Attempting to turn the LEGO Chinese New Year sets into LEGO Modular Buildings has become an annual tradition for many LEGO fans. Although the sets are not compatible with the LEGO Modular Buildings out of the box, they have a similar intricately designed and realistic city style – perfect for a Chinatown section of a LEGO city. Some of the most popular sets to turn into a Modular Building are the #80105 LEGO Chinese New Year Temple Fair from 2020, the #80106 LEGO Chinese New Year Story of Nian from 2021, and the #80113 LEGO Chinese New Year Family Reunion Celebration from 2024 (still available at the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop).
Although not full buildings, the #80107 LEGO Chinese New Year Spring Lantern Festival from 2021, and the #80109 LEGO Lunar New Year Ice Festival from 2022 are also popular with LEGO Modular fans as they can be added as outdoor spaces in their cities without the need for much modification. You can find numerous examples of custom LEGO Modular Buildings with instructions at Rebrickable.com.
This year, we got two beautiful and highly detailed sets to celebrate Chinese New Year, but unfortunately, neither of them are buildings. The #80117 LEGO Chinese New Year Good Fortune set features some auspicious objects to celebrate the new year, while the #80116 LEGO Chinese New Year Trotting Lantern is a combination of an intricately decorated lantern, a shadow theater, and a street fair scene.
Although it’s not immediately obvious how to use either of these sets in a LEGO Modular Building setup, I already found two examples of the #80116 LEGO Chinese New Year Trotting Lantern. The first one is on Rebirckable.com designed by a LEGO fan who goes by the name re-bricked. This modification only requires the addition of a 16×32 baseplate. All other pieces are from the set itself and instructions can be downloaded from the site.
I found the second modification on YouTube by Cheesey Studios. This mod does require additional parts, but I think the end result is worth it. You can watch the video below to see all the details.
The only Chinese New Year set I personally turned into a LEGO Modular Building is the #80105 LEGO Chinese New Year Temple Fair, combined with elements from the #70620 LEGO Ninjago City as well as some of my own ideas. I narrated the process here: Designing & Building a LEGO Modular Chinatown
It takes a lot of designing and thinking to turn the Chinese New Year sets into LEGO Modular Buildings, it’s a really fun process and you will end up building something that gives a unique feature to your city. If you want to check out the currently available Chinese New Year sets, visit the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Chinese New Year sets? Do you have any of them already? And do you add them to your city or keep them separate? Did you turn any of them into a LEGO Modular Building? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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Ohhh! I love these! Like a little Chinatown!