Lego just quietly announced another Pokémon set I need, but will never have
Rayquaza is one of the OGs for me, but at what price?
We're now a little over six months on from Lego's first big round of Pokémon sets, including one giant one that included all three starter monsters from the original games in their fully-evolved form. That set looked a lot like the dream to me, featuring genuinely iconic designs and thousands of pieces to make it a properly interesting build.
Little did I know that this year would bring another batch of Pokémon sets, too, and that they'd include more than one that has me similarly drooling over its potential – and wincing at its price. This time around, the Lego team has turned to the Game Boy Advance era to bring a legendary monster from Pokémon Emerald – Rayquaza.
The legendary dragon is a long and serpentine green beast, and its set sees it set above the mountaintop where you encounter it in the game, giving it quite a nice dramatic setup rather than just being a free-floating monster. The set has 1,083 pieces, so it's big but not enormous, and costs £119.99 or $129.99.
It's one of my favourite Pokémon, and to be fair, it's far less expensive than the enormous sets from the last release, but it's also not quite the most attractive set in the new list. That goes to Pokémon Iconic Trainer Moments Poké Ball, a complicated name for a really ingenious set.
It will have you build a giant Poké Ball that opens up to reveal two iconic scenarios. In the lid, you'll find Professor Oak from the original games, offering up a choice of three monsters to pick from in his lab. Then, in the middle of the ball, you'll find Red, the player character, fighting a trainer's Eevee with his Pikachu.
Lego's rightly keen to point out that its megafans will notice this involves actual minifigures for Pikachu and Eevee, something that acts as a pretty good indicator of when Lego thinks a brand tie-in is really going places. We don't know how many sets have been sold, of course, but it's a safe bet that the partnership is flying off the shelves given how enduringly popular Pokémon remains.
The Poké Ball set comes in at a more expensive £229.99 or $299.99, which isn't surprising given it's more complicated at 2,339 pieces. That still makes it much more approachable than the Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise set that remains my dream acquisition.
If I could have one from the new list, though, it would indeed be that Poké Ball – and you can pre-order it along with some other sets being launched, directly from Lego as of today. Just head to the Lego store here to do that.
