The Tie Fighter Project
Is it cheaper to buy LEGO as a set, or individual parts?
Bricklink is a second hand marketplace for LEGO sets, minifigures and parts, After a while of using this to add to my minifigure collection and occasionally adding bricks to reach a sellers minimum order I decided to see if it was cheaper to buy a full set as individual parts on the platform.
The set I chose for this is 75211: Imperial TIE Fighter a set usually costing £64.99, this is because it is a recognisable Original Trilogy ship that I did not previously have. The other bonus of this set is that it is based on the film Solo, and as such has figures relating to that. Since figures are often desirable, they can be expensive and increase the price of putting together a set this way. Not being a fan of the Solo film therefore means I will not be trying to acquire the figures in the set and just the bricks for the ship itself.
After a few months of bricklink orders I had enough of the parts to put together the majority of the ship, though I am still missing odd parts of exterior detail.
The result of this is that in total I spent approximately £35 on the TIE Fighter, a saving of almost 50%
Rare parts are often more expensive and it might be worth checking the price of these before starting a project to see if they will add too much to the cost.
I have since used this technique on 75172: Y-wing Starfighter, and 40433: 1989 Batmobile.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Significantly cheaper | Can take quite a while and a number of orders |
| Can be used to get rare/ exclusive sets | Might not be able to get very rare parts or stickers |
| Can add in other figures/ parts while doing bricklink orders | Might not be able to get the correct figures for the set |
Therefore I would recommend this technique on any set where the figures are not wanted, or only part of the set is desirable. However make sure to check the prices of any rare or exclusive parts beforehand and aim to get these parts first to be sure of the completion of the project.