The LEGO Ninjago City Gardens (71741) is worth it, and the reason is arithmetic. Brickset lists 5,685 pieces against a $349.99 retail price, which is 6.2 cents per piece, and the set retired on 31 December 2024. Brick Ranker has sealed copies at $355.46, barely above what it cost new. Very little at this scale is priced like this.
The rate is the headline
Brickset lists 71741 with 5,685 pieces at $349.99 in the US and £299.99 in the UK, released on 1 February 2021 for Ninjago's tenth anniversary, designed by Markus Rollbühler. It is rated 14+ and the rate lands at 6.2 cents per piece. It holds 4.6 out of 5 from 624 Brickset ratings.
Two prices circulate for this set, and the difference matters. The Brickset review from 2021 quotes £274.99 or $299.99, calling that "fantastic value." The set page now lists the RRP as $349.99. At the launch price the rate was closer to 5.3 cents per piece. At either figure it undercuts almost everything of comparable size.
The model is 73 by 44 by 33 cm, so like most of the Ninjago City line it goes up rather than out.
What the build actually contains
The construction splits into three city levels, built lowest to highest, across three bound instruction booklets. A separate temple sits on its own 16 by 32 baseplate. The enormous central tree is not just decoration: the Brickset review notes it reinforces the upper levels and hides Technic elements inside the trunk to carry the load.
The interiors are the point. The review lists an ice cream shop, Chen's noodle house, a ninja control room and a museum, along with parts usage that gets called out specifically, including a Technic linear actuator holder block combined with a Power Blast element to simulate water flowing through a sewer pipe, and weapon accessories repurposed as vegetation.
Buildings connect at unusual angles throughout, which is what stops a 5,685-piece tower reading as a stack of boxes.
Where reviewers pushed back
The criticism is narrow and consistent. The Brickset reviewer concluded that "the only area with significant potential for improvement is the minifigure selection," wanting more characters from the television series. The other complaint is the absence of steps connecting the Old City with the modern street above it, described as slightly disappointing, with the reviewer accepting the trade because adding them would mean losing detail elsewhere.
That is a short list of flaws for a set this size, and the same review closed by calling the price fantastic value and recommending it without qualification.
The market has barely moved
Brick Ranker valued sealed copies at $355.46 from six months of sale prices through August 2026, reporting 1.6 percent above the $349.99 retail price and a yearly return of about 0.9 percent. Brickset's set page is harsher, putting a new copy nearer $309, which leaves the two trackers about $45 apart.
Neither number says this is an investment. What they say is that a set with a genuinely exceptional parts-per-dollar rate has not been bid up, which makes it a buy for building rather than for storing. Brick Ranker puts the minifigures at 25 percent of value, a combined $88.01, with no single figure worth more than 3 percent of the set, so a used copy missing figures loses less proportionally here than on a minifigure-heavy set. If you want to know whether your own shelf looks more like this set or more like the Cantina, Stud Vault does that arithmetic for you.
Two sets that retired the same day
Mos Eisley Cantina (75290) left shelves on 31 December 2024 as well, which makes it a clean comparison. It is $399.99 for 3,187 pieces, or 12.6 cents each, and Brick Ranker has it 10.3 percent above retail. Ninjago City Gardens gives you 2,498 more pieces for $50 less and has appreciated less.
That is the trade in plain terms. The licence, not the plastic, is what the aftermarket pays for. The UCS Venator 75367 review makes the same point from the other end, with a set at 12.1 cents per piece trading below retail.
Who should buy it
Buy it if you want the most LEGO you can get for the money at this scale, you like dense modular builds, or you already own NINJAGO City and Docks and want the arrangement completed. It earns a 9 for a rate almost nothing matches alongside a build reviewers rated among the best of its year.
Skip it if you are buying to resell. Twenty months off shelves and 1.6 percent of growth is a clear signal. Also skip it if you want a clean architectural display piece, because this set is deliberately loud, crowded and full of jokes.
