Review by Brett Thomas (SAFOLs Members, CapeLUG Members)
I would like to start with why I wanted this set (which I was lucky enough to receive as a birthday present). I am a huge fan and collector of the Lego minifigure. I am always looking for unique figures and creative ways to display these. I have built some of my own habitats for my minifigures and so this set immediately caught my eye as it ticks all the above boxes. It contains 12 minifigures and 6 mini built habitats as well as a central core to join the mini builds
The box is aligned to those in this theme and the front has a large picture of the final build as well as a picture of each minifigure. The rear of the box shows an alternate completed build structure as well as some enlarged pictures of the mini builds.
Inside the box are 7 bags (1 for each mini build and the central core) 6 instruction booklets and 2 sticker sheets. The instruction booklets are separated so that different family members can build these at the same time. The central core build is included in book 1 with the first scene.
Each scene depicts an activity related to the Chinese New Year, I will describe each one and the minifigures in each below.
The central core uses technic parts to connect to all 6 scenes. It has a printed round top with New year Mandrin printing and some stickered tiles representing each scene (These are hidden in the final build.) The rear of each scene has 2 technic axle connectors to join to the core, only 1 is used to join and the other gives some stability when lifting the final build. Each scene is built on a 9×9 base with 3 rounded corners. Each scene has a sticker in Mandarin that relates to the scene.
The 6 different scenes are spring cleaning, food shopping, making good luck decorations, staying up to ring in the new year. Visiting grandparents and the god of prosperity.
Spring Cleaning
In this scene there are 2 minifigures dusting and cleaning the windows of an apartment. It is a full scene with some washing an aircon and a white bird. I like the feather duster build using coloured flower parts and the squeegee using T-bar. Both minifigure are dressed in orange overalls and the torso is a new print
Food Shopping
This shows a Chinese street vendor and his stall. He is selling food and toys on sticks. The toys are depicted by micro statuettes in 4 different colours. The roof of the stall uses ingot pieces, which is a cool way to depict tiles. We also get a new colour ingot in sand blue. The vendors torso has a printed belt and “moon bag” which is new in this set
Making Good Luck Decorations
This scene has an adult and a child making decorations. This scene is packed with details, a mandarin tree holding the final decorations (depicted with a red 1×2 printed tile) a parcel on the doorstep (which per Jay’s brick blog review has the IATA code BLL on it, which is for Billund airport. Some Lego perhaps?) and a small table with a red stickered parcel. The young gild has a quilted jacket torso which is also a new print. The door is surrounded by 3 printed red 1×3 and 4 tiles.
Staying Up To Ring In The New Year
This scene shows a family of 3 watching television just before the new year. There is a stickered digital clock showing the time as 23:59. This scene has a couch, the television (Stickered) a small table and a really cool small aquarium. The father is holding a printed orange/mandarin round tile which is also new.
Visiting Grandparents
This scene shows a child and 2 grandparents they all have the same red printed tile from the making decorations scene. This scene is also packed with details, a picture depicting a tiger (sticker) to align with the year of the tiger, a vase with pink flowers, a bookshelf with 3 books (creative use of the sand blue ingot here also) and a few presents among which is a Lego bag (sticker). The grandparents are sitting on 2 chair parts and there is a lilac carpet. The grandfather has a neat torso with a printed scarf
The God of Prosperity
The final scene depicts Choy San, the God OF Prosperity. The figure has a new torso print and uses a sloped skirt piece to depict a robe. This is also a new print in this set. The head has a wink and a smile. The scene shows gold ingots and “yuanbao” (ancient Chinses ingots resembling a boat with a lump in the middle) These are done using a gold hotdog bun with a gold stud, there is also a large red pot. There is a printed lamp showing a tiger and a printed 2×4 red tile as decoration.
Alternative display
There are some exposed studs on the top of the walls of each scene which allows you to stack these in a pyramid format with 3 on the bottom, 2 on the next level and 1 on the top. The benefit of this is allowing all 6 scenes to be viewed without moving the display. I found this stacking methos to be flimsy and not stable. If you chose to use this, you would need to build some kind of support behind the display
Overall
This set is only found at LCS stores and retails for R 1 299.00, it consists of 1066 pieces and includes 12 minifigures. There is a lot of detail crammed into each scene and a few techniques you could use in other builds. The builds could be done by the whole family together. There is a good quantity and variety of minifigures which could also be used in other Lego displays. This will make a interesting display piece. I would recommend this set.
