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this thief is stealing
$1,500 worth of Lego according to the
store's owner but that's just the tip of
the
iceberg in the past decade there have
been a slew of Lego thefts including one
totaling about
$300,000 but why are thieves around the
world targeting a toy well one reason
might be that the most expensive Lego
sets cost more than an iPhone 15 that's
why this guy was trying really hard to
reach the top shelf these went from
around
$120 to overnight selling on eBay for
several th000 my friends and family
don't actually know about this room I
think they'd probably be quite shocked
if I ever open the door and they saw the
Lego that was in here but it wasn't
always like this in 2006 Lego's most
expensive set was $270
so how did we get here how did Lego go
from a children's toy to a collector's
item and why is it so
expensive today Lego is the world's
largest toy
company a but its story didn't start
with plastic bricks it started with
wood while Lego found success with
wooden toys the company's first first
major turning point came in
1949 when its founder took a Gamble and
started manufacturing plastic
bricks plastic toys were cutting edge
technology at the time but Lego wasn't
the first to pursue this idea here are
two patents by a company called Kitty
craft from 1939 and
1945 and well you can decide how much
inspiration Lego took plastic bricks
didn't click right away leg had to stick
with the product and innovate to pull
kids away from wooden and metal toys and
to understand the price of Lego today we
have to rewind to its very first
set it was just a box of bricks without
instructions some of the earliest gift
sets cost 25 Danish Crone about $60
today but in 1955 Lego released the town
plan a simple version of the sets we
have today kids built buildings and
combined them to create little Lego
cities with this release Lego solidified
what it called the system in play its
guiding philosophy would be that every
brick should fit together and stand the
test of time allowing kids of all ages
to build in unlimited
ways and we can't not mention the
reasonably priced
line then in 1958 Lego perfected its
bricks with the stud and Tube method an
interlocking design that enabled large
yet stable builds Lego uses that design
for its bricks to this day Lego is
brilliant pieces that were built from
the beginning of Lego interact with
pieces that were built
today with just a few
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exceptions do you know about Brown there
were some brown bricks that were made
like during a certain period Lego that
were more delicate than others and like
if you try to build with some of those
bricks today they're a little brittle
but
99.9% of all Lego that has ever been
made is designed to stand the test of
time and is Awesome by the 1960s plastic
bricks were a hit and Lego made them its
full
Focus but at the time Lego's products
were still pretty simple aside from
Reinventing the wheel in
1962 its builds were blocky and
predominantly used the classic
rectangular
brick Lego's second major turning point
came in the
1970s when it started to release more
creative sets like the 1978 space
cruiser it had1 170 pieces and cost $10
or about $48
today Lego referred to these themed sets
as the system within the system they
added new pieces that expanded the Lego
palette like colored transparent parts
and thrusters for Builders like Dave
these pieces expanded the possibilities
of
Lego it's really fun to have other
options because it's not like drawing
where you have unlimited possibilities
like your limitations are the brick that
exists so every time a new piece or a
new color gets added it's exciting so
builds that I built like 10 years ago I
would build totally different now
because there's an expanded pallet of
what's available to build with
throughout the 70s Lego transformed from
a toy into a creative
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medium releasing dozens of new parts
sets and even debuting the iconic mini
figure the company experienced huge
success and worldwide growth in the
1980s hour after hour day after day year
after year Lego changes there's no end
to
Lego but much like those brown bricks
cracks were starting to
show by the late 1990s sales slumped and
the company was losing money for the
first time ever Lego had grown rapidly
and spread itself too thin investing
heavily in theme parks media properties
and
merchandise meanwhile sales for its
original Focus the brick or
slipping Lego released sets that
required less building ignoring what
fans loved about the toy take the
galador theme which barely resembles a
Lego Product every Dimension needs a
hero every hero needs a special
power in galador it's glitching
glitching was not going to save Lego
that'ss like those had oneoff pieces
that didn't fit into the Lego
system they cost more to manufacture and
were less profitable an executive would
later say we had actually seen a decline
in profitability yet we continued to
invest as if the company were growing
very strongly we failed to realize that
we were on a slippery path the company's
annual report described 2003 as a very
disappointing year for Lego company
Executives were also concerned that
physical toys might not keep up with the
exploding video game
industry one of the few things that kept
Lego afloat was Bionicle the company's
best seller for 4 years straight another
bright spot was its licensed Star Wars
sets first released in
1999 these ranged in price from $6 to
$90 and they flew off the shelves licens
sets would become hugely important for
Lego but more on that
later outside the company something
unexpected was growing all on its
own it turned out that kids weren't the
only ones who thought Lego was
fun even in college I was like my
friends were like going out to the bars
and I was like well but I could buy some
more Lego with that
money Dave is what some people refer to
as an a adult fan of Lego which I don't
know I mean it's it's a term that we use
somewhat endearingly but uh you know
it's also a little
cheeky his skill and passion for Lego
earned him a spot on the TV series Lego
Masters which millions of viewers watch
weekly for its competitions between
adults I'm like a super fan I watch like
the international versions too I love it
but the hobby looked a lot different
when Dave first started
building before the 2000s even Lego's
most complex sets had young age
recommendations like N9 and up or 11 to
16 but that didn't deter creative people
like Dave from getting into the
hobby this is like 40 years of
collecting Lego it's almost embarrassing
to think about how much the dollar value
is of this Lego if I buy a a set I'm
taking that apart I'm building it once
to like learn the techniques but then
I'm taking that set apart and
integrating that into this collection so
that I can use the pieces for my own
ideas by the 1990s there was a growing
group of passionate fans like Dave who
had either played with Lego as a kid or
discovered it in adulthood as a creative
outlet and they were spending a lot on
Lego for enthusiasts having a room or an
entire base dedicated to Lego is a
common
practice everybody has a different
system that works for them it's in here
somewhere you just have to find it the
system's always changing one of my
favorite containers right here I sold
those three goats
recently got quants and bottles and eggs
chicken legs so this is a whole
container that just has minifigure hair
maybe this is a little morbid but you
could have a whole container of just
minifigure
heads it's definitely more than 100,000
bricks in this room it's probably
somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000
just individual Lego elements in this
room but like some of them are really
small I mean there's probably 10,000
pieces right
here Dave estimates his collection is
worth about $50,000
there's lots of ways to have a
collection to build up you know it might
be a collection of vacations that you've
taken over time and this is a collection
of memories and builds and pieces from
many many many years of doing this I
love it because it's a way to tell
stories I can talk about or think about
like things that have been happening in
my life or things that are happening in
the world or tell imaginary stories
I was like you know younger building by
myself in my
apartment it's a very solitary thing
building Lego you're usually by yourself
or maybe with a sibling or a family
member it really can be for anybody
because there's so many different ways
to be with
Lego in the 1990s The Passion of
Builders like Dave was quietly growing
waiting for a spark that would forever
change the
hobby You've Got
Mail I'm at the center of the
web high-tech illusion fantasy someone
can hardly turn the computer on it's all
a bit
worrying when the internet started to
catch on people like me who had been
building discovered that there were
other people like me and it was great to
be able to connect to see that other
people were building it wasn't just just
like building in solitude and that's
really I think when Lego started to
become something else and not just a
kid's toy but Lego didn't always accept
or understand its adult fans one former
executive said that decades ago Lego Saw
fans like Dave as a source of irritation
another said Lego didn't think their
adult fans had
value one of LEGO's former CEOs said we
kept thinking thinking that much more
should be done for the adult most people
on the management team thought we should
concentrate on children
instead for a long time up until the
1990s being a fan of something was not
seen in a positive light like why are
you wasting your time playing with
Legos and so I can totally see why a
company in in the 1990s would really
want to reject
that but the A4 community's momentum was
not easily stopped it was growing not
just online but in
person people from all over the world
would come together to be part of a
convention in the early 2000s
conventions helped fans connect and
build a strong Community it was also
great marketing for Lego because
enthusiasts would display giant
Creations like this 8ft wide lord of the
Rings build that took 11 years to
construct I don't know how much it cost
it was definitely in the thousands like
for me now I'm done by buying Lego I I
feel like I have enough
here I've been playing with it since I
was a kid I got my first set when I was
four or five good portion of the
apartment is filled with Lego when we
buy a house we'll very quickly have a
Lego
basement we often find the most powerful
fandoms and the longest lasting fandoms
come from the community they tend to be
Grassroots or ground up kind of fandoms
that sort of creative transformation
coheres a fan Community I think stronger
than if a media Corporation or a toy
company says here's the way I want you
to be a
fan but remember this
set I bought two I sold one and I think
I'll hold this one for a while and see
where I get to one huge aspect of the
hobby driven by the community is the
resale
Market Lego retires its sets every few
years after that if you want to buy it
or need a specific piece your only
option is to buy
secondhand because of this artificial
scarcity some sets Skyrocket in value
and Savvy buyers view Lego as an
investment
so this is my Lego storage room I'd say
there'd be over 600 to 700 of them
stored inside this room my kids aren't
allowed in here probably could be stored
better but I have an air vent for
ventilation and store a lot of them in
cabbo boxes to keep the boxes in good
condition I know the retail value of the
sets I've purchased is over
$50,000 secondary Market value I would
suspect it's uh a lot more than that
some of the sets alone are worth three
to four times what the retail price
was I keep this nicely locked away that
is not a set to play
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with Justine says she collects Lego not
with the intention of reselling but
because she wants to build each
one just to get it out that's a big
however know many sets increase in value
gives her some pause in cracking open
the box so I don't really have a
strategy or approach to buying Lego uh I
buy what I like unfortunately I like a
lot on occasion I have bought a set
twice cuz I've forgotten that I
purchased it there is one minifigure
alone within that set Harley Quinn that
is worth $400 and the set itself is
worth $1,200 so I'd love to build it but
at the same same time it's really hard
to say I'll go you know spend $400
overnight while building that set and uh
reducing its
value my ratio of built Lego to Lego in
box is probably a little out of
whack prices on the secondhand Market
can be eye
watering like a mini figure like this
could go for like $200 cuz it's a very
rare minifigure that only appeared in
one set ever
but not everything multiplies in value
and this massive network of spare parts
is what empowers Builders like Dave I
probably ordered like 2,000 lightsaber
rods just to make this floor it doesn't
even look like Lego anymore I'm putting
them on their ends and putting them all
so close together that they make that
hexagonal
tile in the early 2000s Lego's fans were
innovating more than the company was and
in order to survive it needed to embrace
ail Lego recognized it was pursuing a
losing strategy while ignoring a key
customer base to turn the tide it cut
costs sold the theme parks and refocused
on its Core Business of building with
bricks and it was time to finally
consider adults in 2004 Lego now under a
new CEO
planned to fundamentally change the way
it did
business over the next few years it
sought to improve its products by
developing what it referred to as
Grassroots collaboration with its adult
fans in addition to making sets more
profitable Lego needed to recapture
customer
excitement and who better to ask for
help than its most passionate fans in
its 2006 annual report Lego said it
obtained means inspiration from the many
independent homepages and clubs for Lego
enthusiasts all over the world in 2007
Lego released a $500 Millennium Falcon
with over 5,000 pieces recommended for
ages 16 and up this marked a jump in set
complexity price and Target
demographic to put this change into
perspective the 1999 Star Wars Padres
set cost $90
had 896 pieces and listed an age range
of 8 to
12 they've also hired people like me who
were Lego builders to work for them the
things that we kind of pioneered are now
being pioneered by the people who work
at Lego so it's much more exciting
because the techniques in Lego sets have
become more advanced and you learn more
when building a Lego set than when you
did when you were a kid and the sets
were simpler
when fans are running the thing that
they're a fan of they can expand it in
ways they know other people will
enjoy this is the start of the company's
thirdd Turning Point getting kids and
adults excited about Lego to achieve
this Lego released bigger more
interesting sets and expanded its
licensed products brand tians in Lego
sets work phenomenally to get people
interested in purchasing the set people
that are fans of that particular brand
might purchase the Lego set that
wouldn't normally buy Legos this
strategy coincided with an explosion of
pop culture fandoms and a growth of
what's referred to as the kol
industry kol Industries are industries
that produce products that we would
associate with children but aimed at an
adult market and it's become a huge area
of business Lego released its first 18
plus set in
2020 and since then the company has
released dozens of products each year
clearly targeting
adults some of these sets like the Star
Wars at at are complex with thousands of
pieces and a price tag to match others
feature themes like dried flowers that
try to appeal to older Builders these
sets are also perfect to display once
once you've built them I display my
doctor who Legos because I want people
to know that that's that's an important
part about who I am and I'm proud of
that previously nerdy things and hobbies
and fandoms are absolutely a part of
mainstream popular culture
today now Lego's website even says
adults
welcome this strategy allows Lego to
cater to a customer base and a price
point it couldn't reach if it only
focused on
kids I personally don't set myself a
budget for Lego because if I did I'd
just blow it Lego also acquired
Bricklink the largest Lego resale
Marketplace in
2019 at the time Lego's CEO said our
adult fans are extremely important to us
we have worked closely with the
community for many years and look
forward to deepening our
collaboration we've seen just how much
money that sort of thing makes that
gives it uh
seriousness but I think also because
we've just kind of
normalized weirdness in a in in a way
that makes me really
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happy I really never cared for what the
age was on the Lego set because I was
like I want the pieces I just want the
pieces to build but it's good messaging
I think from Lego to say like this isn't
just a kids toy this is for adults too
and for me it didn't matter but I think
for a lot of people it is
welcoming and Lego's plan to save the
company worked two decades later the
company boasts nearly 10 times the
revenue but amid this success profits
weren't the only number going
up walking down the toy aisle and seeing
Lego sets priced at hundreds of dollars
can be alarming but is Lego actually
more expensive than 10 or 20 years ago
to answer this question let's look at
price per piece that's the price of a
set divided by how many pieces are
included it's not a perfect measurement
and it doesn't include Min figures but
think of it as a broad look at the value
of a set remember that 2007 millennium
Falcon that had a price per piece of 10
cents a decade later Lego released a new
Millennium Falcon with over 7,500 pieces
for
$850 and a price per piece of
11 that's just 1 cent higher and
adjusted for inflation it's actually 1
cent
lower some set themes are more expensive
than others but the price per piece has
remained surprisingly stable over the
past 20
years ironically some of the worst value
sets are ones designed for young
children like
Duplo this set has a price per piece of
$130 so why are sets more
expensive they're much more
complex this chart shows an increase in
average set prices since
2014 but it aligns with an increase in
average pieces per set since the same
year they could do a Millennium Falcon
for 30 bucks and it wouldn't look as
good and it wouldn't be as big but they
know that they can do this big one
because there is a market for
it so if you're walking through Target
seeing high prices and thinking that
Lego is expensive you're not entirely
wrong since 2020 Lego has released
significantly more sets that cost cost
over
$300 but it's also releasing more sets
overall about twice as many annually as
it did in 2008 and about four times the
amount it released in the
1990s you can have unlimited pieces but
it's also fun to like just build with
what you have and sometimes the limit of
what you have is more challenging than
building with unlimited pieces once in a
while I'll be working on something I'll
be like well is it worth it for me to go
buy more of this or can I find another
solution for it with what I have so that
I don't have to buy more of
something that's really what Lego is
about is creative problem solving is
like can I solve it this way is there
another way to solve it or is there a
third way that I haven't even thought
about
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yet going all in on the brick helped
Lego beat the one hit wonder problem
many toy companies have but it also
created an ecosystem and a creative
medium that has endured nearly 70 years
of competition and shifting pop
culture my mom tells me that she got me
my first Lego set when I was 4 years
old I don't think I could have predicted
where Lego would
go I love Lego because I feel the
Nostalgia from when I was a kid you know
it brings me back to those moments of
sitting on the rug building that set
being young and enjoying that and I like
the way that it connects Generations
that adults can play with the same toy
with their kids that they played with
when they were a
kid it's continually new and it's
continually refreshing and that's in its
DNA I don't think we're ever going to
see a fandom for Lego die in the way
that we might for a media text which
waxes and wns over
time my hope for the future is that it
will continue to be more accessible to
people whether that through having
representation of different people in
their sets or price I think price is a
block for a lot of people how can we
make it an entry point that is
accessible to everyone
I would hope that like people who watch
this think when they look at Lego and
then they look at this they're like oh
you have to have that much Lego to be an
amazing Lego builder it's not really
about that the coolest techniques I've
come up with or that I've seen other
people use are when they when they have
constraints it's not really about like
how much you have it's about Ingenuity
it's about trying to find different ways
to solve problems so I wouldn't ever be
intimidated by seeing something huge
it's okay to just put a couple pieces
together and have it be something
amazing
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