LEGO 40648 Chinese Lunar New Year Money Tree 9+ 336 Pieces

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Money Tree is a small 336-piece model of a kumquat/tangerine/mini mandarin tree, which is another common sight around Chinese New Year. Kids can meet their hosts over a cup of tea and a moon cake in the café or explore cultural traditions in the activity center and temple. They can also simply play with the family under the shade of the blossom tree.

These LEGO Chinese New Year sets being available on LEGO.com, LEGO Stores and most specialty toy retailers.The piece used for the mandarins, of which there are 20 in this set, started life as a pumpkin, 51270 VEGETABLE, NO. 3. 14 envelopes and 10 2x2 round coins, which have a new print, 101521 FLAT TILE 2X2, ROUND, NO. 1249 complete the decorations. The set offers no playability, but it does make a lovely display model, particularly when placed between the two parts of 80110 Lunar New Year Display. Additionally, If stripped of its decorations, the tree could have utility as a normal tree in your LEGO city. One of the things that the Money Tree gets right is just how dense the foliage is, without it looking too overly busy. It matches the dense leaves of the kumquat tree, thanks to the generous helping of leaves that are layered subtly and closely to one another. The release date for the LEGO 2023 Chinese New Year sets will be on 25 December 2022 onwards, depending on where you’re at in the world One of the downsides is the trunk, which isn’t really visible as its obscured by all the leaves, but despite the branches from each angle, looks a little too straight and unnatural.

Money Tree is a seasonal model and one in line with the likes of the Chinese Traditional Festival range too, so don’t expect it to be available outside of LEGO.com and some LEGO Stores. Money Tree is likely going to be appreciated most by those who know more about the cultural significance behind the build, but we’d be lying if we said this set hadn’t impressed us more than we were expecting despite this. While its appeal to those who don’t annually celebrate the Chinese New Year will be limited, you may understand it a little more when looking at the set as an affordable introduction to the LEGO Botanical Collection. Two gold yuanbao ingots in the shape of boats which, like the tree, are symbols of prosperity and wealth, sit upon the rim of the pot and complete the model. You get about 20 orange pumpkins, which are used to represent kumquats/tangerines/mandarins. At this scale, they work reasonably well to create the intended effect, and I also like that each kumquat has a 3-leaf element attached to it for some further foliage variety. Another LEGO Chinese Lunar New Year set has had official images revealed and added to LEGO.com, introducing the Money Tree (40648)!Celebrate Chinese New Year – Build a LEGO® Money Tree (40648) to make a fun display item for any room during your celebrations There are also 2 drum-lacquered gold ingots placed on the flat edge of the pot – I really like these, and their shaping is pretty accurate. The drum-lacquered gold adds that bit of dazzle to these ingots, which are also symbols of prosperity.

Super excitingly, here’s a closer look at the villains in the set confirming that we’ll be visiting the Lion Camel Ridge from Journey to the West! For context, the Cantonese word for Mandarin is “kam”, which is also a homonym for “gold”, which is why these little shrubs are used as decorations, and Mandarins are also gifted to one another as symbols of prosperity – hence the set’s name “Money Tree”.Coolness [4] – Easy to display and makes for a fun gift or decorative piece, especially if you celebrate Lunar New Year The dense foliage, and generous inclusion of plenty of printed coins, red envelopes and of course kumquat fruit make for a really visually appealing model. These little the leaves, and together with the kumquats, and coins give the Money Tree plenty of visual bookmarks that draw your eyes to all the interesting elements. LEGO have officially revealed its 2023 Chinese New Year sets – 80110 Lunar New Year Display and 80111 Lunar New Year Parade, 40648 Money Tree as well as a new Monkie Kid mech 80045 Monkey King Ultra Mech , and a Duplo set 10411 Learn About Chinese Culture! The tree appears very organic, except at the very top, where the 45-degree corner roof tiles look a bit out of place when compared to the pieces used for the rest of the tree.

Money Tree is now available on LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store, and as its priced quite accessibly, might be a good set to add to your to-buy list when the rest of the January 2023 releases become available!Dimensions – The Money Tree measures over 6 in. (16 cm) high and can be given as a gift for LEGO® fans young or old There’s only one model in 40648 Money Tree and the name gives it away. The Money Tree is made up of an ornate red planter and the tree itself with dozens of branches to hang the 20 tangerines, 14 red envelopes and 10 coins. In case you couldn’t infer by that description, this is an extremely repetitive build with many of the branches being identical in structure. However, despite the nature of this model’s assembly, the final result is sizeable, detailed and suitably colourful. It’s worth the time and repetitive build process to put it together.