Review: LEGO 80021 Monkie Kid's Lion Guardian

Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO set 80021 Monkie Kid's Lion Guardian, a box in the soft underbelly of the Monkie Kid 2021 range with an inventory of 774 pieces, five minifigs and a retail price set at 74.99 €.

On the menu, a rather imposing mech, a mini modular arcade room and a mechanical spider that serves as a battle station for the big villain of this second season, the set tries to create a little context and opposition around the mechanical guardian lion who is in principle the star of the product.

The idea of ​​the guardian lion converted here into a robot does not come out of nowhere: in Chinese culture, Fo lions are statues that guard the entrance to buildings and other important places in the city thanks to the protective powers that the popular belief attributes to them. The lion is also celebrated on the occasion of the Chinese New Year holidays through a traditional costume dance that would attract good luck. The set therefore draws frankly from these Chinese traditions and adapts them to the context developed by LEGO in the Monkie Kid universe. The stone lion and the colorful lion of the parades become an over-equipped robot who helps the young hero take on the Spider Queen.

The mech is not uninteresting even if it is in my opinion a bit messy in its realization. This mechanical lion gets lost a bit in the mix of colors and the many decorative touches that struggle to hide the lack of finish of certain parts of the animal. From some angles the robot looks great, from others it feels a bit like the designer has taken a few creative shortcuts to move on faster. The machine is perfectly matched to the mech of the set 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech (2020) from which he borrows the assortment of colors and some decorations, once again I salute the visual consistency of the range.

Special mention for the head of the animal which is really very detailed with a movable jaw and eyes embodied by a Technic bullet with an unprecedented pad printing. The skin of the side drums is also pad printed with a pretty, very successful pattern that gives allure to the whole. These two drums hung on the sides of the mech conceal Spring-Shooters and you have to push on the black rim placed at the back to fold down the two white discs and release these projectile launchers.

So there is something here to have a little fun trying to aim the Spider Squeen minifigure perched on his mechanical spider. Of the 24 stickers to stick in this box, 8 take place on the lion, at the level of the legs and the two hoops placed on the back.

The animal's tail is arguably the most fragile element of the model, it only fits on a simple clip and it is a bit difficult to stay in a raised position. It often bends under its own weight when it does not come loose during handling. Other elements such as the black rims clipped on the robot's neck are also likely to come off easily, you will have to be careful when gripping the model. This lion also has many articulations at the level of the legs which allow very diverse poses, it is always taken for those who would like to exhibit this mech in an advantageous position on their shelves.

In addition to the guardian lion, the set allows you to obtain a small modular arcade room whose walls unfold to allow you to enjoy the two attractions installed inside, with on one side a reproduction of the rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution and on the other a clamp machine (probably rigged) which allows you to try to win one of the two copies of the golden microfig. The machine is "functional" in the sense that it can be fed through the hole placed on the top of the attraction and the wheel placed at the back allows the clamp to tilt to try to eject a microfig.

The presence of this minimalist arcade in this box may seem a bit off topic but it should be enough to tip many fans who are reluctant to invest the 75 € requested by LEGO for this product. The construction concentrates the rest of the sticker sheet delivered in this set for a very 80s result and the whole should fit quite easily into a retro-futuristic diorama.

The third notable construction in the set is the mechanical spider that Spider Queen rides on. The accessory equipped with two Spring-Shooters will not replace the big spider in the set 80022 Spider Queen's Arachnoid Base I told you about a few days ago but it will at least allow young fans to wait until the opportunity to be offered another large box of the range presents itself. It's a detail, but I find very interesting the solution used which makes it possible to embody the eyes of the spider via the tips of the two ammunition integrated in the projectile launchers.

As always, without precise reference to the context of the events described here, it will be necessary to show imagination to integrate all the elements of the sets in a timeline which will lead to the confrontation between the Monkie Kid and the Spider Queen.

As for the minifigs provided, the endowment is balanced with on one side the Monkie Kid, Mei and Lu and on the other the Spider Queen and his henchman. As for the rest of the range, the pad prints are of a high standard and I just note a printing defect on the right leg of the Monkie Kid with a white mark which has nothing to do there at the level of the thigh. This task is not present on other copies of this minifigure that I have seen in various reviews of the set, so it is probably an isolated problem.

Note that Lu's pretty torso is not new, it's Poppy Star's in the LEGO CITY set 60271 Main Square (2020). The character's head also comes from the CITY range, it is available in the set 60262 Passenger Airplaine (2020). The elements that make up the minifigs of Mei, the Monkie Kid, the Spider Queen and her man tomorrow are also available in other sets, nothing exclusive here.

In the end, this set is arguably not the best of the second wave of products in the LEGO Monkie Kid range. It offers several varied constructions and it allows you to have fun without having to checkout again, which is already a notable advantage over other LEGO products. The design of the lion-robot is not the best barrel but the whole remains visually very consistent with the other mech marketed last year and collectors should find their account.

I regret a little that LEGO does not insist more on the presence of shops or homes in this range, just to create a more consistent environment to showcase all the robots and other devices provided in the different boxes. The small arcade would undoubtedly have deserved an additional floor and a real roof, just to make it a successful building and not to remain at the stage of a simple independent module which we do not really know what to do with.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 29, 2021 next at 23pm. 

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.