Monkie Kid

Mythical Creature Qilin

A gold-lacquered mythical beast that carries a whole quiet, wonderful theme on its back.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 80066 · 2025

Pieces791

Minifigs5

Year2025

Set number80066

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The verdict

The Qilin itself is the reason to buy this, and it did get me.

It is a gold, red, and orange chimera with a poseable neck, a rideable saddle, and a face that manages to look gentle and a little fierce at once. The side builds are charming and the minifigs are lovely, but stickers and a fairly quick build keep it from being a knockout. If you love Monkie Kid or Chinese mythology, this is one of the sweetest creatures the theme ever produced.

Best for: Monkie Kid fans and anyone drawn to Chinese mythical-creature builds

The full review

What it is

The Qilin is the whole heart of this set, and I mean that as a compliment. In Chinese mythology the qilin is a gentle chimera, a good omen said to appear at the birth or passing of a great sage, and LEGO leaned all the way into that idea. The finished creature is a swirl of gold-lacquered, red, and orange parts with a few soft blue pieces around the neck, a single horn, and a face that somehow reads as calm and watchful at the same time. It has a poseable neck, stud shooters tucked into its armor, and a two-seat saddle that pops off to become a small flyer. The first time I got it fully assembled and stood it up, I just left it on the desk for a while. It has presence.

The catch

I will be honest about where it wobbles. At 791 pieces and roughly a two-hour build, this is not a long evening, and if you build quickly you will be done and slightly wishing for more. The bigger gripe from the community is stickers. Several elements that really wanted printed parts get sticker sheets instead, and anyone who has fought to line one up on a curved slope knows that particular heartbreak. It is also not a cheap set for its size, sitting around seventy dollars at retail, so you are paying a premium for the creature and the license rather than for raw part count.

Who it's for

Get this if the Qilin speaks to you, because that figure is the entire pitch and it delivers. Monkie Kid fans, folks who love Journey to the West, and anyone who collects LEGO takes on mythical beasts will be thrilled to have it on a shelf. The five minifigures (four of them unique here) sweeten the deal nicely. If you build purely for clever engineering or for maximum bricks per dollar, though, the stickers and the short build will nag at you, and you might want to wait for a discount.

The parts story

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

Building the Qilin is the good kind of surprising. You start with the smaller stuff, a cloud-shaped flyer and a food-cart stall with a hidden cannon, before working up the creature's body, and the shaping around the neck and legs is more clever than a set this size needs to be. It moves along at a friendly pace with the Builder app if you want it, and while nothing here will stump a seasoned builder, the way the gold armor plates layer over the frame is quietly satisfying to put together.

The color story is the real draw. That gold-lacquered gold against warm red and orange, with the soft blue accents at the throat, is a palette you do not see assembled like this very often, and it makes the finished figure glow on a shelf. The horn, the antler shaping, and the ornate saddle give you a pile of decorative pieces worth hunting for. The catch is the printing: this set relies on stickers for detail where prints would have aged far better, which is the single most common complaint builders raised. For the theme, though, it is a strong parts haul in colors that are hard to source elsewhere.

Fun facts

01The qilin is one of the Four Divine Creatures in Chinese cosmology, alongside the dragon, the phoenix, and the tortoise, and legend says one appeared to foretell the birth of Confucius.
02This set arrived in the smallest LEGO Monkie Kid wave yet, one of only two sets that launched on January 1, 2025 as the theme wound down.
03The Qilin's two-seat saddle detaches to become a small flying vehicle, and the food-cart side build hides a stud shooter inside the stall.