Introduced in 2012, LEGO minidolls are more intricate versions of the classic LEGO minifigure. They also are more expensive than LEGO minifigures, and fewer minidolls are included in sets of equal value when compared to sets with minifigures. We did a deep dive into the price disparity of minifigures vs. mini-dolls to highlight these findings.
Price Discrepancy Between Minidolls and Minifigures
LEGO minidolls are a variation of the traditional LEGO minifigure. They have different molds and more detailed features, and resemble small dolls as their name suggests. They were introduced in 2012, with the LEGO Friends line aimed primarily at girls. They have since also been included in LEGO Disney sets as princess characters from classic Disney films.
We noticed a trend where there seemed to be fewer mini-dolls in a Friends set than there were minifigures in a City set of equal value. Our findings confirmed this suspicion, and were the result of a close analysis into the numbers of minidolls and minifigures per set and the price of the associated sets.
The Data
We collected LEGO set data from shop.LEGO.com on 8/3/20, and included all 12 Disney sets, all 53 Friends sets, all 59 City sets and all 43 Star Wars sets currently listed on the website that day. We did not include keychains or sets that do not include minidolls or minifigures. We looked at City as a direct comparison to Friends, since both are non-IP themes with a focus on day-to-day life in a suburban/urban environment. We looked at Star Wars as a direct comparison to Disney, since both are IP themes that are based on popular fantasy films, and because Star Wars is owned by Disney.
We gathered information about each set, including the set price and number of minifigures/minidolls in that set. We then divided each set price by the number of minifigures/minidolls, to get the effective “price per minifigure” or “price per minidoll”, if you were only buying the sets for the figures. This allowed us to gauge how expensive mini-dolls were compared to minifigures at the same set prices.
Please note in the below graphs that some data points are stacked on top of each other, and are unable to be differentiated from a single data point. In addition, please note that Disney sets that had minifigures and not mini-dolls (such as Toy Story sets) were not included in our analysis.
Friends vs. City
The following two charts graph the price per minifigure/minidoll against the actual City or Friends set price. The general trends clearly show that minidolls in Friends sets are typically more expensive than minifigures in City sets. Looking at the set price gridlines, this conclusion is even more apparent, when we look at, say, the $50 mark. At $50, the Friends line has two sets with minidoll prices at $16.67 and $25. On the other hand, City has four $50 sets which all have a minifigure price of just $12.50 (please remember that some data points are stacked and only show up as one dot on the graph).
Overall, the large majority of City minifigures are under $20, while Friends minidolls are more in the $15-$30 range.
Star Wars vs. Disney
The following two charts graph the price per minifigure/minidoll against the actual Star Wars and Disney set price. Please note that we omitted 4 of the most expensive Star Wars sets in the Star Wars graph (Death Star, A Wing, Millennium Falcon and Imperial Star Destroyer) because adding them to the graph throws off the scale and obscures the other data points.
Again, the general trend is that minidolls in Disney sets are typically more expensive than minifigures in Star Wars sets. Star Wars minifigures typically fall into the range of $5-$25, while Disney minidolls range from $10-$40.
Overall comparison
Overall, there is a clear trend of there being fewer minidolls per set than minifigures, which in turn means minidolls are more expensive than minifigures. The following graph shows the median minidoll and minifigure price across each of the four themes we explored.
The themes that had minifigures, City and Star Wars, had less expensive figures than the Friends and Disney, the themes with minidolls. City minifigures were the least expensive, coming in at only a $10 median price point, while Disney mini-dolls were the most expensive, at a $25 median price per minidoll. Even the IP theme Star Wars, which had a median price of $12.50 per minifigure, had minifigures that were less expensive than the non-IP theme Friends, which had a median price of $15.
Disney, which is comparable to Star Wars, has minidolls that have a median price of $25 and are twice as expensive as minifigures in the Star Wars theme, which have a median price of $12.50.
Looking at these results, it is clear that minidolls are more expensive than minifigures and that there are fewer minidolls per set of equal price than there are minifigures.
Conclusion
Through our analysis, we have uncovered a clear trend in LEGO sets: the prices of minidolls far exceed the price of minifigures. This may be because the minidoll molds introduced in 2012 were new and expensive to design. However, the discrepancy is still significant, and with minidoll sets being targeted almost exclusively at girls, it is worth thinking about whether the fact that minidolls are more expensive than minifigures makes them less accessible to female LEGO enthusiasts. We hope to see more minidolls included in future LEGO Friends and Disney sets, at a rate more similar to the number of minifigures included in sets of equal value in themes such as City and Star Wars.