Monkie Kid

Evil Macaque's Mech

The villain mech that finally gave Monkie Kid a proper equal-and-opposite.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 80033 · 2022

Pieces899

Minifigs5

Year2022

Set number80033

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The verdict

I have a soft spot for the Monkie Kid mechs, and this one won me over by refusing to just be a red repaint of the hero.

The narrow waist, the whippy six-section tail, the sharp red-and-black asymmetry, it reads as a genuinely different machine. It is not a perfect build (those missing knee joints are a real shame), but the character is all there. If you love a display mech with attitude, this one has plenty.

Best for: Monkie Kid fans and mech-shelf builders who want a villain with real personality

The full review

What it is

The thing that got me about Evil Macaque's Mech is that it is not lazy. When LEGO makes a villain counterpart to a hero set, the easy path is a straight recolor, and this could so easily have been the Monkey King Warrior Mech in red and black. It is not. The body is built on a narrow waist with slender, spidery limbs, and the whole machine leans forward with this coiled, predatory posture. At 34cm tall it is a real presence on a shelf, and the red-and-black asymmetry gives it a nasty edge that the hero mech, for all its size, does not have. I found myself liking it more the longer I looked at it.

The catch

I will be honest about where it falls short, because the reviews I trust all landed on the same spot. There are no knee joints. None. For a mech this poseable everywhere else, that is a genuine frustration, and the ankles offer so little movement that you are mostly limited to a solid standing pose with the arms and tail doing the acting. The tail is lovely, six ball-jointed sections that whip around however you like, and the arms are dense with joints and clips. But the legs let the side down. There is also the size question. Against the 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech, which runs 44cm and is one of the best LEGO mechs around, this one is smaller and lighter on parts, and you feel it. At its original 79.99 US price it was fair value, especially in Europe, but it never quite escapes the shadow of its bigger sibling.

Who it's for

So who should chase this one down now that it has retired? If you are into Monkie Kid, this is close to essential, because the minifigure lineup is excellent and the villain design is the most characterful in the range. Mech collectors who want variety on the shelf will enjoy how different it looks parked next to blockier builds. If you are the kind of builder who buys a mech to swoosh it through dramatic combat poses, though, the frozen knees will drive you up the wall, and you would be happier with the taller Warrior Mech or something from Ninjago. Go in wanting a striking display piece with a great cast of figures, and you will be pleased.

The parts story

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

The build itself is refreshingly unfussy. There are no head-scratching techniques here, and honestly that works in its favor, because the earlier big mechs could get repetitive. Evil Macaque's Mech keeps you moving with a mix of small sub-builds, the tail, the arms, the compact torso, so it rarely drags across its two to three hours. The new leg sockets do some clever work, giving you more articulation from fewer, simpler steps, which is exactly the sort of quiet engineering upgrade I appreciate even when the box does not shout about it.

The standout parts are the minifigures and the fresh joints. Evil Macaque's hair piece is the gem, densely textured with six ears worked into the mold to match the mythological six-eared macaque, paired with a double-sided head so you can flip between his two smug, sinister looks. Sandy shows up minifig-sized here, and you get Mei, Monkie Kid and the minion Rumble alongside, two of the five figures being exclusive to this set. On the technical side, the shoulder and hip joints were new for January 2022 and add real stability, plus Monkie Kid's stud-shooting Golden Staff Cannon and the little map and compass accessories round out a genuinely well-stocked box.

Fun facts

01Evil Macaque's hair mold has six ears sculpted into it, a nod to the Six-Eared Macaque of Chinese legend, a shapeshifter said to be an exact double of the Monkey King.
02The mech stands 34cm tall, a full 10cm shorter than the 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech it was designed as the villain answer to.
03The set introduced new rotating socket leg joints and shoulder joints for January 2022, parts meant to give more posability with simpler assembly.
04Released in January 2022, it retired in December 2023 after just under two years, and secondhand values have since climbed well above its 79.99 US launch price.