The identity of LEGO Icons is changing – for better or for worse

With two more licensed LEGO Icons sets now rumoured for 2025, the theme is slowly morphing into a license-only space.

Okay, saying LEGO Icons only features licensed sets might be an exaggeration – but it's not far off. In the last few days, we've had fresh rumours reported via a.clay.brick for two more licensed LEGO Icons sets, based on Star Trek and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In fact, out of the 13 Icons sets currently confirmed and rumoured for 2025, just five are not based on an external IP. That's perhaps exacerbated in 2025, due to the fact that the Botanical Collection, which launched under the Icons umbrella, is now its own LEGO Botanicals theme.

We're certainly not complaining about the wealth of licensed sets in Icons but it does mark a departure from what's typical for the theme. In 2024, 13 of the 23 Icons sets released were not based on other IPs, which comes out at 57%. In 2023, it was 10 out of 16, or 63%. By comparison, 2025 is set to have just 38% not based on third-party IPs.

LEGO Icons as a training ground

The official description of LEGO Icons promises to deliver "impressive landmarks, modular buildings, classic vehicles, pop culture favorites and beautiful home decor sets" but it seems to be focusing a lot more on pop culture and specifically movies and TV shows. If LEGO Botanicals is anything to go by, it's perhaps become a testing ground for new sets or even third-party IPs that the LEGO Group doesn't want to launch as entire themes.

After all, the return of LEGO The Lord of the Rings was limited to Icons and BrickHeadz at first, with just one set per year ever since its return. In 2025, that's rumoured to increase to two Icons set, at more affordable price points than 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell and 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr.

Elsewhere in the theme, there are other one-off sets that could be testing the waters for more, in the same way that the LEGO Group started with 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell. If the rumoured The Simpsons, How To Train Your Dragon, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Trek sets do well, could we see more based on those IPs? It's certainly possible.

Variety without commitment

That's not to say that one-off licensed sets don't have a place in the LEGO system, however. To say that every LEGO Icons set based on a new IP – of which there are five in 2025 – is just a test to see if it becomes a fully-fledged theme is a disservice to some truly impressive standalone builds that have come out in recent years.

To name just a few, 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade and 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine both stand firmly on their own two feet. They pay homage to classic franchises and don't necessarily need any further sets to add to them. Icons is the perfect home for such sets and that's likely not about to change.

What is changing, however, is a growing focus on external partners. That inevitably does tend to see the price rise so it'll be interesting to see how the LEGO Group balances that moving forward. Without the Botanical Collection to have some mid-priced sets in the theme, there's a gap in Icons for some mid-sized builds that a larger group of people can afford, both in terms of money and space.

It's unlikely that the sets listed below are the only sets to come out in 2025 – there's no Winter Village build rumoured, for one. The ratio of IP and non-IP sets could still change, but for the moment it's certainly an evolution to keep an eye on.

Every LEGO Icons set confirmed and rumoured for 2025

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