The price of lego sets per piece (PPP) is pretty consistent over the years, almost since the 80s. Even the licenced sets are staying relatively close to the average PPP.

The big difference is, that all the Lego enthusiast kids from the 80s and 90s are now adults with disposable income and Lego is riding this wave since the mid 2000s by releasing bigger and bigger sets aiming mainly adults, who can in theory buy them.

Here is an insanely in-depth analysis about the prices if someone is interested:

https://therealityprose.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/what_happened_with_lego/

[–] remon@ani.social 1 points 6 days ago

Another Death Star? Are they going to make one for each movie?

Call me when it's not some franchise bullshit.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

I feel like it kind of undersells the scale of the death star.

[–] Colors@lemmy.world 61 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is really cool but all I can think of is how as a kid I was never able to have any of the big, exciting Lego sets. It was always so disappointing to love Lego and see all the things I’d never get to play with.

Who is this priced for? (I know the answer). Things are getting so out of hand that kids can’t even play with toys anymore. So much has to cater to elitist cash grabs….

Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that adults can grab a piece of nostalgia. I just feel like “the line” keeps getting pushed out further and further for what capitalism can get away with.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago

This is really cool but all I can think of is how as a kid I was never able to have any of the big, exciting Lego sets. It was always so disappointing to love Lego and see all the things I’d never get to play with.

Samies. Their catalogues were like porn mags for younger me, and I only managed to get one single pricier set of Bionicles after a long time collecting pocket money. It did frustrate me, but at the same time I was conditioned to endlessly reconfigure what I had and sometimes reverse engineer build ideas I saw in these ads, so, probably, I got more quality time for my buck than if I could got every set I wanted. Is that copium? Def smells like it, lol.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Things are getting so out of hand that kids can’t even play with toys anymore.

I understand what you're getting at, but these lines of Lego toys are specifically designed as being "for adults". So the price tag is not for a children's toy. Once Lego found out that they can charge a shitton more money to make sets for adults, they started doing so.

[–] mienshao@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Dude enough. $1000 for plastic bricks is fucking batshit. Idgaf who the target audience is, there’s no justifying a price like that for a toy.

[–] moody@lemmings.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's also 9000 pieces.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lego sets are typically way more expensive than they should be, but this doesn't seem outrageous to me given the scale of the set.

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Average price per piece for Lego is $0.10-$0.15. This one is coming in at about $0.11 which is on the cheaper side. You’re right that the sheer size and complexity is what makes it $1,000.

[–] Zanathos@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah, now think of how many 1x1 pieces there are in here that adds to piece count. As I've built a few more sets recently, the amount of 1x1 is rediculous given they could use 2x1 or 3x1 in many situations I've seen their usage in. And it's in almost every single set.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Did I say the price was reasonable lmao??? No. I just said it is marketed to adults, so it isn't kids being "priced out" of a toy like the above user stated.

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[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

This and items like this are not marketed for kids. This is also not purely marketed for eletist cashgrabs. Ifyou are a real lego enthousiast, a thousand dollars might be achievable. There are also other arrangements, like renting the piece.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I bet people will pay $1,000 for this and that's very unfortunate.

Not only is the price batshit insane for the plastic that goes into it, it sends a message to Lego that they can charge this much for a kit.

Disgusting.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

These adult Lego sets already have wild prices. But when an IP is involved, they are trying to charge so much for it because some people are absolutely rabid for Star Wars. Some of the die hard fans will unfortunately buy this at ludicrous pricing like that.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I saw a teaser implying that Lego was getting access to the Star Trek IP to make kits from that. That piqued my interest, but seeing this monstrosity has killed that instantly.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

Yeah, the Star Trek IP was licensed to Blue Brixx in Germany for a few years, and they made some pretty decent and well-priced sets. there was a run on the store at the end because we all knew that the Lego versions would be crazy expensive.

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Compared to prices and complexities of similar sets, this is on par. This bonsai tree is more expensive per piece, but you could buy a dozen for the price of this new Death Star.

If you don't like little trees though, then you wouldn't buy that. Same for not liking olives, you probably wouldn't want a Greek salad. That doesn't make those things disgusting, nor unfortunate that they are being sold. It's just not for you, and that's okay.

[–] Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You are right, Lego prices are one of the few, which didn't go up as much as other popular toy brands, in fact for a few decades now they managed to be consistent with prices.

The audience is huge for SW and Lego amongst adults makes it possible to release these enormous multi-thousand piece sets, which pushes the prices up. More pieces = higher price.

Its a lots of money? Yes.

Is it more overpriced, than the average lego set price per piece in general? No.

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I paid $250 for a motorcycle that still sits in a box on my shelf. Lego is printing money off adults.

[–] RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

I'm guilty of that for my Ecto-mobile.

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Fun fact, it was only going to be 499.99 before the tarrifs

[–] Justas@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

It costs 999.99€ in Europe too though.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

That sounds about right.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

Fucking hell I hate this country so much.

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Source?

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

It's not even the complete death star, it's just a cut away.

still there will be idiots who will pay for this.

There was a set with 11065 pieces in it that was 250 bucks new.

https://www.brickeconomy.com/set/31203-1/lego-art-world-map

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 week ago

In fairness those are 11,000 1x1 plates. I was shocked at the $1k price tag and wouldn't buy this set but it's actually on the cheaper side of $0.10/brick compared to the rest of their Star Wars sets.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You are comparing apples and oranges. The €250 set with 11k pieces consists of 99% 1x1 tiles. Yes, this death star is ridiculous, but your comparison is too.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fine take this example then, its both larger and has more pieces, still not 1,000 bucks.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/eiffel-tower-10307

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

The World Map has eleven elements with a count over 100, four of which count over 1,000, with the highest count being 3,064.

The Eiffel Tower has twenty two elements over a count of 100, with the highest count being 704.

This new Death Star on the other hand has only four elements over a count of 100, with the highest count being 191.

I agree it's quite the sticker shock, but it's not as if Star Wars hasn't dominated the high end Lego set market for many years. While the Eiffel Tower is much cheaper when considering price per piece, it stands in a category of its own both in terms of size and style.

Even so, comparing a wall decoration, a historical building, and a futuristic spacecraft is largely pointless as they aren't likely to attract the same audience. People will buy what they like. Lego is a hobby, these days more for adults than children. It's not right to gripe about people enjoying themselves.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't care about the price per se, but this set is just... not worth it. I mean look at it.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Good that it's a Star Wars model. Saves me a lot of money, because I won't buy it.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's not worth 1000 dollars imo... 9023 pieces is a small amount for that price...

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They're paying for the Star Wars IP.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

Even then, the UCS sets are cheaper and more detailed

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Lego.com: here is an ad popup! Cookie popup!

Ugh, I'm already out before I got in

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah i saw half a deathstar and then boom popup. Now I won't see the rest and I'm the target audience I feel

I have the super star destroyer my wife bought me for my 30th birthday and I've wanted a deathstar for a long time.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It comes with a diamond Lego and the figurines are AI and really feel when you touch them and rip their arms off.

[–] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can they feel… other things?

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What, like the extreme pain of being impaled onto Lego pegs and be left there forever possibly as they watch you and laugh at your posture?

What if they glue you to the assembly? What if they pull you and only the top half comes off and then they peg your top half to a crazy looking car thing?

[–] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

^nice things^

[–] artifex@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago

Are they planning to sell the rest of the Death Star slices in the future so that a true fan could build out the whole plastic spheroid (that costs as much as my car)?

[–] jaykrown@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

$1000 for some plastic shit? It's obvious they're just baiting the collectors.

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

They’re buggin but Lego/star wars fans are gonna be the ones to set the new price per piece if they just eat this up

[–] BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I would have paid more for a more complete set but I don't want this one.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's the big deal? It's just a small moon.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago

That's no moon...

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I guess Lego chose not to pay the tariff for the Americans.

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