Pchan1983 Posted December 25, 2024 Posted December 25, 2024 Here is my review on LEGO Chinese New Year 80116 Trotting Lantern: THE GOOD: A full 360 degrees build rather than just half of a lantern. Excellently executed action feature to replicate an actual trotting lantern. Windows decorations are printed. New dumplings piece. THE NOT SO GOOD: The navy colour on top of the roof does not fit the overall colour scheme well. Significantly less minifigures compared to sets releases last 2 CNY. Cannot fit ALL minifigures inside the lantern. Lucky enough to be able to get this a few day earlier. To be honest, when this set was first announced, I was a bit skeptical because the key image appeared like just half a lantern. But once I've built this, it's another WIN from the Chinese New Year theme. First the building experience was fun, while quite a few sections you need to build 8 times, it didn't feel repetitive. Exterior is nicely done with some cool new printed parts. The use of transparent glittering window pieces is brilliant. Although the navy colour on top does feel a bit off. It even managed to add 3 mini stalls in the 2nd level and you take these out as you like. The end results of the lantern itself is excellent. Originally thought this is only half a lantern from the product images, but it is actually a set you can display from any angles. And the best part, it is actually a working trotting lantern. The little mechanism allows you to have this lantern running manually. It even includes one extra piece with different pattern if you want to switch the image shown in the lantern. This set also includes a few of the new dumplings piece which is one of the highlights in this set. Minifigures include a family and the snake costume guy, only 2 new torsos variant though, in comparison with other CNY sets, it is significantly less in umbers as we got spoilt in these aspects in the past few years. Also these minifigures cannot fit all inside the lantern. It's now the 7th zodiac sign and if you like CNY theme or collecting the costume minifig, this is a must have. With less piece count and low price than last year excellent chinese restaurant, while providing a nice looking latern and functions, I will still recommend to any one. Only 5 more years to go from completing all 12 zodiacs! Quote
Lyichir Posted December 25, 2024 Posted December 25, 2024 Nice review! I was a little worried that the ordinary light brick wouldn't be enough to properly project the image, but it seems to do fine. That said, it's a slight shame that only one "panel" of the lantern is lit at a time—a weakness of using such a small and directional light source. A part of me would prefer if it used a brighter light source and had multiple silhouettes that could project in different directions at once. You could probably modify it to do so with third-party light kits, at least. The stalls aren't super impressive compared to the more elaborate minifigure-scale scenes we've gotten in previous years, but it's good at least that traditions like the costumed minifigure and printed lantern pattern are maintained. Quote
Pchan1983 Posted December 26, 2024 Author Posted December 26, 2024 3 hours ago, Lyichir said: You could probably modify it to do so with third-party light kits, at least. or go for a candle? XD joking yea, LED light kits would work. Given they include a 2nd pattern for the silhouette, could easily modify to have both level spinning =) Quote
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