25 Lego sets every serious collector needs to own

18. Lord of the Rings The Battle of Helm’s Deep – 1,368 pieces

Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn! Except you’ll have to build The Battle of Helm’s Deep LEGO set before you can ruin it. But there’s so much to build with! This set comes with over 1000 pieces with which to create walls, a tower, a bridge, battlements, and much more. Four minifigures, including main characters Aragorn, Gimli, King Theoden and Haldir the Elf are the key defense force of the Keep against 4 of Saruman’s best Uruk-hai. But what’s a good battle without a little challenge? That’s why this set comes with a mechanism that allows you to “blow up” the sewer gate like the Uruk-hai does in The Two Towers. Enemies can also sneak into the Keep using giant siege ladders, just as they did in the movie. If you’re tired of marauding mutant Orcs destroying all your hard work, however, just mount Theoden on his horse and send him charging into battle. Now all you need to find is a Gandalf and Rohirrim set to save the day!

I love The Lord of the Rings, so naturally, I would love putting this set together. I think it was cool of LEGO to design one of the walls to “explode.” The Battle of Helm’s Deep, as ironic as the title sounds in relation to the concept of “fun,” looks like it works best as a toy instead of a display item.

This product is no longer available on the official LEGO online store, but you can still find it on Amazon and eBay.