Set Review ➟ 80056 LEGO® Monkie Kid™ Nine-Headed Beast
The Nine-Headed Beast is a pretty good beast if you are in need of a beast. It has a decidedly very bird-like aesthetic with legs and wings, but no arms. And true to its name, it has nine heads—one main head, two medium sized heads, and six small heads. The set also includes a small shrine, five minifigures, and a small mech.
The plastic sheet wings, instructions, and stickers are included in a cardboard envelope. That is worth mentioning because it means the sheet plastic is not all scuffed up as I have seen with some other models where the sheet plastic is loose in the box.
Monkie Kid is kitted out with his smallest mech to date. And I don’t know that a mech could get any smaller. It uses small ball-and-sockets for joints at the shoulders, hips, and ankles. Bar-and-clip joints are used at the fingers, elbow, torso cage, and shoulder flags. The left arm is a stud shooter and there is a rocket pack on the back. The right arm has a convenient clip to store MK’s staff.
The mech is remarkably well balanced. Given the limited range of motion available to the model it was relatively stable in most positions which lends for many dramatic poses. It will tip if the entire torso is tilted backwards at the hips. The only small downside is that the minifigure is seated into the mech by the feet on a center-split panel and not with studs into the feet or legs, so the clutch there is therefore a bit weak.
The shrine is home to a red crystal MacGuffin and has dual pin-and-hole connectors on either side, presumably to attach to the 80058 Celestial Pagoda.
The five minifigures in this set, Mei, Monkie Kid, Nine-Headed Demon, Mr. Tang, and Monkey King.
The Mei figure is also found in the 80055 Power Truck set, Monkie Kid’s various parts are found in various other sets, Nine-Headed Demon has a spongy cape and is also found in set 80057 Nezha’s Mech, and Mr. Tang is also found in set 80054 Megapolis City. Monkey King has a new torso and legs; thematically they correspond to figures in the Pagoda set. The figures have legs in common and similarly styled sequentially numbered torsos. Monkie King’s torso is “3” in this set and missing from the Pagoda set.
The Nine-Headed Beast is handsome and spooky with its dark green and turquoise color scheme, but more importantly it is a good size for play. The one hand needed for holding the model can also easily operate the wings mechanism at the same time.
The wings are operated by a pair of levers in the middle of the model’s back.
There is a saddle of sorts on the back of the beast where Nine-Headed Demon can be placed. Interestingly—in what I will call a “bold design decision”—the studs are side mounted so Demon has to either attach the bottom of his feet to the back of the seat or stand. I imagine being belly down and arching one’s back is not the most comfortable position, but maybe if you’re a demon that’s not an issue.
The tail uses some technics connectors which allow for substantial up-and-down movement and minimal side-to-side movement.
As is the case more often than not with LEGO creature and robot models of this general size, the legs articulate at the hips and the ankles and not at the knees. The hips in this model offer up to 90 degrees of cant, which is seven click positions if the hip shields are adjusted. Practical usable positions are four, but if you need to get the legs straight out to the side with the beast’s belly on the ground you can go there.
Additionally, the hips offer a full 360 degrees of rotation which is probably 270 degrees more than you need, but, hey, options! That said, the range of hip rotation does allow for the beast to be set in more rational poses from pecking the ground to flying with legs at its side.
The feet achieve minimal movement at the ankles with a ball nested between two sockets.
The toes, in contrast, have a wide range of movement and can grasp a minifigure.
The nine heads are arranged with one main head at the center, two medium sized heads, one on either side and attached low on the side of the neck, and six small heads attached in a semicircle above the medium sized heads.
The main head is attached to the neck with a technic rotation connector and allows for 360 degrees of rotation.
The same connector allows for eleven clicks, one click shy of 180 degrees, of cant. The little heads get in the way of getting that twelfth click if the head is set straight on, but if you rotate the head some you can get that final position.
The jaw moves on the main head, attached by bar-and-clip hinge, and with a little doing you can get it to hold a minifigure.
The medium heads attach to the neck with a couple small ball-and-socket connections. This allows for a great range of movement. The mouth is fixed.
The four front small heads attach to the beast with robot arms while the two closest to the shoulders attach with skeleton arms to be able to dodge the wings. The robot arms offer only simple hinge movement at the shoulder while the robot arms offer hinge movement at the shoulder and a minor amount of side-to-side rotation at the head joint.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administriva Section
Head piece for Mei and Tang is part number 3626 while Demon, Monkey King, and Monkie Kid use part number 3274.
New parts
5518 in white and pearl gold.
105311 dual molded in pearl gold/transparent blue and pearl gold/transparent red.
Old part, new color
79895 in dark turquoise.
Old parts, new prints
29119 and 29120 with eye print.
Summary
The build offers enough variety to keep it interesting and assembly doesn’t get so esoteric that the model sacrifices stability for aesthetics. The set has good play value in that the model is fairly rugged, allows for significant latitude in posing, and generally does not suffer from center-of-balance issues causing things to want to fall over as is sometimes the case. Of the summer 2024 Monkie Kid sets, this one is an easy favorite. Recommended.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.
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