80066 Mythical Creature Qilin LEGO Review - Monkie Kid, 2025

A mythical almost-masterpiece.

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $69.99
• Pieces: 791
• Minifigure(s): Celestial Warrior, Pigsy, Mei, Sandy, Mo, Monkie Kid
• Sticker Sheet: Yes
• Pros: Great looking minifigs & build
• Cons: Qilin has limited poseability, some decorative details fragile

Assembly: 

Bag #1 - Celestial Warrior, Pigsy, flying cloud, noodle cart

 

Bag #2 - Mei, flying saddle, qilin torso

Bag #3 - Qilin torso details

Bag #4 - Sandy, Mo, qilin left legs

Bag #5 - Monkie Kid, qilin right legs & feet

Bag #6 - Qilin head & tail

• Interesting Steps:
• 15: simple cart canopy. As you can see from the Bag #1 photo above, this actually works extremely well to make the roof of the noodle cart. Even without the need to open and reveal a hidden stud shooter, I could see this being used in different colors to make other market stalls with different colors and proportions.

• Interesting Pieces:
• Pearl gold 1x1 round plate with clip on the bottom

• Tan dumpling (or "Jiaozi")

• Trans-orange flame. This piece, in all its several colors, is used almost exclusively for Monkie Kid sets (10 MK sets, with only 1 Fortnite set having the piece in trans-light blue). This is a pity, because it's really a lovely shape, stylized and naturalistic at the same time. I could see it looking good in white and pearl gold, like the cloud pieces that were also introduced for the Monkie Kid line.

• Pearl gold chain with bar ends

• Play Features: 
  
• The food cart can roll around and its canopy opens to reveal a stud-shooter cannon.
• The saddle detaches to fly around.
• The qilin is articulated at the hips/shoulders and ankles, and its head and tail have some movement too. There are also stud-shooters mounted to its withers. The knees are plate-built and immobile.

• Overall:  The fact that sets like this are still available on the LEGO website gives me hope that there might indeed be a 6th season of the show coming at some point; not to mention the fact that they just opened Shanghai Legoland with an entire Monkie Kid themed area in July of 2025. 

It's interesting to compare this set with the other mech-style beasts of the Monkie Kid line, specifically Mei's Guardian Dragon. While the detailing on the qilin isn't quite as refined as on the sides of the dragon, it's far more poseable (though it still suffers from "immobile neck syndrome" and the fore and aft knees are also not moveable—a few click-joints would have fixed this—actually, another review on Brick Central, with some amazing photos, has called this difficulty out as well). The color scheme is pure Monkie Kid, though I don't recall the qilin actually featuring in the show anywhere. Maybe this is another sign of something to come in the hoped-for 6th season?

The price is a pretty good fit for what you get, especially with five minifigs (plus Mo) and such a large brick-built beast. The techniques aren't particularly unusual, and the symmetrical build is a teensy bit repetitive, but effective use is made of SNOT and decorative pieces. As usual, I question the distribution of parts and minifigs into the various bags, but it's not as egregious as other sets; there are also a number of useful and unusual pieces.

Score (out of 5 🧱):

• Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Play: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

Lego Instructions: here