LEGO Star Wars 2022 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[Kit Figsto]

9 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

…are you sh*tting me. I thought I massively overpaid when I got mine for $200 shortly after it surfaced, but this is just bonkers  There must be something nefarious going on here

There's a whole side of social media/YouTube now that are Lego "investors" (ie buying up like 20 of sets and then reselling them in a year for double the price).  Personally I feel at some point that bubble isn't sustainable, especially since Lego sets aren't limited in the way that other collectibles are (such as a sports star's rookie card might be).  The only exception would be like SDCC promos or inside Tour sets and things, which are legitimately limited in quantity.  Plus, whenever they do come out with more of that desirable figure or set, people will have way less incentive to buy the old version.  

Prices of old sets on the whole has kind of gone bananas in the past year.  I remember a few years ago I was able to get the original Slave I for $50 sealed, which was on the low end for the time, but by no means out of the ordinary.  Now that's like $200 minimum.  The City Garbage truck from 2012 is like $100 sealed, for some reason (I sold a used copy for like $35 earlier this year, which I'm fairly certain is more than it originally cost).  I truly don't get it.  Apparently the only way to avoid it is to just buy any set you suspect you might eventually want.  I understand that sealed copies of old sets are expensive because there's fewer out there, but a random $30 set from ten years ago really shouldn't be costing as much as they do.  Who's buying these?

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by Kit Figsto

[BrickBob Studpants]

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Nothing nefarious, it's supply and demand.

That's how it usually goes, yes. But the way these prices have increased astronomically is pretty suspicious if you ask me. It just reeks of purposeful price gouging  Old sets and minifigs have always increased in price after a while, that's noting new, especially when retired sets suddenly experience refreshed interest thanks to a new show or film coming out. These price hikes however are beyond anything I've seen in the last 15 years 

[Brickroll]

There’s this guy I follow that did some good coverage of this stuff, he had a full spread on how people treat lego figures like WSB (obligatory 🤮).

 

[SquirrelArmy]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

That's how it usually goes, yes. But the way these prices have increased astronomically is pretty suspicious if you ask me. It just reeks of purposeful price gouging  Old sets and minifigs have always increased in price after a while, that's noting new, especially when retired sets suddenly experience refreshed interest thanks to a new show or film coming out. These price hikes however are beyond anything I've seen in the last 15 years 

The Minban Stormtrooper being a prime example. I can't believe the price people have been paying for them recently. I can't fathom why.

They had a brief appearance in the least popular of the recent Star Wars films. I've ended up with a few as I wanted a small squadron of Tie fighters. I have no idea why they are now sought after apart from coming from a retired set. The other figs from the same set aren't experiencing the same level of price increase either.

[Kdapt-Preacher]

The prices of virtually all older SW sets have doubled or tripled, at least, since the start of the pandemic. It doesn't seem sustainable to me; it seems like the bubble ought to pop at some point, but I don't know when or if that'll happen. As somebody who already owns most of the sets, in some sense it benefits me, but it's definitely bad for LEGO collecting as a hobby. Like, it's fine to say that the Finch Dallow figure is $630 because it's rare, and that's true, but it was equally rare in February 2020 and it only cost $65 then. That was well after it stopped being available, so nothing about its prevalence has changed, but its price has increased by a factor of ten in less than two years. I don't know how anybody who didn't already have almost all the older sets they want could get into collecting them at this point. Surely something has to give.

[PreVizsla]

1 hour ago, Kit Figsto said:

I understand that sealed copies of old sets are expensive because there's fewer out there, but a random $30 set from ten years ago really shouldn't be costing as much as they do.  Who's buying these?

5-10 intentionally inflated figures aside, ton of us are buying them. There were like 4 sets i had to buy this year: trouble on Tatooine for accurate speeder and Grogu, 2 TCW sets, set for Paz Vizsla and that's it. Only $140 entire year from new releases, ofc i am going to go through older stuff to pick up some cool figures and sets that i don't have. I literally ordered rebels stromtrooper BP, old sequel stuff and stormtroopers from death trooper BP maybe 3 hours ago and i am looking for other things like tie prototype from rebels, Rey's speeder, minifigure scaled Gunship, Senate Commandos etc.

[PreVizsla]

14 minutes ago, SquirrelArmy said:

The Minban Stormtrooper being a prime example. I can't believe the price people have been paying for them recently. I can't fathom why.

They had a brief appearance in the least popular of the recent Star Wars films. I've ended up with a few as I wanted a small squadron of Tie fighters. I have no idea why they are now sought after apart from coming from a retired set. The other figs from the same set aren't experiencing the same level of price increase either.

So to build a smallest army properly and accurately you need 9 soldiers of the same type to make a squad, 4 of those squads make a platoon. Therefore if only 38 people decided to army build a smallest unit of Mimban troopers they will already deplete the bricklink of 342 troopers from 342 sets and inflate the price of that particular figure, same way people did with the 332nd trooper. Don't also forget that the price of the set was $70. It is obvious why other figures from the set aren't jumping that much cause no one needs an army of Han Solo or Beckett and the third figure is a common tie pilot. This is way different than a group of people deciding they will buy every bail organa or thrawn or pre vizsla or gar saxon when the set retires.

[Kit Figsto]

29 minutes ago, PreVizsla said:

I literally ordered rebels stromtrooper BP, old sequel stuff and stormtroopers from death trooper BP maybe 3 hours ago and i am looking for other things like tie prototype from rebels, Rey's speeder, minifigure scaled Gunship, Senate Commandos etc.

Sure, but many of those are reasonably priced.  There are a dozen Rey's Speeders still new in box for under $20, Senate Commandos BP is like $30, the Rebels BP is like $24, etc.  I'm talking about paying $250 for the speeder bike set with Rex (which was like a $30 set) or whatever.  That seems absurd to me, regardless of how much people want a Rex fig.

In theory, the supply of the Senate Commandos and Rebels BP should be about the same as the supply of battle packs from that same era, and yet some of them are over double the price.  I understand that demand plays a role, but these sets aren't 30+ years old, they're like 5. 

37 minutes ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

The prices of virtually all older SW sets have doubled or tripled, at least, since the start of the pandemic. It doesn't seem sustainable to me; it seems like the bubble ought to pop at some point, but I don't know when or if that'll happen. As somebody who already owns most of the sets, in some sense it benefits me, but it's definitely bad for LEGO collecting as a hobby. Like, it's fine to say that the Finch Dallow figure is $630 because it's rare, and that's true, but it was equally rare in February 2020 and it only cost $65 then. That was well after it stopped being available, so nothing about its prevalence has changed, but its price has increased by a factor of ten in less than two years. I don't know how anybody who didn't already have almost all the older sets they want could get into collecting them at this point. Surely something has to give.

Fully agree.  It's gotten to a point where I'm considering buying sets that I sorta kinda want because I'm worried the price will skyrocket in the future, so if I ever do want it, I'm locked out.  This isn't an issue specific to SW either, it's happening it basically every theme.  I remember specifically there was a store near my house selling used and retired Lego sets that had a sealed 7410 (Adventurers Jungle River) for $25 that I was eyeing.  I went back mid-pandemic and it had literally doubled in price.  It's not like the supply of sealed copies of that set suddenly halved.

1 hour ago, Brickroll said:

There’s this guy I follow that did some good coverage of this stuff, he had a full spread on how people treat lego figures like WSB (obligatory 🤮).

I'd fully believe it.  The only problem is, I don't see the prices of a lot of these sets/figures dropping, they stay super high and then either get people to pay way too much money, or they don't sell at all and put the set firmly out of reach.  There's still a few sets that are surprisingly untouched by this and pretty much only have the premium of being an old set, but my days  of finding reasonably priced SW sets on eBay seem to be over for a while.

[PreVizsla]

36 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

Sure, but many of those are reasonably priced.  There are a dozen Rey's Speeders still new in box for under $20, Senate Commandos BP is like $30, the Rebels BP is like $24, etc.  I'm talking about paying $250 for the speeder bike set with Rex (which was like a $30 set) or whatever.  That seems absurd to me, regardless of how much people want a Rex fig.

In theory, the supply of the Senate Commandos and Rebels BP should be about the same as the supply of battle packs from that same era, and yet some of them are over double the price.  I understand that demand plays a role, but these sets aren't 30+ years old, they're like 5. 

Yeah, all fair points. Rex is my white whale figure, but i am not paying $200 or whatever is the price now. Demand for him is insane, but how can we blame the greedy people or wannabe investors when our own precious company hears we want 501st troopers or dark troopers and then put them in $30 sets and can't even make accurate vehicles with it. Bubble will never burst till LEGO starts making and re-making high demand stuff like Zeb that someone mentioned or Rex or minifigure scaled gunship or proper Imperial Shuttle. People are basically forced to go back and buy overpriced stuff or not have some important stuff in the collection.

[Kdapt-Preacher]

4 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

Bubble will never burst till LEGO starts making and re-making high demand stuff like Zeb that someone mentioned or Rex or minifigure scaled gunship or proper Imperial Shuttle.

I hope it does, but I'm not at all confident of that. I expected the price of 10123 Cloud City to drop when they released 75222 and there was finally another, much cheaper way to get Bespin Lando, Luke, and Leia, but instead it's more expensive than ever; it cost $600 when 75222 came out in 2018 and it's $2500 used today. The top review on Brickset is somebody who got a deal on it in 2009 for $50.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Kdapt-Preacher

[Stuartn]

5 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

So to build a smallest army properly and accurately you need 9 soldiers of the same type to make a squad, 4 of those squads make a platoon. Therefore if only 38 people decided to army build a smallest unit of Mimban troopers they will already deplete the bricklink of 342 troopers from 342 sets and inflate the price of that particular figure, same way people did with the 332nd trooper. Don't also forget that the price of the set was $70. It is obvious why other figures from the set aren't jumping that much cause no one needs an army of Han Solo or Beckett and the third figure is a common tie pilot. This is way different than a group of people deciding they will buy every bail organa or thrawn or pre vizsla or gar saxon when the set retires.

The Han Solos are very expensive too, since with the face removed it is just a generic figure, same goes for Beckett to a lesser extent 

[Kit Figsto]

3 hours ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

I hope it does, but I'm not at all confident of that. I expected the price of 10123 Cloud City to drop when they released 75222 and there was finally another, much cheaper way to get Bespin Lando, Luke, and Leia, but instead it's more expensive than ever; it cost $600 when 75222 came out in 2018 and it's $2500 used today. The top review on Brickset is somebody who got a deal on it in 2009 for $50.

I also have found this phenomenon odd in the past.  For me, though, when they re-release stuff that's in high demand, I more am excited from the perspective of "Yay, now I will be able to own a set of this vehicle/scene without selling off half of my collection to pay for it!"

This is especially true of things being remade from, say, 2011-12ish until the present.  I feel like most sets from that era still hold up until today.  Point being, if they remade the Gunship, I wouldn't care about buying a 2013 Gunship, so people can charge a million bucks for it for all I care, I'll be able to get a comparable/better one for cheaper. 

There are some sets where I would like the older one for nostalgia purposes, where I'd love if the price dropped.  In the case of something like Cloud City, I love the old set and would enjoy owning it someday, but I bought the 2018 version for $350 (cheaper than what a new 10123 version would've cost by roughly $1000), where I got more minfigures who are more detailed, more features, and more pieces.  So, overall, I'm perfectly happy with the new version.

I hope that makes sense, but basically, while I'd like if secondary market prices would go down, if they release a comparable or superior version of the set, I'm fine with that.

[Brikkyy13]

14 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

There's a whole side of social media/YouTube now that are Lego "investors"

You say “investor”, I say “abuser”. Buying up literally all the stock on the market and then posting pictures of what’s basically the world’s entire supply with the caption “to the moon” is not investing.

I agree, the prices of retired sets over the last few years is freaken insane. Some of it is definitely basic economics (especially true for the older sets where there aren’t many sealed left in the wild), don’t forget the influx of new collectors at the start of 2020. Some of it is undeniably pure extortion though, there’s a number of sets that aren’t particularly rare that cost 200%+ more than what they did two years ago, Obi-Wan’s interceptor from 2016 is the first one that comes to mind. The Rex speeder set and the battle packs are in the same vein. The only explanation I can think of is sellers raising prices on the things that the newbies “need” for a basic collection, they claim “supply and demand” but the supply shortage only exists because of hoarders.

What really surprises me is just how cheap some things are, like the Azure Angel from 2015 which was a retailer exclusive and is actually somewhat rare. I bought that earlier this year and with inflation it was the same price I would’ve paid back in 2015. The Rogue Shadow from 2008 is still reasonably cheap (used) last I checked. Sets like those two are ones I would expect to be extremely popular on the aftermarket and they seemed to have just slipped under the radar.

[BrickBob Studpants]

I knew it, these price hikes are machinations of the Dark Side  It’s always sad when a hobby gets invaded by people who don’t care about the hobby itself and are instead just in it to make a quick buck. Just ask the trading card community 

That’s why I don’t mind TLG rerealising new versions of rare minifigs. I don’t care if my copies lose value as I’m not intending to sell them anyway 

[TeddytheSpoon]

2 hours ago, Brikkyy13 said:

 Obi-Wan’s interceptor from 2016 is the first one that comes to mind.

This. I made a MOC of one last year and thought about buying a set to get some of the parts (namely cockpit and the ailerons), but I thought they were a bit pricey at around 35EUR. The other day I saw one for sale on Tori (which is normally a good bet for some good deals ok second-hand sets) that the seller had put up for 120EUR. I know some collectors can go a bit mad, but I can't help but think whoever is paying 5 or 6 times its original price for a set that, in all honesty, is not that special, is a bit of a mug.

[kidtheboss611]

To touch on the past discussion of PT vs OT and Bricklink price hikes as related to PT:

As someone who was/still is a kid 5 years ago the prices on Bricklink for many of the sought-after PT sets/figs are why I complain about OT coverage in recent years. When I was younger it was impossible for me to get certain sets because of how expensive they were thus I never even had a chance to get a Venator, Gunship, or AT-TE even though those were my favorite ships in SW. The Coverage of those types of ships has lessened recently even though OT coverage hasn't. After reading through the thread it seems PT and OT are nearly even on sets after factoring in Rebels, RO, TCW, and Solo but I don't think it's fair to lump everything together. TCW has over 60+ hrs of content and characters and was released over a 6 year period where no other SW content was being produced so it was the main thing to make for toy companies(Keep in mind OT is still getting great coverage during TCW years). By contrast, even though the sequel trilogy was released over the last 5-6 years OT coverage stayed the same (or went up) while PT coverage fell off like Luke's hand.

So as someone who can finally spend a good chunk of money on Lego and has the space to store said Lego I'd like to buy an AT-TE and Ventor to display next to my clone army and UCS Gunship. I don't want another freaking X-Wing with R2 freakin D2 (though I love R2). I wanna see some of the sequel stuff from TFA get the UCS treatment and I want to see a UCS Ghost. (For the record the Ghost is the one ship in LSW that I'm so sad I missed out on/was too poor to buy. I think it would actually sell incredibly well but will never be remade cause Lego doesn't understand consumers change opinions after they watch a show.) I don't think it's the crime that some people in this thread make it out to be to want something different from a company that says "Only the best is good enough" (not to sound like a certain someone but I think it's fitting here).

Also, while Bricklink prices aren't an indicator of demand since it's mostly AFOLS on there it is an indicator of how a certain segment of Lego's consumers feel about certain products. Even if your consumer base is made up of kids those market trends don't just change when a couple of 17-year-olds turn 18. The trends of prices that bricklink shows on each piece, fig, and set show fans want certain things (like 212 troopers or Captain rex). Also given that those same trends (PT enthusiasm and clone trooper love) are reflected on social media on YT, Insta, and Twitter means Lego and their defenders on this forum should at the very least take note and not dismiss outright the possibility of changing demand from OT ---> other things. 

Also if I haven't driven this point home enough in the past the GHOST SHOULD BE REMADE IT WILL SELL LIKE HOT-CAKES.

[BrickBob Studpants]

16 minutes ago, kidtheboss611 said:

Also if I haven't driven this point home enough in the past the GHOST SHOULD BE REMADE IT WILL SELL LIKE HOT-CAKES.

Not sure if they’d be willing to give it another shot. Maybe the chances improve if the ship shows up in the Ahsoka series? 

Of course fans would buy a remake in a heartbeat (especially when looking at the mind-boggling prices on bricklink), but would the target audience too? Is Rebels still popular among kids?

[kidtheboss611]

12 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Not sure if they’d be willing to give it another shot. Maybe the chances improve if the ship shows up in the Ahsoka series? 

Of course fans would buy a remake in a heartbeat (especially when looking at the mind-boggling prices on bricklink), but would the target audience too? Is Rebels still popular among kids?

It's weird but I actually became a fan in college so I guess the target audience for the Ghost would have to be diehard SW fans since it's not currently airing. I was in middle school when Rebels came out and didn't like it (partially cause it canceled CW) but nevertheless. I think kids still liked it cause it follows the cookie-cutter formula of a found family arc with a protagonist who quips. From what I can tell it's less popular than CW but more popular than a lot of the other Disney stuff. To be fair you do have to sit through a crap first season to get to Thrawn and his arc which is where the show gets really good but nevertheless, I still think it would sell really well without every kid knowing the show. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

19 minutes ago, kidtheboss611 said:

To be fair you do have to sit through a crap first season to get to Thrawn and his arc which is where the show gets really good but nevertheless, I still think it would sell really well without every kid knowing the show. 

I’d argue it gets pretty good once the Grand Inquisitor and Tarkin show up mid-way through S1 and the shows really kicks into high-gear in the finale of S2. So maybe a remake could do well if they include some desirable minifigs from S2 and beyond? 

You’re right though, a set like that could do well even if the kids aren’t too familiar with the source material. I mean, we got sets based on The Old Republic, the new Battlefront games, Galaxy’s Edge, and even completely made-up ones  

Fingers crossed the upcoming shows are able to renew interest in Rebels, be it by introducing live-action Inquisitors (Obi-Wan) or by directly featuring its characters (Ahsoka, maybe Andor as well)

Edited November 25, 2021 by BrickBob Studpants

[Brikkyy13]

If they can sell Galaxy’s Edge and Freemaker Adventures sets they can sell anything with a Star Wars label on it, including The Ghost 

[Tavis75]

I'm more of an OT fan, but I would love to see a UCS Ghost, thought Rebels was great (preferred it to most of Clone Wars TBH) and really liked the design of it.

Imagine it will be pretty unlikely we ever even see another regular version of it, let alone a UCS, unless, as mentioned, it suddenly crops up in a big role in one of the upcoming series.

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 hour ago, Tavis75 said:

[…] it suddenly crops up in a big role in one of the upcoming series.

I think the chances are pretty high. We know that the Ghost is still around during the ST era and I’d expect multiple (former) crewmembers to show up in the Ahsoka show, which apparently serves as the long-planned Rebels sequel series  Plus, Filoni is involved. He probably can’t resist the urge to translate as many of his (and his team’s) creations into live-action as possible 

With the shows that are currently scheduled, there should be a good selection of new and revisited vehicles from multiple eras. Let’s hope TLG actually take advantage of that, starting with at least a handful of sets for Obi-Wan and Andor next summer

[Mandalorianknight]

On 11/24/2021 at 12:30 PM, Brickroll said:

I agree about the whole thing involving the aftermarket, but I’ve got one question: where I God’s name are you finding a captain rex helmet for five dollars?

This was admittedly april 2019, I didn't realize the constituent parts had increased in price so much. At this point my advice is to get a 501st trooper, put a pauldron on, and play pretend!

On 11/24/2021 at 1:30 PM, BrickBob Studpants said:

That's how it usually goes, yes. But the way these prices have increased astronomically is pretty suspicious if you ask me. It just reeks of purposeful price gouging  Old sets and minifigs have always increased in price after a while, that's noting new, especially when retired sets suddenly experience refreshed interest thanks to a new show or film coming out. These price hikes however are beyond anything I've seen in the last 15 years 

That's definately part of it, but another part of it might just be fans coming back to lego due to having disposable incomes or more time in the pandemic. For instance, bionicle, which I talk about quite frequently here (almost like it's in my signature or something), had a similar resurgence. If you track popularity of bionicle videos, message boards, etc, with skyrocketing set prices (The ignika, a single piece, went up like $200 in 3 years if I remember correctly), it tells a pretty clear story. Now this is much harder to do with LSW given that it's much more popular and as a licensed theme you have to track with popularity of the source material as well, but I think it could be a factor.

[Paul11283652]

19 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

This. I made a MOC of one last year and thought about buying a set to get some of the parts (namely cockpit and the ailerons), but I thought they were a bit pricey at around 35EUR. The other day I saw one for sale on Tori (which is normally a good bet for some good deals ok second-hand sets) that the seller had put up for 120EUR. I know some collectors can go a bit mad, but I can't help but think whoever is paying 5 or 6 times its original price for a set that, in all honesty, is not that special, is a bit of a mug.

I though I overpaid for that set in February 2020 at 65 dollarydoos, now it’s $150 at least. You could buy all the parts on Bricklink for less than that. Hopefully all the ‘investors’ don’t try to send the Snowtrooper BP to the moon in January or Lego might withdraw it from the market due to poor sales like last time.

[Brikkyy13]

2 hours ago, Paul11283652 said:

Hopefully all the ‘investors’ don’t try to send the Snowtrooper BP to the moon in January

I can guarantee you they will try. Poor sales is such a bs excuse. Of course sales are going to be poor if you don’t give the customers stock to buy