The Monkie Kid theme has another wave of sets that, like the previous wave, are full of colorful vehicles and cartoonish accessories like jet-packs with huge engines. And this time, there’s a brand new batch of baddies, based on cyber-spiders. One of the biggest sets in this wave has a little bit of everything, from fold-out playsets for both sides, mecha-spiders, a massive quad-copter for Sandy, and a jet-powered cat carrier for Mo the cat. We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in. 80023 Monkie Kid’s Team Dronecopter comes with 1462 pieces and is available now for US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £119.99

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and contents

The front of the box features the completed model in a scene of action with a background image of a dock at twilight. There is a line-up of the Minifigures from the set along with the Bigfig Sandy, and his cat Mo in the lower corner and a small picture showing the drone copter being held by its handle.

The back of the box is divided into two halves. The top half shows off the many play features of the set including the swiveling top turret, the containers attached to the sides of the ‘copter, and the detachable boat that launches from the front. The bottom half shows the shipping containers folded out, and an all-out battle between the two groups on the same dock from the front.

The set comes with 14 numbered bags, many containing one or more bags for smaller parts. There is a bag of fire elements and a bag containing the big-fig Sandy. Lastly, there is a larger bag with two instruction booklets, a sticker sheet, and a vinyl spider-web cape for the main villain, the Spider Queen.

There are a few parts in new colors: The 2×6 tile comes in reddish-brown and the triangle tile in yellow. There are also a bunch of new angled clip parts used for the legs of the two spider drones.

The build

The build starts out with 2 folding playsets for team Monlie Kid and one for the spider gang. While the two containers for the good guys will attach to the sides of the Dronecopter later, the spider one sits by itself, but since it has the same clips as the others, it might attach to another vehicle either from this wave or from a future as-yet-unreleased set. The first container scene has a flip-up front that reveals a bunk bed a small desk, and a guitar.

Next, we have a radar dish-topped container for the baddies, which also includes a formidable cannon and a few science stations for sinister spider science. Whatever is in those glowing green canisters, I certainly would not want anything to do with it.

The last container scene is Mei’s crib, and it features a big screen tv, a motorcycle racing arcade game, and a posh chair with a drink tray where Mei can sit back and chillax after a long day cleaning the floor with minions.

Next, we have a few citizens, namely Mr. Tang and Fei. Red Son riding his fiery surfboard, and one of the funniest “vehicles” of the set, a jet-powered cat carrier for Mo, the mohawk-wearing cat. We also get two different spider drones armed with guns and sporting more of that glowing green goo in large canisters on their abdomens.

With all of the smaller sections out of the way, it’s time to move on to the mega-quad copter that gives the set its name. Similar to 80008 Monkie Kid’s Cloud Jet the cockpit of the drone copter is actually a detachable vehicle, in this case, a boat with fold-out propellers.

Moving on to the rest of the copter, we start out with a pretty basic core made from technic beams and four mirrored sections which will form the attachment point for the propeller sub-assemblies. These include a bunch of filler parts in yellow and teal, most of which will be covered by red in the end.

The final portion of the central core is a black handle that attaches to the rear of the copter and can be used to swoosh the finished model around.

The next part starts to get a bit tedious as we build four completely identical rotor assemblies, the highlight of which is the 16 teal 5×5 curved quarter circle parts. This section of the build ends with the base complete, resting on 4 large steering wheels attached to the underside of each propeller section.

The last part of the drone copter is a rotating turret that is built to fit the set’s Bigfig Sandy, with two giant arcade game joysticks and a small pair of speakers attached to the flag poles at the back. There is a pretty neat play feature, where you can turn the turret by rolling a small gear back and forth with your thumb while holding the copter by the handle. There is also a trigger mechanism that is supposed to fire the two spring-loaded missiles hidden in the base of the turret, but for some reason, I was unable to make this work, despite repeatedly taking this section apart and re-building it while puzzling over the instructions.

The Minifigs

The set comes with 8 Minifigs, 2 spider drones, 1 cat, and 1 Bigfig. Starting with the bad guys, we have the leader of the baddies, the Spider Queen. She sports a black vinyl cape with a printed spiderweb pattern, a massive helmet with sculpted spider legs, and a substantial sword fashioned from the blade first used in The Lord of the Rings theme as the sword of the Uruk-hai orcs. Her right-hand man is the Huntsman, who sports a gray ponytail, a furry collar, and a gun with some sort of sinister spider juice. Her second henchman is called Syntax, and he sports a multi-eyed goggle-helmet and a back-mounted harness with an extra four arms. Rounding out the villains is Red Son, the flame-powered progeny of the Demon Bull himself. In this set, Red Son is rocking a redundant setup of a flame-spewing jetpack and a flaming jet-powered surfboard. Talk about a hothead.

The Huntsman only has one facial expression, since his ponytail does not fully cover the back of his head, Each of the other villains has a second expression on the back.

The set comes with two civilians, Mr. Tang and Fei (who I believe is Mei’s sister) as well as a teal cat sporting an orange mohawk aptly named Mo. Mr. Tand has a sleepy expression and a normal one while Fei’s alternate expression is a bit more panicked.

Next, we have our heroes Mei, Sandy, and Monkie Kid. Sandy and Mo have only one expression each while Mei and the kid both have alternates. Mei’s regular ready-for-action face includes one green-eyed interface for her helmet, while her alternate features a sassy wink. MK has his usual teen too-cool-for-school face and his fierce fighting face with a red swatch of war paint.

The finished model

The completed set is quite substantial, from the three folding play scenes, the many Minifigs and the drone copter. And like many of the previous large vehicles in the theme, there are plenty of bulky cartoonish structures that fit perfectly with the frenetic and over-the-top action scenes from the television series. Each of the folding container scenes has lots of ways to play and arrange for fun, not to mention tons of great parts in colors that bring to mind a major fast-food chain. The container buildings can attach to the sides of the copter to take team MK anywhere they need to go to punch evil in the face.

Conclusion and recommendations

While one of the larger sets in the latest wave, I think this one has quite a lot to recommend it. Despite the slightly minimal design for the drone copter propellers, which felt a bit thin to me, the parts and colors are great, and the finished model is pretty fun to play with, even for adults. I had a lot of fun creating many different scenes with the folding containers, and I wish they had built in more of these features like the flip-up bunkbeds into the last wave’s team base on Sandy’s cargo ship.

80023 Monkie Kid’s Team Dronecopter | 1462 pieces |US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £119.99

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.