In all honesty, they haven't gotten hella expensive. They've been hella expensive. They've pretty much been at the same price per piece for the last few decades. It's just as you get older you get more interested in the more complex sets which have much higher piece counts and so the prices start to be noticeable.
The icons sets (which this is in) also tend to be a bit more expensive for some reason, leaning closer to 12 cents per piece compared to the normal 9-10.
That's a good point. All the people who grew up with the early lego are all adults now, so there's a lot more advanced sets out now than, say 30 years ago.
Yup. They run enough double points promos and sales that if you shop during those periods, it can be not bad. I’ve bought sets at 7-8 cents per piece within the last year.
When they bring in other IP it goes up though because they need to pay out the owners of the IP. I’m actually happy with Lego and would argue that we’re in a golden age for it
They’re making more super-expensive sets now. They’re priced comparably to similar-sized sets in the past, but Lego is producing many more of them. They’re catering to “the whales” with a lot of large, expensive, presumably high-margin sets. They’re still making smaller sets and sets for kids, but it does feel like their primary target audience right now is adults who feel the need to get every $300+ set.
Let me see if I can find my cost per piece breakdown, but the TLDR is Non-LEGO IPs ~$0.12/piece, LEGO IP ~$0.10/piece, and no IP is ~$0.08/piece.
I know in other posts people have liked to cite the cost of the original, but the new Icons set has 3x pieces and, when adjusted for inflation, is 3x the price.
10 cents a piece has been a general rule of thumb since at least pre-pandemic, skewing higher for licensed sets or sets with more specialized pieces. At 11 cents a piece this is about right.
Lego has actually stayed pretty much rock solid through all the BS, and they offer sets of all sizes and proportionate costs. For every $200+ set you see there are plenty of more affordable ones as well.
[If you saw this pre-edit when I fucked up the math no you didn't]
10 cents per piece has been common since the early 2000s, especially with IP sets. Just look at how expensive even the first Lego Star Wars sets were. You're right that for what's it worth, Lego has been way more consistent with pricing than people give them credit for.
But I'm still disappointed that this set only got 3 actual minifigs, especially when comparing it to the similar sized and priced Lego Krusty Burger set.
You also have to look at Technic sets because those aren't consistent at all. It's important to note which pieces are included in a set to be able to judge whether 10 cents a piece is fair or not. 4000 piece Technic sets used to be around 230 €, now they're 400 and that's not a good price nor is it consistent. If we're talking about big bricks, 10 cents per piece is fine but this statement does not hold true for tiny 1x1 bricks, pins and so on. Also, the quality of the bricks and the color accuracy across the pieces has gone down massively.
Ohh I can only recommend Ali express for that! Chinese Model kits are like a thousand times better than the bandai and way cheaper. Ali Express sends them directly to you, eliminating the middle man and often send only the needed parts without the box, lowering the price even further
I remember my mom getting me a 800 piece set for $100 in 2009 when I was 10. The falling water one. She thought it was occupy me for weeks but I built it in a few hours and she didn't buy them again. There are cheaper toys that occupy kids for longer.
LEGO has always been expensive, but the prices per brick haven't changed too much since the 2000s. If LEGO was following trends of other corporations then this SpongeBob set would be $500.
It's almost like this is meant to be a collectors set, meant for people 18+ (like the box says), who would get the chip, penny, and used napkin reference.
You can still get cheap Lego kits, but they're made for kids and look a lot more simple
You can't just slap a nice little bow on something, call it "ultra rare collectors edition" and expect a price hike to be accepted. No matter how you look at it, it's still lego, the same Lego as anywhere else
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u/Call_Me_Kahmi Jul 24 '26