Star Wars: Planets - Rebellious Victory or Empirical Cannon Fodder?

Back in the year of 1999, Lego introduced the world to their latest and incredibly epic license acquisition to date of Star Wars. In the first year alone, they released a mix of thirteen sets based around the original trilogy and beginning of the prequel trilogy. To further the themes’ collectability by the following year, they issued four of the short lived Minifigure Collection (or Minifig Pack) sets each containing three characters plus special stands and introduced the most highly detailed designs to date with the Ultimate Collector Series. Besides being considerably expensive, UCS sets featured the largest number of parts over many.

Jumping ahead thirteen years to 2012, Lego decides on raising the collectible ante for their most popular theme by launching the Planets line. Taking inspiration from the Collectible Minifigures and simple mini-builds within polybags, with a container tossed in for good measure, we end up with a one-of-a-kind and profoundly well blended collectable rolled into one neat little package. Each year (thus far) yields the release of two three-set series’ featuring various builds, characters, and planetoids which make great decorations. With a standard price point affordable by most and different facets appealing to anyone one way or another, they were an immediate success and continue to be.

Below you shall find informative tables and charts for every separate Planet from both Series 1 and 2 released just last year listing a compilation of various values for comparison. Beneath those is my general opinion taking into consideration the current values of worth, highs and lows from sales, and contributing features of design. The sold listings data are from the last five months for the two main staples of resale, eBay and BrickLink. Prior to this article, I have already written and submitted complete set reviews for each and intend on mainly focusing towards investment purposes instead of simply repeating myself. I also took the liberty of adding links under each chart to BrickPicker’s and BrickLink’s price guides. Now let’s get started.

Series 1

9674 - Naboo Starfighter/Naboo

BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

The smallest of all the Planets in both piece count and design had a steady value of worth since the beginning of last year as it was released alongside its Series 1 brethren and already reached sales of more than $30 brand new through eBay. Unfortunately, the currently going value has been wounded since a few months ago by numerous discounts found among various retailers such as Target selling many remaining leftovers from 50% to nearly 75% off. Despite varying difference in opinion surrounding the prequel trilogy, a number of people seem to like the sleek N-1 Starfighter from Naboo. While I honestly did not think this one would perform so remarkably well and fast, I also should not find it surprising for this to fall so far after being on top for so long. With that being said, I can see this making a comeback in due time. As the phrase goes, “It happened before, it can happen again”.

9675 - Sebulba’s Podracer/Tatooine

BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

Besides being the cheapest way to get a hold of the latest version of Sebulba, this has the honor of containing the largest piece count and flimsiest design of any Planet released so far. Before now, I was not quite sure where to place this one truthfully. It has had an oddball rollercoaster ride in value with a couple of high peaks and mostly mid to low valleys and still is scarcely worth more than retail at the moment. There is potential here as I am now seeing this slowly gain momentum thankfully; however, trying to capture that bolt of lightning will take a little patience and boils down to good timing. This continues to be what I would consider a mid to long-term investment assuming it does go anywhere.

9676 - TIE Interceptor/Death Star
BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

Finally, a personal favorite (and many others it would seem) spacecraft and Planet of Series 1! In spite of the insanely high number of listings, this has performed slightly better than Sebulba’s Podracer, had a more uniformed ride altogether and reached some decent heights. It could possibly do better if the number of people trying to sell at the same time wasn’t so high, but even then its track record shows a consistently somewhat reliable level of value and point towards a potential long-term investment despite a current dip. It’s the iconic Death Star (DS-1 Orbital Battle Station specifically) we all know and loved watching get blown up (twice no less) or firing up its laser, and both the TIE Interceptor and pilot (though not as rare as he used to be) are awesome! While listing one at this point in time will yield minimal profit, this particular Planet is just too good to not appreciate well even though that may take a while (and I do mean a while) to gradually do so.

It will be tricky gauging future values for Series 2, thanks to all of those recent discounts and the fact that some can still be found at local retailers across the country, but here goes nothing.

Series 2
9677 - X-Wing Starfighter/Yavin 4
BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

Here we start off the next series with a bang featuring the ever classic, T-65 X-Wing Starfighter! One can go on about everything done right with this set. The design at this scale absolutely cannot get any better period, and who doesn’t want another Rebel pilot? If there were any possible negatives to be found, it would be the fact this exact build was released a couple years prior in a polybag available from various Target and Five Below retailers. Aside from that, I see little to no problems for this one appreciating well if only for the simple fact of how iconic both the starfighter and pilot are. In a similarly odd way, this could almost as easily end up going down the same path as the Naboo Starfighter from the first Series.

9678 - Twin-Pod Cloud Car/Bespin
BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

A favorite secondary character and vehicle from the original trilogy of mine, now in their correct colors! Despite the small size, it is a greatly accurate representation of the Storm IV Twin-Pod Cloud Car and the completely exclusive minifigure features a nicely balanced mix between Lobot from the film and a Lego character. While I am surprised in a way with its currently low value at the same time I am not. Majority of reviews and opinions from across the web have been positive up to the point of even stating this is the best Planet. In any case, this took those countless discounts the hardest as its value on eBay has gone down to almost half retail yet the number of units sold keeps rising. Amusingly enough, this has performed better overall on BrickLink. Although this will definitely be another to add upon the list of long-term investments, I have faith in the uniqueness eventually pulling it through and even outshine the Twin-Pod Cloud Car set from 2002.

9679 - AT-ST Walker/Endor
BrickPicker Price Guide/BrickLink Price Guide

This is by far the best mini-build of the AT-ST ever and includes a one-of-a-kind version of its Imperial Pilot. Sales for this particular set have performed a little more than the X-Wing altogether, and both are selling better than the Cloud Car at the moment from either eBay or BrickLink. Opinions have been favorable and although I have found a rather similar design in a previous polybag from 2011, I can imagine this one doing very well with some ease in the long run.

On a side note, the Planet itself is technically the forest moon of Endor and not to be confused with the cyan gas planet it orbits around that the Ewoks named Tana, which will be featured in the upcoming B-Wing Starfighter/Planet Endor from Series 4.

Although I can’t say how things will fare with Series 3 and 4 at this point (leaving me room for a future evaluation), I can say however those appear to be yet another nice collection of winners! My picks for quick gainers are the Republic Attack Cruiser/Coruscant from Series 3 and Tantive IV/Alderaan from Series 4. Nothing wrong about the rest of them; all will be good performers in due time. In my opinion, Series 4 offers the best selection of spaceships and Planets altogether.

In conclusion, I have found scant few negatives in my evaluation for the 1st and 2nd series of the Stars Wars Planets line. Surprisingly enough, the Naboo Starfighter had performed exceedingly well right out the gate than every other one and could once again later on. While I can’t say I’m surprised with Sebulba’s progress, I must admit the alien has done better than I would have thought initially. The Death Star has managed to keep a steady value (though close to retail) regardless of the absolutely ludicrous amount of listings. If given the chance to grow, it should produce some nice returns. I find it amusing how the AT-ST is performing nicer than even the symbolic X-Wing and at the same time disappointed with the current standing of Bespin’s Cloud Car though I have a feeling it will perk up eventually.

After much research across the net by reading and skimming through numerous reviews and opinions, emotions towards the Planet sets have been very reassuring from a number of age groups. Seldom have I found anything negative or the opposite.

Despite all of these good points, the real question that matters remains.
Are they worth investing?

To which I can reply with great certainty.
Yes.

Their broad appeal, included features, and affordable price point offers something for everyone. First off, they are based on the most popular theme of Star Wars. Second, the included mini-builds are display ready designs able to fit in any size location and easy enough for a child to put together and play in a matter of moments, and don’t forget the exclusively printed plague that comes within every set. Third, each one features a minifigure with unique printing and/or army building qualities and practically everybody loves collecting them. Fourth, there is nothing else on the shelves quite like the Planets themselves. These truly are one of kind conversation pieces molded purely for decoration or a make shift storage container if need be.

While I wouldn’t go too off the handle by saying they will gain ridiculously large amounts in value, I will say each Planet could go as high as three times retail at some point in time. A select few may possibly go even higher than that much like how the Naboo Starfighter/Naboo once had strangely enough.

Since the entire line is still relatively in its stage of infancy, now would be the best time to invest in the starting Series’ if you have not done so already before things get too far down the road and we are looking forward to the release of Series 9 and 10 in 2016 or Series 17 and 18 in 2020 (assuming the line manages to continue for that long of course). The returns may not be the same from a typically larger set but if you factor in the inevitable discounts on an item which was already low cost to begin with, collective gains earned could stack up quite nicely.

If you did manage to stay awake long enough to reach the end of my article, I thank you.
Oh, and “May the force be with you”.