LEGO 72153 Kanto Trio: Sold Out Worldwide in a Day, Then Reviewed as the "Best Version of a Bad Idea"

Sold out on both sides of the Pacific in under 24 hours

LEGO 72153 Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise was officially revealed on January 12, 2026. Within 24 hours of pre-orders going live the next day, LEGO.com and the Pokemon Center had both run out of the $649.99 set. Jay's Brick Blog confirmed the worldwide sellout in their January 13 post — timed close enough to the reveal that the pre-order window effectively was the reveal window.

The writer's reaction was dry. "I'm not surprised by this at all," he wrote. "Pokemon fans are notorious for spending huge amounts on merchandise." His comments section agreed. One commenter called it "I don't know who thought this wouldn't sell like crack." Another noted that at his local card store he regularly sees Pokemon fans "dropping 1000$ easy." The floor for Pokemon LEGO demand was never in question. The ceiling was.

The knock-on effect hit the 40892 Kanto Region Badge Collection GWP almost immediately. Bundled free with 72153 purchases, resale listings in Australia cleared A$300 within days. LEGO has said the flagship will restock around the February 27 launch day. The GWP almost certainly will not.

The build reality: beautiful models, a base that doesn't click together

The reviews that dropped in February told a more complicated story than the sellout numbers. Brick Banter's February 19 hands-on review and Nintendo Insider's launch-day writeup both arrived at roughly the same conclusion: the three Pokemon models are gorgeous pieces of LEGO design, and the set's structural conceit — three independent display bases that slide together — works less well than the marketing implies.

Venusaur is a largely static build. Brick Banter's reviewer called it "wholly static," though they singled out the layered pink petal flower and the vine rigging as standout construction. Nintendo Insider agreed, noting the vines are "slightly fiddly to get right." Blastoise is the structurally soundest of the three, with a trans-blue wave base that both reviewers praised, and only the back claws showing minor fragility during handling. Charizard is the most posable — but that freedom comes at a cost.

Both reviewers flagged the same problem. Charizard sits on a central base that can't cleanly detach from the Venusaur and Blastoise bases without exposing raw Technic and mismatched brick colors underneath. In practice, the three starters work as a unified diorama or not at all. You cannot buy this set, keep your favorite starter, and gift the other two. The three fates are mechanically linked.

Why Brick Fanatics called it the "best version of a bad idea"

Brick Fanatics' editorial, published in February under the headline LEGO Pokemon's flagship set: the best version of a bad idea, took the sharpest swing. Their thesis had nothing to do with the build quality — they agreed the three models are beautifully designed. The objection was to the bundle itself.

In Pokemon's source material, you pick one starter. One. That is the central emotional beat of every playthrough for three decades of the franchise. Most Pokemon fans, the editorial argued, have a sentimental attachment to exactly one of Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise — whichever they chose on their first cartridge. LEGO's decision to charge $649.99 for all three, with no single-starter alternative, means every fan in that majority has to pay for two Pokemon they don't care about to get the one they do.

The piece called the strategy "cynical and toxic to consumers." Then it admitted the set itself is "beautiful" and "well-designed" — the best possible execution of the premise. That is the tension the headline was selling. If LEGO had packaged these three as 72153A, 72153B and 72153C at $219 each, the review pile-on would look very different.

It is fair to note that $650 for 6,838 pieces is also, by the raw metric LEGO fans usually use, a reasonable price per piece. That is the case Nintendo Insider made in their launch-day review: "if you have the money and are a LEGO or Pokemon fan, then go for it." Their writer called it "one of the best LEGO sets I've ever built" — flatly, without hedging. Both things can be true.

What you're actually getting if you grabbed a pre-order

Below is the bricQ canonical card for 72153, alongside the 40892 Kanto Badge Collection GWP that shipped with it during the launch window. Piece counts and theme metadata are pulled live from the Rebrickable mirror — they match the official numbers LEGO put out at reveal.

For reference: Venusaur stands 23 cm tall, Charizard 20 cm, Blastoise 18 cm, and the combined display footprint is roughly 21 inches wide. The trans-blue Blastoise wave base, the pink layered Venusaur flower, and Charizard's fabric wings and flame-tipped tail are the elements reviewers kept circling back to as the set's construction highlights.

How to read the sellout in context

The inclination is to treat the 24-hour sellout as vindication and the "bad idea" editorial as noise. That reading is incomplete. Jay's Brick Blog's own writer expected the sellout — the demand floor for LEGO Pokemon was never the open question. The open question was whether LEGO could package this line in a way that translated that demand into repeat purchases across pricing tiers, or whether it would force fans into one expensive commitment and leave the upper collector tier exhausted after a single buy.

The summer wave — a rumored 16-set expansion for August 1, 2026 that includes a buildable Rayquaza, a Mewtwo Lab and a larger Poke Ball with Smart Brick interactivity — will be the real second data point. If LEGO learned the lesson from the Kanto trio critique, expect that wave to ship as single-Pokemon sets at accessible price points. If it doesn't, expect the "bad idea" framing to stick.

Either way: the 72153 flagship is gone. Until LEGO restocks, the only way to get Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise on your shelf is either a February 27 retail run or the secondary market at a markup. Both reviewers agreed on one thing when asked if the set is worth chasing. The answer was some version of: if you can afford it and Pokemon means anything to you, yes.