Review: 40436 Lucky Cat
Posted by Huw,
Rumours of BrickHeadz demise have been greatly exaggerated. The theme will be entering its fourth year in 2020 and at least five new sets are slated for release early in the year.
One of them, 40436 Lucky Cat, is being released in celebration of Chinese New Year.
Lucky cat, or maneki-neko, is "a common Japanese figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. The figurine depicts a cat beckoning with an upright paw, and is often displayed in the entrances of shops and businesses. It is also called the 'Chinese lucky cat' because of its popularity among Chinese merchants." (source Wikipedia)
It's an ideal subject, then, for a set designed to appeal in far-eastern markets.
Like the more common ceramic cats it's depicted in a sitting position and, also like those, it has an arm that can be waved up and down.
It follows the BrickHeadz standard but with deviations for the sitting legs, the arm waving mechanism and the ears, which are held on, very neatly, with red 1x1 bricks with a vertical 316 bar on the side.
The left arm can be moved up and down using the lever at the back.
Wikipedia states that "Maneki-neko can be found with either the right or left paw raised (and sometimes both). The significance of the right and left raised paw differs with time and place.
"A statue with the left paw raised is to get more customers, while the right paw raised is to get more money. Hence it is also said that the one with left paw is for business and the right is for home."
It's interesting, then, why LEGO chose to animate the left arm.
Like all seasonal BrickHeadz this one comes with a elaborate base, in this case adorned with gold flourishes: a feature common in most of the other sets targeted at the Chinese market.
The only new part in the set is the printed gold tile in its right hand. I have no idea what the script says but I'm hoping someone reading can enlighten me.
I do like a good BrickHeadz particularly those, like this one, that push the boundaries of the design and introduce something new and interesting.
As I say in conclusion to BrickHeadz reviews, It won't win over detractors of the theme but those that love the blocky characters will find a lot to like in this set.
40436 Lucky Cat will be released on January 1st in all markets, and will cost £9.99 and $9.99.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
61 likes
18 comments on this article
The script on the printed tile means "10,000,000 taels of Japanese (or Chinese) gold". :) It is written in Japanese Kanji instead of Chinese. Maneki-neko is originated from Japan anyway.
I still can't get it out if my head that it looks like Wolverines hands are coming out of its cheeks...
Yeah, that's a buy. These designs work best as cutesy animal things.
@Vic0v0 said:
"The script on the printed tile means "10,000,000 taels of Japanese (or Chinese) gold". :) It is written in Japanese Kanji instead of Chinese. Maneki-neko is originated from Japan anyway. "
Thank you!
This kind of subject is perfect for the Brickhead style, it allows designers more creativity to come up with totally unique and interesting sets. That, for me, was the biggest issue with all the licensed sets that Lego churned out. They were effectively all the same with the primary difference being printed parts and hairstyles. This could be a shrewd move by Lego to reinvigorate the theme, all the toy store managers in my area hated stocking the old ones as they never sold and were returned to Lego each season en masse. These should appeal to a wider market than just the occasional collector of the licensed sets.
I grew up seeing a lot of these cats in Asian restaurants and stores. It always seems to be the left arm that is animated and moves back and forth, at least from my experience.
Speaking of the arm moving back and forth, some's gonna be the first to motorize it with a crankshaft linkage, I'm pretty sure of that. :P
I don't think its quite "fair or accurate" to say that Rumours of BrickHeadz demise have been greatly exaggerated. Perhaps "moderately" exaggerated is more applicable.
When these first began, they were novelties, shown off at San Diego Comic Con. When LEGO decided to pump life in to the new theme, they began at a good pace, not too few/not too many. If memory serves, there were eight released including Batman, Robin, Joker, Black Widow, Captain America, Batgirl, Belle and Beast. These eight would set people back roughly $80 at RRP. Just as we began "digesting" these... it seems the lid on Brickheadz blew off like the top of Chernobyls reactor. All of the sudden, releases of what seemed to be almost 100 Brickheadz happened basically in an instant.
It was practically impossible to keep up with all the new models, they ranged from Disney, to Marvel, to DC, to Star Wars, Simpsons, Incredibles, Harry Potter and the list goes on and on. It was WAAAAAAY too many in too short a time span. It was unquestionably very dumb, from a business perspective to flood the market with so many at one time.
For the typical LEGO consumer, one could not keep up with all of the new releases and after what seemed a rather short period of time with way too many models being released, it seemed LEGO decided to slow the theme down to a much smaller pool of new Brickheadz.
There were several in the mix, that had shelf life of what seemed like only a couple of weeks. The rumors were that LEGO was totally abandoning the Brickheadz theme altogether. Even store staff were under the assumption LEGO was discontinuing Brickheadz.
Bottom line is, if they continue to do reasonable releases of a handful per year and not the ridiculous release of nearly 100 all at one time, the theme has a future and consumers can keep up with new models going forward.
The 'mixed messages" as it pertains to this theme was all LEGO's doing. They did not have a competent release strategy about two years ago and they were over-saturating the market which was not smart at all. Thankfully, those decision makers seem to have come to the realization that the theme can indeed be successful, with decent models, staggered and varying releases where people can find the time and money to keep invested in the theme.
Now that the dust has settled, it's clear LEGO has decided to continue the theme, with holiday creations (Thanksgiving Scarecrow, Halloween Ghost for example), sporadic Star Wars entries (Kylo Ren/Sith Trooper), Birthday Clown and these will now be continuing in to 2020.
The theme is fine for what it is, they are moderately priced so friendly to all incomes and there aren't tons being "dropped" on the buying public at a ridiculous pace.
@BanjodeFairmont said:
"I don't think its quite "fair or accurate" to say that Rumours of BrickHeadz demise have been greatly exaggerated. Perhaps "moderately" exaggerated is more applicable."
Mark Twain didn't use the word 'moderately' in response to his obituary being posted prematurely, though :)
This may be useful for my father bussines then.
^^ that gets me thinking, we really need a Mark Twain Brickheadz.
The first wave had 12 BrickHeadz.
I actually disagree with you there--I'm here to say this is the first BrickHeadz I actually like. Ordinarily, I'd be one of those "detractors of the theme" you mention, but this is genuinely cute.
gotta have the set. Those Japanese characters, and what it says, would go great on a MOC red light district set.
@Vic0v0 said:
"The script on the printed tile means "10,000,000 taels of Japanese (or Chinese) gold". :) It is written in Japanese Kanji instead of Chinese. Maneki-neko is originated from Japan anyway. "
Japanese Kanji IS Chinese characters. It's just simplified chinese instead of traditional in this case
Also interesting how it has a golden stud on its collar on the official pic but not in the review
Very good!
@ericlego321 said:
" @Vic0v0 said:
"The script on the printed tile means "10,000,000 taels of Japanese (or Chinese) gold". :) It is written in Japanese Kanji instead of Chinese. Maneki-neko is originated from Japan anyway. "
Japanese Kanji IS Chinese characters. It's just simplified chinese instead of traditional in this case"
Although Japanese Kanji is originated from Chinese characters, over hundreds of years the Japanese invented characters on their own and changed the strokes of many characters. Gradually many kanji characters do not exist in a Chinese dictionary (be it simplified or traditional) and some are accepted as non-standard ways of writing the characters. When simplified Chinese was invented in 1956, the inventer did take reference from some kanji characters.
The last character on the printed tile is not the common way of writing in modern Chinese. It is more like an older way of writing, e.g. in Tang dynasty. However, given that the second character is not in traditional Chinese, only in Japanese there exists such a combination of using the particular second character and the particular third character.
Chinese/Japanese characters cannot appear in the forum, otherwise, I can just type them out directly lol
@ericlego321 said:
"Also interesting how it has a golden stud on its collar on the official pic but not in the review"
Probably just an oversight. I just built mine and the stud is there in the instructions, and the piece is included in the set.