Five LEGO BrickLink sets that bring something new to the table

BrickLink’s Pop-Up Store is now open, bringing fan designs to the masses – and there are at least five custom LEGO sets up for grabs that bring something genuinely new to the table.

The trial program from secondary marketplace BrickLink (which is owned by the LEGO Group) is an off-shoot of the BrickLink Designer Program, giving designs that didn’t make the cut in the first two series the chance to be sold directly to fans. That means buying the pieces required individually from BrickLink stores and Pick a Brick, rather than as a boxed product, but BrickLink does make it easy to do so by finding the parts for you.

A total of 41 different designs are currently available to purchase, with at least one potentially breaking the four-figure barrier in price. But while these models are generally more expensive than you’d expect to pay when buying new sets, many of them are also representative of things you wouldn’t normally see in a LEGO Store – so the price you pay is also for the chance to own something creatively different.

Check out five of the most unique designs in the first batch of MOC Pop-Up Store builds below, and click here to find out how to purchase yours – and in which countries they’re available.

5 – The Lost Temple

Pieces: 1,395 Difficulty: Moderate Price range: £160.25 to £192.11

While Brickproject’s colourful The Lost Temple has shades of LEGO Adventurers – and by extension Indiana Jones’ 77015 Temple of the Golden Idol – it’s far grander and more imposing than anything else currently on the market. Anchored around an intriguing narrative of a temple filled with riches, but lost deep in the jungle, the 1,395-piece build includes a vibrant exterior and a fully-furnished interior, with plenty of secrets to discover.

4 – Robio 2024

Pieces: 412 Difficulty: Moderate Price range: £41.28 to £46.43

LEGO robots and mechs are 10 a penny these days, but Robio 2024 offers something a little different. This household helper is bursting with character, comes rocking both an auxiliary battery pack and a handheld vacuum cleaner, and is one of the cheapest sets in the MOC Pop-Up Store. Designer Vulcanus – who recently appeared on LEGO MASTERS – has also provided stickers that you can download and print off for free.

3 – Container House

Pieces: 2,480 Difficulty: Advanced Price range: £315.81

Just when you think you’ve seen everything a LEGO house can possibly offer, along comes ExeSandbox’s fascinating Container House to change your mind. Conceived as a pair of shipping containers fashioned into a home, the 2,480-piece model is bursting with detail – from external foliage and a bike rack to rooftop solar panels and a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

2 – Ode to Youth: Skateboard Adventures

Pieces: 796 Difficulty: Moderate Price range: £86.07 to £90.34

If the scale of 21334 Jazz Quartet has you, erm, jazzed, this larger-than-life build from fan designer Hsinwei Chi – in collaboration with Eric Dubois Yang – should do the trick. Or at least, you can make its buildable figures do plenty of tricks, as Ode to Youth: Skateboard Adventures features a trio of buildable skaters wonderfully posed atop a monochromatic skate park display. It may be similar in scale to 21334, but it’s entirely its own beast.

1 – Working Mini Golf Course

Pieces: 1,572 Difficulty: Advanced Price range: £130.85 to £157.73

If you were disappointed to see TheKingOfLego’s Working Mini Golf Course first rejected by the LEGO Ideas review board, then lose out to 21343 Viking Village in last year’s Target fan vote for a future set, and then finally not make it to the final of the BrickLink Designer Program, this is the model for you. Each of its three holes includes a brick-built mechanism to control a minifigure’s (sold separately) putt, for a model that’s as unique as you’ll find among the MOC Pop-Up Store’s 41 designs.

Click here to check out all the sets available to buy through BrickLink, or head here to learn more about the trial program. These sets will remain available in select countries through November.

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