LEGO announces price increases from August

Ouch. Guess it was inevitable, but still too bad. Some of the sets listed at StoneWars was expensive before the price increase..

Yes, very disappointing given their billion euro profits.
From the list on StoneWars it seems the more a set is aimed at adults, the bigger the % increase with Creator Expert cars going up as much as 20%.
All of this at a time when many people are facing higher food and energy costs, so less disposable income for luxuries like LEGO. Let's see what happens...

I thought current high set prices this summer would already be because of the higher costs, guess not.

blablabla we want more money from you blablabla we don’t care what you think cause you are going to buy anyway blablabla

Must. Protect. Profits.

I dunno. I'm not an economist, or an accountant, or even a shareholder, but it seems to me that if they genuinely believed in "Putting consumers first" then they'd accept a microscopic dent in their multi-billions profit.

It's important to make it clear that rising costs wouldn't stop them making a profit, it'll just make those profits less obscenely large.

But like I said, I'm not an economist. I'm just a bloke who thinks that making a consistently big profit should be enough, rather than this madness of having to increase profits year on year.

Sad, but these are the times we live in. People will spend less and less on frivolities as prices of essentials continue to rise, so I think this pandemic bubble Lego profited on will soon burst.

The argument on increased raw material and operating costs is understandable, to maintain the absurdly high profit margin.
The execution is absolutely crap. A price rise of a few percent on most sets would be justified, but increasing the price by more than 20% on sets that are specifically aimed at adults reveals the unbounded greediness of TLG.

"Den bedste overskudsgrad er ikke for godt".

I guess, that I have to turn to the second hand market until the economy stabilises or gets so bad that I have to stop buying any non-essentials.

'Putting consumers first is at the heart of what we do as a company, and for some time, we have absorbed these costs to keep pricing stable.'

Given the recent official price hike i feel offended by this obvious lie from Lego. They kept prices stable by increasing them, but now the stability is over so they will increase prices?

I wanted to write a detailed comment but I won't. I don't even care anymore. Lots of luck in the coming years LEGO.

The 90th anniversary will be celebrated, but I don't know if the 110th will be reached.

So 3-1 Pirate Ship goes up 30% in 8 months. Amazing.
I really wonder when enough's going to be enough for LEGO fans. So far the price hikes don't seem to do much for sales.

Doesn't Lego keep prices artificially down in the USA and charge much higher in other countries, like Australia? Will they continue to do so and at that point, when does all of their "reasons" simply become excuses and region biased? How about they treat all their consumers worldwide with the same reverence they hold for the USA consumer?

"Furthermore, the US market is by far the most price competitive in the world. These factors combined mean that we have for years priced our products higher in eg Europe than the US. In recent years, the difference has been increased due to the weakening US dollar – but we have consciously decided not to let this (hopefully short term) weakening of the dollar hurt the US consumer. And in order to stay profitable as a company, we cannot decrease our European prices – especially seen in the light of increasing cost pressure on oil, labour etc."

Overpriced LEGO sets will be, from August, even more overpriced.

Lately I don't see much value for money spent in LEGO, in most of the range. Some prices are scandalous, like the new CITY 60339 , 140€ for 600 parts. If LEGO continues with this trend, I will only buy second hand vintage sets.

I already only bought sets on sale, but now...wow. Gonna have to be a real good sale. Crazy I got the Pirate Ship 3-1 for 68€ a while back

Also, lmao at the already tragically overpriced SW sets. Is this their new strategy? "Buy these overpriced sets now because they'll be even more expensive in a few months"?

This just seems so wrong when telling that ”Putting consumers first is at the heart of what we do as a company” and yet at the same time clearly putting profit first. Well, I guess this means that I have to put even more thought on which sets to buy and which not.

I’m sincerely disappointed. LEGO has had so many quality issues lately and also a clear incapability of keeping up with demand, both in stocks as well as online traffic management. Meanwhile, they’re still making more and more profits yet none of these problems seem to get solved. And now they seriously think that they’re justified to raise their prices AGAIN? I mean, I love LEGO. I won’t ever stop buying it. But the way that the higher-ups are treating the consumers is just exorbitantly exploitative. They know we’ll keep buying no matter what so they can pretty much do what they want if it benefits themselves in any way, I think it’s disgusting. I am feeling a lot better about supporting competing brands now though, so that’s alright I guess.

And don't forget that they removed the discounts on the AFOLs day at LEGO stores. LEGO is taking much care of their fan base...

I think they are doing a strategy based on instant profit, and forgetting about future. Competitors are improving in quality, which in some cases is already above LEGO, and they are much cheaper.

Yeah right, as if the stuff isn't way to expensive already. Fix your quality issues first Lego!

@Lego said:
"and for some time, we have absorbed these costs to keep pricing stable"

Oh really? I haven't noticed whatsoever.

"Putting consumers first is at the heart of what we do as a company". Is guess this is referring to the consumers of their stocks right?

All jokes aside LEGO is a company and can do what it wants if they feel this is the right way to go. Is it a bad thing? I don't know. Less sold LEGO sets due people not being able to affort it anymore equals less energy consumption in production and less plastics so I guess that will be a good thing.

Price increases for sets that have just been released (or even not released yet) seems odd. Why wait until Autumn? I would have thought launching them at x% more would create less negative press than launching them and then raising the price shortly after. I guess people may bite sooner than they otherwise would have.

No problem, they were producing too many big D2C sets lately anyway, instead of buying 4 a year, I will be even more picky and buy 2-3 max and only in sale and not directly from Lego. They can keep their gifts with purchase. And if I feel like it, I will sell my collection, make a profit and wave Lego adieu.

Would be fine by me if quality was matching the price but I really feel that is not the case with LEGO anymore - cracking torsos and pieces on sets that I bought after "dark age", while box of stuff from 90s has no such problems. I don't like the fact that LEGO is also starting to put politics in some of the sets. Their attempt at ecology and sustainability is also misguided - i'd say that bricks that can live for half a decade and go through multiple generations in a family are much more important than paper bags or biodegradeable leaf and tree pieces.

I really hope one of the chinese brands will step up and assume a solid market position, with their own projects and good quality. Some actual competition might push LEGO back on the good track. CaDa is one good examples, they do a lot of their own projects or collaborations with AFOLs, most of their stuff is licensed (like Initial D series). Quality is not on par with LEGO yet but for the price difference I really consider them to be great. Then again, most people just buy the stuff and assemble it once to put on shelf, quality in this case isn't even that much of an issue.

Life is very expensive at the moment, with my energy bill having more than doubled in recent months due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So, my Lego budget has already been decreased. Increased prices will just mean I buy even less Lego.

Looking at that list though, I'm happy that the sets I really want I already have.

I feel a new Dark Age coming on. Lego is soooo stupid.

Perfect day to release this bit of good cheer right after screwing all of us in the US over the Ferrari book.

What an incompetent organization!

Being unemployed currently means all Lego spending has stopped so one positive for me is that I'm not going to be affected by this. The enforced lack of purchases has made me realise that I have plenty of Lego, including many unopened sets, and so even if I were to get another job I'm not sure I would start buying sets again. To anyone wondering whether they should pause their Lego expenditure I would recommend they try it for a few months to gain a better perspective.

Wait, so the Ninjago Crystalized prices might not even be because of the economic situation? And after 'making prices more similar everywhere' by increasing prices they will increase prices on top of that?
Holy profit fixation batman!!!

I've been almost entirely buying from the 2nd hand market already. Older sets mainly. Looks like I'll just have to continue doing so even more than I already did.
I'm afraid what would happen if the 2nd hand market start to raise prices because of this too. I'd be officially priced out of my hobby for good!

Let's just hope the collective prices set by actual market forces by actual people continues to be (relatively) favorable. At least it will be better than this faux-monopolistic corporatism.

LEGO is slowly becoming the Netflix of the toy industry. Who knows, maybe next year we'll have to pay more to share the pieces with others!

The consumers at the heart :) Oh really?

@LinuxBrickie said:
"Being unemployed currently means all Lego spending has stopped so one positive for me is that I'm not going to be affected by this. The enforced lack of purchases has made me realise that I have plenty of Lego, including many unopened sets, and so even if I were to get another job I'm not sure I would start buying sets again. To anyone wondering whether they should pause their Lego expenditure I would recommend they try it for a few months to gain a better perspective."

Thanks for being a wise voice. I'm sure your time unfettered will be enjoyed, and wish you the best of luck!

It already feels like half the set reviews I read mention high price, and we just recently had another round of price increases, so... GG, Lego, definitely a step in the right direction.

For years they have been profitable, and yet they say they are going to raise the price... rascals. So many benefits that they have had, what they have probably done is lower the price, because if everything goes up, we are going to spend the money sooner on other things.

Real kick in the teeth there, given that Lego was hardly struggling through the pandemic years. I'll just be buying less Lego, simple as that. I'm not going to grow my budget for Lego just because the company arbitrarily wants me to

So far this only covers Germany (based on prices communicated to German retailers). It would be nice if Lego themselves released a list of countries that will be getting price adjustments. Possible (but unlikely considering the new Ninjago prices) that low income countries could get price adjustments downwards.

Jeez a battle pack already cost $30 in New Zealand I didn't pay that so no way I'm paying more that that

Brickset needs to take a stand. This can’t happen. The economic status of the world is already falling, and this ain’t gonna help. At the end of the day it’s a company and they have to make money, but this is truly one of the worst ways to do it.

ninjago gardens price rises from 299€ to 349€ ...
porsche 911 +31% increase...

Disappointing but inevitable in the current climate.

And it's amazing how many people on here have intimate and accurate knowledge of Lego's costs and financial position.

Stopped buying from the official store some years ago, treating new sets more like cool art that I look at and then forget about and return to the secondary market. Still have ca 20 old set to get my hands and and then I’m done. Haven’t seen much in the Star Wars theme that eclipses 10195 so why bother anyways?

@ShinyBidoof said:
"Disappointing but inevitable in the current climate.

And it's amazing how many people on here have intimate and accurate knowledge of Lego's costs and financial position."

It's published information. Nice trolling.

@Huw, any chance of a poll/questionnaire being set up to provide feedback to Lego over this? So we can sense as a community data around increase/decrease in buying habits, quantity of sets, size of sets, perception of pricing/value, where we buy our sets, that sort of thing?

A company's got to profit, but it does seem a bit much given the current prices charged!

With the cost of living crisis, I think Lego will be doubling down on designing smaller sets for 2023 at this rate.

We need more smaller sets, less 100$ ones per year. also STOP MAKING SO MUCH SETS per year. Let themes actually exist.

"...on others there will be a single digit increase..." = "we will add an additional '1' at the start of these sets...". But in all seriousness, this is disappointing, given the already exorbitant prices on some sets. Gone are the days of realistic 'pocket money' sets...

Lego will be losing a lot of high volume, lower cost buyers like parents buying sets to shut their kids up in supermarkets, so they need to target the people who still have disposable income.
That's (most of) us, ladies and gentlemen.
You'll complain for a bit, but you're addicted, you'll come back.
Lego aren't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing.

I predict this news story to be the least-liked and fewest thumbs-up article of the year.

I guess one counter argument is that Lego has always been expensive, and when I think back to my youth in the late 80s, early 90s, we got a lot of play out of a relatively small number of the smaller sets.

Unfortunately I think the big difference is the amount of creative focus the company places on >£100 sets; even most child-centred themes rely heavily on >£50 sets. I don’t think it’s pleasant for either kids or adults to constantly have so many unattainable sets waved under their noses.

@Pongo said:
"Lego will be losing a lot of high volume, lower cost buyers like parents buying sets to shut their kids up in supermarkets, so they need to target the people who still have disposable income.
That's (most of) us, ladies and gentlemen.
You'll complain for a bit, but you're addicted, you'll come back.
Lego aren't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing.
"

Arrrrrrrrgh! Must fight agaiiiinst! Gawd, you're so right, though!

Such shiny, pretty, pretty, precious plastic...

I think my wife's planning an intervention! Maybe that'll work.

My second dark age just got darker….Batman would be super jealous.

The price rises are the worst on the adult-focused sets? I honestly don't mind, because that's the crowd that should be best equipped to deal with increases on luxury goods, including knowing better than to buy them when money is tight.

I still think the increase in prices is not entirely justified when considering the profits and all, but this message would have gone down a lot better if it was made to try and keep child-focused sets at a more affordable pricepoint.

I already see lots of parents at our local toy store say to their kids who ask for a LEGO set "have you seen how much that costs? I'll buy you something different. How about that Playmobil/Schleich/... set?"

LEGO must really think we are stupid to believe their BS reasons given. If rising raw material / energy / labor costs were the reason they could simply redistribute those costs across the entire product range and raise the price of each set by a certain percentage they think is justified. But raising the price of just some sets, probably some of the best selling, by some huge percentage just shows how greedy and consumer unfriendly they have become in reality.
Also that they don't do anything about their ever increasing quality issues just goes to show that they don't give a smeg. Because investing in better quality would of course also affect the already obscene profit margins they have.

I have already cut down massively on my LEGO spending in recent years, and this just affirms me in my plan to only buy a bare minimum of just the most awesome (to me) sets, and even those only if they are available at a substantial discount.

@AustinPowers said:
"I already see lots of parents at our local toy store say to their kids who ask for a LEGO set "have you seen how much that costs? I'll buy you something different. How about that Playmobil/Schleich/... set?"

LEGO must really think we are stupid to believe their BS reasons given. If rising raw material / energy / labor costs were the reason they could simply redistribute those costs across the entire product range and raise the price of each set by a certain percentage they think is justified. But raising the price of just some sets, probably some of the best selling, by some huge percentage just shows how greedy and consumer unfriendly they have become in reality.
Also that they don't do anything about their ever increasing quality issues just goes to show that they don't give a smeg. Because investing in better quality would of course also affect the already obscene profit margins they have.

I have already cut down massively on my LEGO spending in recent years, and this just affirms me in my plan to only buy a bare minimum of just the most awesome (to me) sets, and even those only if they are available at a substantial discount. "

Nice use of idiom there! I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone use “smeg” in that sort of context who hadn’t come across it via Red Dwarf (which I’m not sure would have had much success outside of the UK).

The ant and the grasshopper

One peacful day, TLG announced that prices for Lego sets would increase from August 1st. The wise ant decided to buy and store his Lego sets before August
1st. However, the grasshopper thought this situation wasn't serious and didn't buy many sets.

August 1st
grasshopper: *AAAAaaaaAaArrRrRRgggghhhHH*
He begged the ant for lego.
ant: (sells lego at inflated prices)

Moral of the story:
Buy lego before price inflation (and buy as little as possible after inflation)

Here's a thought. We're moving to digital instructions anyway, right? So get rid of booklets in sets purchased on Lego.com. Clearly anyone buying there has access to digital instructions.

I’ll be interested to see if Aus/NZ prices increase, given we already pay more already.

Wow, as if the present prices are not high enough.

I didn't expected a price increase for Optimus Prime too. It is already unsatisfying for the present price point and it has just been released, I supposed that the price increase was already included.
Fool the price increase of the Creator 3in1 Pirate ship, from the original 99 to 129 €. Or the 40 € increare for the Ecto1.

Anyway this price rise could have the power to cancel various programmed purchases. We are so close to the threshold where buying LEGO isn't sustainable for me anymore.

And another company with huge profits thinks it has to increase their prices. Just go with the flow and don't give a shit about your customers.

Gotta laugh at all these big companies who like to brag about the billion a year profits, trying to justify squeezing more money out of the poorest in society, especially with the state the world is in today. I wonder how Ole Kirk Christiansen would feel about this?

@ecleme11 said:
"Gotta laugh at all these big companies who like to brag about the billion a year profits, trying to justify squeezing more money out of the poorest in society, especially with the state the world is in today. I wonder how Ole Kirk Christiansen would feel about this?"

Ole would say. "Grandson, you only put two price increases on those sets. You go collect them right now. You'll put a third price increase on those sets all night on your own. After all, we need more REAL Ferraris! Only the best profits, are good enough for us! Stupid grandchildren!"

I'm realizing how stupid I am for getting angry about Lego cancelling my attempted purchade of a glossy book that idolizes Lego and their private wealth. "Let them read books about our cars. They can play with toys, guffaw, guffaw. Anyone for a ride in the new custom Christiansen Ferrari."

Tone deaf Lego strikes again!

@Pongo said:
"Lego will be losing a lot of high volume, lower cost buyers like parents buying sets to shut their kids up in supermarkets, so they need to target the people who still have disposable income.
That's (most of) us, ladies and gentlemen.
You'll complain for a bit, but you're addicted, you'll come back.
Lego aren't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing.
"

I don't think they realise. I for one still love the bricks, but the current company image is detiorating imho, and I would feel like a fool being squeezed out and continuing to buy everything that's being offered.

Even the Death Star Trench Run and the Dagobah Training are gonna increase in price. The price was already outrageous but now it's just a joke.

I think retail shops will have trouble shifting units at full RRP. The Death Star trench run diorama is on sale right now - £36.50 (Argos/Amazon).. a much more friendly entry price point, £19 off RRP, and just over a month since release!.

Shop around or draw a line.

LEGO seem to be believing their own hype.

@bobaphat107 said:
"The 90th anniversary will be celebrated, but I don't know if the 110th will be reached."

Of course it will be. Absurd statement.

LEGO is a company and despite what they say they don't care about you. Anyone who didn't see this coming is an absolute fool

20% increase on sets in the 150-250 range is really indefensible. I expected to the see higher percentage increases on the lower priced sets, not the other way around. We're to believe they've been woefully under-pricing the "complex" sets? All while making the money printer go brrrrrrrr at a record pace? That's some balls.

What's next? $10 CMF blind bags starting 2023? Oh, wait, the bags are supposed to be replaced with boxes. Good times...

I’ve been wondering for a while if LEGO buying Bricklink and having access to data about the secondary market has anything to do with price increase for “adult” sets.

Prices on the secondary market are insane. Sets that have been retired for a few months or a few years are sold for three, four and even ten times their original retail prices (see this, for example: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=75188-2

I’m probably wrong, but when LEGO bought BL, I thought to myself that they were not in it for the meager profit margin (selling fees are only 3%), but for the extraordinary amount of data. Maybe these increases (and the focus on adult sets) comes from that purchase.

Who knows.

Even though understandable, this is getting crazy. We're getting to a point where people just simply won't buy. Some will, but I consider myself to be one of those who will only buy a set that would be useful for my two layouts. As it is there are two sets I plan to get despite being overpriced and the only reason I feel like I can is because of having some VIP points to take the sticker shock off of them. I think my days of buying bigger ticket items and even other sets to just sit on a shelf are numbered.

It seemed to me prices have been going up pretty steeply the past few years.

Now this...

@Bricklestick said:
"Nice use of idiom there! I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone use “smeg” in that sort of context who hadn’t come across it via Red Dwarf (which I’m not sure would have had much success outside of the UK)."
No one I know in Germany has ever heard of Red Dwarf. It's only because of my personal history concerning the UK that I know it at all. Needless to say I am a massive fan and use quotes from the show quite often, not only here on Brickset. :-)

@eiffel006 said:
"I’ve been wondering for a while if LEGO buying Bricklink and having access to data about the secondary market has anything to do with price increase for “adult” sets.

Prices on the secondary market are insane. Sets that have been retired for a few months or a few years are sold for three, four and even ten times their original retail prices (see this, for example: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=75188-2

I’m probably wrong, but when LEGO bought BL, I thought to myself that they were not in it for the meager profit margin (selling fees are only 3%), but for the extraordinary amount of data. Maybe these increases (and the focus on adult sets) comes from that purchase.

Who knows."

The price data and availability of sets was already visible before that. Only now they might know who exactly buys what. But still the total number of sets sold on BrickLink seems like a drop compared to what is sold through retailers and Lego online.
Even on BrickLink the prices are generally still not that insane, I would say. There is hardly anything being sold in the thousands.

Well, had to stop buying lego somewhere in the future anyway. Don't have the space to store new sets properly. And no fun having them stored in my attic. Maybe collecting stamps? Woud save me a lot of space...

@eiffel006 said:
"Prices on the secondary market are insane.
"

You cherry picked an extreme example and while there are certainly more, you could've at least linked to the common version of that set. With the rising prices of MSRP Lego, there are many retired sets that are priced favorably compared with what you can buy in a store.

Also, the data is and always has been readily available on Bricklink, eBay and Amazon. Lego didn't need to buy a company to get it.

Some people are overthinking this (or underthinking it as they jump to perform some anti-Marx screed). Lego is raising prices because they think they can and it won't hurt profits. Vote with your wallet.

Step 1: Increase profit margins.
Step 2: Profit!

Personally I would feel more sympathetic if Lego would properly implement consistent global pricing - in order to atop the current practice of some regions geting priced gouged while others benefit. (If the Americans moan about sales tax bla bla bla, equalize the prices before tax and shipping. )
Right now I feel that although some price rise may be justified, this is basically "milk the people who live in less competitive markets as much as possible for sets they can't buy elsewhere".

A few years back in 2018, I was lucky enough to get on the Inside Tour. Whilst touring the Lego house, I mentioned to one of our hosts that TLG must be collecting an enormous amount of data, and while I forget the exact conversation, the reply I received implied they didn't much care about that aspect and the way they operated (focus groups and research before launch) worked very well, thank you.
I said nothing at the time but I felt like that attitude couldn't possibly last long, and I'd be very interested to know if things are changing....

A price hike was inevitable, but I think it’s kinda crappy that they’re raising prices on already released sets, as opposed to just having higher prices on new releases. Guess it’s time to snag some of the sets on the list before they get absurdly expensive.

@Goujon said:
"Brickset needs to take a stand.

This site is barely more than part of TLG media arm. They get free sets to review and keep from TLG. They're not going to bite the hands that feeds them.

"

Inflation is running at 6%-8% according to those who calculate such thing (take this as a grain of salt since the method of calculating inflation was modified in the early 80s - see, governments do not like inflation because they have bonds linked to inflation which cost them more during high inflation periods- so they try as much as possible to keep it low - naturally or artificially).

Anyhow, inflation is running at 6%-8% (let's say %10) so Lego is deciding: let's raise our prices by an average of roughly 15%. At the same time let's reduce the number of pieces for any given price range by another 10%. In the end, even if price per piece is not a good metric (large parts/small parts, electric, etc) we will have a pretty good idea of the rise using that metric. Most likely, we will be close to 0.20 per part. That in itself should not a problem as this is a worldwide phenomenon., Where they add insult to injury is when they (Lego) combine that with a significant reduction in product quality. As many will say:if you are not happy, leave the hobby...

Increase in material costs? Well maybe if you didn't waste materials on themes such as hidden side and dots this wouldn't be such an issue

@blowing_chunks said:
[[ @Goujon said:
[[Brickset needs to take a stand.

This site is barely more than part of TLG media arm. They get free sets to review and keep from TLG. They're not going to bite the hands that feeds them.

]]]]

And the prize for dumbest comment of the day goes to…

Sigh...

I've become used to many things disappointing me in this post-covid world.

@brickwich said:
"Here's a thought. We're moving to digital instructions anyway, right? So get rid of booklets in sets purchased on Lego.com. Clearly anyone buying there has access to digital instructions."

NO NO! Digital instructions are absolutely terrible to build with.
If LEGO goes to digital instructions, my purchase will go down 90%

You can get a great discount on a lot of different Lego sets if you just steal them.

J/k.

When paired with ever-increasing profits and ever-decreasing quality (I've had so many problems with recent pieces), this really puts a bad taste in my mouth. I may stick more to jigsaw puzzles in the future.

@Skippyj said:
"5 dollar gallon gas, oil is over hundred dollars a barrel. US debt went from 15 trillion in 2012 to 30 trillion in 2022. They said inflation was transitory and would bounce back to normal, they lied. You can’t print trillions of dollars to spend your way out of economic calamity. Yes lego is trying to maximize profits but the blame for inflation lies at the feet of the Marxist globalists that have put the entire world in a bad place so they can sure up their power wet dreams. Just look at what those gouls at Davos are talking about. My lego budget just opened up so I can invest in precious metals brass and lead. "

“Marxist globalists”

Funny, and here I thought the whole “We’re going to charge whatever we want for our product and if you don’t like it then too bad” was capitalism of the highest order.

Also not sure what the US’s stimulus efforts have to do with the entire world economy, but I digress.

Materials are expensive. The world lost a couple million people in the span of two years, meaning materials are harder to acquire and transport. Every global economy is competing to rejuvenate itself at the EXACT same time. You thought prices would go DOWN after the pandemic?

And yet...

Lego is showing here why the situation is worse than it needs to be. Companies don’t eat costs. They just don’t, and Lego is lying by suggesting they’ve somehow been bearing a burden for the good of their customers.

Costs go up 1%, the consumer gets charged 10% more. Short of a government instituting price freezes, there’s no getting around this.

All any of us can do is take personal responsibility of our own budget and allocate where necessary. Lego is wagering their customers can tank the hit. We’ll see if they’re right.

I don't know why they felt they had to announce this. It seems prices have been increasing for a while now.

@Koend1999 said:
" @TeaWeevil said:
"When paired with ever-increasing profits and ever-decreasing quality (I've had so many problems with recent pieces), this really puts a bad taste in my mouth."

To be clear, I also think that TLG seems to be looking how far they can hike up the prices of their sets before it will hurt them, but whenever I read statements like "I have had so many problems with recent pieces", I wonder which issues people encounter. Because my impression of LEGO quality is very positive. I build dozens of LEGO sets per year and have had only 1 missing piece in the past few years.

If you refer to colour mismatches between pieces, I urge you to look at older sets. I recently rebuilt my Monster Fighters Haunted House, and the colour differences between the various sandgreen bricks in that set are ridiculous. The recent sandgreen typewriter had some coulour differences, but they were way less obvious.

if you refer to broken pieces, I recently rebuilt an older Toy Story set (Woody's Roundup) and that had the dreaded "reddish brown" tiles quality issue. I had two reddish brown tiles break apart while applying little force. I have never had that happen to sets in the past 5 years.

If you refer to stickers: LEGO sets have always had a lot of stickers, and I can assure you that the sticker quality has increased over the years.

So maybe I have a different reference point, but please enlighten me as to how the quality of LEGO pieces has declined and which issues you encounter. I am very curious to hear this.

Oh, and please do not mention trans-clear elements. LEGO is using a different plastic now because a) they have to for regulatory reasons, b) the new plastic is less toxic and c) easier to produce and work with. We are recently seeing more and more transclear legs on minifigs, which is only possible because of the new plastic."

Certainly! Many of these problems aren't exactly new, but have simply continued from years past; these include brittle pieces (including many cheese slopes and other small pieces that crack while attached, as well as plates that crack when I remove them) and poor printing (I love the design of the Countach, but the print on the clear plastic canopy is very poorly matched; that's just one example). However, I've also been noticing issues with clutch power over the past few years. Whether it's parts that start out with enough clutch but lose it over a few years or parts that are too loose to begin with, it's something I've been seeing more of.

Also, the fact that there are reasons for the new trans-clear plastic doesn't mean that it's not still worse. It's understandable why they made the switch, but the new plastic is still foggy and easily scratched.

Of course this move is unpopular, because nobody *likes* to pay higher prices.

But so many of these comments are absurd.

Prices are going up, and yes, people will probably buy less Lego, as prices are increasing for everything and most people don't have as much discretionary income. That will affect all companies that sell non-essentials like toys and collectibles. But as a business, Lego will be fine.

Everyone will have to adjust their own spending habits accordingly, and if some of you get bitter and leave the hobby entirely, that's unfortunate but it's your choice.

If you do leave the hobby of Lego, then I suggest finding a new one. Don't linger around Brickset complaining about everything in the comments and calling Lego evil and Lego fans sheep. Find something else you enjoy and focus your energy on that rather than negativity.

Keep in mind that one of the great things about Lego is that once you have a decent collection, you already have infinite building opportunities. You can still enjoy the hobby without ever spending another cent on a new Lego set.

@eiffel006 said:
"I’ve been wondering for a while if LEGO buying Bricklink and having access to data about the secondary market has anything to do with price increase for “adult” sets.

Prices on the secondary market are insane. Sets that have been retired for a few months or a few years are sold for three, four and even ten times their original retail prices (see this, for example: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=75188-2

I’m probably wrong, but when LEGO bought BL, I thought to myself that they were not in it for the meager profit margin (selling fees are only 3%), but for the extraordinary amount of data. Maybe these increases (and the focus on adult sets) comes from that purchase.

Who knows."

The example you used is absolutely not reflective of the norm. That’s an extremely rare, limited-run set. Some sets do increase in price after retirement, but that specific one is a significant outlier.

@Koend1999: I am from Europe (Germany) and definitely have experienced the same issues as @TeaWeevil in recent years. From my forty years of experience with LEGO, I can truly say that the quality was never (at least outside my dark ages) worse than it is now.
There are so many issues, it beggars belief. Just yesterday I built a new set and clutch power was all over the place. Some pieces almost fell off immediately. Almost the quality BlueBrixx had in the beginning. Absolutely laughable for the prices LEGO charges nowadays.

I'm out. Unless they fix print & plastic quality, I'm not buying anymore new sets.

Not surprised. Their greed knows no bounds. Luckily my Nephews have grown out of Lego. They used to be crazy for it but I’m not going to encourage a hobby/interest that exploits fans this way.

so much for "only the best is good enough!"

Just out of interest, do we know what the most effective way of feeding back to Lego on this, and indeed other, topics?

Judging by the subject-that-shall-not-be-discussed-in-public, the Ambassador Network is a good feedback route, but do individuals have a way? I'm not sure if any message given to Customer Services would actually go any further.

Obviously the best way would be to stop purchasing Lego sets, but that would need coordinated action by a great number of people over an extended period of time to show up in any meaningful way on Lego's sales figures.

Regular visitor of Brickset but haven't commented in a few years. I've been a pretty die hard Lego fan for the last 20 years, but I've noticed myself being more picky about what I choose to purchase over the last couple of years due to the rising prices (that I, like many others, thought was a result of the current economic climate and inflation).

If Lego continues to choose to increase their profit margins they will slowly lose the good will of their AFOL fanbase, and parents simply won't have the money to spend on Lego for their kids.

It honestly makes me so sad. I've poured my heart into this hobby and it means a lot to me. It's something I want my future children to enjoy as they grow up. But at some point you really have to ask yourself what it's worth.

Even more crying and whining in this thread than I thought there would be :D

What's next for the 100th anniversary of LEGO, a giant mosaic of a https://brickset.com/parts/4295260/flat-tile-1x2-dec-100 ?

This hits worse for fans living in Brazil, like me.

I know I've complained about prices in many articles, but that's because people have no idea of HOW EXPENSIVE Lego is here. The only reason I have a big collection and I'm able to buy big sets is because my salary is way higher the the national average. But even still, I need to carefully about which sets to buy.

Just as example, the set 71741 - Ninjago City Gardens is the biggest set in my collection. It costs (currently) $299.99 in the US. This is roughly R$1.436.95 here in Brazil. But the RRP for it is actually R$2.999.99, equivalent to $626.30! All sets here follow the pattern of the "US price x 10". Based on the info from StoneWars, its price will rise to $349.99. Which will mean R$3.499.99 in Brazil, $731.70 from August onwards...

I really wished that these price increases spared fans from some countries that already have a hard time with taxes and economy problems. Lego is already profiting very well here.

Most comments here are by AFOLs, who have a healthy addiction to this brand. Brand addiction is, from an economical perspective, the absolute summit of profitable enterprise. So ehm, let us junkies deal with it and go on with our daily stuff. Yes, it already is a pricey luxury item... That becomes even more pricey. I'll just adapt my spending pattern accordingly.

At the start of 2021 the prices in Australia for almost all sets under $40 went up by either $2 or $3 based on the same type or even same sized sets from previous years and they are going up again? An example would be the little Wolverine Mech that was recently released which now costs $17.99 when two years ago the same mechs where $14.99 each.

I understand that shipping costs more to get the products here in the first place, but we have a local distribution center now as opposed to shipping orders out in groups to Australia like they did 3yrs ago, so shipping costs should be less overall even with the current supply chain issues.

We unfortunately do not have a lot of local access to competitor brands either unless we pay a lot to buy from the US or Europe, so Lego has a pretty good monopoly on the brick building sets here, unless you want to build with nano bricks.

:(

Gonna focus more on shopping locally for vintage stuff if this keeps up. I love some of the new sets, but I have plenty to build for the foreseeable future. The sad part for me is the Speed Champions, those were always nice little "pad" items that are fun builds, especially now with the printed headlights. $25 is a tough sell, and even a 20% discount brings it back to MSRP now. :/

@Pongo said:
"Lego will be losing a lot of high volume, lower cost buyers like parents buying sets to shut their kids up in supermarkets, so they need to target the people who still have disposable income.
That's (most of) us, ladies and gentlemen.
You'll complain for a bit, but you're addicted, you'll come back.
Lego aren't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing.
"

Disposable income even for higher income earners start to get squeezed. We all have less to spend right now which means each purchase will be scrutinized more. I know my spending the last few years has slowed (I spend a quarter of what I used to spend each year on lego). With the prices of everything soaring a few months ago for I started avoiding all lego accept those I could apply to my castle theme or harry potter sets. Now with this raise in cost I will drop harry potter. That will be over a $1000.00 in sets coming out in late June and August here now that Lego will not sell that normally I would snatch up day one. I doubt I am the only one thinking like this. It isn't that I don't have the money, It is that I can find better value in other things for my money that won't make me feel like I am being taken advantage of.

Im just gonna start whittling sticks I find in the woods as a hobby, this is nuts

Costs are going up all over the place on all goods and services, so let’s not jump straight on TLG’s throat when they have to act on it too. It’s not like they can resort to other cost saving measures like shrinkflation (hey, we’ll keep the prices the same but reduce the part count by 15%).

Whilst I’m disappointed that existing prices will be increasing (Australia has already seen an increase in price points by roughly 10% since the start of last year) I can understand that the cost of everything is going up, not just new sets.

I’ll wait to see what the price changes look like here before I decide by how much to trim my wish list by.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @ShinyBidoof said:
"Disappointing but inevitable in the current climate.

And it's amazing how many people on here have intimate and accurate knowledge of Lego's costs and financial position."

It's published information. Nice trolling. "

Their results from the last financial year have been published, which were massively boosted by the pandemic. They have nothing to do with the current costs and ongoing financial position.

Nice not understanding.

@Martin_S said:
"Even more crying and whining in this thread than I thought there would be :D"

It's the dream thread for a lot of regular posters.

I'm neither surprised nor upset about this. Everything is going up in price everywhere, LEGO included. Maybe this will finally put PPP ratio in line with historic inflation.

Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I have my opinions on price hikes but disagree with a lot of what was said in these comments. Some of it is people like to moan, some is people don’t understand the world they’re living in. It amazes me how many people in lego communities seem to hate lego so much.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care.

It’s crap that continuing your hobby is now more expensive and you may have to choose between something essential and something non-essential, I’m in that same boat as everyone else. But don’t be so jaded to forget that it’s unbelievable you ever had that choice to begin with. The majority of people in the world don’t get to choose their hobby, ever. When the world stops being crazy hopefully we’ll all get to not worry about this kind of thing for a while. Until then, I guess you have to buy less LEGO

@Koend1999 said:
"So: I still wonder why you have these issues. Maybe the quality in the US is worse for some very strange reason. Or maybe you are just presenting things worse than they actually are, because... you know... people like to complain on the interwebs."

Maybe so -- although I follow a generally positive Lego site based in the UK that had some major clutch problems with the VW T2 set, so I don't think it's just the US that's affected.

But hey, I'm glad you haven't had quality issues! I'm not a huge fan of complaining on the internet, and I've actually decreased my engagement in a number of fandoms (including the Lego one) because of the amount of toxic negativity I see. I still love a lot of Lego's concepts, and I think the design quality we've had lately is amazing. Accusing me of lying or exaggerating is a little rude, of course, but I understand. After all, people like to defend whatever their favorite companies do almost as much as people like to complain.

@jaredhinton said:
"Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care. "

Financials for these companies usually look to keep raising there net profit year over year as to show growth. From a customer perspective it can be hard to swallow if the company has seen record growth on profits year over year and then when most places see 8% inflation but then Lego raises there prices 20% even well operating at a profit most likely it can be hard to justify. I know your saying we don't know there financials yet this year but I can tell you there not worried about surviving, there worried about making more money then the previous year in profits. Problem with that is there profits where inflated past couple years due to the pandemic and reaching this high is going to hurt them in the long run.

Is there a list of USD price increases?

It's a particular bummer to see these SW and City sets getting a bump. Relative pricing is already so high on these (as constant complaints around every new SW set reflects -- including from myself)...my hope would've been that some of the chief offenders might have been test market items that pricing for other sets/themes would eventually be raised to approximate. But here it looks like they're doing that while also just doubling down on SW, etc.

I'm also hopeful they at least explored other options than the higher percentages applied to the larger sets. This is actually the heaviest hitter since a higher spend has often meant more bang-for-buck on big sets. Why not a strategy that includes smaller percentage increases across all or most sets in current production while keeping larger and adult-focused sets (already at a premium) the same or even lower, thereby encouraging a higher value perception toward the upper end of the portfolio, and by this, more spending overall?

Of course, we can't know...it'd be great to have some more detailed/insider knowledge of these things. But as someone who wants to continue believing TLG cares about their customers, I'm just hopeful such ideas were at least tested internally before going this direction. Looking over the set list and percentages though, this honestly seems like a much less thoughtful strategy than that...Like it seems they just figure the people buying the larger and prestige/collector sets are already the ones who have the disposable income for it, so let's just put most the burden on them. Obviously their market analyses are more detailed than any of ours can be, but my sense is that that's not entirely aligned with reality.

I, like many, have been working less and therefore spending less on LEGO in any case. But this mostly means focusing more on MOCs, and being choosier about which sets to spend money on -- both of which are good things all regardless of what TLG does. Whereas in the past I might've bought something like Optimus Prime cause it'd be cool to have, or Ninjago sets for the unique parts and PPP value, these types of decisions are now an easy pass. Where it's tougher is on something like the Trash Compactor set...something I'd be glad to spend a good chunk o change on if I didn't feel I was being ripped a new one.

But one last bit this has made me think of...In the old days (i.e., pre-internet LEGO), we didn't have any of this info on price changes and supply chains, etc. -- and it really didn't help or hurt our enjoyment of the hobby. If you were anything like me, you just went to the store or got the catalogs, saw lots of awesome things that you mostly couldn't afford...sometimes bought something, but always just kept building.

For anyone who owns any amount of brick, the baseline truth remains: there will always be more LEGO to buy, but there is already more LEGO to build.

I just can't help but feel this statement is grossly at odds with their financial reports.

For many sets, the increase ranges from 8% to a whopping 20% increase.

The creator 3-in-1 pirate ship is still stuck on shelves at $100 here, what makes them think raising that by $20+ is going to suddenly make it sell? Better to sell at a discount and make some profit than let it gather dust and make none.

Right now it feels more and more like the effects of inflation have hardly impacted companies' bottom lines and more and more like it's a handy cover for them to starkly raise prices and, if we don't say or do anything, keep them there when the world recovers.

Combine sharp price increases with an absolutely bloated lineup of products and Lego is going to be looking at a lot of unsold sets.

It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth - I could have understood a 5% price hike, but these numbers are ridiculous.

I've severely limited my purchases in the last couple of years. Retail prices are insane and sales are few and far between here. It also doesn't help that LEGO are producing fewer and fewer sets i want. With all of the over-priced IP themes to their lack luster own themes, I'm out. I can't justify paying top dollar for a hobby.

I'll stick to buying bulk lots and bricklink for the parts I want.

@BooTheMightyHamster said:
"Just out of interest, do we know what the most effective way of feeding back to Lego on this, and indeed other, topics?"
"Obviously the best way would be to stop purchasing Lego sets, but that would need coordinated action by a great number of people over an extended period of time to show up in any meaningful way on Lego's sales figures."
As you say, the best feedback is by not buying. However, no coordinated acton is required. It's just what naturally happens. Lego will always sell for the maximum price they think they can achieve. Customers of this non-essential item will only pay what they feel it's worth to them. Only sales figures will tell Lego whether they've got that balance right or not. No amount of strongly worded complaint letters, protest marches, or hunger strikes would make a blind bit of difference!

This press release is a huge pile of BS.

TLG is trying to pull the "we're angels" card, but current management are just greedy. I would respect them more of they won't treat us like idiots. They made records profit (not revenues, profits) like never before. And they are still a private company. They just don't want to earn less than billion Euro per year.

So not only they raised the prices already for the 2022 summer sets, but they are raising them again. I'm sorry, but I can't handle their "we're your friends" anymore. They are just as cynical as any other mega-corporation, and they care for nothing but profits. They don't care about the sets, they care about which sets will sell more (Currently we're experiencing a worldwide nostalgia wave, which is the reason for some of the recent sets, but rest assure it's not because they "listened to us", just like all the remakes/reboots movies to help us escape to a world of youth and worries free).

Anyway, my goal for 2022 was/is to cut my Lego purchase by at least 20%. I removed from my wish list all of the sets I don't really "need" (I'm aware we don't "need" any set), and I'm skipping day 1 purchases to see if I really want the set or just got carried with the hype train of sites like this and reddit. No more "impulse purchases", no more "nice to have sets".

It's sucks, as I like this hobby, but I dislike TLG more and more. Their PR and "let's build the world" fairy tales are as fake as a set from Ali Express.

'Putting consumers first is at the heart of what we do as a company, and for some time, we have absorbed these costs to keep pricing stable.'

Then put consumers ahead of profit and eat the material costs

I guess this is a suitable time to tear myself away from my LEGO addiction, unless I occasionally spot >40% discounts on select larger sets I want.

I have an absurd amount of sets still sealed in their boxes yet to be built anyway. Just as CITY was getting really good again, I can't justify these ever increasing prices anymore. I was going to branch into the 8-wide Speed Champions for the first time, but with a 25% increase on the single car sets, no way.

@EGRoberts said:
" @jaredhinton said:
"Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care. "

Financials for these companies usually look to keep raising there net profit year over year as to show growth. From a customer perspective it can be hard to swallow if the company has seen record growth on profits year over year and then when most places see 8% inflation but then Lego raises there prices 20% even well operating at a profit most likely it can be hard to justify. I know your saying we don't know there financials yet this year but I can tell you there not worried about surviving, there worried about making more money then the previous year in profits. Problem with that is there profits where inflated past couple years due to the pandemic and reaching this high is going to hurt them in the long run."

I'm sorry, but please: "they're", "there" and "their"

@Koend1999 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Koend1999 : I am from Europe (Germany) and definitely have experienced the same issues as @TeaWeevil in recent years. From my forty years of experience with LEGO, I can truly say that the quality was never (at least outside my dark ages) worse than it is now.
There are so many issues, it beggars belief. Just yesterday I built a new set and clutch power was all over the place. Some pieces almost fell off immediately. Almost the quality BlueBrixx had in the beginning. Absolutely laughable for the prices LEGO charges nowadays. "
Well, my experience tells me differently. And I rather believe my own experience, than some person on the internet.

Because, as I wrote above, it is easy to complain on the interwebs, and people love to complain. Especially German AFOLS, driven by certain Youtubers in your country (BTW, I recently noticed that Held Der Steine is being a bit nicer towards LEGO, and that he has created an offspring called Steineküste who really (and I mean, REALLY) likes to exaggerate and complain (it is almost laughable)).

Out of curiosity, which set are you referring to?"

It was 80036 and the pieces that almost fell off were the 1x1 quarter round tiles, plus some of the 1x1 plates.

By the way, while I indeed only am "some person on the Internet" to you, the same goes vice versa ;-)

And as you mention "Steineküste", I really don't like his channel. And while I know Thomas aka "Held der Steine" personally, I take his videos with exactly the right amount of grain of salt as is necessary. Plus I know that most of his comments are sarcasm and satire anyway.
My judgment is based solely on my experiences.
For example while I often praise BlueBrixx for some of their offerings, I am well aware of their shortcomings. But while LEGO always pretends that their edict is "only the best is good enough", the boys from Flörsheim are quite open about the faults some of their sets have. Actually they openly talk about them in their product reviews. Something you never hear about in LEGO product videos.

I may buy a bit less Lego, I may not. To be honest, it depends a lot more on gas and electricity prices than Lego prices!

This is one of the most toxic threads I've seen here, and it's mostly directed at other users. Come on guys.

@ShinyBidoof said:
" @Martin_S said:
"Even more crying and whining in this thread than I thought there would be :D"

It's the dream thread for a lot of regular posters."

And the regular trolls.

It's obvious to most that Lego is spending and making historic amounts of money.

People are upset because (1) product quality is declining (breaking, clutch power stamia, color mismatches, poor printing, poor stickers - and this is from Brickset and other AFOL site reviews (and jives with my personal experience)); and (2) customer service quality is declining (again from Brickset and other AFOL site articles, customer comments and my personal experience).

At the same tme, Lego prices have been skyrocketing.

Now, Lego (who should dispose of their entire marketing, public relations, and online customer relations staff) made the brilliant move to simultaneously: (1) release a limited edition book which glorifies wealth and brags about the Lego owners' personal wealth; (2) frustrate most the people who bought said book by canceling their orders with the usual Lego incompetence; and (3) issue a condescending press release about raising prices.

All the while, Lego is trumpeting their historic financial success.

This should (and likely will) be a case study for students in business, public relations, and investor relations on how NOT to handle inflationary uncertainty.

Only one conclusion is possible.

Lego is a very stupid company.

How many Ferraris did the CEO of TLG keep in his garage again? Sorry, didn't get to buy that premium coffee table book or I would know.

A lot of judgement from the AFOLs I see. The fact is, LEGO was a building toy for children long before TLG realised they could tap into the adult market and fleece AFOLs (many of whom likely don’t have children themselves) who are a goldmine with more disposable income. All the while, pricing-out families with young children, because TLG want to increase their bottom line. Why on earth would anyone welcome and defend a price increase? Like other posters have said, some AFOLs are ‘addicted’ to this hobby and will pay anything for their ‘fix’. You’re crazy if you don’t think TLG know that and are absolutely exploiting it for their own financial gain. So now we all have to pay more to feed their AFOL habit.

@EGRoberts said:
" @Agnew said:
" @EGRoberts said:
" @jaredhinton said:
"Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care. "

Financials for these companies usually look to keep raising there net profit year over year as to show growth. From a customer perspective it can be hard to swallow if the company has seen record growth on profits year over year and then when most places see 8% inflation but then Lego raises there prices 20% even well operating at a profit most likely it can be hard to justify. I know your saying we don't know there financials yet this year but I can tell you there not worried about surviving, there worried about making more money then the previous year in profits. Problem with that is there profits where inflated past couple years due to the pandemic and reaching this high is going to hurt them in the long run."

I'm sorry, but please: "they're", "there" and "their""

Sorry my job description is to kill people (army). Not an english major writing an essay here =) If my phone presents a quick shortcut I will take it everytime."

There’s no need to apologise to this person. Nothing more annoying than some smug, smart Alec correcting other peoples grammar online. Very condescending and unnecessary.

Lego had a 24% profit margin in 2021, meaning that for every 1 dollar they sold they had 24 cents profit (after tax!). I understand that they don't run a charity but by all means there is room in there to absorb some raw material and supply chain cost increases without jeopardizing profitability.

How little time it took for LEGO's leadership to forget the early 00s and their close-faced encounter with bankruptcy. They are clearly riding a wave of high-demand at the moment with more people than ever before getting into the hobby as adults and not just kids. This sort of short-term decision making can (and probably will) jeopardize their future by alienating the most loyal segment of their fanbase and pricing-out the middle-class consumer.

Lets not forget LEGO is a privately-held company that has no obligation, under US or EU law, to maximize profits at all costs to benefit shareholders. If the LEGO family leadership wanted to prioritize their consumers they would take the bullet with a SLIGHT decrease in profits (which were over a billion just last year) in the short-term in order to preserve customers.

This is a terribly disappointing decision and one that showcases LEGO is, at the end, just like every other corporation on Earth.

@thefirst said:
" @EGRoberts said:
" @Agnew said:
" @EGRoberts said:
" @jaredhinton said:
"Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care. "

Financials for these companies usually look to keep raising there net profit year over year as to show growth. From a customer perspective it can be hard to swallow if the company has seen record growth on profits year over year and then when most places see 8% inflation but then Lego raises there prices 20% even well operating at a profit most likely it can be hard to justify. I know your saying we don't know there financials yet this year but I can tell you there not worried about surviving, there worried about making more money then the previous year in profits. Problem with that is there profits where inflated past couple years due to the pandemic and reaching this high is going to hurt them in the long run."

I'm sorry, but please: "they're", "there" and "their""

Sorry my job description is to kill people (army). Not an english major writing an essay here =) If my phone presents a quick shortcut I will take it everytime."

There’s no need to apologise to this person. Nothing more annoying than some smug, smart Alec correcting other peoples grammar online. Very condescending and unnecessary.
"

Ignorance uncorrected increases its prevalence. Ignorance accepted leads to Facism (as we have all seen).

On a thread full of negativity, here's some good news : you can get your favorite sets for half the price from China ! Come on in, the water's fine.

@PeterPan said:
"On a thread full of negativity, here's some good news : you can get your favorite sets for half the price from China ! Come on in, the water's fine."

Haha Lepin does what LEGO don’t.

Let’s have another Dark Ages. Maybe this will get Lego to focus back on Castle

I know some people have probably already said this but I have a real major problem with this price increase I think most of the sets are already over priced as it is especially when you factor in the following

- stickers are not properly cut they are misaligned or off centre

- Minifigs are not printed properly for example R2-D2 or any Astromech Droid from Star Wars has had shity shity printing for the last five or six years

- sets continually missing pieces just bought a $200 set the other day and it wasn't like it was missing a little brick it was a big plate 4 x 8

- I understand that everything cannot be printed I'm okay with stickers but I bought Hogwarts Castle for $500 and it had four pages of stickers not cool

Factoring in all of the above I do not believe that it is in Legos best interest to be jacking up prices especially on older sets that have been out for a year or more

There are other companies out there like Mega construx that do not Jack up their prices stuff is printed no stickers maybe the quality is not up to par with Lego

Anyways I have put in my two cents I think Lego is making a really big mistake I will no longer be buying anymore Lego sets my hobby is done??

I've noticed with action figure collecting, Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series have gone up to be $20-$30 for one character. These are advertised as premium figures, but in the ladder tends to be missing a lot of crucial detail on certain characters.

Meanwhile, McFarlane toys is selling action figures that are twice the size, have even more detail, and cost the same price. It really makes me wonder if companies really need to jack up prices these high. I'm sure there needs to be some price increases, but a lot of these feel extreme. Also, LEGO seems to have no issues putting out dozens of sets that cost as much as a brand-new game console. Something just isn't adding up!

I also don't feel like the quality is there with LEGO anymore for what you're getting. I feel like you're getting less and less for what you're paying, there have been quality issues (dark brown pieces, minifigure printing, not all the pieces in a set), the boxes now all use hideous CGI renders with sets, instructions use the same hideous renders for sets, and we've already been getting nickled and dimed before this crap.

Meanwhile, LEGO is spending money on garbage like the Metaverse, apps that barely ever work, marketing stunts, and more. Imagine if those billion dollars were put towards better quality control. I do not buy that LEGO needs to up these prices for the reasons they're stating.

In light of this news, it's time to draw a somewhat heretical conclusion: I have enough Lego. In all seriousness, seeing the shift in marketing dynamics, less and less sales of sets, and now this news about price increases, I've had to make a conclusion based on tight funds. I don't need any more Lego. If anything, I have too much of it and could afford to cut down on sets. So I'll try and take a silver lining here, increased prices will help curb the temptation to splurge money and make the sets I own more valuable. It's pretty much all that can be done now.

This doesn't appear to have anything to do with capturing profits at all. If anything, raising prices now will hurt overall profits, given inflation is already reducing people's purchasing power and the amount of disposable income they have.

Given this incentive, the best explanation is likely that this is inflation finally hitting LEGO since the price of shipping, raw goods, etc, is increasing for them. Small increases in price hurt companies just as much since they're buying goods at a massive scale. Inflation costs are always passed onto the consumer.

@PeterPan said:
"On a thread full of negativity, here's some good news : you can get your favorite sets for half the price from China ! Come on in, the water's fine."

Hm...

Possibility of being imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp where my organs could be harvested..

But half off lego sets...

Pack your bags, boys! We're getting that Green Hill Zone!

This is corporate bullsh*t at its finest.
LEGO doesn't give a f*ck about consumers. What they want to make sure remains stable are the 2 billion euros in PROFITS that they made in 2021, despite the world going to sh*t and people's money being worth less thanks to inflation.

And they're doing this at the same time they're cutting costs by making their product WORSE. Just look at the new SH*T instruction manuals.

I urge everyone to stop buying directly from LEGO and only buy from third party retailers with discounts. Let's all turn off the tap. Only once LEGO sees a hit in their wallets will they stop being greedy f*ckers.

Lego was already overpriced beyond belief. I thought about commenting all day long. In the end all I can say is LEGO must stand for "Let Everlasting Greed Overcome".

At least in my area of the US, the big box stores are overflowing with LEGO after two years of mostly empty shelves. Many people are struggling to pay for increasing fuel and food costs. Credit card debt is up. Stimulus money is running out. Talk of recession is everywhere. I read a report that retailers are overstocked by up to 40% leading to what was termed as “an anticipated promotional selling period” in the next half.

Frankly I think demand is going to plummet for luxury items such as LEGO. Interesting time to raise prices. Personally, without added value such as sale discounts or GWP, I’m not buying. Not even a $20 battle pack.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @PixelTheDragon said:
" @PeterPan said:
"On a thread full of negativity, here's some good news : you can get your favorite sets for half the price from China ! Come on in, the water's fine."

Hm...

Possibility of being imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp where my organs could be harvested..

But half off lego sets...

Pack your bags, boys! We're getting that Green Hill Zone! "

Oh, let the Lego gods bless both of you. That's why I come here- intelligence and humor! :()

Put me down for a kidney and half a liver (been hanging too much with @LegoAndWhisky). Packin' my bags 'n chopsticks. "

If they take my brain, then maybe I'll find these new prices to actually be somewhat reasonable.

@thefirst said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @thefirst said:
" @EGRoberts said:
" @Agnew said:
" @EGRoberts said:
" @jaredhinton said:
"Just wanted to add some clarity. In 2021 the lego group made ~$2billion profit. That’s net.

I’ll leave judging this price hike until I see next years financials. If their profits massively shrink then it is justified (it’s a business after all and if you don’t like that then capitalism probably isn’t for you). But if it’s around the same or higher than it would be really disappointing to see LEGO conform to the same business practices as other companies that don’t have LEGOs great reputation when it comes to customer care. "

Financials for these companies usually look to keep raising there net profit year over year as to show growth. From a customer perspective it can be hard to swallow if the company has seen record growth on profits year over year and then when most places see 8% inflation but then Lego raises there prices 20% even well operating at a profit most likely it can be hard to justify. I know your saying we don't know there financials yet this year but I can tell you there not worried about surviving, there worried about making more money then the previous year in profits. Problem with that is there profits where inflated past couple years due to the pandemic and reaching this high is going to hurt them in the long run."

I'm sorry, but please: "they're", "there" and "their""

Sorry my job description is to kill people (army). Not an english major writing an essay here =) If my phone presents a quick shortcut I will take it everytime."

There’s no need to apologise to this person. Nothing more annoying than some smug, smart Alec correcting other peoples grammar online. Very condescending and unnecessary.
"

Ignorance uncorrected increases its prevalence. Ignorance accepted leads to Facism (as we have all seen)."

That’s hilarious but thanks for the laugh.
"

To be honest, I just found the original comment difficult to read because of the mistakes. And for the record, I didn't "correct" anyone's grammar, I asked that someone use the words they intend.

Edit: btw what the hell kind of defence for ignorance is that? I kill people so I can't be bothered to learn the difference between three words that sound the same? Give me a break

@Joostv said:
"I am surprised to read this message. Let’s be real, to some extend it understandable that costs are increasing and sooner or later have consequences to the retail price. The way this is communicated seems not very thoughtful. Increasing the price of recently launched sets, such as Optimus Prime and Ferrari, is odd and feels last-minute. As a consequence, evoking a lot of emotion from the Brickset community.

To add to the discussion, the set price that Lego communicates are recommended retail prices. In reality a lot of sets are heavily discounted (30%-40%) compared to the retail price, for example on Amazon. As a consequence, buying a set via lego.com is becoming less and less attractive due to large price differences. I wonder if Lego is struggling with channel conflicts and Amazon’s buying power.
"

I bought the new Batman Tumbler set direct from Lego for their RRP of £200 only to then discover John Lewis sell it for their regular price of £160. Lesson learned. In future I will be shopping around more for non-exclusive sets.

On the one hand, it is understandable since their cost have increased. But on the other hand, they just made record profits, waste a huge amount on digital tie ins and development that have proven to fail time and again, and is a privately owned company so they have less scrutiny from a sea of shareholders and analyst.

People just have to vote with their wallet and let demand drive the price. It doesn't matter what the rrp is if stock is not moving. Eventually they will have to discount them if sales are slow. Just look at the clearance for Vidiyo, Mario and Eternal sets.

Unfortunately my salary didn't increase with 30% in 8 months, so this will probably mean that I won't be able to buy as many sets as I did.

On my wishlist I'm seeing Optimus, the Tallneck, and some Minecraft and Mario products, so I guess I got off a bit easy.

That said this seems absolutely ridiculous. Over the years sets have risen a buck or two each year, that's understandable, inflation is a thing. But a $10 hike partway through a run? That's insane.

Especially when you look at recent trends. Sets are coming with more stickers and less prints. LEGO has been laying off more and more employees. Instructions are switching to a simpler style. Production cost cuts have been happening left and right. Part quality has been dropping (almost every large windshield piece I've gotten has been cracked and almost all white on black prints are too thin.)

Despite this, profits have been more or less increasing every single year. If your profits are increasing, you're still cutting back on production, and you're STILL raising the prices it isn't out of necessity anymore. It's just flat out greed.

Oh what I wouldn't give to go back to the days when there were full lines of $10 BIONICLE sets and $5 Tiny Turbos on the shelves, instead of every other product being $150+

This really squeezes out the frivolous or 'sure why not' LEGO buys. I will still pick up a few items, but only those sets that I really want, and the borderline ones are out.

Effectively, as I customer that means I will spend less actual cash on LEGO.

Producing Lego bricks is not an expensive endeavour. Even paying for the designers is not really that expensive.

Lots of copycat companies manage to do it for 1/5 the price of Lego - most likely they could double their price and reach current Lego questionable quality.

When it gets expensive is when you let go of your "Jørgen Vig Knudstorp". You then have to pay for the "Home of the brick", you also have to pay for a huge new campus. Then you have to pay for this new venture with xyz, and also this other venture with abc and don't forget the venture agreement with pqr. Then, everything that you do is licensed - spreading the money to everyone - somebody has to pay for this. Then, there is the AR department; because everyone knows that you cannot play with the Lego bricks without a mobile/cell phone/tablet - this is a complex task because nobody knows what useless app we don't need - so Lego has to keep trying until they find all the dead-end avenues possible before they can tell us that AR has no business whatsoever with Lego - this may take decades...

*AR: Augmented Reality (Hidden Side, Vidiyo, etc) - should probably be called: Alternate Reality.

Guess I'll be buying a few Speed Champions and that's it for the year. This is all greed. I thought TLG was going to start making all bricks from plants.

Since this thread is basically everyone speculating on whats wrong with lego, I have to say that the fact there are dozens of re-colors and exclusive parts for what seems like every set is insane. Like, The fact they produced all those purple guys and mace windu for that tx-130 set is weird, just make three normal clones. CMF's are up to 5$ cause all of them have new molds basically, or crazy dual molded and fully printed parts that probably cost a ton!

But we just HAVE to please the collectors of the themes, and outdo the last years by more and more. Next year they're probably gonna make a battlepack that is 40$ for 3 minifigs and 250 parts but it's okay because these stormtroopers have dual molded legs and arms and side printing on the legs and inner leg printing and hand printing so they look epic!!!1!!!

@djcbs said:
"This is corporate bullsh*t at its finest.
LEGO doesn't give a f*ck about consumers. What they want to make sure remains stable are the 2 billion euros in PROFITS that they made in 2021, despite the world going to sh*t and people's money being worth less thanks to inflation.

And they're doing this at the same time they're cutting costs by making their product WORSE. Just look at the new SH*T instruction manuals.

I urge everyone to stop buying directly from LEGO and only buy from third party retailers with discounts. Let's all turn off the tap. Only once LEGO sees a hit in their wallets will they stop being greedy f*ckers."

Best comment ever....I can't add anything worthwhile but it's true... all of it.....

Well, guess I wont be buying lego for a while.

With the cost of living increasing to eye watering sums for Electricity, Gas, Food, petrol I guess LEGO are looking to squeeze more money out of those that can afford it. Unfortunately those previous items have squeezed me to the point where frivolous discretionary spending is a thing of the past. It was good while it lasted, but as the saying goes All good things come to an end

Well I can’t say anything different from others here. Everyone else is raising prices so why not Lego?

Rent? Food? Necessities? Lego?

I wonder which one will get paid for less often in the future (not only talking about me).

So far this year I’ve been on track to spending less than half of what I spent in 2021. And I don’t see that changing with more price hikes. I’ll just whittle my list down further I guess.

@hammerdragon said:
"The problem with shareholders is they expect growth for their investment, so $2billion is great but next year if there's not an increase, then shareholders get twitchy and company value declines. Of course when you're talking obscene amounts of money I don't see the problem with $1.5billion instead of $2billion when there's a decline in how the world is functioning"
TLG is family owned, no other shareholders to get greedy but them. Guess KKK just feels the need for some more Ferraris for his collection. After all, those get more expensive too...

@TheAuk said:
"This really squeezes out the frivolous or 'sure why not' LEGO buys. I will still pick up a few items, but only those sets that I really want, and the borderline ones are out.

Effectively, as I customer that means I will spend less actual cash on LEGO."
This.

Impulse buys are probably a thing of the past for me. I’ve been blessed to be in a good situation which has allowed me to pick up an 18+ set here and a Monkie Kid set there and this/that for a GWP. Recent prices have already been prohibitive and the retailer discounts aren’t what they used to be in the U.S. So there are fewer discounts on evergreen themes and basically no discounts on exclusives.

2022 may finally bury FOMO for a lot of us.

If prices go up, less people will be able to buy. So to cover their losses, the prices will go up, and so on...
With raw material costs they probably mean the oil wich is needed to fill their big expensive cars with.

@MrGurt said:
"Since this thread is basically everyone speculating on whats wrong with lego, I have to say that the fact there are dozens of re-colors and exclusive parts for what seems like every set is insane. Like, The fact they produced all those purple guys and mace windu for that tx-130 set is weird, just make three normal clones. CMF's are up to 5$ cause all of them have new molds basically, or crazy dual molded and fully printed parts that probably cost a ton!

But we just HAVE to please the collectors of the themes, and outdo the last years by more and more. Next year they're probably gonna make a battlepack that is 40$ for 3 minifigs and 250 parts but it's okay because these stormtroopers have dual molded legs and arms and side printing on the legs and inner leg printing and hand printing so they look epic!!!1!!!"

I... think Lego might go in the direction of late 90s and early 00s (in bankrupt) if it pursues the "appeasement of more and more adults" direction.
Many of the sets "aimed at adults" didn't convince me at all (and that's ok), but I think also TLG is producing way too many "exclusive 18+" sets per year.
I'm pretty sure this decision could bite them back.

Ok, first off: all your opinions are wrong, mine is the only one that is true, so the only one that matters, deal with it!

So here we go: we're all a bunch of spoiled crybabies!

If you are able to spend about a months worth of income on a hobby each year, you are a very lucky person. It is probably the first time in history that a relatively large percentage of the world has been able to do this. I grew up with a handful of small sets a year. My family couldn't afford to buy more. Mind you, we were not poor; my parents had an average income at the time, LEGO was already a luxury brand back then.

We are in a major recession, everyone will have to make do with less, everyone will try to deal with this differently. If the only real impact on your life is not being able to buy as much unnecessary stuff as you used to, you're one of the lucky ones. Some of you are talking about the "poor people" who can no longer afford it because of the increase. Believe me: the really poor don't care, they couldn't afford LEGO sets anyway and are more concerned with what's on the table tomorrow... and I'm not just talking about people in distant developing countries, some of them probably live right around the corner.

Disclaimer:
Take the above (especially the opening sentence) with more than a grain of salt. I understand your grievances, most are justified and I understand that this decision could have a major impact on your life, but this isn't the end of the world (or come to think of it: maybe it is, but that won't be entirely TLG's fault).

Try to keep some perspective, please!

I hope set reviewers will specifically address the unreasonable or exorbitant prices to a much greater extent than previously in future reviews - after all, the sets' value or appeal didn't increase 10% overnight.

Otherwise, one might give the impression of resting comfortably in TLG's pockets rather than provide unbiased opinions, which wouldn't do wonders for said reviewers' credibility.

The ball is in your court, @Huw (and several other popular reviewers out there) :)

@iamkevinwill said:
"I think retail shops will have trouble shifting units at full RRP. The Death Star trench run diorama is on sale right now - £36.50 (Argos/Amazon).. a much more friendly entry price point, £19 off RRP, and just over a month since release!.

Shop around or draw a line."

Exactly this, it's always been my mantra for buying.

I think the last set I bought on release was the 75192 Falcon as I had to have it after missing out on the original UCS. But I regret paying full RRP on that now as it remains unbuilt and has been regularly discounted !

I know I will eventually buy the 75313 AT-AT, the 10294 Titanic, the 21332 Globe and the 21058 Pyramid but I won't bite until I see a healthy discount. They will all just be adding to my 'to be built when I retire' pile anyway !

I'd just bought the 75329 Trench Run and 75327 Skywalker helmet due to the discounts mentioned before I'd read about the expected price increases but after seeing the 25% hit to the 42130 BMW motorbike that I'd been sitting on the fence over I've gone for that too as it's discounted currently at Amazon.

As an AFOL I only but selected sets for the design or the build experience, I'm not into playsets or minifigs so I'm selective. This news will just make me even more so and certainly more patient.

LEGO retires sets with such frequency that this is such an odd public relations move. Just eat the, ahem, “loss” on the stuff on the shelf, dump those sets sooner than you planned (some only stay on shelf for months) and make sure you buffer in even higher prices on your new items. People would bitch, but not look at you and your organization like you are an ass.

It’s just a dumb thing to do, from a common sense perspective. “Oh you thought you were paying this? Um…sorry, nope. Actually, this!” It’s some weirdo bait and switch crap.

Other than that…just cost me $92.00 to fill my gas tank.

Ladies and gentlemen…that is the core of the problem.

aprils fools was a long time ago very funny lego

@Montyh7 said:
"Doesn't Lego keep prices artificially down in the USA and charge much higher in other countries, like Australia? Will they continue to do so and at that point, when does all of their "reasons" simply become excuses and region biased? How about they treat all their consumers worldwide with the same reverence they hold for the USA consumer?

"Furthermore, the US market is by far the most price competitive in the world. These factors combined mean that we have for years priced our products higher in eg Europe than the US. In recent years, the difference has been increased due to the weakening US dollar – but we have consciously decided not to let this (hopefully short term) weakening of the dollar hurt the US consumer. And in order to stay profitable as a company, we cannot decrease our European prices – especially seen in the light of increasing cost pressure on oil, labour etc." "

Oh you should see the prices in Latin America. The stores and products are managed both by Lego and also companies from the countries, which creates ridiculous prices. Here in Colombia, 20 USD sets cost 30 USD, and 100 dollars sets cost almost 160. And now with this price increase, I can't even imagine

@YanVanLan said:
"Ok, first off: all your opinions are wrong, mine is the only one that is true, so the only one that matters, deal with it!

So here we go: we're all a bunch of spoiled crybabies!

If you are able to spend about a months worth of income on a hobby each year, you are a very lucky person. It is probably the first time in history that a relatively large percentage of the world has been able to do this. I grew up with a handful of small sets a year. My family couldn't afford to buy more. Mind you, we were not poor; my parents had an average income at the time, LEGO was already a luxury brand back then.

We are in a major recession, everyone will have to make do with less, everyone will try to deal with this differently. If the only real impact on your life is not being able to buy as much unnecessary stuff as you used to, you're one of the lucky ones. Some of you are talking about the "poor people" who can no longer afford it because of the increase. Believe me: the really poor don't care, they couldn't afford LEGO sets anyway and are more concerned with what's on the table tomorrow... and I'm not just talking about people in distant developing countries, some of them probably live right around the corner.

Disclaimer:
Take the above (especially the opening sentence) with more than a grain of salt. I understand your grievances, most are justified and I understand that this decision could have a major impact on your life, but this isn't the end of the world (or come to think of it: maybe it is, but that won't be entirely TLG's fault).

Try to keep some perspective, please!"

I get what you're trying to say, but I think the bigger "cry baby" are TLG management.

As a wise man once said -

"We are in a major recession, everyone will have to make do with less, everyone will try to deal with this differently. If the only real impact on your life is earing 1.3 billion Euros instead of 1.7 billion Euros as a private company, you're one of the lucky ones."

@blogzilly said:
"LEGO retires sets with such frequency that this is such an odd public relations move. Just eat the, ahem, “loss” on the stuff on the shelf, dump those sets sooner than you planned (some only stay on shelf for months) and make sure you buffer in even higher prices on your new items. People would bitch, but not look at you and your organization like you are an ass.

It’s just a dumb thing to do, from a common sense perspective. “Oh you thought you were paying this? Um…sorry, nope. Actually, this!” It’s some weirdo bait and switch crap.

Other than that…just cost me $92.00 to fill my gas tank.

Ladies and gentlemen…that is the core of the problem."

Couldn't agree more. I'd just replace "wierdo" with 'incredibly stupid'.

Don't forget the cake-eater Ferrari book fiasco significantly adds to the 'weirdness '.

We feed them too much that Lego has become a behemoth monster and bite us back.

Their chase for excessive profit is disgusting. They don't care about diehard fans' or the middle class's financial situation in today's economy. They are EARNING BILLIONS of PROFITS (revenue minus cost!!) already, WAY WAY WAY more than enough to cover their cost. If their cost is higher than revenue and they are losing money, or barely surviving and struggling, I understand. But hell no, they are NOT. They are the exact opposite! They simply ignore most AFOL fans' voices, showing their arrogance, forgetting those of us who support them.

Lego shows its greedy devil's true face since the introduction of void black boxes that suck out the veil of imagination, creativity, and fun. They no longer pretend. Their stupid marketing team tries overtly hard with their silly strategy in press releases. They don't even wear their mask of "customer-friendly toys as a healthy sustainable hobby that inspires creativity" anymore.

"We are cold and dark," they express through their black void boxes.
"Lego is not for under 18," they say so on their $.$ faces.

If only Lego had done the decent thing....
Increased Star Wars prices by 500% and reduced everything else by 5%.
Sorted!

It's too much for me. Something snapped - as far as buying more goes. This news made me reach the point where I'm satisfied with all I've already got.

At the very recent "price harmonisation", my limit of prohibitive pricing had been reached, with any further soon significant price increase being the "bridge too far".

From now on, I feel uncomfortable paying so much for what is, fundamentally, some coloured plastic (even partially made in China). The 75324, for instance, will now be 35 € for 166 pieces. That's more than a euro every five pieces. The insanely good profit margin of TLG makes me feel cheated.