Review: 40381 Monkey King

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View image at Flickr

Now that we are no longer bombarded with BrickHeadz every five minutes we have time to savour and appreciate those that do come along.

This month 75317 The Mandalorian & The Child, which I'll review soon, and 40381 Monkey King have been released. They are numbered 113/114 and 110 respectively, which suggests we should see more before the year is over, because numbers 104-109 and 111-112 have not yet been allocated to anything we are aware of.

I know many people don't care for BrickHeadz but I still like to collect them: they are cheap, quick to build, nice to display and are often full of useful parts in unusual colours. This one is pretty good: it has more pieces than any other single non-seasonal BrickHeadz and offers a far more intricate and interesting build than many.


The majority of the set's 175 pieces have been put to good use to create the Monkey King's head and hair, in dark orange. The two decorated bricks showing the chest plate of his armour are printed, in gold. A couple of other gold pieces are utilised for the shoulder pads. Normally BrickHeadz have eyes printed on black 1x1 round tiles but here they are printed on gold ones.

The king is equipped with his staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang, which includes two symmetrical light-sabre handles in gold.

View image at Flickr

Unusually for a BrickHeadz, the intricate details extend to the back of his head: it's not just flat like it is on many of them.

The two long read feathers on top on the head given the figure height and make it stand out from others.

View image at Flickr

Overall, then, it's a nice addition to the BrickHeadz range: attractive and a useful parts pack. It's now available from LEGO.com for £9.99 / $9.99.

20 comments on this article

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By in United Kingdom,

Thanks Huw, I was late to the party with BrickHeadz but i'm enjoying them immensely

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By in Singapore,

My use of BrickHeadz thus far has been split fairly evenly into

a. essential parts packs and
b. display pieces as intended

I used the majority of the medium lavender parts from 41605 Thanos in my locomotive MOC, and many of the sand green ones from 40367 Lady Liberty in... my train carriage MOCs. Also used the pearl gold from Thanos in both.

I built 2 BrickHeadz out of 41597 Go Brick Me and parted out the rest. I will be building 40380 Easter Sheep. I recently got 40351 Halloween Ghost which I will be saving to build for this Halloween, but then after that I'm probably going to part it out, which I can't quite bear to.... so I'm considering getting a second copy instead.

And to think, when I started collecting LEGO again I was so sure I wouldn't touch a single BrickHeadz set... I may not be like die-hard BrickHeadz collectors, but I sure am buying into them to some degree. It was Go Brick Me that won me over. And I'm still disappointed and bewildered that they retired it within a year. Guess people just aren't into building custom BrickHeadz? Will the wedding BrickHeadz be equally short-lived then?

At any rate, I do hope they continue producing BrickHeadz for their original themes. Some Hidden Side ones would've been cool. As long as they're not... limited edition... exclusive... /eyes TLM2

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By in United States,

A Monkie Kid set at an affordable price that’s also a great deal?

Whoa!

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By in United Kingdom,


Yeah, I'm a responsible adult, who should know better, and I don't normally go in for this sort of thing, but...

Put his head on backwards.

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By in United States,

FYI, his weapon hilts are not lightsaber hilts. They were introduced especially for the monkie kid theme and have yet to be used elsewhere.

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By in United Kingdom,

Brickheadz has been a theme I've liked for a couple years now, initially with the first year of sets I wasn't too keen on them but as 2018 rolled in i started getting into them.

3 years on and have 31 sets including some of the rarer ones like Mickey and Minnie. Got the Simpsons ones as LEGO Simpsons is one of my top themes. Got the entire 1st wave of 2018 Brickheadz all below a fiver each. Eventually got the Frozen ones off eBay cause I loved Olaf and thought why not get Elsa as well to get all three of them. Got a range of the Seasonal ones from 2018 to 2020, also got a few Star Wars ones too.

Really gutted I missed out on some though, such as Boba Fett who goes for crazy money now, Go Brick Me which also goes for stupid money.

So now dedicated to buying as many as i can be bothered to buy. Probably going to get this one eventually.

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By in United States,

The US price seems to be $9.99, not $12.99, which is good, because all the previous single-build Brickheadz have been under ten dollars.

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By in France,

I have two Brickheads sets. Go Brick me, and Mandalorian and the Child. Building the last was so delightful, such a joy to assemble tiny Yoda which eventually prooves so cute in Brickheads form... The Mandalorian is filled with really surprising and clever building techniques too... Some I had never seen before. I was not that fan when first sets were released a few years ago, but I can say that I really had and still have a real interest in the two I own. And this Monkey King looks great too.

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By in United Kingdom,

@jaredhinton said:
"FYI, his weapon hilts are not lightsaber hilts. They were introduced especially for the monkie kid theme and have yet to be used elsewhere. "

I know, but people have been raving about their potential use for double-ended lightsabres.

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By in United Kingdom,

@Minifig290 said:
"Brickheadz has been a theme I've liked for a couple years now, initially with the first year of sets I wasn't too keen on them but as 2018 rolled in i started getting into them.

3 years on and have 31 sets including some of the rarer ones like Mickey and Minnie. Got the Simpsons ones as LEGO Simpsons is one of my top themes. Got the entire 1st wave of 2018 Brickheadz all below a fiver each. Eventually got the Frozen ones off eBay cause I loved Olaf and thought why not get Elsa as well to get all three of them. Got a range of the Seasonal ones from 2018 to 2020, also got a few Star Wars ones too.

Really gutted I missed out on some though, such as Boba Fett who goes for crazy money now, Go Brick Me which also goes for stupid money.

So now dedicated to buying as many as i can be bothered to buy. Probably going to get this one eventually."


In my opinion, the problem with brickheadz isn't that they made too many different sets, it's that they made too few of each! Half the ones I wanted to buy sold out instantly and never came back...

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By in United States,

I get why some people may not like Brickheadz (essentially the same build, Funko Pop-esque) but I'm a fan of them.

I mostly stayed with Star Wars and the Marvel ones, though this one looks pretty cool so I may pick it up.

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By in Hong Kong,

I think the cape looks kinda weird

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By in Singapore,

I think the eyes don't stand out enough from the head and I don't really like the Monkey kid theme in general.

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By in United Kingdom,

Just made mine, Love the Brickheadz, @huw they are £9.99 by the way.

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By in Netherlands,

I'll share my experience with Brickheadz so far. When they came out, I bought some Brickheadz for display purpose, and then parts to create my own, based on children's books and comic characters and such. Then I realised Brickheadz were perfect for building custom ones together as a small workshop with friends, kids or colleagues, so I got a load more that were on sale, and a couple of Go Brick Me sets, and many parts from BrickLink to accomodate. I parted everything out and resorted by body element (hair, skin, legs, torso, printed parts, etc.), and put it all in small flat stackable containers. I've printed and laminated basic instructions and some rendered explanations.
I've ran "Go Brick Yourself" or "Built Your Alter (L)Ego)" workshops a couple of times and they're a lot of fun for everyone. In the end I photograph the builds with a back dropping in a color the builder picks with some nice lighting, so the participant keeps the picture and I resort the pieces.
Highly recommendable if you're into doing such things.
In case you wonder: I set up a workshop where the (30+) participants were able to take their build home so I bought Brickheadz sets (mostly used as usable new ones were hardly available last christmas) and elements (printed bricks and tiles, minifig utensils) specifically for this. I spent €600 (and many hours sorting) for about 40 builts with plenty parts left.

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By in United Kingdom,

Just curious to know if anyone has been to a wedding where the figures on the cake where a likeness to the couple using Brickheadz 40383 Wedding Bride and 40384 Wedding Groom?

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By in United Kingdom,

I think "if anyone has been to a wedding." would be a more appropriate question at the moment!

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By in Singapore,

@Roloff: That sounds amazing. All the more reason LEGO should've kept Go Brick Me around longer than... 6 to 8 months?

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By in Canada,

Needs a cloud.. :D

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By in United States,

Great review. I've been a Brickheadz fan for quite sometime, probably due to the lower cost and somewhat awkward coolness. :) I'm only missing the Comic Con versions (13-14) (15-16) (27-28)
...which are WAY out of reach for the average person like myself.
This one should be arriving this week :)

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