Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.
BRICKPICKER

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Click Here To View The NEW DAILY DEALS FEED!

Brickpicker Blog

Brickpicker blog articles on LEGO investing, news, reviews, evaluations, discounts and more...
Show all categories
When I first got into Lego's, my wife was a little resistant. She thought they were cool, but just didn't really see anything about them that made her want them. Then she say a couple of themes she liked, for instance Harry Potter, and all of a sudden my obsession was understandable.
Two of her favorite movie themes of all time are Star Trek and the Transformers series and so she immediately asked me if Lego had any of these themes. She was very disappointing to find out that Lego did not have anything from those themes.
However, a while later, we were in Walmart and she walked by an isle near the Legos that had an off-brand called "Kre-o's", and behold, there was Transformers and Star Trek. I told her they were NOTHING compared to Lego. My wife wanted to try them out anyway. So we found several sets in the coming weeks that she liked for really cheap (I didn't want to take a chance since I knew they weren't the real thing) and she built them all. I helped her to a certain extent and then took some pictures of the different sets. I thought I would do short reviews of them and then talk about Kre-o as a brand and how it compares to Lego and why Lego is so much better.
Be advised, this is just for purchase. I would not for any reason invest in these. A lot of them didn't sell particularly well, which is a bit surprising, but they were all incredibly discounted and still are. I don't think there is any reason to think they will be a good investment - so this is particularly for the builders, the bulk lovers, and the players out there. Plus, if you like Transformers or the Star Trek series, this is a way to get your kicks! Obviously, if Lego ever comes out with either of these themes, don't waste your time on these.
The reviews are just of the sets we own since I have first hand knowledge of them:
Tranformers Series - BumbleBee

This set retails for $24.99 and comes with 335 pieces. On the outside, that is a really good PPP value at $.07. This set was recently discounted by most retailers like Target and Walmart and can be found for $15 or less. At that price (which is where we got it), it is a pretty cool set. See the pictures below:


These are a lot like the creator sets in that they have two different ways to be set up: in the vehicle and the actual transformer character. My wife likes leaving them in the transformer so we have not built the actually vehicles though they look pretty cool. I can't help but think that Lego would have been able to make them actually transform though.
This set comes with 3 small Kreons, which are the supposed to be the equivalent of Lego minifigures, but are not near as cool. The set itself is pretty detailed. Most of the pieces were pretty easy to put together and look pretty good. The yellow color is not too bad, but it is not quite as bright and vibrant as Lego yellows.
I do really like the back of the bumblebee with the actual wheels still on. Makes it at least look like it transformed. Overall, for 335 pieces (which is less for this since we didn't use them all), you get quite a bit. A lot of the pieces are larger pieces wheres I think Lego sometimes splits pieces up smaller. Because of this, it really feels like a 500 piece Lego set.
Anyway, it is a pretty good rendition of Bumblebee and I think is worth it if you can get it at a discount. Luckily you can find these off Ebay for as low as $15, so I would suggest picking it up if you like transformers.
StarScream

This set is $29.99 retail and has 316 pieces. The PPP ratio is $.09 which is still pretty good. I was able to pick this set up for my wife for $15, and at that price it is tremendous:


This one is really my favorite of all the transformers sets. The large missiles on top and all the missiles on his hands are really cool. This one has quite a bit of play-ability because of that. Unfortunately, they don't really shoot like flick missiles (Lego still wins by a lot).
The grey and red is a little duller than Lego's greys and reds. This is a recurring theme with the brand as I will talk about below. All in all, the set was very easy to build and came with a lot of cool pieces, including all the missiles.
Again, for the piece count, there is quite a lot here. The wings, missiles and feet are all single pieces, so they are rather large and make up the bulk of the weight of the set.
This set can be picked up on Ebay for less than $20 and is a steal at that price (again, don't invest in it though )
Megatron

This set is 310 pieces and is $29.99 retail for another $.09 PPP ratio. It is definitely worth it. This set has some of the best detail of all the sets, and has 4 Kreon figures. Most of them are no-name figures, but this is true for every set. Here it is below:


We got our set for $15 at a discount/damages store, but unfortunately it only had 3 of the Kreons. We don't really care for the Kreons anyway, so it was still a good deal. This set is probably the closest to an actual Lego set. It has quite a bit of intricate little details like Megatron's fingers and the grill from the trunk that is on his chest. I really like the tanker barrels at the top as well. It also has the steering wheel from the truck right behind his head. Man, if this transformed, it would be really sweet (Do it Lego!). You can find it on Ebay for under $20 which is not bad.
OptimusPrime

This set is one of the bigger ones in Kreo's collection, which makes sense because it is a truck rig. It retails for $59.99 and has 542 pieces for a PPP ratio of $.11 which is not near as good as the others. I think it is a little over-priced, but we got it at $30 from Walmart on clearance and for that price, I think it's not too bad.


This set does come with some extras. Optimus Prime actually comes with a little stand and an attached command center. It also has 3 Kreons and two small motor bikes for them to ride that are shown in the bottom of the picture. This is the most flashy of all the sets with the different colors. It is also slightly larger obviously.
Again, I really like the detail, especially on the back of the piece with all the wheels and the exhaust pipes from the Truck. I have seen this one on Clearance a lot and on Ebay for $30. At that price, it is really a steal. It's funny though, even the most detailed sets don't come close to Lego sets.
Star Trek - The Enterpris

This is the only one of the Star trek series we have so far, but it is really impressive. It is HUGE for only 432 pieces and it comes with 5 Kreons, these being the actual Enterprise workers. They look a lot better than the Kreons in the Transformer series. It has 432 pieces and retails for $49.99 for a PPP ratio of $.11. Unfortunately, we did not check before and saw it in TRU for $60. I had a 20% off coupon, so we paid $48, but that really wasn't that great a deal. However, because of the sheer size of the set, it is worth it:


If you look at the top of the round part of the ship, you can tell most of those are large single pieces, which is why the piece count is so low. This set is bigger than the Jabba's Palace I have which is over 800 pieces. Really the detail on the ship is pretty good, although I don't feel like it comes close to the type of time and detail Lego would put into it. For $48, this was a great set. Having the big pieces does have a downside - bigger sets aren't as fun to build without smaller pieces. Almost more like a model.
The inside of it is pretty nice too with the command center and places for all the Kre-o's. As you can see on the right, it even has a little fold up screen for driving the ship. My wife likes this one the best out of all of them.
Since Lego doesn't have these two themes and we have to live with Kre-o for now, what are the big differences and what makes Lego so much better?
Differences and Pros/Cons
First off, you would only want to buy Kre-o if Lego doesn't have the theme. They don't come close to Lego sets. After building some of them, they are cool but not anything like Lego. Smaller Lego sets we have look way better and more impressive then the biggest Kre-o sets. Kre-o colors aren't near as vibrant. However, they do have some shades of colors that Lego doesn't have like some shades of green and the larger white pieces in the Enterprise set. All in all though, don't display them next to Lego sets because Lego destroys them color-wise. Kre-o doesn't have numbered bags. This seems simple, but it is a huge downside. You don't know how much easier it is to find Lego pieces. Lego gets a huge win in ease of build. The Kre-o pieces are considerably lighter. All of these sets were way lighter than the smaller 250 piece Star Wars Lego sets I have. May lend to the fact that the pieces are cheaper and may not hold up over time the same way if played with. If you feel the pieces, you can tell the difference between Kre-o and Lego in a second. The Kre-o's don't stay together as well and some parts don't fit. They may be able to warp, although the ones we have gotten together have been fine. Kre-o does detail really well. It is not to the level Lego does, but it is better than pretty much every other Lego impersonator. Kreons are not near as good as minifigures. For one, they are usually all one piece. They are way lighter and don't move as freely as well. I think this is the biggest difference between the two. The legs on Kreons move alright, but they don't stand up as well on display. If you love bulk, buy a bunch of these on clearance. They come with tons of extra pieces - I think our Bumblebee has close to 400 pieces in it. You can get tons of Lego compatible and different pieces by picking up one of these sets and dumping it in your bin for way less than any Lego set that is comparable. Since we don't play with our sets, I don't really know about how they would hold up being played with. Lego's almost can't be destroyed, but I have a feeling these are better just left alone after building. Anyone else have any of these? Do you like any other sets? I thought these two themes were the only ones we would consider buying from Kre-o since Lego doesn't have them. If Lego ever makes them, I would imagine these would not be anywhere near relevant anymore.
I had a lot of fun thinking up different Lego sets in part 5 when I did Mario Video games. I immediately had tons more ideas that came into my head. So this time I decided to do Nintendo 64 games. The Nintendo 64 was my favorite system of all time and houses some of the best made games ever in my opinion. I tried to take the best games and pull out the best stuff from them so that I had some good variety. I am leaving out Mario 64 since I already had written about that one. This theme can be called “Ode to the greatest system of all time: Nintendo 64”.
StarFox 64 – Arwing and Landmaster

Alright, someone here tell me they didn't play this game. Honestly you could probably have a whole theme from Starfox because there were so many memorable ships. The game had some of the most ultimate replay value of all time with the 30 different ways you could get to the end of the game, the different secret levels, and the two difficulty levels. I would say I pored at least 500 hours or more into this game, and every year or so I get it back out to play some more. It was just that good.
So what would we do? Well I think there are two important vehicles everyone would want. First, the Arwing:

This would come with the retracting wings like the plane in the game had. It could also come with flick missiles for the blasters. A stand would be included so that you could set it upright where no part of it was touching the ground. It would be holding is so that you could easily flip the ship. There would be a speaker in the stand with a sensor and you could flip the Arwing and the speaker would say “do a barrel roll”. This would be a split set, so you would also have a Landmaster - like the old Tie-fighter and Y-wing sets:

Who doesn't want a tank. It could also do a manual barrel roll – just roll it over.
Minifigures would include:
Fox Slippy Falco – mean look on his face like “I guess I should be thankful” Peppy Goldeneye – The Cradle

Its fairly safe to say that Goldeneye 64 is a near consensus “One of the greatest games of all time”. Had there been online play, I have to assume people would still be playing this game today. This really was the beginning of the first person shooter. Pretty much every game made since then has been modeled after the success this game had.
This level is pretty well known and iconic to the game and to the movie. Bond is chasing Trevelyan across the Cradle trying to catch him. In the game, this level was a race against time and it was near the end of the game itself. I remember having to play this level over and over because the Cradle kept blowing up before I made it to my getaway plane.
With the way Lego has done with Bridges and structures of that nature like the in the City theme and the Tower Bridge 10214, I think Lego would absolutely dominate this set. They could make it really large and impressive. Though it would be hard to recreate the whole thing, they could have one main bridge and several branches off of it as well as the lower place Bond jumps to safety from.
This set would come with the following minifigures:
James Bond Trevelyan – he would have to be looking like his is running because that is all he does in this level 3 Bad guys to go after Bond. Zelda 64 – Hyrule's Castle

I don't think there are many people who play fantasy RPGs that haven't played the Legend of Zelda. There were plenty of story games before this and there were several Zelda games as well, but nothing like this. The character development and the story of this game (Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time) were really unmatched when this came out.
If you were into the game, you know you spent quite an amount of time around Hyrule Castle – having to sneak in and deal with the townspeople inside and outside as well as the guards.
The minifigures would include:
Link – the main character 2 Castle Guards Princess Zelda There could also be a lot of little extras. Maybe hearts for Link to pick up after battle and diamonds to pick up for money. Also, I think the set needs a chicken. Doesn't everyone remember hurting the chickens and bringing out the swarm of chicken death?

Super Smash Brothers – Saffron City

This was another great game in the lineup and one that has really carried on since. This game was the ultimate party game – nothing was more fun than getting together with a bunch of friends and putting the lives on “99” and playing for hours.
I picked Saffron City for two reasons: it was my favorite level from the game and... if we pick that we can have minifigure Pokemon! I think they could make it look just like in the game with the main building and the two smaller buildings to the right and left. It could come with a barrel and a large box for power ups. There could also be an extra home-run bat, a bomb-omb and a poke-ball or two.
Minifigures would include:
Mario as a battler(it's his game right?) Pikachu as a battler Hitmonlee Chancey - would come with eggs Charizard – with flames coming out from him Blastoise Mario Tennis

This was the only game I ever played that I felt like I couldn't be beat at. I played tennis growing up and I loved this game because of it with all the power ups and and the animation. This would go over extremely well as a Lego set too; anyone ever looked at the CAGR on some of those sports sets?
This set would come with a full tennis court along with a linesman chair. It could also have the stands that are around the court itself. It could then come with these minifigures:
Mario (again, it's his game) Bowser Yoshi Wario Luigi – he could be a sub-in or a linesman Donkey Kong – as an alternate because I couldn't cut it down enough. Obviously it could also come with some minifigure sized tennis balls as well as the rackets for the different players.
That's all for today. What other games do you think would be good for Lego sets? Would you all buy these sets?
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods. Thanks for reading!
Welcome to the last installment of my analysis of the LEGO Star Wars BrickIndex. In this article, we will be looking at the 8129 AT-AT Walker, 8036 Seperatist Shuttle, 10129 Rebel Snowspeeder,10030 Imperial Star Destroyer, and 4500 Rebel Snowspeeder.
16. 8129-1: AT-AT WALKER
17. 8036-1: SEPARATIST SHUTTLE
18. 10129-1: REBEL SNOWSPEEDER
19. 10030-1: IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER
20. 4500-1: REBEL SNOWSPEEDER
The BrickIndex is a handy BrickPicker tool that allows the user to view the overall Top 20 Performing sets from all themes, or a single theme. It helps to decide what sets might be skyrocketing in value, and what you may want to pick up for the future. Below is a overview of the sets we will be looking at:
16. 8129-1: AT-AT WALKER
This is the third version of the LEGO AT-AT Walker in the top 20, and the second full-sized one. This is the newest version of AT-AT, and has had massive gains over the past year, appreciating 78% over the past year (~$120). All signs of this set’s appreciation point to more appreciation of years to come. There was a predictable spike in sales quantity in December, but the value didn’t increase more than it’s projected growth.
Though used sets are often scoffed at as investments, I think now is a great time to pick one up. The set has been on a very steep decline, but will undoubtedly make a come-back. I will soon be writing an article on this, so stay tuned!
17. 8036-1: SEPARATIST SHUTTLE
This set is a surprise to the BrickIndex list, especially because of its short appearance in the Clone Wars TV show. This set is one of the few that includes the Trade Federation leader, Newt Gunray, which makes this set relatively desirable. I can’t really see this set being a big gainer, especially since it hasn’t really gotten very much more than retail. Though a nice build with decent minifigures, I think that this time, you have to move along.
18. 10129-1: REBEL SNOWSPEEDER
The Rebel Snowspeeder is one of my favorite builds, and is a set that you should watch fairly closely investment-wise. There was an odd dip in value during the holidays, down to $720, but it almost instantly made its rebound to $880, making it a great set to invest in, even 10 years after it was released. As a build, it was designed spectacularly, with way more detail than the minifigure-scale ones do, and it is one of the most iconic ships/vehicles in Star Wars. This set is often overlooked by collectors and investors, as it isn’t one of the front-runners of the UCS line, and is overshadowed by other more current sets, like the 10179 Millennium Falcon, or 10143 Death Star II.
I would pick up this set for investment as soon as it hits about $750, as it will be an easy way to pocket some significant cash!
19. 10030-1: IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER
One of the largest LEGO sets in existance, the Imperial Star Destroyer is one of the biggest, baddest LEGO sets around. It comes in an attractive black, slick box, with a simple, but eye-catching box design. The 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer is basically stabilized, and has only seen gains over the past six months because of a dip in value December. The Imperial Star Destroyer has been remade a few times, with a variety of different models, including the recent 10221 Super Star Destroyer. Each one has a slightly different design, which helps past models maintain value and desirability. This particular model of the Star Destroyer is wider than most, and includes a mini-model of the Tantive IV, where the Rebel ship is drawn into the Destroyer via a tractor beam, and then boarded by Darth Vader.
There is a dwindling amount of sold listings of this set, as well as a low amount of listings. This set quite possibly could make a large jump in value with the lower quantity of listings. The used version of the 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer has seen fairly good gains over the past 6 months, gaining 27%. It is expected that this set will stay at it’s current value, within about $30 of $600.
20. 4500-1: REBEL SNOWSPEEDER
Last but not least is the 4500 Rebel Snowspeeder. This is somewhat of a minimalist model of the Snowspeeder, with only about 200 pieces. The build does manage to include many of the major parts of the set, including the twin laser guns on each wing, as well as the larger-than-normal windshield/cockpit. This set has seen a very steady gain over the past several months, but the gains are so small dollar-wise that it isn’t worth the effort to grab it. There are about 10 listings for new 4500 Rebel Snowspeeders, but the demand for this set probably won’t go up, because of the frequency of remakes for this particular set.






For my next article on themes Lego really needs to do, I think I am going to go with the most obvious one out there: Disney World. Now many people have mentioned this, and Disney Land, and all the other Disney type themes out there. It is actually pretty hard to understand how it has not happened as well. Disney now owns Star Wars, Disney has also had along line of Lego sets in Duplo as well as several other film themes like Cars and the recent Lone Ranger. So how has it not happened yet?
Well, I assume it will very soon. With Disney taking over Star Wars, they and Lego are going to have a bigger relationship than ever. I can not imagine this is not one of the things on TLG's radar. Disney World is the place that every child wants to go and I can't imagine that these wouldn't fly off the shelves, or be huge investment winners.
So, before TLG and Disney finally decide to do the obvious, I am going to give them a couple of great ideas before hand:
Disney Minifigure Series

I think there are a lot of people that love the minifigures Lego has in their minifigure series as they are highly collectable and depict all sorts of different people and characters. If Disney has one thing, it is a lot of different characters.
Disney has something similar in toys called Vinylmations, depicted in the picture above. These are all sorts of different Disney and non Disney characters depicted in a Disney light; for instance, with mouse ears. Think of how well this would go over as minifigures!
Since Disney already has their own line of figures, this could be actually Disney characters that were in all of the different movies. There are tons of these, so they could continue series after series. People would collect these like crazy – Vinylmations are something that do really well in the secondary market just like Lego figures. Completing the different sets and different full casts from the movies would keep this series going for years and years.
It's a Small World

This is definitely one of the most iconic and popular rides at Disney for several reasons. One, it is one of the most tame rides there so pretty much everyone can ride it without problem. On top of that, the song is extremely catchy and easy for any child to sing.
The ride itself is a large boat ride which slowly floats around different scenes depicting children from around the world. It is very colorful and vindictive of all the different cultures from different parts of almost every country.
This would have to be a smaller scale of the ride. It would come with a small boat and the water itself would be lower blue bricks that would go around the outside of a middle piece that would have all the scenes on it. The scenes in the middle would be a few from different parts of the world with all the little characters.
They could also add in something that could play the song when turned on. Although we need an off button because it can get pretty old.
Minifigures include:
The children from around the world for the different scenes. 2 passengers in Disney gear Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Pretty much every Lego theme needs a train, right? Trains do about better than any other Lego vehicle and this one would be a huge seller as well. It is a cross between a train ride and a roller coaster. It is one of the oldest and most popular rides at Disney's Magic Kingdom as well. I think it would really be big for Lego because of the status of the ride, as well as the Train/roller coaster angle. It would be like a new take on an old favorite.
It would have the giant rock structure in the middle with the train ride looping in and out of it just like the actual ride. It is a big ride, so they may have to make it a little smaller for this set, with just a few hills and only the one big rock in the middle. It would also have the giant Thunder Mountain Railroad sign on top.
Minifigures would include:
Disney ride operator 6 passengers in Disney gear. The Tower of Terror

This is my favorite ride by far at the park – which honestly is not too hard since the park is really more designed for children anyway. This ride is at the Hollywood studios. It is based on the fictional story of 5 people who were in a large hotel. As they were crossing the 13th floor during an extremely bad storm, lightening struck the tower causing the elevator to drop and crash onto the bottom floor killing the 5 people. If you ride the ride, you can now enter the twilight zone and relive the terror those people suffered.
The tower itself is awesome and could really be an awesome modular building. It somewhat could resemble the structure of the Haunted House and we know how well that has done. It would have the Hollywood Studios logo on the front as well as the Tower of Terror logo. The elevator inside would have seats for minifigure passengers and an opening to load in at the bottom. It would be able to be raised up and then fall down just like the actual ride.
Minifigures would include:
5 passengers for the ride A Disney ride operator The Epcot Ball

To me, this the second most recognizable Disney landmark past Cinderella's Castle. The Epcot ball is not anything amazing on the outside: a giant golf-ball looking building with no real outside markers. However, on the inside, it is a giant ride that shows the world of today and the world as we will possible see it in the future.
It is also amazingly huge – pictures don’t do it justice. If you ever fly over Florida, you will be able to tell how crazy large it is. It would have to be that big if it had a ride inside.
In my eyes, this would be a very large set. The ball itself would be whole, but the top would pop off and inside there would be a small slow moving ride, just like at the real Epcot. It also will have some Disney dioramas inside that would be somewhat indicative of the actual ride itself.
It would come with the following minifigures:
Disney ride Operator dressed as Disney Character possibly. 4 Passengers to ride the rids, all in different Disney gear. Cinderellas Castle

I know I already mentioned this as being the most recognizable thing from Disney World, but in all seriousness, it really is the one thing that people think of when making a visit there. It is in the theme park called “Magic Kingdom” which is the one with the most rides and is the busiest of the parks. This is also the park that is most geared towards children.
This would be a pretty large set and would have all of the features of the real castle. As well, it would have the walkway that goes under it and all the decoration in front of it. If you have ever been to Disney World, you know at night they light the castle up; So how about a bunch of light bricks on the bottom! They would all shine up and light up the castle at night time if you wanted them to. And we all know how well Castles do. I would venture to say that this could be the best selling and best gaining castle of all time. It would come with these minifigures:
Cinderella Mickey Mouse Minny Mouse 4 Park Visitors in Disny Gear Goofy – because who doesn't love goofy? Those are my suggestions so far TLG. I expect to see these by next year!
What do you all think?Would this go over well? Did I pick the right rides and attractions?
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
Thanks for reading!
When a rookie LEGO collector, investor, or fan comes comes to the LEGO Shop, one of the primary thoughts must be “How on Earth do they have any sales? Sure they sell to other retailers, but there are almost never any sales at the LEGO Shop!” Well my young Padawan, here is the key to their success: A buyer can save a handful of cash by shopping at a different location, that might even be more well-known than the LEGO Shop itself, such as Toys ‘R’ Us. What money cannot buy from one of their retailers is a promotional item that is exclusive to LEGO.
Perhaps such items are now well know to you, but maybe not. Nearly every month now, the LEGO Store will have an exclusive giveaway, typically free with a purchase of either $50+ or $75, though on occasion there will be a free item with all purchases. These freebies typically come in polybags. Below are a list of more recent polybags, as well as information on them:
*The 3300014 Christmas Set came in a box, rather than a polybag.
To me, these are very interesting results, and enforces the fact that bigger isn’t always better. One reason why minifigure polybags sell for more than builds is that every year, on May the Fourth, is a giveaway of an exclusive minifigure, usually with orders $75. These minifigures only are sold on May 4th-5th, so are then way more exclusive than others that are available for a month.
If you can get your hands on a Minifigure and Build polybag during a promotion, then you could easily make up for 25% of the cost. The question is when to sell your polybags for the most profit. This time is usually when the polybag has been first released. To get it right when demand is the highest, means that you need to have a LEGO Store on the day the polybag is released.
Why Buy Exclusives?
A prime question on exclusive polybags is whether or not it actually saves you money. The average sale price of a S@H exclusive polybag is $16.87, or 22% savings on orders $75 and 16.87% savings on orders of $100. On many sets, including S@H exclusives, this is a bargain, as exclusive sets very rarely are discounted. Though exclusives may end up forcing you to buy more, they can give you savings that you can’t get anywhere else!!
If you are interested, here are some more recent shop.LEGO.com freebie giveaways:
Ice Cream Stand
Mini Mech
Hoth Han Solo
Iron Man vs. Fighting Drone
Jor-El
Hot Dog Cart
Hero Factory Accessory Pack
​

The 7884 Batman's Buggy: The Escape of Mr. Freeze is a small set from the Batman theme. The set has seventy-six pieces (76). Since the set has a retail price of $9.99 USD, the Price Per Piece (PPP) ratio is thirteen cents ($0.13 USD) per piece. There is another ratio that I use which is called the Price Per Gram (PPG) ratio. Since the set has a weight of 0.13 kilograms, or 130 grams, the PPG ratio would be about eight cents ($0.0768 USD) per gram.
The set has two minifigures which are Mr. Freeze and Batman. The set also includes Batman's buggy and Mr Freeze's speedster.
According to brickset.com, the set was released on May 26, 2008 and was retired on October 10, 2008. This means the set was only available on the primary market for about five months. That is a very short period of time for a set to be sold, which means there would be less set available to be sold on the secondary market making it a great investing set.
Currently the set has a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 69.18%. That is an amazing CAGR. The CAGR for the Batman theme is 32.33%. The overall CAGR for all the Lego themes is 11.36%. This set is 36.85% above the Batman theme CAGR and 57.82% above the overall CAGR. I cannot stress how great this CAGR is. This is a definite plus when investing in this set. Now, let's look at a chart showing the monthly sold listings for the set new.
June 2012: 3 July 2012: 1 August 2012: 18 September 2012: 3 October 2012: 1 November 2012: 2 December 2012: 4 January 2013: 0 February 2013: 0 March 2013: 4 April 2013: 0 May 2013: 0 According to the chart, there were thirty-six (36) sold in the past year, which is three (3) sets per month. There were four months were no new sets were sold at all. These may be due to the fact that the set was not on the primary market for very long, thus limiting the amount of sets sold on the secondary market. Here is another chart showing the monthly sales trend for the set new.
June 2012: $146.33 USD July 2012: $143.00 USD August 2012: $119.72 USD September 2012: $127.21 USD October 2012: $125.00 USD November 2012: $124.83 USD December 2012: $129.31 USD January 2013: $129.31 USD February 2013: $129.31 USD March 2013: $138.47 USD April 2013: $138.47 USD May 2013: $138.47 USD According to the chart, the set is on an upward trend for the past ten (10) months. The set has decreased $7.86 USD in value over the past year, which is about sixty-six cents ($0.66 USD) per month. Although the set has decreased in value, the set is recovering after the value of the set decreased to $119.72 USD in August 2012, which is the lowest value of the set in the past year. When the set hit its lowest price, the set had decreased $26.21 USD from its highest value this year in June 2012 of $146.33 USD. During the year, the set went through some periods of no growth. This happened because there were no new sets sold that month due to the limited availability of the set. Hopefully, the set continues with its growth and continues to have an amazing CAGR.
Currently, the set has a value of $138.47, which was the same value for the past two months of March and April. Since the set was released, the set has gained $128.48 from its retail value. This means the Return On Investment (ROI) for this set is 1,286%. That is amazing. The set has a ROI of 1,286% after five years. Another great investing factor about this set.
I would recommend to buy this set. The set has increased in value tremendously from its retail price. The set has an amazing CAGR of 69.18% and ROI of 1,286%. Overall, I think that this set has many great potential investing factors. Thanks for reading!
The 10193 Medieval Market Village is one of the larger sets from the castle theme. The set has 1,601 pieces. Since the set has a retail price of $99.99 USD, the Price Per Piece (PPP) ratio is six cents ($0.06 USD) per piece. I also use another ratio called the Price Per Gram (PPG) ratio. The set has a weight of for this set is 1.905 kilograms, or 1,905 grams, so the ratio is about five cents ($0.0525 USD) per gram.
The set has eight minifigures. They are two Crown Knights, a maid, a blacksmith, a female peasant, an old male peasant, a young male peasant, and a peasant child.
The set was released in late 2008/early 2009 and the set was retired in early 2013. This means the set was on the primary market for about four years. There may still be sets on store shelves waiting to be sold due to higher prices.
Currently, the set has a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.54%, which is decent. The castle theme has a CAGR of 9.92%. This means the set is 1.38% under the average CAGR for its theme. Also, the average CAGR for all the themes is 11.36%. That means the set is 2.82% under the average CAGR for all the themes. This is not bad at all, but I prefer a set that has a CAGR higher than its theme and the overall CAGR, but it still may be a great investment. Now, let's look at a chart showing the monthly sold listings for the set new.
June 2012: 13 July 2012: 7 August 2012: 6 September 2012: 39 October 2012: 13 November 2012: 27 December 2012: 76 January 2013: 109 February 2013: 38 March 2013: 48 April 2013: 28 May 2013: 21 According to the chart, there were 425 sets sold in the past year, which is about thirty-five (35) sets a month. Almost half the sets sold this past year were sold during the holiday season during the months of December and January. But, there might have been a lot of sets sold in January because it retired in January 2013. Now, here is another chart showing the monthly sales trend for the set.
June 2012: $111.56 USD July 2012: $112.94 USD August 2012: $111.25 USD September 2012: $101.82 USD October 2012: $94.77 USD November 2012: $96.15 USD December 2012: $93.89 USD January 2013: $104.39 USD February 2013: $118.82 USD March 2013: $129.40 USD April 2013: $132.71 USD May 2013: $138.76 USD This chart has two parts to it, which are before and after the set was retired. According to brickset.com the set was retired on January 13, 2013. I will analyze both sections of the chart, beginning with before the set was retired. Before the set was retired the set was on a downward trend. The set had kept on going down in value over seven months. The set lost a total value of $17.67 USD over seven months, which is about $2.52 USD per month. The set hit its all time low for the year in December 2012 when the set had a value of $93.89 USD. After the set was retired, the set jumped from $93.89 USD in December 2012 to $104.39 in January 2013. That is an increase of $10.50 USD in one month. Then the set jumped in value again, the set has a value of $118.82 in February 2013. That is an increase of $14.43 USD from the previous month and an increase of $24.93 since the set was retired. Now, the set continues to grow. The recent retirement of the set has made it a great investing choice.
Now, the set has a current value of $138.76 USD, which is up 4.56% from the past month. The set has a Return On Investment (ROI) of 39%, which is good because of the recent EOL.
I would recommend to buy this set. The set has a great investing potential and it has a positive growth trend dues to its recent EOL. Also, the set has a decent CAGR of 8.54% that may increase in the near future and a decent ROI of 39% that may also get better. Overall, I think the set has many great potential investing factors.
Thanks for reading!
For my next visual review/investment article, I am doing one of my favorite sets (I finally got one to open!) 5887 Dino Defense HQ. Now I am going to warn you before hand, I am a mega dinosaur fan and one of my favorite movies of all time is Jurassic Park. So this article has no less than 257 references to the movie. So I would suggest you watch it, maybe several times, before reading this article.
Hold on to yo' butts!
So, first of all, the box is incredible. I only saw this on the shelves for a short period of time before it was gone, but I can't imagine many kids walked past it without wanting it. The T-Rex is very intimidating on the front with the helicopter flying overhead. I wanted it the moment I saw it! Make sure if you ever sell this on Ebay, you get a couple of good closeups of the box. I swore I heard the Jurassic park theme in the background the first time I looked at it. I mean what have they got in there, King King?
Opening the box, it is only 793 pieces, but it feels huge. Like at least over 1000. There are several reasons for this as you will see later on: he dinosaurs, the fencing, and some of the bigger plane pieces. I think its really worth the retail price of $99 (Luckily I got this one on clearance!). This is one of the reasons I think it has done so well in retirement so far. It could have been $120 retail and people would have bought it.

Looking at it, I immediately wanted to open the T-Rex, but unfortunately the instructions told me I had to wait a while. As much as I wanted to just pop it open anyway, I decided to wait. Bag 1 did at least have two minifigures and a dinosaur, so it is not like I wasn't getting my money's worth. Minifigure 1 is the pilot. He is pretty cool looking with the goggles and his painted on hunting gear.

The next minifigure is “Josh Thunder”. Supposedly, he is the main protagonist of the Dino theme and is exclusive to this set. He has a really cool painted on outfit with the straps and bags on his legs and the walkie-talkie. Of course, he also has a nice green sash because we can assume he is into style, no matter whether he is out on a date or hunting dinosaurs. I thought it was cool that he had a gruff look about him with the beard and mustache and his facial expression:

Now, finally a dinosaur! This was a raptor and it was so well done. It's about two and half times as big as a minifigure itself and looks just like the ones in Jurassic Park. It's got the beady smile when you open it's mouth and the claws are definitely really intimidating. It really stands up well, too which is a big problem with these types of minifigures:

Clever girl...
So you get the full size of the minifigure Raptor, here is a picture of the Raptor and Josh Thunder who has clearly tamed the large beast. I really like the green scope on the gun as well – although the shade of green is a little weird and the scope itself looks like a syringe. Still though, it's a nice touch for people using their imagination when playing with the set:

The rest of bag 1 is a Dino jeep which is pretty cool looking – I really like the stickers they use in this set. It all stays within the Dino color scheme. Anything with flick missiles is pretty cool, and I think it is awesome to have one on the jeep itself, making it a great vehicle to hunt dinosaurs with. The front bumpers are pretty cool as well and give it a very rugged look. I wanted to put a minifigure in it and say “Must go faster! Must go faster!”.

As usual Lego adds that touch of detail that others would miss with the box of supplies on the back of the truck as well as the holders for walkie-talkies. It even comes with a couple of tools to sit in the supply box:

Here is all of bag 1 together. This would be pretty good as just a set itself. The way the booklets are, it makes it seem as if this was a side set. Book 1 is just for this and is much smaller. Book 2 and 3 are for the actual Dino Defense HQ:

Bag 2 gives us a few more minifigures. The driver is up first. He is pretty cool and I love that he has the Dino theme patch on his shirt. Another thing I loved was the dual faces, with one of them being a scared face. Scared faces are always what I leave on my minifigures:

Sue Montana is the last minifigure, She is well done and really fits into the theme well to get a female presence. As they said in Jurassic Park “Dinosaur eats man...Women inherits the Earth!”. I love her scared face as it has a little more hesitance than fear on it. Maybe a touch of nervousness as well:

The rest of bag two includes the helicopter and a supply chest that holds the two guns and two helmets. The helicopter is pretty nice and is sturdy – again this could be its own little set as well. The blades spin really well and it has two flick missiles which is always a great added touch for playability. It feels like it's the right size as well. The supply chest is a nice added touch for playability as well if the play-ee wants to put away the guns and have the figures fly the helicopter or ride in the jeep. I did think it was weird you don't open the pilot up with the Helicopter, but maybe both the pilot and the driver can do both:

And Finally! We have a T-Rex! So, if you read the first article I did in this manner on the Rancor Pit, then you know that I was a little excited about the Rancor itself. This pretty much matched it. Until I actually got it out, I didn't really understand the size of this thing. It is absolutely massive. The arms and legs all move around and lock in place. The figure stands up great and can be put in many different positions without having a problem:

Obviously, this minifigure is going to be sought after because of the popularity of the T-Rex itself and because of how impressive the minifigure is. But, what really helps is even though there is another set in the theme with a T-Rex, it is a different color. I think this is really going to help the value because everyone that gets one will want the other one so that they have a set of them.
Before we move on, I think it's important for us to run this T-Rex through the Legendary Minifigure test:
Be huge –5 times a normal minifigures Check! He is absolutely massive and to good scale if you compare with Jurassic park.
Have 10 or more pieces He only has 7, but I think we can give him a pass because I had to actually put the claws on the Rancor and the T-Rex's claws are already on. I am giving him a check on this point.
Be able to eat a normal minifigure Hmmm... let's see:

Um... yeah, check.
Be a Rancor So I think I need to adjust this one to “Be a Rancor or a Tyrannosaurus Rex”. It's a legendary minifigures and I think it is right up there with the Rancor as one of the best minifigures of all time!
Now on to the rest of the set. Bag 3 is the front gate of the defense headquarters. The sides are pretty sturdy and I really like the round feel of the corner areas. It makes this set sit up really well. The fence in the middle is really well done. I love the spikes on the top and there are signs in the middle that have a voltage sign on them. The detail is really amazing:

I thought the build was pretty fun in bag 3, but evidently my dog didn't feel the same way:

Bag 4 takes the fence and adds even more detail to it. The bag includes an attachment for the top of both sides of the fence. On the right side, it has a lookout area along with a crane arm and a net to catch dinosaurs with. Along with that, you get another smaller dinosaur to catch in the net. This adds playability to the set, although I don't think the net could hold the other two dinosaurs. I don't know how Lego does this stuff:

The left hand side is a giant turret type system with a place for a minifigure to control it. It actually swings around and can aim and everything. Tons of playability. There are two flick missiles along with it. I don't have the full data for sets Lego has done with flick missiles, but I would have to say that this set has the most I think I have ever seen. 5 of them! Can't imagine anyone can find something wrong with that (except parents cleaning up after their children).

Bag 5 is pretty boring compared to what we have done so far. It is just the sides of the fencing for the headquarters extending to the back. I am really surprised as I am building this how well all of these pieces are engineered to stay together, even being fairly thin. When I was building Jabba's palace, I had a couple of issues with the parts properly staying together. Surprisingly this set has been very easy to build and keep together.

Bag 6 brings us the back of the headquarters and includes some of the bigger pieces. There are a lot of stickers in this set and as you can see from the picture below, there is a yellow door with the Dino logo on it. The Dino logo is also on the back of it. I think these really add something to the set. I like that the back also creates a little bit of a lookout, with railings to keep away the dinosaurs, so that children can play with the characters on the back of the fence area. As you can see, the set is almost done:

Bag 7 is the rest of the head quarter's back section, including a giant door (I was wondering how they got these huge dinosaurs in there. Again, the sides were very thin but stayed together very well and was very easy to build. As you can see, the sides have an indention for a pulley system for the door I am about to put in:

The last bag adds on to the top of the tower and finishes the doorway. The top of the tower is really detailed; it provides a glassed in lookout for the characters to use to watch the dinosaurs below. It also has a satellite on the side of it. We are assuming wherever this is, the characters don't have cell service.

In this step, the door gets put in as well being a large gate (again with the voltage sign on it). The pulley system to allow the door to go up and down is a hook and string. I really like this system better than some of the systems I have seen Lego use where you have to prop up doors that open vertically. The only negative I can see here is that the string was a little hard to properly tie and get put together. A child would definitely need a parent for this. Once it is put together, it is very easy to open and close by just twisting the pulley system.

Now its time to see it altogether. It is amazing! It is so all-around detailed and impressive, it really stands out when you walk into the room. The T-Rex is incredible and the fencing and tower make this stand out even more as he looks like he could take the whole thing down anytime he wanted. The Raptor fits in really well too. I think I am going to try and eventually hang the helicopter from the ceiling so I can get a better effect on the whole thing. Either way, Josh Thunder is going to seriously have his hands full with these beasts.



Investing wise, what do we think this set is going to eventually do? Ah, Ah, Ah! You didn't say the magic word!
Well, first of all, looking at this set as an investment is cheating a bit since it has been retired for about 6 months or so and has had some pretty incredible gains at a CAGR of 49.95%! So my analysis is going to look at whether or not it is a good investment from here on out.
Currently, it's new price is $149.95. So where can it go from here? Let's find a few sets to compare. We can use the following criteria:
Dinosaur set including a T-Rex One of or the largest set in the series I came up with the following sets, the first form the Dinosaurs theme and the second two from the popular Dino Attack theme.
6720 Tyrannosaurus Rex
10.95% CAGR with a current price of $34.76
Originally $9.99 – 250% return over retail
7471 Typhoon vs T-Rex
6.69% CAGR with a current Price of $117.47 (was around $150 in December)
Originally $69.99 – 68% return over retail
7476 Iron Predator vs. T-Rex
10.50% CAGR with a current price of 88.87
Originally $39.99 – 122% return over retail
So looking at these three sets, it is a bit surprising that this set has had around a 50% CAGR. On the other hand, these sets have all been around a while and we all know that Lego sets see their growth curve generally plateau within the first few years.
What I see in this data is the ceiling for return over retail. The T-Rex's all did really well. Before it's decline over the last 6 months, (which could be due to the popularity of the new Dino line hitting retirement) 7471 was above 2 times retail. 7476 is well above 2 times retail and 6720 is about 3.5 times retail. So this gives us a good idea for the ceiling of this set being at least 2 times retail and most likely greater. Right now it is at 1.5 times retail, so it still has some growing to go.
Also, this set really shot up quickly after retirement. Because of this, I think the stop in growth is going to be very slow. It would be very wild to see the growth line stop all of a sudden and go down to 10%. The above sets only show 10% because they have been around for 8 years or so.
There are some X-factors here though that really help us explain why this set shot up so quickly and why it will be a good investment over the next several years:
There aren't a lot of these out there: This theme was popular, but nothing like some of the other themes like Star Wars and City. If you look at the data on Brickpicker, there have not been 30 of these sold in a month since February. Actually, there have barely been any months when 20 have been sold. But does this mean no one is buying them? No actually. I have been actively looking for this set on Ebay and there have barely been 20 listings a month (cutting out the unreasonable listings it at $300 or more). To compare, there are almost 50 10212 Imperial Shuttles sold on Ebay per month – a much more expensive set. This bodes well for the sets growth because there is limited quantity. The Dino theme characters: First, several of the characters have names like Josh Thunder and Sue Montana which makes theme more collectible. Secondly, every minifigure to this set is exclusive as Lego used different designs for pretty much every set. This really helps if someone picks up one of the sets and is enamored with it. They will want all of them (This is how I came to get Dino Defense – I bought one of the others and got hooked). The T-Rex is exclusive and looks incredibly more real than the T-Rex' in the last two Dinosaur themes. I think this will be sought after for quite awhile driving this set up in price. If you look at sold listings on Ebay, the T-Rex has gone for around $70 for a few months now. At a current price of $149.95, that means it's worth almost half the set! This set is by far the biggest in the series, and the biggest of any of the other series: If a person loves Dinosaurs and looks at all Lego has to offer, this set is for sure at the top! Relatively short run: This set was only around for a year. It came out in the beginning of 2012 and was gone by 2013. Just as we saw from the Ebay data, this set is not in great supply. As more and more are opened and set up, the price will go up more and more. The new Jurassic Park movie: There will be a new movie in the next couple of years, and if you ever never noticed, Jurassic Park is one of the best grossing movie series of all time. This movie will be viewed by young and old and especially will turn a new generation into dinosaur lovers. So what does this mean for the set? Well, these two sets were above 10% CAGR at their peak a few years ago. Taking that as a scale, with all of the things we have talked about before, I think a safe bet would be that this set will see about 22.5% CAGR over 5 years (Honestly than would be over a half decline in CAGR over 4 years which is hard to believe. This is very conservative). So that means in 2017, we are looking at $275.85. This would go along with what we saw with the older sets being worth over 2 times their value.
So if you can get it this year for $150, is it worth it? Money wise, this means you would hold it for four years and sell it for $275.85 in 2017 achieving a ROI of 83% over 4 years, or a little over 20% per year. That's not too bad right? Adding to that, there are no more sets coming into the market to slow it down, there are no more Dinosaur themes on the horizon, and it's a known entity: it's already been a great gainer!
To me, this makes this set worth it if you can score a MISB one for $150. You don't want to spend your whole budget on them, but for those of us who like to wait and see what a set will do in retirement, this definitely seems to already look like a winner. I have found several of these in stores still on clearance as well which is just free money! I have this set in one of my searches on Ebay and whenever I see one for under $150, I grab it.
If anything, I think you could just grab the T-Rex as well. The first of our three comparison set's was just a T-Rex minifigure. It has been out for 12 years, but is still worth 3 times what it was sold for. It may as well be worth over $100 in a few years!
If you don't see this set as still worth the investment, believe me, you still need it. If you like dinosaurs at all, this is the pinnacle of Lego Dinosaur sets. And I would get it now while you still can for a decent price because I feel this set is only going up, up, up! What do you all think?
Oh, and remind me to thank John for the wonderful weekend.
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
So after my Rancor article, I knew it was not going to be very long before I got the Jabba set out and completed this masterpiece of a Lego duo. I was actually a bit afraid it might be a little bit of a letdown after how much fun I had putting together the Rancor Pit. On the other hand, this set was a decent amount bigger and had a lot of cool little details as well as a ton of minifigures so I figured I would still be in for a good time. So I got the set out and dumped it out just as before. First off, this set looks a lot bigger than 800 pieces just like the Rancor pit looked bigger than 380. The reason behind this are the giant plane pieces that have to hold up Jabba and his eating addiction. The roof pieces are also very large as well – there are only about 9 pieces that make up the whole round top of the palace. Here is a picture of what I got out of the box:

Looking at the booklets, building this set is really fun because you get minifigures in several of the bags, not just a the beginning, and we all know that putting together the minfigures is the most fun part of building a set. First up in bag 1 is Leia in the Boushh Disguise. I really like this one because it adds a lot of playability to the set if someone wants to re-enact the scene from the movie (not that I did it). The outfit and helmet are great:

I believe this disguise is exclusive to this set so this minifigure will be sought after by anyone collecting.
The Chewbacca is next and he is just the normal Chewbacca that has been in tons of sets. I would have enjoyed to have a different one here, but he did normally wear the same thing so I guess there isn't much they could do different:

Next up is Jabba himself. Honestly I have never opened any of the sets that had Jabba in it before. It is a pretty great minifig, but after opening the Rancor, he is just not near as impressive. Next to normal minifigures he looks pretty good still. I guess it is all about perspective. I think they maybe could have made him look a little more scaly and little more nasty. I would have really liked some fat flabs.:

Next up is B'Omarr Monk. Hes a cool guy just because he is completely different than other normal figures. Even though he is the same as the original set, he adds a ton of playability to this set – I mean his legs are made of swords! I went ahead and included him in with the picture of the first bag which includes the bottom part of the tower.
The tower is fairly easy to build, but at most points is a bit unstable. I had to redo it a few times because it kept coming apart. I think it could have been just a little more sturdy if they used less 1x1 pieces and less of the slanted pieces here. I have unsteady hands though so this may not bother everyone. It definitely still looks good – I just worry about playability with it unless a kid just leaves it there and doesn't touch it – buildings coming apart while you are playing is no fun.

Next up with bag 2 is the Gamorrean Guard. The same figure as in the Rancor Pit. I like the figure a lot so I am totally cool with having two of them. On top of that, when have you ever seen a guard alone? They travel in pairs. You can't guard something by yourself properly. That's just science:

The rest of bag 2 is the top part of the tower. The top is fairly vanilla, but I do like the playability with the added lookout spot where minifigures can chill out and guard stuff. The opening door is really pretty cool as well. I really like the detail here that Lego added at the top of the tower. I will say that I wish the door had some easier method to open and close for playability sake, other than you having to open it and then set a piece in to keep it up. It works either way though, I may just be lazy:

The back of the tower really shows this awesome Lego detail. The box with the Laser in it. The guns hung up on the wall of the top tower. Unfortunately that's really only an added playability bonus as the way this tower faces, you don't really see that part when displayed.:

Bag 3 brings us Oola next. This is an exclusive minifig to this set and a really good one at that. Though Oola doesn't really have a big part in the movie (I think she gets eaten by the Rancor right?) I love the figure. Lego's shades of green are so bright and vibrant. She really stands out and really contrasts the other minfigures well. This will really add to the set value:

Now we have Han Solo (which is a slight redesign) and his carbon chamber. The chamber itself is a slight redesign as well. While I think its pretty well detailed and looks good, I wish it stood out just a little bit more. The dark color doesn't help it as much – not sure how they could have done it better, but I think far away from it, it seems a bit dull :

Bib Fortuna is next – this is not an exclusive minifigure but its only the second set its been in so I think it does add some value to the set. Hes really well done with the cape and all. The best part though is the facial expression. Its very mean and devilish looking:

Bag 4 is the base if the palace. It's a pretty bland building though it doesn't take very long to build. I will say it was a little bit flimsy while putting together. This is one of the parts I think would be hard for a small child to put together without some help because there are only small pieces holding the large flat pieces together until it is finished. Several times I would push too hard and pop something else apart:

Bag 5 seems like its just separated so they didn't have to really pack in bag 4. It isn't that many pieces at all because they are fairly large. These include the pieces to finish the floor and add on the trap door. The trap door was obviously expected, but its great for playability. A child can keep dropping Luke down over and over – or I guess anyone else they want to feed to the Rancor (although I would venture that a Rancor doesn't want to be fed – He wants to hunt!):

Bag 6 includes the sides of the of the palace. This is much sturdier that the tower piece that I put together earlier. It stays together a lot better while building. Lego does something a little bit out of the ordinary for them: They actually have a few steps where they seem to be rushing the build a bit. A few of the steps you are adding 10 or 12 pieces. I can't complain because I normally am irritated with putting together two pieces and then turning the page, but this was tricky not to miss a piece here or there. Again the detail is amazing on the front of the palace. There is also a little spinning stand for the Carbonite Han which is pretty cool:


Salacious B. Crumb finally! I love this little guy in the movie – he reminds me of Alf! Honestly I was a little disappointed with the minfigure unfortunately. It is very small (which makes sense) and is made of soft, bendable plastic. I was hoping he would be more of a Lego piece like the other minifigures, but the detail on the figure makes up for it pretty well. Again, an exclusive minifigure and one that I think will be very good for the set's growth.

Bag 7 includes the back part of the palace. Most of it is is just normal brick laying. As you can see it is coming together nicely:

Bag 8 is very quick and easy as it includes the roof for the palace and as I mentioned before it is mostly big pieces. I like that they did this with bigger pieces as I really like the smooth top to the palace. More Lego pieces equals rougher roof.:

So now it's done and it's time to take it to the Rancor Pit and put this masterpiece together. The palace has small places on the bottom of it for the slanted pieces on top of the Rancor Pit to fit inside. It doesn't actually attach; the Palace just rests on top of the pit. This makes it pretty easy to put together, but may be harder to keep together for a child playing with it. I got it together and I have to say it is pretty impressive together. No one is walking by this in my house without commenting on it:

Honestly, my only downside display wise is the tower section that's separate from the palace. It looked really cool on the box next to the palace as a lookout, but now it's much lower because of the Rancor pit. I guess it would have been tough, but I need a way to get it to the right height so it will look more natural again. The set's themselves look awesome together with the mass amount of minifigures and the flow of the set, for anyone who has seen the movie, is really spot on. I will say that looking at the sets together makes the Rancor even more impressive, but I wont harp on that now because I did for a whole article. So after all the pictures, what do we see in the future for this set? I am going to go out on a limb and say it did intrigue investors for a short while sometime around Marchish? But what about interest now that all that is over?
To compare to other sets, I decided to take the following criteria:
Iconic Star Wars movie scene or vehicle Must have been redone in a similar manner several years later Set must be retired Here is what I came up with:
Bobba Fett's Slave I – 6209 in 2006 and 8097 in 2010 The AT-AT Walker – 4483 in 2003 and 8129 in 2010 The Clone Turbo Tank – 7261 in 2005 and 8098 in 2010 Jabba's Palce – 4480 in 2003 and 9516 in 2012 I decided to take the old and new and the percent difference between the old set and new set between CAGR so we could use the old Jabba set to predict what the new one might do. What was actually very intesting is that two of the remakes did better than the original by a considerable amount! This is most likely because of the improvement in detail of the sets and the increased popularity in Star Wars and in Lego. Below are the results:

Wow is all I can say. The Slave and the AT-AT CAGR increased significantly which is a good sign for investors interested in this set. The old Jabba's Palace is sitting there at 16.94% CAGR which is pretty good on it's own with the mean being around 8.5% for Star Wars sets. I would have been satisfied for this set to have shown 15% CAGR but this suggests it will be better.
Averaging the three together, and comparing how this set would look after 2014 from the data we have here (each of the newer sets we are comparing are 3 years old) the average suggests that the new Jabba's Palace could see an increase in CAGR of 76% which is astounding! This would mean Jabba would see an increase to ~30% CAGR which would put it at a value of almost $200 after two years EOL. Now most of this is predicated off how well the second AT-AT did, but this is somewhat fair because of several things I will discuss below. What I decided to do was weigh a few negatives and positives before deciding where this set might sit:
Pros
The new Jabba's Palace in considerably better than the old set. Way better compared to the increase in the other sets we compared it to. The original Jabba only had a few minfigures – this one has 8. And the original didn't have the Rancor pit. It also 600 more pieces. The controversy – This set should EOL at the end of this year from what Lego has indicated giving it a shorter run. Also we saw that people were willing to pay $175 for this set which is always a good sign. Discounting. This set's retail has been a little bit high but retailers have really shown a commitment to discounting it. I think you could score a lot of these for $80 before it's gone. Playability – this set has so many figures and trap doors and everything that it will appeal to kids quite a bit. The new Star Wars Movies – Introducing a new generation to Star Wars can only help. 2 Exclusive minifigures and several that are only in a few sets. Cons
Will Most likely be targeted by investors. With the controversy a lot were purchased and stored – we may not ever know how many. Discounting will keep a lot of consumer's buying it as well. Jabba wont be in the new Star Wars movies. Clone Turbo tank going down is a little troubling (although it's less iconic) So where does it put us? I think a safe bet on this set would be 23-25% CAGR in the first two years. Honestly it could go way up and way down. The set is really nice and I love it with the Rancor Pit. However, even though nothing is a sure thing,
I hesitate more on this set just because of everything that has gone on with it. I don't necessarily guarantee it will do better than the Rancor Pit. I think the Rancor Pit is the safer bet, but this set has more potential because its worth more in general. I honestly think either way we will see a bunch of these sell again right as this set goes EOL and it will drive the price up. If we see it go up to 25 CAGR in the first two years, most of us should be satisfied to get out then with the price right around $185.
My advice: Don't target this set as a top investment, but if you see a good deal on it under $90 or so, I would pick it up. While I don't know that you should put tons of money into them, I think they will definitely gain money and if anything could be a really good quick flip if the flames start back up when the set EOLs.
Either way, if you are a Star Wars fan, this set is definitely a must have even if you have the first one already. The colors and detail have improved immensely over the old set and as I talked about, the Rancor Pit and this set together are amazing.
What do you all think? Do you think this set will do better than the Rancor? What's your prediction on the CAGR?
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
So I think it would be a little bit of an understatement to say that the Lego Lord of the Rings Orc Forge (9476) has caused a stir in the last couple of weeks. If you haven't been paying too much attention, here is the rundown of what happened:
The Orc Forge goes to “retiring soon” status in the Lego Store in late June The Orc Forge Sells out in the Lego Store around the first week of June. About a week later, it sells out at Target.com (it is a target exclusive so now it is technically unavailable via retail. It comes back in stock on Target.com a few days later It sells out again about a day later It comes back in stock again on Target.com It sells out again another day later Several days later it comes back in stock again on Target.com Lego changes it to “temporarily out of stock” from “sold out” on the website. Slight panic ensues This has mattered so much to everyone because there is a general consensus that this set will do really well after EOL. It is an exclusive, so there have been less made and bought than normal sets. It is also part of a theme in LOTR, that is expected to do really well – most likely match the Harry Potter series.
I have recently ordered 8 in the last several weeks as we have seen them sort of, almost, maybe go retired. I love LOTR, so I decided I wanted to pop one open and actually build it, And of course, write a review/investment article about it. For all the talk we have seen about this set, I really feel like no one has offered any first hand experience about how great, or not so great, the set is build and playing wise. Isn't that what really matters?
So once again, I am writing this for you as I put together the set. This one should be really fun as it is a perfect build – 363 pieces – it will most likely only take about an hour.
The box itself:

I think the box matters more to a Lego set's popularity than a lot of people think. You cannot take a good box for granted. Take a look at the first Tie Interceptor in the Lego SW theme – the box is more impressive than the actual set. Sure, people would probably buy a Lord of the Rings set if it was in an unmarked card board box, but these sets are for children. We know children have to see something spectacular on the box so that they run up to their parents and say “I want it, I want it”. I think this makes a big difference after EOL as well. When people see a sealed one and it looks impressive , it will influence their decision to buy it.
In this case, I really love the box. The Lord of the Rings boxes are all pretty good, but this one just has a lot going on. I love how they made the torches and the actual forge smoke and light up. They also have the rocky lava area in the background. On the right, they have all of the blue mist looking area that really stands out in contrast to the heat coming from the left side. The minifigures are all interacting with the Orc Forge as well, instead of just being shown up the side of the box. Plus you have the light brick, which one of the things that made me really want to buy the set. As well, the minifigure picture in the left bottom corner has a “Hard to Find” logo on it. This makes a lot of difference to the set in my eyes. When you say it is hard to find in your listing 2 years from now, you have something obvious to back it up.
Moving on, let's open it up.

Honestly, the Rancor Pit just has a few more pieces than this set and it looks a lot bigger. This was because it had such big pieces in it as well as the rancor itself. The Orc Forge feels a lot smaller for the same number of pieces, but it is $20 dollars cheaper so the value is still there.
First up out of the first bag is one of the Mordor Orcs. I love the Orcs and the other LOTR sets' lack of them really bodes well for this set. His face is really mean and nasty looking and the color of the Orc himself and the outfit is just right. This guy comes with the forge hammer, which is a nice change of pace for a hold item. I like weapons, and while this one can be used as one, I think it adds something for the more non-violent children who play with this set.

The second Mordor Orc is the same, but he comes with a shovel – again a practical piece instead of a weapon. There are plenty of weapons in the set, and with 4 Orcs, I think it gives the set some variety.

Alright – for the blocks part of bag 1. Most of it is pretty simple "ground-up" building. Luckily, we get to the piece I was waiting for pretty quick – the light brick. I wondered how they did it. I was assuming it was just a battery in the brick and that is exactly what it is. There is a button on the back of the brick that, when pressed, lights up the brick. As you can see from the picture below, it is very bright. I think this is an awesome idea in Lego's catalog of special pieces and I think it is really impressive for a single piece. Think of all the things they can do with these in future sets. Excellent for Play-ability.

The rest of the building is fairly simple, just outlining the rocks and building the forge itself. The fire coming out from around the pot is a really nice touch and because they are see-through as well, when you press the light, they really shine. I will say that part of the building was a little difficult. There are some trapezoid and slanted pieces that are only held together by one small 2x1 piece. These are not really secured until you put the top brown pieces on top of the rock-like pieces. This made it a little hard to keep it together. After putting the top pieces on, it still is not particularly stable. Not sure how else they could have done it, but I have a feeling that if it is played with in a rough manner, it may come apart.

I do really like the anvil shown above as well. It is 6 small pieces, but it makes all the difference to the Orc and his hammer. Though it is simple, it really looks pretty good matching up with the color of the forge itself.
The next bag brings us the other two minifigure Orcs. The first one up is Uruk-Hai. He is pretty awesome with the red mean face and the Orc shield and armor. I think the shield, sword, and Orc armor are all really well done. They are very shiny, more than you can really tell in the picture, and you get two full sets as well as two extra swords because of the Forge itself. I think these make it fantastic for Orc battle scenes and army building.

The other is the Orc, Lortz. Honestly, they show him with his long hair and just a sword, but he isn't that much different from the other Orcs – just a little redesign on the body an a brown head instead of green. No one is gonna argue with another Orc. I just wanted to dress him up in the armor like Uruk-Hai though.

The rest of bag 2 is not very much – a small sword cooling place and another base for the rest of the set.

The base piece on the right stays together a little better than the first one, which is good since it holds the majority of the sets weight. I do have to admit, I like the simple touch of the dark grey pieces as rocks and the little green slope pieces.
The last bag of the set is really the most fun, even though it has no minifigures. It includes the windmill-like piece with a string and hook that can carry a basket up to the top with all the metal pieces. The string is a little tough to tie, so I think that some children might have to have help with that. I think the pulley system is really cool looking though, and the basket actually looks wooden:

The rest of the parts include the stand for the metal to be pored on and the metal chute for it to slide down into the melting pot. I enjoyed the bricks that are made to look like wood. They give the set a nice touch and they aren't stickers. I don't have any ability to apply stickers properly so this is always a plus for me. The torches on the top of the set are really nice as well:


I really like the set as a whole. It is obviously not as impressive as Helm's Deep or Mines of Moria because it is smaller, but it is a very detailed small set for the right price. It also only took about 50 minutes to build, which is perfect in my eyes. Because of all the extra pieces and weapons, the set has a ton of play-ability. I really struggled trying to decide exactly how I wanted to display all the different extra little pieces because there is so much here. I decided to have the armor on both orcs and display the weapon cooling area in the middle with the Orc using the anvil on the right:

Here is a close up of the forge itself.

And one with it lit up:

The light brick makes this set. Absolutely excellent.
Investment time: Do my thoughts on it as an investment change? What do we have to compare it to?
Well, we don't have any retired Lord of the Rings sets to really compare it to, but I think the general consensus is that the theme will do really well. They have all sold really well, have not been on the shelves too long, and is from a very popular movie series that is recent. So instead, I decided to compare to it old Target Exclusives that have a comparable piece count and retail price. This chart is shown below:

This is definitely good news. With exclusives there are definitely good things and bad things that arise. On one hand, there are less of them made and less bought during production. On the other, they may not be as well known because no body ever sees them. This could be a problem in bigger themes too like Star Wars because there are close to a billion sets. But we still see here that the Pirate tank and the Republic Fighter Tank both still had some solid growth.
I think the Lord of the Rings theme is more comparable to the Coast Guard Platform and the Agents theme because there was a limited number of sets in the theme. People that liked the theme will definitely want to collect all the sets in the theme and it will be doable.In the Star Wars theme, it is not that doable.
Both the Coast Guard set and the Agents set saw fairly solid growth, with the Coast Guard set tripling in value. Where do we think the Orc Forge fits in? Well, currently it already shows a 37% CAGR which is wonderful. I think this representative of the people who may not have a Target in their area or a Lego store and buy off Ebay.
The build was really pretty good and I think most children could handle it. The play-ability with the set is off the chart and with the light brick and all the cool Orcs and weapons, I think the set's build and play-ability match right up with it's alleged investment potential.
This set has also not really seen a lot of sales, so I don't think there are tons of people out there who have 100s of these stashed away. I think once it finally does EOL, the value will steadily rise to about $80 after a year or so. For the more long term investment, I think it will see gains not quite a good as the Coast Guard set, but close since the theme is so popular. I expect about 25% CAGR after 5 years, which is a very low estimate. Honestly, I think it has the potential to do even better as more and more people find out there is another Lord of the Rings set. And these sets aren't done, so I think there will be more and more interest generated.
At 25% CAGR, the 5 year value would be $122.07 which would be a really nice 200% return over retail. If you do not have this set, don't worry about all the possibility of an extended run. I guarantee that all the mid level sets in the Harry Potter series sold more than this set and I think the current performance has shown how popular this set is.
As well, this set is not sold in every target. I have three in my city and none of them carried this in store. I think it is way too early to worry about how many will be sold. Honestly I don't think they will come back in stock at Lego and all of this will die down. Just don't be caught without one. In my opinion, this set obviously has really solid growth potential, and this could be a 40% or more CAGR set in a couple of years – it just has that type of potential with its exclusivity and the theme's popularity itself. It's not a bad thing it is still in stock – because you have plenty of time to get more of them!
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods. Thanks for reading!
Some of the older and more active members probably read my old LEGO predictions about LEGO LOTR wave 1.
For the rest I will re-quote it for easier re-evaluation....
Posted 08 March 2013 - 07:43 AM

Now let us look on the current standings:
RETIRED 9469-1: Gandalf Arrives -17.78%
9470-1: Shelob Attacks -30.87%
9471-1: Uruk-Hai Army -22.94%
RETIRED 9472-1: Attack On Weathertop -14.75%
9473-1: The Mines of Moria -36.14%
9474-1: The Battle Of Helm's Deep -19.02%
RETIRED 9476-1: The Orc Forge +52.46%
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
RETIRED 9469-1: Gandalf Arrives -17.78%
Retail Price: US: $ 12.99
Comment:
So far the item (as expected) did not pick up at all. I guess my double retail was way over the board.
re-evaluated:
The value has been dropping for 3 consecutive months.Am not expecting this to begin green color trends for 4-6 months
Estimation of value approximately 1-1.5 years after EOL: 20$ max
Alcarin's suggestion: Worth picking up, but only if you can find it below 9$
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
RETIRED 9472-1: Attack On Weathertop -14.75%
Retail Price: US: $ 59.99
Comment:
The item is showing positive trends and might be wise to pick it afterall (Guess I was wrong in my predictions).
re-evaluated:
Estimation of value approximately 1-1.5 years after EOL: 100$
Alcarin's suggestion: Worth picking up for anything below 50$, maybe even below 60$, if you plan to hold for 1-2 years
this one might burn high and light with high ROI as some Nazguls did in the movie!
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
RETIRED 9476-1: The Orc Forge +52.46%
Retail Price: US: $ 39.99
Comment:
Item showing expected growth, if you can pick it up for retail or even less, you should not hesitate. In May Orc Forge skyrocketed for 9$ worth of growth which is like 25% of its initial retail value.
re-evaluated:
Estimation of value approximately 1-1.5 years after EOL: 120-140$
Alcarin's suggestion: Worth picking up for anything below 50$ Lurtz is getting armed and ready to fight the prices even higher!

........................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
This is regarding re-evaluation of now retired sets based on a few months data I checked out. Must say that Weathertop ''success'' did slightly surprise me, yet the sets growth above retail is still something that will take time. As expected the biggest growth (and the only) above retail shows the exclusive Orc Forge set, which lingered slightly above retail value for majority of its shelf time as an exclusive.
Stay tuned for next blog in the following days when I will re-evaluate still available sets of line 2 and ''detailed'' predictions of wave 2.
I will be reviewing the Brickmania M1A1 75MM Howitzer on M8 Carriage and the Heavy Mortar with Brickarms Shell.
These sets are made by Brickmania.com and they are LEGO customs. They can be discontinued and re-released at anytime so I wouldn't invest in these kits.
They are high quality and well-built in my opinion, but not great investments at all.
M1A1 75MM Howitzer On M8 Carriage

Name: M1A1 75MM Howitzer on M8 Carriage Number of Pieces: 41 LEGO elements Number of Minifigures: 0 Cost: $13.00 Price per Piece: $0.31 Price per ounce.: $11.60 Click here to view this kit on Brickmania.com Front of the polybag.

Picture of the real M1A1 75MM Howitzer.

The Build
The build was very easy and it took me about 20 minutes to build. The instructions were easy to following and the pictures were crisp. I believe beginner LEGO builders can build this set with ease. However, the model is pretty fragile so try to handle it with care. The troublesome area for me would be the 2X3 grey piece right under the barrel. Most of the pieces are the newer dark grey pieces with the exception of the tires and the pole piece.
The Completed Set
Picture of the completed set.

Picture of the set being towed by my Brickmania Jeep. (The Jeep or minifigure is not included.)

As noted in the product description, it is fully poseable and can be "broken down" similar to what would have happened during WW2. (This was done to transport the gun easier through rough terrain.)
Overall Opinion
I think the model itself is quite awesome despite the higher price tag and the fragile areas. Speaking of price, some of you maybe did a double take when you first looked at it. It isn't an official LEGO set so it costs more money to assemble all of the parts. Here is a quote from Andrew of The Brothers Brick about the higher cost of the Brickmania kits. (He reviewed some of the sets on his website and the link will take you to the review I got the following quote from. For those who don't know who Dan Siskind is, he is the owner/founder of Brickmania.)
Now that is out of the way, I think this is great set for WW2 era MOCs and especially for Airborne and U.S. Marine MOCs. (This gun was mainly used by those two type of units.) The ratings below will be out of 10.
Parts: 7 Nothing rare or special. Playability: 8 Fully posable and easy to display. Building Experience: 7.5 It was very easy, but some parts of the set tend to fall off. Value for Money: 8 Although high in comparison to official LEGO sets, it is on par with price in comparison to other Brickmania kits. Overall: 30.5 out of 40. Overall it is a nice kit and I recommend any WW2 era LEGO fan to get one. Heavy Mortar with Brickarms Shell

Name: Heavy Mortar with Brickarms Shell Number of Pieces: 9 including the Brickarms shell Number of Minifigures: 0 Cost: $6.00 Price per Piece: $0.66 Price per ounce.: $18.75 Click here to view this kit on Brickmania.com Front of the polybag

Picture of a U.S. WW2 era heavy mortar.

The Build
​The build was extremely easy as it is very small. (It took me one minute to build.) Most of the pieces are the newer dark grey which is the same color as the M1A1 75MM Howitzer. The best piece of this set is the prototype Brickarms mortar shell which is hand made and only available in this kit.
The Completed Set
The completed set with a minifigure holding the Brickarms shell. (The minifigure is not included.)

Another view of the set. (The minifigure is not included.)

It looks nice set up and it stands very easily. You can also adjust the angle of the mortar by moving the black antennas.
Overall Opinion
It is not that big at all. What really brings the price up on this is the proto handmade mortar shell. By just looking at the pictures almost any LEGO fan can get the pieces and build it for cheaper than $6. Basically if you want the shell then get this. Otherwise just build one using your own parts. This is meant to be used by any nationality WW2 and after so it could fit into a lot of Military MOCs. The rating will be out of ten again.
Parts: 6.5 Nothing special at all except the handmade/prototype mortar shell. Playability: 7 You can fit the shell partway down the barrel to act out loading it. Building Experience: 9.5 Very quick and easy. Pretty solid kit. Value for Money: 7 Not very great, but the prototype shell makes up for the higher price in my opinion. Overall: 30 out of 40. If you want the mortar shell then get this. Otherwise just use the picture provided and build your own. Here is another version of the mortar. It is the exact same as the one above, but this one includes a custom printed Brickarms crate. It costs $13.
Click here to view the M1 81MM Mortar Pack.

I hope you guys/ gals enjoyed these reviews. I will be doing more Brickmania reviews of the following kits below so stay tuned. (Clicking on the link takes you to the Brickmania.com website.) I will also be starting my LEGO Customs article.
WWB Version of the Jeep
Click here to view the standard Jeep without the canopy.

M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer
Click here to view the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer.

M4 Sherman
Click here to view the M4 Sherman.

Thanks for reading!
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owner’s. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Products reviewed are bought by me unless otherwise noted.
Looking at CAGR return rates are great over a decent length of time, but for the purposes of shorter more accurate timeframes I feel that metric can be a little blunt.
CAGR takes the current price and shows you the annual percentage growth rate that starting from purchase price that gets you to there. Typically we use the retail release year as the start point, all the Brickpicker set pages do so. This is fine if you purchased it in that same year but if you bought it the year after or even 2 or 3 years after release looking at the CAGR from release date will be far lower than your real investment return. You can solve that by doing the CAGR calculation yourself and using the year you purchased as the starting point.
But even if you et the starting year right this doesn’t factor in whether the set was purchased in January of the year or in December, and likewise for the end point. A set purchased in Dec-2011 and measured in Jan-2013 has only just over 1 year of time to be measured but CAGR assigns 2 years.
Many of us track our purchases closely and record purchase dates for our inventory. If you know the month and price you purchased a set then you can use those to create a much more accurate measure of investment performance for your individual circumstance.
For this analysis I decided to use CMGR – Compound Monthly Growth Rate. The formula and method is exactly the same as CAGR except you take the start and end points and measure in months and it returns the monthly compounding growth rate. The formula is ((End price / Purchase Price) ^ (1 / months)) – 1.
e.g. you bought a set in December for $100 and it has a market price in June of $150, so ((150/100)^(1/6)-1 = 6.99% CMGR.
You can check your result by taking the start point of $100 and multiply it by 1+CMGR 6 times. So $100 x 1.0699 x 1.0699 x 1.0699 x 1.0699 x 1.0699 x 1.0699 = $150
CMGR is especially useful for investors/resellers who hold stock for a short period of time.
It also lets you evaluate the book value of the sets you currently hold right up to the latest month. Just take your starting point and measure it against the current market price. You can even account for fees and transaction costs by removing them off the current market price first. That way you have an up to the month accurate representation of the performance of your investment portfolio.
I can be difficult to transition to CMGR as most people’s minds work in annual percentage terms, and so many of the comparable stats and information we use is based on annual figures. Fear not, you can easily convert your CMGR to a CAGR with this formula:
CAGR = (CMGR + 1) ^ 12 -1 then divide by 100 to get a percentage
So in our example our $100 set to $150 in 6 months would actually read as having a CAGR of 50% if you used the normal CAGR calculation because it would assign 1 year of growth even though December to June is only 6 months. To find a more accurate CAGR we can use the CMGR of 6.99% that we found to calculate the following;
CAGR = (6.99% + 1) ^ 12 – 1
= 1.0699 ^12 – 1
= 2.25 – 1
= 125%
I hope some of you find a use for CMGR and use it to provide a more accurate picture of performance on both sets you’ve sold and those you are currently keeping in your portfolio.
More often than not, resellers and investors of LEGO bricks are builders first, collecting second, and investors last. Not that investing is a terrible thing to do, but the love of LEGO usually comes before the love of money. One of the worst things about collecting and building is the mess.
A few years back, some relatives came over and saw the LEGO’s piled on the floor, on the former dining room table, and on the chairs. Of course their nieces and nephews loved it, but one of my uncles took me aside and said, “Uhh, sometimes Jordan gets his room all messed up with LEGO’s all over the place. You know what we do? We sort it by color. It makes it a lot easier to find pieces, and we clean everything up too!”. To my 9 year old mind, this was a groundbreaking discovery! I had never thought about organizing my bricks in another fashion besides my set!
So over the next few weeks, primarily during the boring parts of the State of the Union Address, which encompassed majority of the speech, we sorted through a recently acquired lot of LEGO’s. Though it was backbreaking work to sort through about 40 lbs of LEGO’s, we managed to sort it into small bins that held the following colors:
2 Bins of gray/black 1 Bin of red/blue 1 Bin of green/yellow 1 bin of white/tan/brown We never really got around to sorting our other LEGO’s not in the lot, it helped a lot when building. Afterwards, not so much. Like most young kids, taking apart is the painful part of building, and yet the inevitable. I started keeping complete structures in the bins along with the loose pieces, which led to the mixing of the colors and bricks. Of course I didn’t mind, and it wasn’t until recently that I decided to organize my bricks a different way: by size and function.
Here are a few of the steps that I took to sort them into their new categories, as well as throw the MegaBloks and clever fakes that had been mixed in, into a “trash” pile.
Step 1: Throw ‘Em Together
Supplies Needed:
- 1 Large Bin or container, preferably larger than 2 feet in diameter.
This is probably the most fun part of this laborious task, which is just mixing up all the pieces together. It felt really good to see the mixed together, and to hear the clamoring of plastic on plastic. For this task, I chose a small kiddy pool that my family never good around to throwing away. It is 3 feet in diameter, but only 8 inches deep, perfect for spreading around the bricks to see a lot of them.
Step 2: Common Ground
Supplies Needed:
Your brain. In this step, you will be looking at your pieces, and try to find major “families” amongst them. A few common ones are flat plates, wings/large plates, regular bricks, and slant pieces. You can even go so far as to sort them into categories like car pieces, Creator pieces, roofing, curved pieces, etc. After determining your main 3-5 categories, you should find bins that you will be able to store your bricks in, large enough to hold all of the bricks in, and a little room if more pieces might find their way there. For this, I used a plastic container 13” x 7” x 4.5”, which were previously used to store the bricks when they were sorted by color.
Step 3: Sorting
Supplies Needed:
Paper Pencil/Marker/Writing Utensil Sharp eyes It all comes down to this: the actual sorting of your bricks. Tear a full piece of printer paper into quarters, then fold each quarter in half, “hotdog style”, which is the second grader way of saying “the long way”. On one half of the paper, write the category in large bold letters, and place it inside the container, so that one half of the piece of paper is on the bottom of the box, and one is touching the side. If you choose to use a different method of labeling, that is totally fine. This is just a way that I found to be time and economically efficient. Now, take no more than two of the categories and take as many pieces out of your master collection and into your box assuming it meets the criteria. A great way to get to all the pieces if you have a large container is using a “Lazy Susan”, which I use, or if you have a circular container, you can press it against your chest/body, and turn.
Step 4: Sub-Categories
Once you have finished sorting into your main categories, you are left with several types of pieces that probably aren’t so related to each other. These pieces obviously don’t need large containers to store in, so you can use a small plastic shelf/cabinet like the one below, or use a tackle box, which serves a very similar purpose. If you are going the shelf/cabinet route, make sure to label each drawer to save time.
By this time, you should have all your pieces organized, and ready to go! I recommend this type of organization to a more serious builder, because many times, it’s more important to get the piece than the color correct. However, for many, it is just important to get things organized and ready to go instead of heaps and piles everywhere.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and I look forward to seeing pictures of some very organized LEGO collections!!
Below are a few pictures of my collection of loose bricks [during sorting] for your entertainment.
​​
Hello, my username is Comicblast, and I will be your guide today. Please click here to follow along as the tour progresses. Enjoy!
1. Forum Topics
Once you go the the link above, you will come to the main BrickPicker Forums page. On this page are --- main categories of topics, and several other sub-categories. The first is the BrickPicker.com General Board. This category includes more general information, not so related to LEGO investing, but still important. If you intend on participating in the forums, I recommend you introduce yourself, but we’ll get around to doing this a little later.
The second category is the ***Members Only Forum***. In this area, you will learn about the opinions of other LEGO investors on set performances, as well as the ever important Special Deals section. Non-Members cannot view this section, but it is 100% free to view it!
Right below the ***Members Only Forum***, we come to the Investing & Collecting Forum. In this area, you will find topics discussing things more specific to themes and particular sets, as well as a general investing and collecting forum. Not every single theme is listed there, but the main ones are. If you have any questions on other sets, it is recommended to go to either the general investing and collecting forum or to the Buying and Selling forum. In this forum, you will find topics related to buying and selling, as well as popular destinations of buying LEGO’s, including eBay, Amazon, LEGO S@H, Toys R Us, Target Store/Online, and Walmart.
One of the sub-categories of the Buying and Selling forum is The Deal or No Deal Forum. In this category, you will be able to inquire about a specific set, it’s investment potential, and so on. This is a recommended place to start out on LEGO investing. If you choose to start a thread in this category, your title should follow the following format: Set Number - Set Name. If your question includes more than one set, put a “/” between each new set name and number.
2. Searching the Forums
Before asking a question and starting a new thread, it is smartest to first search through past threads first. You can go to the upper right corner’s search bar, put in your set number, name, or key word, and then select “Forums”. Often, there will be a few pages of threads including that set number, but you should browse through to find if any might answer your question. Not only does this keep the forums clean, it gives you a more immediate answer to your inquiry, and quite frankly, keeps other members from getting annoyed at you.
3. Starting a Topic
If you have searched the forums for any similar topics, and haven’t found one, you can now start a Forums Topic! First, go to the main Forums page, then select the category that you think best fits your inquiry or topic. Click on that topic, then click on the box that reads “Start a New Topic” that is located on right side, above the list of topics already made. Now, pick a topic title. Remember, that if your topic is in The Deal or No Deal Forum, then it must follow the Set Number - Set Name format. After you type something in, a box of 5 topics will be listed. This is your last chance to turn back. If nothing really meets your question, then move on to the next step. Next you can pick a few topic tags, though this is not mandatory. After you have typed in your title, a box of By choosing tags, it’s easier to find the topic later on.
Finally, you can type in your official inquiry. Make this section the place where you get very specific, on what your question is, and what information you are looking for. Questions like “What sets do I buy?” are in no way specific or direct. A better way to phrase this would be “Hi, I am new to LEGO investing, and came across a 7965 Millennium Falcon for $90 at my local Walmart. How does everyone think that this set will do, and how long should I hold it?” Often, there are answers to these questions buried in the forums, and difficult to find. Don’t get discouraged by members who say “Read the forums”, since you already have. Instead, wait a little while for other members to give their input. If there is really a long, extensive thread about it, then go ahead and take a look there.
4. Responding to Posts
Of course you can’t always ask questions! Sooner or later, you will come across a member who doesn’t know as much as you, and need guidance. They will take your question much more seriously and thoughtfully if you respond politely, and don’t insult their intelligence. If you disagree with what they are saying, don’t berate them on how they are a noob, or dim, even if they are. Ever hear the saying “Let’s agree to disagree”?
When a thread gets really filled up, it is easier to respond to someone by using a quote. Go to their response, and select MultiQuote. Then if that is the only person who is being quoted, click the small pop-up box that reads “Reply to 1 quoted post(s)”. If you no longer wish to quote, click “Clear”. If you are answering or responding to more than one comment, then you can click MultiQuote for every response that is being responded to.
While participating in the BrickPicker Forums, grammar is important. Not only are you taken more seriously, you look more professional. Correct grammar is also helpful to the eyes, and makes it easier for others to read what you are writing. If you have a streak of bad grammar, a member is sure to give you an embarrassing rant on it, which may not be the most exciting experience!
Finally, forum etiquette. Here’s a great response by a member named Emes. Though he disagreed with what a different user said, he recognized his different views, and then stated his case in a very polite and helpful fashion:
I hope you enjoyed this guide to the BrickPicke Forums! Stay tuned for the Guide to the BrickPicker Price Guide!
One of the biggest draws of BrickPicker.com is the online Price Guide that is free to all registered members. In this tutorial/article, we will figure out how to search for a set, and interpret the data that is provided.
Looking Up Sets
On nearly ever page on BrickPicker is a search bar in the upper left corner. In this search bar reads “Enter LEGO Set Number...”. You do not have to enter the set number, and you can enter in a key word such as “truck” or “plane”. After you have typed more than 2 characters, a list of sets automatically shows up with all the sets including your keyword(s). You can select the set of your choice to be led directly to the page specific to your set. If you do not select a set, you will be led to a list that includes all sets including the keyword, whether it be a series of numbers or letters, or a combination of both.
This list includes basic information of the set. The title follows the following format: set number - varient number: set name. Usually, there will be a picture of the set directly below the name. If not, a yellow brick is shown that reads “Image Not Available”. Along with this is a small data collection including the number of pieces, number of minifigures, retail price, and the year the set was released [see picture below]. Finally, on the right side of this information box is a small graph that shows the rough changes in the set over the last 6 months.
Set Information Page
Once you have clicked on the set name that you wish to see, a page similar to the one below appears. On this page is data from 4 different eBay Marketplaces: eBay USA, eBay UK, eBay Australia, and eBay EU. Each that is shown is converted into the currency of your choice which can be changed in the upper right corner.
The first 5 columns of the table are fairly self-explanatory with the values of the set in new and used form, along with the change in the last month. If there is no change, a “-” is shown. Finally CAGR comes up. CAGR stands for Compound Annual Growth Rate, and is “a formula that is applied to an investment(in our case, a LEGO set) to help determine the investment’s annual smoothed return. The final percentage that you get...shows the positive or negative growth of your investment over a specified period of time”*.
Finally, we come to the Price Per Brick category. In this section, you will see the average price for a set at it’s current used and new price (from eBay), as well as it’s retail price. This information is helpful for resellers who “part out” sets, or use the set to create MOC’s.
Next comes the photo gallery that has a variety of pictures of the set, though the number of pictures varies from set to set. Right below this is a datachart that we saw in the list of sets right before coming to this page. It also includes the retail prices for the set for the US, UK, Australia, and EU. Next to this chart that looks similar to the one below:
Rebrickable is a website includes a database of sets similar to Brickset or BrickPicker, but also includes a very helpful tool. “Rebrickable will show you which LEGO sets you can build, by reusing the sets and loose parts you already own...Unless you have a LOT of sets, you will usually be missing a few pieces. In these cases, Rebrickable will show you exactly what you are missing and even provide suggested sets that you could buy which will get you those pieces.”^ Rebrickable has the list of parts included in the set, as well as a list of vendors that are selling the pieces needed to complete the set, and how much of the set they have in stock.
Bricker is the second website listed. Similar to BrickPicker, Brickset, and Rebrickable, it includes a large database filled with most, if not all, LEGO sets. In addition to this, they have a large quantity of reviews of different sets, taken from other LEGO websites, as well as articles, and quicklinks to other LEGO forums. Bricker can be converted into a database for Mega Bloks, making its brick database one of the largest around.
A link to Instructions is the third link. The instructions are found on the BrickPicker website, and are in a PDF version. Instructions aren’t always available, but for most sets, they are there.
The final section is called Brickfolio Inventory. In this section, if you are signed in, and have the set in your Brickfolio, then the number of copies of the set new and used is shown rather than N/A. N/A is only shown when the set is not in your Brickfolio.
In the Current Offers section is a list of all the stores, that BrickPicker has authorized , that is selling your set. Often, recently retired sets will still be shown to be sold at the LEGO Shop, even when this isn’t the case.
Next are two graphs. One is titled “Monthly Listings (Sold Items - your country of choice)”. For me, I have chosen the US eBay marketplace, so it says “Monthly Listings (Sold Items - USA)”. In yellow is the quantity of used sets sold, and in red new. You can hover your mouse over each white dot to see the month that the value is from, and the quantity sold. The graph next to it is very similar. It has the average “Monthly Listings Value (Sold Items - your country of choice)”. In the same way, the data tracks the average price the set was sold at. This data is updated every month, but it takes significantly longer now, because 4x the amount of data must be uploaded to the database.
The next few sections are self-explanatory, with the change over time, as well as the change above or below retail price. Recent Sold Listings shows the region the set was sold, the date, the price, and the condition of the set. The Averages tab shows the median, mean, minimum price, maximum price, and mode of the sold listings. Finally, the Live Completed Listings section shows the what the specific set has sold for most recently.
In the Reviews section, all the reviews for that particular set are listed, as well as the overall score. You can browse through reviews by different members, as well as review the set yourself, by clicking on the “Review this Set” link below the overall score.
Lastly come the list of Active Listings, sorted by price. You can change this to 20 different eBay Marketplaces.
Tips and Tricks You can view a whole theme by finding one set from a theme, then go to “Select a Theme” and click the theme, in this case Star Wars.
You arrive at a seemingly similar page. The only difference is at the top, right below the “Search Price Guide” heading.
Now it reads “Star Wars” next to “Price Guide”. Finally, click on “Star Wars” and you will be led directly to a page listing all the sets, sorted by date. You can also do this for other themes, as well as sub-themes [see below.]
Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps you figure out the BrickPicker Price Guide!
*Quote from Ed Mack’s article called CAGR: Compound Annual Growith Rate and LEGO.
http://www.brickpicker.com/forum/index.php/blog/4/entry-15-cagr-compound-annual-growth-rate-and-lego/
^Quote from Rebrickable’s About page. http://rebrickable.com/about
​




The 8068 Rescue Helicopter comes from the Technic theme. The set has 408 pieces. The set has a retail price of $39.99 USD. This means the set has a Price Per Piece (PPP) ratio of ten cents ($0.10 USD) per piece. There is another ratio that is called the Price Per Gram (PPG) ratio.The set has a weight of 0.65 kilograms, which is 650 grams. For this set it would be about six cents ($0.0615 USD) per gram.
Unfortunately, the set does not come with any minifigures. The set was released in late 2010/early 2011. The set was retired in late 2012. This means the set was available on the retail market for about a year. Although the set was on the market for only about a years some stores still had the set for sale due to higher prices.
Currently, the set has a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.71%, which is really good for two years. The CAGR is for the Technic theme is 9.43%. The set has a better CAGR than the theme by 9.28%. The set has a CAGR that is almost double its theme CAGR. Also the set has a better CAGR than the average CAGR for all the themes. The average CAGR is 11.36%. This means the set has a better CAGR by 7.35%. Let's look at a simple chart showing the monthly sold listings for the set new.
June 2012: 1 July 2012: 1 August 2012: 7 September 2012: 15 October 2012: 9 November 2012: 18 December 2012: 42 January 2013: 9 February 2013: 5 March 2013: 9 April 2013: 14 May 2013: 1 According to the chart, there were 131 sets sold in the past year. This means there were about eleven (11) new sets sold per month on eBay. All this shows that there is an interest in the set, which means the set is a potential invest winner. Now, there will be a greater interest in the set because the set was recently retired. Now people will probably pay more to get the set, thus increasing the value of the set. Now, let's look at the sales trend for the set in the past year.
June 2012: $33.61 USD July 2012: $32.47 USD August 2012: $35.00 USD September 2012: $35.72 USD October 2012: $35.48 USD November 2012: $38.33 USD December 2012: $39.12 USD January 2013: $43.96 USD February 2013: $45.53 USD March 2013: $50.33 USD April 2013: $57.61 USD May 2013: $56.35 USD This chart is very different from the other charts I have done. This chart includes the values of the set before and after the set was retired. According to my sources, which is brickset.com, the set was retired on October 30, 2012. Although the set was retired in late October, there still may have some sets sitting on some store shelves waiting to be sold, so I think that all the sets would be off the primary market by January 2013. Now, I will analyze both parts of the chart starting with before the set was retired.
Before the set was retired, the set had a value below the retail price. Over the course of seven (7) months, the set had increased in value by $5.51 USD, which is about seventy-nine cents ($0.79 USD) a month. During those seven months the set was increasing in value for most of the time except for two months, which is July and October.
After the set was retired, the set had rose above the retail price. Over the course of five months, the set had risen $12.39 USD, which is about $2.48 USD per month. During the past five months, the set has increased every month except for May 2013, when the set dropped $1.26 USD, or 2.19%.
During the whole year, the set has gained $22.74 USD in value, which is about $1.90 USD a month. Hopefully, the set continues with this amazing growth in the future.
Another aspect I look at is the Return On Investment (ROI). The ROI for this set is about 41% after two years. That is not bad considering that the set was recently retired.
My recommendation is to buy this set. The set was recently retired and it is showing good signs of positive growth and investment potential. The set has a good CAGR of 18.71% and the set has been increasing in value a lot in the past five months. Overall, I think that this set has some great investing potential.
Thanks for reading!
Welcome to LEGO LOTR wave 1, re-evaluation of investing potential, of last, currently non-retired sets.
I will be re-quoting myself for the new members!
now lets lurk over these remaining unretired sets:

9470-1: Shelob Attacks -30.87%
The set is still dropping in value and is not yet retired. My old words still stand. 25% below US retail is the price to chase... If you can get it on that entry price there is no fear of losing money for now. It will be to be held for longer than 2 years after retirement to reach my predicted value of 45-55$. This set offers a good brick built spider that can also pass for generic spider to MOC lovers. Sam is still exclusive (allthough I am 99% sure he will be re-released in wave 3. Gollum is somewhat exclusive with face expression. Frodo is not exclusive at all.
Buy at: 25% below US retail or lower
Sell at: 45$ ***
9471-1: Uruk-Hai Army -22.94%
The license restrictions are still alive (and they will be until expiration of license) so there are no words, even hints of any Battle packs (similar to SW) to be released. Most we can expect are these type of B-packs. Eomer is exclusive to the set, everyone likes light gray bricks (sand green is also useful) Its the only set with 4 Uruk-hais (I always exclude Berseker from Uruk-hai armies since they were more individually presented ) and its the cheapest army builder in LOTR universe in LEGO.
If I were you I would be buying these also on retail! I expect them to grow to 80$ easily, especially if Eomer is staying exclusive!
Buy at: Full retail or less
Sell at: 70$ ***
''This set is a gem of LOTR line for army builders!''

9473-1: The Mines of Moria -36.14%
This is a playset, and as such not really loved among the AFOLs. There are currently 3 exclusive figures in the set. Pippin, Boromir and Cave Troll. I personally expect Pippin to be re-released in wave 3, but the other 2 might remain exclusive. This set was apparently the slowest seller and many shops still have them. I always considered this set to be the sleeper. I still think it might be, but only with buying the set on 30% discount or more. It was heavily discounted through big retailers and online shops like Amazon. The build consists mainly of dark gray and has kinda ''lots'' of stickers which is a downer for me. Its still one of my favorite LOTR sets mainly because I always liked Boromir while reading books and watching movies.
I would not buy this set for less than 30% discount. You will likely have to hold it longer than 2 years to reach decent profits. Cannot see this set surpassing 150$ ''milestone''
Buy at: 30% below US retail or lower
Sell at: 125$ ***
9474-1: The Battle Of Helm's Deep -19.02%
The flagship set of wave 1 of LOTR. And what a magnificent build and display it was/is This s0$ ''milestone''et is truly awesome. It got high ratings, was sold out in most shops, but still available online. Its expected to retire before or shortly after Christmas 2013. It currently has 3 exclusive figures and 2 are highly likely to stay exclusive (Haldir and Berseker). It was relatively well discounted and a really hot seller.
This set will likely make profits (all-though longer to achieve) even if bought on retail. but any discount is even better. I expect this set to reach 200$ relatively easily within 2 years of EOL. And I predict a 300$ cap on ''all-time'' investing cycle.
Buy at: any discount!
Sell at: 220$ ***
''Gems above can turn into stinky fishes when you see this even bigger gem''

NOTE: ''Sell at'' suggestions are my own as an investor who took time to carefully observe LOTR sets and should only be followed by your own choice. I take no responsibility if sets actually do not raise to such values or if they raise even higher and you felt like you lost money for ''listening'' to my advice/suggestion.
It is long known that United States of America has a relatively huge privilege when it comes to LEGO pricing and investment potentials. They get the best deals and the best retail prices. While I will mostly discuss Europe pricing compared to USA, I added ''world'' to the entry title simply because every country has the same problem.
1.00 U.S. dollar = 0.749625187 Euros (€)
If we just look a couple of late price comparison:
9474-1: The Battle of Helm's Deep
US price: 129.99 $
EU price: 139.99 € (186.794 $)
79108-1: Stagecoach Escape
US price: 29.99 $
EU price: 39.99 € (53.3602 $)
Now the EU usual tax value is around 20% (+/- a few percent points) depending on country. There is no good reason for pricing in examples above. While Helm's Deep look almost reasonable, the Lone ranger (one of the best sets of the theme) is at 100 % and more increase for Europe retail with only 20 % extra tax.
TLG obviously dislikes Europe(World) purchasing their products considering the mark-up which is rather extreme. What is more worrying is the fact that TLG is willing to do nothing to bring it more up to par of USA pricing and rather gives a half-baked answers regarding the problematic raised by us common buyers.
As a sign of protect I have stopped purchasing any LEGO from European shops (excluding Amazon occasionally) unless the set is at 33% + discounted. And even then that is a rather low satisfaction considering that at 33% off EU retail that usually means US retail.
I encourage all Europeans to actively push TLG with weekly questions concerning the pricing so that we might, some day (or maybe our kids) have a fair price.
 
When I first joined this site it seemed like there were a lot of people here talking about investing in Legos by buying sets and storing them until they are worth a lot more money. Basically a long-term investment. When I hear the word “investment” that is normally what I think of; buying or tying up capital in something and then waiting until it is worth more money than you paid for it.
After a while though, I saw people who were mentioning how they make money on Lego by using the quick flip. This would be where you purchase something, be it an exclusive, a pre-order item, an item not available everywhere, or something just on sale and then immediately (or fairly shortly after) try to sell it for more than you paid for it. It is not a tremendously complicated idea, though the mechanics can cause you some problems.
So I wanted to alert some people to a good way of utilizing the quick flip that everyone can do fairly easily. This is the “no box” quick flip. It is fairly simple and I have done it quite a bit using Ebay and their search functions.
Basically, we all know that without a box, a set is worth less – whether it is used or new. But by how much? Well, it depends on what people's definition of “new” and “used” are for the particular item. With a Lego set, because it has inner bags, most people consider a set still new if the Lego bags themselves are still sealed. This is definitely unique from most other things you buy. So a set could have no box at all – just be a pile of Lego bags – and still be considered new to most Lego fans.
Thinking about other toys you may have purchased, if you had a toy and the box was severally damaged or torn up, you would probably just throw it away if you didn't know what it was worth. This happens every day with people that buy Lego sets. They may decide to sell the new set later, and think that because it has no box – it is worth a lot less money.
However, this is not the case. Because Lego is so popular, a lot of people that open Lego sets don't necessarily even throw the box away in that situation. Others that part the set out to make money also keep the boxes. A lot of these people then decide to sell the boxes by themselves on websites like Ebay, and most of all, bricklink.com. Because these boxes are so readily available, if a set's bags are still sealed, it can be put into someone else's box and resold as New (not sealed). If you have read some of the articles and forum posts on this site about box condition, you will know that It matters little to the people buying the set.
So the idea becomes very simple – if you can find a set on Ebay that has sealed bags, but no box and is quite a bit less expensive than the sets current market price, you can make a lot of money. Basically, with a quick check to www.bricklink.com, you can find how much a box would cost you and total up your price right there to make a set brand new again.
Here are a couple of my personal examples:
Right around the time the 9500 Sith Fury-CLass Interceptor came out, I found someone selling one without the box on Ebay for $50. I bought it, purchased a box for ~$5.00 after shipping and resold the set for $85 all within a few days. A few days ago, I found a tower Bridge 10214 on Ebay with no box for $169.99. I purchased it and have since purchased a box for $7.00 with shipping. I have not decided yet what I would like to do with it – but obviously do have some room to make money there. As well, recently FCBarcelona – one of my fellow Blog writers that I look up to for my articles - purchased a 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer for $280 without the box. If he purchased a box, he could resell this set for over $1000!
So why would people sell a set without a box?
The box was damaged when they purchased it or in storage and they want to get rid of it. Water damage to the box. To make the set easier to ship (This is a random one but it definitely happens to people who buy big sets, decide to sell them, and don't want to use a huge shipping box). Open it, discard the box, and then never build the set. If people sell the set for way less without the box, this is just your gain! So how do you find these sets on Ebay?
Using the search function, you can set up some good searches that will help you easily find the boxless sets that you can quickly flip with a fresh box. If you are not familiar with Ebay's search function, I would suggest reading my blog on that here: http://www.brickpicker.com/forum/index.php/blog/28/entry-269-ive-been-searching-for-a-set-like-you-ebay-searching-tips-and-strategies/
A few notes before I give you a couple of searching examples from this: I always only search for Buy It Now items. You can do auction if you would like, and you can sometimes score good deals this way, but most of the time these sets go for more because people like us know what they are worth and are bidding against you. Also, don't only search for new sets. Some people consider these sets used if the box is gone. If so, they will list the condition as “used”. If you filter these out, you are going to filter out the best deals.
Here are some search examples I use:
lego <theme or set> “no box” - For this one, insert the theme or set you would like to search for and the phrase “no box”.
lego set <theme> (“sealed bags”, “open”, “loose”) - This one searches for sets that have the phrase “sealed bags”, “open”, or “loose” in theme.
lego set “no box” (“sealed bags”, “open”, “loose”) - This one searches for sets that have the phrase “sealed bags”, “open”, or “loose” in theme, but only if they also have “no box”.
These are just a few examples, as you can get really creative with it. The more creative with the searches you get, the better sets you will find (those listings that seem to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere).
Here are a couple of tips while searching for what to look for and be aware of:
There is not really a general rule of what price to buy at to make you money – it depends on the set. For me, I usually take about 20% off the BrickPicker price and that's what my target is (assuming I may be able to get a little more depending on my listing). If you can sell local in a big Craigslist market, obviously this makes it easier. Make sure whatever you are buying has pictures of the set, or is low enough you are willing to take a chance. Also be careful you read through the whole listing. It does happen sometimes that you will receive a set that has had more damage than just whatever may have happened to the box. Always check the Bricklink price for the box. Some boxes are worth WAY more than others. Do not ever buy a set and then look at the price – or you will wonder why you just bought the Death Star 2 for $100 off when the box is $75. Check your local stores for boxes less and damaged box sets as well. A lot of places will severely discount these. Also, ask a manager if they can give you any more off. Most will give you some king of discount to just get the set out the door. You can make big bucks this way. Be careful of sets that say they have had water damage. These are mostly alright, but if the Legos were touched and it did get in the bags, it is a risk. Like anything, I usually have to see the right deal to jump on these. That is my quick flip method for the day. Give it a try and report what you find!
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
 
For my next voyage into the land of fantasy Lego themes we will probably never see, but I can still dream of, I wanted to do one of my favorite shows of all time: Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Yes, this is definitely a tougher theme because it is a bit of a cult show and is not really a Kid's show (though it appears on Cartoon Network). However, we can always dream and hopefully there are enough Aqua Teen Fans here to know how awesome these sets would be – and how broke I would be. As well, I do think kids would think they are cool because they are animated and look very much like toys anyway. And, there are also somewhere near a billion different characters that comes and interact with the Aqua Teens – each more weird than the next. All of these guys would make insanely awesome minifigures.
So if you don't know about Aqua Teen Hunger Force, you should pretty much quit whatever you are doing and watch all 9 seasons straight through. I'll wait...Done? It is a 11 minute Adult Swim original show about three fast food items who are supposed to be detectives, but quit because the money was bad. Along with them, they have a next door neighbor, Carl Brutananadilewski who is a lazy, creepy man who is pretty... woman crazy? The show itself generally has no plot and ends in one of the main character's or supporting character's deaths, which is never permanent between episodes. It is an amazing show for one-liners and is highly quotable for any fans. So, here goes my ATHF series!
The Aqua Teen's House

This would be one of the smaller sets as the Aqua Teen's house is one that is fairly small, and has been destroyed at least 30 or 40 times in the series. However, everyone loves buildings and this is definitely an iconic one if you watch this show because of all the different shenanigans that go on inside of it.
In my eyes, this would have a removable roof (since it has come off many times anyway) so that it could also be a bit of a play-set Inside, you would have the whole modular home with Meatwad's particularly dirty room, Flylock's room with his bed and computer, the kitchen and the living room with the chair and TV in as below (If you are wondering, Shake doesn't have a room – as he makes clear in the Episode titled “Dirtfoot”:

Of course it would have the signature “get out” written on the side of the house, the door would be shaped like Shake, and the garage would open up to a small Lego “Danger Cart:

This set would come with the following minifigures as well:
Meatwad – he would look exactly like a ball of meat, probably just one piece Frylock – He would be a 3 pieces, the box for the fries and the fries themselves along with the jewel that attaches to his back. It would also be cool for him to have a VCR under the jewel (if you have seen the movie, you will get it) Master Shake – Shake would be the cup, the top and the straw along with his hands. He should also have some pistachio flavored ice-cream in him. Can you imagine that minifigures of these guys wouldn't be fun?

Carl's House

Carl's house is a little bigger that the Aqua Teen's house, so it would be bigger modular with two floors. They would most likely have to make it open from the side or the back of the house. It would also come with a mini pool outside for all of the Aqua Teens to get into so Carl could come outside and tell them how he has been calling the police, but they just hang up now. The pool itself would have flames coming up the side of it so, as Carl once said, it will “like it's tearin' ass around the back yard”.
Inside the house, the downstairs would have Carl's giant TV and his Giant's memorabilia all over the place (Aqua Teen Hunger Force is set in New Jersey by the way). Upstairs, it would have Carl's room with a rock-star wig (Carl is into rock music) and a large tanning machine with it set to “Jamaican”.
This set would only come with one minifigure as unfortunately Carl lives alone. But it would be a pretty sweet minifigure:

They could also have a duplicate outfit for him that would include his red jeans that he wore to the '69 tour of Bryan Adams and Foreigner, along with the mystical foreigner belt that could turn his head into a connect 4 set (Just go watch “Revenge of the Mooninites”).
The Mooninites Ship

If you have ever watched ATHF, you know that the Mooninites play a pretty big role in the show. Though they are only in 7 episodes and the movie, they are the most recognizable characters past the Aqua Teens themselves and will make for some pretty sweet minifigures. The ship itself is pretty simple because in reality, the mooninites are only 2D.
The ship would therefor be a little on the thin side, but would have the recognizable Blue and Purple color scheme, and have the stands that could retract for the ship itself to fly. It would also have a cockpit for the mooninites to get in so they can send their... um farewells to Earth. Kids would like this set as well – who doesn't love spaceships?
The minifigures would be the two mooninites themselves. They would both come with small ray guns as well and would also be very thin giving the 2D effect. The two mooninites are Ignignokt on the left, and Err on the right.

2 Wicked

If you are not familiar with the show at all, Carl is pretty into style and being a Lady's man – except for dressing up and speaking politely. Either way, to go with his pretty sweet pool, he has a car that has been pretty spruced up that he calls “2 wicked”.
Everyone who loves Lego loves cars, so this being a souped up small sedan would be pretty cool. The engine coming out the top and gleam of the wheels. As well, there would be the purple racing stripe on the side and the “2 Wicked” painted on to make the car really look sweet.
It would come with the following minifigures:
Carl Shake (as he is always trying to drive it and several times has had to drive Carl in it for some incapacitated reason or another). The Rabbot – he was in the very first episode ever and is a pretty awesome character, perfect for a minifigure. He famously jumped on Carl's car and smashed it to pieces (of course int he next episode it was perfectly intact again.)
The Last One

This is directly from a great episode of ATHF entitled “The Last One” (it was the final episode of season 2). As I had mentioned before, the Aqua Teens have encountered a lot of different villains – pretty much a different weird character in each episode – like the Rabbot I spoke of, the mooninites, etc.
In this episode, they all come together to try and figure out how they are going to defeat the Aqua Teens. Unfortunately, none of them are very smart so it just turns into a large bout of stupid ideas general idiocy.
Since this is a gathering of all the weird characters, it would be an awesome minifigure set. It would come with a floor and a stage, like in the picture above. It would also have the curtain and the speakers and podium for the mooninites to stand on. There would be the sign “welcome villains” at the top. The rest would be minifigures:
Ol drippy – A large piece of mold and penicillin that was spawned out of a large mess Shake made in the kitchen:

The two frat aliens – These are two fairly inebriated guys that are all about being friends and calling each other “Bro”. One of them has a dad that owns a dealership, so he feels pretty entitled.

Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future – he is a robot that was created in the future and has come back to the past to warn the Aqua Teens of things that happened in the past that will cause problems in the future. Unfortunately, all of his stories are long and drawn out, and actually never happened at all.

Happy time Harry – An extremely irritated man with only one hand that has a lot of bills and alimony to pay. He general is not very “happy time” because life has not been good to him.

5 Brownies – These are brownies that have mutated into flying monsters and generally just say “Click Click Click Click Click”

And the mooninites of course.
The Plutonians Ship

The plutonians are another set of characters that are involved with the Aqua Teens in several different episodes and in the movie. They are supposedly form Pluto and they have a very large intricate ship. Unfortunately, they are also extremely dense. They try to steal cable from the Aqua Teens in the first episode together and in the movie they are trying to steal a weight machine from the Aqua Teens called “the insanoflex” that should provide them with all the women of the earth eventually.
As you can see, the ship is pretty big and cool looking so I think it would make a good set. Along with it, the plutonians would make some really good minifigures:

Those are headbands they are wearing to keep sweat out of their eyes – Ogelthorpe on the left and Emory on the right – although Oglethorpe wears his around his neck to keep sweat off the rest of his body. Their spikes also emit soap in certain cases.
Minifigures would include:
The plutonians The 3 Aqua Teens as they get brought up to this ship on several occasions. So there you have it. The dream is done. Would anyone else like these sets? I am probably crazy... Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods. Thanks for reading!
 
The 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer is a medium sized set from the Star Wars theme. The set has 1,367 pieces. The set retails for $99.99 USD. That means the Price Per Piece ratio is seven cents ($0.07 USD) per piece. There is another ratio that we use and that is the Price Per Gram Ratio (PPG). The set has a weight of 2.45 kilograms, or 2,450 grams. This means the PPG ratio is about four cents ($0.0408 USD) per gram.
The set has nine minifigures, which are Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Imperial Officer, 2 Emperor Royal Guards, 2 Stormtroopers, and R2-Q5, and a MSE-6 droid. The set comes with some accessories for the minifigures. Darth Vader has a lightsaber. The Stormtroopers have blasters, and the Emperor Royal Guards have spears.
The set was released in 2006 and retired in 2008. The set may have been sold in store after the set retired due to inflated prices. I remember seeing this set in a store in 2009 for $129.99 USD. That is $30 USD above the retail price.
The set has a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.17%. That is above the CAGR for the Star Wars theme and the overall CAGR for all the Lego themes. The CAGR for the Star Wars theme is 9.27%. The set is 7.9% above the CAGR for the Star Wars theme. The average CAGR for all the Lego themes is 11.36%. This set is 5.81% above the average for all the Lego themes. Let's look at a simple chart showing the sold listings for each month for the new sets.
June 2012: 11 July 2012: 12 August 2012: 14 September 2012: 16 October 2012: 15 November 2012: 31 December 2012: 53 January 2013: 19 February 2013: 13 March 2013: 12 April 2013: 19 May 2013: 22 Over the last year, there were 273 new sets sold on eBay, which has an average of twenty (20) new sets per month. All the data shows that there are people who want this set. When there are people who want a particular set, they will pay a good deal of money to get it. All of this makes the set a potential investment winner. Here is another chart for the sales trend throughout last year.
June 2012: $281.40 USD July 2012: $254.27 USD August 2012: $219.47 USD September 2012: $238.81 USD October 2012: $255.00 USD November 2012: $264.23 USD December 2012: $253.17 USD January 2013: $268.26 USD February 2013: $281.87 USD March 2013: $269.13 USD April 2013: $275.37 USD May 2013: $303.18 USD According to the chart, the set has gained $21.78 USD in value over the past year. That is $1.82 USD every month. If you look closely, the set lost a lot of value last summer, but the recovery took almost a whole year. It took eight months before the set hit the June 2012 price. Then it lost value again. But, in the last month, the set has gained 10.10% in value, which is $27.81 USD. The set has gained more value in the past month, than in the past year. That is amazing. This is one of the reasons this set is a potential investment winner.
Now, the set is currently valued at $303.18 USD, which is 10.10% up from last month. The set has gained $203.19 in value from its retail price. This means the Return On Investment (ROI) for the set is 203%.
I would recommend to buy this set, but not at a high price. The set may go down in value like it did last summer, but I still recommend buying this set. The set has a good CAGR of 17.17% and a good ROI of 203%. Also, the set is on a upward trend in value. Overall, I think that this set is a great investment with many great investing factors.
Thanks for reading!
 
I have done several articles about selling on Ebay, and several other BrickPicker members have as well. You can tell by just trying to sell on Ebay, or reading there articles that selling on Ebay includes quite a few different choices about how to list: Do I offer Free Shipping? Buy it Now or Auction? When do I end the Auction?
I have been doing a lot of different articles touching on each of these and I wanted to touch on another big one that I felt could have an impact on sales and also offers a lot of different pros and cons. Should you offer returns on your Ebay listings?
As a buyer in any marketplace, returns seem like something that you always want. I frequent quite a few flea markets and such and I know I am a lot more careful about what I buy there because they don't offer returns. In general, I want to get the item a little cheaper because I know I am taking a chance. But does that logic apply to Ebay?
I think most people that have been on Ebay from its conception know that there was a time when returns mattered quite a bit. In the first days of Ebay, there were a lot of people committing fraud as there is with any new marketplace. To protect themselves, buyers started targeting items that offered returns and Ebay encouraged this. This meant that it definitely mattered if a seller allowed returns.
However, Ebay eventually came out with this awesome buyer protection system quaintly named “Ebay Buyer Protection” which pretty much should be called “We only care about Buyers on this site so we will do whatever we can to protect them even if it's their fault” (sorry I have run into this as a seller as I am sure many of you have). Anyway, once this was out, it wasn't such a no-brainer to offer returns. Most people would see they are protected from poor listings, bad selling practices, and just general bad listings by Ebay themselves. So does offering returns really benefit the seller anymore? Will people still purchase an item with no returns allowed?
A quick note before our discussion about Ebay Buyer Protection. In case you aren't familiar with this, it allows a buyer to open up a case with a bunch of different options like “item not as described” or “haven't received item” and if the seller doesn't make good on it, in 99% of cases Ebay refunds your money whether the buyer is right or not. When the buyer is right, it's 100% (This is in my experience).
So for this article, I decided to go through the pros and cons of offering free shipping with a very fine toothed comb, and then do a little bit of Ebay research to help us make an informed decision about offering it.
Pros
First off, one would think that offering returns allows a buyer to feel a little better about the purchase. I think this definitely makes a big difference if the item is priced a little higher than market value in a Buy it Now (BIN) listing. If the item has something slightly wrong with it, I think this matters a lot more as well. For example, I chose to offer returns on an item I was selling where the box had been damaged and the minifigures had been pilfered. I felt that this was going to create a feeling of “nothing to lost” since seeing a box destroyed like that can make someone feel weird about the contents.
Another plus would be Ebay's filtering system. On the left hand side, Ebay allows a buyer to filter listings by “returns accepted”. I don't have a direct access method to all of Ebay's internal data, but I would assume there are some buyers who filter out any items that don't allow returns or otherwise it wouldn't be there. Think about it in this manner: Let's say you got big time burned on an Ebay purchase because the listing was misleading and you didn't read it closely enough (An example: I was buying a Lawn Mower bag system for my Lawn Mower which includes a bag and the frame to hold it on the mower. Unfortunately, the seller's picture showed it with the frame in it, but the listing just said “Lawn Mower Bag”. I purchased it and was disappointed.) You would think that there is a good chance if this buyer purchases something again, especially a very expensive retired Lego set, that they would possibly filter out any listings that don't accept returns so that they are not burned again.
Offering returns does also make you look very professional. What do you think of a store when they have a large sign that says “No Refunds or Exchanges”? You generally, you probably assume there is a reason they don't allow them.
Cons
One pretty obvious con to offering returns is the fact that you, the seller, can get burned by a buyer. In terms of Legos, I believe I have seen several people here complain about Ebay buyers not reading their listings when they say something like “No Minifigures”. If you offer returns, the buyer can ask for a return and be fairly justified to Ebay even though you made it completely obvious in the listing that the item didn't include this. Unfortunately offering returns sometimes protects the buyer further than Ebay protects them from their own buying stupidity. From my anecdote in the last section, that seller did offer returns, but after speaking with him I felt he made the error in the listing without any malice and his price was still relatively good for the bag, so I didn't return it. I hate when buyer's do this so I didn't want to even come close to being one of those.
Another implied con from our pros above is that your listing could be filtered out in an Ebay search. We don't know how many people click these, but I think especially if you are selling a Lego set that hundreds of others are as well, a buyer may look more and more to find the perfect listing. Because Ebay offers that check box right over on the left side, this is a very easy way for a buyer to just quickly filter down listings to find the best one to buy. If you are selling a very rare Lego set, I doubt this matters near as much.
Another big one people forget is Buyer Fraud. I have had this happen before and it is something that a lot of people don't even think about. Here is the situation: A buyer purchases an item from you and then comes up with a legitimate reason to return it (or legitimate enough in Ebay's eyes to return it). They then deny the free shipping label from Ebay buyer protection or they ask for the refund and return outside of the normal case system and ask the seller if they can return it and they would pay free shipping. In the times I have seen it I will get a message saying “I purchased this item from you a few days ago. I unfortunately just had a family problem and will need to return this item as we are very strapped for money. I would be happy to pay the return shipping”. In this case, the seller will feel bad for them and allow them to return the item because they are not really out anything but the shipping and don't want negative feedback.
Unfortunately what actually ends up happening is the buyer never sends the item back. The seller has already refunded the money to them because they needed it, but the item is never received. When the seller contacts the buyer, they will offer a fabricated/photo-shopped shipping label showing they sent it and always saying they couldn't pay for tracking. Eventually the seller has nothing to prove they never got it and the seller is out. I have had this happen twice to me and have had to change my practices accordingly (luckily it was two very cheap items so I was not too concerned. Price of doing business).
The last obvious con would be – a seller can return it. This costs you money and time. No one wants to have an item returned to them because of the ordeal of shipping and the feeling you get when you sell an item.
We all also know that we are pretty anal about box condition. If shipping hurts it in any way, you are in trouble.
Ebay Analysis
For this analysis, I did several things. I wanted to find three retired sets that sell quite a bit each month on Ebay and draw some conclusions about Ebay's return offerings and how they actually affect your listings. I think Auction and BIN listings are both relevant. In an auction, this will attract more buyers if you concede that some people are concerned with whether a seller allows them or not. In BIN, if you have it listed fairly high, the buyer is taking a chance on the item so offering returns gives them a little more of that warm feeling when pressing the button.
For these three items and my information, I came up with the following criteria:
New listings: Though I definitely think this affects used listings, I feel that there are too many other factors to draw a good conclusion from the data. I am trying to get the listings as close as possible to each other to compare. Had to have at least 10 Auction and 10 BIN listings that accepted returns and 10BIN that didn't accept returns. For the Auction price, instead of finding ones that don't accept returns, I am using the average price for comparison that is found on BrickPicker. Three separate themes just so we get a little variety. No add-on's or exclusions, sealed new listings only. For this as well, shipping is averaged in. We have a control with calculated shipping because it is going to my address each time. Because of this, I filtered out international sales as well.
I came up with these three sets:
4867 battle at Hogwarts 10212 Imperial Shuttle 10219 Maersk Train Auction listings
For this, I took the average of all the auction listings that accepted returns that were shown on Ebay (last three months of data) and then compared them to the BrickPicker average:
4867 Battle for Hogwarts:
27 Auction listings that allowed returns: $83.78 average
BrickPicker new Price = $82.68
Percent above BP average = 1.3%
10212 Imperial Shuttle
12 auction listings that allowed returns: $362.87
BrickPicker new price = $354.69
Percent above BP average = 2.3%
10219 Maersk Train
10 auction listings that allowed returns: $216.87
BrickPicker new price = $210.46
Percent above BP average = 3.04%
Percent average above BP value = 2.2%
Buy It Now Listings
For this I took the average of the top 10 sold BIN listings for each: listings that accepted returns and listings that did not
4867 Battle for Hogwarts
BIN with returns accepted average = $109.67
BIN with returns not accepted average = $101.76
Average percent gain by offering returns = 7.8% gain
10212 Imperial Shuttle
BIN with returns accepted average = $430.05
BIN with returns not accepted average = $413.62
Average percent gain by offering returns = 4% gain
10213 Maersk Train
BIN with returns accepted average = $252.14
BIN with returns not accepted average = $239.57
Average percent gain by offering returns = 5.2% gain
Percent average gained = 5.7%
Analysis: For our auction listings, I expected a minimal gain and that's exactly what we got. That seems to suggest that maybe there is that last bidder looking over the listing and decides to put one more bid in for a dollar more because they see that if anything is off, they can return it. This is nothing to base your whole decision to allow or disallow off of, but I think it is something to think about.
For the BIN listings, I think it's obvious it matters quite a bit more. If you are offering your item for quite about above everyone else's because it really is MINT, or you just like making big money, this only adds a bit of comfort to the buyer who is about to overpay for the item. 5.7% is pretty substantial.
Final Thoughts
So looking at the pros and cons, I would lean towards allowing returns on items. We established that there is a good chance you will get a little more money out of your listing, especially if you are listing something in a BIN listing for more money than it's normally worth. Ebay makes it hard for the seller to really enforce a return policy anyway, so it's easier to just offer it and make sure your listing will get top price.
But, you should definitely protect yourself. First off, always charge a restocking fee and always put that buyer pays shipping. In extreme cases you can always go back on this, but you don't want to be paying out of your own pocket for a buyer not reading your listing. Also make this very clear in the listing that the buyer pays shipping and the restocking fee will be collected.
Also, don't ever accept a return outside of Ebay's system. Make sure you only offer the return once you get the item back and require that the buyer buy tracking on the item when it is sent back. This will protect you from any bad situations.
Note: I am going to research more and see about writing an article looking at used set data. At the moment, I can't find enough controls to make it good statistical information.
What do you all think? Does any of this information make you feel different about offering returns?
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
In part 1 of this set, we examined the 5 smaller new Star Wars sets to look at their pros an cons and, most of all, their future investment potential. In the second part, I will be examining the larger sets in a little bit more detail. We all know that the larger Star Wars sets may not always be big gainers, but usually offer the most potential for a theme that has so many smaller sets. 3 of these are remakes, so we should have some good past data to pull from.
AT-TE 75019

From the Lego website:
Win the Battle of Geonosis™ with the AT-TE™!
As the Battle of Geonosis™ rages on, the clone commander boards the heavily armored LEGO® Star Wars™ AT-TE™ with Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Coleman Trebor. Take them deep into the battle with the AT-TE’s lifting handle and cool poseable legs. Open the cockpit to put a minifigure behind the wheel, then fire the 2 moving laser cannons and rotating top-mounted projectile cannon with dual flick missiles! Lift the top hatch for extra flick missiles! Climb the access ladder through the opening rear hatch to reach the cargo box with thermal detonators. Lead every LEGO Star Wars battle with this ultra-tough space tank. Includes 5 minifigures with weapons: Battle Droid™, Battle Droid Commander, Mace Windu, Coleman Trebor and a clone commander.
Includes 5 minifigures with weapons: Battle Droid™, Battle Droid Commander, Mace Windu, Coleman Trebor and a clone commander Features lifting handle, poseable legs, opening cockpit with space for a minifigure, moving front and rear laser cannons, rotating top-mounted projectile cannon with dual flick missiles, opening top hatch with extra flick missiles, and opening rear with access ladder and cargo box with thermal detonators Weapons include 2 Lightsabers, 2 blasters and a blaster rifle Take aim with the laser cannons Load the projectile cannon and fire the flick missiles! Activate the thermal detonators Build awesome battle scenes from Star Wars™: Episode II Attack of the Clones Recreate an even bigger Battle of Geonosis™ with 75015 Corporate Alliance Droid™, 75016 Homing Spider Droid™ and 75021 Republic Gunship™ Measures over 8" (22cm) high, 16" (43cm) long and 11" (29cm) wide My Analysis: This is a re-re-make, something that has happened a few times if you count different sized sets, but hasn't happened very much with 3 sets made almost exactly the same size. We will look at this in a minute, but for now, let's look at this set as if it's something completely new.
The set is pretty impressive and we all know that the AT-XX machines are very popular and have done well in the past. It has 5 minifigures. 3 are no-name army-building minifigures in the Battle droid, the battle droid commander, and the clone commander. The Mace Windu figure is a little better as it is an exclusive redesign. Mace is a pretty popular Star Wars character so the redesign will definitely help the value of the set later on. Colemon Trebor is a new minifigure which is exclusive to this set. He starred in episode 2 when he and Mace Windu were trying to rescue Amidala, Anikan, and Obi-Wan. He unfortunately died at the hands of Jango Fett, but did have enough of a role that he is a recognizable character to anyone who is a fan of the movie. His inclusion in this set definitely brings up the sets value.
Another stable in these Genosis themed sets have been flick missiles and this one doesn't disappoint with two of theme. It also has thermal detonators and thermal detonators. The missiles and lasers all rotate around, the legs move, and there is a cockpit that opens for a minifigure to drive the ship. There is also a back access into the vehicle with a ladder. This set clearly offers a lot of playability.
So how does it really differ from the old sets?
4482 Had only 4 minifigures and they were all clone troopers. There was really nothing special about the minifigures in the original. The AT-TE itself was obviously a little older looking. It did have an opening for the minfigures to fit inside on the top and the firing cannons did turn around, but there were no flick missiles and no back opening with a ladder. The set was 648 pieces with a $.11 price per piece retailing at $69.99.
7675 was released 5 years later in 2008. It has 6 minifigures. It has the rotating cannons as well as two missiles that actually fire as well. You can open the hatches to see extra seats inside the unit and ir also has the cockpit like the new one. Honestly the set doesn't look tremendously different from the new one as far as the AT-TE is concerned. None of the minifigures were exclusive or redesign exclusives, so the new set does have a slight advantage there. The redone set includes 798 pieces and was also $.11 per piece. It included a STAP as well which this set does not have.
The newest AT-TE design includes 794 pieces and is also $.11 a piece. Honestly, I would say it is probably right on par with the original. If I had to give the edge to one, I will always go with the newer as Lego has proved they consistently improve sets as years pass. I might have to build both to know for sure (a great excuse to do so).
My Investment Analysis: I think there are a couple of things that go into this. To find the possible value, we should look at the old AT-TE sets, and any other Star Wars sets that have had 3 comparable remakes. First up, the original and its redesign:
4482 – 11.29% CAGR, 10 years old, Current price $204 or 191.5% Return over retail.
7675 – 17.83% CAGR, 5 years old, Current price $204.39 or 131% Return over retail.
Looking at these two, they are pretty similar. I think that in 5 more years, 7675 will most likely be sitting right where 4482 is now with around 11% CAGR and almost a 200% return over retail. SO this data looks good for us.
But, how have triple similar remakes done?
X-wing – 7140 in 1999, 7142 in 2002, and 4502 in 2004.
How did 4502 do? - 12.39% CAGR and current price of $143 which is 186% return over retail in 9 years.
Actually, the X-wing had a fourth similar set, being 6212 in 2006. That was where the set fell off with just a CAGR of 1%.
Millennium Falcon – 7190 in 2000, 4504 in 2004, and 7778 in 2009
This one is a reach because two of the sets had close to 1000 pieces and the last had less, but it still was a comparable re-remake.
7778 – 16.34% CAGR, current price of $73.25 at 83% over retail value in 4 years.
Slave 1 - 7153 in 2002, 6209 in 2006, and 8097 in 2010.
This one I think offers really good data since it is a more recent tri-make.
8097 – 13.51% CAGR, current price $117 at 46% over retail in 3 years.
So what does this tell us? Well, it shows steady growth despite 3 iterations, provided there is improvement in the set. Since this current AT-TE has not had a new one in 5 years and has new minifigures as well as the one exclusive, I think it can be hypothesized that it will follow in the footsteps of the two originals combined with the data for the other re-remakes. This would put it right around 15% CAGR after 5 years. This would put it's five year value at $181 exactly, or 101% return over retail.
In summary, a solid set to keep an eye on and pick up as a long term investment.
Jabba's Sail Barge 75020

From the Lego Website:
Help Princess Leia and R2-D2 escape from Jabba’s Sail Barge™!
Princess Leia and R2-D2 are secretly plotting their escape from Jabba’s Sail Barge™ prison. Help them to sneak past the guards, Weequay and Ree-Yees, while Jabba the Hutt gets distracted by musician Max Rebo! Find a way to slip through the opening side windows of the floating Sail Barge, then get past its hidden pirate cannon, deck cannon and 2 flick missiles! This essential LEGO® Star Wars™ set features wheels, fold-down sides, removable deck, jail, kitchen and Jabba’s throne. Includes Jabba the Hutt, R2-D2 and 4 minifigures with weapons: Princess Leia in slave outfit, Max Rebo, Weequay and Ree-Yees.
Includes Jabba the Hutt, R2-D2 and 4 minifigures with weapons: Princess Leia in slave outfit, Max Rebo, Weequay and Ree-Yees Features hidden pirate cannon, deck cannon with 2 flick missiles, opening side windows, wheels, fold-down sides and removable deck for easy access to the jail, kitchen and Jabba’s cabin Weapons include an axe and a blaster Move Jabba’s Sail Barge™ with rolling undercarriage wheels Find the hidden pirate cannon Arm the deck cannons and fire the flick missiles! Remove the deck to play inside Recreate this iconic scene from Star Wars™: Episode VI Return of the Jedi Measures over 8" (22cm) high, 16" (43cm) long and 8" (22cm) wide My Analysis: Unfortunately, the first thing I see when I look at this set is over-priced. I saw this set inside TRU and I wasn't that impressed from the look of the box for it to have a retail price tag of $120. It's $.14 per piece, which usually means some really large pieces or a lot of minfigures, but even with the 5 minfigures plus Jabba, I don't see anything special to make it that much. For now, we are judging it on its own merit and not as a remake.
On the plus side, the set has a lot of cool nuances with it: It is on wheels so it moves easily, the sides fold down and the deck is removable. It has a Jail and a kitchen which are cool play-ability add-ons. It also has, you guessed it: flick missiles as well. There is also a hidden pirate cannon inside it. The R2D2 looks interesting as it is a slight redesign of the serving version in the first one. The Jabba figure is the same as in the Palace set current out (9516), but he is still pretty impressive with a moving head and body. The Leia is a nice plus as it is a slave redesign and looks a lot like the outfit from the movie.
The last three minifigures are the important ones here as they are all exclusive to this set and really well done. For those of us who like collecting the more obscure Star Wars characters, this is a big plus for the set. These include Ree-Yees, a three eye'd onlooker, Weequay, a guard type character with a very mean gruff look, and my favorite Max Reebo which is the small blue elephant looking character. He is the leader of the Max Rebo band in the movie that works for Jabba. I think he will be the most sought after minifigure from this set as he is very memorable and a nice change of pace from the guards and troopers in other Star Wars sets.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How does this set compare to the original? The original minfigures are a little more memorable with R2D2 and Slave Leia being the same, but including Luke, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Bobba Fett, and a Gammorean Guard. On the other hand, if this one included all these minfigures, it wouldn't have really set it apart form the original, so I think the new exclusive minifigures were the right move for TLG.
The original was a much better deal at $.10 per piece with just 70 less pieces. It also included the skiff and the Sarlacc where as now you have to buy those separately. This definitely hurts the set. On the other hand, the new set is much more updated being 7 years newer and has a lot more playability and detail to it. The Jabba figure is much better as well. If I had to lean one way, I would say the new set is better, but only if you get it for $100. I think at $120, the set is just too over priced.
My Investment Analysis: We all know this is an iconic part of Star Wars and we know that this set will be popular because of it. So looking past that, I feel like there are two major pieces of data we can look at to see if this set will be a good investment: 1. How did the first Sail barge do? 2. How do similar remakes do?
First off, the original Sail Barge:
6210 Jabba's Sail Barge: 22.93% CAGR, current price of $319.13 for 325% return over retail after 7 years.
So what does this tell us? It will gain. This new one is better and has some new minifigures. But will it be as good? I doubt it. This is for several reasons. The biggest is the price. The higher the retail price, the less over retail it can gain. Because this set is about $20 over priced, the returns will suffer because they are calculated looking at the real retail price. So let's do a little bit of math.
If $100 is the right price for this set, and $120 is overpriced, then using ratios, the original set's overpriced retail price would be $95.99. If we look at it's gain from there recalculated, it would be 18.3% CAGR as reversing the CAGR formula we have (319/96)^(1/7)-1. So, if we think the new set will match the old one, we would expect 18.3% CAGR after 7 years, which is still pretty acceptable.
So how about the re-make angle of it? Using data I compiled from my set review on Jabba's Palace, we saw that in 2 out of the three cases I sited, the second iteration did better than the original. The only other was the clone tank which suffered a bit from being too similar. If we look at the data I compiled for the AT-TE, the 2nd iteration of the X-Wing and the Millennium falcon, the second iteration also did well though they were remade. What does this tell us? That if the set is good enough, being remade wont be a huge factor in whether it is a winner or not.
So final verdict? Well, I think this set is still going to suffer from two things that will hurt it in its case to match the original. The price and the fact that the original had the skiff in it. I think the set will still do very well as all of these Jabba sets go together, but I would safely predict about 15% CAGR using the $120 retail price tag. This is still a good gainer and those factors could actually work in the sets favor if it doesn't get targeted and becomes a sleeper. At 15% CAGR, that would put this set at $241.24 in 5 years.
The X-Factor would be if it is not heavily discounted, but you manage to get it at somewhere around $90. If the set is heavily discounted, it will sell too much and hurt the secondary market profits. However, as it currently sits, some people will walk away at that price, especially investors. If you find some intricate ways to get it down to $90, you are going to definitely make money.
In summary, for the right price, it will be a solid investment. Either way, you have to have one to build!
Republic Gunship 75021

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From the Lego website:
Rescue the heroes with the LEGO® Star Wars™ Republic Gunship™!
Race to Geonosis™ in the awesome LEGO® Star Wars™ Republic Gunship™ to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala before they’re overpowered by 2 Super Battle Droids™! Aim the 4 ball gun turrets with minifigure cockpit, then open the front compartment to grab the flick missiles and restock the 8 top-mounted launchers! Open the side and rear doors to deploy the swoop bike! Use the lifting handle for easier flying-action role-play! Includes 7 minifigures with weapons: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, Clone Trooper™ Captain, Clone Trooper and 2 Super Battle Droids.
Includes 7 minifigures with weapons: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, Clone Trooper™ Captain, Clone Trooper and 2 Super Battle Droids™ Features 4 ball gun turrets with space for minifigures, flick missiles, 8 top-mounted flick missile launchers, side and rear doors, swoop bike and a lifting handle Weapons include 2 Lightsabers, blaster pistol, blaster and a blaster rifle Aim the turrets and fire Restock the flick missile launchers! Open the cockpits and put the minifigures inside Recreate awesome battle scenes from Star Wars™: Episode II Attack of the Clones Build an even bigger Battle of Geonosis™ with 75015 Corporate Alliance Droid™, 75016 Homing Spider Droid™ and 75019 AT-TE™ Measures over 7" (20cm) high, 18" (48cm) long and 16" (43cm) wide My Analysis: Now here is a set that looks like it's worth $120! I love the minifigure cockpits on this ship. It adds tons of playability. Plus you get 8 flick missile launchers! Child's dream; parent nightmare. The set itself looks really impressive and is right at $.10 per piece. I saw this one in TRU($150...) and it looked soooo much more impressive than the other new Star Wars sets that were next to it on the shelf.
As for the minifigures, we get a plethora of them. The Anakin Skywalker is an episode 2 redesign as well as is the Obi-Wan minifig. You also get Amidala in Geonosis attire. It also comes with two super battle droids which are one of my favorite droids and it's rare to get two of the better did figures in the same set. You also get a clone trooper captain and a clone trooper pilot. Though I really like all the minifigures in this set, I think it hurts it that there are no real exclusive minifigures. On the other hand, one of the new Geonosis sets had to include all the core characters, and of all of these, I don't really see an undesirable minifigure int he set. Most people are going to be buying this set for the ship itself anyway.
So how does this set compare to the original? The original was actually slightly overpriced. It had only 693 pieces and 7 minifigures and was priced at $90. In this set, for only 30 dollars more, you get almost 500 more pieces! I think that is really going to factor into the value of this set later on. The newer set also looks a lot more sleek and stylish as well. The original set's minifigures didn't include any core characters – 4 clone troopers, a clone commander, and a “jedi knight” so that is a plus for the new set. On the other hand, the old set had a Droideka which, to me, is a pretty desirable minifigure. Overall, I would say the piece count is going to make this newer set the better set. This is a big ship in the movie – only fitting we get a big ship as a Lego set.
My Investment Analysis: We have talked about remakes and how well they do already. I will spare you more analysis here. We will just agree that the set itself has more effect on the value then whether it has been made before. What becomes important is how popular this ship is, and how well the last comparable set did. The results are below:
7163 – 693 pieces. 8.93% CAGR. Current price of $225 for 150% return on retail over 11 years
4490 – 102 pieces. 9.34% CAGR. Current price of 17.07 for 185% return over retail over 10 years
I think this definitely establishes that the ship is fairly popular and desired. 7163's CAGR is not amazing, but it has been around for 11 years and was still fairly successful looking at its return over retail. Looking at this new set, I think it should be able to match the set because of the large piece count for a relatively better value, the impressiveness of the set, and the better minifigures. I don't think it will be an amazing gainer, but I think it could match 15 CAGR after 5 years (This would most likely make it like 7163 being at 9% CAGR after 10 years). At 15% CAGR, in 5 years this set would be worth $241.36, or a 101% return over retail.
Two things to be aware of. First, I see way more value in this set that Jabba's Sail Bridge at the same price. This is definitely important to remember when comparing investments. Secondly, I would say this set has a lot of sleeper potential. I would definitely keep track of how popular this set is while it is available. I think it could get a little over shadowed by the Jabba set because of how well the last Sail barge did. If it does, it may really surprise people!
Ewok Village 10236

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From the Lego website:
Recreate classic scenes at the Ewok Village!
Travel to Endor™ and visit the treetop home of the Ewoks. Just like in Star Wars™: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, this recreation of the Ewoks’ forest dwelling is packed with cool functions, including the tree-trunk hideout, secret Lightsaber stash, spider web, net traps, slide, catapults and an elevating throne. Use the rammer function to take out the Scout Trooper’s speeder − just like in the movie! Realistic details include rope walkways, vine and leaf elements, kitchen, food storage area, bedroom and a planning room. The Ewok Village set is the perfect addition to your LEGO® Star Wars collection. Includes R2-D2™and 16 minifigures with weapons: Luke Skywalker™, Princess Leia™, Han Solo™, Chewbacca™, C-3PO™, 2 Rebel soldiers, 5 Ewoks™ (including Wicket™, Teebo™, Chief Chirpa™ and Logray™), 2 Scout Troopers and 2 Stormtroopers™
Includes R2-D2™ and 16 minifigures: Luke Skywalker™, Princess Leia™, Han Solo™, Chewbacca™, C-3PO™, 2 Rebel soldiers, 5 Ewoks™, 2 Scout™ Troopers™ and 2 Stormtroopers™ Features tree-trunk hideout and secret Lightsaber stash, spider web and net traps, slide, catapults, elevating throne, speeder rammer function, kitchen, food storage area, bedroom and a planning room Speeder also included Weapons include a Lightsaber, 3 blaster pistols, 2 blasters, 2 blaster rifles, 2 spears, bow and a crossbow Also includes 2 staffs Collect hard-to-find Endor Princess Leia, C-3PO, Luke, Han Solo and Wicket Ewok minifigures! Fend off the advancing Imperial forces Amaze the Ewoks with the elevating throne! Avoid the spider web and net traps! Destroy the speeder with the rammer function! Take refuge in the tree-trunk hideout Shoot down the slide and join the battle Fire rocks at the enemy with the catapults! Measures over 1" (35cm) high, 21" (55cm) wide and 13" (35cm) deep My Analysis: Wow! I can't even imagine someone could say something negative about this set. It just looks incredible from all the pictures I have seen of it. It really captures the feel of the Ewok's village from Return of the Jedi. I love the wooden bridge between the two sections of trees as well as the rope ladders that lead up to the trees. It also comes with a speeder bike, spider webs and net traps which add a lot of play-ability. On top of it all, you get a whole set of Ewok weapons!
This really follows in the footsteps of the Death Star 10188 as a giant playset. Normally, larger sets are collector's editions and aren't really geared towards children as much. However, the Death Star broke that mold and this one is right there with it. 16 minifigures! Get someone this for Christmas and their birthday! They wont need another Lego set for a long time.
The Ewok Warrior and Teebo the Ewok are exclusive minifigures with the rest of the Ewoks only appearing in the other two Ewok attack sets. You also get a shiny gold redesigned C3PO that is only in one other set. The Ewoks have really only been featured in two sets before this, so this is an area of Star Wars that has been fairly untapped. I think the Ewoks are a character that really resonate with casual Star Wars fans. My wife saw this set and her mouth dropped. She wants it as much as I do!
So any downsides? Well, it is a little pricey at $250, although that really hasn't stopped the Death Star from selling. I think the set itself is worth it because it is so impressive and unique, but it may stop a few people from buying it. Also, it isn't a deemed UCS set, which means it may not sound quite as collectible to people. Other than that, I can't see a whole lot wrong with it at all. I can't think of a lot of other ways they could have made it better.
My Investment Analysis: So this is the hard part. How do we even come close to predicting what this set is going to do? Well I am going to take a crack at it.
First, let's take a look at the Ewok line:
7139 Ewok Attack – 8.27% CAGR. Current price $31.13 for 140% return over retail in 11 years.
7956 Ewok Attack – -5.26% CAGR – Just recently retired
The original Ewok Attack showed solid gain for a battle pack type set. The newer one was just recently retired, but has held its value fairly well and has gained for the last few months. It had a relatively high retail price as well. Either way, there is definitely some interest here, and like I said, a limited number of sets.
As far as Endor, we don't have a lot of retired Endor sets to compare it to, but 8038 The Battle of Endor is one that is slightly comparable on a lower level. It has seen a modest 5.67% CAGR, although it was just retired a few years ago.
Honestly, there just is not a whole lot out there to compare this set to. It is a Lego Exclusive and really it is usually pretty hard to go wrong with those. I think the higher retail price could actually help it in the end because it may not be targeted near as much when there are things like the Tower Bridge 10214 and Haunted House 10228 that are less expensive.
In the end though, I think I would be really surprised if this set doesn't see UCS type value. I would love to compare it to a UCS set, but most of those retired sets are giant ships and this is completely different. Really the best thing to compare it to is 10188, which as I am sure most of you know, is not retired yet. The uniqueness of this set is something that this theme severely needs and I think this set brings it. If I had to put my finger on it, I would expect that we could see 20% CAGR after the first 5 years which would put the set at $622.08. But I think it has tons of positive and negative gaining potential. Wait and see is hard sometimes!
Remember, this is only a pre-pre-pre-prediction. There are a lot of things that could effect this set's value. If it sees a limited run, it could sky-rocket. If it stays forever like the Death Star has, it could be really damaging. I would definitely wait awhile and try to get a good deal ($200 seems about right) before I jumped on it. But honestly, with it being a Lego exclusive, I don't see a whole lot of sales coming for it. This, in the end, may be the best thing for those of us who decide to put it away until one day it brings the Star Wars Lego Theme back to the prominence it deserves.
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.
For any of us who are into Lego investing, we know that the phrase "Lego has brand new Star Wars sets!" is not really deserving of the exclamation point. In fact, according to current BrickPicker data, there have been 346 Star Wars sets as of the writing of this article. Saying these sets have been "mass produced" is a little bit of an understatement. Yes, in the past, it seemed that just buying a Star Wars set meant solid returns. Now, this is not true anymore with all of the remakes and clone sets from the original, the lack of new movies in the series, and the mass producing Lego has seemed to do with this theme. The theme CAGR has even fallen under the mean CAGR for a Lego theme of 11.26%. It is hovering around 9%.
Does this mean that Lego Star Wars is not a good investment anymore? Of course not! It just means we have to be much more careful about what we consider a good investment in the theme. So this is part 1 of my look at the fall sets in the Star Wars line and if any of them will be big winners, or if they will continue the trend of tapering off as a solid investment.
Note: For this, I am doing 5 sets in part 1 and 4 sets in part 2. The sets are done from smallest to largest.
Mandalorian Speeder 75022

From the Lego website:
Attack with Darth Maul in the Mandalorian™ Speeder!
Get to the rendezvous point in the LEGO® Star Wars™ Mandalorian™ Speeder with the treacherous Sith Lord Darth Maul minifigure with mechanical legs. Plot the Mandalorian takeover and take on anyone who gets in your way with hidden flick missiles, rear weapon storage and elevating cannon! Then, face off in minifigure combat with his legendary Darksaber! Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Clone Wars Darth Maul and 2 Mandalorian Super Commandos.
• Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Darth Maul and 2 Mandalorian™ Super Commandos
• Features hidden flick missiles under the hood, rear weapon storage and elevating gun
• Weapons include a Lightsaber, Darksaber and 2 blasters
• Collect Darth Maul with mechanical Clone Wars legs
• Unleash the hidden flick missiles!
• Elevate the gun and aim to fire!
• Battle with the legendary Darksaber
• Relive the excitement of Star Wars™: The Clone Wars animated TV series
• Measures over 3" (8cm) high, 7" (19cm) long and 4" (12cm) wide
My Analysis: This is a cool little set at just over $.10 a piece. It is from the clone wars series, so it was never featured in the movies. It includes two identical Clone Wars Commandos which are redesigns and look pretty cool. I think the helmets they are wearing are pretty cool too being full-faced.
What this set really has going for it is the Darth Maul with the cybernetic legs. If you haven't followed the series, after Darth Maul was cut in half in the end of Episode 1, he fell into the melting pit. The story goes that he was found 10 years later with cybernetic, spider-like legs as he had lost his lower half. He evidently favors two light-sabers now instead of the dual one he came to be known with. He is exclusive to this set, so I think that will make this set really have a decent amount of value. There are a lot of Darth Maul fans and I think they will want this little set because of him.
In regards to playability, the ship can seat two characters and it has hidden flick missiles. One of the light-sabers is the legendary Dark-saber as well, adding to the uniqueness of the set. How well have sets including an exclusive or first run of a redesigned Darth Maul done?
3340 Minifigure pack – 20.71% CAGR 13 years old
7663 Sith Infiltrator – 8.33% CAGR 6 years old
7961 Sith Infiltrator - -8.74% CAGR 2 years old
The values for this set are all over the place, although we can possibly throw out 7961 because it was overpriced at $.15 per piece and, though retired, has still been fairly easy to find. I think this Darth Maul will be better just because he is so different from all the other redesigns. My Prediction is a healthy 10% CAGR after 5 years. This would put the set at $40.24 at that time. Not record breaking, but healthy growth.
My Investment Suggestion: Just look to score the Darth Maul by either getting the set cheap and parting it out, or buying it separately. It is the only big thing going for this set. The figure could be worth $30 in a few years if there isn't another set including him with cybernetic legs.
Corporate Alliance Tank Droid 75015

From the Lego website:
Battle the LEGO® Star Wars™ Corporate Alliance Tank Droid™!
Build the great Battle of Geonosis™ where the Separatist forces are advancing on the Jedi Knights and their clone army with the LEGO® Star Wars™ Corporate Alliance Tank Droid™! Help the Clone Troopers™ to repel the Droid’s crushing track tire and 2 flick missiles! Then fend off the Battle Droid™ and infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett. Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Clone Trooper, Jango Fett and a Battle Droid.
• Includes 3 minifigures: Clone Trooper™, Jango Fett and a Battle Droid
• Features large track tire and 2 flick missiles
• Weapons include 2 blaster pistols, blaster and a blaster rifle
• Fire the flick missiles!
• Navigate any terrain and crush your enemy with the rugged track tire!
• Recreate awesome battle scenes from Star Wars™: Episode II Attack of the Clones!
• Recreate an even bigger Battle of Geonosis with 75016 Homing Spider Droid™, 75019 AT-TE™ and 75021 Republic Gunship™!
• Measures over 4" (11cm) high, 7" (18cm) long and 3" (9cm) wide
My Analysis: This one is a little hard to figure out. Yes, Lego has been doing a lot of Star Wars clones, but this set was just released 4 years ago. The original just had two clone tropers and two droids while this one comes with 1 of each and a Jango Fett. The ship does look a little updated and better detailed and it does include flick missiles this time. The set has better value as well, with the old set having 219 pieces at $24.99 and this one having 279 and only being $19.99. $.07 price per piece is pretty hard to find for Star Wars sets.
Either way, the first set has really done nothing in the aftermarket at all as a fairly no-name non-iconic ship and there is really nothing here to make us think this one will be any different. I think it will probably be worth building, especially because you are getting quite a deal compared to other Star Wars sets in price per piece. Jango Fett is an exclusive redesign, but I don't think it is anything to get too excited about.
My Investment Suggestion: The original Alliance Tank Droid 7748 didn't even breach 2% CAGR. Though I like the set and will probably have one to build, I would stay away from it as an investment unless you find it on clearance for less than $10. It might be worth keeping an eye on Jango Fett, since he has only been in a few more expensive sets and this is a re-design, but I see nothing here to really be excited about. Nice set, but an investment nobody.
Homing Spider Droid 75016

From the Lego website:
Take on the Homing Spider Droid™ in the Battle of Geonosis!
As the Battle of Geonosis™ rages on, Jedi Master Stass Allie and a Clone Trooper™ spot a deadly LEGO® Star Wars™ Homing Spider Droid™ in the distance. Overpower the droid before it attacks with its articulated legs, rotating head, elevating lower gun and top-mounted flick missile! Then, take on 2 Super Battle Droids™! Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Stass Allie, Clone Trooper and 2 Super Battle Droids.
• Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Stass Allie, Clone Trooper and 2 Super Battle Droids™
• Features articulated legs, rotating head, elevating lower gun and top-mounted flick missile
• Weapons include a Lightsaber and a blaster rifle
• Move the legs, rotate the head and fire the flick missile!
• Use Stass Allie’s Jedi powers to stop the attack!
• Recreate awesome battle scenes from Star Wars™: Episode II Attack of the Clones
• Build an even bigger Battle of Geonosis with 75015 Corporate Alliance Droid™, 75019 AT-TE™ and 75021 Republic Gunship™!
• Measures over 7" (20cm) high, 10" (26cm) long and 7" (19cm) wide
My Analysis: This set is really intriguing to me. In general, we have learned from past Star Wars sets that the weirder, less prominent, but unique ships from the Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars series have done relatively well. The AT-OT, AT-TE, and the Clone Turbo Tank come to mind. The set itself looks really interesting with the large Spider droid that can move its lower gun around, rotate its head, and of course, has a flick missile. It's almost exactly $.10 per piece which is always pretty good for a Star Wars set.
On top of this, it has a new (really, absolutely new!) minifigure in Stass Allie who served as a Jedi general during the clone wars series. Though maybe not a household name, an exclusive minifigure always helps. I think it helps as well that she is female as the Star Wars line really lacks female presence past the Queens and Princesses. I would say it is possible she will be in newer sets though, so this will be more of a “Wait and see”.
This is a remake, so it is hard to say what effect that will have as it really isn't a whole lot different from the old set, 7681 The Separatist Spider Droid. It does have a few more pieces for the same price, but one less minifigure. It doesn't have the super battle droid which was really the best piece in the set. However, 7681 saw some really great gains in retirement even though it is only 5 years old and I would venture to say this set looks a little better and has a little more playability with the exclusive minifigure and the flick missile. 7681 saw 32.95% CAGR, so if this new one does half as good, it will be a win.
If you are starting to see similarities in these sets, they are all meant to be Genosis sets which will help each set's value in the long run. Anytime sets go together, it is good for investors.
My Investment Suggestion: I think this set has huge sleeper potential. Obviously, the old spider droid was a sleeper as well as there aren't many $30 sets that make it to 4 times their retail value in 5 years. Because of how many sets are coming out in this theme at one time and how many bigger sets are being released (the New UCS X-Wing, Ewok Village, etc.) this one most likely will be overlooked again.
The first set was technically a limited edition set and was a TRU exclusive and with this one not being, I would assume it won't do as well. At the same time, people who now can't afford the limited edition set will want this one instead. The original had one exclusive minifigure in Commander Fox and this one has Stass Allie. There are enough similarities in the sets to be able to accurately compare them.
Looking at all that, I see a safe prediction of 15% CAGR for this set down the road meaning it should definitely be on your radar as a potential sleeper. If it sees limited production for some reason again, it could go up even more. 15% CAGR would put this set at $60.34 in 5 years. Not bad to see a 100% gain over retail.
Duel on Genosis 75017

From the Lego Website:
Defeat Count Dooku™ and recover the plans for the Death Star!
Stop Count Dooku™ from leaving Geonosis™ with the plans for the Death Star! Use the Force to help Jedi Master Yoda™ jump into the air, dodge the Sith Lord’s Force Lightning attack and bring Dooku to justice. Don’t let him destroy the lair and escape on his speeder. Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Count Dooku, Yoda, Poggle the Lesser and Dooku’s Pilot Droid™.
• Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Count Dooku™, Yoda™, Poggle the Lesser and Dooku’s Pilot Droid™
• Lair features falling lamps, tower handle and hidden compartment
• Also features Dooku’s speeder
• Weapons include 2 Lightsabers
• Accessories include Death Star plans decorated tile, walking stick and a Force Lightning element
• Unleash Dooku’s Sith Force Lightning attack!
• Pull the lever and topple the pillar
• Hop on the speeder and outrun the Jedi!
• Hide the Death Star plans in the hidden compartment
• Collect the redesigned Yoda and Poggle the Lesser minifigures
• Lair measures over 5" (15cm) high, 15" (40cm) wide and 6" (17cm) deep
• Dooku’s speeder measures over 1" (4cm) high, 4" (12cm) long and 1" (4cm) wide
My Analysis: Yes! Finally we get to something a little bit unique among all the remakes and Star Wars vehicles. I love the Star Wars line, but until this set and the Ewok Village which will be discussed in part 2, I have felt like every year we were just getting more and more of the same.
This set is really a straight up throwback – Lego hasn't made a Star Wars “duel” set since 2002. I think that will really help this set a lot. It's something that is definitely different from the other sets that are currently out there and are gong to be out there. The set also has 2 exclusive redesigns to it in Yoda and Count Duku, a redesign that it only shares with 1 other set in FA-4 (will be included in the next SW advent calendar), and a new exclusive minifigure in Poggle the Lesser which is an awesome minfigure with wings shown below:

What sets apart this “duel” set from the originals as well is the terrain that comes with it. It has falling lamps and handles and hidden compartments for enormous playability. I also really love the Death Star plans on the decorated tile. It comes with a speeder as well for a quick getaway. This set is so much different from the other sets out there, I can't imagine it won't be a big success and a big investment winner.
My Investment Suggestion: Let's take a look at what some of the other duel sets look like right now:
7101 – Lightsaber Duel – 10.94% CAGR, 14 years old, $.12 price per piece retail
7103 Jedi Duel – 12.48% CAGR, 11 years old, $.12 price per piece retail
7200 Final Duel 1 – 13.32% CAGR , 11 years old, $.23 price per piece retail
7201 Final Duel 2 – 6.52% CAGR, 11 years old, $.27 price per piece retail
Looking at these, all of them were very good investments and all of them were very cheap. This is a little different since this is set is $40. However, the set has a ton more to offer. It actually has dueling terrain instead of just the dueling characters. It is at a very reasonable $.10 price per piece retail and is not a remake – something the Star Wars theme really needs. Add on the exclusives and I think this set is right on the edge of sleeper/target status. As an investor, ignore this set at your own risk.
My thoughts are that this set will see 20% CAGR after 5 years as a safe bet looking at how well these sets have done and how much better this one is. If that is true, it's value will be $99.53. This would definitely be a nice change of pace for us Star Wars investors. If you find this set discounted, buy it! What more could you want in a set?
Jek-14 Stealth Starfighter 75018

From the Lego website:
Capture Jek-14’s™ Stealth Starfighter!
Pursue the rogue clone, Jek-14™, in his amazing Stealth Starfighter with retractable landing gear, opening cockpit with space for a minifigure, folding wings, rotating and elevating blaster cannon, R4-G0™ astromech droid, storage compartment with holocron and 2 flick missiles. Will Jek-14 escape the Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and the Republic Special Forces Clone Trooper™, or has his power grown enough to face them? Includes R4-G0 astromech droid and 3 minifigures with weapons: Jek-14, Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and Special Forces Clone Trooper™.
• Includes R4-G0 astromech droid and 3 minifigures with weapons: Jek-14™, Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and Special Forces Clone Trooper™
• Features retractable landing gear, opening cockpit with space for a minifigure, folding wings, rotating and elevating blaster cannon, R4-G0™ astromech droid, storage compartment with holocron and 2 flick missiles
• Weapons include a Lightsaber, blaster rifle and blaster
• Also includes an energy shield
• Press the levers and fold the wings for flight mode!
• Fend off the enemy with the flick missiles and blaster cannon
• Open the storage compartment and reveal the holocron
• Measures over 3" (10cm) high, 13" (35cm) long and 13" (34cm) wide
My Analysis: This set is a little hard to figure out. First off, ignoring the investing angle, it looks pretty cool, but very overpriced. $.13 a piece is not really bad for a Star Wars set, but when I look at the box I just don't see shelling out $70 for it. The ship does look pretty cool with the black and red color scheme, but looking at the set I really think $60 seems a lot better. I think it will really have a tough time selling at that price. I saw it the other day in TRU (it was marked $99.99 LOL) and I just didn't see enough to warrant the price tag.
On the other hand, we have something that may be a first in the Star Wars line for the last 5 or 6 years: 4 exclusive minfigures. Yes the ship is from the Clone wars series and so there are a lot more characters from that which haven't been introduced, but it still rare to get this many new minifigures in one set. Jek-14, shown in the first picture below is pretty cool looking. He is a good change of pace form the other minfigures in the Star Wars line with his white suit and white handled light saber.

The special forces clone trooper is really cool too. He has a round shield that is pretty unique and his garb is a very extravagant blue which is very unique to this theme:

The other two figures are a little less intriguing though. The separatist bounty hunter looks too much like a guy in camo-garb to me and his white helmet seems a little out of place. The R4-G0 is another no-name droid that sort of looks like all the others. I won't complain about new minifigures, but he is nothing to get excited about:

The ship itself does have some extras. Again, Lego has included some flick missiles for our enjoyment and the ships wings fold in. I really like the sets that have moving wings and multiple positions. It allows kids to play in different ways with the sets. For me, it allows me different ways to display the ships – sometimes I open all their wings and sometimes I close them all.
My Investment Suggestion: More information needed. There is really not a lot we can compare this set to with all the exclusive minifigures. A lot of the current clone wars ships have not retired yet so we don't have a lot of data to compare it to. If it were an old popular ship with 4 exclusive minifigures, I would say definite home run, but the obscurity of the ship and the high retail price make me really wonder about it.
I would say about 6 months after this set comes out, we will have a lot better data. If these minifigures stay exclusive to the set, it could go way up. If no one buys the set, it may go down in value. Either way, I would say don't bite on this set unless you get it for under $50 and honestly I would wait a while before I even considered it. It does have some sleeper status, but we have to see if it even draws the attention of builders before we consider it to be a good investment.
This concludes the first installment of the new wave of Star Wars Lego Ships. Part 2 will include the 4 bigger sets of the series including the Jabba's Sail Barge remake an the much anticipated Ewok Village.
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.