Review: 40234 Year of the Rooster
Posted by Huw,
On January 28th next year, the Chinese Year of the Rooster commences and to celebrate LEGO is releasing a commemorative set.
It is (or will be) available in the Far East and also -- due to its proximity to London's Chinatown -- in the Leicester Square brand store.
It wasn't on the shelf when we visited for the store's preview event so I am indebted to a kind Bricksetter for acquiring one for me the day after.
(Before starting this short review, I'll just mention a new feature that we are trialling: Rather than insert large images into our reviews that hyperlink to flickr to enable larger versions to be viewed, we are now going to use slightly smaller versions that expand when clicked on. This should make the reviews easier to read, load quicker on mobile devices and negate the need to visit flickr so much. Let us know what you think...)
Box and contents
It's packaged in a small 14x12cm box that's designed to be opened and re-closed, although it's fabricated from flimsy card stock so is liable to get crushed if you're not careful.
In addition to the parts there's a small card packet inside into which money can be inserted: a Chinese tradition at New Year, I am told. Unfortunately, as you can see, the interesting-looking eyes are stickers.
The completed model
Every aspect of the rooster is very well designed: its contoured, curved body; the points and comb on its head and its tail feathers. The feet are a bit over-scale but don't look too bad.
As is the often the case, the dark- and light- grey ball-and-socket joint pieces used for the wings stick out like a sore thumb and it really is time that LEGO produced them in other colours.
The white 2x2 corner plate on its wings is new for 2017.
The cockerel stands proudly on a 8x8 round stand which is adorned with gold tiles and jumpers, flowers and foliage. The inclusion of the stand makes the model a really nice display piece.
Its beak can be opened and closed, its feet twisted, its head rotated and the tail feathers moved up and down to create a nice spread.
Verdict
This is exactly the sort of LEGO set I like: slightly difficult to get hold of, well packaged and full of useful parts which construct a great-looking and well designed model. And, not a license or minifig in sight...
My only real criticism is, as you might have guessed, the use of stickers for the eyes, which have to be applied unless you want a odd-looking blind bird.
At a penny under £10 it's a bargain, and if you're able to get into London to buy a few you'll find them useful for trading with those who can't.
It looks great alongside 2014's Year of the Sheep and 2015's 40207 Year of the Monkey. I look forward to 2018's set for the Year of the Dog.
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31 comments on this article
Beautiful model (if that can be said for a rooster!). I love the colors.
Very nice model!
Big thumbs up for the idea of having images that expand when clicked on within the reviews! There was never really a problem with the flickr images, but this is much, much better, in my opinion.
At my Iphone the pictures are already expanded, and I have to make them smaller manually.
^Agree, the new feature is a vast improvement.
PS: The rooster is super-nice.
@Casper_van_hobbes, I've just corrected that in the stylesheet. It might take an hour or two for the change to filter through the cache.
I kinda disagree about the ball joints sticking out like a sore thumb here. Grey is not an unusual color to see on a chicken's feathers, and in this case the model already uses plenty of other grey pieces, especially for the feathers around the chicken's neck and legs. While it would be nice to see more colors for those joint pieces in the future I see no reason why this set particularly needs them.
The model as a whole is adorable, just like the previous two years' models. LEGO has gotten really good at making cute brick-built creatures. Good review overall!
This looks great. I'll have to try to get hold of one!
Great looking set!
"This is exactly the sort of LEGO set I like: ..., well packaged and full of useful parts which construct a great-looking and well designed model. And, not a license or minifig in sight..."
Couldn't agree more!
This rooster is the best of the bunch; I think the monkey is a bit weird, the sheep was OK. Not that I own them unfortunately...
The first set in this series was 10250 - Year of the Snake in 2013; a bit of an outsider, given it's basically an expanded Creator 6914 set: it contained more bricks so you could build a 4th animal (the snake) AND a seperate build, a Chinese gate. Lovely set (I can tell from experience)!
Regarding the expanding pictures: SO MUCH more pleasant than the Flickr-links!
Great review of a cute little set! I'm never likely to pick up any of these Chinese New Year sets, but I appreciate the quality of the designs. Maybe they should've got these people to work on the animals in the 40222 Christmas Build-Up set!
As for the site enhancement with images - that's probably the biggest improvement, personally speaking, that you could've put in place. I've always thought the jump to Flickr was a clunky and disruptive way of viewing images. I'm more than happy to sacrifice a bit of resolution for the sake of a far more seamless "visual experience". Nice job, m'laddo!
Actually, Roosters can have pretty huge feet.
^^ actually I think Mel Caddick did design both of them!
great little set, and i have to agree - loving the zooming pics feature!
Excellent little set, full of personality! We really are in a renaissance as far as set design is concerned - if I'd seen this 10 years ago I'd have thought it had to be an MOC . I'd never have believed it was an official set.
As for the new image embedding, it's fantastic - visiting Flickr has been bugging me for ages. This really streamlines the Brickset experience. Excellent move!
Love the zooming pics as well (although I'm on a samsung S7 edge and they're also pre-expanded for now fyi).
And I couldn't agree more with appreciating sets that are "slightly difficult to get hold of". I was just thinking about Lester earlier today and how no one really gets to appreciate him as a minifigure. Anyone that won him is mad not to just sell him for £2k (although closer to £1300 this past week) and other than enjoying the £2k, they wouldn't get a whole lot of pleasure from him. And the people that do end up with him will just keep him boxed. Sets like the rooster are perfect. You can track them down or pay a slight premium if you really want it, but you won't have to spend so much that you wouldn't want to open it and build it.
Apart from the tail feathers it really looks like a Female chicken to me.
Cool review @huw. It's a shame about the stickers but nice to know I have some new 2017 pieces already. I haven't opened mine yet.
Also agree on the change to the review images. It used to annoy me to no end when clicking on them brought me to Flickr. I always expected clicking on a review's images to work like they do when clicking on an entry's images on Brickset and would swear to myself when doing so would bring me out of the review.
Ace model. The new feature is a keeper - linking to flickr used to really bug me too! Nice one.
I almost always use an iPad mini or iPhone to view the site rather than a desktop computer, and the zoom in images are very much appreciated! - some longer reviews were having difficulty loading, particularly when I was relying on mobile 4G to load up the page. I also didn't quite get why I was being linked off to Flickr occasionally, so this is welcome too.
As for the Rooster, I obtained one of these sets on the very first Saturday/the Leicester Square launch weekend. If I'd known you needed one for review Huw I would have been happy to buy another and pass it on too! It's a really characterful model and I think the proportions are much better than previous New Year models (not that I own any of the others). Shame about the eye bugbear.
Wow, this looks really nice.
Very nice. Shame it's not a Creator set or something like that instead though.
A big improvement with the pictures. Loads much faster.
Having the year of the rooster next year reminds me that I will be 36. Thanks for it LEGO :)
Thanks for the review, love that rooster set. Unfortunately I won't be able to get hold of one, but I will try to get me the parts via BL and build it anyway. Will use the normal eyes instead of the stickers though.
And thanks for the new feature with the pictures. Flickr was banned for security reasons on some machines that I used to read Brickset articles. Much appreciated update.
Nice set and nice review, though I do agree it would be better if the eyes were printed instead of stickers. I need to try and track this set down since it is my Chinese zodiac sign :)
I also agree that the new picture setup is much better.
Too bad the eyes are not printed :(
Otherwise it is a really cool set, and so helpfull with the zoom in function!
I like the image change.
I was in the Leicester Square Store today, no sign of this set. The staff said it would be available as a gift with purchase in the New Year but will not be sold in store. They didn't yet know what the qualifying spend would be.
I was also told Rooster would be a gift with purchase, available in all stores and not for purchase.
Having seen it I'm not too sure it will be a freebie