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Lego price per part over the years

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Re: Lego price per part over the years

#11

Post by breuleux »

bleepblop wrote: post #9
bombcar wrote: post #4

> Many people quote that a set should be priced at around $0.10 per part to be worthwhile. Is this the average? This has been the average, and it's so "perfect" that it has to be that Lego has been aiming for it. They've accomplished this by having more and more detail (read: smaller pieces) in newer sets. They appear to have been forced (or trying) to jump to $0.20 per piece in some sets (e.g., https://www.lego.com/…

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

How many sets do you buy per year, out of curiosity? I got into Lego during the pandemic and bought around 50 sets in the past three years. Over that sample, the number of missing pieces was precisely zero.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#12

Post by Jean-Philipe »

yalok wrote: post #10
bena wrote: post #6

Another factor is that Lego is using more greebling than in the past. So you have more "parts", but they're all small pieces used for detailing rather than larger structural components of the build.

exactly, that's been my concern as well - more and more parts now are very specialized and hard to reuse in other projects. Makes me sad for the kids - this limits creativity...

Well, yes and no. Look at the Ninjago City sets where the designers have used special parts in very creative ways!

Otherwise, I too prefer sets without special parts. The Minecraft and Creator series are excellent for that.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#13

Post by bleepblop »

breuleux wrote: post #11
bleepblop wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

How many sets do you buy per year, out of curiosity? I got into Lego during the pandemic and bought around 50 sets in the past three years. Over that sample, the number of missing pieces was precisely zero.

I go on some wild stints. But if I had to average it out; somewhere around 10-20 kits a year.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#14

Post by NickNameNick »

bombcar wrote: post #7
aidenn0 wrote: post #5

Be interesting to see median or quartiles instead of just average; licensed sets probably skew the average up.

I'd like to see it per pound. I suspect (based on my feelings) that licensing is less per set than you might think, and that the price per pound has been trending up as piece size trends down.

I'd expect 2 small pieces to weigh more than 1 big one.

So I'd expect you to see the weight go up faster than the part count.

Not sure if that would confound or exagerate the trend.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#15

Post by chomp »

yalok wrote: post #10
bena wrote: post #6

Another factor is that Lego is using more greebling than in the past. So you have more "parts", but they're all small pieces used for detailing rather than larger structural components of the build.

exactly, that's been my concern as well - more and more parts now are very specialized and hard to reuse in other projects. Makes me sad for the kids - this limits creativity...

There’s actually less specialized parts these days, that’s what put Lego in trouble in the 90s, I think what GP commenter was referring to is a ton of the studs and cylinders and 1x1 diagonal parts that Lego includes, that are “fluff”. These parts are extremely cheap to produce, so you may have data that looks like price per part is flat, but in reality that’s because more of your sets are now from cheaper detailing parts.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#16

Post by thatguy0900 »

bleepblop wrote: post #9
bombcar wrote: post #4

> Many people quote that a set should be priced at around $0.10 per part to be worthwhile. Is this the average? This has been the average, and it's so "perfect" that it has to be that Lego has been aiming for it. They've accomplished this by having more and more detail (read: smaller pieces) in newer sets. They appear to have been forced (or trying) to jump to $0.20 per piece in some sets (e.g., https://www.lego.com/…

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

It's kind of funny, I got into buying random Lego knockoffs from alibaba, and they get around not missing pieces by putting a totally random amount of extra pieces in instead. I can usually make a small random person or statue with the random pieces left over from the actual model.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#17

Post by Larrikin »

breuleux wrote: post #11
bleepblop wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

How many sets do you buy per year, out of curiosity? I got into Lego during the pandemic and bought around 50 sets in the past three years. Over that sample, the number of missing pieces was precisely zero.

My experience is in fact the opposite. I usually buy the larger sets, and have nearly always had left over smaller pieces. It made me worried the first time it happened and I spent the time tracing back through the model only to find I didn't miss anything.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#18

Post by jacurtis »

breuleux wrote: post #11
bleepblop wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

How many sets do you buy per year, out of curiosity? I got into Lego during the pandemic and bought around 50 sets in the past three years. Over that sample, the number of missing pieces was precisely zero.

I've also always questioned this. I have purchased about 60 sets in the past 4 years. I have a friend who has purchased well over 100 (he runs a Lego YouTube channel - he spends > $6,000 a year on Lego by his estimation).

I have never had a missing piece. There have been two times when I thought I was missing a piece and then found it stuck in a bag or hidden under another piece. I've never had to write to Lego to get a replacement (which I've heard they are really easy to work with if it does happen).

Out of curiosity, I just texted my friend to get another sample from him and he said it happened to him one time, but also admitted his kids might have been to blame.

So when people claim that every other set they buy has missing pieces, I always feel like I am either the luckiest person to ever live, or maybe the pieces are there and certain people are just more likely to misplace or lose them in the building process.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#19

Post by bleepblop »

Larrikin wrote: post #17
breuleux wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many sets do you buy per year, out of curiosity? I got into Lego during the pandemic and bought around 50 sets in the past three years. Over that sample, the number of missing pieces was precisely zero.

My experience is in fact the opposite. I usually buy the larger sets, and have nearly always had left over smaller pieces. It made me worried the first time it happened and I spent the time tracing back through the model only to find I didn't miss anything.

I wish I could say the same. The extra little guys is to be expected. I am talking about key pieces to the puzzle.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#20

Post by Swizec »

bleepblop wrote: post #9
bombcar wrote: post #4

> Many people quote that a set should be priced at around $0.10 per part to be worthwhile. Is this the average? This has been the average, and it's so "perfect" that it has to be that Lego has been aiming for it. They've accomplished this by having more and more detail (read: smaller pieces) in newer sets. They appear to have been forced (or trying) to jump to $0.20 per piece in some sets (e.g., https://www.lego.com/…

I have a new metric when it comes to lego kits these days. How many stickers are in the kit? And honestly it's too damn high. I have been pretty vocal to lego about this in the past and current times. If they can mass produce an uncountable amount of minifigs with detailed paint schemes; they can do the same for bricks in the set. I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure. And to add…

> I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure.

It's a "keep bricks interchangeable" measure. Every LEGO set designer gets a budget of a few new piece suggestions per year. This includes color and paint schemes.

From a Verge article on how a new set happens: https://www.theverge.com/c/23991049/lego-ideas-polaroid-ones...

> And those teams came up with one simple idea to stem the tide of complexity: “frames.”

> Want a part in a different color? That costs designers a frame. A new piece? Spend some frames. Bring back an old out-of-print piece? That’s a frame, too. Every year, design leads like Scott are given a limited number of frames that they can spend on their entire portfolio for physical pieces that aren’t readily at hand. “If I have five products or 10 products coming out, I need to allocate where those frames go,” says Scott.

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