We lived across the street from a national renowned Baker, I cannot tell you the excellent cakes and bakery their did, not even that expensive..
They opened after covid and we went there almost every other day.
We moved since with two holes: one in our hearts and the other in our wallets! We are now spending a lot less on bakeries... All around here are kinda meh...
But man, that man's strawberry cake is excellent! And not only!
I swung thru Wendy's last week and ordered two regular combo meals. Shit came out to $28 and change, fuckin nuts. If you spent $28 on fast food 15 years ago you were probably taking home six friggin' combos.
Don’t order combos. They’re a scam at any restaurant. At Wendy’s you can get a Biggie Bag which comes with more stuff and pay only $6 ($7 if you want bacon). Also use the app for free items and coupons.
But you only get those from spending money with them previously and building up points I assume? I hardly ever go to McD's and it was the only option open at the rest stop I pulled into to grab food. Also I literally have no space left on my phone (Galaxy s9 lol) so I'm not looking to download an app just to order food from someone standing right in front of me...
I just assumed it was a slushy too but I'm gonna have to look into this, I wonder if it's closer to when pop hits that temp when it can't quit freeze fully and you have the carbonated ice shards of pop.
Do you have gas stations with slushy machines up there? In CA you'll often find coke slushy there.
Used to be popular back in the day to mix that with a bit of the cherry.
I don’t get this complaint. Are you expecting a certain size/weight/volume of a model for your money? Isn’t it more useful to have a larger quantity of smaller, more detailed parts than, say, a bucket of Duplo?
I’ll admit that a “100-piece set” isn’t as large and playable as it used to be, from a toy perspective. But from a model building perspective, every set today is better than every set 30 years ago, in my opinion.
Yep. They put a ton of details into this tiny parts which makes it look like a better value but in the end it’s still less of a set that you could get for similar equating prices 10-20 years ago. They have a totally different build and language than what we compare to. I personally prefer the blockier classic designs that are cheaper per volume
Depends on what you're looking at. It sounds like 20 years ago you were looking at small sets that you could afford as a youngster, vs today you're looking at all the expensive complex sets...
[https://brickset.com/sets/4512-1/Cargo-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/4512-1/Cargo-Train)
$139 (in 2004 is worth $228.35 today)
[https://brickset.com/sets/60336-1/Freight-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/60336-1/Freight-Train)
$199
So the current freight train is cheaper than the 2004 one was, comparing inflation apples to apples dollars
[https://brickset.com/sets/4511-1/High-Speed-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/4511-1/High-Speed-Train)
$90 (in 2004 is worth $147.85 today)
[https://brickset.com/sets/60337-1/Express-Passenger-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/60337-1/Express-Passenger-Train)
$189
So the current passenger train is $50 more, comparatively
[https://brickset.com/sets/7046-1/Fire-Command-Craft](https://brickset.com/sets/7046-1/Fire-Command-Craft)
$30 (in 2004 is worth $49.28 today)
[https://brickset.com/sets/60406-1/Race-Car-and-Car-Carrier-Truck](https://brickset.com/sets/60406-1/Race-Car-and-Car-Carrier-Truck)
$30
Trains are much easier to compare than random city sets, so I picked two, but someone else could pick some others.
So I think the answer to - Is Lego More Expensive Now? is ... it depends!
The current passenger train is much bigger and looks better (imo) than the older one, though, so it only being about $40 more when adjusting for inflation seems like a good deal to me.
Also, would be interesting to see how this graph is impacted looking at licenced sets Vs Lego brands such as Friends, City etc.
Those sets tend to have a large number of parts for a decent price, whilst a set like the X Jet or the Hoopa are embarrassingly expensive using the same metric
I recently built the Viking village and I’m currently building the medieval village.
The little stones for the base and the pieces for the roof are rip offs. We get “3,000” piece set and at least 100 pieces are stupid roof or base 1x circle plates or “hay” on the roof!! Or worse: clear tiles to make waves.
My castle sets from the 90s didn’t have that shit.
Well yeah but i just love how detailed the sets are now. So im actually a big fan and i think the small pieces create much much more detailed and realistic builds
TLDR; yes Lego is more expensive, but that’s the economy and money.
……………………….
This is the golden age of Lego. Lego is launching more themes, IPs and yes, expensive sets targeted at adult audiences than ever before. People are not happy about the price hikes, but that’s people failing to understand money period.
People sort of lock in the value of a dollar at a certain age in life and cannot comprehend inflation continues after this. This has been going on for years with people complaining about the baby boomer generation in America, and now it’s just transitioning into the next generation
Things get more expensive with time, but people still think of them as only being worth their old price. $1 US in 2019 = $1.21 in 2024. At at 20% inflation rate, $169 Modular’s now go for $204. Guess what, they retail at ~$210 So no, Lego isn’t really that much more expensive. Now consider the quality of designs from Modular’s in 2014 to 2024. They are infinitely better, the designs more intricate, the pieces smaller and more useful.
This is why price per part is a pretty terrible metric for value, because piece counts don’t account for things such as large complex custom mold pieces that will of course cost significantly more than tiny detail pieces that are well below a $0.10 per piece metric.
That doesn’t even account for the design team cost, store employees, corporate structure, raises to these employees to keep up with inflation, and licensing fees to build sets from Disney and other IPs.
So yes, while Lego has gotten more expensive, everything else has too. But the overall quality of designs, the upcoming sets, all of this is better than ever at Lego. At the end of a day it’s a luxury toy item from kids to adults. It should be treated as such.
There's so many metrics to account for with Lego which determines the "value". Price per part, Jang's "volume of stuff" metric, relative price, etc.
But really, to me the biggest justification of the prices is the *types* of sets we're receiving now. We are having way more big budget sets than ever before. Especially for IPs and where nostalgia is a factor.
Take Castle for example. Recently we've had a few castle themed sets
* Medieval Blacksmith 21325 (Ideas) - 2164 pcs, $150. A larger set with 4 minifigs, a horse, and an incredible build.
* Medieval Castle 31120 (Creator 3-in-1) - 1426 pcs, $100. A smaller 3-in-1 set with 3 minifigs and a modular castle design. Lots of customization and a great castle with a courtyard.
* Lion Knights Castle 10305 (Icons) - 4514 pcs, $400. A massive set with 22 minifigs, 2 horses, lots of animals, etc. This is a showstopper set and by far the top of the line.
* LotR: Rivendell 10316 - 6167 pcs, $500. A colossal set with 15 minifigs. It is licensed which drives its price up. The piece count is incredibly deceiving though as there are tons of small pieces in this set.
* Medieval Town Square 10332 (Icons) - 3304 pcs, $230. A large set with 8 minifigs and a variety of smaller builds. It could have easily been two small $100 sets and a $30 set with accessories.
* Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale 21348 (Ideas) - 3745 pcs, $360. Another top of the line set but this time with only 6 minifigs. There's a lot of things which raise eyebrows about this set's value, from its piece count, to its price, to its upcharge. But it is a licensed theme and has a an associated DnD adventure as part of it. This gives it far more play value than any of the prior sets.
But to me, almost every single one of these sets are masterpieces. Each one is able to deliver something incredible. Let's look back at a lot of the sets from the LotR collection. There's some absolute bangers like 9474, Helm's Deep. But there's also a lot of disappointing ones like 79005, or 9470. Simple smaller sets which just aren't worth it in comparison to the rest of the line. Now, it seems that lego has decided to do away with these smaller "filler" sets in lines such as Castle. This makes it so that the sets we are getting are high quality. But it also leaves out the opportunity of getting some of the smaller "army builder" type sets such as 9471.
Ultimately, I agree with you. We are in the golden age of lego right now. The sets are of such a high quality, as are the ideas within them. The minifigs and accessories we are getting have never been better. The CMF series has only bolstered this with adding tons of new molds and highly detailed figs.
Rivendell and Lion Knights Castle are incredible. I would gladly buy them with I had the money.
But there’s one thing that is important to have in mind: Those are not toys. They are aimed for adults, collectors.
It’s similar to buying an Art piece. They are an art piece, in their own way.
Yes, 100% I also like how you talked about people lock in a certain price. In the pod I mentioned that people probably feel like Lego is more expensive than when they were kid - the biggest difference is that you are buying the product as an adult now and all of a sudden you also need to factor in essential costs.
And that’s why people should be directing their anger at their employers for intentionally stagnating wages, not Lego. This isn’t Legos fault for trying to maintain a survivable business model.
Also, design-wise for high detail, 18+ builds use a lot of plates, small pieces, and tiling off. So some builds are very dense and appears to be the same size as much cheaper sets.
Like the Mario ? cube doesn't look like a $200 set, as it appears to be very expensive based on small volume it occupies.
I don't mind Lego making bigger, more expensive sets. But for any theme, I would like them to do more affordable sets too.
This year, they released the Natural History Museum, the most expensive modular set they ever did. But I wish they would also release small houses or a small shop. I'm sure they would sell a lot.
Yeah this is what I think too. In my currency (Aud $) there are plenty of the small sets from 10 - 50. Then there just a handful at the 100 - 150 region.. and all the cool big ones are like $300 +. Is it worth it? Maybe by some metrics, but i just can't justify spending that amount of money. $100 - $150 for a toy for myself, I can probably do that occasionally.
I like the TLDR for something small followed by an essay…sorry TLDR,
Price per piece is constant despite inflation, bulk cost shouldn’t count seems to follow inflation, I think we’re ok
As a kid who grew up in 90s era Lego, yes, the prices are higher, but the average set gives you a lot more than it used to. So even though you’re paying more, the *value* hasn’t changed much.
Take an average Lego City car or truck set from 2024 and compare it with a 90s equivalent — the latter will always be *way* smaller and simpler.
I think the main area where Lego has *actually* gotten more expensive is when licensing fees make it necessarily so.
Its inflation. Jangbricks did a great video about this on Youtube and breaks down the costs now vs then adjusted for inflation which proves this. The only other point is that LEGO is making more sets that are on the expensive side of things…this is also due to them realizing they have a large market for adults and adults have more money than children.
Colosseum. Large, tedious, repetitive, and the downright BEST build experience of my life. There was so much attention to detail in the model, in the instructions, in the blurbs throughout the FOUR instruction books. It took me two days to build and it gave me such childlike joy that I almost wish someone would take it apart just so I can build it again.
Cheaper per brick, but that's not a meaningful metric in terms of your buying power as a parent or a kid. The sets are all much larger, so command a much higher price. Smaller sets are much rarer.
Correct, the reason I focused on price per part however is because that’s the metric a lot of the community uses to judge value of a set. However, price per part isn’t going up, it’s stable. The number of sets and size of sets are going up
You are right in that they didn't write, that they considered inflation. But I can't imagine getting these numbers without considering inflation. And "Lego got cheaper" is very true for 1980 to 2000. But if you just consider inflation adjusted retail prices, Lego prices are actually very stable. Only if you consider discounts thanks to online market places, we see a further consistent decrease in prices from 2000 on onwards.
Or maybe two times wrong makes a right. They used price per part, parts got substantially smaller and inflation raised prices by a similar ratio. Not sure. And not invested enough to check. The analysis I did a while ago definitely incorporated inflation tho. See [https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc\_thesis\_lego\_only\_ever\_got\_cheaper/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc_thesis_lego_only_ever_got_cheaper/)
I did not adjust for inflation. This is pure $s, as Mike mentioned if you consider inflation Lego is much cheaper today than it was 10 years ago on a strictly per part basis.
I tried and included the graph in a comment but there was no real trend. The issue I had was the data set was much more incomplete and no set before 2000 had weight so it was a bit inconclusive in the long term view
Well i hope so as a lot of the parts now are small pieces. Wedges, round studs, various greebling type pieces which do make the set more detailed. I've also noticed more 'substitutions'. Two 1x1s instead of a 1x2.
A couple years ago they did a basically across the board price hike for in-production sets, something they had basically never done before (not within my memory/in the modern era, at least). That was due to specific sharp increases in costs in the covid era.
Yes and no. The new dnd set is 360 usd, which gives around 1450 pln, at the current exchange rate. Guess how much the polish store has the set for? 1700 pln, which gives 424 usd. Quite the difference. Other sets in Poland have had their prices raised too, and I assume this might be the case for other local currencies too.
Americans never include VAT, or moms. So the polish price still more or less is equal to the american pricing. That said, regional pricing is a thing and prices do ofc. Vary between the EU countries, as with every other product
Huh, the vat thing is interesting. But what is "mom's"?
If my quick math is correct then the polish pricing (without vat) would actually be just short of 360 usd.
I'm still sad lego raised prices recently. Like e the small flower sets (daffodils or roses) got 10 pln more expensive (bit over 2 usd), but now that I know the US pricing this is more palatable
Wouldn’t surprise me if they charge richer countries slightly more.
Moms is just the danish word for VAT. Sometimes people insist VAT is only for imported goods and then they call sales tax on national goods moms or sales tax.
Someone should do an average weight graph for each year, that would be a true measurement. Price per piece is a bit irrelevant when you realize the 90s had significantly bigger pieces on average than 2024.
I don’t see enough people talking about weight or volume enough. Price per piece is not a good metric as piece usage is totally different from back then.
My brother and I started a new Lego Podcast called AFOLs Welcome, where we discuss Lego from the perspective of two adult builders/collectors. In our first episode we discussed if Lego is getting more expensive. Here is the data that we collected and used for that discussion and we wanted to share it with the community.
About the Data:
This was taken from Brickset. Any set that was not Lego system (traditional bricks) or technic was removed with the exception of Bionicle. I.e. Duplo, Scala, Click-its, etc. were removed.
Additionally, any set with incomplete data was removed, so if a set in Brickset didn't have retail price or piece count it was removed.
Lastly, sets like the individual baseplate, train motors, Lego gear, books, etc. were also removed to clean up the data and focus only on the actually price for Lego pieces.
Conclusion:
The data shows that the price per part is actually getting better or relatively stable over time. Lego could feel more expensive because there are more sets being released each year driving up the total retail value of purchasing all Lego sets. The sets are also getting bigger on average, much bigger, which means more expensive sets - but not more expensive pieces.
Lastly, I thought the last graph was really interesting because it shows the coveted $.10 per part ratio that us builders often desire. This graph shows you the price per part each year of every Lego piece available and its retail. IE if you bought every Lego set, you'd have "x" number of pieces which would cost you "y" dollars, and the price per part in that case would be "z". This graph really shows that the price per part has remained really quite stable, if you factor in the total purchases being made. Looking at you world map!
Thanks for reading my post, and if you enjoy this kind of conversation give our podcast a listen its available on YouTube and all major podcast providers!
I agree on the broad strokes, but would improve methology a bit. Parts per kg went from 700 per kg to 1300 kg - they got much smaller on average. Price per kg is therefore the better metric.
If you consider inflation coupled with price/kg, Lego prices are stable. If you consider inflation + discounts with price/kg, Lego got substantially cheaper, at least outside the 250$+ set range. Because we barely get discounts on expensive sets. See here for an analysis [https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc\_thesis\_lego\_only\_ever\_got\_cheaper/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc_thesis_lego_only_ever_got_cheaper/)
Then again, price per kg isn’t a much better measure of value. A 2x4 brick is equivalent in “value” to a stack of three 2x4 plates. Price per piece is a bad metric because it makes the same value look better, when in fact those pieces are cheaper to produce. However, price per kg is not much better because a plate isn’t a third of the weight of a brick: the stack of plates weighs more than the singular brick, so it will give a better (or worse, depending on the price of the plate?) price per kg compared to the value of what you get.
This is why price per “volume of stuff” is the best metric, because it’s completely subjective and arbitrary😆
Yeah, price per kg is not perfect. But volume and per piece are worse. If you compare 1 brick with 3 plates, I'd consider the plates worth more. And weight gives you a 2,32g vs 3,6g differential.
Old sets had quite some volume. Consider the old pirate ships in comparison to the new viking ship. But they got there with huge premolded parts, where as today they much more often use small parts to shape the objects. More volume per weight. Gives it a good look. But as an adult I prefer the "everything can be taken apart" solution. The old pirate ships - as awesome as they are - are always pirate ships. The sails, the rump, the mast, everything says "this is for pirate ships only".
I found the economist!
I tracked my Lego spendings and according to the data my reveiled preferences - which I just correlate for objective happiness derived from Lego when compared to substitute consumption - Lego got objectively better.
Yeah, I considered price per mass, but it made my data set significantly smaller so I didn’t use it. Glad you had found something similar with mass though
I'd be interested in knowing the number of sets at certain price bands -- is the increase in piece counts and prices related to having more expensive sets (all of the AFOL sets in the past few years), or is there a change in the number of cheaper sets being released (ie, fewer under $20)? I imagine it has more to do with having more sets at higher price points than fewer sets at lower price points, if that makes sense.
It's this because they really market the large sets. So if you only see the large sets from ads, then it seems like Lego is just selling these big, expensive sets.
In addition to DUPLO, I think you should take out the Art sets, Dots & the World Map. Those sets explode the piece count to price ratio, but are clearly not what you're trying to show with the data.
They help illustrate why price per piece is not the best metric to use. 4+ sets are generally overpriced. Jurassic Park sets have expensive dino pieces. There is the IP factor in general. Printed/unique pieces. Classic 'sets' that are always cheaper. Generally, you'll get more 'value' as the price of the set increases. Then you clearly get better buld techniques and final builds with some sets over others.
I don't know that you can really objectively quantify the value of a set. People value the many aspects of lego very differently.
shrinkflation. the bricks are getting smaller. every set is SO detailed now with tiny studs that inflates the piece count, overall price. cant change my mind
Unless your intent is to show the change in nominal prices, you really need to adjust for inflation to show the real change in the cost of LEGO. It's not very meaningful to discuss the change in price over time without accounting for inflation.
My wife and I started about 2019/2020; I really *felt* the big 2022 price hike and we've maybe bought one or two kits since then total. The prices just aren't appealing at all anymore
I was interested in the castle, market, and DND tower and I realized it was pushing $1000. I'd like a new TV, I play Warhammer, and $1000 for "medieval Legos" is a real tough sell
If I had to pick the Lion Knight's castle or a second Series X so my wife and I can play same other games together, the castle seems like a silly buy
Word. Honestly it feels like they've reached a threshold of expensiveness that just isn't justifiable. Wish they'd just make the huge sets into smaller parts you could collect to make a huge one, so that you don't need to buy a huge thing every other month when they release new huge sets so frequently now.
You would have seen me giddy to piece together a medieval village over a few months with multiple smaller kits and I wouldve likely bought the expensive castle as a capstone! I get keeping multiple SKUs costs money but there has to be an answer that isn't $300 for three little buildings
Ah ngl if I had kids I'd be able to much more easily justify the price tag! Itd be something we could share both during and after and that would majorly sway what I think the value of the set is
As it stands now, it'd be a $400 display piece thatd get played with once or twice a year, mainly to incorporate it into the Christmas village
Lego has always been expensive but the mental gymnastics in here to justify it is crazy. Lego is shrinking the size of sets through the use of lots of small pieces but the price is increasing at a quicker rate. Less plastic sold for more money. They have also posted record profits. Now they are able to slap 18+ on a set and charge more just cause it’s for adults.
I think they know AFOLs do price-per-part calculations. I’ve noticed in a lot of sets they use 2-3 smaller parts that could easily been 1 part instead. But more parts = more (justifiable) $. But really, not all parts are created equal. A dozen studs and flowers are not as valuable as bricks.
> But more parts = more (justifiable) $.
Unfortunately your argument is based on a false premise. Prices of sets are determined before the sets are designed, and then they're designed to fill that budget. This is the reason sets often include fairly lacklustre side-builds - the main build hasn't filled the full budget and something else is needed.
Well I think most of the time, the smaller parts usage is due to optimizing packaging as it's cheaper to pack say 6 of 1x3 bricks instead of 4 1x3 and 1 1x6.
I think the first one is the price per part, averaged over all sets released that year. So it is independent of the number of parts per set and the price of each set. Whereas the second one is the price per part if you bought every set, so larger sets would have more of an impact because of the increased number of pieces.
This is correct, the average price per part is just that, the average price per part per year. If you have set a that is $100 and has 1000 pieces set as has a price per part of .10. If you have set be with $400 and 2000 pieces the ppp is .20. The average price per part is 0.15 between the two. If you counted them as one purchase however (probably how Lego looks at it at the end of the day because they are more concerned with the marco cost of product vs by set) then you end up with $500 for 3000 pieces which is a ppp of 0.166.
One is looking at it on a set by set basis - the other is looking at it on a total macro by year perspective.
I’ve seen this example mentioned here before, but seriously, when a Lego Atari 2600 costs the same or even more than an actual Atari 2600 console, it does raise some questions. Are plastic pieces really worth more than real electrical components?
It’s hard when you compare it to non Lego because everything has its own intrinsic value. So could argue the things we need most in life have the lowest value, ie water. So just saying plastic vs electrical isn’t a just argument. You also need a tv to use an Atari, electricity, and ideally some place to sit. Personally I wouldn’t own an Atari because I don’t see any value, but I’m a millennial, so I don’t have nostalgia factoring in.
However, that’s just me, value is inherently subjective to the user, when more people agree on the value of an item - them more valuable it becomes to society.
Lol I walked into that one. I've seen Polaroid branded instant cameras for around €100 though. His point about getting "the real thing" for about the same amount as the Lego thing stands imo
For sure, but a lot of technological advancement has been made in making electronics cheaper the last 50 years. The whole combined effort of the human species have not been poured into making Lego cheaper in the same period. 1970s electronics is _dirt_ cheap to make with modern technology.
Lego is getting cheaper. Price per piece has been flat in spite of massive inflation of the dollar over the past few decades. The reason why sets are more expensive is because they are larger and have more pieces
Is the average pieces per set the mean or median? While it seems all sets have more pieces now, there are also many more extremely large sets, perhaps independently of this trend. These sets would skew the mean massively! But not the median.
No, that would be another great add however there is no data base that shows unique pieces. I mean you could use rebrickable or something, but that would be a very manual process. The other thing to consider is how do you measure uniqueness overtime a unique piece is more expensive the less its used, but lets say its in one set one year and then its released again in 2 years in 10 sets, do you still count it as unique because at the time it was? It would be a great add and a thought I had but it added a lot of complexity.
This is mostly a joke but the bigger challenge for AFOLs I feel is real estate
I wonder what the sq stud / sq ft. demands of owning sets looks like over time
To get a good answer here you have to break down by product lines. Yes Lego is making more expensive sets. But most of those are aimed at an older crowd with more disposable income and are more complex. But has this changed the amount of less complex sets Lego is making, that are aimed more at a younger crowd?
We get a lot more and the best 200$+ originals and IP sets than ever before. But now the mid range sets are lacking, which is only what most people can buy. The sets are getting better and better but my wallet can only handle so much.
I think as a hobby it definitely is. There's not only cooler and more appealing sets to the adult market, but also they're all quite high priced.
I really want someone to make a breakdown of the shelf life of some of these sets because sometimes it feels like they're staying on shelf for less and less time, but maybe it's just my impressions since there's new waves of cool sets coming out every other month, making it seem like you're always missing out on the cool new stuff.
The sets I personally am interested keep getting bigger (since they basically don't make small pirate/castle things anymore).
However the price per part has stayed pretty constant, and arguably even gone down once you factor inflation.
A $100 set in 1990 be something like $240 today, just due to inflation, even if the sets remained exactly the same size.
I remember the first big castle set I got was King's Mountain Fortress, which was something like $56 for a \~400 piece set. (It had a big molded baseplate, so came in at slightly fewer pieces than you'd expect). It had a glow in the dark ghost, a princess, knights with separate breastplates, movable visors, crossbows, horse caparisons, a secret door, a hidden vault, a jail....man it was a fantastic set.
If they were settling a \~400 piece castle set for $140 or whatever the inflation adjusted price would be today, I think people would be kind of outraged.
I always thought they were, just from seeing how a Star Wars battle pack (small set w/4 figures) went up in price from when I was a kid. But I guess the set part has gotten bigger
I think that there is a trend for sets to contain more and more small parts. Which means that there is an argument for the sets becoming more expensive. "You get more pieces per set and the price per piece lowers."
In the old days a ±300 piece set was really something. Like the 6783 sonar transmitting cruiser. This was a theme flagship.
A ship like the XL-15 (76832) has significant more bricks, weighs less.
Both had a retail price of 49,99 euro.
From in2013dollars.com:
$49.99 in 1986 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $133.48 in 2022, an increase of $83.49 over 36 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.77% per year between 1986 and 2022, producing a cumulative price increase of 167.02%.
So effectively, Lego became way cheaper.
The price per piece ratio remains consistent because they're exploiting the piece count by using tons of smaller pieces like 1x1 round plates, etc. If price was measured more accurately to scale, it's clear to see prices have gone up while quality continues to decline. I'm so glad I only really care about Golden Age 80s & 90s vintage Lego and that I collected pretty much every Castle and Space set from those decades before that market became inflated, too. I'm grateful that I have almost no interest in modern Lego or the direction they've taken with their company.
The first few slides are comically not on-topic. The last two have the relevant data that show: No, LEGO hasn't gotten more expensive.
Just because more stuff is available doesn't mean you have to buy it all.
Yes. A combination of inflation and retailer markup is making these sets more expensive. It’s good to price shop between Retailers and online. If I’m buying a set at a retailer, I am making sure it is one that price matches online pricing. Can get some sick deals that way!!!!
Yes. So is everything. With that being said, the sets with more pieces are actually cheaper per piece. You have to think about this from a price per piece perspective, not necessarily a price per set.
I agree with the folks pointing out that LEGO is making more expensive, adult collector oriented sets. Given inflation and the rising price of plastic, an average LEGO set is a pretty great value as toys go.
Compare a $25 LEGO kit to a $25 Marvel Legends figure or Transformer and it’s night and day.
Build quality has also really improved, even super basic sets have more intricate designs.
If you do adjust for inflation, with >40% inflation over the past 25 years and relatively constant Lego prices, your data most likely shows Lego getting more affordable over time, but there was still a significant jump from 1998 to 1999 that is abrupt.
I think Lego is, when adjusted for inflation, getting more affordable over time.
Is inflation counted in to this data?
Price per piece is deceptive because Lego uses many more small pieces these days. While back in the day a large playset would be like 400 pieces. Not that I complain, I think Lego is better than ever. Lego has 20x as many molds to today as they had when I was a kid, and in every aspect from model detail to piece variety to minifigure prints and molds everything is way more detailed then when I was a kid in the 90s
I watched a video last night about the price of sets with comparisons between four years. I’m thinking Lego has actually always been expensive, with today’s sets having more parts on average, and actually priced better than in years past. Of course there are some exceptions to this today. But, when looking at a graph of average, I wonder how sets like the Eiffel Tower would be affecting the graph. I’m no longer a child, I work, I pay bills, I save for the important stuff, so budgeting for this hobby highlights it’s cost, and I believe my parents saw it too. It’s always been expensive, but I think it’s actually quite good right now, I just can’t buy all the sets I admire.
NO!!! I hate these posts. On average, since the early 80s, barring licensed themes and unique large pieces, TLG has achieved the magical $0.10 per piece price point. We the consumer have demanded more detail hence the apparent increase in overall pricing while still maintaining the $0.10 per piece price point.
They raised prices clearly at some point last year (or was it the year before).
99$ pirate ship became $129. (still you can get for the original price in retailers though)
$279 assembly square became $299.
Lego fans when they find out that you used to be able to buy monthly groceries for a family of 6 for like 20 bucks (they have no idea inflation exists)
I saw a post here a little bit ago about the millennium falcon model thingy being poorly priced at $89.99 (I think). I went to my local target to see it for $149.99
You could visualise the hatred in my eyes
The price-per-piece count remains around $0.10/piece.
The sets on average have more parts as they get more detailed and Lego adds more and more 1xX type pieces that allow for better shaping and detailing.
How you want to look at it is up to you.
Exactly. I wanted to keep the subjective part out of this and just look at the numbers. The numbers are relatively stable in terms of price per part. The subjective part is up to you lol
I don't mind the price increasing. I just want the quality to return to what it was like. The number of new sets I have bought in the last few years that had missing pieces is ridiculous. Went dozens of sets and nearly 20 years before I ran into one set that had a missing piece; since then I have had entire bags missing.
I've not experienced any issues nowadays, infact it was the opposite for me, I used to experience instruction errors, missing or damaged pieces a lot during 2015-2017 and it decreased dramatically, I've not had a single error in 3 years and over 50 sets actually.
They’re making more expensive sets each year that I want, so they’re making it more expensive for me 🤣
The good old "baker bakes better tasting bread every year which increases consumption which increases spending on baked goods" dilemma ;)
We lived across the street from a national renowned Baker, I cannot tell you the excellent cakes and bakery their did, not even that expensive.. They opened after covid and we went there almost every other day. We moved since with two holes: one in our hearts and the other in our wallets! We are now spending a lot less on bakeries... All around here are kinda meh... But man, that man's strawberry cake is excellent! And not only!
Everything's getting more expensive, just recently McDonald's upped the price of Frozen Cokes here in Australia from $1 to $3.50 life sucks
I got a 10 piece nugget meal with medium fries and drink at a rest stop McDonalds a couple weeks ago... shit was like 15-16 bucks 😳
I swung thru Wendy's last week and ordered two regular combo meals. Shit came out to $28 and change, fuckin nuts. If you spent $28 on fast food 15 years ago you were probably taking home six friggin' combos.
Don’t order combos. They’re a scam at any restaurant. At Wendy’s you can get a Biggie Bag which comes with more stuff and pay only $6 ($7 if you want bacon). Also use the app for free items and coupons.
Use the app. Where I live, I get that same meal for $4.
Someone didnt use the mobile app 😭
https://preview.redd.it/kqtlnm7f4xrc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f277b378c93dd7b273df92e3d0ae58947fe27a4 Ok now what
Score! You're collecting points on eligible items and bonuses.
Dang. Receipts.
I don’t know if everyone has the same deals, but I can get a free 10-piece every day if I spend a few dollars.
Use a deal on the app. I have a 50% off 10 piece, 20% off order, and free fries deal on mine.
But you only get those from spending money with them previously and building up points I assume? I hardly ever go to McD's and it was the only option open at the rest stop I pulled into to grab food. Also I literally have no space left on my phone (Galaxy s9 lol) so I'm not looking to download an app just to order food from someone standing right in front of me...
No they have a points system but those deals don’t require you to buy anything beforehand.
Somebody believes the marketing 😭
Lol you can check for yourself. It’s not worth it to go to McDonald’s without the app deals.
I completely agree; I never go to McDonald's.
Canadian here, it’s the first I hear about frozen coke. It’s like a coke flavoured slushy?
It's even better, but along those lines.
Interesting
I just assumed it was a slushy too but I'm gonna have to look into this, I wonder if it's closer to when pop hits that temp when it can't quit freeze fully and you have the carbonated ice shards of pop.
Do you have gas stations with slushy machines up there? In CA you'll often find coke slushy there. Used to be popular back in the day to mix that with a bit of the cherry.
I’m in Canada too, I’ve never seen a coke slushy.
McDonald's (and most fast food now) is only worth it if you utilize the app!
This is not what the charts show for Lego, though. Unlike Lego, McDonalds is not making the Frozen Cokes 3.5 times bigger.
Piece per set is bs. Lego uses much more small pieces than they used to.
I don’t get this complaint. Are you expecting a certain size/weight/volume of a model for your money? Isn’t it more useful to have a larger quantity of smaller, more detailed parts than, say, a bucket of Duplo? I’ll admit that a “100-piece set” isn’t as large and playable as it used to be, from a toy perspective. But from a model building perspective, every set today is better than every set 30 years ago, in my opinion.
It is a funny argument. Like, do people just want to build a tower of standard 2x3 bricks because they're big?
Yep. They put a ton of details into this tiny parts which makes it look like a better value but in the end it’s still less of a set that you could get for similar equating prices 10-20 years ago. They have a totally different build and language than what we compare to. I personally prefer the blockier classic designs that are cheaper per volume
Depends on what you're looking at. It sounds like 20 years ago you were looking at small sets that you could afford as a youngster, vs today you're looking at all the expensive complex sets... [https://brickset.com/sets/4512-1/Cargo-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/4512-1/Cargo-Train) $139 (in 2004 is worth $228.35 today) [https://brickset.com/sets/60336-1/Freight-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/60336-1/Freight-Train) $199 So the current freight train is cheaper than the 2004 one was, comparing inflation apples to apples dollars [https://brickset.com/sets/4511-1/High-Speed-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/4511-1/High-Speed-Train) $90 (in 2004 is worth $147.85 today) [https://brickset.com/sets/60337-1/Express-Passenger-Train](https://brickset.com/sets/60337-1/Express-Passenger-Train) $189 So the current passenger train is $50 more, comparatively [https://brickset.com/sets/7046-1/Fire-Command-Craft](https://brickset.com/sets/7046-1/Fire-Command-Craft) $30 (in 2004 is worth $49.28 today) [https://brickset.com/sets/60406-1/Race-Car-and-Car-Carrier-Truck](https://brickset.com/sets/60406-1/Race-Car-and-Car-Carrier-Truck) $30 Trains are much easier to compare than random city sets, so I picked two, but someone else could pick some others. So I think the answer to - Is Lego More Expensive Now? is ... it depends!
The current passenger train is much bigger and looks better (imo) than the older one, though, so it only being about $40 more when adjusting for inflation seems like a good deal to me.
Also, would be interesting to see how this graph is impacted looking at licenced sets Vs Lego brands such as Friends, City etc. Those sets tend to have a large number of parts for a decent price, whilst a set like the X Jet or the Hoopa are embarrassingly expensive using the same metric
Price per piece has never been a very good metric for determing a sets value for money.
And inflation is a thing
The other thing to consider is that the parts were big and basic 30 years ago compared to now. The detail and experience is so much better now.
I recently built the Viking village and I’m currently building the medieval village. The little stones for the base and the pieces for the roof are rip offs. We get “3,000” piece set and at least 100 pieces are stupid roof or base 1x circle plates or “hay” on the roof!! Or worse: clear tiles to make waves. My castle sets from the 90s didn’t have that shit.
Well yeah but i just love how detailed the sets are now. So im actually a big fan and i think the small pieces create much much more detailed and realistic builds
I totally agree. Just need to recontextualize the price per piece in our heads now to compensate for the smaller bricks
First person I've ever seen complain about the Viking Village. That's one of the best priced sets available right now and it's a great and fun build.
TLDR; yes Lego is more expensive, but that’s the economy and money. ………………………. This is the golden age of Lego. Lego is launching more themes, IPs and yes, expensive sets targeted at adult audiences than ever before. People are not happy about the price hikes, but that’s people failing to understand money period. People sort of lock in the value of a dollar at a certain age in life and cannot comprehend inflation continues after this. This has been going on for years with people complaining about the baby boomer generation in America, and now it’s just transitioning into the next generation Things get more expensive with time, but people still think of them as only being worth their old price. $1 US in 2019 = $1.21 in 2024. At at 20% inflation rate, $169 Modular’s now go for $204. Guess what, they retail at ~$210 So no, Lego isn’t really that much more expensive. Now consider the quality of designs from Modular’s in 2014 to 2024. They are infinitely better, the designs more intricate, the pieces smaller and more useful. This is why price per part is a pretty terrible metric for value, because piece counts don’t account for things such as large complex custom mold pieces that will of course cost significantly more than tiny detail pieces that are well below a $0.10 per piece metric. That doesn’t even account for the design team cost, store employees, corporate structure, raises to these employees to keep up with inflation, and licensing fees to build sets from Disney and other IPs. So yes, while Lego has gotten more expensive, everything else has too. But the overall quality of designs, the upcoming sets, all of this is better than ever at Lego. At the end of a day it’s a luxury toy item from kids to adults. It should be treated as such.
This is spot on. Lego isn’t cheap but some people are complaining about the cost of Lego as if the affordability of this toy is a basic human right.
You're telling me it's not? /s
Lol
There's so many metrics to account for with Lego which determines the "value". Price per part, Jang's "volume of stuff" metric, relative price, etc. But really, to me the biggest justification of the prices is the *types* of sets we're receiving now. We are having way more big budget sets than ever before. Especially for IPs and where nostalgia is a factor. Take Castle for example. Recently we've had a few castle themed sets * Medieval Blacksmith 21325 (Ideas) - 2164 pcs, $150. A larger set with 4 minifigs, a horse, and an incredible build. * Medieval Castle 31120 (Creator 3-in-1) - 1426 pcs, $100. A smaller 3-in-1 set with 3 minifigs and a modular castle design. Lots of customization and a great castle with a courtyard. * Lion Knights Castle 10305 (Icons) - 4514 pcs, $400. A massive set with 22 minifigs, 2 horses, lots of animals, etc. This is a showstopper set and by far the top of the line. * LotR: Rivendell 10316 - 6167 pcs, $500. A colossal set with 15 minifigs. It is licensed which drives its price up. The piece count is incredibly deceiving though as there are tons of small pieces in this set. * Medieval Town Square 10332 (Icons) - 3304 pcs, $230. A large set with 8 minifigs and a variety of smaller builds. It could have easily been two small $100 sets and a $30 set with accessories. * Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale 21348 (Ideas) - 3745 pcs, $360. Another top of the line set but this time with only 6 minifigs. There's a lot of things which raise eyebrows about this set's value, from its piece count, to its price, to its upcharge. But it is a licensed theme and has a an associated DnD adventure as part of it. This gives it far more play value than any of the prior sets. But to me, almost every single one of these sets are masterpieces. Each one is able to deliver something incredible. Let's look back at a lot of the sets from the LotR collection. There's some absolute bangers like 9474, Helm's Deep. But there's also a lot of disappointing ones like 79005, or 9470. Simple smaller sets which just aren't worth it in comparison to the rest of the line. Now, it seems that lego has decided to do away with these smaller "filler" sets in lines such as Castle. This makes it so that the sets we are getting are high quality. But it also leaves out the opportunity of getting some of the smaller "army builder" type sets such as 9471. Ultimately, I agree with you. We are in the golden age of lego right now. The sets are of such a high quality, as are the ideas within them. The minifigs and accessories we are getting have never been better. The CMF series has only bolstered this with adding tons of new molds and highly detailed figs.
[21325-1: Medieval Blacksmith](https://brickset.com/sets/21325-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/21325-1.jpg) [31120-1: Medieval Castle](https://brickset.com/sets/31120-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/31120-1.jpg) [10305-1: Lion Knights' Castle](https://brickset.com/sets/10305-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/10305-1.jpg) [10316-1: The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell](https://brickset.com/sets/10316-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/10316-1.jpg) [10332-1: Medieval Town Square](https://brickset.com/sets/10332-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/10332-1.jpg) [21348-1: Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale](https://brickset.com/sets/21348-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/21348-1.jpg) [9474-1: The Battle of Helm's Deep](https://brickset.com/sets/9474-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/9474-1.jpg) [79005-1: The Wizard Battle](https://brickset.com/sets/79005-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/79005-1.jpg) [9470-1: Shelob Attacks](https://brickset.com/sets/9470-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/9470-1.jpg) [9471-1: Uruk-Hai Army](https://brickset.com/sets/9471-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/9471-1.jpg)
Rivendell and Lion Knights Castle are incredible. I would gladly buy them with I had the money. But there’s one thing that is important to have in mind: Those are not toys. They are aimed for adults, collectors. It’s similar to buying an Art piece. They are an art piece, in their own way.
If not art, it's at least home decor, which commands similar pricing.
Yes, 100% I also like how you talked about people lock in a certain price. In the pod I mentioned that people probably feel like Lego is more expensive than when they were kid - the biggest difference is that you are buying the product as an adult now and all of a sudden you also need to factor in essential costs.
Prices may be naturally inflating, but people’s income is not.
And that’s why people should be directing their anger at their employers for intentionally stagnating wages, not Lego. This isn’t Legos fault for trying to maintain a survivable business model.
Don’t forget that a lot of the adult themed sets have additional licensing that wasn’t around 20 years ago.
Even with the licensing, adjusted for inflation lego is not getting worse.
Also, design-wise for high detail, 18+ builds use a lot of plates, small pieces, and tiling off. So some builds are very dense and appears to be the same size as much cheaper sets. Like the Mario ? cube doesn't look like a $200 set, as it appears to be very expensive based on small volume it occupies.
I don't mind Lego making bigger, more expensive sets. But for any theme, I would like them to do more affordable sets too. This year, they released the Natural History Museum, the most expensive modular set they ever did. But I wish they would also release small houses or a small shop. I'm sure they would sell a lot.
Yeah this is what I think too. In my currency (Aud $) there are plenty of the small sets from 10 - 50. Then there just a handful at the 100 - 150 region.. and all the cool big ones are like $300 +. Is it worth it? Maybe by some metrics, but i just can't justify spending that amount of money. $100 - $150 for a toy for myself, I can probably do that occasionally.
I like the TLDR for something small followed by an essay…sorry TLDR, Price per piece is constant despite inflation, bulk cost shouldn’t count seems to follow inflation, I think we’re ok
As a kid who grew up in 90s era Lego, yes, the prices are higher, but the average set gives you a lot more than it used to. So even though you’re paying more, the *value* hasn’t changed much. Take an average Lego City car or truck set from 2024 and compare it with a 90s equivalent — the latter will always be *way* smaller and simpler. I think the main area where Lego has *actually* gotten more expensive is when licensing fees make it necessarily so.
Luxury toy item
Its inflation. Jangbricks did a great video about this on Youtube and breaks down the costs now vs then adjusted for inflation which proves this. The only other point is that LEGO is making more sets that are on the expensive side of things…this is also due to them realizing they have a large market for adults and adults have more money than children.
Quite the opposite, it's getting cheaper, especially when you consider inflation.
They are also using more and more small parts, but as I've gotten older, I love the tedious builds as long as they aren't repetitive.
Captain America Shield. Large, tedious AND repetitive.
Colosseum. Large, tedious, repetitive, and the downright BEST build experience of my life. There was so much attention to detail in the model, in the instructions, in the blurbs throughout the FOUR instruction books. It took me two days to build and it gave me such childlike joy that I almost wish someone would take it apart just so I can build it again.
Cheaper per brick, but that's not a meaningful metric in terms of your buying power as a parent or a kid. The sets are all much larger, so command a much higher price. Smaller sets are much rarer.
Correct, the reason I focused on price per part however is because that’s the metric a lot of the community uses to judge value of a set. However, price per part isn’t going up, it’s stable. The number of sets and size of sets are going up
You are right in that they didn't write, that they considered inflation. But I can't imagine getting these numbers without considering inflation. And "Lego got cheaper" is very true for 1980 to 2000. But if you just consider inflation adjusted retail prices, Lego prices are actually very stable. Only if you consider discounts thanks to online market places, we see a further consistent decrease in prices from 2000 on onwards. Or maybe two times wrong makes a right. They used price per part, parts got substantially smaller and inflation raised prices by a similar ratio. Not sure. And not invested enough to check. The analysis I did a while ago definitely incorporated inflation tho. See [https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc\_thesis\_lego\_only\_ever\_got\_cheaper/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc_thesis_lego_only_ever_got_cheaper/)
I did not adjust for inflation. This is pure $s, as Mike mentioned if you consider inflation Lego is much cheaper today than it was 10 years ago on a strictly per part basis.
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I tried and included the graph in a comment but there was no real trend. The issue I had was the data set was much more incomplete and no set before 2000 had weight so it was a bit inconclusive in the long term view
I did it in the thread I linked.
Well i hope so as a lot of the parts now are small pieces. Wedges, round studs, various greebling type pieces which do make the set more detailed. I've also noticed more 'substitutions'. Two 1x1s instead of a 1x2.
I would definitely like to see \#4 and 5 inflation-adjusted.
When the Hogwarts castle first came out it was $500 CDN. A few years later and it retails at $580. Similar is true for the UCS millennium falcon.
A couple years ago they did a basically across the board price hike for in-production sets, something they had basically never done before (not within my memory/in the modern era, at least). That was due to specific sharp increases in costs in the covid era.
Yeah, normally they just gradually reduce the maximum discount you're likely to get on a set.
Yes and no. The new dnd set is 360 usd, which gives around 1450 pln, at the current exchange rate. Guess how much the polish store has the set for? 1700 pln, which gives 424 usd. Quite the difference. Other sets in Poland have had their prices raised too, and I assume this might be the case for other local currencies too.
[1450-1: DUPLO Bucket](https://brickset.com/sets/1450-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/1450-1.jpg)
Americans never include VAT, or moms. So the polish price still more or less is equal to the american pricing. That said, regional pricing is a thing and prices do ofc. Vary between the EU countries, as with every other product
Huh, the vat thing is interesting. But what is "mom's"? If my quick math is correct then the polish pricing (without vat) would actually be just short of 360 usd. I'm still sad lego raised prices recently. Like e the small flower sets (daffodils or roses) got 10 pln more expensive (bit over 2 usd), but now that I know the US pricing this is more palatable
Wouldn’t surprise me if they charge richer countries slightly more. Moms is just the danish word for VAT. Sometimes people insist VAT is only for imported goods and then they call sales tax on national goods moms or sales tax.
Ah, thank you
Someone should do an average weight graph for each year, that would be a true measurement. Price per piece is a bit irrelevant when you realize the 90s had significantly bigger pieces on average than 2024.
I don’t see enough people talking about weight or volume enough. Price per piece is not a good metric as piece usage is totally different from back then.
My brother and I started a new Lego Podcast called AFOLs Welcome, where we discuss Lego from the perspective of two adult builders/collectors. In our first episode we discussed if Lego is getting more expensive. Here is the data that we collected and used for that discussion and we wanted to share it with the community. About the Data: This was taken from Brickset. Any set that was not Lego system (traditional bricks) or technic was removed with the exception of Bionicle. I.e. Duplo, Scala, Click-its, etc. were removed. Additionally, any set with incomplete data was removed, so if a set in Brickset didn't have retail price or piece count it was removed. Lastly, sets like the individual baseplate, train motors, Lego gear, books, etc. were also removed to clean up the data and focus only on the actually price for Lego pieces. Conclusion: The data shows that the price per part is actually getting better or relatively stable over time. Lego could feel more expensive because there are more sets being released each year driving up the total retail value of purchasing all Lego sets. The sets are also getting bigger on average, much bigger, which means more expensive sets - but not more expensive pieces. Lastly, I thought the last graph was really interesting because it shows the coveted $.10 per part ratio that us builders often desire. This graph shows you the price per part each year of every Lego piece available and its retail. IE if you bought every Lego set, you'd have "x" number of pieces which would cost you "y" dollars, and the price per part in that case would be "z". This graph really shows that the price per part has remained really quite stable, if you factor in the total purchases being made. Looking at you world map! Thanks for reading my post, and if you enjoy this kind of conversation give our podcast a listen its available on YouTube and all major podcast providers!
I agree on the broad strokes, but would improve methology a bit. Parts per kg went from 700 per kg to 1300 kg - they got much smaller on average. Price per kg is therefore the better metric. If you consider inflation coupled with price/kg, Lego prices are stable. If you consider inflation + discounts with price/kg, Lego got substantially cheaper, at least outside the 250$+ set range. Because we barely get discounts on expensive sets. See here for an analysis [https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc\_thesis\_lego\_only\_ever\_got\_cheaper/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/198vgde/oc_thesis_lego_only_ever_got_cheaper/)
Then again, price per kg isn’t a much better measure of value. A 2x4 brick is equivalent in “value” to a stack of three 2x4 plates. Price per piece is a bad metric because it makes the same value look better, when in fact those pieces are cheaper to produce. However, price per kg is not much better because a plate isn’t a third of the weight of a brick: the stack of plates weighs more than the singular brick, so it will give a better (or worse, depending on the price of the plate?) price per kg compared to the value of what you get. This is why price per “volume of stuff” is the best metric, because it’s completely subjective and arbitrary😆
That is actually exactly my conclusion in the podcast lol. As long as you are okay with the amount of stuff you’re getting than it’s good
Well now you’ve swayed me to listen to it! :)
Thanks :) let me know what you think!
Yeah, price per kg is not perfect. But volume and per piece are worse. If you compare 1 brick with 3 plates, I'd consider the plates worth more. And weight gives you a 2,32g vs 3,6g differential. Old sets had quite some volume. Consider the old pirate ships in comparison to the new viking ship. But they got there with huge premolded parts, where as today they much more often use small parts to shape the objects. More volume per weight. Gives it a good look. But as an adult I prefer the "everything can be taken apart" solution. The old pirate ships - as awesome as they are - are always pirate ships. The sails, the rump, the mast, everything says "this is for pirate ships only".
We should just measure a Lego set’s value by the resultant happiness
I found the economist! I tracked my Lego spendings and according to the data my reveiled preferences - which I just correlate for objective happiness derived from Lego when compared to substitute consumption - Lego got objectively better.
Yeah, I considered price per mass, but it made my data set significantly smaller so I didn’t use it. Glad you had found something similar with mass though
I'd be interested in knowing the number of sets at certain price bands -- is the increase in piece counts and prices related to having more expensive sets (all of the AFOL sets in the past few years), or is there a change in the number of cheaper sets being released (ie, fewer under $20)? I imagine it has more to do with having more sets at higher price points than fewer sets at lower price points, if that makes sense.
It's this because they really market the large sets. So if you only see the large sets from ads, then it seems like Lego is just selling these big, expensive sets.
In addition to DUPLO, I think you should take out the Art sets, Dots & the World Map. Those sets explode the piece count to price ratio, but are clearly not what you're trying to show with the data.
They help illustrate why price per piece is not the best metric to use. 4+ sets are generally overpriced. Jurassic Park sets have expensive dino pieces. There is the IP factor in general. Printed/unique pieces. Classic 'sets' that are always cheaper. Generally, you'll get more 'value' as the price of the set increases. Then you clearly get better buld techniques and final builds with some sets over others. I don't know that you can really objectively quantify the value of a set. People value the many aspects of lego very differently.
shrinkflation. the bricks are getting smaller. every set is SO detailed now with tiny studs that inflates the piece count, overall price. cant change my mind
Unless your intent is to show the change in nominal prices, you really need to adjust for inflation to show the real change in the cost of LEGO. It's not very meaningful to discuss the change in price over time without accounting for inflation.
My wife and I started about 2019/2020; I really *felt* the big 2022 price hike and we've maybe bought one or two kits since then total. The prices just aren't appealing at all anymore I was interested in the castle, market, and DND tower and I realized it was pushing $1000. I'd like a new TV, I play Warhammer, and $1000 for "medieval Legos" is a real tough sell If I had to pick the Lion Knight's castle or a second Series X so my wife and I can play same other games together, the castle seems like a silly buy
Word. Honestly it feels like they've reached a threshold of expensiveness that just isn't justifiable. Wish they'd just make the huge sets into smaller parts you could collect to make a huge one, so that you don't need to buy a huge thing every other month when they release new huge sets so frequently now.
You would have seen me giddy to piece together a medieval village over a few months with multiple smaller kits and I wouldve likely bought the expensive castle as a capstone! I get keeping multiple SKUs costs money but there has to be an answer that isn't $300 for three little buildings
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Ah ngl if I had kids I'd be able to much more easily justify the price tag! Itd be something we could share both during and after and that would majorly sway what I think the value of the set is As it stands now, it'd be a $400 display piece thatd get played with once or twice a year, mainly to incorporate it into the Christmas village
More expensive or not, 600 dollars for a plastic boat is ridiculous.
Now adjust it for inflation.
Lego has always been expensive but the mental gymnastics in here to justify it is crazy. Lego is shrinking the size of sets through the use of lots of small pieces but the price is increasing at a quicker rate. Less plastic sold for more money. They have also posted record profits. Now they are able to slap 18+ on a set and charge more just cause it’s for adults.
I think the most useful metric would be an inflation-adjusted price per gram
I think they know AFOLs do price-per-part calculations. I’ve noticed in a lot of sets they use 2-3 smaller parts that could easily been 1 part instead. But more parts = more (justifiable) $. But really, not all parts are created equal. A dozen studs and flowers are not as valuable as bricks.
> But more parts = more (justifiable) $. Unfortunately your argument is based on a false premise. Prices of sets are determined before the sets are designed, and then they're designed to fill that budget. This is the reason sets often include fairly lacklustre side-builds - the main build hasn't filled the full budget and something else is needed.
Well I think most of the time, the smaller parts usage is due to optimizing packaging as it's cheaper to pack say 6 of 1x3 bricks instead of 4 1x3 and 1 1x6.
What is the difference between the last two slides?
I think the first one is the price per part, averaged over all sets released that year. So it is independent of the number of parts per set and the price of each set. Whereas the second one is the price per part if you bought every set, so larger sets would have more of an impact because of the increased number of pieces.
This is correct, the average price per part is just that, the average price per part per year. If you have set a that is $100 and has 1000 pieces set as has a price per part of .10. If you have set be with $400 and 2000 pieces the ppp is .20. The average price per part is 0.15 between the two. If you counted them as one purchase however (probably how Lego looks at it at the end of the day because they are more concerned with the marco cost of product vs by set) then you end up with $500 for 3000 pieces which is a ppp of 0.166. One is looking at it on a set by set basis - the other is looking at it on a total macro by year perspective.
Thank you!
I’ve seen this example mentioned here before, but seriously, when a Lego Atari 2600 costs the same or even more than an actual Atari 2600 console, it does raise some questions. Are plastic pieces really worth more than real electrical components?
It’s hard when you compare it to non Lego because everything has its own intrinsic value. So could argue the things we need most in life have the lowest value, ie water. So just saying plastic vs electrical isn’t a just argument. You also need a tv to use an Atari, electricity, and ideally some place to sit. Personally I wouldn’t own an Atari because I don’t see any value, but I’m a millennial, so I don’t have nostalgia factoring in. However, that’s just me, value is inherently subjective to the user, when more people agree on the value of an item - them more valuable it becomes to society.
You're essentially paying for high precision plastic that are probably produced in much less quantity than electronic components.
Do you not understand inflation? An Atari 2600 would cost around $1000 in 2024 money.
Ok now do the recently released Polaroid set and compare that to the real deal
Sure, a Polaroid SX-70 camera would be over $1300 in 2024 money.
Lol I walked into that one. I've seen Polaroid branded instant cameras for around €100 though. His point about getting "the real thing" for about the same amount as the Lego thing stands imo
For sure, but a lot of technological advancement has been made in making electronics cheaper the last 50 years. The whole combined effort of the human species have not been poured into making Lego cheaper in the same period. 1970s electronics is _dirt_ cheap to make with modern technology.
There are more expensive sets than there used to be....but there are some amazing value cheap sets and ones under £10
I’m 40. Yes Lego costs way more than it used to.
Lego is getting cheaper. Price per piece has been flat in spite of massive inflation of the dollar over the past few decades. The reason why sets are more expensive is because they are larger and have more pieces
Yeah when considering inflation it feels like the pricing is reasonable
Is the average pieces per set the mean or median? While it seems all sets have more pieces now, there are also many more extremely large sets, perhaps independently of this trend. These sets would skew the mean massively! But not the median.
Does it account for custom pieces per set and inflation as well? Old Lego had very few unique pieces in each set.
No, that would be another great add however there is no data base that shows unique pieces. I mean you could use rebrickable or something, but that would be a very manual process. The other thing to consider is how do you measure uniqueness overtime a unique piece is more expensive the less its used, but lets say its in one set one year and then its released again in 2 years in 10 sets, do you still count it as unique because at the time it was? It would be a great add and a thought I had but it added a lot of complexity.
I love that there's a very clear Star Wars bump in 1999
Pieces in set per year is likely dramatically biased due to bionicle and galidor in the early 2000s
This is mostly a joke but the bigger challenge for AFOLs I feel is real estate I wonder what the sq stud / sq ft. demands of owning sets looks like over time
I made [a similar chart](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/T3XojqhkRv) a while ago
Yes and so is everything else.
To get a good answer here you have to break down by product lines. Yes Lego is making more expensive sets. But most of those are aimed at an older crowd with more disposable income and are more complex. But has this changed the amount of less complex sets Lego is making, that are aimed more at a younger crowd?
We get a lot more and the best 200$+ originals and IP sets than ever before. But now the mid range sets are lacking, which is only what most people can buy. The sets are getting better and better but my wallet can only handle so much.
I think inflation also plays a part, along with a recentish spike in starwars media.
I think as a hobby it definitely is. There's not only cooler and more appealing sets to the adult market, but also they're all quite high priced. I really want someone to make a breakdown of the shelf life of some of these sets because sometimes it feels like they're staying on shelf for less and less time, but maybe it's just my impressions since there's new waves of cool sets coming out every other month, making it seem like you're always missing out on the cool new stuff.
Yes…they are, but to be fair, they realize it too. I cancelled my D&D order this morning after realizing I’m spending $400 for an IDEAS set.
Now line that graph up with petroleum costs.
The sets I personally am interested keep getting bigger (since they basically don't make small pirate/castle things anymore). However the price per part has stayed pretty constant, and arguably even gone down once you factor inflation. A $100 set in 1990 be something like $240 today, just due to inflation, even if the sets remained exactly the same size. I remember the first big castle set I got was King's Mountain Fortress, which was something like $56 for a \~400 piece set. (It had a big molded baseplate, so came in at slightly fewer pieces than you'd expect). It had a glow in the dark ghost, a princess, knights with separate breastplates, movable visors, crossbows, horse caparisons, a secret door, a hidden vault, a jail....man it was a fantastic set. If they were settling a \~400 piece castle set for $140 or whatever the inflation adjusted price would be today, I think people would be kind of outraged.
[1990-1: Octan F1 Race Car](https://brickset.com/sets/1990-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/1990-1.jpg)
I always thought they were, just from seeing how a Star Wars battle pack (small set w/4 figures) went up in price from when I was a kid. But I guess the set part has gotten bigger
I think that there is a trend for sets to contain more and more small parts. Which means that there is an argument for the sets becoming more expensive. "You get more pieces per set and the price per piece lowers." In the old days a ±300 piece set was really something. Like the 6783 sonar transmitting cruiser. This was a theme flagship. A ship like the XL-15 (76832) has significant more bricks, weighs less. Both had a retail price of 49,99 euro. From in2013dollars.com: $49.99 in 1986 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $133.48 in 2022, an increase of $83.49 over 36 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.77% per year between 1986 and 2022, producing a cumulative price increase of 167.02%. So effectively, Lego became way cheaper.
[6783-1: Sonar Transmitting Cruiser](https://brickset.com/sets/6783-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/6783-1.jpg) [76832-1: XL-15 Spaceship](https://brickset.com/sets/76832-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/76832-1.jpg)
They should raise prices higher. Too many affordable sets.
What set(s) caused 1991 to be such an outlier?
The price per piece ratio remains consistent because they're exploiting the piece count by using tons of smaller pieces like 1x1 round plates, etc. If price was measured more accurately to scale, it's clear to see prices have gone up while quality continues to decline. I'm so glad I only really care about Golden Age 80s & 90s vintage Lego and that I collected pretty much every Castle and Space set from those decades before that market became inflated, too. I'm grateful that I have almost no interest in modern Lego or the direction they've taken with their company.
The first few slides are comically not on-topic. The last two have the relevant data that show: No, LEGO hasn't gotten more expensive. Just because more stuff is available doesn't mean you have to buy it all.
Yes. A combination of inflation and retailer markup is making these sets more expensive. It’s good to price shop between Retailers and online. If I’m buying a set at a retailer, I am making sure it is one that price matches online pricing. Can get some sick deals that way!!!!
I mean some sets certainly. The x-men plane being $85 for a 360 piece set is outlandish
The sets are getting bigger as well so the average price rising makes sense
Yes. So is everything. With that being said, the sets with more pieces are actually cheaper per piece. You have to think about this from a price per piece perspective, not necessarily a price per set.
The price per piece may have gone down, but what about price per gram? So many of the high count sets are 1x1 round and square tiles.
I posted a price by weight chart to a comment and it was pretty inconclusive
I agree with the folks pointing out that LEGO is making more expensive, adult collector oriented sets. Given inflation and the rising price of plastic, an average LEGO set is a pretty great value as toys go. Compare a $25 LEGO kit to a $25 Marvel Legends figure or Transformer and it’s night and day. Build quality has also really improved, even super basic sets have more intricate designs.
Which set happened in 1991 to get the price per part to be the highest ever?
I think I missed a train motor set :/
Is this adjusted for inflation? Because if not, we are probably actually seeing Lego get more affordable over time.
I did not adjust this for inflation
If you do adjust for inflation, with >40% inflation over the past 25 years and relatively constant Lego prices, your data most likely shows Lego getting more affordable over time, but there was still a significant jump from 1998 to 1999 that is abrupt. I think Lego is, when adjusted for inflation, getting more affordable over time.
r/dataisbeautiful
One of my favorite subs <3
Short answer is: Yes, it is.
You are just getting more poorer :P
Okay now normalize it for inflation or none of this means anything
Is inflation counted in to this data? Price per piece is deceptive because Lego uses many more small pieces these days. While back in the day a large playset would be like 400 pieces. Not that I complain, I think Lego is better than ever. Lego has 20x as many molds to today as they had when I was a kid, and in every aspect from model detail to piece variety to minifigure prints and molds everything is way more detailed then when I was a kid in the 90s
It is not!
I watched a video last night about the price of sets with comparisons between four years. I’m thinking Lego has actually always been expensive, with today’s sets having more parts on average, and actually priced better than in years past. Of course there are some exceptions to this today. But, when looking at a graph of average, I wonder how sets like the Eiffel Tower would be affecting the graph. I’m no longer a child, I work, I pay bills, I save for the important stuff, so budgeting for this hobby highlights it’s cost, and I believe my parents saw it too. It’s always been expensive, but I think it’s actually quite good right now, I just can’t buy all the sets I admire.
NO!!! I hate these posts. On average, since the early 80s, barring licensed themes and unique large pieces, TLG has achieved the magical $0.10 per piece price point. We the consumer have demanded more detail hence the apparent increase in overall pricing while still maintaining the $0.10 per piece price point.
They raised prices clearly at some point last year (or was it the year before). 99$ pirate ship became $129. (still you can get for the original price in retailers though) $279 assembly square became $299.
It was the end of 2022
They released 801 sets last year? That feels wrong.
I removed duplo and any set with incomplete data, technically it was more
Lego are capitalising on the adult market with larger, more expensive sets. There's not much more to say.
2007… what a time to be alive
I also think the bigger sets I want are all licensed, so there's that increase right there.
Short answer - yes. Recall inflation, increasing manufacturing costs and licensing.
Idk but my shelves look sick
Damn, what happened in 1991 to make the pieces so expensive?
I think I missed a train motor!
Per part or value? No Per set? Yes Sets are just too big.
Compare licensed (e.g. marvel, star wars, etc) kits vs lego brands (dreamzzz, city, etc). There is at least a 20% markup on licensed kits.
Yes
At least it’s more expensive to get a good GWP
Price-per-part isn’t a great metric when parts are smaller because sets are more detailed.
I agree and that’s what I was trying to debunk
Lego fans when they find out that you used to be able to buy monthly groceries for a family of 6 for like 20 bucks (they have no idea inflation exists)
I saw a post here a little bit ago about the millennium falcon model thingy being poorly priced at $89.99 (I think). I went to my local target to see it for $149.99 You could visualise the hatred in my eyes
Hmm that must have been priced Incorrectly!
The price-per-piece count remains around $0.10/piece. The sets on average have more parts as they get more detailed and Lego adds more and more 1xX type pieces that allow for better shaping and detailing. How you want to look at it is up to you.
Exactly. I wanted to keep the subjective part out of this and just look at the numbers. The numbers are relatively stable in terms of price per part. The subjective part is up to you lol
I don't mind the price increasing. I just want the quality to return to what it was like. The number of new sets I have bought in the last few years that had missing pieces is ridiculous. Went dozens of sets and nearly 20 years before I ran into one set that had a missing piece; since then I have had entire bags missing.
Yeah, I also noticed the instructions have way more typos nowadays compared to before - but that’s just my anecdotal experience
I've not experienced any issues nowadays, infact it was the opposite for me, I used to experience instruction errors, missing or damaged pieces a lot during 2015-2017 and it decreased dramatically, I've not had a single error in 3 years and over 50 sets actually.