LEGO 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad is already commanding high prices on the aftermarket

20/02/202420/02/2024 Chris Wharfe 1079 Views 1 Comment

The seemingly-sold-out 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad is already commanding out-of-this-world prices on the aftermarket, to the surprise of nobody with their finger on the LEGO pulse.

LEGO gifts-with-purchase rarely head for the stratosphere on the secondary market, even when their initial qualifying threshold is relatively high. Last year’s four Houses of the World sets each required a £220 / $250 / €250 spend, but you can pick them up for £15-20 apiece on BrickLink. Likewise 40580 Blacktron Cruiser, a Classic Space GWP that was originally free with orders above £170 / $190 / €190.

So you might have hoped that 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad would follow the same trajectory after taking off from LEGO.com earlier this month. But you’re out of luck at the moment: the 325-piece free gift starts at £35 on BrickLink (or £38 from EU sellers – there are none available from UK sellers at the time of writing) while sold eBay listings are hovering around the £50 mark.

That’s perhaps not so surprising when you consider its fleeting availability. 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad was initially free with orders above £180 / $200 / €200 for LEGO Insiders only from February 16 to 18, with the intention apparently being to open it up to non-Insiders from February 19. The model failed to materialise in most regions yesterday, however, suggesting it’s already gone for good.

That level of scarcity would definitely play a part in the aftermarket prices for 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad, coupled with the fact that this set is a pretty hot property for Classic Space fans. Not only does it revisit a bunch of retro models from decades gone by, but it also includes a pair of brand new space babies (or ‘micro space characters’), with new face prints and one in white for the first time.

Those are all the ingredients necessary for a valuable gift-with-purchase – one that could potentially recover up to 27% of your original order value if you have one and choose to sell it now. There are no guarantees that it will maintain its current price in the long term, though. The initial frenzy for a brand new set could cool off in the weeks and months to come, and 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad might then settle at a lower price on the likes of BrickLink and eBay.

Just don’t count on it: basic supply and demand tells us the scales may yet be sustained in the set’s favour, at least if it never returns to LEGO.com. At this point, it’s worth checking your local LEGO Store to see if they still have any left – at least one UK store still had 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad available yesterday, but your mileage may vary.

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Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.