In 2003 LEGO released 8 Belville sets. The largest Belville set from 2003 was
5858 The Golden Palace with a piece count of 173 and a retail price of $54.99. The current estimated value of all these Belville sets from this year is about $537.72 which represents a 318.3% growth.
The Belville theme which was introduced in 1994 and later discontinued in 2009 was created to appeal primarily to girls. While the sets revolved around the concept of the LEGO system it featured doll-like figures known as Belville Figures instead of regular LEGO minifigures. The Belville Figures featured multiple joints to make play more like normal doll play and were larger than minifigures. The Belville theme was the predecessor to LEGO Friends.
2003 LEGO Sets
While 2003 proved to be a financial disaster for LEGO we did see a number of signification events that set the tone for future LEGO recovery and investments. Most important, LEGO introduced new realistic minifigure skin tones that affected licensed themes including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Basketball, Ferrari and Spider-Man, but kept yellow skin tones for all other minifigures. In 2003, the LEGO minifigure celebrated its 25th birthday with just under four billion minifigures being produced. LEGO that year introduced a number of new themes including Clikits, Designer, Sports which consisted of hokey, basketball and Gravity Games, World City and 4 Juniors which replaced the Jack Stone theme.