When Monkie Kid was revealed, the set that stood out to me the most was 80012: Monkey King Warrior Mech. A close second for me was the subject of this review, 80010: Demon Bull King, mostly just because I am a fan of mechs. While the minifigure selection didn’t look especially enticing (seriously Lego, three guys in a $90 set?), the actual build was enough for me to pick it up.

The Minifigures

As I mentioned in the last sentence, the minifigure selection wasn’t doing much for me when I first took a look at it. That said, the actual characters are quite nice. First up is the Monkie Kid himself. He’s identical to most of the other versions of himself. This version currently appears in 4 sets and is identical to another variant of him other than the facial expressions. The minifigure himself is great, with dual-molded legs, an exclusive hair piece, and headphones. All of that being said, I can’t say I’m super excited given that he’s exactly the same as the one I already own, other than his face. Monkie Kid is joined by an ally, the anthropomorphic pig, Pigsy. This version of Pigsy comes in one other set and looks quite nice. I’m a big fan of the medium-sized legs, which are printed with some pockets. The torso piece is printed on both sides and gives him a rugged design, which is strangely fitting. His head captures the look of a pig perfectly which is impressive given his human-ish proportions. Overall he’s a nice-looking minifigure and my favorite of the set.

The heroes are opposed by Princess Iron Fan. Her torso and dress printing are a bit plain compared to the other two minifigures but I think the design is still good. She has a thin armor piece, but the real draw with this character is her new exclusive hair piece. Her hair forms a sort of pair of horns, cementing her connection to the Bull King (I don’t know if there’s really any connection though, I haven’t seen the show). There’s a crown printed on to it and overall it’s just a very impressive part. Iron Fan isn’t my favorite character here, but she still looks quite impressive. As I alluded to before, I thought this selection would be disappointing before I built it, and overall I still stand by that. Not having any exclusives is one thing, but there’s only three characters in a $90 set. I just don’t get it, would it really have been hard to throw in a civilian or enemy grunt like in some other larger sets? It’s a shame, but if nothing else it does put the focus on the star of the set — the main build of the set.

The Build

This set has only one build, the Demon Bull King himself. The build is huge and imposing, and the detailing only adds to that feeling. His massive horns, the ribcage with a fiery core inside it, the cannon arm and axe, and his weirdly large toes all help make him look like an absolute tank.

This mech has a good amount of articulation. The arms are movable at both his elbows and shoulders, providing a wide array of positions for his arms. Like most mechs Lego makes these days, the legs can be moved at their connection to the torso but not at the knees, sadly.

There isn’t much else in terms of play features. His chest lights up if you push a button on the back, which isn’t much but does look pretty cool. A way to keep the light on without holding it down would have been cool but I do get why Lego wouldn’t implement that themselves since if a kid accidentally left it on the battery would be drained pretty fast. The only other feature are the cannons on the back, but I prefer them more as decorations over a function since it’s more or less guaranteed to lose you all of the included studs and isn’t even very fun to use.

The main issue with the build is the back. It isn’t the worst ever, but it’s only passable at best. I really wish the set included a cape in the same way that this mech’s sibling did, but perhaps that was simply out of the set’s price range. It certainly doesn’t take away from the build too much, but I do wish that there had been a little more work put into making the back more presentable.

Parts and Miscellaneous Thoughts

I’m not an expert on Lego parts, so I honestly can’t say for sure if there are a lot of unique bits in this set. What stands out to me the most are some minifigure parts. I already mentioned them before, but Pigsy’s head and Princess Iron Fan’s hair both look great. And while they do come in almost every set, Monkie Kid’s hair and headphones (which there’s an extra pair of) are still nice too.

I don’t have much else to say that I haven’t already, but I find Pigsy’s weapon both hilarious and somewhat disturbing. It’s some kind of cannon that shoots hot dogs or meat or something, which for those who don’t know are usually made from pig meat. Either way, it is something that exists now.

Overall

I may have sounded a bit down on it during the body of the review, but I actually really like this set. It has issues, namely a lack of minifigures and an ugly back, but what it does well, it does extremely well. The detailed sections on the front are beautiful and the overall shape of the Bull King is near perfect. It doesn’t have bendable knees, but then again what mech does these days? I don’t think this is a great starter set if you’re looking to get into the Monkie Kid theme and actually have the money to do so, but it’s certainly not a bad counterpart to the Monkey King’s colossal mech.