Review : LEGO Chinese New Year 2021 80106 Story of Nian

Today we take a quick look at the other novelty LEGO on the theme of the Chinese New Year scheduled for January 10, 2021: the set 80106 Story of Nian with its 1067 parts, six minifigs, the Nian and its retail price of 74.99 €.

Since 2019, at the beginning of the year, LEGO has been marketing several boxes on the theme of the Chinese New Year with certain products inspired by Chinese culture and others focusing more on the various folkloric activities in vogue in Asia: in 2019, the sets 80102 Dragon Dance et 80103 Dragon Boat Race  reproduced very popular animations in China and in 2020 it was the lion dance, a lucky ritual very practiced in Asia, which paid homage to Chinese folklore with the set 80104 Lion Dance. This year is therefore the set 80106 Story of Nian which occupies this slot.

To put it simply, in Chinese folklore, the Nian is an imaginary creature that disembarks from the ocean floor on New Year's Eve to devour anything that moves. Suddenly, everyone takes refuge in the mountains to escape the monster, but as he still manages to make his way into the snowiest corners of the country, the villagers put red everywhere and bang on pots because the color and the noise frighten the monster. End of story, the monster runs away and everyone celebrates.

Since then, everyone has put red everywhere in homage to the color that defeated the Nian: doors, clothes, lanterns, etc ... and we throw fireworks or firecrackers in reference to the noise that frightened the creature . It is this legend that is at the origin of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

LEGO therefore offers us its interpretation of events with a snowy facade, a family of villagers and the Nian. We quickly understand that the wall with its doors only serves as a backdrop to stage the confrontation between the different characters and the wicked creature: it is really only a simple facade with a square on which can take place the figurines and the monster. It's basic, but nicely done and this exhibition product has good dimensions: 36 cm long, 17 cm deep and 25 cm high, including fireworks.

No mystery, a big part of the assembly phase involves stacking bricks to get the display. There are hardly more than two sachets out of the eight in the set which offer a slightly higher challenge with the construction of the Nian. The door of the house attacked by the Nian is successful but the rest of the construction leaves me on the whole hungry despite the few efforts on the snow and on the roofs.

The Nian is more interesting to assemble with its joints and decorations which make it a relatively mobile creature and well in the spirit of Chinese folklore. The designer had fun with some bananas for the contours of the eyes, ball joints remain light gray and dark gray and it is the lantern at the end of the tail that wins the sale.

The set does not escape the stickers, there are two to stick on the doors but the product does very well. Don't feel like you have to apply them if it's only to bitch in a few years when they come off.

As for the minifigs, we get three generations of "villagers" so that the discovery of this set and the legend it reproduces can be shared with the oldest who are probably those who know the history of Nian best.

Note that LEGO puts a lot of glasses on the nose of minifigs in this thematic box, rather logical when we know that China is the country of glasses with a population that has major sight problems: a Lancet study concluded that 80 to 90% of Asian students leave high school myopic.

For the rest, the pad prints are based on classic outfits, traditional costumes and neutral legs except for the type dressed as an ox, it is in the theme and if you buy a copy of the set 80107 Spring Lantern Festival, you will have a handful of civilians in addition to stage in the paths of the garden. LEGO saves some money by providing an identical torso for the adult and one of the children, the snowman is a bit neutral and he would have deserved a face and I especially remember the technique used by the designer to reproduce the fires of firework not fired and the Precious which serves as a door handle.

Those who collect the sets of this new "range", finally made available to all fans by LEGO after the exclusive launch in Asia of the first references, will in any case not hesitate long before acquiring the two sets planned this year. Those who carefully assess the value of the contents of a set before checking out should logically be a little less excited by this box than by the set.  80107 Spring Lantern Festival.

The theme is much less universal than that of the traditional park and even if the execution reserves some nice details here, the end result is not likely to unleash passions. Let's not forget that these products are mainly intended for the Asian market and that it was only under popular pressure that LEGO finally decided to make them accessible to the rest of the world.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at December 30, 2020 next at 23pm. "The" I try, I participate "are automatically deleted, make an effort.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.