NOTE: This is a guest review of Monkie Kid’s Cloud Airship (80046) volunteered and written by a member of the True North Bricks community. The set was a personal purchase by the author and it is not sponsored in any way. If you would like to learn more the author, be sure to check him out on Instagram (@brickaddic). Since this is a guest review, it does not necessarily adhere to the usual review criteria used at True North Bricks.

INTRODUCTION

LEGO® has given many adventure themes and vehicles over the years. These include boats, cars, planes and sometimes submarines. But to me, nothing screams or radiates adventure like a blimp or airship. Sure, Ninjago gave us the multiple versions of Destiny’s Bounty, and Mario recently showed us an amazing Bowser’s Airship. However, those were more like flying ships. I present to you set 80046, Monkie Kid’s Cloud Airship, a true descendant of the past LEGO® adventure sets.

SET SPECIFICS

QUICK REVIEW

MONKIE KID’S CLOUD AIRSHIP REVIEW

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Build Score Breakdown:

We’ve all built a ton of boats, cars, and planes. But blimps? Not so much. In the recent past, we were given the Raid Zeppelin (70603) from Ninjago, and Aira’s Airship & the Amulet Chase (41184) from the retired Elves theme. While each of them took a distinct approach to the airship/blimp idea, neither is as bright and in your face as Monkie kid’s version.

The build is immediately recognizable from the exterior, and the LEGO® team found some very creative ways to use the balloon for some extra play space. Where the previous blimps had empty shells and wasted space, Monkie Kid’s designers made sure that every bit of extra space was usable, and even decorated. The interior feels lived in, and some personal touches from our heroes are littered around the place. 

The building starts very straightforward. The team has taken what I could most closely describe as a large snowmobile pushed by some airplane propellers, and went from there. The main body is built with the long technic bricks coming out of the top. Everything else starts coming together around it in pairs with details added here and there to create the “living” quarters, picture frames, plants and food. There are no mechanical or technic functions, but that does leave us room inside for details.

While it was a rather quick build, some parts remained challenging and showed me tricks and techniques I had never seen before. LEGO® gave us a wonderful little adventure vehicle that displays great and is solid enough to survive the rough adventures coming ahead.

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Minifigure Score Breakdown:

The airship comes with 4 minifigures and Mo the cat. We have Monkie Kid himself, Sandy, the Golden-Winged Eagle and an Ink Demon. As is standard for this line, they all share amazing printing on their torsos and 3 out of 4 have great printed legs. Two are exclusives in the set, namely Sandy in his power-up suit and MK with his diving jacket. This version of the Golden-Winged Eagle previously appeared in a larger, more expensive set. So, it a very welcome addition if this is a figure you wanted without breaking the bank.

The Ink demon is the army builder villain of this season. The 1^st season showered us in Bull Demon clones, and the following season gave us spider mutants. Compared to those, the Ink demon definitely feels like downgrade, but still a welcome addition.

The figure selection is strong here. if I could change anything, I would have changed the Sandy minifigure. I am glad he is included, but the design he received in this set clashes with the other figures and feels out of place. Even if I prefer the big Sandy figure, I don’t see how he would have fit the airship. This set still gets a solid 90% for the exclusive figures and the incredible molded parts we got for the Golden-Winged Eagle.

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Entertainment Score Breakdown:

Being a child of the ’90s I remember fondly the Adventurers line with the great Johnny Thunder. This brings back memories and feelings from seeing and playing with Expedition Balloon (5956), the greatest transportation contraption ever made for adventure. While the new Monkie Kid set doesn’t carry the size or mass of this ’90s icon, LEGO® found a great way to pay homage to it and improve on it. The interior is usable, and we get a little side build for story telling. Additionally, some bad guys chasing the artifact side build (you older fans will see the parallel) gives the bad guys some depth. It also reminds me of side builds from older knights themes, and feels different from the usual modern stuff, while giving us some interesting pieces and colours.

While LEGO® kept the Technic functions out of the main blimp portion of the transport, they provided us with a simple chain mechanism going up and down to carry treasures, or lift characters out of harms way. Also, including a little side scooter for our heroes to ride makes sense because the main transport would be either too slow or too big to chase anything down. This for me gets a solid 100%. LEGO® kept it simple and didn’t try going overboard with gimmicks. The blimp is also not an immense transport that falls apart or is too big to carry around on an adventure through the living room or backyard.

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If you are interested in the set, you will not be disappointed at regular price. If you are on the fence about it, any small price cut will make it a great pickup to try the line, or to add the unusual piece inventory to your collection.

Thank you for reading.

-Lucas

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