If you have wondered why Sun Wukong has received so little attention in the Monkie Kid series, this review is for you! The series has a whopping twenty six sets, but how many times has the Monkey King minifigure been included? I’ll tell you – twice! Therefore, this set has become very valuable – here you can find four Sun Wukong minifigures at once in different guises. This set is completely dedicated to him.
The set provided for review by The LEGO Group through Brickcentral community. The review represents the personal point of view of the author.
The Set
80024 The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain set is one of the largest in the series, and undoubtedly one of the most interesting. It is a modular structure of beautiful mountains and waterfalls that tell the story of the birth and formation of the Monkey King Sun Wukong.
This is one of the few sets where the back is no less interesting than the front part. The design, details and color palette are amazing. There are many secluded and beautiful places in which to create wonderful scenes.
These are ready-made decorations to play the story of Sun Wukong or to make your own stories. And today I will try to show you how it works.
The story
Sun Wukong is a Chinese literary character who is one of the most popular tricksters in East Asian culture. So this set takes us a little bit into the classic story. According to legend, Sun Wukong was not an ordinary monkey, he was born from a magic stone on a Flower Fruit Mountain.
He quickly finds a common language with animals and other monkeys living on the mountain. In general, life was easy and pleasant in this paradise. However, he always differed from other monkeys in his character and even in appearance, which perhaps not everyone liked.
Among many other entertainments, the monkeys loved to swim in the cooling and clean stream and one day they decided to find out where the mountain stream originates from, and in the end they found a beautiful waterfall.
Whoever dares to pass through it and return unharmed, they promised to make their king. Yes, it’s that simple. Sun Wukong decided it was an interesting challenge and he volunteered to go. Needless to say, this was not a difficult task for a monkey born of a magic stone?
Making his way through the water Wukong discovered the Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall. The story is silent about what exactly he found in the cave, but it was determined to be an interesting journey.
Thanks to his fearless deed, Sun Wukong took the lead of the monkeys. Do you know an easier way to become king than walking through a waterfall?
Nevertheless, the path to becoming a full-fledged king was still ahead and lay through the knowledge of their own capabilities and training. The Taoist who took him as a disciple taught him how to fly on a cloud, 72 transformations and other magic tricks. Sun Wukong was away from home for a long time.
Before returning to the mountain, our hero visited the Dragon King of the East Sea and got hold of a «staff of wish fulfillment with golden hoops» as a weapon and clothes befitting a king. Now the image of the ruler has been completed.
It often happens that when someone shines like a star, the other remains in the shadows and becomes very resentful, like this Macaque, living at the foot of the mountain. Somewhere in past Macaque and the Monkey King fought alongside each other in the Celestial Realm and on Earth. The more Sun Wukong gained strength, the more dislike Macaque felt.
The Macaque is always waiting for the right moment to strike his unexpected blow, but failing every time, he’s retreats back to gain strength and come up with new tricks. Seems like it’s never ending opposition.
Anyway, Sun Wukong’s life is going on quite pleasantly. There is always something to feast on in peach gardens, the water in the stream is always refreshing, and the mountain air invigorates. Everything was exactly like that, until a boy from another world burst into the life of the King.
We know from the animated series that a boy works as a noodle deliveryman in a big city, where he has problems with the Demon Bull. Sun Wukong volunteered to help a boy with a strange nickname Monkie Kid or «MK». MK trained tirelessly until he mastered all the secrets of the martial arts.
Before returning home and applying his new problem-solving skills, MK fought the Macaque by doing a favor to the King. It was not an easy task, but the delivery man coped with it.
Now MK is ready for anything. He can be safely sent home to free the city from the ancient Demon Bull and save his friends. The story at Flower Fruit Mountain is over, but the friendship and adventure are just beginning.
Conclusion
This is how you can create a mixture of the classic Monkey King story and a new LEGO story called The Monkie Kid. This set has absolutely everything for this – beautiful decorations and eight awesome minifigures, most of which are exclusive to this set.
I would rate 80024 The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain set 10 out of 10 points. This a really gorgeous set with outstanding playability which contains many interesting and beautiful characters. This is a must-buy if you love the LEGO Monkie Kid series, if you love the story of the Monkey King Sun Wukong, or if you just love big and beautiful sets that can be used as decorations in your photo shoot.
The set available since March 2021 with RRP of $169
Behind the scenes
It’s always interesting for me to look behind the scenes, so I always try to show something of my own process. This is my lighting setup that I have used in almost every frame of this review. In addition to the two softboxes (not visible in the frame), I used one flash with an orange gel filter and one LED-panel, which also set up a warm light. The modular design of the set allowed me to easily change decorations on the go.
In some of the shots, I also used floral wire to hold the minifigures in place, and I also added steam from a face spray to create water clouds from the waterfalls.
