Sets with good value per brick/piece count

[RobBoyle85]

Hi There

I'm very new so please bear with me... I was curious if anyone was doing a ranking or recommendation of sets which are worth buying for the piece count and to be used as basis for building other stuff (particularly star wars).

For example I was toying with buying the Death Star 75159 kit just to have a pile of pieces and mini figs as a starting point for trying to do some of my own Imperial MOCs, but maybe it's best to trawl brick link, or people have recommendations of better value sets? (Note, I'm in Belgium, so I'm generally buying in Euros or UK pounds, and I saw already a number of people point out that US and Canada prices are much much lower than EU)

Many thanks for any and all suggestions.

Cheers

Rob

[MAB]

You can sort by cost per part (retail value) at brickset. Although I'd ignore cost per brick and look at the bricks themselves. Work out which pieces you will use a lot of and look for sets with those in.

 

[RobBoyle85]

2 minutes ago, MAB said:

You can sort by cost per part (retail value) at brickset. Although I'd ignore cost per brick and look at the bricks themselves. Work out which pieces you will use a lot of and look for sets with those in.

 

Thanks! That's useful to know, I'll check that out now :)

[stormtroopercaptain]

The first order star destroyer has a lot of really good plates for buildining imperial ships. The medium gray plates in larger sizes are what I keep an eye out for. 

[RobBoyle85]

6 minutes ago, stormtroopercaptain said:

The first order star destroyer has a lot of really good plates for buildining imperial ships. The medium gray plates in larger sizes are what I keep an eye out for. 

That's a good call, I just checked price and piece count and it is a good ratio. There seem to be a lot of nice computer console pieces and stuff as well... I'm not a huge fan of the Force Awakens/Last Jedi sets and ship designs, but for parts that would definitely be a winner :)

[stormtroopercaptain]

Yea Rob

I am not huge collector of the new trilogy either but I got it for the bricks and to see how it was built. The construction is interesting and very sturdy. You do get some good console bricks and tiles.  If you want to build ships all the wing and wedges come in handy. And to top it off the minifigs can round out a sequel trilogy collection or be traded off for bricks or other minifigs. It’s the only set with Snoke so he is worth a decent amount for trade. 

[Robianco]

Be careful when going for Price per Parts ratio. The new Death Star has over 200 extra parts but having built them both only a couple of months apart I couldn't tell you where they were... There were 177 parts in an A-Wing set released a few years ago and you definitely didn't get an extra A-Wing and more parts between those two DS sets.

There are a lot of much smaller pieces around now than there were a few years ago so with recent sets you you get lots of very small 1x1 plates or similar in a set which bumps the part count but won't add anything other than detail to a set.

[RobBoyle85]

2 minutes ago, Robianco said:

Be careful when going for Price per Parts ratio. The new Death Star has over 200 extra parts but having built them both only a couple of months apart I couldn't tell you where they were... There were 177 parts in an A-Wing set released a few years ago and you definitely didn't get an extra A-Wing and more parts between those two DS sets.

There are a lot of much smaller pieces around now than there were a few years ago so with recent sets you you get lots of very small 1x1 plates or similar in a set which bumps the part count but won't add anything other than detail to a set.

Thanks, that's a good point as well, I've noticed I have accumulated a lot of very small pieces, good for decoration but not for the actual core build...

I was tempted by the new Death Star given the kinds of pieces included (and some nice mini figs), but it is probably too pricey to justify just to cannibalise it.

 

[Gusseteer]

If you are thinking of buying a large set but don’t have to have it right now, wait for a Force Friday or May The 4th event when Lego usually offer a decent discount, 10-20%, and a bonus VIP points event, such as double or triple points.  These combined will help reduce the price per part and leave you cash for more sets.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Gusseteer

[Midlife-crisis]

3 hours ago, Robianco said:

Be careful when going for Price per Parts ratio. The new Death Star has over 200 extra parts but having built them both only a couple of months apart I couldn't tell you where they were... There were 177 parts in an A-Wing set released a few years ago and you definitely didn't get an extra A-Wing and more parts between those two DS sets.

There are a lot of much smaller pieces around now than there were a few years ago so with recent sets you you get lots of very small 1x1 plates or similar in a set which bumps the part count but won't add anything other than detail to a set.

Absolutely, compare the 10129 Snowspeeder and the 75144 similar partcount. If you bought 10129 you got "big" bricks and plates, while the 75144 now has plenty of small pieces < 4x4 studsize.

Not talking about the "common" 10030 part prices ... in 2018