Is Lego a Toy or a Collectible?
In March of 2026, Lego released their version of the company’s financial data from 2025. I say “their version” because Lego is not a publicly traded company therefore they have no obligation to disclose all their financial data, thus they share the information they choose. In summary, The Lego Group once again grew its sales and profits from the previous year. When looking at revenue, they also remained the number one toy company in the world. An accomplishment they have maintained every year since 2014. This is fueled by an expanding catalogue of IP’s, a focus on creating sets for adults, and of course creating sets that encourage imagination with play.
From the normie outside world, we continually hear the remark that Lego is “just a kid’s toy.” If you’re an AFOL, you know Lego is so much more, which includes being a major player in the collectibles market. There is no debate the popularity continues to grow year over year. Couple that with the basic economic principles of supply and demand and you have yourself a booming Lego collectible aftermarket. This is due to the limited run and lifespan that each Lego set has. In short, Lego “retires” a set after a finite amount of time, never to be made again. Want to learn more about retirement dates? Click here for a more in depth explanation.
Do you fall into the camp of “Lego is just a kids toy?” Let's compare two similar builds from Lego that were released about 13 years apart.
Lego Cuusoo (now Lego Ideas) 21103 Back to the Future Delorean was released in 2013 at a price of $34.99 at 401 pieces
Lego Speed Champions 77256 Back to the Future Time Machine was release in 2026 at a price of $27.99 at 357 pieces.
21103 The Delorean Time Machine 77256 Back to the Future Time Machine
While both sets are interpretations of the Delorean Time Machine from the Back to the Future movie trilogy, they are quite different. 21103 design was greatly limited by the pieces available in 2013 while 77256 takes advantage of all the new pieces that have been developed specifically for the Speed Champions theme.
If 21103 were to be released today in its current form, we could easily imagine the swarm of negativity that would ensue on every social media platform, discord server, and reddit forum. However, it was released 13 years ago and is only currently available on the secondary market. Regardless of how you feel about this set, it currently sells on several marketplaces for as high as $200.
WHAT?!?
Remember what I said about Lego’s popularity coupled with the supply and demand principles?
By today’s Lego standards, in my opinion, 77256 is superior in every way compared to 21103, yet 21103 sells for 8-10x the price of 77256.
Let's look at a few reasons why this may be the case:
21103 retired in 2014, meaning no more new sets have been produced by Lego in over 12 years. The supply of sealed unopened boxes only has one trajectory to go…DOWN.
77256 was released in January of 2026 and is currently available for sale from every major retailer at the moment, making supply almost infinite.
Demand for the Back to the Future genre is mostly fueled by adult collectors as the trilogy is from the 80’s. Kids of today most likely have not seen these movies.
This is speculation on my part, but I would bet a large number of AFOL’s didn’t know 21103 existed until 77256 was released. Prompting a renewed demand for the older set in order to complete their Lego Back to the Future collection.
To prove my point a little further, There is currently another Back to the Future Time Machine available on retailer shelves. Lego Icons 10300 is much larger than 21103 and costs $199.99 (very similar to the current price to 21103) while coming in at 1872 pieces.
This larger scale version of the Delorean comes in at over 4x the pieces as 21130 (1872 pieces vs 401 pieces), yet the current market has them priced roughly the same.
Just to recap, there are two Delorean’s currently available from Lego (77256 and 10300) and one that retired in 2014 (21103). The detail and accuracy is superior on the currently available sets 77256 and 10300, yet the 2014 retiree (21103) is currently selling for more money.
Supply and Demand folks, plain and simple
To revisit the title of the blog, Is Lego a toy or a collectible?
It’s definitely both. Children have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy building Lego, but to disregard Lego as a collectible is a mistake based on the example given above. This is just one example of a set increasing in value years after it retires, there are countless other examples as well.
**Disclaimer* Not all sets will increase in value by 7-8x after 12 years, however most new unopened sets will, at least, hold their value. It is very rare for a new unopened set to lose monetary value over time. Do your own research if buying Lego for investing purposes.
I recently built the 77256 Speed Champion Time Machine and tried to use it to go back in time to 2013 with the goal of buying thousands of the Cuusso version. Unfortunately, I could not get it up to 88 miles per hour on my building table no matter how many VROOM sounds I made…or maybe the flux capacitor wasn’t working properly.
Until next time AFOL’s….