LEGO Unveils Trotting Lantern for 2025 Lunar New Year

Each year, LEGO introduces special themed sets to celebrate the Lunar New Year. In 2021, during the Year of the Ox, LEGO unveiled a Spring Festival set set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, LEGO released the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to resemble a bronze statue mounted on a stand.

LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern

$129.95 at Amazon
$129.99 at LEGO Store

As we look forward to 2025, the Year of the Snake, LEGO is set to launch three new sets to mark the occasion. The first set features a Lucky Cat. The second, named 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 opulent set, which we've had the pleasure of building and photographing for this review, is a replica of a traditional trotting lantern. This set, like all LEGO creations with such detailed focus, offers much more than what meets the eye initially.

We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern

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Before diving into the build process, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the exterior of this model. The level of detail is truly extravagant, with every part adorned with decorative elements. From the red lanterns hanging from the buttresses to the gold detailing along the walls' borders, and even the walls themselves depicting an open sky and clouds framed by rocks, the set is a visual feast.

Constructing the lantern involves a delightful process of layering. You start by building the core lantern, followed by adding layers of detail on top, and then even more intricate elements on those. This method creates a sense of anticipation and joy, similar to the now-retired LEGO Carousel, as you wonder what elaborate feature comes next.

Historically, real trotting lanterns, originating from the Han Dynasty, used oil lamps to project silhouettes of paper cutouts on their sides. The heat generated would turn propellers, causing the silhouettes to rotate. LEGO's designers have ingeniously replicated this effect, albeit in a simplified way. An upright rod activates a light brick, causing the lantern's base to glow with yellow light. This light passes through a clear piece with a black-lined image, projecting it onto the lantern's side. Rotating the rod allows the image to move around the lantern.

The packaging suggests that you can project the image onto a wall or other surface. However, in my experience, the projection was blurry and hard to make out. It's puzzling why LEGO would highlight this feature, especially since it doesn't work effectively and was never part of the original trotting lantern's design.

More impressive is the upper tier of the lantern, which opens 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, create a surprising effect that plays on the viewer's perception of depth and space. The set includes five minifigures, one wearing a snake costume headpiece, along with accessories such as a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and sets of chopsticks.

Your decision to purchase this set might hinge on what aspect you're most interested in. If it's the lit-up, rotating mechanical effect, it may not meet expectations due to its lack of clarity and impact. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning piece that hides intricate minifigure-scale scenes within an elaborately detailed container, this set is a magnificent celebration of the Lunar New Year. It's recommended for ages 9 and up, though its final complexity suggests an 18+ build.

For more LEGO options, explore our selections of the best overall LEGO sets, the top Marvel LEGO sets, and the most expensive LEGO sets.

The LEGO Trotting Lantern, Set #80116, retails for $129.99 and consists of 1295 pieces. It is available now at Amazon and the LEGO Store.