Every year, LEGO celebrates the Lunar New Year with themed sets that capture the spirit of the occasion. In 2021, marking the Year of the Ox, LEGO introduced a Spring Festival set set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, for the Year of the Dragon, LEGO released the Auspicious Dragon, designed to mimic a bronze statue on a stand. This year, 2025, heralds the Year of the Snake, and LEGO has prepared three sets to commemorate it. The first set features a Lucky Cat, the second, titled Good Fortune, showcases a blend of Chinese iconography with items like a decorative fan, calligraphy pen and scroll, and golden ingots. The third and most opulent set, which we've had the pleasure of building and photographing for this review, is the LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern.
LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern
Priced at $129.95 at Amazon and $129.99 at the LEGO Store, this set embodies the essence of traditional trotting lanterns. These lanterns, originating from the Han Dynasty, were once powered by oil lamps that projected silhouettes of paper cutouts while the heat generated rotated propellers, causing the silhouettes to move. LEGO's designers have ingeniously recreated this effect with a mechanism that involves an upright rod activating a light brick, causing the lantern's base to glow with yellow light. This light shines through a clear piece with a black-lined image, projecting it onto the lantern's side. Turning the rod rotates the image around the lantern.
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The exterior of the LEGO Trotting Lantern is a testament to meticulous detail, adorned with decorative elements from the red lanterns hanging from the buttresses to the gold detailing along the walls' borders, and the walls themselves depicting an open sky and clouds framed by rocks.
Constructing the lantern is a layered experience. You start with the core structure, then add intricate details, followed by even more nuanced elements. This process evokes a sense of anticipation and delight, reminiscent of the now-retired LEGO Carousel, where each step unveiled more decorative surprises.
While the packaging suggests the ability to project the image onto a wall or other surface, our experience found the projection to be blurry and indistinct. This feature, which was not part of the original trotting lanterns, seems less impactful than advertised.
The upper tier of the lantern unfolds to reveal three hidden dioramas: a food stall serving dumplings, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. These hidden gems, concealed within the lantern's cylinder like a Polly Pocket, play on the viewer's perception of depth and space. The set includes five minifigures, one donning a snake costume, along with accessories such as a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.
Whether you decide to purchase this set might hinge on what aspect you value most. If it's the rotating mechanical effect that draws you in, it may not meet expectations due to its limited visual clarity. However, if you're after a visually stunning piece that hides intricate minifigure-scale scenery within an even more detailed container, the LEGO Trotting Lantern is a splendid way to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Suitable for ages 9 and up, it feels like an 18+ build due to its sophisticated final appearance.
For more LEGO recommendations, explore our selections of the best LEGO sets, the top Marvel LEGO sets, and the most expensive LEGO sets.
LEGO Trotting Lantern, Set #80116, retails for $129.99 and consists of 1295 pieces. It is [ttpp]available now at Amazon[ttpp] and the LEGO Store.
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