LEGO announces region specific sets for the China and Asia Pacific Markets that’s slated to be released from January 1st, 2019 onwards. At the moment, two sets showing events from the festivities related during the Lunar New Year’s celebration are featured. The two sets are scenes celebrating the family dinner on the Eve of Chinese New Year, and the famous Dragon Dance. According to Niels B. Christiansen, Chief Executive Officer of the LEGO Group, this is the first time LEGO has made sets for a specific country or region.
80101 Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner
80102 Dragon Dance
Excerpt from Press Release:
The Danish family-owned business also announced that its first-ever sets inspired by traditional new year festivals will be available in China and Asia Pacific markets from 1 January 2019.
The new sets celebrate iconic new year traditions. Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner shows a Chinese family reuniting to celebrate the lunar new year in a traditional home. Often performed during Chinese New Year, Dragon Dance is a symbol of the Chinese culture and is believed to bring good luck to people. The Dragon Dance set features a team of dragon dancers, with a minifigure dressed as a cute pig celebrating the coming Chinese New Year of the Pig.
Christiansen said: “These sets are special. They are the first sets we’ve created to celebrate Lunar New Year and the first time we’ve made sets for a specific country or region. We hope they bring a lot of joy to children and the young at heart during new year.”
China is a strategic growth market for the LEGO Group which has been engaging with Chinese children and parents with its system in play since 1983 when the LEGO sets were sold in China. Over the past 35 years, the LEGO Group has been building brand and geographic presence in the country. It has opened 47 LEGO branded stores in 16 cities and 157 LEGO Education centers in all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China.
So for Chinese people Lego can produce set with 10+ new printed tiles, but for rest of the world they will attach A4 sheet of stickers and say it’s impossibru to print so many different design on bricks and kids like stickers.
If my kids like stickers I will buy them a book not a Lego set.
Great, let’s have Lego create a set only for white people, and one only for black people, etc.; because this isn’t racist product availability at all. Way to go and step in it big time TLG, perhaps you haven’t heard but there are people of Chinese nationality that actually live outside China and the Pacific region.
These sets look fantastic. I hope they’ll be available abroad for little to no markup.
Yeah, limited release is a big case of fail. Not only for the reasons mentioned above but you know that the clone brands will release clone copies and those will be what find their way onto ebay/etc if you wanted to buy the set not in the APAC region.
I for one think these are great sets! Especially being a regional set, it makes sense. They’re trying to breakthrough to the Chinese market, hence more emphasis on the design, and more new printed pieces. Also I feel like TLG has always made products based on American culture. This is simply a Lego product highlighting the Chinese/Asian culture.
Those both seem unnecessarily hostile comments.^^
I think they look great. And they’re not being “racist”. They’re appealing to a new market which might not have as much appeal to the casual buyer in, say, the U.S.or U.K. than someone in China.
Dragon dance set is so beautiful. I do hope they reconsider and release it to other territories.
Can I get these 2 sets in the US? Looks very cool.
These sets look great! Wow, wish I could already see that dragon in action… I hope this (And Forma) is marking a solid trend towards “kinetic sculptures” for LEGO, haha. Also I wish these would be released in the usual areas as well as the Asian one, because I love these. :( LEGO has based a ton of sets off of American culture, and I’m excited to see something markedly different that isn’t… y’know, Ninjago.
About 4% of the worlds population outside China is Chinese. (which is pretty high considering)
Jeez, LEGO has based hundreds of sets on Western culture that aren’t available in stores throughout Asia. By your logic, LEGO making Christmas sets is also racist then? Yeah, people of all color can celebrate Christmas. But let’s not kid ourselves, it’s historically a European tradition. Probably more people celebrate Chinese new years than Christmas anyways… The only thing to lament is that it won’t be available outside Asia, but it makes sense from a business perspective. Just calm your horses and order it on Alibaba when it comes out…
Region exclusives aren’t all that new – GB Olympics and the German football team CMFs spring to mind.
Christmas is celebrated even in non-Christian countries, although there it tends to be a pretty non-religious, commercial holiday. (Which it allegedly could be considered as, even in Christian, Western countries. Its origins are pretty diverse, anyway.)
I look forward to buying this on Bricklink at an outrageous markup.
Wow, so cool! I will definitely buy the set!
Region released products suck! You suck lego and all companies that release region products; worst idea ever!!!