What's new at Lego this month? 8 stellar new kits — including the largest set ever

Lego has unveiled its newest selection of build kits, and it's an especially strong batch to see you through the summer. The clear head-turner is the Lego Architecture Sagrada Família. With a ridiculous 12,060 pieces and standing at a towering 24 inches / 62cm tall, it's the brand's biggest set so far. In an especially nice touch, the build order mimics that of the actual church — although unlike the still-in-progress Barcelona build, this Lego version is actually complete. There are masses of charming details to discover, but I'm especially won over by the interior, which does an incredible job of capturing the mesmerizing rainbow hues of the original.

Fans of large-scale, fantastical builds will have a decision to make this month, as Lego has also launched a brick kit version of the Lord of the Rings' Minas Tirith. To recreate the vertiginous, cliff-side fortress city, Lego has used a hybrid-scale approach, combining detailed, minifigure-sized interiors with an micro-scale exterior that captures the grandeur of the movie version. This one's 8,278 pieces, and comes with 10 mini figures.

The other launches that caught my eye this month are the new interactive Pokémon sets, which use Lego's new Smart Bricks to bring your Poké-battles to life with dynamic lights and sounds. Scroll down for more of my top new Lego sets for the summer; I'll start with the US links, or you can jump down the page for the UK links.

US: brilliant bricks

UK: brilliant bricks

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