2025 is the Year of the Snake and to celebrate another brand new Lunar Year LEGO will be releasing another range of Chinese culture based models. The first of these is the usual Gift With Purchase celebrating this years Zodiac animal of 40707 Year Of The Snake. But at the CIIE in Shanghai LEGO have officially presented three brand new LEGO Chinese New Year sets that will all go on sale at the start of 2025.
Here at Bricks Up, we had previously covered the rumours of two of these Lunar New Year models of 80116 Trotting Lantern and 80117 Good Fortune. Today's official presentation however have shown us another Chinese New Year model of 40813 Lucky Cat. All three models will remain exclusive to LEGO stores and LEGO shop@home and will sadly only remain in development for around a year to make way for even more Lunar New Year sets in a years time.
80116 Trotting Lantern
The largest of the three sets, 80116 Trotting Lantern, features a larger brick built ornate lantern as the centrepiece, adorned with symbols of the Year of the Snake and other Chinese New Year elements. One of the coolest features of the 9+ model is the inclusion of a LEGO light brick inside the lantern which illuminates Chinese letters and symbols on the lantern wall.
The mainly red and gold lantern can also be opened up to reveal small Minifigure scale scenes inside. Here, typical Lunar New Year rituals are re-enacted with the five Minifigures included in 80116 including a Minifigure with a traditional Year of the Snake headpiece. Another cool addition for the Minifigures of this set is our first official LEGO dumpling. A brand new piece has been made to recreate the popular holiday dish.
Set Name - Trotting Lantern
Set Number - 80116
Age Range - 9+
Piece Count - 1,295
Price - $129.99 / €TBC / £TBC
Release Date - 26th December 2024/10th January 2025
80117 Good Fortune
Centred around symbols of prosperity, 80117 Good Fortune includes a range of brick-built lucky charms. Each one is supposed to bring good luck for the brand new year and captures Chinese culture perfectly. These lcuky cahrms include a fan with a branch and birds, a red scroll with writing on it and the Yuan Bao gold bars. No Minifigures are included but 80117 retails for a very resonable price of $89.99 for 1,021 pieces.
Set Name - Good Fortune
Set Number - 80117
Age Range - 9+
Piece Count - 1,021
Price - $89.99 / €TBC / £TBC
Release Date - 26th December 2024/10th January 2025
40813 Lucky Cat
Last but not least we have one of the cutest sets of the new year of 40813 Lucky Cat. The brick-built version of this lucky cat is mainly white with a red collar and smaller printed details. The paw can unsurprisingly move the extremely cute cat also includes a pendant on its belly with various chinese symbols.
Set Name - Lucky Cat
Set Number - 40813
Age Range - 9+
Piece Count - 280
Price - $29.99 / €TBC / £TBC
Release Date - 26th December 2024/10th January 2025
All three sets will be available from 26th December 2024 in China and parts of Europe but will become more widely for places like North America from 10th January 2025. But what do you think? Will you be purchasing 80116 Trotting Lantern, 80117 Good Fortune and 40813 Lucky Cat in the new year? What's been your favourite Lunar New Year models in recent years? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.