Review: LEGO Spring Lantern Festival (80107)
It has been three years since LEGO waded into the China market with their Asian themed sets and while it created an opportunity for Chinese aesthetics to filter into our LEGO cities, it also provided a platform for new and innovative designs.
After taking some time getting acquainted with the LEGO Spring Lantern Festival (80107) set, I can safely say that it embodies these two criterions perfectly in one neat package.
Unboxing
The box for the LEGO Spring Lantern Festival is actually quite sizeable and is comparative to the LEGO Chinese New Year Temple Fair (80105).
Incidentally, the Spring Lantern Festival is the largest Spring Festival set ever produced, edging out the Temple Fair set by a good 100pcs.
There are eleven numbered bags that help manage the 1793 pcs into more buildable chunks.
It comes with two Dark Bluish Grey baseplates, one 32 x 32 and another 16 x 32 which recently made a reappearance in the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978) set.
There are two instruction booklets and there isn’t a sticker sheet to be found anywhere which does indicate that the powers that be do listen to our feedback (sometimes!).
There is some written insight into the history of the Spring Lantern Festival coupled with some really gorgeous artwork.
Build Experience
I would categorise the LEGO Spring Lantern Festival (80107) as a “moderately intermediate” level as there are a lot unique (not to mention ingenious) build techniques that are crammed into this one model.
The entire build took me approximately three hours to complete, including the photography. One thing I realised when I started reviewing sets is that the photography can be a tad disruptive when it comes to enjoying a continuous build from start to finish.
The Spring Lantern Festival is essentially the first ever “garden park” that LEGO has released. The build is not repetitive as the build is packed with so many details in that 32×48 stud footprint.
From the Bamboo trees in the corner to the angled bridge over the koi pond, there is always something new to build at the turn of the page.
Design
There are two aspects of “design” when it comes to a LEGO set, one would be the overall look of the model and the other would be the design techniques to achieve that aesthetic.
The design for the LEGO Spring Lantern Festival encapsulates both aspects and it is a prime example of landscaping has evolved with LEGO.
As I mentioned before, this is actually the first time ever that LEGO has a set that is primarily a landscape build. We have had modular buildings, fire stations and hospitals but never a garden park.
This set introduces us to a slew of new and improved building techniques that used to be confined to the LEGO Ninjago theme. The bamboo stems now have angled shoots and the entry points to the park have circular entrances due to in part the release of new elements as well.
I particularly liked how the bridge was constructed with the use of the turntable element as the anchor points which allows you to angle the bridge at a diagonal.
Yes, the Spring Lantern Festival is dressed in the Lunar New Year decorations but at the very core, it is a set that would beautify any LEGO City, modular or otherwise.
The set was designed to fit with the existing modulars buildings which actually signals to me that this may not be the only time that a set is able to cross over into different themes.
Minifigures
The set comes with a total of eight minifigures and most of them are from your standard selection of LEGO City torsos save for the exclusive 2021 Year of the Cow prints.
They are dark red torsos with a hoodie print and the 2021 year of the ox logo emblazoned on the front.
The red statue minifigure also sports a unique torso that is only available in this set. The minifigure selection is actually pretty decent considering that you are getting two minifigure torsos designs that you’re not able to get anywhere else.
Buy or Not?
The question on most of those who are reading this is, “is this worth to buy?” and I would emphatically say “YES”.
Not only because LEGO has never done a set like this before, but also because of the price point. It is pegged at SGD$159.90 which is already SGD$20 less than last year’s LEGO Chinese New Year Temple Fair (80105) which has less elements.
It also comes with seven minifigures (eight if you count the statue), a light brick, a host of printed tiles which are unique to this set at the moment and one exclusive minifigure torso print to boot.
Coupled with the host of new elements like the 2×4 jumper tiles and the multitude of printed elements (love the Koi tiles), this is a very worthwhile set to get at SGD$159.90. Apply the 10% LEGO Certified Store membership discount and it drops to SGD$144.80.
Conclusion
This is by far one of the best sets, if not the best LEGO set that I ever had the pleasure of reviewing this year. The LEGO Spring Lantern Festival set knocks it out of the park on so many different levels.
It is gorgeous to look at when completed and it was such an ease to build, not to mention thoroughly enjoyable. The set is able to traverse different themes as this could easily fit into your modular city or sidled up to your Ninjago City set.
Even at the utility level, it is a great instructional kit for anyone who is interested in LEGO landscaping as it contains so many amazing techniques that could be expanded upon.
Pros
- Gorgeous to look at
- Able to fit into multiple themes
- No stickers!
- Advance techniques to learn
- Decent price point
Cons
- It is only available on January 4th
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