Set Review ➟ Chinese New Year Sets
Chinese New Year sets have been around since 2013, but in the last couple of years they’ve expanded beyond simple Year-of-the-X animal builds into more impressive and appealing seasonal festival builds. These have generally been quite detailed and well-received, so let’s see if LEGO’s two new 2021 sets maintain the same high standard. By the time you are reading this, pictures will have already been online for over a month, so you’ve probably already formed your own opinions. I will accordingly focus on the build experience, parts selection, and a comparison of the two sets.
80106 Story of Nian
Pieces: 1067
The box contains eight numbered bags plus the ‘fire parts’ bag, two 8x16 plates, and the sealed instructions. One tiny sticker sheet is included, which provides a pair of stickers for the two opening doors. One might have preferred only prints, but it is easy to leave these two unapplied with no real loss (they are not applied in the pictures shown). The instructions also include a double-page spread illustrating the story behind the set. The basic idea is that of a lion/dragon monster which would terrorize villages by eating their children, but who could be chased off with bright red colours and loud noises and explosions—a good excuse if one was ever needed for some impressive fireworks.
The first bag builds the rear ground and base of the wall, and also includes an orange brick separator. The minifigures are distributed across bags, which I guess makes it easier to avoid mixing up heads, legs, and torsos. We get a bunch of 33909 2x2 plates-with-two-studs here, plus the first two (of six) of the new 67810 curved corner pieces in white. The second bag builds most of the rear wall and includes three red 32932 1x4 fences which are new in this colour. The gold framing around the doorway is achieved with brackets, and is quite satisfying to put together.
The third bag builds the doors and upper wall. Many useful parts are included here, such as unicorn horns (x7 as icicles), white candlesticks (x2), 1x1 rings (x4) as door handles, lots of 1x2 hinge bricks (with 2x2 tops) for the roofline, and a generous seventeen 1x2 ingot tiles in the new colour of dark bluish grey. The fourth bag builds the doorway rooftop. Here we get a couple of red pumpkins, lots of white and dark bluish grey 1x2 jumper plates, and the very useful 49307 1x1 curved-top part which is now available in dark bluish grey (x13 in white, x12 in DBG, x2 in LBG, plus x8 in red later in the build). The roof fits snugly and is attached by 2x3 rocker plates (part 30166, which is new here in reddish brown despite being hidden once used). The uppermost section of the roof is then built on stacked light bluish grey roller skates.
Bags five and six build the forward ground area and the fireworks and decorations respectively. The snowman is very nice, though lacking a face, and the exploding fireworks look great. These are built on 42409 snowflake parts (new in trans orange) with trans yellow and pink wands, and are connected very securely with 2L bars (part 22484) pinning the trans clear 12L bars to the rear of the wall. (The rear view shows multiple possible attachment points.) We also see the use of mop heads (24085) upside down and recoloured to bright green as foliage.
The last two bags build Nyan Cat, ahem, that is the Nian creature, with bag seven building the torso and limbs, and then bag eight building his head and tail. Mixel ball joints are used for all limbs, and a larger ball joint attaches the head, providing great poseability. The jaw opens and closes, and the eyes are angled 45deg forwards which looks good from all angles. Nian is very detailed and colourful, and uses some great parts such as bananas, 2x3 shield tiles (22385), and a single 4590 modified plate which are all new in teal. We also get a couple of pearl gold candlesticks and two dark red 2x2 curved wedges (part 66956).
This set includes six minifigures, with a male and female for each generation. I’m not sure whether the set is meant to represent a historical or modern rural setting, but the torsos are all nicely printed, with the mother receiving printed hips and legs in addition to the costume ox head (an extra hair piece as alternative headwear would have been nice though). Ox-head Mum, Grandma, and the snowball-carrying boy have alternate head prints, though the second print for Grandma is barely distinguishable from the first. One thing I haven’t figured out is the pink 1x1 tile in Grandpa’s hand. Any ideas?
The final build is more substantial than it appears in photos, even though the main ‘castle’ wall is just a facade with no rear detail or interior. It is quite sturdy, and the whole build can be picked up by the rear wall, though the forward ground area is a bit fragile. The set is very colourful and presents a large playable area without inflating the part count. The Nian creature is very nicely designed and has a lot of character. If I am to be critical then I would say that fewer colours (minus the blue and yellow?) might have looked a bit cleaner, and the set would have benefitted from more ground-based fireworks to make better use of the full bag of ‘fire parts’. The doors open rearwards, but also a little way forwards, which isn’t quite ideal for play. Overall though, I think the build is very nice, provides a good context for play, and unquestionably provides a great selection of useful and newly recoloured parts.
80107 Spring Lantern Festival
Pieces: 1793
This is the larger of the two sets and is built on a 32x32 baseplate connected to a 16x32 baseplate. These are becoming rare now in official sets, so it is great to see them here. The box contains 15 bags, numbered 1 through 11, plus the dark bluish grey baseplates and two sealed instruction books. The banners are printed plastic, removable from a single sheet, rather than the fabric some may have been hoping for, but there are no stickers to apply. Book 1 builds the larger right-hand side with koi pond and bridge (bags 1-7), while Book 2 builds the smaller left-hand side with raised pagoda and pathway (bags 8-11). The instructions also include a double-page spread with a cartoon illustration of the scene.
The first bag builds the outer rim of the larger baseplate area, and includes a teal brick separator (differing from the orange one in 80106) plus a spare dish, spoon, and printed 1x1 round tile with dumplings. Bag 2 then builds the inner area with the stream bottom built from wing/wedge plates. The third bag builds the surface of the pond, and includes three each of two types of koi-printed 1x2 tiles – orange/white and orange/green.
The fourth bag builds the ground surface and the ox lantern. The path is raised and its plates attach on top of a combination of tiles and 2x2 curved bricks (part 47457). This achieves sturdiness while also making it easier to disassemble due to the reduced number of stud connections for each large plate. We get four 4x4 plate-with-round-cutout (35044) in dark tan, and the base for the ox lantern is made from four white quarter round bricks (24599) which are new in this colour. A white 2x2 turntable base (27448) is used to give a secure fixed offset angle (26.5deg) for mounting the ox lantern.
The ox lantern itself is very nicely designed, built around a light brick. This has the slightly unfortunate consequence of making him butt-activated (there’s a big warning sheet included telling you not to eat the batteries—maybe they should also have mentioned that you also should not poke the butt of a real ox!). Its feet are 1x1 rounds connected to the grey plates of the base, meaning they don’t connect to the actual ox itself, but they still look great.
Bag 5 makes the pond bridge, path, and front fence. The bridge is attached at an angle and is mounted on 4x4 turntables using the geometry of a 3-4-5 triangle. There is also a yellow frog under the bridge (I hope no-one sneaks up and eats him). Bag 6 builds the bamboo foliage and lanterns. We get crown/eggshell parts (39262) used effectively as flowers, along with candlesticks and ice cream cones new in the colour of light green for the bamboo stalks. The two tallest bamboo stalks are on ball joints, which makes for a more natural appearance, and also allows their positioning to be adjusted when changing the layout of the baseplates.
Bag 7 builds up the right-hand-side wall and foliage, making use of two 2x4 jumper plates (65509) which are new in white, plus a pair of 32932 fence parts new in light bluish grey. Ninjago dragon sword-hilts are also used effectively as decoration.
Bag 8 sees the start of the second instruction book, building now on the 16x32 baseplate. This uses the same raised path construction mentioned earlier, and this section has pins on both long sides, allowing for it two be connected to the previous 32x32 section in either of two ways. Bag 9 builds up the base of the pagoda, which uses A-frame parts (15706) and then a clever hexagonal frame built from connected 32125 rotor parts, which is then repeated in the upper section of the pagoda roof. A 3x3 round tile in white is used for a tabletop, and we get hydraulic cylinders (87617) and axle connectors new in dark red. This stage also introduces the red-eyed rollerskating bunny, which turns out to be a lantern toy rather than an evil rabbit with a taste for extreme sports.
Bag 10 builds the pagoda roof, which is complex but very satisfying to build. It uses the same hexagonal frame used in the base, but now with upside-down 1x4 fences attached via clips, bars, and brackets. There are many parts used here in dark blue for the first time, including 12 candlesticks, six each of the pointed 4x2 wedge plates, and of course the six bananas. The final bag then builds the front wall, lanterns, and bamboo. Two 9L lengths of black flextube are used to hang the lanterns lining either side of the path.
This set includes five adult minifigures and two children. Technically there’s also an additional red figure with transparent head used as a decorative statue. Two figures have matching dark red torsos with ‘ox-2021’ logos. The male gets a drink of some sort while the woman has a cell phone and selfie stick. We also have a man with a camera and nice sweater print, a woman with an orange top and cell phone, and a man eating dumplings from a dish. The boy has a scarf, lantern, and Monkey King printed torso, while the girl has a unicorn top and the bunny toy. Both children, the camera guy, and the dumpling man get alternate head prints.
The final model is visually very impressive, as well as being much more interesting and enjoyable to build than I was expecting. It’s very detailed and makes good use of its 32x48-stud footprint. It is quite stable, though it’s easier to move the two sections separately than when connected. The build makes great use of parts and colour, especially with the pagoda and foliage, and there’s really very little to complain about here – except perhaps the questionable integration of that light brick.
So how do these two sets compare against each other? Both are very well designed and each contains a wealth of great parts and many new recolours of existing parts. I also appreciate the almost complete absence of stickers. At the time of writing this review I don’t have confirmed pricing information, so I will not comment on value for money, but each model provides a substantial build. I think the Story of Nian set is probably the better one for children, being more play-oriented, while the Spring Lantern Festival set will have the greater AFOL appeal, both in terms of build experience and display value. I came at these sets without having purchased or built any of the previous Chinese New Year sets, and I didn’t really expect these to impress me greatly, but I’ve really enjoyed both builds, and 80107 in particular is especially nice. Most will already have decided which of these sets to purchase, but if you’re on the fence, or undecided between the two sets, then I would definitely recommend the Spring Lantern Festival.
We wish to thank LEGO for providing this set for review. The opinions in this review are not supported or endorsed by LEGO.
Baby Grogu is not included in either set, but well done if you spotted him hiding in each build.
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