I love Legos! They were one of my favorite toys when I was a kid, and I still have a Lego Batmobile and Lego TIE interceptor on display on my Geek Wall. The fun of building whatever your imagination can think up never gets old. From giant handheld swords to small, intricate castles and spaceships. I grew up in the Silver Age of Legos, when the big sets were pirates, castle, space and modern day. I can still remember the excitement of the Wolf Pack bandits, the Ice Planet spacemen and the introduction of the undersea play sets. I also owned the time machine, which was basically just throwing all the sets together into one toy.

But nowadays the most popular Lego playsets are all licensed properties, like Star Wars, Batman, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and more!

Lego of the Ring

And I think it’s brilliant! I would have killed to have these kinds of Legos when I was a kid. Instead of making my own crappy Batmobile out of green and red pieces, I could have had a real, well-made Batmobile complete with little Batman and Robin figurines. Or Lex Luthor in his battlesuit fighting an actual licensed Superman and Wonder Woman! Instead of random space people in their little helmets and jetpacks, I could have had Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon!

This year, Lego is coming out with sets for Lord of the Rings, the Avengers, the X-Men and more. So the licensed property train is not stopping. Here are 6 properties out there that need some Lego love!

Quick note: Most of the images I found for this article are fan-made and not official Lego sets. Or they’re made by other non-Lego companies. Or they’re different Lego sets that look like what I want. None of the licensed properties I suggest are officially made by Lego, fans are just awesome at building their own stuff. 

6. Star Trek

Where no builder has gone before

To make for a good Lego set, you need memorable characters for the mini-figs and even more memorable vehicles and locations for the actual playsets. And is there any spaceship more iconic than the U.S.S. Enterprise? Not to mention all the variations of the Enterprise, and the different crews. You could make sets with Capt. Kirk and the original to Capt. Sisko and Deep Space 9! And who wouldn’t love a Jean Luc Picard mini-fig?

That’s just the Federation. What about a Klingon Bird of Prey? Or a Romulan…Bird of Prey? The recent reboot movie had a lot of neat ships in it that you could also use. If you want more than just spaceships, you could make a set of the bridge, complete with transporter room. Or make a Starfleet Academy playset. And then you could make a huge Borg Cube, one that swings open to reveal multiple floors and places for characters to stand and interact! Set phasers for fun (pun intended).

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5. Doctor Who

Come along, Lego Pond

As pointed out to me by friend-of-the-blog Tribble Wife, a British toy company called Character has made several Lego-compatible Doctor Who sets. That picture I posted is one of them. That’s all well and good, but it’s just not the same. Like Mega-Blok, these knock-off sets just don’t have that colorful Lego charm. Plus their figurines aren’t the classic Lego mini-fig known the world over. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like cheap knock-off brands, and Legos are no different. The cheap brands never fit right and are just not as good. I want official Doctor Who sets from Lego.

Aside from the obvious mini-fig possibilities, including all 11 Doctors and their companions, there are plenty of sets to build. The police box TARDIS is a given, for a smaller vehicle set. Then you could make the inside of the TARDIS for a larger playset. It’s bigger on the inside, after all. The bad guys in Doctor Who don’t have as many memorable spaceships as other TV shows or movies, but you could make playsets for the Daleks or the Cybermen. And maybe get into some episode-specific scenes, like with Vincent Van Gogh or the Library, with little black pieces for the Vashta Nerada.

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4. Firefly

I don't care, I'm still free. You can't take the bricks from me.

Speaking if iconic spaceships, what about Serenity? Joss Whedon’s greatest show (in my opinion) was also the one most mistreated by the world, and it deserves all the love it can get. Whether you’re using the short-lived TV show Firefly or the popular movie Serenity as inspiration, there are a lot of different sets and characters you could build. The crew alone is made for mini-figs, considering they all often wore the same iconic clothing. A Mal Reynolds mini-fig is dying to be made. The cargo hold and the bridge of Serenity would both open on a playset, allowing you to place characters inside. And Lego could always make an Ultimate Collector’s Edition Serenity for more detail.

Just like with Star Trek, you don’t have to stop with the main crew and the ship. The Mule ATV or the hover-mule from the bank heist at the start of the movie would both make great smaller sets, while the Reavers and the Alliance both had some pretty cool ships. Or what about an episode specific playset from Ariel with the medical ship Wash and Kaylee built to sneak Simon and River into the hospital? Or a climactic showdown playset at the broadcast station of Mr. Universe between Mal and the Operative? These toys practically build themselves.

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3. Gears of War

Even Legos can look tough and manly

From TV shows to video games, what about some badass, hardcore Gears of War legos? As the picture indicates, the mini-figs for Gears of War Legos would be brilliantly detailed and covered in accessories. Some of the most prestigious mini-figs don’t just rely on a complicated paint job. Lego has a long tradition of adding helmets, shoulder accessories and more to their mini-figs to give them more character. Giving the soldiers of Delta Squad a bunch of heavy duty add-ons would look very badass. Not to mention the little Lancer chainsaw guns each character could hold.

The mini-figs would be a big part of a Gears of War set, but there are some vehicles and locations that could work as well. That big rolling tank with the platform and the turrets on top from Gears 2 would be good, as well as the smaller vehicles they used in that game. The Silverback mech-suit would be great for a smaller model.  An underground Locust temple playset would work nicely, including some bad guy mini-figs. Most of the multiplayer maps could be used for playsets.  Or what about that giant worm from Gears 2? They could have a playset in the gory intestine of a giant worm! Now that would be hardcore.

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2. Futurama

Good news, everybody! Or at least I hope so, someday

Why not Lego Zoidberg? That glorious image you see before you was made by a true Lego god, but again, it’s fan-made. Yet it clearly shows that even the cartoony world of Futurama could be captured in the colorful bricks of Lego! Though I doubt even the professionals could do as good a job as that fan-made Planet Express. The character and love in that model is quite evident. Still, Lego should definitely try! The mini-figs alone of the Planet Express crew would be wonderful. Hermes, Bender, Leela; not to mention supporting characters like Zap Branagan or Lrrr of Omicron Persei 8!

While the Planet Express Ship and the Planet Express building are givens, don’t think they would stop there. What about the head museum? How much fun would it be to set up a bunch of little transparent Lego jars and then drop heads into them. It would be the freakiest and funniest Lego playset ever! All the odd planets, all the unque spaceships, all the memorable episodes, Futurama has an endless supply of options. All of them hilarious.

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1. World of Warcraft

If I had real Lego orcs as a kid, I wouldn't have had to paint my own mini-figs green

The Horde vs. Alliance marketing alone would be enough. Give certain sets either red or blue dressing on the packaging and really fuel the greatest rivalry in video games since Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis. Start with Lego’s classic Castle and Kingdoms collections, and just expand them ten-fold with Warcraft-themed buildings, vehicles, races and heroes. Lego already makes a lot of these races, like orcs, dwarves, gnomes and the like. Just add giant heads for Taurens, goblins and the other freaky races. All of the races would need to be included, of course, even Pandarens. Even if the Blood Elves are just humans with painted ears, they must still be there. The variation would be spectacular.

As for sets to build, where do you want to start? Aside from the massive Stormwind Keep or Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar, you could build smaller buildings like a human hut or an orc pig farm. The Warcraft games are based around iconic buildings. What about a goblin zeppelin, a human catapult or a dwarven war tank? There are plenty of vehicles to use! And mounts, you’d have to have mounts! Fearsome raptors, noble horses, massive kodo beasts. The gnome robot bird thingies could even be little build sets of their own!

The heroes would be especially exciting. While you could fill all the sets with plenty of grunts and footmen, simple soldier troops, they could really go all-out with the heroes. Give them unique faces and massive armor, built up on the shoulders. Give the heroes really fantastic weapons, like a unique and painted Doomhammer for Thrall!

And not just game heroes, but what about a player’s personal character? Imagine an online create-a-Lego program where, for a fee, players could paint their own unique hero from the game, ship the blueprints off to some Lego factory and then get mailed their very own personal game hero mini-fig! It would be brilliant! It could revolutionize the toy industry!

Somebody get the King of Legos on the phone!