9+ of the best LEGO-style Pokemon sets to evolve your collection

Gotta catch ‘em all? Here’s the best LEGO-style Pokemon sets.

At the moment, there are no official LEGO sets turning your favourite pocket monsters into brick-building form. While there are Nintendo LEGO sets from Animal Crossing and Super Mario, it’s the Pokemon Company who are responsible for licensing characters like Pikachu, Charizard, and Ash into toys.

Instead, Mattel’s MEGA brand has the right to produce brick-based Pokemon sets. Our favourites span across Pokemon Centers, Pikachus, and Dragonites.

Best LEGO-style Pokemon sets

MEGA, once Mega Blox and Mega Construx, has released several Pokemon sets. Their brand is not associated with LEGO, though they’ve certainly taken some pages out of the Systems of Play handbook. It resulted in some fantastic sets that are articulate, detailed, and live up to the expectations of what you’d expect from quality Pokemon products.

1. MEGA Motion Pikachu

There’s no talking about Pokemon without bringing up Pikachu. MEGA’s best Pokemon set of course builds on this with a detailed model of everyone’s favourite electric rat. One of the best things about LEGO alternatives is that they’re generally much cheaper than the name brand’s. At 1,095 pieces, the set will cost £56 / $60.99 (discounted, at the time of writing).

• MEGA Motion Pikachu

The MEGA Pikachu (not associated with an in-game Mega evolution) is poised on a plinth covered in grassy terrain, with asymmetrical pieces living up to the design fundamentals of Pokemon. 

There’s a winch on the site that when turned, animates the Pokemon as though it’s leaping. It’s a highly articulate and complex design, and you wouldn’t find this level of motion in a similarly priced LEGO set unless you’re splashing out on an expensive LEGO Technic build.

2. MEGA Charizard

Aside from Pikachu, one of the most recognisable and loved Pokemon characters has to be Charizard. The MEGA Charizard set is a fantastic LEGO alternative if you want to catch ‘em all. With 222 pieces and only £14.99 / $16.95 in the US and UK, it’s an absolute treat that this Charizard model comes fully equipped with poseable wings.

• MEGA Charizard

While it’s a fast build, younger audiences are going to have a blast bringing their favourite Pokemon to life. It’s highly detailed, surprisingly so despite the size, and it’s a great gift for all fans of the games and anime.

3. MEGA Pokemon Center

Everyone remembers the music that plays when you’re healing your fainted Pokemon. While you’re not going to hear it with this set, you’re still going to be able to heal your favourite Pocket Monsters with Nurse Joy’s Chansey.

MEGA’s Pokemon Center set features 648 pieces and will cost £69.99 / $79.99 across the UK and US (again, discounted at the time of writing.)

• MEGA Pokemon Center

The set includes a few fan favourite Pokemon figures: Pikachu, Chansey, Eevee and Togepi, all mechanised on winch rigs that imbue the set with some intricate movement. It’s one of the more expensive MEGA Pokemon sets, though the balance of complexity and articulation squeezes out plenty of worth.

4. MEGA Motion Gyarados

The most impressive MEGA Pokemon set is the Motion Gyarados, which features an incredible 2,186 pieces. Usually priced at £189.99 / $171.99, it’s hard to recommend this set without the regular discounts lowering the price significantly.

If you’re able to pick up the MEGA Motion Gyarados with an Amazon deal, it’s certainly one of the best LEGO-style Pokemon sets out there, if not an absolute must-have.

• MEGA Motion Gyarados

Like many other LEGO-style Pokemon sets from MEGA, the Gyarados is rigged up with a winding winch that’s going to animate the Pokemon’s tail, while also giving the waves some dynamic movement.

5. MEGA Motion Butterfree

The selection of MEGA’s Pokemon sets focuses on many of the favourite Gen-1 ‘Mon, and Butterfree fits into that trend nicely. The final build is as elegant and cascading as the original Pokemon’s design, while also encapsulating it’s buggy-charm with style.

Again, rigged up to a winch, the set features 605 pieces that move in circular frame-like motion.

• MEGA Motion Butterfree

Unfortunately, it’s not available in the UK, so you’re going to have to rely on overseas shipping to build the MEGA Butterfree alongside your favourite cuppa.

6. nanoblock Pokemon

Before MEGA acquired Pokemon’s blessing to produce brick-based toys from the franchise, nanoblock bore this responsibility. Though they didn’t approach the LEGO-style sets with as much articulation and detail as MEGA, they instead created slightly more ‘lifelike’ sets with denser forms and studdier figures.

The Amazon collection covers Espeon, Umbreon, Snorlax. Caterpie, Litten and a slew of other popular creatures from the Pokedex.

• nanoblock Water Type Pokemon set
• nanoblock Squirtle
• nanoblock Espeon and Umbreon
• nanoblock Snorlax
• nanoblock Pikachu
• nanoblock Charmander
• nanoblock Squirtle
• nanoblock Lapras
• nanoblock Mewtwo

We’re not going to get LEGO Pokemon sets, at least for now

There aren’t any official LEGO Pokemon sets as the building-block toy contract has been awarded to MEGA.

It’s not exactly clear why LEGO and Pokemon haven’t collaborated yet, especially since other Nintendo-adjacent IPs have brokered relationships. You’d have to expect that both LEGO and The Pokemon Company would want to claim a larger stake in sales and profits, putting an end to any working partnership.

In 2014, a LEGO Ideas set that had received significant traction was unfortunately rejected by LEGO. Their statement reads as below:

“We’ve looked into the possibility of producing a set based on this licensed property (Pokémon). Since the property is owned by a competitor, we’ve decided it’s neither a brand fit nor a strategic fit for the LEGO Group to pursue a license, and so we will not consider Pokémon projects on LEGO Ideas further. We’re sorry to be the bearers of this disappointing news.”

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You might also be interested in the best LEGO DREAMZzz sets, or the best LEGO Icons sets, which offer a little bit more of a building construction focus than LEGO-style Pokemon sets.