We Build the LEGO Trotting Lantern, a 2025 Lunar New Year Celebration

LEGO annually celebrates Lunar New Year with themed sets. 2021 (Year of the Ox) featured a Spring Festival garden scene, while 2024 (Year of the Dragon) offered the LEGO Auspicious Dragon, a bronze statue replica. 2025, the Year of the Snake, brings three new sets: a Lucky Cat, a Good Fortune set featuring Chinese iconography (decorative fan, calligraphy tools, gold ingots), and the magnificent Trotting Lantern, the focus of this review.

LEGO Spring Festival Trotting Lantern

$129.95 at Amazon
$129.99 at LEGO Store

This traditional trotting lantern replica is far more intricate than initially apparent. The level of detail is extraordinary; every surface boasts decorative elements – from hanging red lanterns and gold detailing to intricately painted cloud and rock scenes on the lantern walls.

Construction is a layered process, starting with the core lantern and progressively adding intricate details. This layered building experience, reminiscent of the now-retired LEGO Carousel, provides a delightful sense of anticipation and discovery.

Historically, trotting lanterns (dating back to the Han Dynasty) used oil lamps to project silhouettes via rotating paper cutouts. The LEGO version cleverly approximates this: a light brick illuminates a clear piece with a black-lined image, which rotates when an internal rod is turned.

While the advertised wall projection is blurry and ineffective, the lantern's upper section reveals a hidden surprise: three charming dioramas – a dumpling stall, a decorations stall, and a shadow puppet theater – cleverly concealed within the lantern's cylinder. The set includes five minifigures (one with a snake costume), dumplings, a red envelope, a shadow puppet, and chopsticks.

The set's value depends on your priorities. While the light-up, rotating mechanism isn't spectacular, the aesthetic beauty and the hidden dioramas make it a stunning Lunar New Year celebration. Though rated 9+, the complexity suggests a more mature build.

For more LEGO inspiration, explore our selections of the best LEGO sets, best Marvel LEGO sets, and most expensive LEGO sets.

LEGO Trotting Lantern, Set #80116, retails for $129.99 (1295 pieces) and is available now at Amazon and the LEGO Store.