Is Monkie Kid Pandering To China?

Ever since Monkie Kid was released, many people seem to like it. At first, I was lukewarm towards it, but over time, I grew to appreciate it more. The sets are well designed, the story is decent, and the minifigures are very unique. In addition, I think the sets handle their Chinese setting very well. The architecture looks quite nice, and the fact that it’s based on Chinese architecture just adds to its uniqueness.

Plus, unlike some past Lego themes, Monkie Kid doesn’t seem to be disrespecting Chinese culture in any way. Like I said, it manages to accurately convey the feel of China. And the source material, Journey To The West, was written in the 16th century, which puts it well within the public domain.

But the thing that gets after me is the way this theme is being distributed.

Back when Monkie Kid first started, the reports were saying that it was meant to be a Chinese version of Ninjago. Apparently Ninjago doesn’t do very well in China, so Lego wanted to create another version of Ninjago that would appeal to Chinese audiences. And when Monkie Kid was actually released, it was a Lego store and Shop At Home exclusive. The only place where the sets were released in normal stores was in-you guessed it-China.

Which leads me to think that Lego made Monkie Kid, a theme that draws inspiration from Chinese culture, just to appeal to China. The theme itself isn’t offensive, but its reasons for existing and its distribution are kind of eyebrow-raising. Lego basically made another version of Ninjago that panders to Chinese audiences. And the fact that some younger fans are calling Ninjago and Monkie Kid ripoffs of each other just proves my point.

This seems a little too political

I find it ironic that their pandering to the country that’s infamous for having the most LEGO-bootleg companies. I understand that it’s a large audience and companies are trying to get their attention, but LEGO is gonna suffer if they’re marketing to a place that will easily make cheaper alternatives.

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Aight so to answer the question of the topic, Yes. Monkey Kid is “pandering” to China - It’s a Lego take on a Chinese tale, though in much the same way as Dragon Ball “panders” to China.

Now to your distribution issue.

The sad reality is that toy sales have been declining nigh universally in every category except Lego for the past 20-ish years, with the past 10 being particularly damaging as accessibility of tech increases. One of, if not the Largest consumer market in the world is China, and many companies are in the process of making products that appeal to that market in an expectation that within the next 20 years China could easily overtake the United States as the most profitable consumer market.

Monkie Kid is an attempt to make Lego relevant to the Chinese consumer by creating something that appeals to them directly.

So yes, technically it’s pandering. No, that is not a bad thing. Lego pandered to the American/Western market heavily for some 25 years. Besides, Dragon Ball was immensely popular in the west as well, there’s no reason Monkie Kid can’t eventually be distributed here. But more to the point, there is literally nothing wrong with a company creating a product to appeal to a specific demographic and then marketing and distributing that product to that demographic.

Does it suck we can’t easily buy Monkie Kid sets in the US/Canada/Europe? Sure. Everyone’s shopping from home right now though. In fact, even if Lego had plans to expand distribution to include the regular channels worldwide, right now they’d be insane to do so - we’re in the middle of a pandemic and people are either saving their money or just not going out at all - Virtually any stock lego sends to stores right now is dead and that’s not a good thing.

Fun Fact China is known for lax/no IP protections. They’re also known as one of the biggest growth markets for Lego in the last decade - If the original product is quality it will always outsell the knock-off. They won’t suffer any more from Monkie Kid knockoffs than they did from BIONICLE knockoffs.

EDIT: Lemme be clear - you can absolutely feel slighted by the fact that you can’t easily get Monkie Kid sets without ordering online. However, specifically appealing to certain demographics or geographic locations is a basic tenant of product-marketing. It sucks, but it makes 100% perfect sense.

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You said what I was thinking but better

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“Is Monkie Kid Pandering To China?”

Well yeah, duh, that’s what it was made for. Mind you, this isn’t the first time Lego’s trying to pander to China (for reasons @Kini_Hawkeye mentioned), but I don’t think the previous attempts were as succesful as Lego hoped they’d be.

Unfortunately, Lego is an extremely expensive toy. I’ve been to China and let me tell you, the prices of Lego there are ridiculously high compared to other brick-based toy brands. I mean, just compare these two:


I took these photos back in 2018, but I don’t think the prices have changed all that much since then. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, there’s no reason for Chinese parents to pick Lego over their local brand’s products, since they can buy much more for way less. Unless they’re rich and can afford expensive toys. I don’t know the numbers, but just from my personal experience, Lego isn’t as popular there as it is here in the west. One could say that, well, Lego’s quality is better than the quality of these Chinese brands. And yes, that’s true, however these clone brands are not that far off and are constantly improving (while Lego’s quality hasn’t been that great lately).

So I guess that’s why Lego tried to make a whole new story-driven IP based on Chinese folklore to attract these Chinese customers. Frankly, I don’t think it will. But I hope I’m wrong. Monkie Kid is a fantastic theme and I’d love to see more of it. I guess time will tell.

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Honestly, who does China think they’re fooling with their Lego knockoffs? Years ago, I saw some fake Chima sets that were actually Ninjago sets with a different coat of paint. It was honestly pretty pathetic.

Uh, yeah, I think that’s the point I’m making.

I don’t know about that. Every time I’ve gone to Target or Walmart in the past few months, their Lego stock is at the same level it’s always been. And they’ve carried all of the sets that have been released as of late-City, Ninjago, Star Wars, Technic, Minions, Super Mario, Harry Potter. I haven’t seen any of the new Hidden Side sets at my local stores, but Amazon is carrying them.

…but I don’t feel personally insulted. Ordering online from Lego really isn’t much worse than ordering from Amazon. You just select what items you want, enter your credit card number, give them your address, then wait for your package to arrive. That’s how online ordering works for any company.

Won’t argue with that.

You made a topic asking “Is Monkie Kid Pandering to China?” I replied saying “Yes, and here’s why.” It’s no secret that Monkie Kid was/is created to appeal/pander to the Chinese Market.

Retail stock works like this: A company sells a product to a retail distributor - the distributor then marks that product up for sale. Make no mistake - Lego has already made money off you by the time you go to a store to pick up their product. Lego may still be selling to distributors but those distributors are likely not buying in the same volume they used to because they’re not selling in the same volume they used to. Hence why Hidden Side isn’t at your local stores - they aren’t buying new Lego sets until the existing ones are either written off as dead stock or sold.

TL;DR Their stock levels are the same they’ve always been because they aren’t selling.

Just to clarify, I wasn’t trying to say that you’re personally insulted. I’m saying you’re allowed to feel slighted by the fact that you can’t easily access the sets if you do feel slighted. It was an edit made namely to address the combination of the topic title and the fact that you take issue with the way the theme is being distributed.

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What? Ridiculous. A company pandering to a specific audience, demographic, society, or even nation? That’s never happened before.

…Is there a problem? I thought the Chinese market, however government-moderated, was still open to foreign consumers.

Eh, gonna have to argue that point chief. While it’s true people are majorly buying from home, the very fact that the children of the world are home has eaten up in-store supply everywhere I’ve been.

That might be specific to the areas I’ve been, but I have to travel a ways - with caution, of course. So yes, LEGO’s undoubtedly doing worse with physical sales by a good amount, but probably not as bad as that.

Absolutely nobody.

You’re a kid in a store in China. What’s that on the shelf? The LEGO-brand Millennium Falcon. But it’s way overpriced! You have no way to afford that anytime soon. But right below it is the LEPIN Millennium Falcon, for half the price, and it looks just as good!

None of these smaller companies can even begin to care about long-term investment or ramifications for their product quality being so bad it could crack in the package all by itself. You get money now from the simple consumer, and worry about your market changing their minds ten years from now when they prefer LEGO’s expensive product to your cheap garbage after you get money.


It’s more interesting to me the amount of Monkey King products and media which has hit store shelves recently (and some of which is still coming). I’m curious if anything happened in China which enabled or attracted consumers to use the property for product creation/marketing, or if it’s a collective push which LEGO is part of - it’s all happening so close together it can’t be a coincidence.

But I digress.

image

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And in some cases, there’s a warehouse in between. The company will sell products to the warehouse, and then the warehouse will sell those products to a retail distributor. I know because I worked at one such warehouse this summer.

That’s not exactly my point. Yes, the amount of sets on the shelves are the same, but the sets being sold have changed. Why? Because the sets that were previously there sold, and then they bought new sets to replace them.

It’s probably worth bringing up this video, since it goes into some of the concepts that we’re talking about here:

And I’m saying that I don’t feel slighted. The point of the topic is that, since Lego is making Chinese-themed products just to pander to a Chinese demographic, I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Well, yeah. If people are buying enough Lego that the stores are willing to buy more from Lego, then that’s a sign that Lego isn’t exactly on the verge of bankruptcy.

This is why I hate cheap knockoffs.

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Actually, this makes a lot of sense to me. If the Chinese trends are shifting towards Journey To The West (and related properties), then maybe Lego thought that they could make some JTTW-style products themselves.

And Lego has been making culturally targeted products for decades. In addition to thousands of other companies peddling millions of other products.

Your topic asks if they are pandering - the answer is that they are. How you feel about that is your choice, but the simplest way to feel about companies doing what companies do is… nothing. You’re not affected, China’s not affected, and the end result is presumably that Lego gets to continue making products for all of us to enjoy for another year. If it does well in China, presumably, it will be brought to larger markets, and if it does well in those markets, it will stay.

I will admit to a level of exaggeration for effect - of course Lego’s not going to wholesale stop selling nor are they selling nothing. However, I think we’re all well aware that COVID has slowed consumption of so called “luxury” purchases such as toys. And being realistic, Lego is one of the most luxurious of toys.

But yeah you’re on point - thanks for checkin me mate :stuck_out_tongue:

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Trying to expand into the Chinese market has becomed something of a trend within big companies lately, with even some of the biggest corporate giants like Disney trying to appeal to the Chinese market in their own way. So I feel like LEGO’s attempt of expanding into China was done less from original thought but more because all the other major companies are doing it.
As for Monkie Kid, it seems pretty obvious to me that LEGO doesn’t really understand the culture they are trying to appeal to that well, since let’s face it, Monkie Kid is basically a Ninjago clone (that doesn’t necessarly mean it’s bad, but still). I really don’t see why making two different LEGO themes was even needed, given how similar the set designs are. They should have made Monkie Kid more accurate to the source material, being more fantasy-based rather than Sci-Fi like Ninjago.
So yeah, Monkie Kid is without a doubt an attempt at pandering the Chinese market, and a half-baked one at that. Instead of standing out on it’s own, it feels like just another attempt by LEGO to emulate Ninjago’s success, but this time in China. Combine that with how insanely overpriced the sets are, and you have a pretty low chance of success.

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The Monkey King, or Journey to the West in general, has been popular in China since, well, forever. It’s a classic Chinese fairytale, one of the Four Great Classics, and there’s been countless movie, cartoon, comic and video game adaptations of it. It’s not a recent trend. It’s always been like that.

I think you underestimate how greatly the quality of these Chinese clone brands has improved - while yes, there are some that are pretty bad, and personally I don’t know Lepin’s quality (I don’t support brands that only sell copies of existing Lego sets, I prefer the ones that make their own IPs), other brands, like Enlighten or Sluban, make pretty quality stuff. The quality isn’t on par with Lego yet, but it’s pretty close, especially considering Lego’s own drop in quality in recent years. This isn’t 90s or early 2000s anymore, when any Chinese Lego clone would fall apart on its own. That’s why Lego has a hard time competing on the Chinese market - because the competitors offer similar quality products for much, much lower price.

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Not something you can take for granted. Stores have dumped their stock if sets refuse to sell - and unlike nearly any other toy brand on the planet, LEGO is not only completely in control of any price reductions for any chain, but they’re extremely uptight about it. I’ve found numerous toy products new in packaging that refused to sell, and outlets took dumping them on thrift stores and donation centers over marking them down.

People buying them up is a possible option, yes, but before you speak as if it’s a fact you should know exactly what the store you’re citing does with its unsold assets.

And yet I beg to differ - there’s just too many Monkey King themed IPs coming into existence recently. It’s like the market was dead and empty before suddenly exploding. It’s a political discussion for certain, but I’m curious if something changed in China’s political sphere that allowed more companies to bank on the market.

Which is exactly why the example I gave used 10 years as a theoretical example.

Kini’s statement that “if the original product is quality it will always outsell the knockoff” would have been begging for argument ten years ago, but it’s absolutely true now - the market of cheap garbage has thankfully declined in popularity to the degree that competitors are forced to up their quality in order to compete. And given how close it is now, I think the AFOL community may soon decide to put LEGO on the spot for cheap business tactics and overpricing their products when conceivably the same quality can be achieved for significantly less of the price.

(Granted, these are coming from China, which is known for its humane and excellent working conditions.)

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Companies ‘pander’ to different demographics all the time by designing and marketing products to appeal to them. If you’re okay with that I’m not sure why it’s issue in this case.

In terms of the kinds of sets we get, yes, I agree. But I think Monkie Kid has enough differences, design and asthetic-wise, to stand on its own.

Not to mention, it seems like everything-glue bottles, paper bags, cell phone chargers, power chords-seems to have a “Made In China” label on it.

Don’t forget how LEGO Castle/Kingdoms panders to medieval Western Europe. Yes LEGO is headed in Denmark but that is still quite a large cultural demographic.

In fact a lot of LEGO properties are just based off the Western World in general.

Then just wait till they make sets based off of World War II. :stuck_out_tongue:

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If only, if only

too bad brickmania is somehow sucking up all the competition for that, despite their ridiculous prices

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There’s always Cobi

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