After two regional exclusives where everyone was mad they had to buy on the secondary market, LEGO has stuck to their word. #80103-1: Dragon Boat Race was released in 2019 and in 2020 so far two sets have been released. The first one I’ll review is #80104-1: Lion Dance and it was released on 15 January 2020 in the US for $79.99. With 822 pieces it works out to be $0.91 per piece. I manged to pick it up locally for ~$67 so I can’t complain.
I didn’t do any research behind the traditions behind the set, but the Brother’s Brick did. Check out their set review here if you want to learn more about the choice of colors and symbols used.
The box is bright and colorful with the set displayed on the front with a rat for the”year of the rat.” The back shows some of the play features and details of the set up close.
This set contains six parts bags and an instruction booklet that is wrapped to protect it. Additionally, you’ll notice there is no sticker sheet. WOOHOO!!!! There are a lot of printed elements in this set, but no sticker attachment required.
The first bag begins with a minifigure holding some lettuce to feed to the lions and two lions with identical builds. The lions both have minifigure legs attached into 2x6 bricks. The remainder of the lion is built off of there. The slopes on the side of the dragon are all printed which was awesome! The lion’s head has some fun details and piece usage with white banana pieces, white frogs, and the printed eye pieces. The head can rotate up and down and the mouth can be opened or closed.
Of note, this bag includes a teal piece separator for when you just can’t pry apart those plates.
The second bag includes a minifigure with fire crackers, three minifigures who play music (cymbals, a drum, and a gong), and then another dragon with a similar build technique as the previous two, but with some slightly different details and colors.
I like how the musicians were done. Especially the use of a large wheel as a drum. The stand they are on works great to fit them all and they tie into the color scheme of the set well. The drummer is on a spinning piece so you can move him back and forth as if he is drumming.
Lion number three has a slightly different mouth and some gold details along the edge of the body. Other than that, it is built pretty much the same except for the mostly white coloring.
The third bag is the stage. The lions don’t exactly fit on the stage after it is built and I didn’t try to have a dragon balance on one of the poles like shown on the box. Seems like it would fall over pretty quickly unless you got the center of gravity just so. And while it may not work great for a minifigure, you should definitely check out some of the videos of Lion Dances on YouTube. There are some crazy stunts that they do and the set will make more sense to you after you see what is going on.
The front paneling pieces in the center of the stage are pretty cool though. Could be useful in other MOCs down the road.
The fourth bag builds the last 2 lions and then a minifigure with Chinese calligraphy on a scroll or tablet. The lions use the same technique as the other 3 only have slightly different coloring with a focus on the color gold.
Bag 5 starts the gate structure. It’s a simple build, but I am a big fan of the printed tiles. The design on them is very cool and so is the coloring. You also get some more teal pieces and some gold fencing for decoration.
This bag includes an older male minifigure holding a paint brush. Supposedly it is the mayor and he is finishing painting one of the dragons.
The last bag (number six) finishes off the gate. The roofing is added, more frogs appear, and brightness of color abounds. The yellow and orange really make this gate stand out. I like how the designers achieved the Chinese architectural style without getting too crazy into detailed building.
Lastly, you get a minifigure dressed as a rat for the year of the rat. He rounds out a great assortment of minifigures in the set which help to make the set worthwhile.
Here’s the final set. Overall I think it’s great. You get 8 minifigures (not including the legs of the lion dancers) and some great pieces. There are no stickers and a lot of great printed pieces with some fun new details. Building this set really made me want to create my own scene with crowds watching, food stands, and other details. I’ll add that to my list of all the things I want to build in my spare time.
I definitely recommend this set and I think this line is worth it. I hope LEGO continues this line and comes up with other similar ones. Hopefully like me, you can find this one on sale to save some money. Just keep in mind that the shelf life of the set will not be long. I believe it is only supposed to be 6 months so don’t wait (can someone confirm that?).
What are your thoughts?
Happy building!
