Back in 2018, LEGO released its first two building sets in celebration of Lunar New Year. 5 years on, I am happy to see the continuation of this theme, with LEGO bringing us two brand new LNY sets (and a Brickheadz) which will be available from end of December, just in time for Year of the Tiger, which falls on 1st of February this year!
As per the previous sets, LEGO has kept the tradition of using red and yellow for the packaging…which represents happiness and prosperity in Chinese culture.
I am always thrilled to open and build my Lunar New Year sets every year. With so many fond memories incorporated in the sets, just like my childhood memories in Hong Kong, which is my birthplace.
These reviews will cover all three new LNY sets, so let me begin with 80108 Lunar New Year Traditions. It’s a set composed of several mini vignettes, in the traditional joyous red and yellow colour theme.
There are 7 numbered bags for this set and 6 instruction booklets to encourage the entire family to build the set together, which I think is a great idea for parents to be able to get their hands on it and kids can build their own parts too.
We also see a good number of stickers come with traditional Chinese characters which are words of blessings.
These vignettes represent what Chinese people do in preparation for the New Year.
To Clear the Old and Receive the New — It’s a tradition in every household to do a big cleanup before the new year. This symbolised we are clearing the old (negativity) to get ready for a good new year ahead. But of course, no one said we are not allowed to get help from the professional cleaners…
Shopping Spree for New Year — Very similar to what we do for Xmas shopping, before Chinese New Year, I remember my family will do a lot of shopping for food, clothes, traditional snacks… LNY is all about big feasts, 15 days of eating and greetings! In this vignette (above), the vendor is selling traditional flour dough dolls on a stick. They are usually famous folklore characters like Monkey King, great generals or emperors.
The third vignette depicts the homemade wall posters and paper cuttings for house decorations. Here we will put in words that represent good fortunes, good health and happiness in wish for a great new year. I am not sure why this guy looks like this when practicing his calligraphy, seems like he is also holding a packet of chrysanthemum medication mixture… I can only wish him the best of health!
The fourth vignette is the tradition of staying up on New Year Eve, so that the “Nian” new year monster will not stand a chance to attack our houses if we are awake. You could call it a New Year countdown I guess. But this year daddy has dozed off because he has worked long hours during the day. No problem for mum and daughter who are used to browsing on FB and IG till way past midnight!
New Year Day — on the first day of new year, we all go to visit the elders in the family to send them well wishes. In returns, we will receive Red Pockets, known as “Ley Si” from them with money inside, a symbol of their blessings to us in return. But grandma is the next level, she got the boy LEGO! Best grandma in the world!
The Last vignette — the god of fortunes. Many people worship him in many regions because he means to bring fortune and prosperity! You can see here he is going to load up your home with gold! To thank him, I have made him a golden hotdog… with Chinese preserved sausage!
I really enjoyed building this set and love the way it can be individually built and put together as one neat set. Every vignette tells a story and the designer has put so much detail in each of them. As per previous LNY sets, we see some lovely printed minifigure torsos and decor tiles. They are simple to build but very nice to look at. And certainly gives fans a good insight of the traditions of LNY. This set is a good example of Build Together. I hope LEGO will come up with more like this setting in the future.
Join us next week for the 80109 Lunar New Year ice Festival review!
Words by Amy Lau
Photos by Amy Lau
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