The 2025 Chinese International Import Expo is now underway, and we have seen several sets across a range of themes revealed. These include Chinese New Year Fireworks, as well as a Galloping Horses Canvas for the Spring Festival; the first of the 15th Anniversary Ninjago sets , the four weapons blacksmith, and a Bouquet of Tulips, the first 2026 Botanical set to be revealed. These are sets due for release in January 2026.
There was one theme missing, however.
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The Lunar New Year is just around the corner, and to celebrate the year of the Dragon, LEGO Australia are setting out to create the World’s Longest LEGO Dragon. . The build will arrive on the corner of Harbour and Hay Street (Haymarket) from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th February to celebrate Sydney’s Lunar New Year festivities. Create endless play moments for the whole family and make warm, endearing memories that last forever!
The Head and Tail have been created by The Brickman team, and LEGO Australia are calling on the community to come and build up the parts in between.
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It’s early November and for the 5th year running, the Chinese International Import Expo has been the place for the LEGO Group to showcase some of the new sets for next year. This is the event where the Spring Festival sets made their debut back in 2019. Now into the 5th year, the LEGO® presence at CIIE has also seen some of the flag ship sets in other themes presented – and while media coverage has not been readily accessible (Thanks to Jays brick blog and Dylan Chow for the heads up), images of some of these sets have made their debut on the LEGO Builder App.
Let’s take a look.
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One thing that I have seen evolve over the almost seven years that I have been writing the RamblingBrick is the evolution of the Chinese Zodiac gift with purchase sets. These annual animal builds are now on their ninth iteration, and I have been fortunate to be sent a copy of the 40575 Year Of The Rabbit for review by the LEGO Group. The Lunar New Year begins on January 22nd. Let’s take a closer look…
As with previous sets in this series, the box has a flip-top lid, handy for storing the model, along with the instruction manual for a rainy day. Or at least next year’s review season. The box demonstrates that this envelope is for the traditional gifts of money given to children at this time of year in Asian cultures. there is also a ‘To / From’ box on the front of the box, demonstrating that it is intended to be given as a gift.
The front of the envelope shows a picture of the completed model, embossed with 2023 in gold lettering. The background colouring fades from yellow to red – traditional colours used in decoration at this time of year. On the reverse, the red-yellow colouring continues, with some blossoms lightly printed on the background. There is also a red 2×2 brick printed just below the envelope slot, giving the feeling that it is sealing the envelope. The principal feature on this side of the envelope, however, is a gold-embossed image of the model itself.
With all sets produced by the Extended Line, there are no new elements or recolours. A couple of parts did catch my eye, however, as I had not seen too many of them before including the 2×2 plate in warm gold. The only printed element, the 2×2 round tile 6060734 has been featured in multiple sets in this series. As you can see, this set has an emphasis on black and white elements – consistent with the colouring of the rabbit. the green, red and gold elements are incorporated into the base of the set.
The build starts off with the rabbit’s haunches, with the feet using a rounded plate and tile to have a smooth shape. A number of SNOT Bricks (studs not on top – here they are on the side) allow for some curved slopes to capture the shape of the rabbit, while some 1×1 ‘cheese’ slopes are added to give the appearance of ruffled fur. A really clever combination of regular slopes, curved slopes and SNOTwork gives the hind legs a really nice shape. The top of the torso is essentially smoothed off with tiles, with a 2×2 turntable allowing the limited possibility for this model. a2x2 Droid head (similar to R5-D4), with a round stud on top make up the tail.
Moving forward: we see a different technique to build up SNOT of the back of the head: Alternating regular 1×1 bricks with 2x2x2/3 plates with 2 studs on the side. This results in the correct placement of studs so that a plate can be placed along the back. More conventional 1x2x2 2/3 bricks with 4 studs on the side make up the side of the head and a mixture of techniques are used to place studs on the front of the face. I really love the combination of tiles used to achieve the shape of the rabbit’s nose and midface.
The ears incorporate curved slopes, along with inverse cirved slopes and tiles to achieve a nice smooth shape, while they then click into clips on the top of the head.
The 8 stud wide circular base is healed together with a few plates, while red and gold elements and some foliage are added to give the Spring Festival Vibe. I am impressed at how , every year, the designers are able to bring something different, that still seems to be part of the same range with these bases.
The final build very much looks the part of a Chinese Zodiac model, but compared to earlier models in the line, it appears that some aesthetic changes have taken place. With 202 pieces, it has the highest part count of any Chinese Zodiac animal to date, but this allows greater versatility with regard to the shaping of the model.
I really like the look of this model – here it is, along with previous models in the series. The combination of smooth, rounded curves along with the more angular slopes gives this rabbit its cartoonish, organic look. There are a few exposed studs here, not as many with some sets, but certainly more than with the year of the dog.
I suspect that was ‘peak studless,’ and the presence of a few studs on the model reminds us that this is indeed a LEGO model! If you love Brick-built animals, you will love this. If you are collecting the Chinese Zodiac animals, it’s a no-brainer.
This set will be offered as a Gift with Purchase in the period leading up to Chinese New Year – January 15-25th 2023 – in associate with purchases of $85USD/€85/£80. Australian ‘buy-in price’ is yet to be revealed. It is good to see these sets having a much wider distribution than they did in years gone past, when both the country and retailer availability were relatively restricted.
In a time of year where there are many new sets being released, I suspect it will be fairly easy to reach the threshold with new year purchases. But remember that it is coming, so you don’t spend all your money at the front end of the month. Traditionally, January has been a pretty good time of the year for Gifts with purchase, and given the range of new sets being introduced, I think it will be pretty easy to reach the threshold to receive this set.
Just as in 2022, we saw the release of the 31129 Majestic Tiger Creator 3in1 set in January. In 2023, we will see the release of the 31133 White Rabbit, to say nothing of the new Spring Festival sets [Affiliate links].
I wonder if we may well see a Creator Dragon to follow in January 2024 (you heard it here first).
Are you collecting these Chinese Zodiac Animal sets? What do you think about this one? Leave youy comments below, and until next time…
Play Well!
This set was provided by the LEGO group for Review Purposes. All opinions are my own.
And it all packs away nicely … ready for next year when I am going to need a bigger box!
Today, at the Chinese International Import Expo, the LEGO group unveiled some of the most anticipated sets for the new year.
Announced at the expo, and streamed on WeChat, we saw new sets in Duplo, Monkie Kid, and also commemorating the Year of the Rabbit. I apologize for the quality of images, caputered from the live stream of the press conference.
The Spring Festival Sets – coinciding with the Lunar New Year Celebrations have become a highlight over the last few years. As well as a larger set commemorating a significant part of the celebrations: Family Reunion Dinner, the Temple Market, the Lantern Festival, and Ice festival, there have also been more generic sets: The Dragon Dance, Lion Dance and the Story of Nian. This year, the smaller set – 80108 Lunar New Year traditions leans on many aspects of the Chinese New Year Celebrations, and brings them into the setting of six vignettes join around a central hub. Along the way, we have a few new elements, and some delightful scenes.
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The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival is one of the more unique events associated with the period from late December to early February. Located in Heilongjiang, the northernmost province in China, the annual festival sees a large number of magnificent Ice and Snow sculptures on display.
This festival, and other like it are the subject of 80109 Lunar New Year Ice Festival. With 1519 pieces, it is one of two minifigure scale sets released this year celebrating the Chinese Spring Fesitvals.
Like the Temple Fair and Lantern Festivals, this set is rich in minifigures, and scope for story telling. Being set in a snow clad winter setting, it brings us a very different environment to these other sets. I was fortunate to receive a pre-release copy of the set for review, thanks to the LEGO Group. Let’s take a look at the build experience.
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For the last couple of years, the larger of the Spring festival sets has been one of the highlights of the building year for me. Last year’s 80105 New Year Temple Fair is one of my favorite sets to build ever, between the details of the maket stalls, the characters , the different produce, and the temple itself.
This year, we are looking at the 80107 Spring Lantern Festival: traditionally on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, it marks the final day of celebrations for the Lunar New Year period. This year (2021) it will fall on February 26th. The lunar new year starts with a new moon – a moonless sky. On the night of the lantern festival, we expect to see a full moon.
I cannot recall any LEGO set that focusses on external landscape in any detail with the possible exception of the LEGO Ideas Treehouse, and in that situation, the landscape, apart from the tree and treehouse itself, was fairly limited. In this set, designer Justin Ramsden presents us with a masterclass in landscape design.
This is a larger set than 80106, with 1793 parts. It will cost $AUD169.99/USD119.99/GBP89.99/CAD159.99. It is due for release in the Asia Pacific region on January 1, and throughout the rest of the world on January 10.
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I recently looked at the 80104 Lion Dance, one of the sets released to celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year of the Rat. I said it was one of the most beautiful sets I had seen in recent years. Today, I get rid of the qualifier, as I look at the 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair – this is quite simply the most beautiful set I have ever put together. It is a set characterised by multiple small vignettes, a larger temple build, a novel tree design, and over a dozen mini figures. There are lots of printed elements, and precisely NO stickers.
The set has no elements specific to the Year of the Rat and, as such, could come each year, unchanged.
It is a set on the larger size of things, with a part count of around 1663. On opening the box, it looked as if I had some work ahead of me…
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When we got our first peek art the 2020/ Year of the Rat LEGO Sets, my first impression was that they were some of the most beautiful LEGO sets I have ever seen. The design aesthetic is quite different to that seen typically with LEGO City, Castle or even Creator Expert sets. What I must say is that I appreciate the work done by the AFOL Engagement team at LEGO, who made representation to the Global Marketing team last year – and as such, these sets are now available around the world – not merely limited to the Asia-Pacific region. When they became available locally, I headed out to pick them up, and I must say, I am delighted.
