Today versus a Decade ago - FRIENDS Main Street vs CREATOR Pet Shop

Comments

• pxchris Member Posts: 2,438

  January 2022

  Don't forget about inflation.
  
  $150 in 2011 money would be over $185 today.

  

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• TheOriginalSimonB Member Posts: 1,795

  January 2022

  Plus minidolls are generally more expensive than minifigs.

  

  5
• CCC Member Posts: 20,556

  January 2022

  Also that Friends set has a lot of the larger transparent panels which are expensive direct from lego too.

  

  6
• LusiferSam Member Posts: 574

  January 2022

  If you want some real sticker shock you need to go farther back.  725 Town Plan was $25 in 1961.  In 2022 dollars it's $232.  King Castle 6080 was $44.99 in 1984.  It would be $120.35 today.

  
  

  Fair comparisons between these are basically non-existent.  It's rare for sets in the 500-700 piece range have anywhere close to a dozen mini-figures.  And the specialties pieces from 725 are another kettle of fish.   Anyway, Lego has done a very good job keeping the price inflation well under control for a long period of time.
  

  

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• Aanchir Member Posts: 3,044

  January 2022

  CCC said:

  Also that Friends set has a lot of the larger transparent panels which are expensive direct from lego too.

  Yeah, and in general, a 16+ Creator Expert set will have much smaller pieces on average than an 8+ Friends set. It's the same as how you wouldn't expect a Duplo set to have as high a piece count as a City or Creator set at the same price point, since Duplo parts are so much larger than System ones.

  TheOriginalSimonB said:

  Plus minidolls are generally more expensive than minifigs.

  Even aside from the difference in price between the two types of figures, Main Street Building has a lot more figures overall! And printed, pre-assembled parts like minifigure or minidoll torsos and legs are considerably more expensive than simpler building elements that can be churned out of a single mold.

  On a related note, 10218 had just 10 different printed elements, minifigure parts included. 41704 has at least 40 different printed elements — about half of which are minidoll faces, torsos, and legs. That's a pretty huge difference in and of itself!
  

  
  

  All in all, even ignoring the inflation factor, this is less of a comparison between "today vs. a decade ago" than a comparison of sets from two wildly different themes. It's kind of like comparing #7498 from 2011 ($99.99 for 783 pieces) and #10293 from 2021 ($99.99 for 1445 pieces) and concluding that today's sets offer nearly twice as much value as sets from a decade ago. You see how silly that is?

  That's not to say there's no value in making these sorts of comparisons. I look at this sort of stuff pretty frequently myself simply out of curiosity! But unless you start out by comparing sets that are at least roughly similar in both subject matter and target age, you won't be able to draw any sort of meaningful conclusions from those comparisons.

  
  

  Even then, you ought to still look into various possible explanations for the discrepancies you notice, instead of just assuming that it can all be chalked up to when they were released. That includes adjusting for inflation when possible, as well as considering whether any differences between the contents of the two sets might account for some of the discrepancies in price, weight, piece count, etc.

  Chances are, a comparison between just two sets still isn't going to be enough to draw broad-strokes conclusions like "The value of LEGO sets is getting worse", no matter how carefully you pick your examples! But it can certainly help give you a better understanding of why those sets' prices and piece counts are what they are, and of what sort of situations are likely to result in similar discrepancies.
  

  

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• Aanchir Member Posts: 3,044

  January 2022 edited January 2022

  LusiferSam said:

  If you want some real sticker shock you need to go farther back.  725 Town Plan was $25 in 1961.  In 2022 dollars it's $232.  King Castle 6080 was $44.99 in 1984.  It would be $120.35 today.

  
  

  Fair comparisons between these are basically non-existent.  It's rare for sets in the 500-700 piece range have anywhere close to a dozen mini-figures.  And the specialties pieces from 725 are another kettle of fish.   Anyway, Lego has done a very good job keeping the price inflation well under control for a long period of time.
  

  Sticker shock aside, I think inflation adjustments can be useful for keeping some of these past sets' prices in perspective. Even for its time, the number of minifigures in #6080 was pretty far from the norm, and its price certainly reflected that!
  

  What's more, the fact that it had so many minifigures and molded horses was probably at least part of why its piece count still ended up considerably lower than we'd typically expect in a $120 set today. Of all recent sets, #60330 Hospital probably comes closest to 6080 in terms of price, piece count, target age, and number of minifigures, and naturally it doesn't include any horses!
  

  

  3
• CCC Member Posts: 20,556

  January 2022

  Creator 3 in 1 sets are possibly some of the better sets to compare to past sets, containing mainly basic parts, relatively plain figures and not many printed parts. Although even those have changed over the years.

  

  1
• Aanchir Member Posts: 3,044

  January 2022

  CCC said:

  Creator 3 in 1 sets are possibly some of the better sets to compare to past sets, containing mainly basic parts, relatively plain figures and not many printed parts. Although even those have changed over the years.

  In some cases that comparison would be very appropriate! But keep in mind that compared to Creator 3-in-1 sets, even a lot of "classic" sets of the 1980s made much heavier use use of big parts like wall panels, space windscreens/canopies, preformed boat hulls, raised/decorated baseplates, and molded animals — not to mention a lot more minifigs relative to their piece count.

  
  

  Creator 3-in-1 is part of LEGO's "core creative" theme category, and as such tends to emphasize sets' building experience and creative rebuilding potential over their figure-based play potential compared to "play themes" of any decade. Hence why hardly any classic Town, Castle, or Pirates sets even approach the piece count of sets like #31097, #31109, or #31120, despite often having much higher prices when adjusted for inflation.
  

  
  

  0
• Bubba Member Posts: 164

  March 5

  Aanchir said:

  CCC said:

  Also that Friends set has a lot of the larger transparent panels which are expensive direct from lego too.

  Yeah, and in general, a 16+ Creator Expert set will have much smaller pieces on average than an 8+ Friends set. It's the same as how you wouldn't expect a Duplo set to have as high a piece count as a City or Creator set at the same price point, since Duplo parts are so much larger than System ones.

  TheOriginalSimonB said:

  Plus minidolls are generally more expensive than minifigs.

  Even aside from the difference in price between the two types of figures, Main Street Building has a lot more figures overall! And printed, pre-assembled parts like minifigure or minidoll torsos and legs are considerably more expensive than simpler building elements that can be churned out of a single mold.

  On a related note, 10218 had just 10 different printed elements, minifigure parts included. 41704 has at least 40 different printed elements — about half of which are minidoll faces, torsos, and legs. That's a pretty huge difference in and of itself!
  

  
  

  All in all, even ignoring the inflation factor, this is less of a comparison between "today vs. a decade ago" than a comparison of sets from two wildly different themes. It's kind of like comparing #7498 from 2011 ($99.99 for 783 pieces) and #10293 from 2021 ($99.99 for 1445 pieces) and concluding that today's sets offer nearly twice as much value as sets from a decade ago. You see how silly that is?

  That's not to say there's no value in making these sorts of comparisons. I look at this sort of stuff pretty frequently myself simply out of curiosity! But unless you start out by comparing sets that are at least roughly similar in both subject matter and target age, you won't be able to draw any sort of meaningful conclusions from those comparisons.

  
  

  Even then, you ought to still look into various possible explanations for the discrepancies you notice, instead of just assuming that it can all be chalked up to when they were released. That includes adjusting for inflation when possible, as well as considering whether any differences between the contents of the two sets might account for some of the discrepancies in price, weight, piece count, etc.

  Chances are, a comparison between just two sets still isn't going to be enough to draw broad-strokes conclusions like "The value of LEGO sets is getting worse", no matter how carefully you pick your examples! But it can certainly help give you a better understanding of why those sets' prices and piece counts are what they are, and of what sort of situations are likely to result in similar discrepancies.
  

  Thanks. I learned a lot from reading the replies to the post which is exactly what I was hoping for. 

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• Bubba Member Posts: 164

  March 5

  I guess the true best way to see how much LEGO has increased in top compare the individual bricks price between NOW and BACK WHEN.

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