Bricks of prosperity
Lego’s first ever Chinese New Year playsets are little bundles of tradition and joy.
HAVE you ever wanted to immortalise your annual Chinese New Year reunion dinner in Lego form? Well, good news – Lego has released two exclusive CNY-themed sets for the China and Asia Pacific markets, the Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner and Dragon Dance sets.
Not only are these the first ever CNY sets the Danish toy company has made, it is also the first time Lego has made sets for a specific country or region.
The Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner set retails for RM269.90 while the Dragon Dance set costs RM249.90. Since their release last week, the sets have been flying off the shelves in Malaysia, with many of the Lego Certified Stores nationwide selling out within days.
Those who have missed out can head to Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, from Jan 17 to Feb 11, where Lego has set up a special CNY booth that will have the sets on sale.
Lego Malaysia was also kind enough to send over both sets for us to review, and here’s what we thought of them.
Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner
At first glance, this looks like a relatively simple set, but look closer and you can see little details that really capture the mood and atmosphere of a traditional CNY reunion dinner.
There’s the upside-down fu (prosperity in Chinese) word on the door, the little family portraits, the calligraphy scrolls with actual greetings on them, the round table with rotating lazy Susan and an abundance of food, the red packets, and even a Year of the Pig sticker. Heck, there’s even an easy chair that could pass as a massage chair, and a TV set playing CNY shows!
I built the Reunion Dinner set with some help from my five-year-old daughter (yes, I know the box says it’s for ages eight and above, but I was watching her all the way), and it was simple enough that we both enjoyed the process (she especially enjoyed “setting” the table and putting the little blocks of “rice” into the bowls).
The set comes with five mini figures – a family with two children and their grandparents – and my daughter has been having lots of fun role-playing the whole reunion dinner scene ever since we finished the set.
Overall, a great little set that truly captures the spirit of a CNY eve dinner.
Dragon Dance
Modelled after a traditional Chinese dragon dance troupe, this is another fun CNY set. Again, it’s a deceptively simple set that has lots of cool features and details built into it.
The centrepiece, of course, is the dragon, which has a movable mouth and tail, and comes with a special “action feature”: turn the handle at the bottom of the set, and it “dances”!
There are five mini figures consisting of four dragon dancers and a “lead dancer” in a pig costume holding a dragon ball that spins along with the dancing dragon.
Compared to the Reunion Dinner set, the Dragon Dance set took a little longer to build, partly due to the gears that move the dragon up and down, as well as the small, intricate parts that make up the dragon.
While I was a little disappointed that the dragon is made up of several separate parts rather than being one complete piece, the details and dancing feature more than make up for it.
This is another fun and beautiful set that is full of cool details and features, and would look great as part of your home’s CNY decorations too!