Monkie Kid

Chang'e Moon Cake Factory

A moon goddess, a moon cake assembly line, and a mech piloted by two bunnies. Yes, really.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 80032 · 2022

Pieces609

Minifigs3

Year2022

Set number80032

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The verdict

This is one of those sets where the Monkie Kid team clearly decided to have a wonderful time and let it show.

You get Chang'e's little lunar base with a working-ish production line, a carrot rocket, and a chunky mech flown by a pair of rabbits, and it is all as charming as it sounds. The US price is the sticking point, but if you catch it on sale or love the theme, it's an easy yes. Best for builders who want something joyful and odd on the shelf rather than a serious display piece.

Best for: Monkie Kid fans who want a set with real personality and a genuinely funny build

The full review

What it is

The bunny mech is what got me. I did not expect a set about a moon cake factory to hand me a squat industrial walker piloted by two little rabbits in a cockpit, and yet here we are, and it is delightful. Chang'e Moon Cake Factory is peak Monkie Kid in the sense that the design team clearly gave themselves permission to go completely daft, and the whole thing is better for it. You build Chang'e's small lunar base, complete with a live-streaming platform (very of-the-moment) and a moon cake production line, plus a carrot-shaped rocket for shipping the cakes off-world and that wonderful stud-shooting bunny mech. It is silly in the best way, and I found myself grinning through most of the build.

The catch

I do have to be straight with you about the price, though, because it's the one thing that keeps coming up in reviews and it's fair. At $69.99 in the US for 609 pieces, this sat on the expensive side, and you feel it when you compare the parts count to the box. Interestingly, European builders got a much fairer deal at 44.99 pounds or 49.99 euros, so a lot of the grumbling was region-specific. The other honest caveat is that the moon base at the centre is the least exciting part of the set. It's perfectly fine, but it plays second fiddle to the mech and the rocket, and once those two are done the base can feel a little plain by comparison. This is also a quicker build than the price tag might lead you to expect.

Who it's for

If you already love Monkie Kid, or you're the sort of person who lights up at a set with genuine humour and character, get this one, ideally on a discount since it has now retired. All three minifigures are exclusive here, so completionists effectively have to own it, and the mech alone justifies a spot on the shelf for a lot of people. Who should skip it? If you build primarily for clever engineering or you want a big, dense, technically ambitious model for your money, this isn't that, and the US price will sting. But as a pure joy-per-brick proposition for the right person, it more than earns its keep.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build itself is brisk and never fussy, which suits a set aimed at eight and up but still keeps an adult builder entertained. You work through three distinct sub-builds, the base, the carrot rocket, and the mech, so there's a nice sense of variety and each one feels like its own little project rather than one long slog. The production-line mechanism and the playful functions mean this is very much a set designed to be handled and played with, not just admired from across the room.

The standout piece is Chang'e's new hair mould introduced for 2022, a genuinely fresh element that defines her silhouette instantly and is the sort of part collectors love to see debut. Pigsy's space suit is a treat too, with intricate printed tubing and metallic gold and teal highlights over his trademark hat, and Mo the cat carries that lovely medium azure and orange colour combo. Add the two bunny figures, the blue Fire Ring accessory, and a carrot gun, and you get strong minifig value for the box: the three figures alone account for around a third of the set's market worth, with Chang'e the most sought-after of the trio.

Fun facts

01Every one of the set's three minifigures (Chang'e, Pigsy in his space suit, and the Lunar Rabbit Robot) is exclusive to this set and appears nowhere else in the LEGO range.
02Chang'e is drawn from the classic Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival legend of the moon goddess, and moon cakes are the festival's signature treat, which is the joke the whole set is built around.
03The set retired in December 2023 after about a two-year run, and its value has since dipped roughly 20 percent below the original RRP on the secondary market.
04Chang'e's hair piece was a brand-new mould for 2022, one of the small parts debuts that made this set a quiet favourite among Monkie Kid collectors.