A zippy little set with some interesting techniques.
TL;DR:
- Original Price: $19.99
- Pieces: 246
- Minifigure(s): Mei, Ink Demon, Ink General
- Sticker Sheet: Yes
- Pros: Colorful designs, unusual build techniques, inexpensive originally
- Cons: Small, cockpit doesn't hold pilot, expensive now
Assembly:
Bag #1 - Mei, Ink Demon, Ink General, cannon, rocket sled
Bag #2 - Jet body
Bag #3 - Jet nose & wings
Leftover Pieces
- Interesting Steps:
- 11: an unusual use of 2L bars with stop ring to invert 1x1 cones for the front of the rocket sled, which also form the anemic thrusters when it's mounted to the back of the jet. It's also always a little sad to get only half of a hinge brick (in this case, the plate), especially when it's used just as a bit of greebling.
- 56: This nose sub-build is pushed down into upward-facing clips, and then rotated down into the front-facing clip green. I have to wonder if a more-standard building technique would have accomplished the same result, but it was a surprising building process.
- Interesting Techniques:
- This vertical stack with SNOT side pieces (locked together by the 2x6 plates in steps 30 and 38) gets turned 90° to become the underside of the cockpit. It also includes the pearl gold brick with bars to act as connection point for set 80040.
- Similarly, bars and hinges are built as runners underneath the jet's fuselage, which unfold to be used as a shoulder yoke for the combination mentioned above.
- A mix of hinge and Technic pieces combine to allow the wing parts to nestle together in ways that wouldn't be possible with more standard and restrictive connection points.
- Pain Points:
- Mei doesn't actually fit within the cockpit.
- Play Features:
- The cannon does a good job of disguising the tile shooter so it looks more like an ancient form of artillery, designed by the ink demons to shoot ink at our heroes.
- As mentioned above, this set is designed to pair with another set (80040, which is similarly $19.99, but oddly still available on LEGO.com, while this set retired back in December of 2024), to become sort of a wing-suit backpack for Monkie Kid's mech. It will be interesting to test this feature out when I build 80040.
• Overall: This is a remarkably complex build, especially given the low price point. the set had. That said, the price has doubled in the more than a year since it retired in 2024. I'm also not sure why this set retired while its companion set is still live after more than three years; it's always intriguing to see the different lifespans of sets in different themes and even within the same theme.
I appreciate that even for a vehicle-focused set we still get a tiny bit of scenery (in the form of the dripping barrel of ink ammo for the cannon. Readers of my blow know that's a common point I bring up, and having that in such a small set really makes this feel like a a part of a bigger story, instead of just another cool vehicle. I also really appreciate how much attention to detail the Monkie Kid sets have as a whole, and Mei sets always have a great colorway, from white, to lime, to bright green, to dark turquoise (as visible here in the pentagonal tiles on either side beneath the wings).
The biggest issue that this set has is the cockpit design. It's too shallow, so instead of being covered, the pilot has to use the trans-bright green piece as a windscreen. The other issue is that the price has doubled since it retired, which seems particularly steep, and I'm not sure why: none of the minifigs are unique to this set, nor are any of the pieces. Perhaps it was just too popular and the early retirement has restricted stock availability and driven up the price.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes swooshing jets around and anyone who appreciates unusual techniques, especially if you can find it at something closer to the original pricepoint.
Score (out of 5 🧱):
- Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Play: 🧱🧱🧱
- Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱
- Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
Lego Instructions: here
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