The reveal of LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine has once again brought the issues of price, size and value of LEGO sets to the forefront of the conversation. Is it too expensive? Or is it a fair price to pay?
It seems like with every new release, some LEGO fans laud the impressive builds and new minifigures, while others take to the streets in defiance of the high price tag attached. 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine has exacerbated this problem for a lot of fans, as the highly desirable retro LEGO minifigures are locked behind a £149.99 / $179.99 / €169.99 paywall.
And so 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine raises a lot of good questions about the value of LEGO sets. What is an acceptable price-to-part ratio? Does it matter? What’s the value of a minifigure? Do different figures have different values? Who’s the judge of that? At the end of the day, these all boil down to complex economic theories, costs of production and profit margins that this Blocks writer is not equipped to deal with. But as someone who buys entirely too many LEGO sets, 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine presents an excellent opportunity to discuss the value of a LEGO set from the perspective not of the mega-company producing it, but from the side of the eager fans waiting to buy it.
The value of a LEGO brick
Price-to-part ratio used to be the golden standard of measurement tools when it came to evaluating the value of a LEGO set. The super high-tech theory basically ascribes to the idea that for every LEGO piece in a set, the price should go up by 10 cents (using the American price as a baseline). So for every 100 pieces, the price should add on another $10, which can then be adjusted for different currencies.
In the case of 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine, the set’s approximate piece count of 1,300 should place it at roughly $130 / £100 / €115. This is significantly less than the actual price tags of $179.99 / £149.99 / €169.99.
Many fans will look at those two numbers and immediately write off a set. But the value of LEGO bricks is more complicated than the basic 10 cents per piece concept. 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine uses a large number of large pieces — the clear panels and half-sphere elements being the bulk of them. These cost more to produce, thus raising the price. But even with that taken into consideration, there’s still a large gap between the estimated price and the actual price.
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Minifigures cost more
Minifigures cost a lot more than a typical LEGO piece — just look at the price of a Collectable Minifigures blind box today. $5 in the United States gets you one minifigure. $20 gets you a LEGO Star Wars battle pack with four minifigures and about 100 pieces. Using that as our highly sophisticated data, we can estimate a minifigure’s value at $5. This can shift slightly depending on the amount of printing and number of accessories, but $5 is a good baseline.
In the case of 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine, 16 minifigures are included. 16! Doing the math, that’s $80 worth of minifigures in this set. Is $80 a lot to spend to walk away with 16 minifigures and no bricks? Yes, but that’s just the established value of a minifigure these days. So adding that $80 onto the estimated price (and converting to other currencies) gets us a revised estimation of $210 / £155 / €190, and all of a sudden, the actual price doesn’t look so bad.
Is 21358 overpriced?
21358 is a perfect example of why looking at the price tag of a LEGO set isn’t the best way to determine its value, as strange as that might sound. $179.99 / £149.99 / €169.99 is a lot to pay for what’s essentially a glorified Collectable Minifigures series. But using the long-held metric of the price-to-part ratio and factoring in the cost of minifigures in 2025, 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine’s price isn’t as high as it might at first seem.
That’s not to say that it’s an affordable or even well-priced set. It’s a lot of money no matter how you slice it, and what an individual fan is willing to pay is ultimately up to them. So it’s an interesting line to walk, balancing the more objective, numeric value of a set with the more subjective perception of value LEGO fans have.
What’s your take on the value of 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine and other LEGO sets today? Let Blocks know on any of our social media channels. And if you’re sold on 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine, consider purchasing it via our affiliate links to help support the work we do at Blocks magazine.