LEGO Minecraft: An Investment Analysis

So Far TLG has produced three Minecraft Micro World sets:  21102 LEGO Micro World - The First Night, 21105 LEGO Micro World - The Village, and 21106 LEGO Micro World - The Nether.  The original Minecraft set was designed by Mojang on CUUSOO and began to make its way into houses in 2012.  The set was such an incredible hit that the LEGO company actually ran out of the set, and had to get another shipment in.  That only lasted about fifteen minutes and TLG had to get another shipment of the set.  This time supplies lasted, but the set still remained popular and stayed in the "25 most popular sets" list on S@H.  Fast forward to the 2013 San Diego Comic Con where TLG announced that there will be two more Minecraft Micro Worlds,  The Village and The Nether.  They are also still popular, and even though they all are very simple sets with many small 1x1 and 1x2 plates, tiles, and bricks, they all remain best sellers.  TLG has just recently announced that they will be creating minifig scale Minecraft sets.  In this article, I will be stating my own personal opinion (backed by facts and history) about the Minecraft theme and will also be determining which Micro World set will give us more bang for our buck.

The first set that we will be looking at is the 21102 LEGO Micro World - The First Night.  It was released in February of 2012.  This is the set that started the entire Minecraft theme.  The key factor to the popularity of this set is the game that it is based on:  Minecraft.  If Minecraft never existed and if it was an original theme that TLG created, than sales would not be anywhere close to where they are today.  The Micromobs are neat, but they are not all that detailed.  This is a set for Minecraft fans, and considering that over 13,400,000 people have downloaded the PC/Mac version,  there is a definite market for this set.  Out of the three Micro World sets, this the most iconic.  If the Steve and Creeper Micromobs do not appear in future Micro World sets, then that might give this set the small push that it needs to get to the top of the LEGO Micro World sets.  Another thing to consider while analyzing this set is that it is the very first LEGO Minecraft set to be created.  That alone should make this set a winner among Minecraft and LEGO fans alike.  People who want to take their LEGO Minecraft models to the next level will want to buy more than one set and build models like this:

The next set we will be analyzing is the 21105 LEGO Micro World - The Village.  This set was released on September first, 2013 along with the 21106 LEGO Micro World - The Nether.  The Village was the most popular of the Minecraft sets this past Christmas, even out-preforming The First Night.  However, that was only because it was the most recent Minecraft set before Christmas, 2013.  More people asked for this set for Christmas because they already had The First Night.  After a year or two, things will even out, and we will see which set is the winner of the two.  This set has a different variety of tiles and pieces which will help people who want to build their own Minecraft creations.  The Micromobs in this set are also neat, and the pig is very recognizable.  This is another great investment.

The last of the three Minecraft sets is the 21106 LEGO Micro World - The Nether.  Out of the three LEGO Micro Worlds, this one was the least popular this past Christmas.  Considering that this set was released on the same day as The Village, (which was the most popular set this Christmas,) this set might become the loser out of the three Micro Worlds.  However, this is not a bad investment.  This past Christmas I saw people on eBay selling all three of the Minecraft Micro Worlds for $180 dollars.  If they had bought these at retail, then they would have made $75 dollars.  People will want to complete their Minecraft collection with this set.  If they buy their favorite sets first, (most likely 21102 and 21105,) than they will be buying this set last.  If people don't have this set in their collection by the time it retires, then there will be a higher demand for this set after retirement.

So now after a careful evaluation of all three of these sets, we have to determine which one will be the winner.  The Village has a good chance of being the best investment, considering that it was the most popular Minecraft set this last Christmas.  The Nether did not do as well, though.  It was released on the same date as The Village, which probably means that people do not like The Nether as much.

The Village has proved to be a popular set worth investing in, but I think that the true winner will end up being The First Night.  The First Night has something that The Village does not, and that is 10,000 supporters on CUUSOO that made the whole Minecraft theme possible.  CUUSOO is not a Minecraft fan community; it is a LEGO fan community.  The First Night is recognizable to nearly everyone - even people who have never played Minecraft.  The bright colors and the box design of this set should make people want to buy and build it.  Overall, The First Night is a great set for LEGO and Minecraft fans and collectors alike.

There are only two reasons not to invest in the Minecraft Micro World sets:

#1.  They shows no signs of retiring.
#2.  If TLG waits too long to retire them, then they might flood the market.

I believe that these reasons could affect the value, but it will not be the make or break for these sets.  If you have plenty of storage space and do not mind waiting, than reason #1 is not very significant.  Reason #2 may sound like a good reason, but I think we can all take a lesson from the 10197 Fire Brigade while considering this problem.  I can remember many people saying that it would take the Fire Brigade more than a year to reach $200 dollars after it retired because it had been available for so long.  Guess what?  The Fire Brigade is worth more than $220 dollars and it is currently listed as "sold out" on S@H.  I can not remember one set becoming so popular that if flooded the market.  After researching the Minecraft sets, I would say that they are all good investments, great for flipping and long term investing ( if you are willing to wait a while.)

So what does the future of LEGO Minecraft hold?  TLG is working on minifig scale Minecraft sets right now, and they look amazing from what I have seen.  I expect LEGO to release some more Micro World sets, and if they keep it up, then these first three will become valuable classics.  If you head on over to the LEGO Minecraft website you can see some of the minifig scale sets they are working on.  LEGO even revealed some wallpapers which show some Micromobs that might be included in future sets.

Overall, I am very excited about the future of LEGO Minecraft, and believe that it could become a very solid theme.

I hope you have found this article useful.

Thanks for reading.