I received the above for my birthday. It’s a new LEGO landscape, in a shadow box format. This is a popular set, and has been periodically unavailable since it was released.

This is my first LEGO set where the pieces are in paper bags. The bags are very strong and won’t tear easily so they seem like a good replacement for plastic. I believe the plan was for LEGO to transition all sets to using paper but since they announced this years ago that’s obviously taking them longer than expected.

Assembly begins with the frame, which is easy if a little repetitive. It’s bigger than I expected, about 40 cm on each side. Can you see the ‘mistake’ I made (and later fixed)?

The landscape is a fun build, and creates a very convincing forced perspective diorama. It doesn’t have a lot of unusual build methods or weird pieces, and was easy compared to other kits I’ve built.

The vibrant colours are the obvious standout feature of this set, with the sunset and brilliant water and (of course) cherry blossoms. Of course this is a somewhat fantastic Japanese landscape, but it does a great job including many iconic elements at micro scale.

A nice little touch is that the water running out of the frame is hinged which allows the set to stand vertically on a shelf (it can also be hung on a wall). This is a wonderful set, and I’m sure Lego will release other shadowbox landscapes in the future.