2002

2002 was yet another spectacular year for LEGO collectors and investors. 2002 saw a staggering 376 sets released, not including gear or books, with 66 promotional and not for retail sets.

Based on the 376 sets released for that year, the retail value was $7,286.74 with a current value of $48,544.17 for the combined new/factory sealed sets. As of present, the best performing theme for 2002 is currently Exclusive which has seen an average annual growth of upwards of 12% to date. All together 2002 saw the release of sets covering 21 themes and 44 subthemes with Explore having the highest release count of 65 sets.

2002 was an interesting year for LEGO. While there were a couple of highly collectable sets such as the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer (10030-1) and the Pirates Black Seas Barracuda (10040-1) most sets did not see the kind of growth that previous years had experienced. However, the Star Wars theme carried a lot of the collection's weight, it was the year Star Wars celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The Western theme which included the iconic Fort LEGOredo (6762-1) help the overall investiability of 2002. During 2002 LEGO released a number of new themes including the original Spider-man and Island Xtreme Stunts as well as some prominent subthemes including Episode II: Attack of the Clones for Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Mission Deep Sea under Alpha Team.

2002 brought with it some major flops for LEGO which included the famed Galidor theme, which by some is considered the worst LEGO theme to date. We also so the Spybotics TECHNIC theme which was both introduced and retired that same year.