Every year, LEGO celebrates the Lunar New Year with themed sets that capture the essence of the occasion. In 2021, during the Year of the Ox, LEGO introduced the Spring Festival set, which was set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and LEGO released the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to resemble a bronze statue on a stand.
LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern
0$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 including 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 themes, offers much more than meets the eye.
We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern
98 Images
Let's take a moment to appreciate the exterior of this model, which is detailed to an extravagant level. Every inch of the 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 a layered experience. You start with the basic core lantern, then add detailed overlays, and finally, you top it off with even more intricate details. This process brings a sense of anticipation and joy, reminiscent of the now-retired LEGO Carousel, which similarly delighted with its elaborate decorative elements.
Traditional trotting lanterns, dating back to the Han Dynasty, were powered by oil lamps that projected silhouettes of paper cutouts and used heat to rotate propellers, thus moving the silhouettes. LEGO's designers have ingeniously recreated this effect with a mechanism that includes an upright rod triggering 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, in my experience, the projection was blurry and hard to discern. It's puzzling why LEGO would highlight this feature, especially since the original trotting lanterns were not designed for such use.
The upper tier of the lantern is particularly impressive, opening 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 like a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.
Whether you decide to purchase this set may depend on what you're looking for. If it's the lit-up, rotating mechanical effect, it might not meet your expectations in terms of clarity and impact. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning piece that hides intricate minifigure-scaled scenery within a beautifully detailed container, this set is a magnificent celebration of the Lunar New Year. It's rated for ages 9 and up, but the complexity and final result suggest it's more suited for an 18+ audience.
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 Amazon and the LEGO Store.
