LEGO Trotting Lantern: 2025 Lunar New Year Celebration Unveiled

Every year, LEGO celebrates the Lunar New Year with themed sets that capture the essence of the occasion. In 2021, during the Year of the Ox, LEGO introduced the Spring Festival set, which was set in a traditional garden. Fast forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and LEGO released the Auspicious Dragon set, designed to resemble a bronze statue on a stand.

LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern

0$129.95 at Amazon
$129.99 at LEGO Store

As we approach 2025, the Year of the Snake, LEGO is set to release three new sets to mark the occasion. The first set features a Lucky Cat. The second, titled Good Fortune, is a pastiche of Chinese iconography including a decorative fan, a calligraphy pen and scroll, and golden ingots. The third and most luxurious set, which we've had the pleasure of building and photographing for this review, is a replica of a traditional trotting lantern. This LEGO build, like others with such focused themes, offers much more than meets the eye.

We Build The LEGO Trotting Lantern

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Let's take a moment to appreciate the exterior of this model, which is detailed to an extravagant level. Every inch of the set is adorned with decorative elements, from the red lanterns hanging from the buttresses to the gold detailing on the walls' borders, and even the walls themselves, which depict an open sky and clouds framed by rocks.

Building the lantern involves a process of layering. You start with the basic core lantern, then add layers of details, and finally, more intricate details on top of those. This method creates an anticipatory joy, similar to the delight I felt with the now-retired LEGO Carousel, as you wonder what elaborate, decorative element will come next.

Traditional trotting lanterns, dating back to the Han Dynasty, were powered by oil lamps that projected silhouettes of paper cutouts and used heat to rotate propellers, which in turn moved the silhouettes. LEGO's designers have ingeniously replicated this effect, albeit in a limited way. An upright rod activates a light brick, causing the bottom of the lantern to glow with yellow light. This light shines through a clear piece with a black-lined image, projecting it onto the lantern's side. Turning the rod rotates the image around the lantern.

The packaging suggests that you can project the image from the lantern onto a wall or other surface. However, when I tried this, the image was blurry and hard to discern. It's unclear why LEGO would highlight this feature, especially since the original trotting lantern was not designed for this purpose.

The upper tier of the lantern is particularly impressive, opening to reveal three dioramas: a food stall serving dumplings, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater. These hidden dioramas, nestled within the lantern's cylinder like a Polly Pocket, play on the viewer's perception of depth and space. The set includes five minifigures, one wearing a snake costume on his head, along with accessories like a plate of dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and sets of chopsticks.

Whether you decide to purchase this set may depend on what you're looking for. If it's the lit-up, rotating mechanical effect, it might not be impressive or clear enough to justify the cost. However, if you're seeking an aesthetically stunning piece that hides impressive minifigure-scaled scenery within an intricately detailed container, this set is a wonderful way to celebrate the Lunar New Year. It's rated for ages 9 and up, but the final result looks like an 18+ build.

For more LEGO options, explore our picks for the best overall LEGO sets, the best 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.