The bricks are quite literally overshadowed in the flagship LEGO Lunar New Year 2026 set

The LEGO Group’s largest Lunar New Year set for 2026 is a beautiful sight to behold, but its printed canvas element is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and the construction can feel a bit tedious.

Lunar New Year sets are often among some of the most detailed, imaginative and experimental of the LEGO Group’s annual offerings. This year’s LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas has a lot going for it, and looks absolutely stunning, but not all of its creative choices pay off in a positive way, its central mechanism feels quite fiddly and awkward, and given that the best part of the build is a single large printed canvas, it’s hard to feel like this is a triumph of brick-built engineering.

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For the second year running, the LEGO designers have decided to do something weird and wonderful with their biggest Lunar New Year set. 2025’s Year of the Snake had the visually stunning 80116 Trotting Lantern, with its included light brick and twisting central mechanism. This time around, 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas again attempts to break the mould, and in many ways it succeeds – but the build is not without its drawbacks.

By far the most eye-catching feature of this build is the incredible printed canvas element, which looks like a traditional Chinese ink tapestry. This looks phenomenal, no matter whether it’s viewed from afar or seen up close. This could well be the most visually stunning cloth element to ever be included in a LEGO set, and it’s hard to imagine anything else ever topping it.

Of course, the problem with a set that relies so heavily on a canvas element for its visual style is that the big draw here isn’t a LEGO brick. There’s no construction involved with this part of the build – simply remove the canvas from its paper bag and hang it on the back of the model. Does it look great? Absolutely. Does it feel satisfying? Not particularly.

This leads to probably the biggest downside to 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas – which, to be clear, is an impressive set, but one that’s mired with minor quibbles which all add together. The actual process of building this set is far from engaging. The bulk of the build goes into constructing the base, putting together line after line of relatively abstract set dressing. It’s only after this has been hacked through that things begin to get interesting with the addition of the mechanical horses, before the whole thing is capped off with the aforementioned impressive canvas.

The good news is that the horses are at least quite fun to build, and also look impressive on display. They’re stylised and a little on the skeletal side, but they’re entertaining to put together and it’s fun to discover the set’s central mechanism by turning a crank on the side to give them life.

This function is great – it’s wonderful to see the horses gallop together, albeit slowly and with no small degree of wobble. The main drawback here is the placement of the crank – it’s at the bottom of the build, so it’s hard to actually turn without bashing against the table or shelf that the model is sitting atop. This does compromise the experience of moving the horses, but thankfully not enough to ruin the whole experience.

All of this adds up to create a scene wherein four moving horses feel like they’re bursting out of a painting, and it looks stunning. This makes for a great display piece, even if the build experience feels a little lopsided.

There are two minifigures included – a little girl, and a person in a horse costume. These are fine, albeit somewhat overshadowed by the rest of the set, and their inclusion doesn’t feel like a logical, necessary part of the build, but sometimes it’s just nice to have a minifigure dressed as a horse.

Our honest opinion: LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas is a beautiful model in spite of its at times tedious construction, but the gorgeous canvas literally overshadows everything else, stealing attention from the brick-built horses that really should be the focal point for a set of this nature.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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How big is the cloth piece in LEGO Chinese Traditional Festivals 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas?

LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas contains a large printed cloth element that measures 30cm tall and 20cm wide, which curves around underneath the brick-built horses.

How big is LEGO Chinese Traditional Festivals 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas?

LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas measures 23cm tall, 30cm wide and 32 deep.

How many pieces are in LEGO Chinese Traditional Festivals 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas?

LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas contains 1,650 pieces. This includes one large printed canvas that makes up the back of the build.

How much does LEGO Chinese Traditional Festivals 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas cost?

LEGO 80119 Galloping Horses Canvas costs £89.99 in the UK, $109.99 in the US and €99.99 in the EU.