>> Product Reviews

Reviewed by Richard Yang (SAFOLs Member, zaLUG Member)

When I found myself as an AFOL again in 2019, the only oriental LEGO® theme available was Ninjago, So I was pretty excited on the launched of the Monkie Kid™ theme in 2020. The first few waves of products were alright – cyberpunk style, cool mechs, highly detailed designed minifigs, and that was it. What changed my view on the theme was the launch of set 80039 The Heavenly Realm in June 2022, which gave me the same feel as the Ninjago set 70751 Temple of Airjitsu – EPIC!

The Monkie Kid™ theme was adapted from the classic Chinese fantasy novel “Journey to the West (西遊記)” which is well-known to many Chinese households. The various storylines of the novel were depicted in many movies, TV series or storybooks which I thoroughly enjoyed as a child, journeying through the various adventures with the main characters.

First Impression

As the Monkie Kid™ theme are online exclusive in South Africa, I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the box (48cm x 58cm) as unboxed my delivery.

Contained in the box was instruction booklet pack separately wrapped in plastic, 17 numbered bags, and 4 of the 16×16 brick bases, in white.

The instruction pack contained 2 instruction booklets, 2 sticker sheets as well as a shiny plastic sheet of clouds.

The build

The set contained 2,433 parts, with 8 minifigs and a dog. Overall build experience was enjoyable as expected of any LEGO® set (except the application of stickers!). There are some great SNOT techniques throughout the build, I am particularly impressed on the technique used to build a section upside down on the wall of the Peach Garden!

In terms of functionality, the initial form of the build is concealed behind the clouds, and as you push the Gateway section, the clouds move aside, together with the two other scenes, to reveal the palace behind the clouds.

The set is a great display piece as a traditional oriental structure. The model measures over 37 cm high, 42 cm wide and 34 cm deep. The model can be split into 4 sections, where it tells you 3 stories as part of the 4 chapters of Heavenly Realm saga, out of the 100 chapters. But more of that in the next section.

The Story

This set is adapted from Chapter 4-7 of the novel, The Heavenly Realm Saga. The first 3 chapters before this was about the story of the birth of the Monkey King in Flower Fruit Mountain (Yes – set 80024!), followed by the protagonist causing trouble across the different realms.

Chapter 4 starts with the Monkey King being summoned by the Jade Emperor to theHeavenly Palace (靈霄殿), for all the damages he caused in the different realms. The Jade Emperor assigned him the role of the Stable Warden (弼馬溫), to keep him at bay. However, the role was mundane and boring, and he soon realizes that it was one of the lowest and insignificant rank in the realm. He deserted the position and returned to the Flower Fruit Mountain. The only presence of this chapter in the set was the Warden Monkey King minifigure with the horse image on the torso.

The Jade emperor was infuriated by the disrespect towards his order and sent soldiers to retrieve him for judgement. This was not successful as the Monkey King and his army of monkeys defeated the soldiers, thereafter, he self-proclaimed the title of 齊天大聖, which stands for Great Sage of Heaven’s Might. This title can be seen on the banner of the Warrior Monkey King minifigure in this set.

Chapter 5 The Jade emperor summoned the Monkey king once again and promoted him as the Guardian of the Peach Garden (the Peach Garden is located to the left of the final build, with a plaque of 蟠桃園 on the wall, which means Peach Garden), he also officially bestowed the title of Great Sage of Heaven’s Might upon the Monkey King to keep him happy and out of trouble.

The Monkey took the liberty of consuming the fruits in the Garden as he wishes. One day when the Fairy came to harvest the peaches for a celebration, there were almost no fruits left. She interrogated the Monkey, and in that discussion, the Monkey realized that he wasn’t invited to the celebration, he then “crashed” the party, ate all the food, and drank the wines, before the arrival of the guests, and caused a big mess. The peaches on are printed on heart shaped 1×1 tiles, which was a great addition to the set.

Whilst being extremely drunk, the Monkey King stumbled across the Palace of Taishang Laojung (This scene is to the right of the final build, with a banner of兜率宮 – which means Tusita Palace). Laojung was in the process of making pills of longevity in the furnace through Alchemy. The Monkey king opened the furnace and ate all the pills and fell asleep in the palace.  The next morning he awakened to the realisation of the big trouble he committed, he fled the palace and returned to the Flower Fruit Mountain.

The Jade Emperor, once again infuriated, sent Erlang (with his Celestial dog), Nezha and other generals together with an army of Ten thousand soldiers to seize the Monkey King for judgement.

Chapter 6/7

After being judged and sentenced to be executed, no apparatus or method could harm the Monkey King a slight bit due to his gifted abilities. Taishang Laojung then proposed to burn him to death in the furnace.

This is depicted on the dual moulded facial expression, where one was suffering (in the furnace), and the other was chewing, likely from eating the peach / food / pills.

The furnace was opened after 49 days, and the Monkey King was still alive! And he started fighting everyone and wreaking havoc in the heavenly realm. This was shown in the box art of the set where he was fighting Erlang, you can also recreate the scene with the transparent stands provided and position the fight in front of the palace.

As the Monkey King is well gifted in fighting capabilities, no one was of match to him. The Jade Emperor eventually asked requested assistance from Sakyamuni Buddha who then captured the Monkey and locked him up under a mountain.

Overall

Minifigures                                      10/10

Display value                                   9/10

Building techniques                        8/10

Value for money                              9/10

Overall product experience         9/10

This set is one of my favourite sets released in 2022. I would recommend it to anyone who loves oriental themed LEGO® sets. The build experience was great, and I specifically loved the mechanism where the clouds spreads aside.

Reviewed by Alain King (SAFOLs Member, CapeLUG Member)

As a child, I remember having a few small Space sets and having an amazing time playing with them. There were always the bigger ones in the catalogue and the dream of owning them never went away. When the LEGO group announced the 10497 as tribute to what the community refers to as Classic Space, I knew that it was immediately going on my list of sets to get.

Packaging and building experience

The packaging of the box looks amazing and for those who built LEGO sets in the 80’s will bring back lots of nostalgia. For those who are concerned that they followed the old technique of no numbered bags, you can rest at ease as there are 9 numbers of bags, a large 16 x 8 tile and the instruction manuals in their protective wrap. My set also included a pamphlet about the transition to paper bags.

The first bag starts off with a Red Spaceman and a little robot. It also follows the current trend of building a technic style structure that everything will be built on. The difference that comes in here is the inclusion of some landing gear (that was not present from the original) and it gives you an idea of the scale of the ship.

Bag two starts adding on the slope that is a characteristic of this ship as well as adding the seating for the crew (all 4 of them) along with 2 steering wheels. I mean, honestly, how else are you supposed to fly a spaceship?

Bags 3 & 4 gives more shape to the ship overall, adds the first White Spaceman and is a great time to highlight the fact that the designers restricted themselves to the colours available when the original set came out (although the grey has changed during the timespan). This is one of the many titbits of information included in the instruction manual. Bag 5 adds the second Red Spaceman to the crew and finishes off the surface of the wings.  Bag 6 adds beds for the spacemen to sleep and starts building up the engine mounts.

Bag 7 adds the second White Spaceman and builds up the cockpit including all a bunch of the printed parts in this set. The LEGO group once again demonstrating that it is possible to get a set without stickers. The final set of this bag is to add on the two yellow canopies. This is great for the fans to get these in this colour as they are big and beautiful and come mixed in with the other parts so one of mine came with a big scratch down the middle of it. I don’t understand why there is no separate packaging for them or why they don’t come wrapped in a protective film like the windscreen in the new Delorean set. Thankfully the LEGO group has the best customer service in the world and a couple of days after requesting a new canopy it came carefully packaged in its own bag.

Bag 8 competes the back of the ship with the huge wing and the iconic white arrows pointing down which are done with some clear building techniques. Bag 9 finishes off the engines and the buggy to go into the back.

Overall Experience

I think that the LEGO Group has demonstrated that they know what their fans really want. This set appeals to several AFOL’s who grew up around these sets and would like to relive some aspects of their childhood. This set is a great tribute to that and very affordable in South Africa with the current recommended retail value of R1799.00. If you are interested in the space theme at all, please pick one up to encourage more in the future. And as a bonus, there are two additional sets of instructions available from the LEGO Website that allow the building of alternate models which are also tributes to past models. Personally, I have not yet built these alternates as I love having the big one on display but one day, I will get to it.

The finished Galaxy Explorer looks amazing and has some great techniques employed to get the overall shape with very minimal gaps present. There are some of the slopes on the edge of the wings which are not quite level with the surface of the wings, but I am not a skilled enough builder to do a better job than the designers of the set. It is impressively big, so I have included some photos comparing it to some other space vehicles (all latest play scale sets not UCS) in my collection. I have also heard there is a castle to go along with this tribute set, perhaps that is the next on the list of builds to complete. 

By Barry Kay (SAFOLs Brick Boss, CapeLUG EXCO, Batman … Ssshhhh!)

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Coming home from school, doing homework (hopefully), and then heading to the living room or a friend’s house to load a cartridge and pick up that little black one button joystick to start playing your favourite pixelated game. Now we get to have those nostalgic memories come flooding back while building the LEGO® ICONS™ 10306 Atari 2600 set.

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The set is designed by Chris McVeigh and contains 2,532 pieces. It is very well designed, and one would think it was the real console when looking at it from afar, with the lovely wooden look and feel to it.

The build is simpler than the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) so one must not be scared off by the 18+ age category. It’s a smooth, relaxing build with a lot of tile work, but doesn’t feel monotonous.

The Joystick base is a solid well-built unit and looks just like the real thing.

For extra nostalgia, we get to build three game cartridges that have stickers of the originals but with LEGO® imagery. I love the way they did the spaceship on the asteroid’s cartridge in Classic Space colours to look like the Galaxy Explorer. The cartridges are designed to fit into the console as the real ones did when you wanted to play the game. We also get to build a cartridge holder for them.

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Each game has a small buildable scene to go along with it, which are quite enjoyable to build.

There is also a popup room scene with a minifigure playing on his console. I found this to be a lovely little surprise feature.

The completed build makes a wonderful display piece, with its many printed parts and realistic designs from the front panel knobs to the back connection points.

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The only downfall of this set is the price. At R3,699.00, most of the people I have spoken to about only have it on their wish list. Apart from that, I highly recommend this as a fun and relaxing build for those who want a little bit of 80s on display, even if you were not around to have played with the actual console.

Reviewed by Xavier Cordeiro (SAFOLs Member)

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The NINJAGO® City Gardens is the third in the NINJAGO® City Series, and its 5709 pieces make it the largest NINJAGO® set to-date, all while celebrating 10 years of the NINJAGO® theme. It’s an enormous build, so without further delay I’m going to jump right in.

Inside the main box is a smaller white box, a 32×32 baseplate, a bag of special elements, and the three Instruction manuals. I forget the exact number of bags, but it’s around 60.

The city is built on 4 levels, with much of it in a modular style, although as the levels go higher, the build comes in larger separable parts. Naturally I’ll start with the base. Light Bluish Grey plates form the majority of the ground floor, while the rest is covered in water. A small Island behind the city adds colour and life. As with the previous two sets, different coloured plates laid under hundreds of 1×2 Trans-Light Blue tiles creates a sense of depth in the water, a brilliant technique that elevates the visual experience of the entire set. The first half of an enormous tree dominates the first level. Without its other half it looks somewhat strange, but it does support the second level. Foliage scattered about also serves to break up the monotony, while the supporting beam comes together satisfyingly for a neon look.

A small basement with a few rare items lies under the first building, Ronin’s shop. Dark Brown and Sand Green combine for an antique feel, which is complemented by clever builds like a scale and a bookcase. A nice technique, repeated for all four buildings on the first level, uses hinges to create one diagonal wall. I like how one side looks out onto the water, making it far more accessible. Across from Ronin’s shop is a small restaurant, perhaps a Ramen shop. This building uses a brighter combination of white and Reddish Brown and features a small balcony facing frontward. The two parts of the newer Book piece are used brilliantly as an awning and a counter. Overall, it’s a small but delightful shop. The room of a NINJAGO® fan sits atop the Ramen shop. This is arguably my favourite build, with a colourful Cole and Kai themed bed along with what appears to be a few micro-scale NINJAGO® sets. I really like the windowsills and curtains for this segment, which work well with the tan colour scheme. 1×3 jumper plates make a lovely traditional awning to complete the building, and a few flower boxes bring some more nature into the build. The building on top of Ronin’s shop is divided into two parts. The larger is a sort of balcony, its walls decorated by paintings or pictures of NINJAGO®. Some teacups and a teapot are nice additions. The rest is separated by a door, and a large round window uses what I assume is an old Bionicle piece. Another great awning design is used, this time serving to cover the shop beneath.

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Now, the base for the second floor is built. It’s basic, with some adverts and two intricate builds decorating the railing. A model of Jay’s Desert Storm is integrated into the base and hangs down into the NINJAGO® fan’s room. The next build is another favourite, the Ice cream shop. I believe it’s based on a Classic theme. The interior is simple, yet cheerful, with a few sundae glasses, cones, etc. A rounded window looks out onto the exterior walkway, and the design above takes the cake for the best awning in the set. Several cleaver pieces in Black give a fantastic, tiled effect. There’s a staircase rising to the third level, and a small walkway with some nice details. Next is Chen’s Noodle House, which featured in season 4 of the show. One table is situated inside, with one or two additional details. The kitchen compartment sits by the main window, and swings open for easier access. As always, the exterior is very detailed, and a Minifig is used for the sign. The awning is also a contender for best, this time using sausages with clips on them. Overall, I like the detail, but the colours on this building are my least favourite of the entire set. The upper section of the tree is now finished on level two, its details far larger and more natural than on its base.

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The NINJAGO® museum demands most of the space on the third level, dividing into a gift shop, and the actual museum. The museum itself is fairly similar to the one in the show, with a portrait of Master Yang, a painting of Kai and Nya’s parents, a model of the Destiny’s Bounty, and much more. The centre wall can be easily removed. The exterior detail almost outdoes the interior. The different signs look nice, and the teal windows work well with the bright orange. Around the back, a railed walkway runs from the door of the museum to a small passage between the Museum and an apartment belonging to an artist, which is among my favourite builds. The combination of several shades of green makes it light and pleasant to look at. SNOT techniques build up the front and back walls, which are decorated with plants on either side. A tiny bed and TV occupy half the room, while the other half hosts an easel, upon which a portrait of the City is being painted. Another door opens onto a balcony that cleverly uses angled bar pieces to create a textured railing. So far this might be my favourite level.

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The centre of the fourth and final level completes the Museum, with a rounded skylight. A bright, cheery cherry blossom arcs over it, adding to the ‘Gardens’ theme. On the left is a sort of sanctuary, built in lavender. I’m sure there’s a better term for it, but either way it’s lovely. I’ve spoken a lot about how good the colours throughout each build are and this is no different, with a refreshing mix of Reddish Brown and Lavender. Treasure chest lids make a traditional-looking roof that gradually slants inward. The final part of the city is an arcade for the Ninja along with a tower that serves as a secret control tower. The arcade is simple enough, with an armchair, a TV, a hatstand, and, fittingly, an arcade game. The arcade game is actually interactive, with a 1×2 tile that can be pushed upward as you press on the joystick. The design for it blew my mind. BrickHeadz glasses pieces work as rails, and a bright Koi fish build decorates the outside. There’s also a golden telescope stationed just outside the arcade. The tower above houses some spare posters, and Jay’s Ninja costume, a welcome inclusion. Above it is a small command centre with a central console. It’s not super easy to access, but accessibility is sacrificed for stability. Otherwise, it’s just a high-tech tower that increases the rather impressive height of the set.

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The last, and final part of the set is a small island that connects to the left side. Upon it is a small temple. A minifig is used for the drastically downscaled Titanium Ninja statue. For those who don’t know, in season three, Zane, the Titanium or White Ninja, seemingly died while saving the city and this monument was erected in his honour. Overall, it supports the theme of nature with more water and foliage.

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I’ll speak briefly about the nineteen Minifigs, making it simple by dividing them into those I really like and the others I don’t find particularly noteworthy. The five Ninja along with young Lloyd are great. Clutch Powers, Misako, Ronin, The Mechanic, Hai, Kaito, and Tito are some of the better minifigs. The Legacy version of Master Wu is also great. My favourite of the whole set is probably Christina, the NINJAGO® Superfan with a Green Ninja jersey. Mei, Cece and Eileen are still nice minifigs, although I’m not a particular fan. Some clever part uses make up one final character called Scoop, a cleaning robot.

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Earlier, I mentioned my concern at the lack of ‘Gardens’ but having built it, foliage and plant-life scattered throughout really brings the set to life, while signs, pipes and ads mean almost no space is unused. It’s an extremely enjoyable build, the final product a bustling, colourful city. I’ve had it for over a month, and it still appeals just as much as when I first built it. In terms of build experience, few sets rival it in my opinion. I believe the build alone is worth paying for. So many ingenious techniques are scattered throughout every build. You simply can’t go wrong with it. I like rating the different aspects of a set, and I think the following scores are fair:

Build: 10/10

Minifigs: 9/10

Packaging: 10/10

Playability: 9/10

Value: 10/10

All-round it’s a lively and pleasant display. I’d say one of the few drawbacks is that the compact spaces can make it difficult to access and position Minifigures if desired, but at the same time, having most buildings closed means dusting this set is much easier than you might imagine. You don’t have to like NINJAGO® to enjoy the set, you don’t even really have to like LEGO®. It’s a truly awesome set and is certainly the highlight of my collection.

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Official Images

Review by Brett Thomas (SAFOLs Members, CapeLUG Members)

I would like to start with why I wanted this set (which I was lucky enough to receive as a birthday present). I am a huge fan and collector of the Lego minifigure. I am always looking for unique figures and creative ways to display these. I have built some of my own habitats for my minifigures and so this set immediately caught my eye as it ticks all the above boxes. It contains 12 minifigures and 6 mini built habitats as well as a central core to join the mini builds

The box is aligned to those in this theme and the front has a large picture of the final build as well as a picture of each minifigure. The rear of the box shows an alternate completed build structure as well as some enlarged pictures of the mini builds.

Inside the box are 7 bags (1 for each mini build and the central core) 6 instruction booklets and 2 sticker sheets. The instruction booklets are separated so that different family members can build these at the same time. The central core build is included in book 1 with the first scene.

Each scene depicts an activity related to the Chinese New Year, I will describe each one and the minifigures in each below.

The central core uses technic parts to connect to all 6 scenes. It has a printed round top with New year Mandrin printing and some stickered tiles representing each scene (These are hidden in the final build.) The rear of each scene has 2 technic axle connectors to join to the core, only 1 is used to join and the other gives some stability when lifting the final build. Each scene is built on a 9×9 base with 3 rounded corners. Each scene has a sticker in Mandarin that relates to the scene.

The 6 different scenes are spring cleaning, food shopping, making good luck decorations, staying up to ring in the new year. Visiting grandparents and the god of prosperity.

Spring Cleaning

In this scene there are 2 minifigures dusting and cleaning the windows of an apartment. It is a full scene with some washing an aircon and a white bird. I like the feather duster build using coloured flower parts and the squeegee using T-bar. Both minifigure are dressed in orange overalls and the torso is a new print

Food Shopping

This shows a Chinese street vendor and his stall. He is selling food and toys on sticks. The toys are depicted by micro statuettes in 4 different colours. The roof of the stall uses ingot pieces, which is a cool way to depict tiles. We also get a new colour ingot in sand blue. The vendors torso has a printed belt and “moon bag” which is new in this set

Making Good Luck Decorations

This scene has an adult and a child making decorations. This scene is packed with details, a mandarin tree holding the final decorations (depicted with a red 1×2 printed tile) a parcel on the doorstep (which per Jay’s brick blog review has the IATA code BLL on it, which is for Billund airport. Some Lego perhaps?) and a small table with a red stickered parcel. The young gild has a quilted jacket torso which is also a new print. The door is surrounded by 3 printed red 1×3 and 4 tiles.

Staying Up To Ring In The New Year

This scene shows a family of 3 watching television just before the new year. There is a stickered digital clock showing the time as 23:59. This scene has a couch, the television (Stickered) a small table and a really cool small aquarium. The father is holding a printed orange/mandarin round tile which is also new.

Visiting Grandparents

This scene shows a child and 2 grandparents they all have the same red printed tile from the making decorations scene. This scene is also packed with details, a picture depicting a tiger (sticker) to align with the year of the tiger, a vase with pink flowers, a bookshelf with 3 books (creative use of the sand blue ingot here also) and a few presents among which is a Lego bag (sticker). The grandparents are sitting on 2 chair parts and there is a lilac carpet. The grandfather has a neat torso with a printed scarf

The God of Prosperity

The final scene depicts Choy San, the God OF Prosperity. The figure has a new torso print and uses a sloped skirt piece to depict a robe. This is also a new print in this set. The head has a wink and a smile. The scene shows gold ingots and “yuanbao” (ancient Chinses ingots resembling a boat with a lump in the middle) These are done using a gold hotdog bun with a gold stud, there is also a large red pot. There is a printed lamp showing a tiger and a printed 2×4 red tile as decoration.

Alternative display

There are some exposed studs on the top of the walls of each scene which allows you to stack these in a pyramid format with 3 on the bottom, 2 on the next level and 1 on the top. The benefit of this is allowing all 6 scenes to be viewed without moving the display. I found this stacking methos to be flimsy and not stable. If you chose to use this, you would need to build some kind of support behind the display

Overall

 This set is only found at LCS stores and retails for R 1 299.00, it consists of 1066 pieces and includes 12 minifigures. There is a lot of detail crammed into each scene and a few techniques you could use in other builds. The builds could be done by the whole family together. There is a good quantity and variety of minifigures which could also be used in other Lego displays. This will make a interesting display piece. I would recommend this set.