Today, we take a look at 80109 Lunar New Year Ice Festival, the bigger of the two sets being launched for the Lunar New Year 2022.
This set shows a slice of life scene at an ice park during the Lunar New Year. Being from the tropics my whole life, I can’t really relate to the scene but I’m sure this set will appeal to fans that love winter as a whole on top of the targeted Chinese market.
Box Experience
The front of the box presents the scene with a frozen over lake as the sene for a ice festival complete with a rental booth and a baked potato vendor. Cashless WeChat transactions are commonplace in China explaining why the girl in front is holding out a mobile phone to the baked potato vendor.
Box Contents
A total of 13 bags of plastic elements are in this set along with an instruction manual and two 16×16 white plates. There are no stickers in this set!
The Build
We are treated first to a build of a Perry the Platypus looking skating aid with seat. The addition of the two feet at the back is hilariously fun.
Building the base of any base always feels like a chore as you don’t feel to be getting anywhere as the build is mostly flat but the splash of colours along the way makes it less tedious. A handphone that someone unfortunately dropped when it was warmer and some fishes are put in before the ice is build.
The ice is build with a column of 5 transparent stain blue panels as above which gives off a nice glittery blue reflection when viewed at certain angles.
Included are a quarter dome element that we’ve not come across previously so it must have been introduced pretty recently.
The central ince rink is definitely the main draw of the build but the designed has put in so much more elements around it to create a lively atmosphere. Inside the rental shop are trophies, rental equipment, and probably a heating fan? Outside the rental ship are some see through cabinets with multicoloured bottles in them and a pair of skis. Below the shop is also a handy pull out drawer to put in extra skates, snowshoes and a pair of ski poles and an ice hockey stick. The drawer is handily held in place when closed with a simple clip.
Some other features included in the set is a nicely build pine tree and a fishing hole which can be responsibly closed up after you’re done.
At the back of the buld is a gigantic “Spring” character overlooks the whole scene and is built up nearly complely with loads of different transparent blue elements. A small ice sculpture in progress of a penguin is shown as well as a photo opportunity with a small and big tiger cutout which can be flipped round to another design.
The ice penguin sculpture and the model penguin are from different molds. Here are some of the printed elements included in this set.
The Final Build
The completed build shows many subtle touches including some Lunar New Year decorations and the scene is set.
The Minifigures
A fine and diverse variety of 13 minifigures are allotted for this set. A skater in tiger costume suitable for the Year of the Tiger, some adult and kid visitors to the ice park as well as an ice sculptor complete with safety vest and goggles. A photographer, an ice fisherman complete the ensemble. The baked potato vendor shares the same torso as the vendor featured in set 80108 Lunar New Year Traditions.
Summary
Frankly we liked this set lesser than 80108 at first glance and were ready for some disappointment. But after building it, we realize that we missed quite a fair bit of detail from the initial pictures . This is indeed a good set to showcase a winter scene and can easily be modified to suit your own winter wonderland layout although we think the price point is a tad too high for our region. This is available now worldwide for USD119.99.
