Star Wars

Star Wars was the licence that changed LEGO. When the first sets shipped in 1999 alongside The Phantom Menace, it was the company’s first major licensed line, and it became the template for every franchise theme that followed. A quarter-century on it is the deepest and most actively collected corner of the catalogue, anchored by the Ultimate Collector Series: large-scale, display-grade builds aimed squarely at adults.

The collecting case rests on retirement. Star Wars sets run hot at retail and disappear fast; sealed UCS flagships — the first-run 10179 Millennium Falcon, the original 10030 Star Destroyer — have compounded into four- and five-figure grails. Breadth is the line’s other defining trait: from ten-dollar microfighters to the $850 centrepieces, every tier of the market is represented.