Set Review ➟ 80054 LEGO® Monkie Kid Megapolis City
The Monkie Kid five-year anniversary set has arrived, and it is more of the same. And that is good. Besides having a lot of visual callbacks to earlier Monkie Kid sets, the set also has a lot of callbacks to many other LEGO themes and sets. Some callbacks are brick-built elements and others are shown on the many of the 75 different stickers in the set. Granted some of these references will not be immediately recognized by a younger generation, but for the hardcore fans there is a lot to unpack.
Megapolis city is this year’s take on 2022’s 80036 City of Lanterns. Like that set, the city is composed of a number of small modular buildings which can be combined together into a single large structure, or separated, or combined in different ways. Megapolis City has an advantage over City of Lanterns in that separating the modules is a bit easier due to the absence of the surrounding rail track. Back side access to Megapolis City is easier than Lantern city because Megapolis has no track structure to interfere.
The back side of City of Lanterns.
The back side of Megapolis City.
As is typical with LEGO’s multi-modular-city builds, the shop modules are fairly rife with decoration and thus barely large enough to contain a single minifigure. The idea of having a shopkeeper and a customer in the same space is practically unworkable…which probably explains the preponderance of vending machines all over the place.
The DJ station sits atop a precious stone shop. These shops are conceived as a single unit.
The vending shop is adorned with busts representing MK antagonists.
Of course, a Pigsy shop is in the mix.
Spider Queen has a sewing shop under White Bone Demon’s Bone Shop. These two shops and the staircase on the roof are conceived as a single structure. Maybe Spider Queen also does some weaving in the shop.
There is a small pagoda on a “cloud” base.
Some smaller elements include Red Son’s BarBQ, Mr. Tang’s book (you will find Tang has spilled ink elsewhere in the set), Pan’s delivery (but no Pan), and a little flower box.
Where City of Lanterns had the Pigsy Sky Train as its functional element, Megapolis City has a Space elevator and the world’s most dangerous mini ferris wheel.
City of Lanterns’ Sky Train.
The space elevator.
Rider safety is of no concern whatsoever on this ferris wheel.
A note on the ferris wheel: the main wheel is supported only on one side and the chairs on the wheel are supported only on one side and thus, gravity being what it is, the whole assembly leans slightly away from the support and the chairs lean towards the wheel. I found that the seat bottoms would hit the base as the wheel was spun around. The seat bottoms should barely miss the base if reality paid attention to the engineering premise, but it does not. More interesting, though, is that when riders are in the seats, the center of balance shifts, the seats pivot slightly, and that shift causes the seats to clearly miss the base as the wheel is spun. Sometimes serendipity succeeds where engineering fails.
Ferris wheel seat without rider hitting base.
Ferris wheel seat without rider hitting base.
Ferris wheel seat with rider not hitting base.
Ferris wheel seat with rider not hitting base.
There are a lot of visuals in Megapolis City including a whole bunny’s basket full of referential Easter eggs. Some of these are on full display, like the Wooden Duck on top of Pigsy’s shop or the cloud motif picked up from The Heavenly Realms.
Others elements are buried in the build. These hidden bits are fun when assembling the set, but after assembly is completed some of the design choices are positively head-scratching.There is a working window in the sewing shop, to which a sticker gets attached, facing outward from the shop, and is then surrounded by a wall, so the window cannot be opened nor can the art on the sticker be seen from within the shop because in the shop you see only the back side of the sticker. Why put a window in then have a wall cover it up? The window can be flipped around for visuals, but why choose an openable window which subsequently cannot be opened? Maybe that window thing is supposed to be a loom. I don’t know.
On the more well thought out side of things is the inclusion of technic bricks uniformly placed at the bottoms of the individual building modules which allow them to be connected to one another with pins. This allows for a wide variety of configurations.
Further, the connection scheme allows for integration with components from other Monkie Kid sets.
Building elements combined from sets 80036 City of Lanterns, 80054 Megapolis City, and 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech.
LEGO suggests that Megapolis City, City of Lanterns, and 80044 Monkie Kid Team Hideout can be combined, but that is not a simple attach-this-one-to-that-one situation. It is more of a reconfigured combination model situation.
Minifigures
Box art for the set shows 17 characters, the web site says 16 minifigures, and I’m going to say that there are 15 minifigures. The box is showing Mo the Cat and 2D-Gong as characters; you can choose which one of those two you think LEGO thinks is a minifigure.
Monkie Kid, Mei, Pigsy, Mr. Tang, and Monkey King.
Evil Macaque, Auntie Tai, Spider Queen, White Bone Demon, and Sandy.
Lee, Lady Yu, Gold Horn Demon, Silver Horn Demon, and Red Son. Don’t let those Demons fool you, both have the same head and torso, the head is simply reversed.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
The 55013 axle with end stop has a new mold. It now features a raised edge on the stop end.
55013 versions; the latest on the right.
Fluorescing pieces include all the transparent light blue pieces, the transparent clear pieces, Red Son’s wig and flame, Gold Horn Demon’s helmet and Monkie Kid’s headband.
Looks like a new wig on Red Son.
A new fruit piece, a peach, part number 5234.
Summary
There’s a Bionicle canister in a vending machine and Gold and Silver Horn Demons have gone Daft Punk for Pete’s sake. Fun to build with endless play options, what’s not to like about Megapolis City? All the visual references to other sets adds to the fun. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: LEGO kindly provided the set for this review.
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