Each year, LEGO celebrates the Lunar New Year with themed sets that capture the essence of the occasion. In 2021, marking the Year of the Ox, LEGO introduced the Spring Festival set, set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and LEGO unveiled the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to mimic a bronze statue on a stand.
LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern
$129.95 at Amazon
$129.99 at LEGO Store
As we approach 2025, the Year of the Snake, LEGO is set to release three new sets to commemorate this event. The first set features a Lucky Cat, while the second, titled Good Fortune, is a pastiche of Chinese iconography showcasing a decorative fan, a calligraphy pen and scroll, and golden ingots. The third and most luxurious set, which we've built and photographed for this review, is the LEGO Trotting Lantern, a replica of a traditional trotting lantern. This LEGO set, like others with such cultural focus, is filled with intricate details that go beyond initial appearances.
We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern
98 Images
Taking a moment to appreciate the exterior of this model, it's clear that no detail has been spared. The set is adorned with decorative elements from top to bottom, including red lanterns hanging from the buttresses, gold detailing along the walls' borders, and walls that depict an open sky and clouds framed by rocks.
Building the LEGO Trotting Lantern involves a meticulous process of layering. You start with the core lantern structure, then add detailed overlays, and finally, top it off with even more intricate details. This building experience evokes a sense of anticipation and delight, reminiscent of the now-retired LEGO Carousel, which similarly excited with its elaborate decorative elements.
Traditional trotting lanterns, dating back to the Han Dynasty, used oil lamps to project silhouettes of paper cutouts and generate heat to turn propellers, rotating the silhouettes. LEGO's designers have incorporated a mechanism to replicate this effect. An upright rod activates a light brick, causing the bottom of the lantern to glow with yellow light, which projects an image onto the lantern's side. Turning the rod rotates the image around the lantern.
The packaging suggests that the image can be projected onto a wall or other surface. However, when tested, the projection was blurry and hard to discern, making it a questionable selling point, especially since the original trotting lanterns were not designed for this purpose.
The upper tier of the lantern opens to reveal three hidden dioramas: a food stall serving dumplings, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. These dioramas, cleverly concealed within the lantern's cylinder, play on the viewer's perception of depth and space. The set includes five minifigures, one wearing a snake costume, along with accessories such as a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.
The decision to purchase this set may hinge on what aspect appeals to you most. The rotating mechanical effect, while interesting, may not justify the price due to its limited visual impact. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning set that hides intricate minifigure-scaled scenes within a beautifully detailed container, the LEGO Trotting Lantern is a splendid celebration of the Lunar New Year. It's rated for ages 9 and up, though the complexity of the final product suggests it's more suited for builders 18 and older.
For more LEGO options, explore our picks for the best overall LEGO sets, the best Marvel LEGO sets, and the most expensive LEGO sets.
The LEGO Trotting Lantern, Set #80116, is available for $129.99 and consists of 1295 pieces. You can find it available now at Amazon and the LEGO Store.
