In 2002 LEGO released 7 Belville sets. The largest Belville set from 2002 was
5850 The Royal Crystal Palace with a piece count of 149 and a retail price of $49.99. The current estimated value of all these Belville sets from this year is about $1,187.42 which represents a 720% 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.
2002 LEGO 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.