Solid gold LEGO piece sells for more than $18,000 at auction

The incredibly rare gold LEGO BIONICLE mask that surfaced at a Goodwill store in the US has sold at auction for a second time, fetching just over half its initial selling price.

The 14-karat solid gold Hau sold for $33,000 in its initial auction, but the mystery bidder who pushed it up to that price apparently failed to pay for their prize. Whether the user seemingly willing to spend $18,101 – the final asking price in this second auction – actually follows through on their bid remains to be seen.

If they do, it will set a precedent for the market value for this piece, which was one of roughly 30 believed to have been produced and distributed both internally at the LEGO Group and externally through giveaways in the early 2000s. This example was reportedly donated to a Goodwill store in the US in a box of random jewellery, and the employees realised they had a gem on their hands when a collector repeatedly called up to buy it for $100.

The mask attracted 20 bids in the first auction, the last of which apparently took the asking price from $6,500 to $33,000 in one fell swoop. This time round, 48 different bids were placed on the gold collectible in incremental stages. The identity of the winning bidder is a complete mystery at the moment – but they may decide to make themselves known if and when they have the piece in hand.

If you’d like a faux facsimile of this rare element for your own collection without coughing up five figures, you can buy a ‘BIONICLE gold’ variant of Tahu’s mask on BrickLink for as little as £7.70 (plus shipping). Those coppery masks were distributed in BIONICLE blind bags during the theme’s original run, and while still relatively rare – there are only 45 on BrickLink at the time of writing – they’re much easier to come by nowadays.

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