Year of the Rat set revealed
Posted by Huw,
The Chinese new year begins on 25th January and once again LEGO is releasing a cute rendition of the year's zodiac animal, which this year is 40355 Year of the Rat.
This image was sent to me by my good friend Nick in New York. I've no idea where he obtained the set from but I'm trying to find out!
The tradition of releasing small sets like this began in 2015 with 40148 Year of the Sheep and like the others this one comes in a flap-top box with an envelope inside that can, as is customary, be filled with money before gifting.
I suspect, like the others, it will be widely available in due course.
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Hers hoping Lego keeps to their promise of no regional exclusives then. Would be the first time they'd make this available worldwide!
@sid3windr Actually, the "Year of the ____" sets have been widely available since 2018's Dog
That is a yuge rat.
I'd have preferred a rat that was on all fours, but nvm. Still pretty cool and I definitely want one, given it's my Chinese Zodiac sign.
FNAF anyone?
@brigadeschick: Well they tried all fours with the Sheep, and they managed to make my Chinese Zodiac animal look too goofy as to lose its cuteness altogether... at least there's going to be a Sheep BrickHeadz set for Easter, which is of great appeal to me as both occasions have equal significance to me as an ethnic-Chinese Christian whose favorite land animal is also the sheep.
Does an incredible job of looking both rat-like and cute! I'm going to enjoy collecting the whole set of twelve (I should live so long)!
Cute? Seriously? This is just creepy!
I really like this series. But one thing I don't understand: the series appears to have started proper in 2016 with year of the monkey, but before that it was a bit strange.
2013 was year of the snake, and they had a set to match.
2014 was year of the horse, but no set
2015 was year of the goat, but the released a set called year of the sheep.
From what I gathered online the chinese word for goat and sheep is kind of similar (or even the same), even though those are two distinct types of animals. In general though, the term goat appears to be the one that is more commonly used when it comes to the zodiac.
I wonder why LEGO went with "sheep" anyway.
Yikes. Terrifying. Now appearing in 'Five Nights at the LEGO Store'...
Looks much more like a mouse than a rat.
Bad nose job!
I know I shouldn't feel this way, but recently anything to do with western companies catering to China like this leaves a sour taste in my mouth somehow.
@AustinPowers: I guess it's because sheep are more appealing to children than goats in popular culture, though there's a goat farm here that I'd love to visit someday. Even within Chinese culture there isn't a consensus on whether the sign refers to a goat or a sheep, and I myself call it either one interchangeably. Ultimately I suspect it doesn't matter all that much.
Interestingly, the Year of the Rat is almost unambiguously so called and not the Year of the Mouse, despite these two rodents getting just as commonly mixed up.
@LegoSonicBoy : thanks for the insight.
Yes, the rat (while actually quite different from a mouse) is often mistaken for other rodents. Strange also that the zodiac is a rat rather than a mouse because people tend to hate rats for many things like distributing deseases, while mice are much more popular (just look at all the mice characters in comics, and I don't just mean Mickey and Minnie).
Kinda cute, in a Nightmare Fuel sort of way. Now to build a tiny box of rat poison to keep him fed... (cue evil laugh) mwha, ha, ha!!