The LEGO® Group announced two Chinese Festival sets for global release back in November 2019. After months on backorder, I finally got my hands on these sets. Last week, I reviewed Lion Dance (80104). This week, we examine Temple Fair (80105).
NOTE: The LEGO® Group provided this set for review. However, the provision of sets does not guarantee a favorable assessment. I will use my usual rating system (click here to learn more) and provide my honest opinion.
TEMPLE FAIR (80105) SUMMARY
- NAME: Chinese New Year Temple Fair
- SET #: 80105
- THEME: Chinese Festival (seasonal)
- COST: $159.99 CAD
- BRICK COUNT: 1664
- MINIFIGURES: 13 + 1 baby
- RELEASE DATE: December 26, 2019
TEMPLE FAIR (80105) QUICK REVIEW
- VALUE: 97% (Excellent cost-per-brick and build time value.)
- BUILD: 90% (Stunning set, but the backside of the temple feels unfinished.)
- MINIFIGURES: 93% (Good number of characters with great designs.)
- ENTERTAINMENT: 88% (Niche market appeal with somewhat limited display ability.)
- OVERALL SCORE: 92%
TEMPLE FAIR (80105) REVIEW
VALUE: 97%
As the larger of the 2020 Chinese Festival sets, Temple Fair costs $159.99 in Canada. Additionally, the kit contains 1664 bricks. As a result, the cost-per-brick is $0.096. That is an excellent value. Large sets often have a great cost-per-brick as you are essentially buying a bulk package of bricks. I rate the cost-per-brick for Temple Fair at 95%.
I spent four hours and 27 minutes assembling this set (267 minutes total). At $159.99, that equates to a build time cost-per-minute of $0.60. Again, that is excellent. You are getting a lot of quality assembly time with this set. I rate that at 99%. Averaging the build time and cost-per-brick scores yields an overall value rating of 97%.
BUILD: 90%
There is a lot going on in Temple Fair. Firstly, you build a small marketplace consisting of four vendor’s stalls. One booth sells treats, another toys. A third booth sells pottery and figurines, while the final is a shadow puppet theater that also sells fireworks. While each is a small build, I like them all quite a bit. You learn three new roofing techniques. Additionally, the market has two cherry blossom trees that look great. If you are building up a custom marketplace in your own LEGO® city, you get some simple but effective designs for booths in this set.
The main build is the temple entrance. The temple is just a façade with no interior. The front of the build is amazing. It uses several interesting build techniques to achieve a detailed look. I particularly like the rose bushes. They are a simple design, but I had not considered it before. I will be using it more often. My only complaint about the temple build is the rear. There was no effort made to make it look interesting from the back. While I understand that designing an interior to this temple would increase the brick count and cost of this set, I still think the side warrants more effort. The rest of the set is so beautiful that the ugly backside stands out more. If not a full temple interior, then at least it should have mirrored the front side more.
Unfortunately, the back side of the Temple is ugly.
Finally, there is one of the smaller builds in this set that bothered me. You build a baby carriage as an accessory. However, the carriage is way too tall for Minifigure scale. A Minifigure must reach up to grab the handles and cannot really see over the top. However, this carriage is such a small part of the set that it does not really warrant a loss of points. Overall, I really like this set. However, the back side of the main build feels unfinished. For that reason, I rate the overall build score for Temple Fair at 9/10 (90%).
MINIFIGURES: 93%
Temple Fair comes with 13 Minifigures. All but two have the standard Minifigure pieces. The remaining two are child characters with the stumpy legs. However, all the characters come with front and back torso printing, while seven have double-sided faces and two have leg printing. A couple of characters even feature new Chinese-themed prints. Additionally, Parker’s hat and hair got a recolor in this kit, which is awesome. Finally, there are over 100 accessories in this kit (including all the printed tiles). You get lanterns, hats, tassels, red scarves, small animals, food pieces, and loads more. The Minifigure selection in Temple Fair is great, as are the accessories. Even if you do not count all the printed tiles as accessories, I still rate the Minifigure design in this kit at 100%.
For a kit of this size, Temple Fair comes with a good number of Minifigures. The brick-to-fig ratio is 128:1. Comparatively, my average sits at 152:1. I rate the ratio score at 85%. Averaging the ratio and design scores gives an overall Minifigure rating of 93%.
ENTERTAINMENT: 88%
Temple Fair is a great build that turns into a great display piece. Additionally, it fits in well with the Ninjago City style. Therefore, for the purposes of building up my LEGO® city, it suits my needs. As I mentioned in the build section, the backside is a little ugly though. This means that you can only display the set facing one way. That loses a little in terms of the entertainment score for me. I rate the AFOL score at 95%.
As with the Lion Dance set, I asked my nieces for their opinion on Temple Fair. They seemed impressed with the box and size of the kit. However, their interest in the set was about the same for Lion Dance. They would not opt to get this set over other themes like Harry Potter or Friends. For that reason, I do not grade the KFOL score over 80%. Averaging the two scores gives an overall entertainment rating of 88%.
OVERALL SCORE: 92%
Temple Fair is a beautiful set. Additionally, the kit’s value is excellent, and you get a wonderful assortment of Minifigures. However, the set needs more detail on the back of the temple. As it stands, that is an eyesore. With that said, the positives about Temple Fair far outweigh the negatives. While it is a niche interest set, it will not disappoint you if you fall into the niche.
Until next time,
-Tom
What do others think?
Brick Insights is an awesome site that aggregates LEGO® set review scores from around the web. Based on their statistics, you can see what other reviewers think of Temple Fair (80105) below.
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