Holiday gift guide: Monkie Kid's Team Secret HQ
Posted by Huw,
Our last user-contributed pick from sets in the $100-$200 category is from Cocoa. Tomorrow I'll publish the staff selections, then on Sunday and Monday I'll publish a couple of over $200 nominations and after that it'll be time to commence our Advent calendar countdowns!
80013 Monkie Kid's Team Secret HQ may just be the ultimate LEGO playset, or close to it!
The size of it can be comparable to the highly revered 70618 Destiny's Bounty from the LEGO Ninjago Movie, which has since been retired.
Comparing the two, the HQ is perhaps better than the former. On the exterior, it's quite a vibrant vessel.
The range of colours, graphics, and little details give the craft a great presence. There's lots of space to display your figures, and some fun play features with a crane and a hidden shooter. But that is barely scratching the surface; the vessel can be split in half to reveal a whole interior, packed with a fleet of vehicles and a recreational room for MK and his crew.
And for anyone who likes "conflict in a box," you get three Bull clone villains lead by a general.
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10 comments on this article
Isn’t it a little dark that one of the weapons on the pigs vehicle is a meat grinder with a sausage sticking out of it?
All joking aside, thanks for the good review.
Until I read this review I didn't realize the vessel split into two creating a two level playable area as shown in the other photos at 80013 allowing lots of interior action and fun (I like the hammock), as well as exterior battles when the vessel is closed.
I hope this is a new trend and future vessels do the same for other themes rather than large bulky hull pieces. In addition, the nearly 2000 pieces suggests that this would be quite a challenging build for older kids who already have lots of mechs, bikes and dragons, and are looking for something different! Finally, I cannot wait to see what other alternatives fans come up with.
Its a great playset. But that price is City tier bad
Haven’t built this set so I might be underestimating it, but Destiny’s Bounty seems like an extremely ambitious comparison
Any word on when the modular build is being revealed?
@beanjo68 said:
"Any word on when the modular build is being revealed?"
16h European Time
15h GMT
so in about 3 minutes :p
A good (if brief) recommendation.
For fans of the Monkie Kid theme, this is so far the only set to include all four of the main heroes (MK, Mei, Sandy, and Pigsy). And as headquarters go, it's pretty well done. I think that to date this is the only fully enclosed set that's scaled to a bigfig character (with a large rubber net piece used as a hammock for Sandy). There's a lot of other fun features as well, including a mech garage, a bathroom, and a cat flap for Sandy's cat Mo. And as builds go, it's definitely satisfying to see this massive ship take shape, with a lot of varied techniques used throughout.
That said, it obviously won't be for everyone. For fans of "realistic" ships, the hull construction and underdeveloped "bridge" probably won't be to their liking. A lot of space is devoted to deployable vehicles like the mech and two small speedboats, which when deployed can leave the vehicle feeling a little sparsely furnished. Overall while it does look good on display, this is very much more of a playset than a display piece. For people who are more interested in the latter, I'd sooner recommed 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech.
I think I'll wait for 80023.
I have the feeling this set will look great with Ninjago City Docks (70657) :-)
I would be curious to know how well the containers of Monkie Kid's Team Quadcopter (80023) will integrate with this set.
Finally, I find the selection of baddies very disappointing. I would gladly accept 2 instead of 4, if they were a bit more varied and unique.
Love these Monkey Kid sets but I’d have to win the lottery to be able to afford them.