Every year, LEGO celebrates the Lunar New Year with specially themed sets. In 2021, during the Year of the Ox, they released a Spring Festival set set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and LEGO introduced the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to mimic a bronze statue on a stand. Now, as we look forward to 2025, the Year of the Snake, LEGO is preparing to launch three new sets to honor this occasion.
The first set is a Lucky Cat, symbolizing good fortune. The second, titled Good Fortune, is a vibrant pastiche of Chinese iconography, featuring a decorative fan, a calligraphy pen and scroll, and golden ingots. However, the highlight is the third set, which we've had the pleasure of building and photographing for this review: the LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern. Priced at $129.95 on Amazon and $129.99 at the LEGO Store, this set offers more than meets the eye.
LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern
We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern
98 Images
Let's start by admiring the exterior of this model, which is nothing short of extravagant. Every inch is adorned with decorative elements, from the red lanterns hanging from the buttresses to the gold detailing along the walls' borders. The walls themselves depict scenes of open sky and clouds framed by rocks, creating a visually stunning piece.
Constructing the lantern involves a layering process that adds to the building experience's joy. You start with the core lantern, then add layers of detail, and finally, even more intricate elements on top. This approach echoes the delightful anticipation found in the now-retired LEGO Carousel, where you eagerly awaited the next decorative surprise.
Traditional trotting lanterns, dating back to the Han Dynasty, used oil lamps to project silhouettes and rotate them with heat-powered propellers. LEGO's designers have ingeniously replicated this effect. An upright rod activates a light brick, illuminating the lantern's base with a warm yellow glow. 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.
The packaging suggests projecting the image onto a wall, but in practice, the projection is blurry and hard to discern. This feature, while promoted, falls short of expectations and deviates from the original lantern's purpose.
The upper tier of the lantern, however, is a marvel. It opens to reveal three hidden dioramas: a food stall serving dumplings, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. These are cleverly concealed within the lantern's cylinder, creating a delightful surprise. The set includes five minifigures, one sporting a snake costume, along with accessories like a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.
Whether you should purchase this set depends on your priorities. If you're after the rotating mechanical effect, it might not meet your expectations due to its limited visual clarity. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning piece that hides intricate minifigure-scaled scenes within a beautifully detailed container, the LEGO Trotting Lantern is a perfect celebration of the Lunar New Year. It's rated for ages 9 and up, but its complexity suggests it's more suited for builders 18 and older.
For more LEGO inspiration, 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, retails for $129.99 and comprises 1295 pieces. It is available now at both Amazon and the LEGO Store.
