Best LEGO Helicopter Sets

About
Latest Posts

Frank has been building with LEGO far longer than he remembers. His personal favorite lines are LEGO City, space, and fantasy. But truthfully, he loves building everything, including DUPLO with his youngest child, LEGO Friends with his middle child, and Technic with his oldest. When he's not building with LEGO, you can catch Frank either playing a LEGO game or watching a LEGO movie, both of which he can never get enough of.

Selection Criteria

Here are some qualifications I factored in when making this Best LEGO Helicopter Sets list.

Size: Bigger isn’t always better, but it certainly helps.
Design: Helicopters can look pretty crazy, and that should be rewarded.
Playability: These are toys, after all, and deserve to be played with.

Helicopter Surveillance (60046)

This is a set I found fun because it offers up something different in terms of playability, which I consider one of the most important factors in a LEGO set. Rather than merely arresting the bad guys, this set focuses on surveillance. It comes with a bad guy hideout as well as a police officer to record them.

The helicopter plays into this idea as it’s outfitted to spy rather than arrest, which most helicopters that come with police stations and other vehicles are all about. So design-wise, there are a couple of tweaks to the way a normal helicopter looks to highlight what this specialized chopper is supposed to do.

Pros

Playability: It offers up a different and unique kind of play situation.
Design: Although it’s not as wild and crazy as some other helicopters, the surveillance side gives it a unique look.

Cons

Retired: LEGO discontinued the set, and it’s not the easiest to find online.

Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter (42145)

LEGO Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter Set 42145

While I love many entries on this list because they take helicopters to the extreme, this one is great because it does the opposite. It takes a helicopter in the real world as a model and does a great job adapting it for Technic. Its attention to detail is pretty remarkable. This helicopter is a pretty in-depth build, too.

The layers of Technic pieces stacked along the sides are pretty impressive. It also has a functioning winch and a motor for both the rotors to spin, so it has some playability, as well. The door can open and close, which not all Technic sets accommodate. All these factors combined make it a pretty impressive set, not just as far as Technics go but all of LEGO.

Pros

Dual rotors: It’s great that both of them work off of the same motor.
Playability: It’s not just a great model to display.

Cons

Price: All these great features come out of cost.

Coast Guard Helicopter (60013)

It’s always cool when they try to model a set after a real-life situation. This set is a Coast Guard rescue chopper with an unfortunate windsurfer stuck in the water. This is a situation that happens all the time in real life, so it’s especially fun to try and recreate it in LEGO City. There’s also a shark included just for some extra drama.

The best feature about this helicopter is a winch mechanism built right into the side. I was surprised by how well it worked, as I could have sworn something with this many moving parts inside of a single contained block would have gotten stuck more often than not.

Pros

Winch: It’s a cool mechanism. I don’t see a lot that works this well.
Many figures: I was also surprised by the number of figures included in the set, given how small it is.

Cons

Retired: It’s not the easiest or cheapest to find online.
Windsail: I’ve always hated these flimsy plastic pieces that never stay on right.

Fire Rescue Helicopter (60281)

I have to be honest. I only like this set for one reason, and it’s kind of obvious by its main selling point. It’s a fire and rescue helicopter that shoots water bullets. But even more special than that is the fact that the LEGO fire pieces are meant to be considered targets.

They can be set up not just on the set it comes with but also anywhere in the room. It’s almost like a mini-game where people can take turns trying to aim and put out the fires. The great thing about this set is that it could be paired with other sets throughout LEGO City.

It could work in tandem with police forces, other fire trucks, and even just all-around buildings in the city that might happen to catch fire. So its playability value is very high.

Pros

Playability: There’s so much to do with this set that it is essential in a city setting.
Water bullets: I’m surprised that more sets don’t have projectiles like this.

Cons

Design: Besides the launchers, the helicopter design is pretty straightforward.
Extras: The helicopter is undeniably the feature of the set, but it could have come with a better extra setting than a small tower.

Police Helicopter Chase (60243)

I love sets where the story is obvious, especially when it comes to the police. LEGO has been putting out more and more of these as they include named characters in their sets rather than generic figures. I also love stumbling upon sets that have something new and different.

This one has a chain with a magnet attached to it that can be used to lift the safe that the robbers are stealing. That kind of creative gameplay design is always awesome to see. Other than the magnet, the helicopter itself isn’t anything special. Still, the other vehicles in the set make it perfect for dropping in an already-built LEGO City and having an entire story unfold on the streets.

Pros

Price: Very reasonable for what you’re getting.
Magnet: More sets should utilize this feature.

Con

Basic vehicles: Besides the helicopter, the other vehicles are lacking.
Design: The helicopter body itself is pretty basic.

Jungle Cargo Helicopter (60158)

I’m a fan of LEGO Junior sets. They’re short, great builds that transition kids from DUPLO to regular LEGO sets. This one isn’t a LEGO Junior set, but it has that feel. The build is not too complicated, and yet you get to make a very cool helicopter design.

The design for the ATV isn’t nearly as cool, but it’s a nice addition that gives the set some awesome playability. Also, the helicopter’s winch can easily hook into the ATV, which makes for a truly unified set that’s a lot of fun. And with two figures, it’s just enough to pilot both the helicopter and the ATV at the same time.

Pros

Playability: When combined, the helicopter and ATV work together well.
Easy build: Great for youngsters to transition out of DUPLO.

Cons

Jungle setting: It’s a part of LEGO City but takes place in a jungle, so only other jungle sets work well with it.

Heavy Lift Helicopter (42052)

This entry is another Technic set that I had a lot of fun putting together. It’s different than the other one in that it doesn’t have a tail rotor. Instead, it has two main rotors on top of the helicopter. It’s also way more heavy-duty than the Airbus in terms of bulkiness, but it’s not a more complicated build. It’s pretty streamlined, which makes constructing it go a lot smoother.

For kids being introduced to Technic and wanting something to challenge them a little bit, this is a great introduction set. From a design standpoint, it doesn’t stand out amongst the flashier ones on the list, but it serves a purpose as a solid helicopter in the LEGO world.

Pros

Straightforward build: This one is perfect for not being completed.
Design: The dual rotors are a unique touch.

Cons

Retired: The set is getting harder to find.

Ambulance Helicopter (60179)

For the most part, this is a pretty straightforward helicopter. The build is relatively simple, and it doesn’t have too many unique features that make it stand out from other helicopters, except one. It’s on skis. The story built into this set is that it’s a mountain rescue helicopter specifically for a ski resort.

The set even comes with a nice snowboard figure that I’m impartial to, granted that I snowboard myself. But the fact that this set has a high playability factor with a setting not often utilized is a checkmark in its favor. It might not have any extras, but it does come with three figures, which means it’s pretty solid for its price tag.

Pros

Skis: That’s very cool for a helicopter to be able to land on a mountain like that.
Price: It’s just a good deal for what it is.

Cons

Design: Other than the skis, it’s a pretty standard chopper.
Standalone set: It’s great that it takes place on the mountain, but there aren’t too many other sets it can go with.

T-Rex Hunter (5886)

While it’s not the most fun set to put together, this helicopter is fun to play with. It pushes the limits of helicopter imagination as it is inherently built for capturing a dinosaur, which is not the most grounded or realistic of applications, but that’s perfectly fine. The basic concept behind the set is that the helicopter is supposed to fly over the dinosaur and capture it with a rig.

There’s also a small vehicle to add extra play value on the ground. From a design standpoint, this helicopter is pretty crazy and bizarre, but that’s one of the things I love about it. It takes the idea of dinosaur capture, something that lives completely in imagination, and tries to create as realistic a helicopter as possible in order to succeed in that mission.

Pros

Design: It’s an out-there-looking vehicle.
Playability: Dinosaurs are just naturally fun to play with.

Cons

Lack of figures: The dinosaur is pretty big, but the set doesn’t come with many human figures.
Price: Unfortunately, those I found online aren’t worth the price tag.

Police Heavy-Lift Helicopter (4439)

LEGO Police Heavy-Lift Helicopter set 4439

This set is a nice solid police helicopter that knows its job and does it well. It’s nothing fancy like other helicopters on the list. It’s simply a heavy-duty police helicopter made for transport. It goes very well with an already existing LEGO City and police force.

It’s easy for you to come up with missions that revolve around this helicopter and moving people in and out of a location. Because it works so well with others, it doesn’t work so well by itself. But it’s still a very fun set to build, regardless. It has a small ATV that can be loaded into the back. It’s a great addition that gives the set some extra playability.

Pros

Fun build: From a construction standpoint, it has many fun details to put together.
Rear loading: The ATV that can fit into the back is fun to unload.

Cons

Price: I thought it was a little much, given the number of pieces it includes.
Playability: It’s a great set, but only if you have other sets to support it.

Conclusion

If you learned anything from this list, it’s that helicopters can be utilized in an almost endless series of circumstances. They can be used for rescue, a police chase, and even capturing dinosaurs. And the imagination required to build a helicopter for all these situations runs deep.

Even the Technic helicopters are impressive works of engineering that recreate actual helicopters with immense detail. Unlike a plane, which requires a runway and to be constantly moving forward, a helicopter has a lot more playability with its ability to hover.

So between the fun construction and ways they can be played with, LEGO and helicopters go together extremely well.