10 of the best LEGO sets for 6-year-old girls and boys, tried and tested by children

To help you find the best set for your child, we asked a group of 6 year olds to test a whole variety of sets, in a range of prices and themes, and tell us honestly what they thought about them – both as a build and as a set to play with afterwards...

• Find other great toys for 6 year olds

Best LEGO sets for 6 year olds, at a glance

• Best for eco-friendly play: LEGO Friends Recycling Truck, £17.99
• Best for pocket-money creativity: LEGO Dots Rainbow Bracelet with Charms, £5.99
• Best for a story-led build: LEGO City Wild Animal Rescue Missions, £14.99
• Best for action-packed play: LEGO Minions King Fu Battle, £34.99
• Best for real-life role play: LEGO Friends Skate Park, £44.99
• Best for pocket-money thrills: LEGO Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike, £6.99
• Best for interactive fun: LEGO Super Mario Adventures with Mario Starter Course, £54.99
• Best for storytelling play: LEGO Friends Leo's Room, £17.99
• Best for entertaining vehicle play: LEGO City Space Ride Amusement Truck, £34.99
• Best for free-build extras: LEGO Classic Space Mission, £69.99

Here's our pick of the best LEGO sets for 6-year-old girls and boys

1. LEGO Friends Recycling Truck, £17.99

– Best for eco-friendly play

Number of pieces: 259 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 1 hour | Size when built: H7cm x W6cm x D15cm

The rather-more-pretty-than-the real-thing-looks recycling truck actually has some excellently realistic features including a hinged up that lifts up all 3 wheelie bins and empties them into the truck and rubbish to sort into the glass, paper or food bins.

The truck rolls along nicely and, if you take the roof off, there's room for both of the minifigures in the cab. We like the grabber accessory for picking up the rubbish and the little racoon is sweet, if a bit out of context in the UK!

Our 6-year-old tester Evelyn (pictured above) was able to build the whole thing almost without adult help. It comes with both paper instructions and digital instructions on the free LEGO Building Instructions app, where you can also zoom in on and rotate your creation for a more immersive build.

Eveyln's mum, Lindsey, was impressed by how clear the instructions are."She found it very easy to follow the instructions,"she said, "and to assemble it. I had to push a few bits down as she was rushing on in her excitement and didn't push the bricks all the way down, though – I'm too much of perfectionist to let that go!

"The set itself is bright and colourful and I like how it encourages children to think about the planet and recycling."

Available from: LEGO and Argos

2. LEGO Dots Rainbow Bracelet with Charms, £5.99

– Best for pocket-money creativity

Number of pieces: 37 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 10 minutes | Size of bracelet: L20cm (adjustable)

This great-value set is all about doing your own thing and decorating a bracelet in a design of your choice, using any combination of 36 coloured tiles, 8 rainbow tiles and 2 dangling heart charms. And when you're done, you can wear it – or snap all the tiles off and decorate it again – and again.

"I think other children would like this," said our child tester Isabella, 6 (pictured above). "And I like it because I can use all my favourite colours."

Hannah, Isabella's mum, liked the open-ended play the set allows. "There are so many options for different patterns – there are some designs to copy on the packaging but you can do your own thing, too. It was easy for Hannah to decorate the bracelet independently. I would definitely recommend it – so many opportunities for creativity in 1 little bag!"

Available from: LEGO and John Lewis

3. LEGO City Wild Animal Rescue Missions, £24.99

– Best for a story-led build

Number of pieces: 246 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 1.5 hours | Size when built: H6cm x L15 cmx W6cm (truck)

This is a LEGO set with a difference: to build it, you don't page through a paper booklet but use a phone or tablet to find out what to do instead. And that's not all: instead of following step by step instructions, you follow a storyline that sets you a series of immersive building missions to help rescue animals.

The set comes with 3 minifigures and a very cute baby crocodile, panther, owl, frog and hare. There are also loads of fun accessories you'll need to complete your missions, including a magnifying glass, a camera, binoculars, a feeding bottle, a walkie-talkie, a net and a shovel.

This type of set is a great way to introduce a child who's not quite patient enough yet to stay focused on following diagrams and printed steps to the whole process of building and creating with LEGO. Our child tester, Zachary, 6 (pictured above), is a printed-instructions veteran, so was a bit surprised by the whole digital-only thing. "But I do like the set," he said. "It just took me longer to do it compared to other sets because you're also taking part in the story."

Available from: LEGO and Argos

4. LEGO Minions Kung Fu Battle, £34.99

– Best for action-packed play

Number of pieces: 310 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 2 hours | Size when built: H17cm x W13cm x D26cm

This vibrantly coloured set is designed to help your child replicate – and riff in their own way off – the Chinese New Year scenes in the Minions: The Rise of Gru.

You get Kevin, Stuart and their newer Minion pal Otto as minifigures, along with accessories including a golden banana, a dancing Chinese dragon, a weapons rack, a rotating training dummy, a medallion and weapons. The temple setting has red tasselled lanterns, golden leaves, a teal roof from which you can shoot 'firework' discs, and – best of all – a launchpad at the back which, when pressed, fires a Minion up into the air as the back walls fall apart.

"That's the best thing – where the Minion can fly out the building by pressing the lever!" said our child tester Jai, 6 (pictured above). "I also liked it because it was fun to build. I liked how you make the Minions. It's really interesting and there are lots of choices to build it how you want to build it."

Jai's mum Nina was impressed by how immersed her son became in imaginative play after the build. "I love how this set keeps my son occupied," she said. "He built it from start to finish without a break and then it's so interactive once it's been built, he just keeps playing with it. He has other LEGO sets but there are just on display – this is the one he plays with on a regular basis."

Available from: LEGO and John Lewis

5. LEGO Friends Skate Park, £44.99

– Best for real-life role play

Number of pieces: 431 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 3 hours | Size once built: H11cm x W32cm x D16cm (skate ramp)

"This looks so cool!" said our child tester Casper, 6 (pictured above), as soon as he saw this skateboard park set. As well as the skate ramps area, there's a park building with a workshop for fixing your board wheels and a lift that goes to up to an upper-level chill-out zone.

It comes with 3 Friends mini-figures (Liann, Zac and Luna), a skateboard, a scooter, Luna’s wheelchair, in-line skates, a gumball machine and a helmet for each figure.

The build is enjoyable and, though on the long side for this age group, is easily broken up into shorter sessions. "Casper did this bag by bag in 4 sessions of 45 minutes – alongside some snacking and after-school chat," said Casper's mum Robyn. "He needed some help when he put a couple of the flatter bricks in the wrong place but he did the rest on his own, and enjoyed it."

Robyn herself was very impressed by the set. "We absolutely how LEGO Friends sets have become more unisex. The characters are really relatable and I’d say this set is less of a construction model and more of a great toy you can play with once you've had fun building it."

And Casper’s verdict? "I really like that it has a cool lift and vending machine, and it looks like a real skate park," he said. "I love it. I really enjoyed building the people and the wheelchair. It's very good to play with as it's so real!"

Available from: LEGO and Argos

6. Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike, £6.99

– Best for pocket-money thrills

Number of pieces: 15 | Age suitability: 5+ | Build time: 5 minutes | Size when built: H3.5cm x L6cm x W2cm

"This is brilliant!" said our child tester Frasier, 6 (pictured above). "I like making the motorbike do wheelies! I liked building it - it's fun and easy to make."

The LEGO Stunt range has a range of great-value different bikes to collect, each one with a different design and rider. Both we and Frasier were drawn to Reckless Scorpion with his red and green colours, horned helmet and little blue scorpion friend.

The bike and rider is quick and easy to assemble, and then you just push the bike to activate the flywheel – and watch it zoom off and do backflips, wheelies and other aerial stunts. You could also splash out and buy the Stunt Loop (£44.99) or Stunt Park (£24.99) playset and set up a bike obstacle course.

"This immediately looked like a cool little set I knew my son would love," said Frasier's mum Lauren."The bikes really whizzes along which is lots of fun. It had very clear instructions with pictures too. I would describe this as a perfect birthday gift for your child's friend or a great stocking filler at Christmas time."

Available from: LEGO and B&M

7. LEGO Super Mario Adventures with Mario Starter Course, £54.99

– Best for interactive fun

Number of pieces: 231 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 30 minutes | Size once built: Varies each time | Batteries: 2 x AAA (not included)

If you judge purely on the number of bricks you get, this is the priciest set in our selection. But, obviously, here you're paying that bit more for the thrill of the Super Mario theme – and some really quite clever interactive features.

So, the idea is, you use the digital instructions on the special free app (no paper booklet in this set) to build your bricks into an obstacle course for Mario (or Luigi or Peach – there are alternative versions if other characters float your child's Nintendo-game boat more than Mario does). And then you send Mario round it, earning virtual coins as he goes. Afterwards, you can rebuild the set to create new levels for Mario to conquer.

The (battery-powered) Bluetooth Mario figure itself is charmingly interactive – with colour sensors, LCD screens in his eyes, mouth and belly which display over 100 different reactions, triggered by special 'action' bricks on your course, and a speaker that plays the familiar Super Mario music and sounds. He also plays music from the game.

"This is cool!" said our child tester David, 6 (pictured above). "I like it when Mario collects coins and fights with other characters – and when he says that he's tired after playing!"

We're impressed by how closely the set mirrors the much-loved features of the game, with everything included from the start pipe, goal pole, question mark block and spinning platform to the Goomba and Bowser Jr figures for Mario to clash with. And you can buy expansion packs to make bigger and more challenging courses.

Mariana, David mum said, "I think this set is great because David loves Mario and is a big fan of LEGO – and this combines the two. He found it easy to understand and follow the instructions and spends lots of time playing with it. I'm happy to see him so excited! I've already bought him an extension set for his birthday."

Available from: LEGO and Argos

8. LEGO Friends Leo’s Room, £17.99

– Best for storytelling play

Number of pieces: 203 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 1 hour | Size once built: H7cm x W24cm x D10cm

One of 4 new room sets in the LEGO Friends range, this fun little set builds into the bedroom of baking YouTuber Leo and comes complete with bunk beds, balcony doors, camera, laptop, cookbook, football net, surfboard (Leo lives near the beach) and baking accessories.

As well as Leo, there’s also a mini-figure for his friend Olly – and a very cute cat. For a little set, there's loads here to inspire plenty of storytelling play, acting out Leo's vlogging plans with a cheeky bake or two and then having a post-filming footie runabout with Olly and the cat.

Our child tester Tim, 6 (pictured above), was very excited by all the accessories – especially the skateboard and the camera. "He found the build huge fun," said his mum Ijeoma, "and I think the quality and structure of the set are very good"

"I'm going to tell my friends to get this," said Tim. "It is amazing and has a lot of cool and fun things, like the skateboard and football with a football net. I enjoyed playing with this with my brother and we were able to play a football match with Leo and his friend. My favourite feature is the skateboard."

Available from: LEGO and John Lewis

9. LEGO City Space Ride Amusement Truck, £34.99

– Best for entertaining vehicle play

Number of pieces: 433 | Age suitability: 6+ | Build time: 2 to 3 hours | Size when built: H16cm x W21cm x D35cm

This cleverly designed set builds into articulated transporter lorry with a (detachable) trailer load that folds down to become a aliens-in-space theme-park ride with a crank you can turn to send it spinning round in a whizzy circle.

It comes with 3 mini figures, a ticket boot and a generator, and accessories including money and a cute alien hat that a mini figure could wear on the ride.

Our child tester Casey-Mae, 6 (pictured above) found it fun to build – and even more fun to play with afterwards. "I like playing with it in my room with my other toys. It is like a funfair and it makes me laugh when the space carts go round the track."

"It looks fantastic – very colourful – and it's very robust," said Casey-Mae's mum Sarah. "It was fairly easy for my daughter to assemble, though some parts were a bit tricky. I like the fact that it's so interactive, and that it can be folded for easy transportation around the house."

Available from: LEGO

10. LEGO Classic Space Mission, £69.99

– Best for free-build extras

Number of pieces: 1700 | Age suitability: 5+ | Build time: Up to 20 minutes per build | Size once built: Varies from build to build

"There is SO MUCH LEGO!" said our rather stunned child tester Stanley, 6 (pictured above). "I think we will have enough LEGO for ever and ever now. That's really cool."

Yep, not only are there enough bricks in this set for you to make 10 space-themed mini-builds, including a launch tower, a mission control centre, a rocket, a space shuttle, a sun, earth and moon, 2 technicians and a little astronaut, you also get 3 extra bags of bricks to have some free-building fun with.

We love the sweet details in this set: the star-shaped door handles on the rocket; the mug for the mission control desk, and the little tools for the technicians. We also like that the last pages of the instruction booklet have some pictures of LEGO aliens, planets and flying saucers you could make – to get you started with ideas for your free building.

Stanley's mum Jessica was just as impressed as he was by the number of bricks you set: "It's a lot bigger than I expected. And it's a great mix of instruction-led LEGO and things you can inventing on your own. Stanley enjoyed creating his own masterpieces! It's an expensive set but there is so much LEGO in it, I think it's worth it." pdf

Available from: LEGO and Smyths Toys

Pics: Product websites/MadeForMums testers

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