LEGO celebrates Lunar New Year annually with themed sets. 2021's Year of the Ox featured a Spring Festival garden scene, while 2024's Year of the Dragon brought us the LEGO Auspicious Dragon, a bronze statue replica. 2025, the Year of the Snake, sees three new releases: a Lucky Cat, a Good Fortune set featuring Chinese iconography (decorative fan, calligraphy set, gold ingots), and the magnificent Trotting Lantern, reviewed here.
LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern
$129.95 at Amazon
$129.99 at LEGO Store
This traditional trotting lantern replica is far more than meets the eye. The intricate detailing is extravagant; every inch boasts decorative elements – from hanging red lanterns to gold-accented borders and sky-and-cloud wall murals framed by rocks.
Construction is a layered process: a core lantern, followed by detail layers upon detail layers. This creates a delightful anticipation, reminiscent of the now-retired LEGO Carousel, wondering what elaborate element awaits next.
Historically, trotting lanterns (dating back to the Han Dynasty) used oil lamps to project silhouettes via rotating propellers. The LEGO version cleverly approximates this: a rod activates a light brick, illuminating a clear piece with a black-lined image, which rotates when the rod is turned.
While the advertised wall projection is blurry and ineffective, the lantern's upper tier is far more impressive. It opens to reveal three charming dioramas: a dumpling stall, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. This hidden element adds a layer of visual surprise. The set includes five minifigures (one with a snake costume), dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.
The set's value depends on your priorities. The light-up, rotating mechanism isn't spectacular enough to justify the price alone. However, the stunning aesthetics and intricately detailed, hidden dioramas make it a wonderful Lunar New Year celebration. Rated for ages 9+, its complexity suggests an 18+ build experience.
For more LEGO reviews, check out our best LEGO sets, best Marvel LEGO sets, and most expensive LEGO sets.
LEGO Trotting Lantern, Set #80116, retails for $129.99 (1295 pieces) and is available at Amazon and the LEGO Store.
