80021 Monkie Kid's Lion Guardian LEGO Review - Monkie Kid, 2021

Looks great from a distance, but up close there are a few issues.

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $79.99
• Pieces: 774
• Minifigure(s): Lu, Huntsman, Spider Queen, Monkie Kid, Mei
• Sticker Sheet: Yes/No
  
• Pros: Creative creature build
• Cons: Poseability & color matching issues

Assembly: 

Bag #1 - Lu, arcade

Bag #2 - Huntsman, Spider Queen, spiderbot

Bag #3 - Monkie Kid, Mei, head

Bag #4 - Body

Bag #5 - Legs

Bag #6 - Flags, drum cannons, tail

 Leftover Pieces

• Interesting Steps:
• 50: the grabber arm for the claw machine is simply rested in a gap between two bricks, rather than being slotted into a Technic brick; this is likely to give it more play so it doesn't get stuck on the prizes within. See "Play Features" below.

• 24: A white 1x2 plate with two clips holds the upper lip in place, and a reddish brown 1x2 plate with one clip slots between the white plate's clips to form the lion's snout. These pieces all fit together quite nicely on the 1x2 plate with bar. That said, there is an awkward 90º gap between the mostly-vertical nose and the mostly-horizontal upper lip, which might have been fixed by moving the light grey 1x2 bracket up on top of the reddish brown plate, but it's not in itself a horribly-disfiguring issue. That said, see "My Modifications" below.

• Interesting Techniques:
• The long bar holding the lion's head is actually a composite beam. This was done so that the 1x2 plate with bar handle could be an integral part of this bar, without needing extra pieces to hold it in place. Rather than simply stacking plates, the designer interleaved two long tiles, to make it easier to separate, an approach that I really appreciate.

• Using a droid body (in red) as the attachment point for the tail's tufts is pretty neat, and adds some extra poseability.

• Pain Points:
• Color is often an issue with Monkie Kid sets, specifically color matching. They're always plenty colorful, but that can be both a blessing and a curse, especially where parts are only available in certain colors. Here you can see a range of "yellow" pieces from this set, ranging from yellow to bright light orange to pearl gold to metallic gold. In some instances (such as on the White Dragon Horse Jet) this is used to create gradients and visual interest; here, however, it feels more like they just got the closest color they could in the parts they had, resulting in a build that feels more cobbled-together than organic.

• While using mechanical claws to hold the eyebrow pieces in place is creative and allows for plenty of flexibility in terms of angle, it is also a fairly weak connection, making it easy for the brows to pivot in the wrong direction and pop right out (as pictured):

• Play Features: 
  
• It should be noted that the builds are divided up: book one handles the arcade and Spider Queen elements, while book two is entirely devoted to construction of the lion. This plays into the Build Together approach more explicitly stated in other sets, meaning that two people can work on different parts of the same set at the same time.
• The claw machine is simple, but works well enough for the scale. Turning the gear knob behind the build moves the claw arm, knocking gold trophies out of the machine. They can be a bit fiddly to set up so they don't just fall out automatically (especially when moving the build as a whole) but it's still a neat little trick.

• The lion's lower jaw works by virtue of several hinges attached to a plate that slides along its back: pull back on the yellow 1x2 wedge and it opens, push and it closes. This does mean that the rest of the head has to remain immobile, however. I wonder if something could be done similarly with a Technic universal joint, for example, or if that would just be too floppy.

• The side-mounted drum-cannons are pretty neat in construction, and also are the only place these printed 4x4 radar dishes are used (in any set). Pushing on the black wheels at the back slides the reddish brown axles forward, which pushes the drumhead radar dishes down, exposing the bolt shooter. There are also two trans-orange bulb pieces in each drum, likely to make it look like there are more projectiles ready to fire.

• My Modifications:  
• As I've mentioned in previous posts, the distribution of minifigures among bags is always a bit mystifying (in part because I'm naturally not privy to all of the factors driving these decisions on the back end). That said, I still find it odd that the two protagonist minifigures, Monkie Kid and Mei, are both lumped into the first bag of the lion's build. It's probable that this was because of how otherwise small this bag is, compared to others, but I'd still rather spread them out, one minifig per bag. Perhaps having Monkie Kid in the final bag would have worked better.
• In "Interesting Steps" above, I discussed the way the upper lip and nose were attached to the lion's head, and the resulting distracting gap. The addition of two common pieces (1x2 plate and 1x2 plate with bar, both in light bluish grey) fixes this and makes the snout feel that much more dimensional. This is also a good picture of how detailed the rest of the face is.

• Overall:  Part of what makes Monkie Kid sets so great is just how creative they are, both in terms of color and in terms of build techniques, and this set's no exception. Even the little arcade and spider builds are fun. The lion's share (pun intended) of design attention clearly went into the beast's head, with a lot of unusual techniques at play to get it to look just right. The rest of the guardian lion feels a bit unfinished by comparison, lacking the polish and attention to detail of similar sets (for example, the phenomenal Mighty Azure Lion).

It's also worth mentioning that while BrickLink cites all of the non-spiderfolk minifigures as exclusive to this set, none of them actually are; instead, it's this specific combination of minifigure parts that's only used in this set, since the heads, torsos, etc are all used in other sets.

Though the original price of $80 has the price per piece at a quite reasonable $0.10, there are a great many small pieces, resulting in a final product that's a bit smaller than one might expect for that price. That said, the reseller markets are quite volatile, with BrickEconomy reporting prices for new sets ranging from $60 to $130; the lower end of that range feels much more acceptable as a price for this set.

 

Score (out of 5 🧱):

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

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

Official Instructions: here