Monkie Kid

Spider Queen's Arachnoid Base

A genuinely creepy giant spider that wants to loom over your shelf.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 80022 · 2021

Pieces1,170

Minifigs6

Year2021

Set number80022

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The verdict

This one leans hard into its big scary spider, and honestly, that's exactly why it works.

You get a menacing eight-legged base with two front legs that actually move, plus six really strong minifigures including a new Monkie Kid and the Monkey King. It's not the most inventive build LEGO has ever done, and the little opening flyer is forgettable, but the finished spider has real presence. If you like a set that shows up on the shelf and refuses to be ignored, you'll be pleased with this.

Best for: Display-minded fans who want a big, dramatic creature centerpiece

The full review

What it is

Some sets try to be clever and some just try to be scary, and Spider Queen's Arachnoid Base picks scary and commits all the way. This is a big Monkie Kid LEGO® set built around one idea, a giant spider fortress with eight legs sprawling out from a raised body, and the moment you finish it you understand why it exists. It has weight and menace on a shelf. The spider looms. Kids get rescue scenarios to act out, adults get a creature centerpiece that actually looks like something, and everyone gets six minifigs that punch above what you'd expect from a set at this size. Monkie Kid comes with a new hood in Bright Bluish Green, Syntax has a fresh dual-molded hairpiece with goggles, and the Monkey King brings a new tail piece that can clip onto bars. Spider Queen herself anchors the villain side, and the whole cast has personality.

The catch

Here's where I'll be straight with you. The build is not the reason to buy this one. It opens with a small flying machine that reviewers politely called lackluster, and they're right, it's the kind of thing you'll build fast and forget. Then you get to the legs, and there are eight of them, and building eight legs means doing a lot of the same steps over and over. Four of them are completely stationary. Only the front two are truly mechanized, swinging up and down when you rock the flagpole on the spider's back. At 119.99 dollars for 1,170 pieces the value is fine rather than generous, and because it's retired now (it left shelves at the end of 2022) you're likely paying a bit over that on the aftermarket. It also falls apart under genuinely rough play, so this is more display-and-gentle-swoosh than crash-it-around.

Who it's for

So who ends up happy here. If you love the Monkie Kid theme, or you just want a large creature model that dominates a shelf, this is an easy yes, and the minifig lineup alone carries a lot of the appeal. If you build for engineering and clever techniques, the repetitive legs and thin play features will test you, and you might want to look elsewhere in the wave. But taken for what it is, a dramatic giant spider with a great cast, it delivers. The oceans-deep purple and lavender color scheme sells the whole spooky mood, and once it's assembled you stop noticing how you got there and just enjoy the thing staring back at you.

The parts story

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

Building this is very much a tale of two halves. It starts slow with a small, uninspiring flying machine, then moves into the spider itself, which is where things pick up. The body goes together on a Technic frame that keeps it sturdy without stuffing the interior full of detail, and the raised base gives you room for the play scenarios underneath. The legs are the big time sink. There are eight, and you'll build them in near-identical batches, so pace yourself and put on something to listen to. The reward is the front-leg mechanism: a flagpole on the spider's back acts as a switch, and rocking it drives the two forward legs up and down through Technic steering gears. It's a genuinely satisfying bit of motion in a build that's otherwise about structure over cleverness.

On parts, this set is a quiet gift for anyone who builds creatures or organic MOCs. The headline is the IFB claw in Lime, eight of them, a fresh recolor that constraction builders had been wanting. You also get new molds that defined this wave, including the bent bar holder in Black and Medium Lilac, a 1x1 brick with a cross hole in Light Bluish Gray for sneaky structural tricks, and a new 3x3 curved corner roof piece in Black. Add a pile of purple and lavender roof tiles and slopes and you have a color palette that's hard to find elsewhere. For 1,170 pieces the raw count value is fair rather than spectacular, but the specific parts, plus six minifigs, tilt it back toward worthwhile.

Fun facts

01The Spider Queen comes from Journey to the West, the same 16th century Chinese novel that gives Monkie Kid its Monkey King, where she and her spider-demon sisters trap the pilgrims in silk.
02Owners rate the set 4.6 out of 5 on Brickset, noticeably higher than aggregator scores, a sign that people who actually built it liked it more than the reviews suggested.
03The Lime recolor of the IFB claw here was its 12th color variant, and reviewers at New Elementary called it delightful precisely because organic model builders had been chasing it.
04It was the third largest set in the 2021 Monkie Kid wave and retired at the end of December 2022, which is why sealed copies now tend to sell above the original 119.99 dollar price.