Review: 80010 Demon Bull King
Posted by Huw,Monkie Kid, based on the Chinese legend Journey to the West, is LEGO's 'big bang' theme for this year.
80010 Demon Bull King is one of the 8 sets that have just been released and was the one that first caught my attention when I saw the pictures a few weeks ago.
Weighing in at 1051-pieces, it's not a small set by any means but, surprisingly, there are three others in the range with more.
However, none of them strikes fear into the heart of Monkie Kid as much as this one...
Parts
Parts are packed in numbered bags, thank goodness, with around 100 pieces in each. This makes construction far more enjoyable and manageable, particularly in small spaces.
Sets designed primarily for the Chinese market have, until now, been largely devoid of stickers, and instead have taken a 'no expense spared' approach by printing all the decorated elements. Unfortunately that's not the case here. It's a transparent sticker sheet which are probably the worst for showing up finger prints and dust under them.
This thick, flexible, shiny piece is a banner for one of the minifigs.
Trunk, No. 3, I thought was a new piece, but was first used as the Wooly Mammoth's trunk in 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base. It is however new in warm gold. It's used for the Demon Bull's horns.
The beast's eyes are printed, the only newly printed pieces in the set, on 1x2 curved slopes.
Minifigures
Monkie Kid
The story's main protagonist appears in all 8 sets, in three variants. Two of them are much the same except for the head.
The kid is attired in typical teenage clothing: bomber jacket, t-shirt, what look to be tracksuit bottoms (but with just two stripes) and ankle-high basketball boots.
And, like many young Asians I've seen, he has big chunky headphones round his neck, which is a new piece. A spare is provided, too.
The hairpiece, with bandana tied neatly at the back, is new.
There's a good degree of detail on both legs and torso, which has the Monkie Kid logo on the back.
The new gold Handle No. 3 caused a degree of excitement when first seen when its potential as a lightsabre handle was realised. I'm not sure what the weapon is called but I'm sure one of you will enlighten me...
Pigsy
Pigsy seems to be on Monkie Kid's side. He introduces a new pig head element which replaces, rather than fits over, a standard minifig head.
His mid-sized legs are printed to resemble cargo pants/trousers.
He has a picture of himself on his back, along with pockets stuffed with utensils. I did wonder why he wasn't carrying chopsticks but noticed in the picture above that they are in a front pocket.
He's wielding an extraordinary looking weapon which incorporates a red pitch-fork, new in that colour in Monkie Kid sets, and a sausage poking out the top. The mind boggles...
Princess Iron Fan
The lavishly attired princess would appear to be the antagonist in the set.
Removing her impressive hair-do reveals that she's wearing a head necklace. That sounds like it should be the wrong name for it, but apparently not...
Her double-sided head has a fearsome, angry expression on the back.
The details on her hair piece are impressive. It must take ages to tie and plait it all up!
She wields a banner, which makes use of the shiny flexible piece introduced earlier.
Construction
Thanks to the numbered bags, construction progresses in bite-sized 20-minute or so chunks, which makes it easy to dip into whenever you have a bit of time to spare.
There are no mini-builds within the set: just the three minifigs and the demon bull, so the build begins with its head, where we can see the new gold trunk pieces put to good use.
The torso is built in two stages and incorporates a light brick behind the rib cage.
This picture shows the hefty joints that'll be used to attach the legs and arms. The shoulder joints use a technique involving a ball joint that I think was first seen in 21311 Voltron to provide sufficient friction to enable the heavy arms to be held in a raised position.
Parts in bags 4 to 6 build the legs and feet. The legs are attached to the click-joints seen above, via a Technic click-hinge, which provides a good degree of movement of the hips.
The feet can be rotated and tilted a certain amount but the knees are fixed.
Once the arms, hands, and weapons are added, the beast is complete. The elbows are jointed but not the wrists: in any case it only has one 'hand', its other arm is a flame-thrower!
The completed model
It doesn't really have any 'bull-like' features other than the head but it's a fearsome looking beast that incorporates an impressive degree of pose-ability nevertheless.
Often the back of models like this are a bit bare and featureless. It does not look too bad here, though. There's a sort-of handle at the bottom which facilitates holding the beast with one hand. The switch for the light under the rib cage can be seen half-way-up.
The shoulder-mounted weapons can be filled with trans-orange 1x1 rounds which can be ejected by pushing on the yellow axle connectors protruding from their rear.
The picture on the box shows Princess Iron Fan standing on its shoulders but there isn't a 2x2 area to perch her securely. The best you can do is attach her to the 2 studs either side of its spine.
Many of the joints have defined limits to prevent it from toppling over. You can't for example, angle the legs out further than one notch on the click-hinges.
You can however, with a bit of patience, get it to stand on one leg...
Its head is affixed with a bar-and-clip hinge which doesn't provide enough friction for the head to be held in anything other than fully down, or fully up, which is only possible when the torso is upright or tilted slightly back.
Verdict
Standing at 28cm/11" tall, it's an impressive model, and impressively stable too. It's unusual for a set like this, clearly aimed at boys, to incorporate so much pink and purple in the colour scheme, but I think it works really well with the black and helps brighten up what could have been just another drab beast.
My only complaint really is that the Princess has to be attached somewhat precariously to the beast's shoulders, there's no dedicated place for her to stand.
I appreciate that it does not come with any mini-models that would bump up the price: people will be buying it for the beast and any superfluous additions are not needed. To be honest, the minifigs are not really needed, either: it's that good.
It's big, fearsome, colourful and looks great on display as well as (I imagine) being awesome to play with: what's not to like!
Price-wise, $90 / £75 for over 1000-pieces and a model of this stature does not seem too bad to me.
It's currently available at LEGO.com.
For a change, this set was not provided by LEGO, it was purchased with my own money. All opinions expressed are still my own, though!
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59 comments on this article
Thanks for the review! It seems like the bigger you go with the MK sets, the better the value!
Slight correction - Trunk, No. 3 has appeared before in reddish brown as the Wooly Mammoth trunk in 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base.
This is the only MK set I was interested it. And while the PPP ratio is good, I'm uncertain. Seems like a set that, once finished, will feel overpriced (much like the helmets). Will I say, "Man, I paid almost a hundred bucks for this..."?
And the back, as always, is really rough.
Otherwise, fantastic!
@Unikittius said:
"Slight correction - Trunk, No. 3 has appeared before in reddish brown as the Wooly Mammoth trunk in 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base."
Thanks for that. It's not included in the inventory for 60195 for some reason hence my mistake.
Lego has suddenly brought back piece 6207932, which has not been used in any non-Metalbeard set until now.
Huw, you described this as LEGO's "big bang" theme of the year. I had never thought of themes that way. Could you elaborate? Is there a "big bang" theme each year? Are there ever more than one? Would Dots be considered another "big bang" theme this year? Do you have examples of "big bang" themes from recent years? (Perhaps 2019 was Hidden Side, 2018 was Harry Potter...)
Thanks for the review! Looks good, but not sure if I'll be picking it up. Maybe some day if there's a sale... Monkey King mech, though, I'm definitely looking forward to.
Couple notes for the review: I believe Pigsy's weapon is a meat grinder. You'd shove hunks of meat in the top, and grind it down. The ground meat would come out of the tube in the front. Clearly, this one seems to modified into what I can only assume to be some sort of meat cannon.
Secondly, using the ball and socket for added friction was actually used prior to Voltron in 2015 on Onua: Master of Earth. It was used in conjunction with his gear function to allow his arms to swing and still hold a pose.
^ ^Big Bang usually refers to in-house themes that are backed up by more events, marketing and publicity than normal, and also animated series and other media.
For example, Ninjago and Nexo Knights and yes, I guess Hidden Side too perhaps, although that lacks the requisite cartoon.
^ Thank you. Yes, I guess a meat grinder would make sense!
I guess that we will see Pigsy's head in Ideas Winnie the Pooh set...
It looks like a fun set, but I kind of wish they'd gone for a more organic design rather than a mechanical one. It's not like giant robots are scarce in Lego ranges, after all.
Really nice pictures there, Huw, thank you for that positive review.
@parsom said:
"I guess that we will see Pigsy's head in Ideas Winnie the Pooh set... "
It’s too fat for piglet. Unless they make pooh a big fig they really should make piglet a one piece microfig akin to that little troll (I think was called tiny diamond) in the recent Trollz theme.
Thanks for the quick review!
Just wanna add that the thing Princess Iron Fan wielding is not a banner but is the Iron Fan itself, which like the staff Monkey King wields can change in size at will and acts as weapon by blows people away. And the Demon Bull King is her husband. :)
Hidden Side has its own animated series online.
I found this model lacking a bit of oomph - I expected more from a Demon King. Sometimes if feel like unintentionally I end up having only the "good guy" sets (exception being Ninjago Movie) as they get more love.
That's cool. I like the colors and the minifigs, too. The minifig of the pig is nice. (Maybe I can use it for my own Professor Pyg from Batman.)
Looks like a great set and I would love to get it and the Monkey King Mech.
About that banner, I think it's kind of a war fan because of its shape.
I’m pretty sure someone is going to complain about LEGO making a set off of a demon.
Aside from that, this looks like one of the best Monkie Kid sets IMO. As it stands, though, I’m still not willing to shell out $90 on one set.
@wenshun said:
"Just wanna add that the thing Princess Iron Fan wielding is not a banner but is the Iron Fan itself, which like the staff Monkey King wields can change in size at will and acts as weapon by blows people away. And the Demon Bull King is her husband. :)"
Thank you! It certainly makes more sense when you know the story behind the sets!
This was the set from the line that most caught my eye. The color combination is awesome.
Good review! The pictures are gorgeous.
Monkey Kid's staff is the Monkey King's signature weapon, the "Ruyi Jingu Bang" (sometimes translated as "the compliant golden-hooped rod"). Originally an enormous iron pillar given to the Monkey King by the Dragon King of the East Sea, the rod has the ability to change in size according to the owner's wishes, which explains its tremendous size in the Monkey King Warrior Mech!
I'm still a little unsure which of the Monkey Kid sets I'll end up getting, considering their high prices and limited distribution. This is one that's definitely on my list, though. I love the color scheme, which manages to use both dark purple and magenta and still manage to make them look badass and even a little scary (sort of reminiscent of the oozing "malice" that made up so many of the baddies in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). I also think that beyond the head, the cloven "hooves" of this set also evoke a bull (even though they're elongated more like human feet, probably a necessity when it comes to balancing a figure of this size effectively).
I'm usually a fan of mech sets, but this one doesn't wow me too much really and I'm not sure why I guess because other than the bull head it's a very standard mech. I would like to get the Princess Iron Fan minifig she'd make a great empress for emperor Wu in my adventurers dragon fortress set.
@Lyichir said:
"Good review! The pictures are gorgeous."
Thank you. I think the shine of the myriad titanium metallic parts helps elevate them beyond the normal.
Lol Huw, this review makes you sound old. XD
Good review though :) good looking set
I'm curious to see how Pigsy's head looks like without the chef's hat.
Can other kinds of minifigure headgear fit on Pigsy?
It's a nice model for sure. Unsure if I'll commit because of the price.
It’s like Zoids never went away with this and the rhino
No mentioning of GWP polybag Monkie King's Delivery Bike?!
@wenshun said:
"Thanks for the quick review!
Just wanna add that the thing Princess Iron Fan wielding is not a banner but is the Iron Fan itself, which like the staff Monkey King wields can change in size at will and acts as weapon by blows people away. And the Demon Bull King is her husband. :)"
Thank you for sharing details of this Asian tale.
@gsom7 said:
"No mentioning of GWP polybag Monkie King's Delivery Bike?!"
What is there to mention? It's not an official or current promo, and it's certainly not cool enough to warrant an entire article of speculation
Nice review, but this might be my least favourite set from this line. I hope you get a chance to review more. I’m very tempted by the other Mech..but would love to see what you guys think.
All I need to do is make some modifications and change the color scheme and I’ll have a LEGO Icon of Sin. Maybe I’ve been playing too much DOOM...
I don't get why people hate stickers. To me, it feels rather satisfying to put a sticker on a brick.
Why all the hate?
Does anyone else think the Princess headgear could be used for a Rita Repulsa if they ever got the PR IP? It's not 100% perfect but pretty good.
@OldschoolFan74 said:
"Does anyone else think the Princess headgear could be used for a Rita Repulsa if they ever got the PR IP? It's not 100% perfect but pretty good."
If they ever were to get the IP they would probably go ahead and come up with an accurate version. Of course, they're unlikely to ever do so now that the IP is owned (not just licensed) by Hasbro.
Huw will you be reviewing any more/all of the monkie kid sets?
Transparent stickers are the best! You can use them on any color, unlike those pesky white stickers that have a bad history with crumbling to dust. The trick with clear stickers (besides cleaning your fingers ahead of time) is in how you apply them. Some people use tweezers to transfer them, but a very helpful trick is to basically burnish the things with your fingertip. After applying it, and being satisfied with the placement (because you might be able to carefully lift a freshly-applied sticker with a blade, but not so easily after doing this), rub your fingertip over the entire sticker, pressing down with a fair amount of force. This will flatten out the adhesive to get a complete bond, and will almost immediately reduce the visibility of fingerprints. Give it a few more days and the sticker adhesive will clear up to the point where you won't see any blemishes. Unless you had dirty fingers. You can't hide dirt.
"Head necklace" actually is the wrong term for it, and probably derives from the fact that Hollywood has a habit of trying to make itself look period by draping an actual necklace over someone's forehead. It's really called a ferronnière, but that term comes from a naming error of a Da Vinci painting that features one.
@legolover777
Bo staff is Japanese. Pang (Cantonese) or Bang (Mandarin) are more likely correct, but I don't know if the presence of metal ends makes it a distinctly different weapon. The Monkey King from Journey to the West wields a named artifact called Ruyi Jingu Bang (the name, when translated, is usually more of a description than anything else, and varies considerably depending on the translator, but basically convey the idea that the staff will change shape at the will of the wielder, and has metal rings on it). Other (mostly previous) versions of the Monkey King wielded a type of staff called a khakkhara, which has a large, ornamental head through which multiple large rings are threaded, allowing it to be used as a noisemaker to scare away wildlife while Buddhist monks walked from one place to another (this is clearly not a khakkhara).
@wenshun
Oof. Those are going to be some _uuuuuuuugly_ kids...
@Trigger_:
Darn tootin' I am! If they can make a Chinese demon, they can make a Balrog!
@MarkingX:
Deep headgear is out because of the shape of the head and/or the presence of ears. The beret, construction helmet, garrison cap, top hat, knit cap, various ball caps, painter hat, opera-style Viking helmet, and mortarboard all look like they could potentially fit. You might be able to give him a Mr. T mohawk!
that flame axe looks epic.
I'm liking the printed midi-legs
With all the design talent at lego I would expect more / better joint articulation on the larger Mechs. It would really improve them
I like the look of this mech (and the giant monkey mecha also looks pretty cool) ...
... but I was checking the prices yesterday (because I wasn't really paying much attention when the Monkie Kid sets were initially announced), and I have to say, has Lego lost it's mind?
In Australia, the entry-point to the series (the cheapest, smallest set) is yet another over-sized motorcycle and a ramp ... for fifty dollars? That is extraordinarily expensive. And that's the cheapest, smallest one (unless there's a few polybags, but we generally don't get those in Australia). The other sets lean up towards two hundred, three hundred dollars.
This is ridiculously, bizarrely expensive. Maybe I'll pick up some figs on Bricklink, but I'll be passing on the line. The cost, I could not even begin to justify it, and supporting Lego is just rewarding bad behaviour.
@OldschoolFan74 said:
"Does anyone else think the Princess headgear could be used for a Rita Repulsa if they ever got the PR IP? It's not 100% perfect but pretty good."
Actually that’s what I thought when I first saw the pictures of the MK sets when they released.
@wenshun said:
"Just wanna add that the thing Princess Iron Fan wielding is not a banner but is the Iron Fan itself, which like the staff Monkey King wields can change in size at will and acts as weapon by blows people away. And the Demon Bull King is her husband. :)"
I’m confused - if she’s the princess and he’s the king, how would their being married make sense?
@Unikittius said:
"I’m confused - if she’s the princess and he’s the king, how would their being married make sense?"
Well, Queen Elizabeth is married to a Prince, and in some cultures if two Kings married one would be bumped down to Prince status, so something like this isn't out of the realm of possibility.
Maybe the Demon Bulls are a part of a matriarchy, with the Bull King being an actual part of the family and Iron Fan being married into the royalty. In that case Iron Fan would be designated "Princess" to show she has less power than him, unlike a Queen would.
Lot of moaning about the prices on forums, but I'd say they're priced almost exactly the same as similar Ninjago sets?
Kinda like this one and the giant ship base.
@PurpleDave said:
" @wenshun
Oof. Those are going to be some _uuuuuuuugly_ kids..."
I dunno, Red Son looks perfectly normal to me ;)
As far as stickers go, the transparent stickers are great! The white ones tend to self-destruct after a few years, but I've never had problems with the clear ones. Lego should really use those more often.
@PurpleDave if I heard it right in the trailer, for this story Red Som and Iron Fan are the Bull King’s kids...must take after their mom.
The set is cool, but I wonder what the lore of this character is, is he the literal king or is that a nickname given to him? Is he the main villain and if he isn't, who is? What are the roles of Princess Iron Fan and Red Son, are they his kids?
@Meowzap77 said:
"Lego has suddenly brought back piece 6207932, which has not been used in any non-Metalbeard set until now."
Despite it being a wonderful piece, and it works so well for the lower jaw and the toes here.
The Metalbeard beard has previously been used in Ninjago 70602 Jay's dragon.
@The_Toniboeh said:
"The set is cool, but I wonder what the lore of this character is, is he the literal king or is that a nickname given to him? Is he the main villain and if he isn't, who is? What are the roles of Princess Iron Fan and Red Son, are they his kids? "
The Bull King and Princess Iron Fan aren’t real kings or princesses - they are both demons with a knack for nicknames*. The Bull King is the husband of the Princess. I presume in the Monkie Kid storyline, he dies after the marriage and was resurrected by Princess Iron Man as a cyborg. Red Son is the son of the Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan (insert birth jokes).
Fun fact: In most Chinese TV adaptations of Journey to the West, Red Son only has a single strand of red hair (he is virtually bald). Kind of ironic that LEGO gave him a flaming man-bun.
And yes, the flimsy plastic banner is the Iron Fan.
*It is possible that Princess Iron Fan is a Princess not a Queen because at the time Journey to the West was written, there hadn’t been any Chinese queens/empresses, only princesses and kings/emperors.
I think I need the princess's hair for my bull knights castle faction.
Monkie Kid's staff seems to be Jingu Bang, the legendary weapon wielded by Sun Wukong himself in the classic story of chinese mythology, Journey to the West.
@Unikittius:
Every culture is different. Generally speaking, Kings outrank Queens (just like in poker), so if you marry a King, you can be a Queen without throwing things out of balance, but there are no guarantees. If Charles becomes King, Camilla will be a Princess Consort. If you marry a Queen, it gets messy. Previously, Queen Victoria's husband, Albert, was Prince Consort, but Queen Elizabeth's husband, Philip, is just a Prince. Mary, Queen of Scots made her husband a King Consort, even though she needed Parliament to approve it, but nobody challenged it (it was a meaningless title, as he had no claim to the throne). Spain's Queen Isabella II also made her husband King Consort. Denmark's Queen Margrethe's late husband, Henrik, was officially a Prince, but he threw a hissy fit over the term and refused to use it, because he felt that if the wife of a King becomes a Queen, the husband of a Queen should likewise become a King (technically she could have made him King Consort and that probably would have left the power structure intact while appeasing him, but for some reason she kept him a Prince until he passed away). Some nations are ruled by Princes and don't have Kings or Queens at all (most of these are actually Emirs, being located in the Middle East).
@TheRightP_art:
Princess Iron Man?!?!?!? I don't think I've read that comic book...
@Alltimefol:
There was some mention in the press material about this actually being Monkey King's staff, which somehow Monkie Kid ends up in possession of. This is supported by the fact that the Monkey King minifig in 80012 is wielding the exact same staff, and the giant Monkey King mech is wielding what looks like a giant-sized version of the same staff, while Monkie Kid in that same set is just holding a phone.
This mech looks pretty cool. Although I wonder if it would have been more awesome if it had a cockpit and was piloted by a minifig version of the Bull King? Then it would have made a nice 1:1 against Monkey King Mech where Monkie Kid is the pilot.
Looking forward to seeing reviews on the rest of this line. It's all very tempting but need to know what else is in Lego's lineup this year before any major commitments.
No mini build is definitely a highlight!
I would disagree with the statement that this set is clearly aimed towards boys. How is this only aimed towards boys? It is because it is a mech set, so only boys can play with robots and mechs? I'd like to hear your thinking behind that.
"You can however, with a bit of patience, get it to stand on one leg..."
Best part of a great review.
@yobuster said:
"This mech looks pretty cool. Although I wonder if it would have been more awesome if it had a cockpit and was piloted by a minifig version of the Bull King? Then it would have made a nice 1:1 against Monkey King Mech where Monkie Kid is the pilot."
I dunno, I think mech vs. giant monster is if anything, an even more iconic pairing than mech vs. mech (see media ranging from Power Rangers to Pacific Rim). It is a little bit asymmetrical, but that can work in the story's favor to keep the "good guys" feeling like they're facing a more powerful foe (since their size and strength is merely augmented by a machine while the foe's strength is innate).