Lego 40813 Lucky Cat review

Lego has released a number of fantastic sets to celebrate the Chinese New Year, but our favourite might just be the cheapest of them. Lucky Cat is out now, and we just can’t get enough of its chunky, happy face. Like a real lucky cat, its paw moves, and it looks absolutely perfect sat on any shelf or mantel.

Read on to find our full Lucky Cat review and see why we think this set is the perfect little icon to bring in the new year with.

Lego 40813 Lucky Cat

• RRP: £24.99
• Number of pieces: 280
• Release date: 1st January 2025
• Age rating: 9+
• Time to build: 40 minutes

Buy Lucky Cat on Lego.com

Lego Lucky Cat 40813 review: What’s in the box?

There are five bags of bricks that make up the Lego Lucky Cat model. Each bag is fairly small, and you’ll likely complete each part in 10 minutes or less.

Along with the bags of bricks (which are old-style plastic bags), you’ll also find a small instruction booklet, and a sheet of three stickers. Yeah, we were disappointed to see stickers too, but at least there’s only three of them!

The instruction booklet may be small, but the paper stock is very good quality, and the printing on each page is high quality too. The steps are very basic and straightforward, making this a build that’s suitable for kids to tackle with minimal supervision.

Lego Lucky Cat review: The build

Despite being a rather quick experience, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed building Lego 40813 Lucky Cat. It’s a seriously satisfying build that comes together very quickly, and looks absolutely fantastic when it’s done. If you fancy completing something quick that makes a wonderful display piece when it’s finished, this is the set for you.

The build is split up into five separate bags, and each section will only take you between five and ten minutes to complete. You can scroll through the slideshow below to see the result after each stage of the build:

After building the first bag of bricks. Image: That Brick Site

After building the second bag of bricks. Image: That Brick Site

After building the third bag of bricks. Image: That Brick Site

After building the fourth bag of bricks. Image: That Brick Site

The finished cat head. Image: That Brick Site

The finished Lego Lucky Cat. Image: That Brick Site

The workings for the Lucky Cat’s moving arm are placed in the very first bag. We expected there to be a small lever to make the hand move, but it’s simply weighted down by using a wheel inside the cat, so when the paw is touched it’ll ‘wobble’ — just like a real lucky cat would.

It’s a very simple but clever mechanism that works very well, and doesn’t require any overtly technical building.

My favourite part of the build came in bags four and five, when the cat’s face begins to take shape. I’m pleased to say that the cat’s facial features — his eyes, cheeks and eyebrows/whiskers — are printed onto large bricks. It looks simply wonderful, and there are no distracting brick joints (or badly-placed stickers!).

Play or display?

Lego Lucky Cat doesn’t really have much in the way of playability. Aside from its moving paw, there’s nothing else you can interact with. As a display piece, though, I think it’s absolutely wonderful. Mine is currently sat at the side of my TV in the lounge, and I can’t help but keep glancing at it.

This is a seriously happy Lego set that will bring a smile to you face whenever you happen to catch a glimpse at it — and you won’t be able to resist wobbling its paw every time you walk past it.

Value for money?

Lego 40813 Lucky Cat has an RRP of £24.99 which, for a 280-piece set, feels a little steep. I feel that £19.99 would have been more appropriate given the set’s size — but when it’s as nice as this, it’s hard to begrudge its asking price. It’s the type of set that’s rather unlikely to have a discount, too — and given it was sold out for a while on Lego’s website after just one day (it’s back in stock now), I’m guessing it’s proving to be very popular indeed.