These 5 Lego sets for adults under $99/£99/AU$99 are perfect Christmas gifts

If you're looking for a fun gift for someone this Christmas, I always say that you can't go wrong Lego – including for adults. Building one of the best Lego sets is quite a soothing and satisfying experience, and is just a great way to chill out.

And the cold Christmas days are the perfect time to spend some time building something cool, with a movie or tunes in the background.

Lego has known that it's popular with adults for this reason for years, and so makes lots of sets made with adults in mind, that are great ornamental pieces once's they're done, rather than playsets.

Obviously, Lego has a huge range of products overall, but I've picked what I think are five of the best Lego buys for adults today, and they're all under £99/$99, so they won't make your bank account brick itself.

1. Lego Bonsai Tree

This is one of several sets here I have at home, and it's even better in real life than it is in pictures. With the pink leaves in particular, it's such an elegant splash of colour to add to some shelves – and is especially fun if you mix it alongside real plants, like a little plastic imposter. But if you prefer, you can stick with green leaves, which also look great if you like the overall effect to be more in earthy tones.

It's the most delicate of the sets here when built, and the 'stones' in the base are loose tiny Lego dots, so it might not be the best options if you'll have to place it where kids can grab it. But otherwise, I love this, and recommend it to anyone.

2. Lego Architecture London Skyline

Lego has a whole range of skyline products, including great New York, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo options, but I think old London-town's quaint buildings and large wheel will be massively popular as a gift.

This is another one from my collection, and the skyline models are great partly because they have a very narrow footprint, so they're easy to just pop on a shelf alongside other stuff – even on a bookshelf that has books in already. They also look excellent in front of a window.

3. Lego Technic Ducati Panigale V4 R

This one is for the mechanics lovers out there. Lego's big and expensive Technic sets are fames for including realistic suspensions, steering, gearing, details and moving engine pistons on the vehicles, and this includes… all of that! Just on a smaller kind of vehicle, so it's a cheaper price.

That also makes it easier to display, of course. Kitted out in realistic Ducati red, this is such a looker, and with all those little functions, really rewards those who like to have a little fiddle with it from time to time as well – the perfect desk buddy.

4. Lego Ideas International Space Station

Once built, this is a bigger set than most of the options here thanks to the to-scale solar array, and is one of the most striking sets around as a result. It's another one I have in my collection, and it's a great one for those with limited time to build in any one go, because it comes together in quite neat modular chunks.

The ISS has a stand to make it easy to display, and then you also have a little scale space shuttle and cargo craft, plus micro-figure astronauts.

5. Lego Ideas Friends Central Perk

Could someone be any more excited to receive this as a gift? This set recreates the iconic coffee house, with little details ranging from the famous sofa to the counter and espresso gear, to the table layout and decorations on the wall. Brilliantly, it's designed to be just like the actual set from the show, meaning that's open at the front where the audience would have viewed from, and actually includes studio lights to reference it being a set.

Perhaps most importantly, though, you get the six friends themselves, all with looks from season one, and an accessory each. And as a bonus, you get Gunther to look melancholy behind the counter.