Five things you could buy instead of LEGO’s new UCS AT-AT

LEGO Star Wars 75313 AT-AT is the single-most expensive set of all time in the UK, and tied for the most expensive in other regions – but what else could you buy with that money?

Well, given the latest Ultimate Collector Series set rings in at £749.99 / $799.99 / €799.99, the short answer is: quite a lot, actually. But to put the price of the newly-revealed walker into perspective, here’s a quick rundown of some other things you could buy if you just so happened to have £750 to spare – both LEGO and non-LEGO.

5 – (Almost) every LEGO Star Wars 2021 set

Put aside the other two direct-to-consumer 2021 releases for a moment (75308 R2-D2 and 75309 Republic Gunship), and a £750 budget could buy you almost every single Star Wars set the LEGO Group has launched this year. The full collection totals £888.81 at retail price in the UK, so seeking out sales would easily get you the lot for under £750, while leaving out – for example – just 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser would bring you under budget at full price.

4 – 3,000 Freddo bars

A classic barometer of inflation within the UK, a single Freddo bar will currently set you back 25p at Sainsbury’s. That means you could get 3,000 of the comfortingly nostalgic chocolate bars for the same price as 75313 AT-AT, although that’s obviously not factoring in the dental bills that would inevitably follow.

3 – 214 Collectible Minifigures

One mystery minifigure from 71031 Marvel Studios costs £3.49 in the UK. Running amok in the LEGO Store with £750 would therefore net you 214 individual LEGO Marvel minifigures, and probably a very kindly worded question from management over your reselling habits.

2 – A holiday abroad… to buy the AT-AT

At £749.99 in the UK and only €799.99 in Europe, 75313 AT-AT works out at around £65 cheaper on the continent. That means you could technically fly to Europe, purchase the AT-AT from a LEGO Store there, and fly home again – without any extra outlay.

For example, a return flight from London Stansted to Frankfurt, Germany on December 1 is currently £30 with Ryanair. A 20kg check-in bag (you’ll need the bigger size for the AT-AT) would cost between £20.99 and £39.99 to add to your flight.

Okay, yes, you’re not really saving money worth taking the time to travel, and there are also transport costs at either end, but you’ll also get a day out in Frankfurt, and – crucially – the base costs would have been roughly the same as just ordering it from home.

1 – An actual car

A quick glance at Autotrader suggests there are many, many cars – functioning, driveable, practical cars – you can pick up for less than £750. Okay, that kind of budget isn’t going to buy much in the way of amenities or probably even safety features, but it’s still incredible to think that for the same price as a few thousand plastic bricks, you could buy almost two tonnes of heavy machinery.

All of this is not to dissuade you from buying 75313 AT-AT, because it’s still worth picking up for any LEGO Star Wars collector with the means to do so – instead, it’s simply to illustrate just how mind-bogglingly high LEGO prices have climbed in the past few years. And there’s nothing to say this is the limit…

Still itching to know more about 75313 AT-AT? Check out all the info here, then dive into our detailed review.

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