Late in the first season of the Monkie Kid animated series we were finally introduced to the Evil Macaque, who first appeared in the Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain set from earlier this year. While other villains like the Demon Bull King and the Bone Demon have received mecha sets in previous waves, Evil Macaque was left out, until now. He has finally reached proper villain status with an overpowered mech of his own. LEGO Monkie Kid 80033: Evil Macaque Mech includes 893 pieces and is available now, for US $79.99 | CAN $109.99 | UK £54.99

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

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Unboxing the parts, instructions, and sticker sheets

The front of the box shows MK and his crew fighting a large Macaque mech while Evil Macaque and one of his minions join in. The mech wields a large staff powered by the same purple energy as Evil Macaque’s smaller staff There is also a small cannon formed from MK’s staff. Like the other sets from this wave, the front of the box includes graphics from the quest for the elemental rings, including three rings atop a mountain and an island with treasure map style dotted lines. In the lower right corner is a line-up of the sets 5 Minifigs including the first appearance of a Sandy Minifig, who previously appeared as a Bigfig.

On the back of the box, the mech is displayed along with all of the characters on a more neutral black background with a sandy surface. There are two circular insets showing some of the set’s play features.

Inside the box are 7 numbered bags, many containing unnumbered bags for the smaller parts, an instruction booklet, and a small sticker sheet.

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The build

The build starts with the only other playable mini-build, a laser turret formed from the Monkey King staff. On one side there is one of the new shooters that launch small round tiles instead of round bricks.

The Macaque mech starts with a fairly standard mech torso construction involving a double pin shoulder attachment that may look incapable of holding the weight of the finished arm, but we’ll come back to that later. Evil Macaque has a black and red color scheme which is used throughout the mech with slightly asymmetrical design elements that will result in two different designs used for each arm.

The next part of the build moves down to the legs, which are symmetrical in design. Here’s where we get our first part of interest in this set, which is a double-pinned click joint similar to the previous version, used in many mechs and walking vehicle sets so far, but using two pins that are perpendicular to the connecting joint arm.

We finish with the upper leg and start with the lower leg, and this brings us to my first negative reaction.
The upper and lower legs do not connect in any of the usual mech assembly options to allow any pose-ability.

The two sections are attached to each other at a slight angle by the use of small Technic axles and a few other parts in a way that while strong enough to hold the weight of the completed mech do not allow for nearly as much range of motion as, say, the recent re-issue of Zane’s ice mech from Ninjago Season 5.

Moving on to the foot assembly, there is nothing remarkable about this step, except for the fact that the foot attaches to the base of the leg with very little range of motion, moving side to side to allow a wider stance but no front to back movement adding to the already stiff and underwhelming stance.

Next, we start in on the head, which I have to admit, almost made up for the lack of pose-ability with some very interesting construction that had me scratching my head about how a face would emerge until the end when carefully designed sections swing into place on hinges to form the furry chops on either side of the head.

The head is topped off with some swords and an angled slope emerging from his forehead.

Before we build the arms, we next get a large staff that shares details with the one held by the Evil Macaque Minifig, with a central core of transparent purple 2×2 round bricks. We also attach two tall curved adornments to the back of the head to match the Monkey King mech from a previous wave.

Now, let’s give the mech a hand, or two. The right arm is mostly black and built to look furry, using textured parts at multiple angles. The arm attaches to the shoulder using another of the new double-pin joints (the set includes 4, one for each limb).

The point of attachment for the staff is another confusing design choice since the staff includes a Technic connector with a pinhole at the center, but the palm includes a Technic axle with a ball joint attached, so the staff is very unstable and drops easily. The issue is easily fixed by swapping the ball joint axle with a ball joint pin.

While the two hands are identical, the rest of the left arm is quite different from the right. The arm has a much more mechanical look to it and includes a spiked gauntlet circling the wrist and a matching shoulder pad.

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The Minifigs

MK and Mei have two expressions each, while Sandy, who is Minifig sized for the first time (if you count set number order – He is also included at Minifig size in LEGO 80035: Monkie Kid’s Galactic Explorer) has only one expression since his mohawk does not cover the back of his head. All three also include detailed back printing.

Evil Macaque also sports two expressions, while his minion Rumble has only one. Both macaques have detailed back printings as well.

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The finished model

The finished mech stands about 10 inches tall and is quite imposing. The sharp contrast between the red and black colors and the asymmetrical design really stand out, and it looks like it would be fierce in a battle. However, compared with other recent mechs from the Monkie Kid theme like the Demon Bull King, and the Monkey King mech, from previous waves, and other themes like the Zane mech reissue from Ninjago, this mech falls short in one major way. It is simply not nearly as posable as these other mechs. The arms have a similar range of motion, but the legs are very limited if you want the mech to remain standing unassisted.

I also feel like the extremely tapered look of the torso, with the hip joints sticking out from a very narrow point, and the gaps at the shoulder barely covered up with the added shoulder pad details are further weaknesses in the overall design of this mech.

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Conclusions and recommendations

Despite my previously stated negative comments about pose-ability and the staff attachment point, I actually think this set is pretty cool and it certainly fits well with the Monkie Kid theme. I have not been able to watch season two of the show to compare this set with any on-screen adaption to speak to accuracy on that count but it certainly matches the style of the Minifig character of Evil Macaque, right down to the staff which looks almost exactly like the one held by the Minifig. There are also plenty of cool parts to recommend this set, like the new double pin Technic joints, and lots of small pyramid parts in yellow-orange and black.

LEGO Monkie Kid 80033: Evil Macaque Mech includes 893 pieces and is available now for

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

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