The biggest worry with LEGO Minas Tirith isn’t the price or size: it’s the colour
LEGO Minas Tirith is big, it’s expensive, but it’s also very, very white – and for many of us, that’s where the real worry is…
11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith comes in at a staggering 8,278 pieces (making it one of the biggest LEGO sets of all time) for £579.99 / $649.99 / €649.99. It stands 59cm tall, 62cm wide and 37cm deep. Those are big numbers all round. But even if you do have the cash and space for it, there’s a bigger worry at hand: how soon before all those shiny white pieces turn a sickly shade of yellow?
Leave any white LEGO pieces exposed to sunlight for long enough and they’ll invariably start to change colour. But even if you place them on a shelf in a room with no windows, you might find that they’ll eventually turn yellow anyway, because natural light isn’t the only damaging variable here. Temperature changes, interior lights (especially UV lights) and other factors such as air fresheners can also impact how quickly white LEGO pieces lose their lustre.
Some collectors even report their sets turning yellow while in temperature-controlled storage. That’s because white LEGO elements discolour as all plastics do over time, in a process known as oxidative degradation. In short: the molecules within the plastic break down and oxygen comes to the surface, causing the change in colour.
It’s pretty tough to keep your LEGO sets away from oxygen, so no matter what measures you take with Minas Tirith, there’s a non-zero chance that one day it won’t be the same colour it was when you first purchased it. For a set as expensive as this one, that’s a valid concern for LEGO fans – and it’s one many have picked up on in early reactions to the Middle-earth model’s reveal.
“Today, the white city – in 10 years, the slightly yellowish city!” drizdar joked on reddit. Some have gone as far as refusing to buy predominantly white LEGO sets again, having been burned before (the Saturn V rocket comes up repeatedly by way of example), ruling out 11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith regardless of its price or size.
There is one small ray of hope. In 2025, the LEGO Group changed the formula of its white pieces, introducing a new hue that lets less light pass through.
If light can’t get through the pieces as easily, the yellowing process may not happen as quickly or as severely as it has previously when exposed to light (although it may still happen due to other factors regardless). Given these elements have only been around for a year or so, though, it’s really too early to tell…
11377 The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith launches on June 1 for LEGO Insiders and June 4 for everyone else, exclusively at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores (at least to begin with). Check out more images of the set and its minifigure line-up here.
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