LEGO Review – 40436 Brickheadz Lucky Cat

The Lucky Cat, known as the Maneki Neko in Japanese culture or Welcoming Fortune Cat in Chinese culture has been given the Brickheadz treatment. The Maneki Neko is a statue of a cat that you probably see at the counter when you visit any Japanese or Chinese businesses. These are statues of cats with a beckoning paw raised to attract customers into the shop.

Box and contents

Box is bright and red, the same colour used for the previous Brickheadz influenced by Asian culture (40354 Dragon Dance Guy)

The Build

The build features what is probably the first time that a mechanism is included in Brickheadz which has now reached 3 digits! This is also the first time that a sitting Brickheadz has been officially released. It features some standard Brickheadz easter eggs including the hidden pink brain as well as the black base which is also stylized to be the logo for the theme. For seasonal Brickheadz such as these, small side builds are included and for this set, some decorative red and gold accents are chosen which complements the set well but feels rather flat and might be otherwise hidden among other displays in the collection.

As usual, Brickheadz come with one or more exclusive printed pieces that only exist in the set. For this set, there is one printed 1×2 tiles with Chinese/Japanese script on it. The words on this golden coin means 10 000 000 ryo/liǎng/tael (An old weighing system and by extension, a currency),  which signifies the immense wealth of the cat.

The lever at the back of the build will allow a slight movement of the left paw (Traditionally, a raised left paw is meant to attract customers therefore making the statue more suitable for businesses while a raised right paw is to attract fortune or luck)

We do wonder if a longer paw would have made the build look better aesthetically so we did a quick addition. What do you think?

Summary

This will make a nice display for all houses and businesses who want a different type of Lucky Cat. We are very happy with the final outlook and we would actually rank this high among all the Brickheadz released thus far. The mechanism included for the beckoning paw is a welcome surprise with the only negative point being the small scale of it which is supposed the main feature of any Lucky cat.

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This set used for the review was sent to us by The LEGO Group. Provision of any set do not in any way influence our opinions or guarantee a positive review.

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