Tag Archives: Chinese New Year

LEGO 80105 Spring Festival Chinese New Year Temple Fair [Review]

Last year, LEGO released sets 80101 Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner and 80102 Dragon Dance to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year). At the time, the sets were only sold in the Asia Pacific region, causing an uproar among fans elsewhere in the world who felt slighted by their regional exclusivity. The extent of this reaction was influential in LEGO’s decision to make this year’s Chinese New Year sets available worldwide. Today, we take a look at this year’s LEGO 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair to give you insight into a brick-built celebration filled with fun and beautiful details. The set has been available in the Asia Pacific region since December 26, 2019 but is being released worldwide today. It consists of 1664 pieces and retails for US $119.99 | CAN $159.99 | UK £89.99


Read the full review to learn more about this Chinese New Year exclusive.

LEGO Chinese New Year Temple Fair and Lion Dance sets now available globally [News]

LEGO has made the two new Chinese New Year regional exclusives for 2020 available worldwide. 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair comes with 1,664 pieces, 14 minifigures and features a lively festival around a temple gate for US $119.99 | CAN $159.99 | UK £89.99.

80104 Lion Dance comes with 882 pieces, eight minifigures including a new rat costume, and five brick-built dancing lions for US $79.99 | CAN $109.99 | UK £64.99.

Click to get a closer look at each Chinese New Year LEGO set

Your guide to 153 new LEGO sets now available for 2020, including City, Technic, Star Wars, Architecture and more [News]

2020 has arrived and the floodgates of LEGO have opened with 153 new sets available today. Fans of Star Wars, Technic, Ninjago, City, Architecture, Creator 3-in-1 and even the new Trolls product line have a lot to choose from. The new modular Bookstore is available today as is a new white baseplate. Nearly every LEGO theme has some new sets–it can be a lot to process!– so we have your complete guide right here detailing each and every new set and item.

Some regions have seen these sets on shelves already, but now they are all available online. There are a few sets that really stand out to us, and you can see the complete list of all 153 sets and items after the jump.

See the entire January 2020 wave of new LEGO sets now available

We got lucky with LEGO Brick Headz’ new 40436 Lucky Cat [Review]

The Maneki-Neko, or “Beckoning Cat” is a symbol of good fortune, originally from Japan, but commonly referred to as a Chinese Lucky Cat due to its frequent appearance in shop, business, and restaurant entrances in China, and in Chinatowns across the world. With Chinese New Year approaching at the end of January, LEGO is introducing a Lucky Cat to its Brick Headz range. Read on to see what we thought when we got our paws on a set…

LEGO Brick Headz 40436 Lucky Cat has 134 parts and will be available from 1st January 2020 US $9.99 | CAN $12.99 | UK £9.99

Click to read our review of this fortunate feline

LEGO reveals two new Chinese New Year sets for 2020 that combine into one gigantic festival [News]

LEGO has revealed two new sets to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year: 80104 Lion Dance and 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair. Both sets feature an incredible amount of new prints, recoloring of pieces and a significant amount of minifigures which all combine into a large festival setting. So today we have your first look at the sets and minifigures along with a video for each.

Honoring LEGO’s commitment to offer regional exclusives sets worldwide, the two new LEGO Chinese Traditional Festival models will launch in China and the Asia Pacific region starting December 26, 2019 with global availability beginning January 10, 2020.

Click to see all the details about the new Chinese Traditional Festivals sets

LEGO will make regional exclusive sets available worldwide starting next month [News]

Over the past year, LEGO has produced quite a few special sets with limited availability, including regional and retailer exclusives like the Chinese New Year sets and the Darth Vader Bust. Access to these products has typically been extremely limited, forcing many frustrated LEGO fans both in the US and abroad to go out of their way and pay exorbitant amounts of money from scalpers and other sites to obtain the sets. Starting in May, all that is about to change for the better.

Click to read about the change to LEGO regional and exclusive set availability

The LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigures, Apocalypseburg and more now available [News]

A new month means new LEGO sets are now available, and while there are significantly less than the huge amount that went on sale in January, there are still a few updates and some sweet promotions.

New Sets for February

First up, 70840 Welcome To Apocalypseburg is now available widely after its VIP early access. You can read our detailed review here. The set includes 3,178 pieces and 12 minifigures for US $299.99 | CA $399.99 | UK £279.99.

Next up, 71023 The LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigures are now available online. These have popped up early in some retail stores before today, but they are now generally available with all your post-apocalyptic favorites and the quartet from the Wizard of Oz. We have all the details in our hands-on review. They are priced at US $3.99 | CAN $4.99 | £2.99 UK.

There is also a bunch of other gear, costumes, masks and more themed for The LEGO Movie 2, including a new 853874 Emmet Construction Pod. (Also of note, the new “sewer babies” pack is not available online but is now on LEGO Store shelves.)

Click to continue reading about LEGO’s current promotions

For many around the world, the New Year is just beginning...

With the Chinese New Year less than a week away, we’re seeing a number of creations inaugurating the Year of the Pig and a new calendar for over 20 percent of the planet. Joseph Zawada provided a detail-filled scene of how the Lunar New Year is likely to be enjoyed next month in San Francisco, California. Held since the 1860s to celebrate Chinese culture in the United States, this parade draws in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is the largest Lunar New Year event outside of Asia. The builder recreated a lively portion of the parade in front of the Dragon Gate in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The scene features a ton of popular references to the Lunar New Year, such as dancing dragons and children carrying red envelops containing gifts of money (hóngbāo). There’s even a C-pop float to round off the sensory experience.

Chinese Lunar New Year - San Fransisco Dragon Gate

As a quick note, Joseph states he recently worked with LEGO China’s Integration and Engagement team and fifteen other builders to highlight the Lunar New Year in LEGO form (including the Nian beast we recently featured). We’re hoping to see many more creations in the days ahead. We wish our readers great happiness and prosperity for the year ahead!

LEGO 40186 Year of the Pig gift with purchase available now [News]

LEGO is giving away a free 40186 Year of the Pig set with eligible purchases over 88 USD, 80 GBP, or 88 CAD. The set celebrates the 2019 Lunar New Year, and comes with a rotating head, movable ears, arms, and legs. Also enclosed is a red money envelope with traditional gold color prints.

The offer is only available through February 7th or while stocks last. Links for the various regional stores are as follows: LEGO US Shop Online | LEGO UK Shop Online |LEGO Canada Shop Online

A beautiful brick-built boar that will leave you singing, “Hakuna matata!”

Builder keiichi kamei is no stranger when it comes to building phenomenal LEGO sculptures. Earlier this year, you might recall us sharing his New Year lion dance mask. With 2019 being the year of the pig, keiichi is back with a majestic-looking LEGO wild boar. His boar looks like the real deal, thanks to intricate sculpting of the animal’s body. A combination of curved and angled slopes form the overall shape of the body, which is nearly void of studs. Meanwhile, the positioning of the legs is reminiscent of how boars trot around while they forage for food. Better watch out for those tusks, though!
 
wild_boar_04

LEGO to release Exclusive sets inspired by traditional new year festivals for the China and Asia Pacific markets [News]

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

Click here to learn more about the new sets!

Luck, Prosperity, and LEGO

We’ve all seen the giant Chinese dragons given life by hidden dancers in their bellies. They’re especially popular in parades surrounding the Chinese New Year. But they aren’t just for fun. These colorful characters are created to honor the beloved creatures of Chinese tradition and culture. Dragons are a symbol of power and luck. They are also said to represent prosperity and strength.  This LEGO build, by Vlad Lisin, is a really cool tribute to their beauty.

Chinese Dragon

Vlad has done a great job of bringing the dragon to life with the details of the face. I’m especially fond of the expressive eyes, eyebrows and cheeks.