@HUW thanks very much for the round up. The changes are confusing but I've never really felt like I understood the pricing anyway, and the RRP always seemed really inconsistent based on my personal take on value...

75290 Mos Eisley Cantina's entry on the list needs a tweak.

Very interesting to read through the changes - makes me happy for when I eventually pick up Diagon Alley.

One thing to note though is that the new price for 10951 Horse Stable and Pony Care seems to be wrong (both old and new price show as £27.99, but the new price should be £24.99). @Huw

I wish they'd do this to a handful of American prices, a few themes like Monkie Kid are relatively quite expensive, specifically 80032 with a price variance of £44.99 / $69.99 / 49.99€.

@Huw said:
" @ComfySofa said:
"75290 Mos Eisley Cantina's entry on the list needs a tweak."

Why?"

It seems that the old and new prices have been reversed in the table for 75290

Thank you for doing this, glad that there have been more decreases than iincreases. I did buy the bookshop the day of the first article as it was still the old price via Hamleys on amazon and I had vouchers.

@Huw Your comments on the Star Wars UCS sets are not quite right.
The price of the ISD has dropped, as you say, but it was already less expensive than the AT-AT.
The price of the Millennium Falcon has risen to match the price of the AT-AT.

Are the ‘Was’ and ‘Now’ columns correct? Just ordered one of the sets and the price is cheaper not more expensive than I was expecting?! Star Wars UCS ISD was 649.99 now 614.99 -?

@Huw ?

Assembly Square was £229.99, now £179.99 (first table), while in the following paragraph the prices are the other way around.
Star Destroyer was £614.99, now £649.99 (again in the first table).

Are the headings the wrong way around @Huw?

Shouldn't the percentage change be the difference over the original amount? Eg Assembly Square increased £50 on original price of £180, a 27% increase, to the new price of £230. The calculated percentage change in price is £50/£230 giving the 22% displayed.

All this comment section confusion about prices just emphasises why LEGO should stick to the same pricing whilst the set is out. If you want to increase prices, fine, nothing we can do to stop you. But do it to new sets coming out, don’t change the old ones, it just confuses everyone further.

On another note, I really wanted to get 75316, but I was just saving up for it. Now it’s increased by £10 I’ll probably never get it, with extortionate University fees coming up. Really sucks, should’ve gotten it earlier but apparently I’m being punished for waiting for a discount

Great article!

From an economic POV for Lego I understand the change, from a PR/Marketing change it doesn't make sense. As a few people have said on other articles, why not do this on new products only or at least only change long running products and leave sets that will retire in the next year as they are. Most of the sets on the list that I want have luckily gone down but the idea of changing the RRP mid cycle makes me reconsider my lego fandom adding to a few issues they have had in past few years.

For a company with such a great customer service I cant understand how bad their PR/Marketing is at times.

On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25

@Huw said:
"Additional information:

We've excluded key chains from the list above (which have gone up £1)
65 products have increased in price
100 have decreased.

The product feeds containing prices for mainland European counties have now been updated so we will perform further analysis in due course.
"

I believe the series 2 of Vidiyo has gone up too but I may be wrong about that?

I've just checked and yes they've gone up by 50p.
Originally £4.00, now £4.50 unfortunately.

still don't understand how to justify the increase and reduction on some particular sets

Not sure how typical this is but given stock issues mostly and trying to buy up some older sets as priority meaning delaying some newer purchases the changes have randomly worked out positively for me...

If from the whole list I add up sets already bought that have now increased (increase £182) and decreased (decrease £49) together with wanted sets yet to buy that have increased (increase £20) and decreased (decrease £143).. Taking simply as a difference of RRP which is obviously not same as what paid/will pay but is a yard stick - the changes overall for me of £256 better off.

I am not a UK resident and I understand why the list of sets was presented by set number — so one could find a particular set in the list — but I think it would have been as useful to present these findings in order of percent change. I found myself searching the list to see which went up the most and which went down.

definetly not a fan of seeing 71755 go up £10, thats not great! but I welcome the trade off, the flower fruit mountain set from monkie kid is now £10 off! may have to pick it up!

@Huw said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"I am not a UK resident and I understand why the list of sets was presented by set number — so one could find a particular set in the list — but I think it would have been as useful to present these findings in order of percent change. I found myself searching the list to see which went up the most and which went down."

You can sort the list by clicking on the headings"

Missed that detail, thank you.

Hi, I am new to brickset.
This is not a question related to the article but it would be to know if a next set of fairground collection is planned for this year ?
Thank you for your answers.

I was shocked by the hike in price for Assembly Square, so was therefor patting myself on the wallet for taking a huge leap (for me) and buying it, via Smyths Toys a few months ago for £149.99! I would not go for it at the new price.

I appreciate the article - thanks.

@CCC said:
" @uplift said:
"On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25"

WHSmiths used to be notorious for this. They often marked prices up by about 50% on smaller sets and then did buy one get one at 50% off, meaning if you bought two at the same price then you only overpaid by a little."

Hamleys in Regent Street are the worst. All Lego is around 20% above RRP. Though that is also the case with everything else in the shop.

@TedBricks said:
" @Huw said:
"Additional information:

We've excluded key chains from the list above (which have gone up £1)
65 products have increased in price
100 have decreased.

The product feeds containing prices for mainland European counties have now been updated so we will perform further analysis in due course.
"

I believe the series 2 of Vidiyo has gone up too but I may be wrong about that?

I've just checked and yes they've gone up by 50p.
Originally £4.00, now £4.50 unfortunately. "

Thank you,

@TheLegendaryBrick said:
"Hi, I am new to brickset.
This is not a question related to the article but it would be to know if a next set of fairground collection is planned for this year ?
Thank you for your answers. "

We don’t do rumours on brickset, best checking websites like brick fanatics who do more leaks, but yes, I do belive that there is a fairground set rumoured for the summer wave

@Goujon a dit :
" @TheLegendaryBrick a déclaré :
« Bonjour, je suis nouveau dans le jeu de briques.
Ce n'est pas une question liée à l'article mais ce serait pour savoir si un prochain jeu de collection foraine est prévu pour cette année ?
Merci pour vos réponses. ]]

Nous ne faisons pas de rumeurs sur des jeux de briques, nous vérifions mieux les sites Web comme les fanatiques de briques qui font plus de fuites, mais oui, je crois qu'il y a un jeu de foire aux rumeurs pour la vague d'été" ]]

Merci beaucoup @Goujon

To be honest, the price hikes, whilst a pain, can usually be expected in most walks of life.
What surprises me more is that more members aren't upset about the price drops.
I would imagine a fair few people have purchased sets on release day at full RRP that are now kicking themselves.
For a lot of the sets it might only be a £5 of £10 drop but how many members have only brought one set from the list above.
I generally don't buy on release day and can wait for discounts where I can as i have too much of a backlog to worry about having them as soon as possible but with the sets from above that I own, if I'd brought them at RRP now against the RRP when I did then I'd be miffed.

@ShinyBidoof said:
" @CCC said:
" @uplift said:
"On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25"

WHSmiths used to be notorious for this. They often marked prices up by about 50% on smaller sets and then did buy one get one at 50% off, meaning if you bought two at the same price then you only overpaid by a little."

Hamleys in Regent Street are the worst. All Lego is around 20% above RRP. Though that is also the case with everything else in the shop."
I have to admit to knowingly buying 76205 Gargantos Showdown for £3 over RRP from Argos. Why did I do it? Two reasons: first, they delivered at no extra charge to a Sainsbury’s a few minutes from me and second, I had Nectar points to spend so the immediate cost to me was just 50p. Otherwise, I would have shopped around. I don’t normally buy from stores that sell above RRP. UK RRPs are already too high.

Sorry but the inconsistencies you see (exchange rate and price comparison to other countries) are not as bad as you make them out to be, because you are still working with the old Euro prices. 10255 and 10270 are now €259.99 and €179.99 respectively in most €-countries.

I literally just bought Assembly Square before the price increase... oh my god, I'm so glad

@Zander said:
" @ShinyBidoof said:
" @CCC said:
" @uplift said:
"On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25"

WHSmiths used to be notorious for this. They often marked prices up by about 50% on smaller sets and then did buy one get one at 50% off, meaning if you bought two at the same price then you only overpaid by a little."

Hamleys in Regent Street are the worst. All Lego is around 20% above RRP. Though that is also the case with everything else in the shop."
I have to admit to knowingly buying 76205 Gargantos Showdown for £3 over RRP from Argos. Why did I do it? Two reasons: first, they delivered at no extra charge to a Sainsbury’s a few minutes from me and second, I had Nectar points to spend so the immediate cost to me was just 50p. Otherwise, I would have shopped around. I don’t normally buy from stores that sell above RRP. UK RRPs are already too high."

Don’t Argos usually slap huge unpeelable stickers on the Lego box too? Or have they stopped doing that now?

With this correction TLG certaibly is not in loss. So who is? Who will be paying more for existing set and new ones? AFOLs, parents, kids? CMF got more expensive last year, battle pack this year,...

The price difference between Germany and The Netherlands was always such that it was interesting enough for me to buy larger and more expensive sets in Germany.
When LEGO is levelling these prices I am afraid that the German prices are going up.

Looking at https://brickset.com/article/68657/[europe]-new-year-brings-new-prices!
it seems that German prices might still be lower than the prices in The Netherlands.

What to think of Lego's policy, looking at 10255 prices in Germany € 239,99 and in Finland € 279,95 that is quite a difference.

Fantastic, so now the LEGO Mario starter set has gone from costing as much as an entire video game in the UK to costing MORE than an entire video game....... :')

@thefirst said:
" @Zander said:
" @ShinyBidoof said:
" @CCC said:
" @uplift said:
"On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25"

WHSmiths used to be notorious for this. They often marked prices up by about 50% on smaller sets and then did buy one get one at 50% off, meaning if you bought two at the same price then you only overpaid by a little."

Hamleys in Regent Street are the worst. All Lego is around 20% above RRP. Though that is also the case with everything else in the shop."
I have to admit to knowingly buying 76205 Gargantos Showdown for £3 over RRP from Argos. Why did I do it? Two reasons: first, they delivered at no extra charge to a Sainsbury’s a few minutes from me and second, I had Nectar points to spend so the immediate cost to me was just 50p. Otherwise, I would have shopped around. I don’t normally buy from stores that sell above RRP. UK RRPs are already too high."

Don’t Argos usually slap huge unpeelable stickers on the Lego box too? Or have they stopped doing that now?"

I think for the last couple of years they have changed the labels they use, so easily peel off. At least that has been my experience.

Sainsbury's on the other hand, have security tags that wreck the box.

Thanks for providing the UK prices!

We have analyzed all prices for all european countries with euro as currency and found some interesting things. We have also included your analysis in our article - compared to the adjusted prices in Western Europe, the price changes in the UK definitely make a bit more sense.

In any case, the prices in Western Europe are now much more consistent than they were before and have not increased in the overall European view.

I hope it's ok if I link our (German) article here, otherwise feel free to take that part of this comment out. We are working on an English translation for it, hopefully it well be online soon: https://www.stonewars.de/news/lego-harmonisiert-preise-in-westeuropa/

@Michael40Plus said:
" @thefirst said:
" @Zander said:
" @ShinyBidoof said:
" @CCC said:
" @uplift said:
"On a slight tangent, has anyone noticed a few big companies in the UK selling Lego above the RRP? Morrisons sells all their range 25-30% above RRP and Amazon/Argos has 76205 and 76181 at 27.30/28 despite RRP being 25"

WHSmiths used to be notorious for this. They often marked prices up by about 50% on smaller sets and then did buy one get one at 50% off, meaning if you bought two at the same price then you only overpaid by a little."

Hamleys in Regent Street are the worst. All Lego is around 20% above RRP. Though that is also the case with everything else in the shop."
I have to admit to knowingly buying 76205 Gargantos Showdown for £3 over RRP from Argos. Why did I do it? Two reasons: first, they delivered at no extra charge to a Sainsbury’s a few minutes from me and second, I had Nectar points to spend so the immediate cost to me was just 50p. Otherwise, I would have shopped around. I don’t normally buy from stores that sell above RRP. UK RRPs are already too high."

Don’t Argos usually slap huge unpeelable stickers on the Lego box too? Or have they stopped doing that now?"

I think for the last couple of years they have changed the labels they use, so easily peel off. At least that has been my experience."
Confirmed, at least for Gargantos Showdown where the sticker was on the side of the box and easy peel.

Very interesting, thanks CapnRex, and Huw.

Thanks also to StoneWars.de for the analysis, although I was confused before I clicked on their link!
Supports my theory that I need to keep smuggling my Lego in from Germany, by which I mean get my family and friends to send it to me. The last few years have proved to be rather expensive, what with the exchange rate and now VAT on BrickLink orders from Europe. The domestic market here has always seemed expensive, and as for the postal service ....

At least now with Arg*s moving into S*insbury's we can bypass the stupid aforementioned security tags.

From a purely money making business point of view I can understand raising the prices on some of the older sets - with inflation etc. these sets probably aren't making as much profit as they used to. However, from a purely PR point of view it seems like a pretty poor show to slap an overnight £50 price increase on something like Assembly Square.

What I really can't fathom and seems utterly daft to me, however, is the price adjustments for the brand new sets. Titanic has been out for less than 2 months and already the price has been adjusted £15 downwards (not that it really matters when it still isn't in stock...). LEGO announced back in September they would be amending prices but didn't think to price the sets released after then accordingly and instead had to change them already. Baffling.

I may not live in the uk or europe, but a lot of these prices seems unfair.

@Lego_mini_fan said:
"I may not live in the uk or europe, but a lot of these prices seems unfair."

Look at City or Monkie Kid , then US dollar prices are a lot higher.

For a long time, many Star Wars was somewhat unfairly prices in Europe though.
The most notorious one :
75203: Hoth Medical Chamber $30 vs €40-50