Set Review ➟ LEGO® 80038 Monkie Kid’s Team Van
Team van. Van, not so much. Giant truck with a two-story container home on top is more like it. And even though the box the set comes in is sufficiently large enough to accommodate a set name like “Giant truck with a two-story container home on top” that’s not ranking high in the marketing department. And I guess that “Sandy’s Truck” for some reason didn’t pass muster either. My son tells me that in the Monkie Kid show (I did not know there was a Monkie Kid show; ignorance is bliss) the vehicle is known as “Sandy’s Truck” or "The T” (or something) which Sandy built out of the remains of his dronecopter when it got destroyed. I really cannot follow teenage jibber-jabber going at 20 words per second, but something-something-not-called-Team-Van.
Time out for an environmental rant.
The set has packaged its two thick instruction manuals and stickers in a large cardboard envelope and not the usual plastic bag. This is the first time I have personally seen this packaging presentation within a set. So let’s have a small “yay” for the paper. The PR machine known as the Forest Stewardship Council gets their pound of flesh out of the envelope, and the envelope sports the 21 Paper (non-corrugated fiberboard) Recyclable symbol, and the FSC designation is MIX…but does LEGO really need to be cutting down any amount of virgin forest for this? Or paying the FSC to attest that they’ve cut down virgin forest for this? I’d be happy with non-FSC 100% recycled. 100% post-consumer recycled would be even better.
I dunno. I dunno if this is actually LEGO’s doing or if they have hands tied by the EU bureaucrats who are more interested in creating the perception that they’re doing something for the environment than actually doing something. But heaven forbid any politician actually know what the hell they’re talking about. Environmental responsibility goes beyond slapping an FSC logo on something. Is there any reason this envelope could not be 100% post-consumer-recycled, uncoated, unbleached cardboard without any printing? Really its only job is to keep the stickers from getting messed up during shipping.
I still have to wonder if the total environmental impact of this cardboard envelope is less than that of the thin clear plastic film it replaces. This envelope is comparatively heavy at 54 grams versus 5 grams for the film. The envelope cardboard is one-side-coated, four-color printed with an additional flood varnish, glued, taped, and further imprinted with a distinguishing code number. That is after the component materials have been shipped to the mill from various sources, shipped from the mill to the printer, shipped from the printer to LEGO, shipped from LEGO to sales outlets, and shipped from outlets to the consumer. I will wager that in terms of energy consumption that the envelope is considerably more resource intensive than the film. On the positive side, the envelope will likely decompose while the film will not.
Manual 1 is 168 pages; manual 2 is 144 pages. The manuals, as with many recent manuals, have their own artwork and are no longer reusing the box artwork on the manual covers. The covers are fresh and clean looking. Thumbs up to the art department.
On the other hand…
The set contains 1406 pieces and uses 312 pages for instruction. Comparing that to a “large” set from yesteryear, 1990’s Mega Core Magnetizer with 473 pieces uses 24 pages for instruction. On average, the older set manages to put 19.7 pieces into assembly per page while the newer set puts only 4.5 pieces into assembly per page. The newer set has instructional steps that are literally a single piece by itself or additions of a single piece. And if the step is a single piece, does it really require an adjacent thumbnail that is also the same single piece? Is a step that shows no assembly whatsoever necessary or helpful? Objectively the instruction manuals with their baby-steps method of presentation are immensely wasteful of resources. On the other other hand I suppose I should be thankful that the instructions aren’t 1406 pages long, adding one piece per step.
Is this a useful instruction step?
I could rant more, but this is supposed to be a set review, so let’s get to that.
Stickers
As with all the Monkie Kid sets, this set has many stickers. The stickers add lots of charm to the sets. I would like to take a moment for a shout out to whoever it is in the LEGO art department that is creating these little gems. It is very difficult to create images at this small scale which are both clean and communicative. These just sing with so so much happy energy.
Printed Pieces
There are not so many printed pieces in the Monkie Kid sets—stickers seem to rule—and generally I think LEGO’s printed pieces skew to smaller pieces, to pieces with shapes where adding stickers would be difficult, and to pieces in sets aimed at younger children. Not counting minifigure parts, in this set we have a couple cookies1, a Pigsy lunch box2, a keyboard, a gauge, Mo the Cat, and the large Mo-faced dome.
Minifigures
The set has six minifigures: Sandy, Monkie Kid, Pigsy, Mei, Savage, and Rumble. Savage and Rumble are identical evil monkeys of some sort. You will have to figure out which of the two is which on your own. Monkey Kid and Mei heads have dual print faces. Accoutrements are as follows: Sandy has a gun of some sort, Monkey Kid has his usual staff plus a golden toilet seat with blue flame, Pigsy has his ubiquitous red fork, Mei has a sword with a dragon hilt, and one of the monkeys has a saw.
Savage in the 80034 Nezha’s Fire Ring set is assembled with the monkey tail down. Savage and Rumble in this set are assembled with the same set of pieces, but with the tail up. The tail up orientation is necessary to allow the figures to fit within the Tuk Tuk vehicle.
Left to right: 80038’s Savage and Rumble with tails up and 80034’s Savage with tail down. But really it is just the same figure three times.
The Container Section
The container section is effectively a clubhouse for the Monkie Kid crew. Folded, the container fits on top of the truck and when removed can unfold to reveal interior play areas. It is comprised of five rooms over two stories: kitchen, garage, game room, missile shooter compartment, and Mo the Cat’s room. There is also a rooftop recreation area. Folded out, the container section has three parts: two side sections (each two stories) and one center section (one story). The yellow sections do not lift off the blue sections as in some other modular builds. The container section as a whole, though, does lift off the truck.
Rooftop
The rooftop area is home to a small pool, chair, umbrella, telescope, and a planter box with a tree and plant.
Yellow Container
Continuing our tour of the container section from the top down, the yellow container section holds the kitchen and the garage for Mei’s flyer. Because who wouldn’t design their garage to be in the kitchen?
Working around the exterior clockwise from the back, the back of the section features a cloud decoration and a bar that is helpful in opening the container section as a whole. Moving left from the back is the kitchen side of the container. This side has a window box with plants under the kitchen window. The window can be opened. Next to the window is a kind of fire escape balcony sort of thing which seems to have no rational raison d’etre, but is a fun touch. Above the balcony is an antenna.
On the front side, there is a door leading into the kitchen side of the container. The door isn’t practical. It opens onto stairs, but there's a shelf at mouth level obstructing further entry into the room. It’s never good to open a door and walk into an mouth-level shelf. Next to the door on the outside is a Pigsy sign with some lights. Above both the door and sign are additional lights. Below the Pigsy sign is a thing…the best guess here is that it’s a Hibachi with a kabob on top and dual woofers on bottom. That way everybody in the vicinity can hear the sizzle.
The final side of the yellow container is a solid wall with decoration featuring a vent and a triangular sign. This wall opens downward becoming a platform and on which Mei’s flyer is stored.
The kitchen side interior provides a single row of studs on which we can place a minifigure. Fish and vegetables seem to be on the menu; no sign of rice or noodles. Cookies are in the box on the shelf.
Interior of the kitchen side of the yellow container.
Don’t bang your mouth on the shelf when you come in!
The side opposite the kitchen is the garage…or hangar…or hanger…for Mei’s flyer. The garage space includes a brick built drill, a spanner, what appears to be a wall-mounted computer console, and a clip on the wall for hanging the flyer.
Blue Container
The blue container has whimsical sculptural elements which transform what would be a plain box into a version of Mo the Cat. The back sports a large tail, each side sports one arm, and the front sports a big Mo head, complete with spiked hair and collar. These four elements are movable, and the head and arms are functional. Each arm acts as a trigger for a long projectile which is hidden under the big Mo face. Flip up the face, press down on an arm, and fire. The arms and face are built in the front center blue module of the container section.
In addition to the tail, the rear of the container has a handle, as did the yellow portion directly above for opening the container, and a cat door.
Moving around the container clockwise, the side includes what I guess is a petrol can, an Evil Macaque sign, some Pigsy branded boxes used as steps to get to the fire escape, and a cat arm.
While the front is primarily the cat face door concealing the shooters, the short top of the front has a couple steps leading to the door on the yellow container. Next to that is the aforementioned Hibachi boom box.
The final side of the container has a cat arm and a climbing wall.
With the container opened, the blue section has a game room which is more storage space than room. The ping pong table and arcade console contained in the room are both removable for play.
When I built the game console I thought it was a pretty wonderful component with lots of interesting detail. However as the build progressed, all the little details within the box quickly became more and more obscured as the casing advanced. The wheel on the front of the game moves a car from side to side within the case. This detail would have been more apparent on completion of the assembly if an angled-up L snot piece had been used on the top of the console instead of an angled-down one.
The center room is really just the mechanicals for the shooters, but it does appear that cat food is placed here.
The final room is the cat room. This room has a large cat post climbing tree along with a floor mat, sports drink bottle, undecorated basketball, and a basketball backboard and hoop. The backboard attaches to the container with a clip and must be rotated into the room for the container to close properly. No sign of a litter box in here, so I surmise Mo is a go-outside kind of cat.
The Truck…Van…Truck…Vehicle…
Whatever you want to call it, it’s big. While it has virtually the same footprint as the earlier Pigsy’s Food Truck…minus decorative bits…it feels larger. That feeling is probably due to the larger tires on the van making the whole vehicle sit higher.
The top of the van is easily removed to provide access to the interior of the vehicle. Some studs are provided on the top rack for mounting the container section, and a convenient protrusion near the front allows for easy alignment of the container section when attached. The rear spoiler is positionable on hinge arm connectors.
The rear section of the van serves as storage area for the go-cart. A back door swings down and serves as a ramp to which the go-cart attaches.
The box portion of the van has a large door on either side. Within the box is seating for three minifigures. The driver’s side has a push-out seat with mounted stud shooter.
The passenger side has two fixed seats. Conveniently and thoughtfully there is a separating wall between the two sides in the box. This separating wall is removable and serves to hold minifigure weapons while the figures are in the vehicle.
The cab of the van has a door on either side, seating for two minifigures, and is quite spacious. The cab doors are probably the stupidest cab doors I’ve ever seen on a LEGO vehicle. Minifigures can’t practically be inserted into the cab via the door because the door is set too far forward on the cab, up by the dashboard. The doors also bump into the cab mirrors when they open.
Small Vehicles
The set contains three small vehicles: the aforementioned Tuk Tuk, a go-cart, and Mei’s flyer. While the Tuk Tuk stands alone, the go-cart has garage space within the back of the truck and the flyer in the yellow container. Interestingly, in the instruction manual, while the flyer is specifically shown to fit onto a wall in the yellow container, the go-cart storage is not shown in its storage bay. I guess the manual designers were too busy with their one-piece-no-assembly steps taking up instruction manual space. The relationship is shown on the back of the box, but still, missing it in the manual has to be an oversight.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
The set uses the 54662 hinge arm on the truck’s running boards and spoiler.
Left to right: First generation 30554, second generation 30554, 54662.
The set uses the 24505 24-tooth gear on the truck’s jets.
Left: older 3648 gear with pointy teeth. Right: newer 24505 gear with blunted teeth.
The set uses the 66199 wheel bracket on the tuk tuk.
Left: older 2415 wheel bracket. Right: newer 66199 wheel bracket.
The Department of Corrections
- Those are “moon cakes”, not cookies.
- It’s a Pigsy “box lunch”, not lunch box
Summary
The only real negatives I can find with the set are the two truck cab doors and the door to the kitchen are positioned in such a way that minifigures can’t really be passed through them. In the grand scheme of things, those end up being quibble points. The play options here are varied and many, and I would imagine for kids there would be hours and hours of play beyond the build with this set. Highest recommendation.
Disclaimer
A container home full of thanks to LEGO for providing the review set. Apologies for no witty way of saying the thoughts expressed in this review are uninfluenced by outside sources.
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