For the third consecutive year, Lego is producing a series of special sets for Spring Festival, the celebration of the new Lunar Year. The Danish toymaker used its presence at Shanghai’s China International Import Expo to announce the 2021 offerings to mark the Year of the Ox.
After New Year’s feast and lion dance sets in previous years, the new releases will feature family-oriented scenes, a Lantern Festival celebration, and a “happy childhood moments” set for younger children.
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The Lantern Festival falls two weeks after the beginning of the Lunar New Year and is traditionally considered the end of the festive period. The corresponding Lego set, which will cost 999RMB (around 150USD), comes with a classical Chinese-style garden including a lotus pond, bamboo, and a pavilion. Naturally, there are also strings of lanterns (including a traditional rabbit lantern), a figure taking a selfie and one holding what looks like a boba tea.
Traditional decorations also feature in another of the main sets, a northern Chinese-style scene that includes a snow-covered doorway, fireworks, and a New Year monster. That set is entitled “The Story of Nian” (“nian” here meaning “year,” but also being the name of the monster — a mythical creature who terrorizes crops) and will reportedly cost 699RMB.
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Completing the trio is the “childhood moments” set (also 999RMB), with hongbao (cash-stuffed envelopes given out at New Year), Spring Festival foods, and a panda.
As in previous years, expect these sets to go on sale in Asia in December and to be available in limited numbers around the rest of the world in the run up to the Year of the Ox, which begins on February 12 2021.
The trio of toy sets are part of a big push from Lego into the Chinese market in recent years. That push has included the opening of flagship stores across the country, the launch of a whole line of Monkey King/Sun Wukong-themed products, and plans for a forthcoming theme park — expected to be the world’s largest Legoland — in Shanghai.
