80022 Spider Queen’s Arachnoid Base Review
“Purple Shelob”
This is a giant robotic spider owned by the Spider Queen in LEGO Monkie Kid Season 2 to invade the city. This set is priced at USD119.99 with a parts count of 1170 pieces alongside with 6 Minifigures. Let’s see what’s inside this set.
The box art features the giant arachnoid invading the city. Here you can see that Spider Queen has already captured the Monkey King and is using its energy/chi to power the giant spider base while Monkie Kid and Pigsy is trying to save him by battling the Queen.
The back of the box shows us the play features of the set and how the the insides of the back of the spider’s abdomen look like.
Sticker sheet. The stickers look a bit too much in this set, but it really added details to the spider as decals. To print them will increase the cost of the set so I can accept them as stickers for this playset. Moreover they are quite big in size and therefore easy to apply so I’m not complaining here.
The Minifigures
Jia. The citizen of the set. He has quite a nice smiling and startled facial expression. The torso is well printed but if you look closely, the sunset background is exactly identical at the front as well as the back. 6219628 Torso Shirt with Bright Light Orange Sunset and Black Palm Trees Pattern / Medium Blue Arms / Yellow Hands is not a new torso piece as it has been produced since 2015.
The Spider Queen. The common Minifigure in the series. This is the third time that she will appear in this wave, with only a different weapon each time
Syntax. He is turned evil by the Spider Queen’s venom to help her extract the Monkey King’s power. The scientist’s robe is very detailed with a remote control in his right pocket. The VR headpiece is quite cool but the eyes are scary to look at. He also has a masked face similar to the Spider Queen. This is the second appearance in the wave with different accessories that he holds with his Dr Octopus-like mechanical appendages
Pigsy. Ah, finally an exclusive Minifigure. This is a very nice Minifigure as I like the head mold very much. He appears 3 times in total in this Monkie Kid theme and all three have different designs. Pigsy – Medium Blue Utility Harness. If you look closely at his torso you can see that he actually strapped two sausages and a pair of chopsticks on his vest and I think he won a gold medal and pinned it on the right side of the vest too.
Monkey King. This is the exact same Minifigure as the one from 80024 The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain. Now he is captured in white handcuffs as if he is webbed by the Spider Queen. I remember the one that was captured in the animated series was the Battle Monkey King instead of this one. Hmm..
Monkie Kid. This will be another re-used Minifigure with different facial expressions from the rest in this wave. This time, he has a pair of golden eyes which I believe shows that he has unleashed his inner potential while rescuing the Monkey King. Another facial expression is a surprised face. Maybe he is shocked that even the all-powerful Monkey King can be captured by the Spider Queen.
This is the build of the stick jet which the Monkie Kid rides to fight the Spider Queen. I love the idea that the mighty stick can be extended and expanded to become a jet that is fully equipped by a pilot seat and consoles. The design of the build is perfect.
The full build of the giant spider HQ. This is the front view of the build and it is intimidating. I love the design of the six red eyes and the trans-lime drool. The mechanical lime green legs are actually syringes of venom that can be injected to the victims. At the centre of the build is the podium where the Spider Queen stands in front of the vertical banner which acts as a lever to move the front legs. At the apex, you have the place where the captured Monkey King stands with his white handcuffs.
This is how the front legs moves.
The back of the spider can be opened sideways to reveal the prison cell inside. You can see the lab creating the trans yellow vials above the cell. Both sides of the doors look pretty packed but actually looks quite ‘empty’ in this view. There is the big white web on top of the build and a space where Syntax is monitoring the power transfusion from Monkey King to the Spider Arachnoid.
Side view. The stickers plays a major role as decals in this view especially at the abdomen area. Here you can see that there are 4 legs at both side of the spider.
The power transfusion is in progress. It looks like the Monkey King is nearly drained out!
The details of the doors were hidden at the back view can be seen in more detail when at an angle.
The sticker looks familiar as it is an easter egg referencing the iconic ‘lofi hip hop radio’ YouTube stream and its anime girl mascot. You can see the cat lying at the window if you zoom in as well as the Youtube play bar. I think this sticker represents a computer playing the song while Syntax is working to reduce his stress levels, haha.
The full build of the set. It is HUGE!
The six Minifigures of this set. I think my only favourite of this set is the exclusive Pigsy. Others are repeats with different face/weapons.
The real Shelob from Lord of the Rings is so much smaller compared to this one.
Verdict
I give this set a 4.5/5.0 score as the design of the giant Spider Arachnoid is very nice and impressively huge. However the Minifigures in this set is quite boring as they are mostly repeats and only Pigsy is a set exclusive. I would rather they put the battle Monkey King here instead of the plain one. This set is priced at USD119.99 with a parts count of 1170 pieces alongside with 6 Minifigures. However I think if you like spiders, this is a very fine choice for you to display one big purple spider in your house. Other than that, Pigsy will be the reason you’re getting this set.
Hope you enjoyed my review. This is Mr. Beast signing off. Thank you!
The set used for this review was sent to us by The LEGO Group for the purpose of an honest review. Provision of sets do not in any way influence or guarantee a positive review.
