LEGO Monkie Kid 2022

[a guy from somewhere]

I’m mythology ao guang commanded an army of “dragon turtles” and this is what the set seems to be based off. They symbolise courage, power and support, and are a prominent part of the feng shui. Yes, my knowledge of dragon turtles was fuelled by a classic Wikipedia rabbit hole.

[Lyichir]

Honestly I think the dragon turtle looks great, we got a little bit of a look at it in the show but I think it looks even better (and significantly more dragon-like) here. Can't wait to get more pictures of this set to get a better idea of what kinds of play features it might have.

For folks who have a bit more knowledge of Journey to the West/Chinese folklore, does the dog in the Heavenly Realms set have any special significance?

[Hermes]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Honestly I think the dragon turtle looks great, we got a little bit of a look at it in the show but I think it looks even better (and significantly more dragon-like) here. Can't wait to get more pictures of this set to get a better idea of what kinds of play features it might have.

For folks who have a bit more knowledge of Journey to the West/Chinese folklore, does the dog in the Heavenly Realms set have any special significance?

The dog is 哮天犬 "Haau Tin Huen" or " Xiao Tian Quan" (literally means the celestial howling dog), Erlang Shen's dog.  Erlang Shen is a three-eyed hero who is apparently the character in white battling with Monkey King in the set images.  

Edited May 4, 2022 by Hermes

[Meaf]

Looking at the Team Van again, I have to say that it seems a bit overpriced. It looks fun and the PPP is fine, but I cannot help but feel it appears smaller than the price tag would suggest. Maybe that's just me though, and I'm not too in love with it anyways so I don't care as much. The Heavenly Realms is a bit harder to gauge on that front, but at the very least I think it is priced reasonably. Whether it is a good deal or not is a bit hard to tell without seeing it from all angles, put the PPP is a good sign.

[CodFather1]

1 hour ago, Meadius said:

Looking at the Team Van again, I have to say that it seems a bit overpriced. It looks fun and the PPP is fine, but I cannot help but feel it appears smaller than the price tag would suggest. Maybe that's just me though, and I'm not too in love with it anyways so I don't care as much. The Heavenly Realms is a bit harder to gauge on that front, but at the very least I think it is priced reasonably. Whether it is a good deal or not is a bit hard to tell without seeing it from all angles, put the PPP is a good sign.

Agreed. I just don't see where the 1400 pieces are going in this set.

[a guy from somewhere]

5 hours ago, CodFather1 said:

Agreed. I just don't see where the 1400 pieces are going in this set.

Yeah. I was really excited for it but they’ve built it like a monster truck with mile high suspension. The show version looks much better with it much lower to the ground. Also not a fan of how everything is stacked up on the containers, would have preferred more standing room when everything’s closed up, but with everything mounted in the walls that’s virtually impossible. We still haven’t seen the interior of the actual van, just the containers on top, although we know the go cart goes in the back and there’s a hidden cannon on the side, I can only imagine it’s mostly made up of a mechanism for opening the side door and putting the cannon out like the ecto 1 set.

[Lyichir]

The Lego shop now has listings for all three sets, including the Dragon of the East! The submarine for Ao Guang can dock in the center of the dragon turtle's shell.

Unfortunately in the U.S. both Monkie Kid and Ninjago will be August releases, which means a little longer to wait...

[TeriXeri]

Prices are a little bit better then first rumoured.

Team van is €100, not like €130. 

Heavenly Realms is €170.

Dragon is €60 

Edited May 5, 2022 by TeriXeri

[danth]

Ugh. That dragon turtle set is really good. Lego has been killing it in dragon design the last few years and this year is no slouch either.

I haven't bought many Monkie Kid sets but Dragon of the East is tempting.

[Lion King]

53 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

Unfortunately in the U.S. both Monkie Kid and Ninjago will be August releases, which means a little longer to wait...

Your wallet: HOORAY!!!! I AM SAVED!!! 

[Lyichir]

1 minute ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Your wallet: HOORAY!!!! I AM SAVED!!! 

To be honest I would've preferred if Monkie Kid came out in June and Ninjago in August (or vice versa), so that it'd be a little easier to space out my purchases instead of having almost everything on my wish list drop at the same time!

[zoth33]

39 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

To be honest I would've preferred if Monkie Kid came out in June and Ninjago in August (or vice versa), so that it'd be a little easier to space out my purchases instead of having almost everything on my wish list drop at the same time!

I agree with all the Ninjago sets but one, Heavenly realms and the 90th anniverary castle August is going to kill me.  

[Meaf]

Having seen the new pictures of the Dragon of the East, I do think it looks a lot better than I'd first thought. The design is unique, and the head is very impressive. It's a good set, though I don't think I'll be getting it with so much else I'm interested in coming out this August.

[Killian]

 set  71773  and 71775 feel like they were originally conceived  as MK vehicles, set  71770 feels like a Mei vehicle, set 71771 is obviously a castle for The Lady Bone Demon, set 71772 feels like it's based on The Demon Bull King, or could be a Bull Clone Mech. Basically they've turned Ninjago into more of a Monkie Kid style theme. Which makes me like Ninjago more. 

[RichardGoring]

On 5/5/2022 at 1:19 PM, TeriXeri said:

Prices are a little bit better then first rumoured.

Team van is €100, not like €130. 

Heavenly Realms is €170.

Dragon is €60 

Curiously the sets are $130, $180, and $80 in the US. Maybe they're finally matching the currency to level prices, or perhaps as MK is now on Amazon, they're pricing it with discounts in mind?

Heavenly Realms feels a fair price. The other two just a bit too expensive. The Dragon the East looks great though.

[Lyichir]

14 hours ago, Killian said:

 set  71773  and 71775 feel like they were originally conceived  as MK vehicles, set  71770 feels like a Mei vehicle, set 71771 is obviously a castle for The Lady Bone Demon, set 71772 feels like it's based on The Demon Bull King, or could be a Bull Clone Mech. Basically they've turned Ninjago into more of a Monkie Kid style theme. Which makes me like Ninjago more. 

Eh, I don't really think there's that much more shared DNA between these themes in the summer than there always has been (with some designers working on both themes). Parts and techniques get shared back and forth—some examples in the opposite direction are the Heavenly Realms set using some angled roof techniques that are borrowed from this year's Ninja Dojo Temple, and the Dragon of the East's face drawing from a long pedigree of brick-built dragon heads in Ninjago.

[Lion King]

On 5/5/2022 at 1:56 PM, Lyichir said:

To be honest I would've preferred if Monkie Kid came out in June and Ninjago in August (or vice versa), so that it'd be a little easier to space out my purchases instead of having almost everything on my wish list drop at the same time!

 

On 5/5/2022 at 2:36 PM, zoth33 said:

I agree with all the Ninjago sets but one, Heavenly realms and the 90th anniverary castle August is going to kill me.  

I mean, I don’t understand why Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and City sets are scheduled to be released in Europe in June while they are scheduled to be released in North America in August… But Freinds sets will be released in late May…. Definitely it has nothing to do with pandemic - I think Ninjago sets happened to be released in Europe and North America in June and August respectively before the pandemic era.

[Killian]

I just watched a beautifully animated movie on the British Netflix called Nezha: Reborn which features several characters from Chinese Mythology/Journey To The West. It very much has Monkie Kid vibes; kind of a Monkie Kid for grown ups though, or children who are ok with a lot of death, injury and violence.

Spoiler

The poor kitten   :(

It has versions of at least 3 or 4 characters featured in Monkie Kid and follows a similar plot with a guy inheriting great power and being mentored by a famous primate

[karmajay]

80022 Spider Queen's base is 28% off at Amazon US atm. One of my favorite recent sets.

Edited May 16, 2022 by karmajay

[Killian]

On 5/16/2022 at 4:21 PM, karmajay said:

80022 Spider Queen's base is 28% off at Amazon US atm. One of my favorite recent sets.

Still need to build mine. It's been sitting around for months along with four other MK sets and I just ordered The Team Secret HQ. Planning to order the Dronecopter set and the 3 sets releasing in June over the next couple of weeks. Gonna have so much MK building to do.

Still trying to decide whether to buy the Noodle Tank to get the Speedy Panda employees to go with the Speedy Panda stores in the other sets, but I suppose I could just buy the minifigs used

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, Killian said:

Still need to build mine. It's been sitting around for months along with four other MK sets and I just ordered The Team Secret HQ. Planning to order the Dronecopter set and the 3 sets releasing in June over the next couple of weeks. Gonna have so much MK building to do.

Still trying to decide whether to buy the Noodle Tank to get the Speedy Panda employees to go with the Speedy Panda stores in the other sets, but I suppose I could just buy the minifigs used

For whatever it's worth the Noodle Tank is so far my favorite Pigsy vehicle—the overall build is so clever and I love all the details, including the bowl-shaped tank itself with its chopsticks and retro fridge as well as the two panda drones. The version of Pigsy in that set (with bandoliers full of ingredients) is also one of my favorite versions of him so far, but while it's currently exclusive to that set it won't be for long since the same torso will soon be available in the upcoming Monkie Kid's Team Van.

[TeriXeri]

Just compared the Monkie Kid Galactic Explorer to the City Space 2022 Launch Tower, and scale is quite good as the spaceship is about as tall as the tip of the SLS rocket.

Also the little walkway/elevator comes up about near the main cockpit.

The rocket fuel tank/booster could also be used as a sci-fi shuttle with the Dragon Horse Jet as a Monkie Kid space-shuttle variant since the Dragon Horse jet is similar size to the previous 3-in-1 minifig shuttles.

Edited May 17, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Killian]

21 hours ago, Lyichir said:

For whatever it's worth the Noodle Tank is so far my favorite Pigsy vehicle—the overall build is so clever and I love all the details, including the bowl-shaped tank itself with its chopsticks and retro fridge as well as the two panda drones. The version of Pigsy in that set (with bandoliers full of ingredients) is also one of my favorite versions of him so far, but while it's currently exclusive to that set it won't be for long since the same torso will soon be available in the upcoming Monkie Kid's Team Van.

Yeah... I think I'm going to get the tank  

 

Just started watching a show on the British Netflix that's based on Journey To The West. It's called A Korean Odyssey (it's set in Korea), and it's hilarious! It has The Monkey King and Demon Bull King as roommates, Pigsy as a K-Pop star who can turn into a Boar, and Tang as a female Real Estate Agent who can see Demons (and who most Demons want to eat just like in Journey To The West).  The Monkey King ends up being manipulated into protecting her even though he wants to eat her, and hijinks ensue  

[scottypavarotti]

I don’t know if this has already been covered, but I popped into my local LEGO store today in Edinburgh and they had a handful of Monkie Kid sets on the shelf for the first time since the store opened. They had the Galactic Explorer, Fire Ring, Dragon Car and Staff Creations sets. Those are the first ones I’ve seen on shelves for a long time in the UK. So…not online only at least.

[Killian]

12 minutes ago, scottypavarotti said:

I don’t know if this has already been covered, but I popped into my local LEGO store today in Edinburgh and they had a handful of Monkie Kid sets on the shelf for the first time since the store opened. They had the Galactic Explorer, Fire Ring, Dragon Car and Staff Creations sets. Those are the first ones I’ve seen on shelves for a long time in the UK. So…not online only at least.

Oh cool. The Leeds store stopped stocking them a while back, so I've been buying them through Lego's website