Review: 80026 Pigsy's Noodle Tank
Posted by Mr_Cross,
I like Chow Mein, I like Pad Thai, I've been known to order a Yakisoba and to be honest (despite them being guilty pleasures) I don't even really object to ‘Super’* or ‘Pot’** (for what it’s worth, I like spaghetti, linguini and vermicelli too). So, I guess you can put me down as a noodle fan.
80026 Pigsy's Noodle Tank is another crazy looking thing, and that's exactly what the Monkie Kid theme does so very well. Wildly creative ideas, realised to a high standard.
My reaction when I saw this set was like the smell of a good takeaway: my appetite was whetted - and had Huw not asked me to review the set, it would only have been a matter of time until I made an order. Just the name has that MSG moorishness. Roll it around your mouth. Noodle Tank, it’s tasty, no?
If you think so too; pick up your chopsticks, let’s tuck in to this generous bowl together, slurp some of the saucy wriggling strands and hope the chicken isn't chewy.
Once again, this is a father and son review. With my son (9) handling the vast majority of the building and the less ‘Rock and Roll’ jobs falling to me.
*UK highly processed “instant” noodles with flavour sachets, just add hot water, a little like Maggi noodles.
**UK highly processed “instant” noodles in a plastic cup, just add hot water, similar to Cup Noodles.
Inside the box
6 numbered bags, a 4-2 win to stripes there!
A single, weighty square bound instruction book.
There are a lot of stickers, twenty of them on one 10.5 x 12.5 cm sheet (to be precise). Although it also has to be acknowledged, they are rather nicely designed and very neatly presented.
Minifigures
Four pretty highly detailed and characterful minifigures are featured in the set. This too has been a mark of the Monkie Kid sets in my opinion.
Pan
An interesting but slightly stereotypical looking villian if it were not for his snazzy bamboo patterned waistcoat. I initially saw his Panda pendant as a skull, owing to the positioning of the ears and the clasps on his waistcoat.
A dual expression face definitely adds to the quality here.
Lee
Lee, who was previously seen in 80011 Red Son’s Inferno Truck, is featured here in a Panda costume. Borrowed perhaps from Panda Guy?
I like this version of the character, even if the dual expression is repeated and available in a number of other figures. Lee also comes with roller skates.
Pigsy
The fifth appearance of Pigsy features the same head as on all the previous versions - I would have greatly welcomed an alternate expression here. Especially as he has a new torso print that is very reminiscent of the previous utility harness variant.
Mr. Tang
Mr. Tang we have also encountered previously in 80023 Monkie Kid's Team Dronecopter. He features a change of outfit here, revealing that he’s a noodle fan too!
The Build
Bag one
The first thing to build is a relatively simple Panda-drone with cherry bomb dropping capability (and there are cherries inside!). In spite of the colouring, the drone looked more like a bat to us. Drones, it seems to me, are rapidly becoming the new helicopters.
Panda-bot was a fun little build too, I liked the tipped back design. The robot has an alternate expression, and is apparently shooting lemonade and hot chilli sauce!? This was an instant hit with both my son and I and we gave it a quick test drive before moving onto the next bag.
Bag two
This bag contains the parts for basic Tank Chassis, the front (Noodle) forks and the mechanism that moves them. It’s all reasonably straight forward.
What the fork is this four pronged fork for?
Bag three
A simple construction of familiar parts creates a convincing looking traditional noodle bowl (or Tayoudon) - but it’s upside down! A clever little technique is employed to return the building to studs on top and I won’t spoil that particular piece of construction fun.
This bag also contains the eponymous Pigsy and all the fixtures and fittings to deck out the noodle kitchen.
Bag four
The little red (Smeg?) fridge is a neat little shooter. Supposedly firing bowls full of fried eggs and noodles. The round tile depicting this really is incredibly detailed.
The left arm is adorned with an 8x8 radar dish to use as a shield, we assumed this was also supposed to be a noodle bowl lid.
Bag five
The right "arm" is a ‘Piggy’ shooter. This is a neatly reduced scale version of the rapid shooter atop 80009 Pigsy's Food Truck.
As with that version though, you will need to keep your eyes peeled for this little Piggy's little blinkers.
Once again, the eyes are represented by a tiny print on a tiny piece that was easily overlooked by my long sightedness, but picked up by my eagle eyed young spotter!
Bag six
The final bag predominantly contains the parts for the Chop sticks and the tank tracks. The menu board also gives good scene setting detail.
With the caterpillar tracks attached, the forks move up and down via a very simple arrangement of a couple of 1x2 technic lift arms creating an elliptical cam on the front axle.
Background and other thoughts
The first thing I found myself asking was: where are the noodles?
Ramen, Ribbon, Udon, Vermicelli, Somen, Soba, Lo Mein could be gloriously depicted here using any of the many suitable parts available. Medium nougat ziplines for example?
Admittedly Mr. Tang does have a bowl into which a white 15470 Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Vertical Swirl / Twist is placed to represent noodles, but here I think it would have been necessary to recolour the part to tan to carry this off effectively. As evidenced perhaps by my daughter proclaiming “No, it’s ice cream.”, and my son saying “It doesn’t really look like noodles.”.
As reported by Pickle Bricks, it seems that UK and European brand retail stores won’t be replenishing their stocks of the existing Monkie Kid range and that furthermore, these newest sets, 80025 Sandy’s Power Loader Mech, 80026 Pigsy’s Noodle Tank and 80028 The Bone Demon will only be available online too. The situation in the US has not yet been reported on.
This is a very great shame in my opinion, the Monkie Kid sets we have built have all been excellent, different, fun, whacky.
The fault here has purely been availability. I don’t believe a product line needs to rely on TV series to succeed, I will however concede that an unaired show can’t possibly help.
After we’d built the Noodle Tank, both my kids played with the set, it really didn’t matter to them that they had not (could not have) seen the TV show - they used their imaginations and came up with their own unique story for who and what the Panda attack force were and why exactly they were fighting the Power of the Pig!
Conclusion
The set has an RRP of £44.99 / $59.99 / 49.99€ for 662 parts and to be honest I don’t actually give a fork full of noodles how that works out as a price per part because this is a wonderfully fun set. The construction here was interesting, in that it was not immediately obvious how the final look would be achieved. The stages and steps as presented makes for a very easy build experience despite the odd unusual technique. Despite the ease, my son enjoyed the building process, and thought the set looked really cool.
Can I recommend the set? It’s a real quandary, on the one hand it’s a great set that is almost certain to appreciate in value on the after sales market now that it looks like the theme’s days might be numbered. On the other hand, the Monkie Kid sets are relatively expensive because of their exclusivity and there’s not much here that will ultimately be considered unique to the set.
Despite how much we all liked the look of the set, the length of time it occupied us felt a little brief to me, with my ‘parental purse keeper’ hat on. On balance, if we were spending the money on LEGO, all things considered, I’d probably try to steer us towards a theme we could all get invested in.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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33 comments on this article
It’s an odd one, but a great one! Can we see the bone demon next though?
I also love mr cross’s sense of humour, it gets me every time.
I’m glad you explained what Super and Pot meant. Pot means something VERY different in the US. Haha.
Is it just me (or possibly the photograph?), or is the Lego logo missing from those pink 1x1 plates with the eyebrow prints?
What an odd set. I need it!
Now THIS is ridiculously wacky! But I like it. That turkey (supposed to represent a chicken?) hanging next to the sign made me laugh. I hadn't noticed the red pitchfork in 80009 Pigsy's Food Truck until I saw it in this one. Neat!
I really like the whole range, but couldn't justify buying any of the sets - partly due to price but also lack of anywhere to display them! But I have bought several of the figure parts and other recolours through B&P to make up for it.
Thanks for this detailed review of a set and theme which I otherwise wouldn't give much thought. As with many The Monkey Kid sets there are elements and small builds which I could see incorporating into my own LEGO city, however just can't justify the cost as a whole. This review definitely influenced my decision to order Chow Mein Fun noodles for lunch though :)
Good review! I loved this set as a Monkie Kid fan—it impressed me a lot more than the more toned down food truck from last year.
The figs here are great. I love the conflict between corporate manager Pan (and his employee Lee, humiliatingly replaced by drones and reduced to a mascot role) versus traditional cook Pigsy and his full-featured kitchen! This version of Pigsy might be my favorite so far as well, blending his chef/military theming better than previous outfits that tended to emphasize one of those aspects over the other. And the version of Tang in Pigsy’s Noodle Tank amusingly wears Pigsy’s “noodle tank”—which some fans of the show who ship Pigsy and Tang have noted is the same promotional tee that Pigsy wears to bed.
The set itself is gorgeous. The fork on the front, like the one on the previous food truck, alludes to Pigsy’s nine-toothed rake weapon in Journey to the West. I love the noodle bowl build and the compact yet immensely detailed kitchen it contains. The chopsticks on the back complete the look and can even be wielded in the left arm! The other details like the retro fridge and cannon pig arm are also stellar.
The Panda Store drones complete the conflict, representing the ripped from the headlines modern day issues of automated food delivery putting human delivery workers like MK out of a job. It’s a really fresh sort of conflict scenario for a Lego set, though here the ethical concerns are flattened and simplified a bit by the drones clearly having gone berserk!
All in all I feel like this set represents some of the best elements of the Monkie Kid theme, with zany action and distinctly Chinese cultural elements.
I feel like what's holding this range back (outside of China, anyway) is that the subject matter is beautifully rendered but lacking the cultural context. I'm quite intrigued by this set, but it's not immediately obvious what all of the fine details are (how far has the TV show been released?). And yes, I could undertake a bit of Googling, but that feels like a bit too much work for what is still a children's toy.
Monkie Kid is definitely Lego at its best, but it's a shame that the range is (by necessity) coming up against a few roadblocks in the process.
I love microwave noodles but I have to make do with the vegan options (the ramen is probably the best but tan-tan and hot and sour are pretty great as well). With that in mind, I think the set’s design is interesting but I only remember finding Monkie Kid sets at one store (The Big Store at Legoland) so I doubt I’m going to get this or the others. That being said, the amount of detail in the build makes this a pretty great deal for a Monkie Kid set, especially considering that 80014 is the same price as this.
Oh yeah, and my brother knew a guy named Mr. Cross in middle school— but we live in the US so I don’t think he’s the same person.
Great review, now I am adding this to my wish list. It will fit into my Ninjago City, with a few tweaks. I love the bowl with the chopsticks & the pig shooter.
It's definitely a wacky design, just wondering the reason behind it and the panda robot if anyone has seen the cartoons please explain? I assume this is replacing 80009: Pigsy's Food Truck, which is no longer available at Lego.com
@Mister_Jonny said:
"I feel like what's holding this range back (outside of China, anyway) is that the subject matter is beautifully rendered but lacking the cultural context. I'm quite intrigued by this set, but it's not immediately obvious what all of the fine details are (how far has the TV show been released?). And yes, I could undertake a bit of Googling, but that feels like a bit too much work for what is still a children's toy.
Monkie Kid is definitely Lego at its best, but it's a shame that the range is (by necessity) coming up against a few roadblocks in the process."
I think I agree with this notion. This isn't necessarily a fault of the Monkie Kid theme, since it was designed specifically with China in mind, but kids elsewhere probably don't know or necessarily care about the mythology Monkie Kid builds off of. That's not to say some kids aren't interested in mythology, but it's kind of an oddly specific source material for a child to have knowledge of.
That, and these sets are too expensive all around. They're neat and creative sets, but I find that the premium makes the sets not worth it. I just ordered some minifigure parts because I couldn't afford the sets.
Nicely-balanced review, Mr Cross & family!
It's a zany build from a bonkers theme, but that Classic Space style missile really grounds it firmly in the LEGO world.
I love a lot of what's going on but ultimately its another mech with a side build mech.
Great entertaining, well written review. Hope to read more from your Mr Cross!
Mr. Cross is boss.
@Mr_Cross I am so sad to inform you that the plural of “linguina” is “linguine” (feminine) not “linguini” xD
For the rest… Great review! :)
@BJNemeth said:
"Is it just me (or possibly the photograph?), or is the Lego logo missing from those pink 1x1 plates with the eyebrow prints?"
I think they’re there, just hard to see.
Will have to add this to my small but select group of Monkey Kid sets (which does include the Food Truck)! I think the expensive prices have a lot to do with why this theme isn't doing well outside of the area where the content is familiar--it didn't take me long to get intrigued by Journey To The West when I first came across it as an adult, and IMO children should find the sets quite self-explanatory and thoroughly intriguing, whether or not they've heard of the Monkey King. Sadly, for westerners with a limited understanding of Asian traditions, Ninjago does seem a quite similar and much more affordable theme!
I'll never forgive Lego's official brazilian importer for not bringing the Monkie Kid sets. It is the ONLY theme not available here, and they don't even bother to give an explanation for it.
@BJNemeth:
I think it’s just a quirk of the lighting. Look at the stud of the plate on the right. From about the 7 o’clock to 8 o’clock position, you can see a small line of glare. From that, I can make out the “O” in the LEGO logo, but not any of the other letters. On the left plate, I can’t see any detail on the stud besides the ever-present pip.
@lynels:
Based on reports of limited availability, and high MSRP, you’d almost think they don’t want these to sell outside of China. But they are sold elsewhere, which is enough to satisfy their claim of not producing regional exclusives.
Okay, this review had me craving some noodles; Lo Mein or Pad Thai, I don't really care which.
Loving that retro fridge and the tile it shoots, I'll have to look for that tile on PaB.
Well, it's definitely wacky.
In Australia, the Monkie Kid sets have been very hard to find. Only one toy franchise actually carries them (and they only started stocking them, quite recently that I can see).
And, as nifty as some of them look? They're so cost prohibitive that I just couldn't commit to any of them. The entry-size set was, like, $50. This year's smaller set is slightly better at $30 (still, eek).
Honestly, figures aside, the sets don't really appeal to me. Like, other lines, I can jump into, easily. But maybe the Monkie Kid line is so dependant on the storyline (to give the sets some kind of context), that without the TV show, without that wider context? All I'm seeing when I look at the sets is a bunch of colourful ... stuff. Stuff that's extraordinarily expensive, with some interesting figs. *shrug*
After reading your review, I quite like this set! It is fun and quirky but I think it is a little overpriced and I might wait for clearance. I wish monkie kid would focus more on the side build as I think the side builds for this theme are fabulous
As soon as I saw pictures of this set, I wanted it - I have an affinity for ridiculous and whacky builds, and this is one of the whackiest I'd seen in recent years. It was a belated Father's Day gift from my wife and daughter and so much fun to build because of details I hadn't noticed in the pictures (like the chili oil flame thrower). I have total appreciation for whoever came up with the concepts for this build because they're very creative and original.
This set reminds me a lot of 70726 Destructoid from Ninjago's rebooted wave. The design and overall concept are quite similar, but this set looks to be easily a lot better than that one!
I need that Lee minifig - he has both my expressions!!!
I love this review style: full of emotions, humour and personal touches - this makes me feel much more included in the experience than a raw list of statements would (not that Brickset had many of those, mind you).
My feelings towards the MK theme are a bit mixed though: on one hand I acknowledge the sheer zanyness and unbridled childlike creativity of it, but on the other, I can't bring myself to pay for more intrusion of chinese influence in my life.
Great review , really nails the uniqueness and build of the set. Strangely enough , I still feel the same after building this myself. No intrusions of any kind......and was very happy paying for it and understanding that its just a LEGO set based on a fantasy of a MYTHICAL Monkey. Which funny enough has a movie called Journey to the West made by the creator of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle which are amazing movies. Give them a watch , you will not be disappointed.
@DaliLhama :
China is...weird. Officially, you can’t have any stories that present the supernatural as being real (so, Ghostbusters is right out, and forget about the Indiana Jones movies). Journey to the West, however, is considered to be one of their top four (or six) literary classics. It’s like if the US banned all bells of all types. Do you throw out the Liberty Bell, or do you kind of handwave it off as an unstated exception that everyone silently agrees to ignore? The result is that JttW has spawned a truckload of adaptations and “inspired by” works because it’s one of the very few things that’s safe. You can’t go after someone for producing a movie based on one of the most beloved novels in your cultural history just because the subject matter happens to be illegal.
So bummed they're getting rid of monkie kid. Aside from the marquee releases (ninjago city gardens, daily bugle, etc.) it was easily the funnest / most interesting theme they have going for past few years since the movie releases came to an abrupt halt.
I get that lego sets are EXPENSIVE so they probably need major movies / brands in order to move these in store, but it's all the short lived lego owned themes that stand out the most for my kid over the years - monkie kid, ninjago movie, lego movie, batman movie, etc. Those unikitty sets were lame considering how creative the cartoon was though.
Not looking forward to another slate of boring grey starships (star wars) and repetitive ninjago releases.
edit: and the cartoon is great, but only available on youtube in the US. Can't believe they don't have money to put this stuff in wide release on cartoon network / etc.
@natro220 said:
"I’m glad you explained what Super and Pot meant. Pot means something VERY different in the US. Haha. "
Hahahaha—nope, it’s just a cooking vessel here in the USA also. Are you smoking something?