in that day  

Regards,
Mitch

[Darth_Bane13]

12 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

2013 might be my favorite year for Lego.  LOTR was awesome, and Star Wars had a really good year, but I do think 2015/2016 with the rebels and rogue one sets were right there with 2013 for Star Wars.  Most of my favorite sets are from those years.

Least favorite - either early years (if I remove the nostalgia they are just not as good as modern sets) or this year. I am only interested in 3-4 sets this year.  Most years (since the modern style of minifigures) have 5-7 sets that interest me.

Yeah I agree that 2013 was a great year for Lego as a whole

7 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Ooh good question. Off the top of my head I was gonna say 2016 because of the Rogue One sets, but looking at it 2017 might have it beat. Some of my favourite sets - the Y-wing, Republic Fighter tank, UCS Snowspeeder - all came out that year. 2019 was pretty solid too but it's mostly carried by the anniversary sets.

I might come back to this once I've had a closer look at other years.

All the Rogue one sets were really top quality

7 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Best: either 2015, 2017 or 2022

Worst: 2025

I might have to agree with this year being the worst, only reason I didn't pick it is because we still haven't seen all the sets.

[baublitz]

2013-ish, and anything with the clone wars era. So rare, so fun, so nostalgic.

[icm]

For me, the best years of LSW besides 1999-2001 are 2015-2019, and in particular 2018 and 2019. Because those were movie years, there was lots of new material for the sequels, but there was also very good coverage of OT and OT-adjacent sets like the Rogue One Y-wing and the Solo TIE. In 2018 we got the best OT X-wing and TIE fighter (OT design, though Solo movie) and in 2019 we got the best OT Millennium Falcon, Slave I, and Tantive IV. OK, the Falcon wasn't an OT set, but it just needed a minifigure swap, and you could conveniently get the OT Falcon crew in the Slave I and other smaller sets easily available in 2018-2020.

For me, the worst years were 2008-2013, because I wasn't very interested in the Clone Wars era at the time, and those years focused on TCW just like 2015-2019 focused on the ST and OT. So, one man's trash is another man's treasure, etc.

Apart from that, the last few years have been rough because of the declining quantity of playsets and increasing quantity of 18+ display sets in formats that don't really interest me, like buildable droids, logos, and helmets, while the playsets that remain are downsized and price-hiked. There have been some really good sets in the last few years, but the direction the theme has been taking doesn't please me.

Edits in bold.

Edited May 7 by icm

[Coryo]

2017 might be my favourite overall, I think that 2016-18 was probably the peak era for all the licensed themes, with the Harry Potter relaunch and Superheroes still getting effort put into it.

20 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Best: either 2015, 2017 or 2022

What pushes 2022 into being one of the best for you? It seems like that was when the flop era truly began

[CloneCommando99]

1 hour ago, Coryo said:

What pushes 2022 into being one of the best for you? It seems like that was when the flop era truly began

2020 Clone Wars and Cantina, 2021 Mando sets, and the very diverse waves of 2022 were all available meaning there was a wide variety of sets to choose from.

 

Before the dark times. Before the buildable characters.

Edited May 6 by CloneCommando99

[TeddytheSpoon]

37 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

2020 Clone Wars and Cantina, 2021 Mando sets, and the very diverse waves of 2022 were all available meaning there was a wide variety of sets to choose from.

 

Before the dark times. Before the buildable characters.

I agree, '21 in particular stood out as being a strong year now that I've looked back through them.

And man, they really cooked in 2015 too.

Worst is a bit difficult to judge, since a lot of the older sets are starting to show their age with the lack of parts and techniques we have now. But I'll say either 2008 or 2011. A lot of the early TCW sets just didn't really do it for me, and in 2011 virtually nothing interested me apart from the TPM sets. (And even then we've had far better Sith Infiltrators since.)

[Darth_Bane13]

15 hours ago, icm said:

For me, the best years of LSW besides 1999-2001 are 2015-2019, and in particular 2018 and 2019. Because those were movie years, there was lots of new material for the sequels, but there was also very good coverage of OT and OT-adjacent sets like the Rogue One Y-wing and the Solo TIE. In 2018 we got the best OT X-wing and TIE fighter (OT design, though Solo movie) and the best OT Millennium Falcon, Slave I, and Tantive IV. OK, the Falcon wasn't an OT set, but it just needed a minifigure swap, and you could conveniently get the OT Falcon crew in the Slave I and other smaller sets easily available in 2018-2020.

For me, the worst years were 2008-2013, because I wasn't very interested in the Clone Wars era at the time, and those years focused on TCW just like 2015-2019 focused on the OT. So, one man's trash is another man's treasure, etc.

Apart from that, the last few years have been rough because of the declining quantity of playsets and increasing quantity of 18+ display sets in formats that don't really interest me, like buildable droids, logos, and helmets, while the playsets that remain are downsized and price-hiked. There have been some really good sets in the last few years, but the direction the theme has been taking doesn't please me.

I definitely agree that the best OT sets were from 2015-2020, my problem with those years was that all the sequel and solo sets just didn't interest me.

 

12 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

I agree, '21 in particular stood out as being a strong year now that I've looked back through them.

And man, they really cooked in 2015 too.

Worst is a bit difficult to judge, since a lot of the older sets are starting to show their age with the lack of parts and techniques we have now. But I'll say either 2008 or 2011. A lot of the early TCW sets just didn't really do it for me, and in 2011 virtually nothing interested me apart from the TPM sets. (And even then we've had far better Sith Infiltrators since.)

In defense of 2011 it did have Anakin and Sebulbas podracers, super star destroyer, and a falcon with the whole OT crew. I sort of agree with 2008 though, a lot of those sets have much better remakes.

 

Interesting, seems like most answers here fall into the mid-late 2010s.

[TeddytheSpoon]

10 minutes ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

In defense of 2011 it did have Anakin and Sebulbas podracers, super star destroyer, and a falcon with the whole OT crew. I sort of agree with 2008 though, a lot of those sets have much better remakes.

Yeah, the podracers (even though I don't own them) and the Naboo Starfighter are the standouts that year for me. I'm not overly fussed by the SSD - good model, but it's just a big grey triangle. I did kinda skim over the Falcon though so that's a fair cop.

[Darth_Bane13]

6 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Yeah, the podracers (even though I don't own them) and the Naboo Starfighter are the standouts that year for me. I'm not overly fussed by the SSD - good model, but it's just a big grey triangle. I did kinda skim over the Falcon though so that's a fair cop.

There were also a lot of really obscure Clone Wars sets that year which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you like.

[ARC2149Nova]

My favorite year personally is 2009: best of the clone wars era sets, the first system-scale Tantive IV, debut of Ackbar, the Endor Commandos, and the Tauntaun, and the last OT TIE Advanced. 2010 was an excellent follow up, with the Hoth sets, my first LSW set ever (Luke's Landspeeder), the TIE Defender, ARC-170, Tri-Fighter, and Turbo Tank.

Objectively best? 2014-2015 had a great mixture of sets from all eras, solid new design style, both the sets themselves and the figures.

The worst? 2004. 2 straight rereleases and a bunch of minisets. The new sets were good for the time, however. But overall, not a strong year for LSW.

[Darth_Bane13]

2 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

My favorite year personally is 2009: best of the clone wars era sets, the first system-scale Tantive IV, debut of Ackbar, the Endor Commandos, and the Tauntaun, and the last OT TIE Advanced. 2010 was an excellent follow up, with the Hoth sets, my first LSW set ever (Luke's Landspeeder), the TIE Defender, ARC-170, Tri-Fighter, and Turbo Tank.

Objectively best? 2014-2015 had a great mixture of sets from all eras, solid new design style, both the sets themselves and the figures.

The worst? 2004. 2 straight rereleases and a bunch of minisets. The new sets were good for the time, however. But overall, not a strong year for LSW.

2009 is one of my favorite years as well, 2008-2014 was the golden age in my opinion.

[BrickBob Studpants]

As for the best, in no particular order:

• 2015: A lot of variety, great BPs, and then there was the amazing first TFA wave.
• 2018: They cooked with the two Solo waves, which are still among my favourites. Snoke‘s throne room and the Sandcrawler are other stand-outs.
• 2023: The Ahsoka sets alone make this a top-tier year for me. Love the dioramas and the TIE Bomber too!
• 2024: Saw, Cal, Nien, and the Mando S3 sets make it a top contender for me 
• 2022: The Scythe and the AT-TE are just fantastic sets, plus finally a Kaminoan, great Kenobi minifigs, the first Andor set, and much more!
• 2021: While I found the 1HY stuff to be lackluster, the 2HY wave was awesome, especially the Mando S2 and TCW S7 sets!
• 2012: Jabba‘s Palace, Gungan Sub, the Malevolence, the Senate‘s failed arrest, need I say more?

As for the weakest, I‘d say:

• 2004: I have fond memories of the Falcon and the Cantina with Greedo, but looking back, it’s pretty unimpressive otherwise.
• 2006: Not a bad year at all, but the waves were really small, and everything was redone much better later on (the same goes for 2001, but that had more of an excuse, being only the third year!)
• 2007: I have very fond memories of the summer wave especially, but man, that AT-ST was NOT good and some of the others have not aged so well either, like the Belville Hoth set, the Landing Craft, or the single-piece-winged Sith Infiltrator  Still a significant year for introducing BPs!

2025 is no longer anywhere near the „worst“ list thanks to recent developments HEY HEY!

[Darth_Bane13]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

As for the weakest, I‘d say:

• 2007: I have very fond memories of the summer wave especially, but man, that AT-ST was NOT good and some of the others have not aged so well either, like the Belville Hoth set, the Landing Craft, or the single-piece-winged Sith Infiltrator  Still a significant year for introducing BPs!

The MTT and Republic Cruiser from that year were so good though

[ArrowBricks]

I love all the years from 2008-2014, especially 2012-2014. 

I felt the theme lost its way a bit post around 2017, mainly due to the relative failure of the sequels. 

It picked back up again in 2020, before consolidating massively by 2022. 

I think it can go up a few notches, though. They need to get the figure design bang on, and stop cutting corners! Fatty Fortuna would never have happened during 2008-2014

Less downscales, better prices, reduce the amount of collectible and displayable models and replace them with with affordable yet highly detailed and playable sets and LEGO makes a ton. 

[Tariq j]

2008-2015 was like a golden age for the theme in my opinion but my favourite would probably be 2013 or 2015. 2015 had a great mix of sets - mainly from TFA and Rebels but we also has some great gems too like Slave 1,  the Shadow trooper BP, the Imperial Shuttle,, the Final Duel (which came with the new Vader piece), Anakin’s starfighter from the old CW series. It felt like there was something for everyone.

2013/2014 both had a good rosters of sets. I think it was also a great period because CW was winding down and Rebels didn’t start until late 2014. So it gave them a few waves revisit a lot of stuff they hadn’t done in a while. The focus on AOTC was appreciated given the film hadn’t seen many sets since 2002. I think it was also the last year we got any Old Republic stuff. 2014 also gave us the Cantina, the wheel bike and the Star Destroyer which again, we hadn’t seen for a good few years.

It’s hard to pick the worst. I don’t remember being really interested in many of the 2019 sets. But that’s mostly my preference rather than the quality of the sets themselves. I do think the Anniversary wave could have been a lot stronger. 

 

[Darth_Bane13]

1 hour ago, ArrowBricks said:

I love all the years from 2008-2014, especially 2012-2014. 

I felt the theme lost its way a bit post around 2017, mainly due to the relative failure of the sequels. 

It picked back up again in 2020, before consolidating massively by 2022. 

I think it can go up a few notches, though. They need to get the figure design bang on, and stop cutting corners! Fatty Fortuna would never have happened during 2008-2014

Less downscales, better prices, reduce the amount of collectible and displayable models and replace them with with affordable yet highly detailed and playable sets and LEGO makes a ton. 

I agree with this a lot. The figures from the past few years have been simultaneously more detailed but less accurate, arm printing has become more common but so has printing errors. I hope one day this theme can reach the highs of 2008-2014 again.

35 minutes ago, Tariq j said:

2008-2015 was like a golden age for the theme in my opinion but my favourite would probably be 2013 or 2015. 2015 had a great mix of sets - mainly from TFA and Rebels but we also has some great gems too like Slave 1,  the Shadow trooper BP, the Imperial Shuttle,, the Final Duel (which came with the new Vader piece), Anakin’s starfighter from the old CW series. It felt like there was something for everyone.

2013/2014 both had a good rosters of sets. I think it was also a great period because CW was winding down and Rebels didn’t start until late 2014. So it gave them a few waves revisit a lot of stuff they hadn’t done in a while. The focus on AOTC was appreciated given the film hadn’t seen many sets since 2002. I think it was also the last year we got any Old Republic stuff. 2014 also gave us the Cantina, the wheel bike and the Star Destroyer which again, we hadn’t seen for a good few years.

It’s hard to pick the worst. I don’t remember being really interested in many of the 2019 sets. But that’s mostly my preference rather than the quality of the sets themselves. I do think the Anniversary wave could have been a lot stronger. 

 

I agree 2015 was good year and could definitely be argued as the end of the golden age, sadly it was the start of my dark age.

[Kaijumeister]

Personally it’s difficult for me to nail a ‘best’ year, so I’ll just highlight years that I found particularly awesome. 

2016: Outstanding Rogue One wave.

2018: A particularly strong year - the Solo sets were excellent and the summer wave was wonderfully diverse. And so many new moulds were introduced!

2021: Lego finally clocked on to the fact that the Mandalorian and Clone Wars are popular. I loved the selection of summer sets.

2022: Introduction of the diorama collection, excellent sets like the Scythe, AT-TE, Ambush on Ferrix etc. 

2023: The three Ahsoka sets alone made this a standout year for me. 

For the worst year in recent history, 2025 takes the cake. I understand we haven’t seen pictures of the summer sets, but for me Lego has gone way too far prioritising midi-scale ships, helmets, buildable characters etc. These novel alternatives to playsets work best when they’re the exception, not the norm. 

We’re now approaching June, and the only non-4+ or UCS sets containing minifigures are 3 starfighters, a battle pack, a microfighter, and a mech. And then summer comes along and we get a delightful combination of yet another 3 buildable characters and a small handful of clone-focused sets that by all accounts sound rather underwhelming and mostly consist of more clones in more colours. 

Just a weak year overall. If the summer wave were stronger, I wouldn’t have minded slogging through the deluge of buildable sculptures for the first half of the year. With the lack of ‘new’ content outside of Andor, this would have been the perfect year to catch up on things Lego weren’t able to accommodate within previous years due to other media tie-in commitments.

Edited May 9 by Kaijumeister

[Darth_Bane13]

On 5/8/2025 at 8:57 PM, Kaijumeister said:

For the worst year in recent history, 2025 takes the cake. I understand we haven’t seen pictures of the summer sets, but for me Lego has gone way too far prioritising midi-scale ships, helmets, buildable characters etc. These novel alternatives to playsets work best when they’re the exception, not the norm. 

We’re now approaching June, and the only non-4+ or UCS sets containing minifigures are 3 starfighters, a battle pack, a microfighter, and a mech. And then summer comes along and we get a delightful combination of yet another 3 buildable characters and a small handful of clone-focused sets that by all accounts sound rather underwhelming and mostly consist of more clones in more colours. 

Just a weak year overall. If the summer wave were stronger, I wouldn’t have minded slogging through the deluge of buildable sculptures for the first half of the year. With the lack of ‘new’ content outside of Andor, this would have been the perfect year to catch up on things Lego weren’t able to accommodate within previous years due to other media tie-in commitments.

Yeah I'm hoping the V-19 torrent and MTT can redeem the year for me, even then it will still be a weak year overall.

[Mandalorianknight]

It's difficult for me to determine- obviously years like 2004 would be the worst nowadays, but it was just back when the theme was starting out. Low playset numbers feels more excusable back then than in 2025. 

I'd have to say the "best" year IMO was 2014. Something for everyone (at least out of what existed at the time):

Prequels: a whole heap of clone sets and legions (212th and 41st BPs, some mid-sized sets with more legions like the 104th in the AV-7 and coruscant guard in the gunship), some actual separatist representation to counter them like the MTT, vulture droid, and tri-fighter, as well as the salucemi set- essentially a separatist BP. Alongside this, we had the "big three"- anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka- and Grievous in terms of major characters.

OT: A good mix of cheaper sets like the snowspeeder and the Imperial Guard/Gunner BP, larger ones like the best non-UCS Mos Eisley ever, and the two perfect titans of the AT-AT and Star Destroyer. In addition, we had a good chunk of the main cast present- Luke, Han, Ben, Vader- and both a nice B-wing and the best-ever sandcrawler.

We also got the Rebels Ghost+Phantom, an excellent pair of sets, as well as the first-ever Ithorian which is a nice bonus.

 

As for the worst- recency bias, or whatever the inversion of that is, makes me want to say 2025. On paper years like 04 or 06 are worse, but it's more about the theme direction to me than what's actually on the page. A low set number 21 years ago when they were just starting out doesn't bother me as much as how half our sets nowadays are buildable 18+ objects.

[icm]

Funny you all say 2004 was a bad year. I remember when I was a kid I thought it was a great year! 2004 brought the first AT-AT, which was a great model and had the best proportions and play features of any AT-AT until 2020 (the 2004, 2020, and UCS AT-AT sets were all designed by the same set designer), and it brought the first remakes for the X-wing, Snowspeeder, Landspeeder, and Millennium Falcon. Those were all groundbreaking remakes: it was the first X-wing with a tapered nose, synchronized wings, retractable landing gear, and white bricks; the first Snowspeeder with back-to-back seating, rear reel, and a wedge nose; the first 8w Landspeeder; and the first pizza-slice Falcon. The 2004 X-wing set a pattern that was refined all the way through 2020 (counting the playscale T-70s), the 2004 Snowspeeder set a pattern that was refined all the way through 2019; the 2004 Landspeeder set a pattern that was refined all the way through 2017 (the 2020 Landspeeder was the first to have a really different build at 8w); and the 2004 Falcon set a pattern that was refined all the way through 2024 (the Dark Falcon still uses the pizza slices). Additionally, the X-wing came with an excellent Yoda's hut that was basically free (the 2006 X-wing was the same starfighter build at the same price, but without the hut), and there wasn't another Yoda's hut until 2018. So yeah, it's true that 2004 was mostly remakes, but they were all excellent and groundbreaking remakes that set the pattern for decades. Pretty successful set designs by any measure, I'd say. And the photo staging on the boxes and instruction manuals of the X-wing, Snowspeeder, Millennium Falcon, and AT-AT that set them in the context of Echo Base and the Battle of Hoth was brilliant. 

By the same argument, 2006 had a lot of remakes, but they were excellent remakes! The first remakes of the A-wing, B-wing, Boba Fett's Slave I, the Desert Skiff (with the first Jabba's Sail Barge), the first playscale ISD, the first V-wing starfighter - that was a pretty great year too, as I remember from when I was a kid.