RunnersDad

What is the single rarest and/or most expensive LEGO piece?

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To be more specific I am talking about Production pieces, not prototypes...What is the rarest and single most desireable LEGO piece in terms of having appeared in very few to no sets but is desired by builders because it has functionality?

And to follow this up, if the aforementioned piece(s) is not the single most expensive LEGO brick, what in your opinion is the Most expensive single Lego piece in existence?

Just curious and figured that it might stir up a solid debate!

Edited by RunnersDad

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I'm pretty sure it was the yellow construction hat until that toy story set came out. Now I'm not too sure.

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Well, a sticker sheet is a piece so probably the sticker sheet in 4000001 Moulding Machines is the rarest piece. They made 10,000 gold C-3POs which were randomly inserted into set but only 68 of Moulding Machines sets for the Inside Tour, which costs a couple of thousand pounds. So the sticker sheet is way more rare and (if for sale) would probably cost more.

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there is 'rare' and 'expensive' and the two might not be the same piece.

While that sticker might be the rarest item, its value as a piece is determined by demand. I would assume most collectors interested in that set would want it boxed and complete, so the sticker on its own wouldn't be that valuable.

some of the one-off UCS millenium falcon pieces however (Radar dish and rear rigging) are relatively common in comparison, but the demand is high and so are prices.

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there is 'rare' and 'expensive' and the two might not be the same piece.

While that sticker might be the rarest item, its value as a piece is determined by demand. I would assume most collectors interested in that set would want it boxed and complete, so the sticker on its own wouldn't be that valuable.

some of the one-off UCS millenium falcon pieces however (Radar dish and rear rigging) are relatively common in comparison, but the demand is high and so are prices.

Good point about the rarest and most expensive not necessarily being the same piece. I would guess the most expensive would most likely be a special printed piece that has a lot of appeal for MOCs. I know I buy some of the old Star Wars Lego sets specifically because they use printed bricks and no stickers. I just like to have examples of one of a kind printed pieces such as the ones from the Star Wars Episode II bounty hunter pursuit set.

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The most expensive part LEGO has made (other than ultra rare 1,000 made-type parts) is probably the black NXT brainpiece. That was over $150 USD from LEGO if I remember correctly, because of all of the electronics (And because they charged more because it was black...). Not sure how much that sells for in the AFOL community, but it's got to be the most expensive part by TLG's prices.

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The Maersk blue construction hat used to be quite expensive before the release of the new Maersk sets.

Also, a lot of convention-exclusive sets have pieces that are becoming quite expensive and rare; the new Toy Fair 2012 Super Heroes set is an example of this.

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Probably the red Darth Vader helmet or some other leaked prototype.

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I would have said the Maersk Blue Construction Helmet part, it was $500 or so. (That was before they released them again in the Maersk Train). :laugh:

Now after a Bricklink search it would be this part. However this part and this part are pretty cool too. Might as well mention this fig too. :tongue:

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The Maresk blue baseball cap would have to be one of the rarest parts out there, its even more rare than the construction helmet AFAIK.

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I think the rarest and most expensive piece might be the 24k golden 2x4? I am not sure since I am not really an expert to this...?

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Speciality/collector item bricks aside, I'm going to go with the Lattice 3x28M03.2 in light blue-ish gray as a basic piece with a history of ridiculous after market bricklink prices .  This piece is pretty common in black and brown (usually used for rigging in sailing ships) but has only appeared in three kits in light grey, the _least_ expensive of which was the original Ultimate Collector Series Millenium Falcon (UCS MF) at 500USD (which had two).  The other two kits were a Serious Play parts part (which is where all the excess inventory Lattice parts from the MF wound up in 2010 and had six per kit) and in the new UCS Millenium Falcon (which has two).  

This part in this color has always been rare, in part because so few were produced initially and also because most people who have the kit it came in aren't scrapping their UCS MF's for parts. When production of the UCS MF ended, the excess inventory of this particular part went into Serious Play team building kits (also very pricey) where the majority likely ended up in the hands of non-AFOL adults who didn't realize how rare the piece was or even that there was an aftermarket economy for Lego parts.  It's entirely possible that many of these parts were lost, destroyed or are still sitting in a company closet in bins with hundreds of other random parts waiting for the next company retreat/team building exercise.

In black or brown this part typically sells for 6-7 USD, but in grey, the average price is about ten times that and I think the record price on bricklink is on the order of 430 USD (which would make bricklinking the original USC MF cost nearly twice the original retail price for the whole (5000+ piece) kit for just the price of two required parts.)  Prices may have eased a bit with the reintroduction of the UCS Millenium Falcon last year (which both puts this part back into production and undercuts the whole market for people trying to bricklink their own version of the the original), but demand is still pretty high and the new UCS MF is still routinely out of stock.

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10 minutes ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

The other two kits were a Serious Play parts part (which is where all the excess inventory Lattice parts from the MF wound up in 2010 and had six per kit)

Really? I thought that early photos of the serious play kit showed the lattice would be included, prompting a flurry of orders, but it turned out the part actually wasn't.  I vaguely remember a few people on here saying they'd ordered the serious play kit specifically to get the lattice, but Lego allowed them to cancel their orders and get a full refund.

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IMHO.... a 1966-67 Fiat 1800 1:87 LEGO car (LEGO #605) of the Town Plan era.  While common in white, gray, blue and red (worth about $50-$100), there are only about 5 known in black.  This example (used) was sold about 8 years ago on Ebay for $3235.

 

8188355153_b9ef3e1f30_o.jpg

 

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On 07/02/2018 at 6:50 PM, NathanR said:

Really? I thought that early photos of the serious play kit showed the lattice would be included, prompting a flurry of orders, but it turned out the part actually wasn't.  I vaguely remember a few people on here saying they'd ordered the serious play kit specifically to get the lattice, but Lego allowed them to cancel their orders and get a full refund.

Good question,

it is indeed visible on the photo of the set but the inventory is not published on Bricklink:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=2000413-1#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

 

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8 hours ago, antp said:

it is indeed visible on the photo of the set but the inventory is not published on Bricklink:

I stand corrected! It seems it was included in that set!  I didn't know the set number, but if you type 2000413 into the Lego customer service for missing bricks, it does indeed list the lattice (though naturally, it's out of stock right now :laugh:)

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All of these answers are wrong.

The Platinum Avohkii is a bionicle mask given away in a promotion in 2003. There is only one in existence, and of course since it's made of solid platinum, it's worth a lot. The current (third) owner bought it for $15,000. The first owner got it for free, and it's not known what the second owner bought it for, but it was certainly less because he bought it for the sole purpose of resale.

Here's a pic of the mask with the current owner:
Image result for platinum avohkii

Edited by stevethesquid

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8 hours ago, stevethesquid said:

All of these answers are wrong.
 

Well the OP was kinda ambiguous about the question, so there are probably many right answers.

Edited by LEGO Historian

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20 hours ago, stevethesquid said:

All of these answers are wrong.

The Platinum Avohkii is a bionicle mask given away in a promotion in 2003. There is only one in existence, and of course since it's made of solid platinum, it's worth a lot. The current (third) owner bought it for $15,000. The first owner got it for free, and it's not known what the second owner bought it for, but it was certainly less because he bought it for the sole purpose of resale.

Here's a pic of the mask with the current owner:
 

It may be the rarest and most expensive but I can hardly believe that (aside from bionicle MOCers) it's the most desirable part in the Lego Community...also it's not a production piece but like you said a give away in a promotion...

My money's on that MF lattice for this one to have all 3 categories..it's rare, it's very desirable(especially to pirate/boat builders and Star Wars enthusiasts who didn't have the money back then for a UCS MF, both of which together make up a large portion of the Lego community) and as stated before has gone up in price ridiculously since and even the TLG price was way higher than its brown and black cousins

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That picture is of Caleb Raff. He’s the owner of “The Brick Hutt” an all LEGO hobby shop in Northern California.

He is no longer the owner, he sold it to a bionicle collector around 2 years ago.

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