A while back, I wrote a blog article about the Bottom 50 LEGO sets, Anatomy of a LEGO Investment Loser.  Well, fast forward a year and the lowest of the low, the Toy Story 7591 Construct-a-Zurg, is making a comeback.  If you take a look at the BrickIndex, you will see that the 7591 is number #4 on the list, UP 41.84% over the past six months.

 

Not only that, but out of the Top 20 fastest growing sets of the past 6 months, 6 of the 20 sets...or 30%, consist of some of the worst LEGO Investment themes...Toy Story, Prince of Persia, Pharaoh's Quest and Atlantis.  Is this the time to invest in these perennial losers?

Is this the time to invest in these perennial losers?

I'd say it was 6 months ago

Not a bad choice if you pick them up at current market prices (which are way lower than their respective MSRPs). Atlantis, and Pharaoh's Quest to an extent are very creative and interesting themes, and I think they deserve to be higher up. The one thing about Toy Story  that surprises me is how poorly the Pizza Planet Truck has done: it is a great set that you can get for as low as 20 bucks on eBay representing a pretty iconic scene from the first movie. And then there is Prince of Persia (which in my opinion, the main set market for those are people looking for the pieces) and World Racers. I would say WR is the worst out of the 2010 failures. That's another thing. Was there something in the water in 2010, possibly widespread clearance of those themes that partly added to their failures? I know that Prince of Persia was available for half off along with World Racers I think after Christmas, but I have a feeling that there is something that made 2010 become such a bad year. We can rule out the economic collaspe as 2008 and 2009 showed growth, but why are there so many crappy themes from that year?

 

A lot of these themes could eventually at least meet their MSRPs. Any winners in these themes would have to be sleepers. Who knows, maybe in five years that pizza planet truck will be pushing 80.

I'd say it was 6 months ago

True that.  I'm happy that I own a lot of these dogs.  LOL

Sweet. I have NIB 1 of each set of the Pharaoh's Quest stuff and a couple Toy Story boxed sets and polybags (including a Construct-a-Zurg and 5x Army Jeep).

 

This is good news for me! Thanks for the update ED, I had almost completely written them all off and planned on just building em some day.

 

-PB

You think this is a good deal then?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181148310895&item=181148310895&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

You think this is a good deal then?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181148310895&item=181148310895&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

A must buy!  Ahem......

You think this is a good deal then?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181148310895&item=181148310895&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

 

But it's from Jamaica mon.  Oh wait, that's Jamaica NY.

speaking from a parent's perspective, i think Toy Story sets will be a "winner" this holiday season.  nice profits can be had here since many parents will be buying lego sets with a more kid friendly theme.  i think there will be interest in Cars also due to the Planes movie.  If you can pick these up on the cheap, go for it.

Wow, this is a surprise. I can't say that I will buy any Zurgs, but it is cool! Next thing you know, UCS Obi-wan's Starfighter breaks the $1,000 mark!

 

For those of you who are too lazy to the BrickIndex page, here's a list of our TOP 20 INVESTMENT SETS OVER THE LAST 6 MONTHS!!

 

In bold italics are sets that either appeared in Ed Mack's  Anatomy of a LEGO Investment Loser or come from previously unsuccessful themes (Prince of Persia, Toy Story, Power Miners, Atlantis, Pharaoh's Quest, etc.)

1. 8083-1: Rebel Trooper Battle Pack - 84.09% - Star Wars
2. 30005-1: Imperial Speeder Bike - 50.71% - Star Wars
3. 7569-1: Desert Attack - 42.78% - Prince of Persia
4. 7591-1: Construct-a-Zurg - 41.84% - Toy Story
5. 7255-1: General Grievous Chase - 37.76% - Star Wars
6. 7789-1: Lotso's Dump Truck - 37.33% - Toy Story
7. 4737-1: Quidditch Match - 33.13% - Harry Potter
8. 8547-1: Mindstorms NXT 2.0 - 31.93% - Mindstorms
9. 7654-1: Droids Battle Pack - 28.78% - Star Wars
10. 30071-1: Army Jeep - 28.68% - Toy Story
11. 8080-1: Undersea Explorer - 26.86% - Atlantis
12. 7327-1: Scorpion Pyramid - 26.61% - Pharaoh's Quest
13. 7782-1: The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault - 25.34% - Batman
14. 8527-1: Mindstorms NXT - 25.05% - Mindstorms
15. 3661-1: Bank & Money Transfer - 24.63% - City
16. 8128-1: Cad Bane's Speeder - 24.01% - Star Wars
17. 8957-1: Mine Mech - 23.08% - Power Miners
18. 10196-1: Grand Carousel - 23.04% - Town
19. 4714-1: Gringott's bank - 22.42% - Harry Potter
20. 8085-1: Freeco Speeder - 22.02% - Star Wars

Almost half of the sets in this month's BrickIndex came from LOSER backgrounds in the past.

And some people think diversification sucks. HA!

I had an eBay listing sell where I used the stock image on the left (white box) but the actual item was blue. Buyer wants a full refund because is wasn't white box, but my question is, did they actually ever produce a white box version? Is this an early version or late version of the same item? 

Edited October 19, 20178 yr by bigfanofnu

Yes, both versions were made. When Toy Story sets first released, they were all in blue boxes. When the Toy Story 3 stuff came out later, boxes were switched to white since Toy Story 3 merchandise had white box art and I guess they wanted all the sets to look the same on shelves. 

Yes, there are two versions of most Toy Story boxes.  IIRC, the blue versions were released first (before the TS3 movie was released), and the white box was released afterwards.

It's not a very popular set.  Sounds like your buyer was trying to make a complete bundle.