REVIEW: 71303 Ikir Creature of Fire

[VBBN]

Set name: Ikir Creature of Fire

Set number: 71303

Pieces: 77

Price: $10.00 | £xx.xx | €xx.xx

Release date: 2016

What's cooler than a bird? A bird with flaming wings. If that interests you, then Ikir might just be the creature for you. But is he worth buying? Let's find out.

Box

Front

The front of the box shows Ikir in his usual CGI pose, coming down to grab the Shadow trap. So let me get this straight- These shadow traps, assuming they would work like a bear trap, flatten themselves and et creature get caught in them, like, well, bears. But Ikir here has decided, "Nope! I'll have none of that!" and is diving feet first into one to give the trap a taste of it's own medicine. Ikir is pretty metal.

Back

We see Ikir as well as his unification feature (and Tahu always looks like he is prancing in that pose). Also to note is Ikir's function and the trap's function.

New/Interesting Pieces

Trap Halves

Like the other 5 individual creatures, Ikir comes with a shadow trap, which means it comes with the new trap pieces. They are detailed to look like quite a rough metal trap, and have two clips as well as an axle connection on each halve. Both halves are identical.

New/Recolored parts

For other new and recolored parts, we have the new unification piece in gold, the new gear, the new sword in silver blended with orange, and a trans neon orange recolor of the second shortest M-F bone.

Head

Like all of the other creature's Ikir includes the same shared head mold, this time molded in gold and trans neon orange. In my opinion this is the best application of this head- while they kept it pretty generic, I see birdlike qualities in it more than any of the other creatures, and the crystal design near the back evokes fire, further building this whole phoenix motif.

The Build

Shadow Trap

The build starts with the shadow trap. Build wise, he's not the most intriguing of the traps. He uses the same leg design as Umarak's and has no tail. However, he is the only trap to have a blue eye. I like to think of him as a trap that has been turned against his angry brothers. That, or he is Jaller's hannah crab reincarnated. Gotta say, a hairclip is a pretty big downgrade from having a massive explosive cannon mounted to your back. I should mention that the trap can be opened wider than seen in the picture above, to be like a flat bear trap waiting to snap closed. It can also close to the point of fully interlocking teeth.

Torso

Ikir shares a similar function to Uxar and Melum- three of these gears are placed in this pattern, and by moving the one of the back, the other two move up and down. Yes, there is plenty of friction to this function, even with wings attached.

Legs

While I do beg for some new feet for the Toa, I see that Lego hasn't run out of uses for these 2013 Beast feet. I love these little claws you build up, as there is a fair bit of articulation and he can get some grabbing action. Trust me, you'll see this in use soon.

Wings

The wings are a simple build, but at least we have come a long way from the likes of Batman or Flying beast's wings.

Finished Set

Front

Color wise, Ikir looks pretty well balanced. He's got neon orange spread throughout, gold dominated his main body, tail and head, and silver is used sparingly and melds will with the gray technic. Design wise one area of annoyance is the exposed black balljoints, however putting anything on those joints may restrict the ability to unite with larger figures.

Profile

Again I do like those talons. The trigger for his function is the golden tail. Pull up on this and his wings will pull back. One issue though is that when combined with Tahu, the gears for the wings are pushed back, so while the tail is flat here, it can get forced outward when combined.

Back

The gear function is apparent, but not obtrusive.

Function

When you pull up on the tail, the wings will do this. There is a good amount of friction to the function, and of course the bonus here is that Ikir's wings are on balljoints, which can make posing a bit easier and they become less obtrusive in united mode, compared to Uxar.

We didn't start the fire

Ikir's articulation is, well, what you would expect from a bird. He has plenty of talon articulation, small little legs, ball jointed wings, and a huge amount of motion in the neck. I'm not sure there's really anything else he needs honestly.

But it's always burnin

Since the world's been turnin

The only other complaint I have besides the balljoints is that his neck is maybe a bit long, though as you've seen in previous pictures it's easy enough to set his head in a pose that hides it. These are really just minor quibbles.

"This isn't my parrot!"

Since he has those articulated feet I really wanted to do this. Bit of a disclaimer, do note that I had to add a friction joint to Tahu's shoulder to make this work; Ikir is too heavy for Tahu to support him on his own.

Overall

If you only plan to pick up one creature from the wave, get Ikir. He is a wonderful little set, with a great look, the right amount of articulation, an effective function that is both fun to use and doesn't take away from the set, and the best unification mode of the wave. My only complaints are the exposed balljoints on the torso and the slightly long neck, but both are minor quibbles that are far overshadowed by the positives of this set.

[Aethersprite]

Great review! Ikir is undoubtedly the best of the Creatures; the only possible gripe I have with him is the exposed shoulder joints. Everything else, though, is solid. In fact, one of my reasons for possibly getting Tahu is that Ikir looks so good with him. And it's a pity that Uxar doesn't have ball-jointed wings like Ikir, but I guess Uxar had to sacrifice that for two extra limbs.

[Dorek]

Ikir is best creature, fo sho. The articulated wings make all the difference, and the talons too. Love having him.

[Dr_Chronos]

Ikir is the perfect balance of cool and cute. Definitely my favorite creature so far.

[YellowCorvette]

Thanks for the review! I think Ikir looks great as a standalone set and looks like a worthy buy if anyone only planned to buy 1 or 2 Creatures from this wave.

[Logan McOwen]

Ikir is probably the best creature. Superb colour distribution, fantastic mechanism and wings, and brilliant taloned feet. I'm also glad to see you can get the blade pieces from Tahu without buying Tahu, as they're gorgeous and really evoke the feel of Tahu Mata's sword from 2001.

This little guy is adorable. Day one purchase for sure.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Logan McOwen

[Tahu]

IKIR IS THE BEST!! GIVE ME MY CREATURE!!!!!!

[_Mel]

I am very pleased to see that Ikir includes four of these , which seems like a very useful part, and has only been in two sets so far.

[VBBN]

I am very pleased to see that Ikir includes four of these , which seems like a very useful part, and has only been in two sets so far.

I should mention that I didn't realize this part was new until after all of the review photos had been taken- it is in quite a few of these sets, actually.

[Fulcrumfan91]

My favourite of the creatures hands down. I'm ultimately getting him without Tahu, I feel like he doesn't need Tahu as much as Tahu needs him to feel complete. I'm very impressed with this set.

[CabooseBM]

Ikir's a solid set with a lot of useful parts. The wings are nice, the feet are awesome, and the function is useful and intuitive. Not a huge fan of the head, it feels like it suffers the most for sharing it with every other creature set. It's got some great articulation and with some slight modification(I positioned the sockets towards the back rather than upwards), it makes for a ton of great, birdlike poses.

10/10 a good birb. Would birb again.

[Banana92]

it's pretty adorible