The Top 10 Rarest LEGO Sets Ever

11th January 2021

At the time of writing this LEGO has produced over 18,000 sets over the space of 72 years. However not all LEGO sets are created equal and some are much rarer than others.

In this article we'll dive into 10 of the rarest LEGO sets in existence (in no particular order) along with what you can expect to pay to add it to your collection. Being rare doesn't always mean it's expensive but they often go hand in hand as we're about to find out.

#10 - LEGO Architecture Las Vegas

Some of you may be thinking "Hang on, I have this set setting on my shelf at home" and you'll be partially right. When LEGO was creating the Las Vegas set to add to it's architecture line it was originally supposed to feature the Mandalay Bay Hotel. However in 2017 a tragic shooting occurred when Stephen Paddock fired over 1,000 bullets from a suite in the hotel into crowds that had gathered for a music festival.

Because LEGO doesn't like to associate it's brand with violence of any kind it scrapped the original design for this set and created a new set, with a new number (21047) and replaced the Mandalay Bay Hotel with the Bellagio.

The LEGO Architecture Las Vegas after it was redesigned

However before it was cancelled some copies of set 21038 managed to get out into the wild. Rumor has it they all went to one vendor in South Africa who is sitting on a stack of one of rarest and most expensive LEGO sets ever made!

#9 - LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Helicopter

Price: £500 ($700)

Another cancelled set was the LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Helicopter and for similar reasons to the aforementioned Las Vegas set. Just weeks before launch LEGO decided to cancel this technic set because it depicted a military vehicle even though the version in the set was a rescue helicopter. Like I said before LEGO won't go near anything that is deemed to represent violence which is why you'll never see anything military based in it's product line.

It's strange how this set made it all the way to launch before someone decided to pull the plug in it, but because it made it so far down the production line it had already been sent to several stores. I remember there being queues outside shops the morning this set was due to go on sale.

#8 - LEGO Ferguson Tractor

Price: £1,700 ($2,300)

Out of all of the sets in this list, this is the one that I most desire to add to my collection. The Ferguson Tractor was a promotional set given to attendees of the 2018 Inside Tour.

For those that don't know what the Inside Tour is, it's a 2 and half day experience of the LEGO Group's unique history. You get to see how LEGO bricks are produced, meet the designers and also take home a unique set exclusively for members of the tour.

Places on the tour are limited and with a hefty price tag of around £1,600 ($2,000) it falls out of the budgets of most LEGO fans. As you can imagine the unique sets produced every year are done so in limited quantities so they become extremely sought after. That coupled with the fact that not many make their way onto the market sends the price through the roof as you'll see with other entries on this list.

The Ferguson Tractor pays homage to an important part of LEGO's history. In 1951 they launched a plastic model of the tractor that proved to be hugely successful and is one of the reasons they decided to concentrate on plastic products rather than their wooden counterparts.

The Original LEGO Original Ferguson Tractor from 1951

#7 - LEGO Piper Airplane

Price: £3,500 - £4,000 ($4,750 - $5,450)

This is probably the rarest and most expensive Inside Tour promotional set, it was given away on the 2012 edition of the tour.

On the bottom right of the box is a space for writing the number of the set and in all of the pictures I've seen they say x / 53 indicating that only 53 were produced. I know that with the Inside Tour, there are 3 /4 tours during the year that take place on different dates so that could be the number for just one of those tours but even so it shows how scarce this set is.

It's for that reason that you often see it selling for upwards of £3,500 ($4,000)!

#6 - LEGO Antonios Pizza-Rama

At the New York Comic-Con in 2012 LEGO took the opportunity to tease the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme that launched the following year by giving away a promotional set. The set in question was a buildable slice of pizza that came in a triangular box.

The set was also a way to promote a new TV series that ran from 2012 to 2017, and Antonio's was the name of the main pizza chain to appear in the show. No one knows how many of this set exist, I did hear rumours that it was only given away to members of the media rather than the general public, which if true would probably make it even rarer.

#5 - LEGO Bat-Pod

Price: £1,500 ($2,000)

The Bat-Pod is an exclusive DC Comics Super Heroes set which was given out to winners of a sweepstake contest. The contest ran from June 1st to June 30th in 2015 and to qualify you had to purchase a DC Super Heroes set in that time period.

The set comprised of 311 pieces and was limited to 750 copies. With the large scale Batman sets we've seen from LEGO in recent years I wouldn't be surprised if they released a similar set to the general public in the near future.

#4 - LEGO Jurassic World Exclusive T. rex

Price: £1,500 - £4,000 ($2,000 - $5,500)

In the recent wave of LEGO Jurassic World products, there was one set which wasn't available for purchase, the Exclusive T. rex. Out of the 500 copies of this promotional set, 100 were given to Dreamland (an Online Toystore in Belgian) and the rest were distributed to stores mainly across Europe. Those stores then ran their own give away contests to decide the lucky winners.

The set itself has 70 pieces and contains a T. rex with an exclusive design standing atop a pedestal. In 2020 it was selling for around £750.00 but can now fetch as much as £4,000.

#3 - LEGO Factory Market Street

Price: £1,500 - £2,000 ($2,000 - $2,700)

A lot of people don't know this but Market Street wasn't a Creator set but rather a LEGO Factory set. LEGO Factory was basically an early version of LEGO Ideas where users could upload a set they had designed to the LEGO website and then they'd be sent the parts needed to build it. A few models were then turned into official sets and Market Street was one of those.

Market Street was also adjusted by the Creator team so that it would be compatible with Cafe Corner, the first modular building that had been released a few months prior.

Finding a sealed Market Street is like winning the lottery, incredibly hard to do and it will set you back over £1.500.

#2 - LEGO Creator Expert Grand Carousel

Price: £1,800 - £2,400 ($2,400 - $3,200)

The Grand Carousel was released in June 2009 as part of the Creator Expert line. At the time it was quite an advanced set because it featured Power Functions that not only added motion but also music.

In 2017 LEGO introduced a second revision of the set, this time just called the Carousel. For the last few years prices for a new and sealed Grand Carousel have fluctuated between £1,800 and £2.400.

#1 - LEGO Ideas Shinkai 6500 Submarine

Price: £550 - £700 ($750 - $950)

The Shinkai 6500 Submarine is a set that plays an important part in the history of the LEGO Group because it was the first fan design to be accepted through LEGO Ideas, although it was called the Cuusoo project at the time.

Only 10,000 sets were produced and it was only released in Japan in 2010.

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