For obvious reasons, most of my energy this month has gone into the launch of my new book: The LEGO Parts Guide. I still want to wrap up the month by exploring some new sets for November and some reflections on really large LEGO sets.

Big ≠ Great

I’ve been reviewing LEGO sets for more than a decade. To ensure numeric ratings for each set are fair, I have published guidelines explaining what each rating means, from the exceedingly rare 1/5 star (not recommended) to the seldom-earned 5/5 star (must have) sets.

I am currently building #21065 Sagrada Familia, which contains 12,060 pieces. It surpasses #31203 World Map (2021) with 11,695 pieces, making Sagrada Familia the largest part count for an official LEGO set. I have some experience with big sets, since I’ve had the chance to build many of the largest LEGO sets over the years, including #31203 World Map, #10307 Eiffel Tower, and #10276 Colosseum.

A couple challenges emerge with these very big sets: They are daunting to build, difficult to display, and have a much narrower appeal. It’s important to ask yourself: do I really want to spend 20 hours building this particular set? Do I have a suitable place to display it? Size alone can be impressive, but it doesn’t make something great.

One of my requirements for a set to earn a 5/5 star rating is that it needs to “have a very broad appeal, and likely to appeal to LEGO enthusiasts who don’t usually collect a particular theme”. I would argue that it’s impossible for a set with more than 5000 pieces to appeal to someone who isn’t already interested in the subject matter.

I’ve built the first 26 bags of Sagrada Familia, with many more to go…

I am only about halfway finished building Sagrada Familia so my official review is not done yet. That said, I can already tell that it is an excellent model and a fitting spiritual successor to the excellent #21061 Notre Dame (2024). Unfortunately, there’s no way that I can recommend a twelve thousand part set to people who don’t love LEGO architecture, it’s simply too demanding of a commitment for many builders.

What I do love about the set’s design is that it’s built as a series of large modules. Each module is a much more approachable time commitment, requiring only about a dozen bags to complete. This gives you a natural place to stop building for the evening, or even to build one section each weekend with a gap in between each section. In fact, it starts to feel like many smaller LEGO sets that combine to create something even more impressive.

The LEGO Parts Guide is a success!

I’m thrilled to share that more than 1000 copies of The LEGO Parts Guide are in the hands of LEGO builders around the world. More importantly, people seem to really like the book, as evidenced by reviews at Brickset and Rambling Brick, and more than a dozen 5-star reviews on Amazon.

I wanted to highlight a few of the comments I’m most proud of:

• “Tom’s writing style is engaging … I recommend this book for anyone trying to master the LEGO System.”
  —Richard Jones, Rambling Brick
• “Includes a wealth of useful information that’s not readily available elsewhere … an essential purchase for anyone who wants to sort their parts and build cool things once they’ve done so.”
  —Huw Millington, Brickset
• “This is the missing reference! … an outstanding reference to the LEGO System and all of the ways (many non-obvious) that it can be used when building MOCs.”
  —Ben Kimball, amazon.com
• “If you are into Lego, you have to HAVE to get this book. … As a MOC builder, it is indispensable.”
  —Dudley G. Henderson, amazon.com
• “Can’t recommend it enough for any builder (even those who don’t speak English will probably find a lot of useful numbers, pictures, and diagrams in it).”
  —Ms. Lara, amazon.de

If you still don’t have a copy, you will find global links to order it at brickarchitect.com/books/legopartsguide.

More behind-the-scenes insights for Patrons.
This month, I shared more intimate reflections on the book launch with Patrons. This included an article 🎉 Celebrating a successful launch where I shared how it feels to see the book in market, and some of the custom analytics I’m building to help correlate publicity to increased rankings. Earlier in the month, I shared 🚀 Preparing for Launch exploring all of the tiny decisions I needed to make leading up to launch day.

November 2026 releases for AFOLs

Even though there are only four sets launching on November 1, it’s going to cost you… The four sets cost $800, $550, $180, and $23. That’s a total of $1553 US for just four sets if you decide to purchase them all!

Notable sets for Adult builders:

• #21065 Sagrada Familia (Architecture)
  I’m still only halfway done building it, but it’s already clear that this is an epic architecture build, if you can stomach the price tag and time commitment.
  12060 pieces, ages 18+, $800.
• #11388 Venetian Neighborhood (LEGO Icons)
  This massive brick-built minifigure scale scene captures elements of Venetian architecture influenced by architects like Andrea Palladio, but it sure is spendy. While impressive, I worry that standalone vignettes like this are harder to collect and display than the modular buildings, which look great lined up in a row.
  5682 pieces, ages 18+, $550.
• #11390 Shenron & Goku (Dragon Ball)
  I don’t know much about DBZ, but I recognize a cool-looking dragon rooted in Chinese mythology when I see one. For ‘only’ $180, it’s almost what now passes as affordable!
  1764 pieces, ages 18+, $180.
• #10371 Cozy Plants (Botanicals)
  This is by far the cheapest, cutest, and yes, coziest new set this month. It’s so cute, I might have to buy it on Sunday.
  248 pieces, ages 9+, $23.

I know you want some Cozy Plants! (I want them too.)

As always, you can explore all of the new releases by visiting the lego.com store. (Making a purchase using our referral link helps support this website.)

At the risk of sounding human, I will admit that this has been a really busy month! I will update this roundup in a few days to include October’s best articles and podcasts.