With the elections being the focus for most South Africans this past week, many may have missed that 1st June brought a new wave of LEGO sets into the country.

Dozens of new options are now vying for the money in your wallet so we went through these releases and picked out our five favourites.

We’ve also provided links to where you can buy these sets online but check out our South African buyer’s guide for more information on picking up LEGO in South Africa.

Some sets are only available from Great Yellow Brick, which is the online site for the official LEGO stores in South Africa. While this gives you less freedom to choose where to shop, make sure you make the most of it by picking up free sets as you shop.

5. Cole’s Titan Dragon Mech

• Set number: 71821
• Number of pieces: 1 055
• Price: R1 699
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick | Import A Toy | Kiddiwinks | Takealot

Over the past few year’s LEGO’s Ninjago theme has given the mecha world a real treat in the form of its Titan mechs. These mechs all share some similarities – such as a white highlights, a large stature to earn the “Titan” name and an impressive amount of articulation for such a large LEGO build.

Cole’s Titan Dragon Mech represents the pinnacle of these efforts with the 39 centimetre toy, according to LEGO, being the biggest of its brethren with the most movement.

“This is the biggest ever NINJAGO titan mech, with posable arms, legs, head, body, and rotation points and joints so kids can place it into battle stances,” the official description reads.

While R1 699 is a big asking price we really hope that Gunpla hobbyists give this set a look to see how far LEGO has come and just how much the building block company can offer those who want serious mech model kits.

One last interesting feature of this set was have to mention is that huge sword. It’s actually a gold recolour of the “wings” that were introduced for the LEGO Dune Ornithopter. Many were wondering if that piece had any life outside of the Ornithopter set, so we’re happy to see it return.

4. 3-in-1 T. rex

• Set number: 31151 
• Number of pieces: 626
• Price: R1 099
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick | Import A Toy | Kiddiwinks | Takealot

It’s a T-rex made out of LEGO, how much cooler can this set be? LEGO’s latest attempt at the tyrant of dinosaurs is done up in a pleasing green and olive colourway and the completed T-rex stands quite tall at 15 centimetres.

Making this set even better – and greatly increasing its value for those building on a budget – is the fact that it comes from LEGO’s Creator 3-in-1 theme. This means that the pieces in the box can build you two other dinosaurs, aside from the T-rex.

For this set the two alternate builds are a triceratops and a pterodactyl. We do have to tempter expectations here, however. Only one of these dinosaurs can be built at a time, so please don’t think you’re getting three sets for the price of one. You will need to take your dinosaur apart to build a new one.

The triceratops and pterodactyl will also use less pieces and make smaller builds as a result too.

3. Batman Construction Figure and the Bat-Pod Bike

• Set number: 76273 
• Number of pieces: 713
• Price: R1 499
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick | Import A Toy | Kiddiwinks | Takealot

Over the past few years LEGO has tried its hand at reinventing the idea of a buildable action figure once again, this time trying to find success purely with superheroes from DC and Marvel. The latest set in this line breaks the mould by giving the buildable action figure a vehicle in the form of the Bat-Pod bike from the Christopher Nolan / Christian Bale movies.

What makes this set even more interesting on top of that is the fact that a large scale Bat-Pod already exists in LEGO’s catalogue. Set 5004590 was released as a limited-time product in 2015 that could only be won in a competition. Only 750 of these sets exist and this version of the Bat-Pod was actually smaller, as it was never intended to actually have a rider.

For LEGO to bring the idea back, almost a decade later and as a regular release retail set, is really nice to see, even if many people still dislike the lanky extremities and flat profile of these buildable action figures.

For more LEGO Batman, check out our recent attempt to turn the latest dark blue Batmobile into the proper black.

2. Robot World Roller-Coaster Park

• Set number: 60421
• Number of pieces: 986
• Price: R1 699
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick | Import A Toy | Kiddiwinks | Takealot

Long time LEGO fans may have just been hit by a huge wave of déjà vu (or nostalgia) when seeing this set for the first time. This is because the white mech included in this set is a direct remake, albeit at a smaller scale, of set 7700: Stealth Hunter from 2006.

The Stealth Hunter was part of LEGO’s venerable Exo-Force theme. We don’t have the time to explain Exo-Force in detail or why it was so impactful, but this mech-focused theme drew heavily from anime and Japanese aesthetics which were starting to take off in 2006.

The Stealth Hunter isn’t really a mech in this set, but instead a kind of animatronic that acts as decoration for a roller-coaster ride and attached gaming area. Despite this the build can be disconnected from the roller-coaster and it has a cockpit that fits a minifigure, so it’s still just as much of a toy mech as ever.

Outside of this new and smaller Stealth Hunter, the rest of the set has us less excited but still has a lot to offer for LEGO City fans. The colour choices are nice and vibrant, and the minifigure selection is generous at eight.

We just wish the set was smaller and more affordable so buying it just for Stealth Hunter was more justifiable.

1. LEGO Ideas Tuxedo Cat

• Set number: 21349
• Number of pieces: 1 710
• Price: R1 899
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick

Without the endless bank account of a billionaire we have to pick and choose what we actually spend money on, and for this June wave the Ideas Tuxedo Cat was the sole set that we bought.

Standing 32 centimetres tall, this build is rather close to a 1:1 scale cat. On top of this there is some articulation in the front legs, tail and head, but it’s mostly a static model that you can put on the shelf and trick people into thinking that there’s a real cat there. The eye colour and mouth can also be swapped out to suit your preference or to make the build look more like your cat.

The build really surprised us in its elegance and advanced techniques that were not difficult to put together but still resulted in an impressive bit of brick sculpture work. We highly recommend that fans of unique build solutions check out the instructions online, even if they have no intention of actually buying this set.

We’ve already had a few friends and family members check out the completed build with most finding it eerily lifelike

Unfortunately the cat will not stay built for long. We’re actually taking it apart soon to build something new. While that may be a bit sad we will be making an alt build with free instructions, just like we did for the Classic Space X-Wing a few months ago. Check back to the site in a month or two for more on that as it’s shaping up to be an involved endeavour.

It’s a real testament to the quality of this set that it’s great on its own but it also has us excited to make something new with the pieces.

Honourable mention – The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr

• Set number: 10333
• Number of pieces: 5 471
• Price: R8 499
• Available from: Great Yellow Brick

This article is a list of the sets that we personally like the most here at the Hypertext office, but we can’t talk about this release wave without the huge presence of Barad-dûr.

This is the latest Lord of the Rings set following the equally expensive Rivendell from last year. While some have rightfully bemoaned the fact that the only Lord of the Rings sets (save for some Funko Pop-esque BrickHeadz) are crazily expensive, it is difficult not to appreciate the sheer grandeur of this huge set.

With 10 minifigures including, finally, an official figure of Sauron himself, the finished build stands 83 centimetres tall and will be the centrepiece for most collections.

While stocks last, those who pick up Barad-dûr right now will also get a free set of a Fell Beast. Those who just want a Fell Beast of their own should see our article on reverse engineering this little set.