Monkie Kid

Demon Bull King

A hulking horned mech with real menace, and one of Monkie Kid's best builds.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 80010 · 2020

Pieces1,051

Minifigs3

Year2020

Set number80010

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The verdict

This LEGO® set is the one that made me take Monkie Kid seriously, and I say that as someone who almost skipped the whole theme.

The finished Demon Bull King is genuinely imposing, a posable orange and purple brute with glowing torso and swinging axe, and it earns its shelf space. It's not a flawless build and the price stung a little at retail, but the design is smart and full of character. If you love a big articulated figure with personality, you'll be glad you grabbed it.

Best for: Fans of big posable characters who want something with real menace on the shelf

The full review

I'll be honest, I nearly walked past the entire Monkie Kid line, and the Demon Bull King is the set that turned me around. It's a big, horned, glowering figure from LEGO's take on Journey to the West, and in person it has real presence. You get 1,051 pieces that come together into a hulking orange and purple brute standing over a foot tall, with an axe in one hand and cannons built into his shoulders. The color scheme is what got me first. That flame orange against deep purple and black shouldn't work as well as it does, but it absolutely sings, and the whole thing reads as a proper villain rather than a toy.

The functions are where it wins you over. There's a LEGO light brick tucked into the chest so the torso actually glows, stud-shooting cannons on the shoulders, a little flame-thrower gimmick, and enough articulation that you can push him into genuinely dramatic poses. He's not a static statue, he's a character you can animate on the shelf. The three minifigs pull their weight too. You get Monkie Kid with his golden staff and a double-sided head, Pigsy with a rake cannon, and Princess Iron Fan with her magic fan, and she's exclusive to this set, which matters if you care about completing the cast.

Now the caveats, because there are a few. At $89.99 at retail it asked a fair bit for one big figure and three small ones, and if you're purely counting minifigs per dollar this was never the bargain of the year. Some builders also found the construction a little fiddly in spots, and the more expressive poses can feel slightly fragile if you're rough with them. And honestly, Monkie Kid never got the attention it deserved, so this can feel like a set for people already in on the theme rather than a gateway.

So who should chase this one down. If you love a big articulated character with actual attitude, or you're building out a Monkie Kid shelf, this is close to essential, and Princess Iron Fan seals it. If you only care about minifig value or you want a display piece that never gets touched, you might feel the price and the fiddliness more than I did. For me it lands as very good with real caveats, the kind of set I'm quietly glad I own. It retired at the end of 2021 and has since roughly doubled on the secondhand market, so it's no longer the casual pickup it once was.

The parts story

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

The build is split across nine numbered bags, and each one roughly maps to a body part, which makes the whole thing feel like assembling a creature piece by piece. You start low and work up, legs and feet first for stability, then the torso where the light brick lives, then arms, then that magnificent horned head. It's not a marathon, and it never gets repetitive the way a big vehicle can. There's a nice rhythm of structural work followed by little detail flourishes, and by the time you're fitting the horns you can feel the character coming to life in your hands.

The parts nerd in me had a lot to enjoy here. This set is where Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange debuted, including three exclusive 6x6x2 canopy pieces in that trans-neon shade. There are Titanium Metallic animal body ends and Warm Gold mammoth trunks pressed into service as horns, a Chakram used as a nose ring, and some genuinely rare bright reddish violet slopes and clips. My favorite trick is the lower jaw, which is Metalbeard's beard plate from The LEGO Movie repurposed as a bull's chin, a cheeky bit of parts reuse. Add two exclusive printed eye pieces and you've got a build that rewards a close look. At 1,051 pieces for a figure this size and this feature-packed, the value at retail was fair, even if it never screamed bargain.

Fun facts

01The whole Monkie Kid theme launched in 2020 and draws on Journey to the West, the 16th-century Chinese novel, with the Demon Bull King based on the classic Bull Demon King character.
02The figure's lower jaw is actually Metalbeard's beard plate from The LEGO Movie, quietly reused as a bull chin.
03This set introduced Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange to the LEGO palette, with three canopy pieces in that color found nowhere else.
04It retired in December 2021 and now sells sealed for roughly 180 to 190 dollars, more than double its 89.99 launch price.