If there’s one big gripe common among brickheads, it’s that the prices of LEGO sets are quite lofty (plus maybe not enough spaceships). But two disparate people interested in the plastique fantastique eschewed conjecture in favor of hard data, and found that LEGO prices scale linearly with piece count, and that on average, prices of sets have actually remained constant over the last couple of decades. In a recent Reddit post published by user proxyformyrealname, a graph originally created and then posted to twitter by Ken Steif shows that the cost of a LEGO set increases linearly according to piece count. (Steif controls for both the theme of the set, and the year.) My 3 y/o (ahem) loves #lego. Using @brickset data, controlling for theme & year, each add. piece on avg. adds $0.09 to set price. — Ken Steif (@KenSteif) January 14, 2017 (a major hub for the bric-a-brick world), found that “each additional piece adds $0.09 to the price of the set, on average.”
The idea that some sets having a far better price/piece ratio may be overblown (although perhaps not totally untrue). But while this may seem reasonable, it could still be that LEGO set prices have increased wildly over time, right? ) the average price for a LEGO set has actually remained roughly constant over the last 20 years. Sielen, whose research is absolutely superb in terms of rigor and presentation, notes that “From what our data shows, it seems that the notion that LEGO is increasing in price is false at least in regards to the last couple decades. Since around 2006, the average price of a piece of LEGO has remained relatively stable between 10 and 13 cents apiece.” When the reports are considered together, it seems that in regards to LEGO pricing, you can expect to pay $.009 for each extra piece a particular set has, and also expect that the average price of any particular set will remain constant over time (when adjusted for inflation). Licensed sets — Star Wars LEGO sets presumably being the most popular examples of this — do still appear to cost more than generic LEGO sets, however.
So if you want to make sure you’re paying the average price for some LEGO rather than above average, make sure to mix in plenty of City and Ninjango on your next shopping spree. What do you think about LEGO’s pricing? Give us all your brickheaded thoughts in the comments below! Images: Wikimedia / Benjamin D. EshamLego announced Tuesday that a new set will feature some of the pioneering women who played vital but sometimes under-appreciated roles in the U.S. space program. The figures have been commissioned under the toy maker's Lego Ideas series that allows fans to propose concepts for new sets. The "Women of NASA" set was designed by science writer Maia Weinstock, the deputy editor of MIT News, and pitched with the headline "Ladies rock outer space!" Among Weinstock's figures are Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Nancy Grace Roman, who's known as the "mother" of the Hubble Space Telescope; and Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space. Also included are Margaret Hamilton and Katherine Johnson, whose work helped put the first people on the moon.
Weinstock said the set celebrates the NASA scientists' careers and "provides an educational building experience to help young ones and adults alike learn about the history of women" in science and technology. Lego has been criticized in the past for a lack of professional female characters, most famously in a letter from a 7-year-old fan in 2014. "All the girls did was sit at home, go to bed and shop, and they had no jobs but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people," Charlotte Benjamin wrote. In response, Lego released a limited edition "Research Institute" set designed by geophysicist Ellen Kooijman that featured three female scientists -- a paleontologist, an astronomer and a chemist. Lego said it's still figuring out the final design and price for the "Women of NASA" set. It's planning to release it late this year or early in 2018. But it's not clear if it will be a limited edition set like the "Research Institute." BMW Turns LEGO Toy Into IRL Hover BikeModular Dungeon Master Lego Set Is a Blast From Your Gaming Past
At this year’s Toy Fair in New York, Lego was once again proudly displaying a whole array of hardware. As always, they had plenty of sets from their Star Wars line-up to show off. We took plenty of pictures to share with you… and put together a list of some of their best sets you can buy right now to build out (or kick off!) your Lego Star Wars collection. If you’re looking for a nice, inexpensive set to get your collection started, this could be the one. It features Yoda and R2 and lots of nice articulation. Printed bricks would be a nice improvement over the stickers, but at this price that’s not to be expected. 75317 Carbon Freezing Chamber – $23.85 It’s one of the smaller sets on store shelves right now, but it comes with Han, Boba Fett, and Ugnaught minifigs. That’s cool enough, but Lego built a pretty fun little action feature into this one. There’s a mechanism that lets you pop Han in his Carbonite cocoon up from the depths. 75112 General Grievous Buildable Figure – $34.47
Not every Star Wars character translates well into Lego’s Hero Factory/Bionicle-style buildable figures. General Grievous is one that does… and it’s good form to give a nod to the prequels in your collection, even if you’re not a huge fan. This badass Grievous is an easy addition to justify. You can’t like the rebel troop’s odds of survival in this set — he’s outnumbered three to one — but what’s not to like about the Striker itself? It’s got good size and playability, some very nice printed details, and a reasonable price tag to boot. All good Lego Star Wars collections need an Imperial walker, and this is a solid option. Like the TIE Striker, this is a nice mid-sized set with a moderate price tag. It’s nicely articulated and has moving legs and turrets as well as Lego’s fun spring-loaded shooters. One nice bonus about this set: if you look around right now, you might be able to find a deal on it. 75093 Death Star Final Duel – $104.49 Why not make one of the most memorable scenes from the franchise the center piece of your collection?
For about a hundred bucks, you get Luke, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and a pair of Royal Guards and a slick little playset that recreates that touching father-son breakthrough when Vader chucks Palpatine over the railing. If you’re a Star Wars fan and you’re building your Lego collection, how can you not want to add the Millennium Falcon to it? Lego has offered a few versions of the iconic ship over the years, and the current one is very cool. It measures 18 inches from front to back, and the interior is nicely detailed (and easily accessible). Minifigs include a gray-haired Han, Chewie, Rey, Finn, BB-8, criminal scum Tasu Leech, and one of his gang members. 75060 UCS Slave I – $272.87 This set is two thousand pieces of pure awesome befitting one of the baddest bounty hunters in the brick-built galaxy. It’s nearly the same size as the Falcon, and, like other UCS sets, Slave I is stunningly detailed. It features a cargo hold (with room for carbonite-encased smugglers), wings and blasters that rotate, and four nicely-printed minifigs.