LEGO Monkie Kid 2021

[Lyichir]

Neat little tidbit confirmed to me by the person who reviewed the Spider Queen's base for Brickset—the new Monkey King tail piece can grip minifig accessories like his staff!
 

I was already pleased with this new tail piece for making it easier for him to sit down or stand near a wall without it colliding like the one from last year that sticks straight out. This just elevates it even further, in my opinion.

[zoth33]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Neat little tidbit confirmed to me by the person who reviewed the Spider Queen's base for Brickset—the new Monkey King tail piece can grip minifig accessories like his staff!
 

I was already pleased with this new tail piece for making it easier for him to sit down or stand near a wall without it colliding like the one from last year that sticks straight out. This just elevates it even further, in my opinion.

Nice just like in the different versions of the story.  This is a great feature.  I can't wait to get flower fruit mountain next week

[gedren_y]

For those who think 80024 The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain isn't legendary enough, and want to expand it, consider buying the Friends sets 41432 Alpaca Mountain Jungle Rescue and 41423 Tiger Hot Air Balloon Jungle Rescue. The build palettes are quite similar, and even some of the stickers wouldn't be out of place in an expanded build.

[thekeeperofthereaper]

wow i was thinking the same the other day when i was building those sets 

hmmm jestros volcano base from nexo knights will be a fantastic counterpart to flower fruit mountain

[monsterverse13]

Anyone notice that the mini-builds for Monkie Kid in sets always parallels a larger set? For example, the hoverboard in the white dragon horse bike set shares elements with the drone copter. The hoverboard in the flaming foundry resembles the cloud roadster, and the one from Sandy's speedboat similarities to the cloud jet. I wonder if the small craft build in the archnoid base set is preview of what's to come next. I could also be crazy and just too excited. Hahaha!

[Lyichir]

47 minutes ago, monsterverse13 said:

Anyone notice that the mini-builds for Monkie Kid in sets always parallels a larger set? For example, the hoverboard in the white dragon horse bike set shares elements with the drone copter. The hoverboard in the flaming foundry resembles the cloud roadster, and the one from Sandy's speedboat similarities to the cloud jet. I wonder if the small craft build in the archnoid base set is preview of what's to come next. I could also be crazy and just too excited. Hahaha!

To be honest I don't think those are meant to be direct parallels so much as just builds sharing the (extremely effective, IMO) aesthetic established for MK's vehicles, which often involves the reuse of certain decorative parts such as the old tipper bucket ends and the newer cloud trail element. The small build in the arachnoid base seems to be largely designed based on the Monkey King Warrior Mech, if anything—the controls resemble those in the cockpit, the cockpit itself resembles the mech's wrists, and the front and back are of course based on the large-scale staff build. That tracks somewhat with the description, which implies that the flier is the staff itself transformed into a vehicle.

[thekeeperofthereaper]

so i just ordered the flower fruit mountain and arachnoid base with a bunch of other stuff and surprisingly i got a free mindstorms mini robots set 

 

[Alexandrina]

15 minutes ago, thekeeperofthereaper said:

arachnoid base

I've been doing a fair chunk of sorting vintage late 90s parts recently, so for a moment I read that and thought Lego had pulled a sneaky on us all and resurrected Insectoids!

[thekeeperofthereaper]

oops sorry it was just my wording

[Alexandrina]

11 minutes ago, thekeeperofthereaper said:

oops sorry it was just my wording

Don't blame your wording! Blame a) Lego's reuse of the phrase "arachnoid base" and b) my coming into the thread without really being clued up on the year's Monkie Kid sets, Flower Fruit Mountain aside!

[thekeeperofthereaper]

im looking at the insectoids theme for the first time and wow what nice sets and colours

[Lucarex]

Ok so I know MK sets have been price hiked beyond justification since launch, but seeing the price of Fruit Flower Mountain (a set which transcends the theme hence my interest) is still a shock and hard to swallow. Costs a chunk of change more than the Medieval Blacksmith! 

It’s a €100 max 120 set that’s priced at 170, jeez...

 

 

[Lyichir]

49 minutes ago, Lucarex said:

Ok so I know MK sets have been price hiked beyond justification since launch, but seeing the price of Fruit Flower Mountain (a set which transcends the theme hence my interest) is still a shock and hard to swallow. Costs a chunk of change more than the Medieval Blacksmith! 

It’s a €100 max 120 set that’s priced at 170, jeez...

 

 

Are you for real? I can get the price being hard to stomach (it's a huge set at a price point higher than most themes routinely get), but it's hard for me to take a value judgment like the one you give it seriously when sets at the price you claim it's "really" worth is typical of much smaller sets like last year's Ninjago Destiny's Bounty or City Police Station. It sounds like it's just more than you'd be willing to commit to a set you only sort of want, and that's perfectly valid, but there's no need to dramatically lowball its value to justify that to yourself.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

54 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

Are you for real? I can get the price being hard to stomach (it's a huge set at a price point higher than most themes routinely get), but it's hard for me to take a value judgment like the one you give it seriously when sets at the price you claim it's "really" worth is typical of much smaller sets like last year's Ninjago Destiny's Bounty or City Police Station. It sounds like it's just more than you'd be willing to commit to a set you only sort of want, and that's perfectly valid, but there's no need to dramatically lowball its value to justify that to yourself.

I dont understand the comparision: all the Bounties have a much higher piece count and would have been way more expensive in any other theme (Bounty also had many figures, pig hull pieces, sails). If the flower-fruit-mountain set were from Ninjago, it would not be over 150 bucks; probably under.

But yeah, comparing to the other MK sets the mountain set is a better deal I think. I was actually tempted, while "instinct purchases" for the other sets all were out of the question immediately, due to the price.

But also there no judgement from me. I assume these sets are cheaper for their target group in China and Lego simply makes them available to us for some kind of extra tax. That's not ideal but much better than not selling them worldwide at all. I prefer to at least have the option to get everything that is out there - like these comic-con builds.

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

I dont understand the comparision: all the Bounties have a much higher piece count and would have been way more expensive in any other theme (Bounty also had many figures, pig hull pieces, sails). If the flower-fruit-mountain set were from Ninjago, it would not be over 150 bucks; probably under.

But yeah, comparing to the other MK sets the mountain set is a better deal I think. I was actually tempted, while "instinct purchases" for the other sets all were out of the question immediately, due to the price.

But also there no judgement from me. I assume these sets are cheaper for their target group in China and Lego simply makes them available to us for some kind of extra tax. That's not ideal but much better than not selling them worldwide at all. I prefer to at least have the option to get everything that is out there - like these comic-con builds.

I was comparing to last year’s Bounty, which didn’t use large hull pieces for the most part and was $120/120€. It was also notably smaller than this set, which has a pretty massive footprint and uses a lot of large wedges, plates, arches, and other parts to achieve its size. Personally even $150/150€seems like it’d be a low estimate for a set like this (that was around the price of the Ninjago Movie version of the Bounty, which was itself smaller than last year’s Monkie Kid HQ, and this set seems fairly comparable in both size and price to that latter set). But 100-120 feels so out there for a valuation that I can’t help but think the person who valued the set like that wasn’t really even considering the scale of what the set contains, just the maximum they’d be willing to pay for a landscape-focused set like this in the first place.

Whatever. It’s not a big deal. But it bugs me how the narrative around this theme has been so focused on being perceived as overpriced when from my experience as a collector of both this theme and others like Ninjago, the actual contents of the sets in this theme (especially the larger ones) usually greatly exceed what you’d expect from lesser-priced sets in other themes. The prices may be higher on average (and I’d love to have a wider range of lower priced sets in the theme), but I’d be hard pressed to claim you don’t get what you pay for.

[a guy from somewhere]

3 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

 

Whatever. It’s not a big deal. But it bugs me how the narrative around this theme has been so focused on being perceived as overpriced when from my experience as a collector of both this theme and others like Ninjago, the actual contents of the sets in this theme (especially the larger ones) usually greatly exceed what you’d expect from lesser-priced sets in other themes. The prices may be higher on average (and I’d love to have a wider range of lower priced sets in the theme), but I’d be hard pressed to claim you don’t get what you pay for.

I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring and agree with this. I couldn't have put it any better to be honest. Monkie kid is expensive, but it was made to be sold to the Chinese market. Heck, if lego hadn't gone through the regional exclusives drama, I'm sure that monkie kid would ONLY be available to the Chinese market. We are lucky to even get these sets. The sets are pretty well priced, considering all the different colours, the detailed figs, the crazy builds, and all the art work. But as said, they were made to appeal to a Chinese audience. They are a lot better off over there money wise. Having gone to school with some people who are from Hong Kong and china, £160 is like pocket money to them. Large sets arn't a problem. So, as the Chinese market is a lot wealthier, lego will make larger sets to go with the larger amount of income. The Chinese market can afford to pay an extra couple of pounds or dollars, however over in the west its a different story. It seems like the sets are very expensive due to our income being lower. Lego is a company at the end of the day. The theme just seems overpriced due to the high quantity of sets that exceed £100/$100. Themes like ninjago don't usually get sets that are over £120.

[thekeeperofthereaper]

i dont know why so many are still complaining about the prices they are pretty reasonable if you ask me

 

[zoth33]

23 minutes ago, thekeeperofthereaper said:

i dont know why so many are still complaining about the prices they are pretty reasonable if you ask me

 

Right It's not a cheap hobby to begin with buying sets, storage containers costs, enough space to display etc.  I get that some are on a budget but i guess then you either have to save up or buy other more cost worthy sets.  Sometimes I have to skip getting a set I want.  Just look at some of the Disney sets like Raya the last dragon boat now that is overpriced.    It's a part of life you don't get everything you want.  

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

11 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I was comparing to last year’s Bounty, which didn’t use large hull pieces for the most part and was $120/120€. It was also notably smaller than this set, which has a pretty massive footprint and uses a lot of large wedges, plates, arches, and other parts to achieve its size. Personally even $150/150€seems like it’d be a low estimate for a set like this (that was around the price of the Ninjago Movie version of the Bounty, which was itself smaller than last year’s Monkie Kid HQ, and this set seems fairly comparable in both size and price to that latter set). But 100-120 feels so out there for a valuation that I can’t help but think the person who valued the set like that wasn’t really even considering the scale of what the set contains, just the maximum they’d be willing to pay for a landscape-focused set like this in the first place.

Whatever. It’s not a big deal. But it bugs me how the narrative around this theme has been so focused on being perceived as overpriced when from my experience as a collector of both this theme and others like Ninjago, the actual contents of the sets in this theme (especially the larger ones) usually greatly exceed what you’d expect from lesser-priced sets in other themes. The prices may be higher on average (and I’d love to have a wider range of lower priced sets in the theme), but I’d be hard pressed to claim you don’t get what you pay for.

I stand corrected: I thought the flower fruit mountain set was 190 bucks - but it has 1950 pieces and is sold for 170 bucks.

Bounty: It's not just about the size but about also the quality. Compare it to the "final flight of the Destinys bounty", which was 130 bucks for less than 1300 pieces. But it had a large mass and a not so small dragon + 8 figures. It's a great set and despite a lower piece count, I think it was a great deal and play value.

However, the "smaller" Bounty from last year is thicker and more "complete", more detailed. It has an interior and can stand next to any UCS set. I still modded it quite a bit but no comparison to how much I had to modify the former show Bounty, which looked a bit like they ran out of pieces. In adition: I dont know how it is where you guys and gals live, but here Ninjago sets are ALWAYS like 30% less. I got the Bounty shortly after release for like 90 bucks. Any sets which are only sold on Lego.com will not change price.

Again not to complain; both sets a re amazing and good deals. Also the Flower fruit mountain I would have been fine with 190 - seeing that its actually 170, it comes quite close to Ninjago deals. Seeing also how it is a different theme and how that makes it more special in a way (like the inclusion of those awesome monkeys instead of getting geat figures but still repeats) it makes it a really tempting good deal I think.

[Lucarex]

19 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Are you for real? I can get the price being hard to stomach (it's a huge set at a price point higher than most themes routinely get), but it's hard for me to take a value judgment like the one you give it seriously when sets at the price you claim it's "really" worth is typical of much smaller sets like last year's Ninjago Destiny's Bounty or City Police Station. It sounds like it's just more than you'd be willing to commit to a set you only sort of want, and that's perfectly valid, but there's no need to dramatically lowball its value to justify that to yourself.

Bad day? Not sure what I said that was so controversial but that’s quite a rant at what was effectively a simple complaint about the TLFFM price. 

“Dramatically lowball it’s value to justify that to yourself”? Thanks for the psychological insight but errr no. It’s just sadly overpriced, as is the rest of the theme. Seems there’s a lot of justification by others defending price points that don’t even come close to equivalence with the larger more expensive (and expansive) Ninjago sets. My concern is in defending this, it sets a further precedent for LEGO and prices keep creeping higher and higher, with value lesser and lesser.

It’s a lovely looking MOC-like set, great for display, but with little play value even with the multiple monkey minifigs, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question the sales sticker. If this wasn’t an exclusive theme, vast majority of buyers would wait for a sale on this.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Lucarex

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

1 hour ago, Lucarex said:

Bad day? Not sure what I said that was so controversial but that’s quite a rant at what was effectively a simple complaint about the TLFFM price. 

“Dramatically lowball it’s value to justify that to yourself”? Thanks for the psychological insight but errr no. It’s just sadly overpriced, as is the rest of the theme. Seems there’s a lot of justification by others defending price points that don’t even come close to equivalence with the larger more expensive (and expansive) Ninjago sets. My concern is in defending this, it sets a further precedent for LEGO and prices keep creeping higher and higher, with value lesser and lesser.

It’s a lovely looking MOC-like set, great for display, but with little play value even with the multiple monkey minifigs, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question the sales sticker. If this wasn’t an exclusive theme, vast majority of buyers would wait for a sale on this.

Again, I dont know whats up with MK as a theme - some folks said its cheaper in Asia instead, so maybe there's some kind of tax in order to make them cheaper there. But Overall worldwide its not more expensive than SW, Marvel or City - the current wave for sure has improved pricing. I think the issue is many people in the beginning expected it to have a low pricing similar to other inhouse themes like Ninjago. And we know what happens when fandoms expectations aren't met.

Lego is simply expensive; Im sorry for all who have to save up. But it was also expensive many years ago. Seeing how much the builds developled, the hundreds of new parts and everything plus inflation - I could not complain. Im not saying theres not advantages to old builds and wrong choices by Lego. But can you show me more than 15 builds before 2012, that hold up to todays aestetic and stability standards? Or what about minifigure quality?

And even if, there is retails or simply the choice to not buy it/or to get knockoffs instead. As Im not overly interested, I will not get any Monkey Kid sets at this price range (as there is also no retail for them). But it doesnt make the theme or Lego bad. They are a private company within capitalism.

I would have issues with a fall in quality but also then.

[mrfang2]

I think if people would just stop comparing this theme to ninjago it would be received a lot more positively honestly. Ninjago is an outlier with far lower prices than average. In terms of volume of stuff you get and of number of parts, monkie kid sets are largely a good to great value at their price points when compared to lines like friends or city or creator or even previous action themes like hidden side, nexo knights, chima, ultra agents, etc. 

the builds are also incredibly well done, feeling more like heavily refined mocs than regular sets compared to most themes.

You get visually striking, usually fairly large for their price point (in terms of physical size) vehicles, detailed environments, expressive and detailed minifigures for the heroes and villains, plenty of civilians to increase play value, fun features (stuff like the barrel dropping tank or dbk’s glowing chest are so fun!), tons of great parts in good colors, plenty of useful new parts for figs, and to top it all off there is/will be soon (depending on where you live) a fairly solid and gorgeously animated cartoon to go along with it all.

 

Just because the line skews bigger for the most part (and even then there ARE sets in the 25-35$ range that are comparable to any other theme, it’s really just missing the 10-15$ mark at this point) doesn’t mean it’s “overpriced” or a bad value.

The sets are valued pretty well compared to MOST other lines, just not ninjago. for whatever reason despite people on here hating how ninjago is “taking over” every action theme, when a new one comes out all that people seem able to do is compare it to ninjago. 

[Lyichir]

5 hours ago, Lucarex said:

Bad day? Not sure what I said that was so controversial but that’s quite a rant at what was effectively a simple complaint about the TLFFM price. 

“Dramatically lowball it’s value to justify that to yourself”? Thanks for the psychological insight but errr no. It’s just sadly overpriced, as is the rest of the theme. Seems there’s a lot of justification by others defending price points that don’t even come close to equivalence with the larger more expensive (and expansive) Ninjago sets. My concern is in defending this, it sets a further precedent for LEGO and prices keep creeping higher and higher, with value lesser and lesser.

It’s a lovely looking MOC-like set, great for display, but with little play value even with the multiple monkey minifigs, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question the sales sticker. If this wasn’t an exclusive theme, vast majority of buyers would wait for a sale on this.

Sorry. Looking back on my comment, it does come across as rude, and making a mountain out of a molehill to some extent. I was having a bit of a rough day (though to be honest with times being what they are that's more the norm than not these days), and I shouldn't have been as dismissive as I was over a mere difference of opinion.

I still think most of the sets here, including the mountain, are a good value for what you get in them, even compared to other themes, but of course there's very little that's more subjective than "value" in the grander scheme of things.

[zoth33]

12 hours ago, Lucarex said:

Bad day? Not sure what I said that was so controversial but that’s quite a rant at what was effectively a simple complaint about the TLFFM price. 

“Dramatically lowball it’s value to justify that to yourself”? Thanks for the psychological insight but errr no. It’s just sadly overpriced, as is the rest of the theme. Seems there’s a lot of justification by others defending price points that don’t even come close to equivalence with the larger more expensive (and expansive) Ninjago sets. My concern is in defending this, it sets a further precedent for LEGO and prices keep creeping higher and higher, with value lesser and lesser.

It’s a lovely looking MOC-like set, great for display, but with little play value even with the multiple monkey minifigs, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question the sales sticker. If this wasn’t an exclusive theme, vast majority of buyers would wait for a sale on this.

How is a 1,949 piece set at $170 overpriced? I'm just curious on your rationale.  Seems quite fair to me especially with all the figs and printed legs, new tail pieces.  How much do you think it should cost?  Things are always going to go up in price.  Lego has always been an expensive hobby.  I don't agree with the statement that the vast majority would wait for a sale.  There aren't many sales on lego here in the states not like it used to be.  Look at the Raya the last dragon sets those are overpriced.  

[thekeeperofthereaper]

oh my i built the flower fruit mountain yesterday and it still amazes just how big and epic looking the set is

i even love how the 3 instruction books came in a cardboard sleeve

and usually i sometimes struggle or not enjoy building trees and foliage but this time i was all for it

the set is worth every penny in my opinion