Seasonal

Year of the Snake

A small, coiled little sculpture that punches way above its piece count.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 40707 · 2024

Pieces173

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number40707

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The verdict

I built this one in an evening with tea going cold beside me, and I was surprised how much personality LEGO packed into 173 pieces.

The snake itself, coiled and gently textured with the segmented body pieces, is the whole show, and it earns that attention. This is a shelf piece, not a play set, and it is priced and sized like one, so go in knowing you are buying a small seasonal display object, not an afternoon epic. If you collect the Zodiac line or just love a snake with real presence, this one belongs on your desk.

Best for: Lunar New Year gift-givers and LEGO Zodiac collectors who already own the earlier animals

The full review

What it is

I will be honest about what this is before I tell you why I still liked it. Year of the Snake is a small, single-subject sculpture, a coiled snake built from segmented sections that curve and taper the way an actual snake body does. There is no backdrop, no minifigure, no little scene around it. It is 173 pieces doing one job, and the reason it works is that the job gets done with real care. The head, the taper toward the tail, the way the coils stack, all of it reads as a snake at a glance rather than a rough LEGO approximation of one.

The catch

The caveat here is simple and it is the one every Zodiac set in this line shares. You are paying seasonal-set money for a small display piece, and if you are coming from big sculptural sets you may finish this one wondering where the rest of it went. It is also a limited seasonal release, tied to Lunar New Year timing, so the window to grab it before it disappears from shelves is shorter than a normal retail set. If you already know that going in, none of it feels like a letdown. If you do not, it can feel small for the price.

Who it's for

This is a set for people who already love the idea of a yearly LEGO Zodiac animal on their shelf, or for anyone picking a thoughtful, compact Lunar New Year gift that does not require table space to display. If you want a big build to sink a weekend into, or a scene with minifigures and story, skip this one and look toward LEGO's larger seasonal or Icons sets instead.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building it is a quick, satisfying sit-down project rather than a marathon. The bulk of the piece count goes into the segmented body sections that click together and pivot slightly at each joint, which is what lets the finished snake hold that natural curl instead of sitting stiff and straight. It is a good example of LEGO using repetition on purpose, each segment is nearly identical, but the cumulative effect is the curve that makes the whole thing look alive.

There is no standout rare or printed element here, this is a set that gets its value from clever shaping rather than exotic parts. The head and tail pieces are the moments where the design earns its keep, giving the snake actual character instead of leaving it as a generic tube of bricks. For a 173 piece set, the part count feels reasonably used, nothing here is filler just to hit a price point, every section is doing work toward the final silhouette.

Fun facts

01Year of the Snake continues LEGO's annual Zodiac Seasonal sub theme, which has released a new coiled or posed animal to mark each Lunar New Year
02The set relies on segmented, jointed body pieces rather than a single molded shape, which is the same building technique LEGO has used across the Zodiac animals to get lifelike curves from standard bricks
03Like its Zodiac predecessors, it was released as a limited seasonal item timed to Lunar New Year rather than as a year round catalog set, making it a common one to sell out early with collectors