Each year, LEGO introduces themed sets to celebrate the Lunar New Year, capturing the essence of the occasion with intricate designs. In 2021, during the Year of the Ox, LEGO released a Spring Festival set set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and LEGO delighted fans with the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to resemble 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 mark the occasion. The first set features a Lucky Cat. The second, titled Good Fortune, is a pastiche of Chinese iconography that includes a decorative fan, a calligraphy pen and scroll, and golden ingots. The third and most luxurious set, which we've had the pleasure of building and photographing for this review, is a replica of a traditional trotting lantern. This LEGO build, like others with such focused intent, offers much more than meets the eye.
We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern
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Let's take a moment to appreciate the exterior of this model, which is detailed to the point of extravagance. Every inch of this set is adorned with decorative elements, from the red lanterns hanging from the buttresses to the gold detailing on the walls' borders, and even the walls themselves, which depict an open sky and clouds framed by rocks.
Building the lantern is an exercise in layering. You start with the basic, core lantern, then add layers of details, and finally, even more intricate details on top of those. This process brings an anticipatory joy, knowing there's always more to add. The now-retired LEGO Carousel was the last set that evoked this sense of delight and anticipation for what decorative element would come next.
Traditional trotting lanterns, dating back to the Han Dynasty, were powered by oil lamps. These lamps projected silhouettes of paper cutouts against the sides of the lantern, with the heat turning propellers to rotate the silhouettes.
LEGO's designers have incorporated a mechanism to mimic this effect, albeit in a limited way. An upright rod activates a light brick, causing the bottom of the lantern 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.
The packaging suggests that you can project the image from the lantern onto a wall or other surface. However, when I tried this, the image was blurry and hard to discern. It's unclear why LEGO would highlight this feature, as it's not only ineffective but also not a function of the original trotting lanterns.
The upper tier of the lantern is particularly impressive, opening to reveal three dioramas: a food stall serving dumplings, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. These hidden dioramas, nestled 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 wearing a snake costume on his head, along with accessories like a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and sets of chopsticks.
Whether you decide to purchase this set may depend on what aspect appeals to you most. If it's the lit-up, rotating mechanical effect, it might not justify the price due to its limited impressiveness and clarity. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning piece that hides impressive minifigure-scaled scenery within an even more detailed container, this set is a wonderful celebration of the Lunar New Year. It's rated for ages 9 and up, but its complexity suggests it's more suited for an 18+ build.
For more recommendations, explore our picks for the best LEGO sets overall, 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 Amazon and the LEGO Store.
