Chinese New Year celebrations are steeped in symbolism. Everything from colours to characters and creatures has deep meanings during the Spring Festival. The Chinese Zodiac Animal for 2026 is the horse. This is the seventh animal in a 12-year cycle. The Horse symbolises freedom, strength, and perseverance. The Horse is also the focus of the largest of the upcoming LEGO® Spring Festival sets. The Galloping Horses Canvas features a line of four stamping horses, springing from a unique canvas scroll. The kinetic model also includes the annual zodiac animal costumed minifigure. Here’s a look at the Galloping Horses Canvas set.
Product Details
Set Name: Galloping Horses Canvas | Set Number: 80119 | Pieces: 1650 | Theme: Spring Festival
Number of Bags: Bags x 15 | Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Sticker: n/a | Minifigures: x 2
RRP: £89.99/79.99€/$89.99/129.99AUD/119.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & LEGO retailers from January 1st 2026
The large base section of the set is the main focus of the build. This is a rather busy area and requires the placement of a lot of small elements. At points it can be a little too fiddly, but thankfully the instructions do a great job are showing where elements need to be placed, which can sometimes be an additional source of frustration. Much of the colour palette for the base is tied to those often associated with the Chinese New Year. As mentioned in other reviews, this can make the CNY sets seem rather similar, but in reality, this is the most unique of those released in recent years.
Once the base structure is complete and decorated with various flourishes, a simple mechanism is installed. This consists of a set of four red Technic beams. Each one is mounted onto a rod which stretches the width of the base. This is then connected to a small gear system and a handle. The gears help to slow the rotation of the handle, giving the mechanism a smoother motion. It’s entirely possible to automate the motion with various LEGO Powered Up elements. Although this isn’t something covered in the instructions.
Those Technic beams, which protrude from the base, become a perch for one of four brick-built horses. Despite their similar appearances, each horse is built slightly differently. This gives an obvious visual distinction between each animal, but could also be connected to the different elemental variants of the Zodiac animals. The last Zodiac Horse was connected to wood, for 2026 its fire and in 2038 it will be Earth. Of the four horses featured in the set, the black one is the most unique. In place of legs, the black horse’s dock is a cloud of colourful elements which match those of the base.
With the four horses in place, they can gallop by turning the handle. As they are each set at different points, the movement of the mechanism makes them appear to race forward from the set’s large backdrop. This is built to resemble a scroll and is held in place by two simple columns, which fix into the base section. Within the rear of the scroll piece are a trio of ball joint connectors. These are used to hold a large material piece. This features four more horses and is made from the same material as the capes, and it sweeps into the base of the set, sitting just behind the horses. It’s held in place with another two ball joint connectors. This offers a genuinely unique display piece. Although it required a large area to display it, due to the set’s large footprint.
That footprint is expanded further should you choose to display the additional buildable element with it. A small plate is used to house a small table. This is where the Zodiac scrolls are illustrated, as shown by a printed 2×2 tile showing a horse. It’s also home to the set’s two minifigures. One is a young girl in traditional clothes, the other is an adult wearing a horse head. Despite previous minifigures sporting a similar headpiece, the one used here is a new piece but still matches the design of the classic horse animal figures. The animal-themed minifigures have become a tradition of the CYN sets, so it’s nice to see them continue.
The set can be built with others using the Build Together function on the LEGO Builder app. Up to 3 people can build the set at the same time. Using different smart devices, the Build Together experience will split into the build up in to different steps. Regardless of how it’s built, it’s both a rewarding and, at times, annoying build. The various tiny pieces used in the base can become monotonous at times, but the finish they provide is quite striking. It’s another wonderful celebration of Chinese traditions and one which continues to maintain the strong symbolism connected to the Spring Festival. The Galloping Horses Canvas launches globally on January 1st and can be pre-ordered now.
