LEGO Pokémon launches as August 2026 wave delivers 97 new sets

After a deliberately quiet July — just five sets reached shelves across the entire month — LEGO returned on 1 August 2026 with one of its most densely packed release waves in recent memory: 97 new sets landing at once, spanning themes from a brand-new Pokémon line to an X-Files tribute and a long-awaited standalone Hubble Space Telescope.

LEGO Pokémon: a new theme arrives

The headline launch is LEGO Pokémon, an entirely new theme announced jointly by the LEGO Group and The Pokémon Company International on 7 July 2026. The theme had already begun quietly: three build-and-display sets — including 72153 Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise and 72152 Pikachu and Poké Ball — went on sale at the end of February as scene-setters aimed at adult collectors. The main wave, however, arrived on 1 August.

Twelve LEGO Pokémon SMART Play sets launched on that date, featuring Pokémon including Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Gengar, Eevee and Mew. The SMART Play System is built around the LEGO SMART Brick, which LEGO says contains more than twenty patented technologies, allowing builds to respond to play through light, sound, motion and sensing — all without a screen or app. Sets fall into two categories: All-in-One sets include a SMART Brick, charger and SMART Tags, while Compatible sets add SMART Tags but rely on a brick purchased separately.

Two sets carry the All-in-One designation: 72164 Training House with Pikachu (£59.99) and 72167 Charizard vs. Jolteon Ultimate Battle. The remaining eleven SMART Play sets are Compatible. The UK is a confirmed day-one market, with the range also available in the US, Australia, Germany, France and Poland from the same date.

Three mainline build-and-display sets also launched on 1 August: 72168 Rayquaza, 72160 Arcanine and 72150 Munchlax. The Rayquaza set contains 1,083 pieces and carries a US price of $129.99; a UK price has not been confirmed. Also coming — though not until 1 October 2026 — is 72154 Iconic Trainer Moments Poké Ball, priced at £229.99, which will be the first LEGO set to include Pokémon Trainer minifigures, alongside figures of Pikachu and Eevee. A companion piece, the Up-Scaled Red Minifigure (40868), is also due on 1 October at £69.99: it stands over 10 inches tall with movable arms, legs, hands and head, and contains 930 pieces.

To mark the launch, select LEGO Stores transformed into PokéStops and Gyms, offering fans the chance to unlock exclusive in-game rewards while supplies last.

LEGO Ideas 21369 The X-Files

Announced on 21 July 2026, LEGO Ideas The X-Files (21369) arrived for LEGO Insiders members on 1 August, ahead of a general release on 4 August. It is priced at £179.99 and available exclusively from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores.

The 1,478-piece, 18+ set was designed by Brisbane-based fan Brent Waller, whose previous Ideas submissions have become 21108 Ghostbusters ECTO-1 (2014) and 21328 Seinfeld (2021). This build recreates Fox Mulder's office with a forest section above and a UFO hovering at the top. It includes eight minifigures: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, Mr. X, Alex Krycek, Carl Busch, The Flukeman and a grey alien.

Buyers who purchased between 1 and 10 August received the 221-piece Scully's Lab (40896) as a free gift-with-purchase — that window has now closed. Scully's Lab recreates the classroom lab at the FBI National Academy and adds a minifigure of Scully in her lab coat. To mark the reveal, Emmy Award-winning actor Gillian Anderson starred in a cinematic mini-film in which she is drawn into an investigation that gradually leads her to discover the LEGO set itself.

The X-Files is one of three LEGO Ideas sets in the August wave, alongside 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and 21372 La Catrina.

LEGO Icons 11382 Hubble Space Telescope

Also released on 1 August, the LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope (11382) is priced at £119.99 and contains 1,252 pieces plus one astronaut minifigure included for scale. The model stands 33cm tall and 32cm wide on its stand, with adjustable solar arrays and antennas, opening aperture doors revealing the telescope's interior, and removable exterior panels providing access to an instrument bay complete with gyroscopes and the primary and secondary mirrors.

Despite the Hubble appearing as a sub-build in 2003's 7470 Space Shuttle Discovery-STS-31, 2017's 21312 Women of NASA and 2021's 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery, this is the first time the telescope has received a dedicated standalone set. The real Hubble was launched into low Earth orbit in April 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.

What else is worth noting

• The LEGO Editions Olivia Rodrigo sets were the fastest to sell out, going on backorder directly from LEGO within 48 hours of the wave launching, though third-party retailers still had stock at the time of writing.
• The Shrek Collectible Minifigures Series (71053) is due on 1 September 2026 at £3.49 per mystery bag. Thirteen characters — including Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss in Boots and Lord Farquaad — are spread across twelve bags, timed to Shrek's 25th anniversary and ahead of the forthcoming Shrek 5.

August 2026 represents the largest single-month LEGO release of the year to date, and for UK collectors it lands across nearly every major collecting category simultaneously — which is both an opportunity and, depending on available budget, something of a challenge.