Review: 40235 Year of the Dog
Posted by MeganL,
The latest promotion, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, is 40235 Year of the Dog. LEGO has done "Year of...." sets before to celebrate the New Year but this is the first time that this promotional set has been available in the U.S. and a few other countries outside Asia (unfortunately not all of them).
Let's take a look at the cute doggie that's featured in this set.
The set comes in a bright yellow box, continuing a more recent trend of having promos in boxes instead of polybags. The front art shows the cute doggie in a driveway leading to a house. There's an inset on the left side with lines, presumably to show To: and From: The back fo the box shows the pieces of the set in a jumble at the bottom with insets showing the moving functions of the set.
In a pleasant surprise, the box is a flip top, which means no portions of the box were destroyed in opening it. The first thing that you find on opening the box is an envelope. Presumably this is LEGO's version of the Chinese red envelopes that are typically exchanged during the New Year; however this envelope is yellow. The front of the envelope has a picture of the set with "2018" in gold. The back of the envelope has an image of the set in gold with a red 2x2 brick. The inside of the envelope is red.
The build comes together quickly and is rather fun. The doggie's colouring is an interesting mix of white with dark orange, with white for the chest, face and legs and dark orange for the back, head and ears. The dark orange is an interesting choice of colour. It suits the dog well. It also has the bonus of not being an incredibly common colour, so many of the pieces used in the set have only been used in about a dozen sets (or less) previously.
I like the use of red not only for the collar, but also two quarter circle tiles for the doggie's tongue. Soulful eyes are provided by printed 2x2 round tiles. Thanks to a 1x2 plate with dual shafts, the dog's ears clip on the head, and can be wiggled. This does come at a cost of being able to see grey on the back and sides of the dog's head. The entire head can spin, or as my husband observed: "It's the Exorcist dog."
The overall facial expression is quite reminiscent of the look my dogs give me when they're hoping to get some treats.
Alas, LEGO has not made alternate colours for the ball joint pieces, so the colouring for the dog's tail suffers the same fate as the head. However the tail can wag and can be curled or straightened as a result.
The dog is sitting on a platform with red and gold decorations on four sides atop two 4x8 half circle plates (the rarest pieces in the set). There's also some greenery included with red flowers.
Overall thoughts
This is a charming little set. I was very happy to see that LEGO was offering the Chinese New Year set in the U.S. The colouring on the dog is terrific and there's some nice moving functions with the wiggling ears, the spinning head and moving tail. I also like the greenery and flowers included to set the scene. It's quite fitting that the promo comes with an $88 purchase in the U.S. as 88 symbolizes fortune and good luck in Chinese culture.
Between this and the 60 Years of the LEGO Brick promo, the year is off to a great start from a promotional standpoint. The promo runs through February 28, so if you haven't had chance to pick it up, there's still a few days left.
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16 comments on this article
Hate this promo as it is not available here!
Wrote an angry mail to LEGO customer service to ask why these promos are not available everywhere, making one feel like a second class customer just because one happens to live in the "wrong" country.
Their answer was more or less "There is no demand for such sets in Europe, except in the UK".
WTF? A set like this would sell like hotcakes even over here. Why shouldn't it? Everyone loves cute dogs, no?
Did I miss getting this?
Interestingly, I recently read a comment from Mark Stafford about the limited colors of these Mixel joints. He explained that because they use Polycarbonate instead of ABS, and are some of the most precise parts currently produced by Lego, each new color of these parts would need to be tested specifically to ensure that any minor chemical variations in the dyes didn't affect the parts' consistent functionality over time.
Anyway, as far as this set is concerned...
wow
much cute
very doge
Built this set last night, couldnt resist has I have 2 Shiba Inus. Will try and source parts for a black and white variant to match my other dog
@Lyichir
Many companies already produced them in many colors. I have one small set with white and purple ones and they are still doing great.
Still - thanks for info :)
The set itselflooks great and its a big shame I can't get it in Poland.
Nice set and very well designed,
I think even if you can't get hold of this pooch via the promo or on ebay
I, m sure if you download the instructions most will have the parts just lying round in a box to make they're own,
It shouldn't be to difficult to make an identical or similar year of the dog set depending on colour variations, as most of it is sloping bricks, tiles and plates..
That's very cute! I assume you could rotate the eyes to make him cross eyed?
I did a quick video run through of this set since there didn't seem to be much out there. It is a nice little freebie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSakyB3si0
It appears this set is stylised after the shiba inu of which I have one and this was a day one purchase for me and it appears with some color palette changes you could make a German shepherd looking dog as well. Anyway love this little set
@AustinPowers, some of the 2018 sets are more expensive in Ireland than in Germany e.g. Ship in a Bottle is 85 in Ireland versus 70 in Germany. Does that make the Irish based users third class customers?
No, it doesn't. LEGO have always and will always offer different promotions and pricing in different markets, it is a fact of life.
@gunther.schnitzel: imho it does!
It may be LEGO's policy to discriminate certain customers, but that doesn't mean one has to accept this blindly. If I were a customer in Ireland (or any other Euro country where the pricing is way off) I would certainly speak out about it to LEGO. There is absolutely no reason for example why LEGO products have to be way more expensive in Belgium or the Netherlands (or Ireland) than in Germany, other than the slight difference (2%) in VAT. Even worse if you happen to live in Australia or New Zealand. I wonder how well Lepin et al are doing there.
What annoys me the most is the BS reasoning they gave me in reply. No demand? They could have been open about it, like saying they only produced a limited quantity and allocated those sets to the markets with the projected highest demand. That would have been a wording anyone can understand and accept. But plainly proclaiming they would know that there is no demand is just BS, sorry to say. They can't know that as they have never even tried to sell these sets over here or anywhere else in Europe.
It reminds me of a fox.
I guess just lots of UK people asked and sent email last year. The year of roaster is Leicester square exclusive last year.
@AustinPowers:
I know it's more about the principle as to why Lego didn't issues in GE but if you email me your address, I will send you the dog. I have extra.
agcomptech721 @comcast.net
@agcomptech: highly appreciated, PM sent.
Its extremely annoying that they aren't offering it in Ireland - I had held off placing an order (would have got money back on credit card) just so I could get this freebie - A CS rep had told me it was coming and that I could wait for that offer (at the time they had sold out of the 60 Years Of The Brick and I was inquiring about that)