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TheOneVeyronian

Review: 70146 Flying Phoenix Fire Temple

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Hello all, and I hope it's okay to post this here. I am contributing my 1st review to Eurobricks, but I'm not new to review writing as I used to write set reviews for LEGO.com under the name "VeyronianHyperLady" and became a top 10 contributor over there.

This review will be about the following set: 70146 Flying Phoenix Fire Temple, the flagship set from Chima's Fire vs. Ice wave of sets (Brickset entry | BrickLink entry). It retails for £89.99 (UK) or $119.99 (US), but does it deliver any bang for your buck? Read on and make up your own mind :classic:

If you just want to look at the pictures, here's the Brickshelf gallery (it's a bit disorganised, but they're all there!)

Firstly, the box. It sports the fiery banner at the top, like with the rest of the Ice/Fire Chima sets and features the beautiful artwork of the Phoenix Temple in it’s “Fire CHI Power Mode” as a phoenix flyer, while a sabertooth vehicle attacks the walls of the temple. I don’t understand why the vehicle can’t go through the obvious gap left by the temple and attack it from the inside :tongue: . My box unfortunately came with a price sticker and was a bit water damaged from being left out in the rain by a courier :hmpf_bad: , but it seems okay now.

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The back of the box shows all the functions of the set. Note that the Sabertooth vehicle can actually detach into two vehicles.

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The Minifigures are an immediate selling point to the set. Seven excellently detailed minifigures accompany the set, with six of them (counting Fluminox’s unique royal gown variant and Voom Voom’s trans-light blue heavy armour variant) being exclusive to this set, and the other being found in 2 other sets (at the time of writing). The set includes the Phoenixes Fluminox, Foltrax and Flinx, the tiger Tormak, the lioness Li’Ella, the Sabertooth Stealthor and the Vulture Voom Voom.

Fluminox: Undoubtedly the star of the minifig selection, Fluminox, presumbaly king of the Phoenix tribe, appears here in his royal robes, using a printed slope instead of a pair of minifig legs (much like Ewald in this respect). The figure is printed with a beautifully intricate robe over feathers pattern, with golden fire motifs, a pendant, chains, dog-tags and a belt. Only the pendant is obscured by the armour Fluminox wears, which is a new mould cast with a little fire emblem by the front stud and some feathering detail on the shoulders. There are two studs at the back where the wings (new in orange) attach. The head itself is printed with a very similar pattern to the Eagle’s head pattern, with a stern face and a surprised face. The golden fire motifs continue onto the new phoenix helmet mould. All this combines to make a beautiful minifigure which will be absolutely essential for any Chima collection. Fluminox holds a Wingfurno, which a nice but rather uninteresting to look at weapon, but it does the job nicely.

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Flinx: Possibly the first Chima minifigure to have the short legs (corrected, it's the second, G'Loona was the first), Flinx is a small minifigure but still has plenty of detail, with a similar robes over feathers pattern, which the shoulder armour partly covers. Again his head is double sided, with a happy expression and a stern expression, with both sides conveying a rather youthful appearance. He uses the same headgear mould as Fluminox but with different printing. The youthful face, use of the small triple flames and the short legs suggest that he’s the baby of the Phoenix tribe, but this packs him with a lot of character. His weapon uses a new flame piece, like a lightsaber piece but with flame extensions down the middle and is marbled with trans-red and trans-yellow.

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Foltrax: Probably the least interesting of the Phoenixes, but still a nice and exclusive minifigure. Foltrax’s mix of red, dark red, orange, gold and dark bluish gray might not agree with everyone though, as Foltrax does look messy with all these colours. Unlike Flinx and Fluminox, Foltrax has an armour, fasteners and abs pattern, which is a very nice pattern sadly obscured by his heavy armour, however the armour is necessary for the wings to clip on. Foltrax’s head is quite similar to Fluminox’s, and could be easily mixed up, but luckily Foltrax and Fluminox come in different bags so, unless you mix all the bags up, putting the wrong head on the Phoenixes is very unlikely. His weapon is relatively standard fare, a Ninjago blade piece on a 4L bar, but does it’s job.

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Tormak: The first Tiger minifigure in Chima, whose headgear mould is the same as that of Li’Ella and 70141’s Lundor, which makes sense given that they are all based off the big cats. Tormak has some beautiful dark red/gold fire motif armour patterning, fur and muscle patterning on the torso, but this is covered by the heavy armour. Tormak’s head is double-sided, with a scowling face and an angry face, and his head is also printed with lots of tiger stripe patterning which, sadly, isn’t repeated to the same level of detail on the headpiece. The headpiece is strangely devoid of tiger stripe markings for the most part. I would say that Tormak suffers from lack of arm printing as well, he just doesn’t have as many stripes on him as a tiger should have. His weapon, a fire longbow of sorts, is perhaps one of the most elaborate weapons ever seen in an LEGO set, and looks very over the top, since it’s actually taller than Tormak itself. You have to tilt Tormak’s legs right back before he can even stand holding the weapon.

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The other problem with the headpiece is that, unlike many of the other Chima animal headpieces, it has a raised back. This wouldn’t be a problem if only Tormak’s head wasn’t double sided, since you can see the print of the reverse side show through, which is a shame. You can see how visible it is in this picture:

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Li’Ella: Finally, the Lion Tribe gets a female member added to the minifigure roster. Li’Ella has a dark red cloth print on her legs with the recurring gold flame motifs, and has some feminine upper armour printed on her torso, but again, this is covered by her shoulder armour. Again, she has a double sided head, one side with a smirk, one with a smile. The smirk is the face represented on her headpiece. If you look closely, her mouth is surrounded by lipstick. Not sure if this printing is necessary since she already sticks out as a female Lion amongst all the male Lions we already have, and, well, lipstick looks a bit strange on a lion I guess! :laugh: Her weapon is pretty much recycled from the Eagle Tribe but with trans-orange round tiles on it instead.

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Stealthor: The only figure that isn’t a variant unique to this set, but still a nice figure nonetheless. This figure has some very intricate patterning depicting their partially decaying bodies. I suppose these ice zombies could have been in worse condition if they hadn’t been preserved in ice for 10,000 years (I don’t think calling them zombies is completely appropriate though, Stealthor looks much more intelligent and quick-witted than traditional zombies, but I suppose they’re already undead :wink: ). He sports some shoulder armour in trans-light blue, which I really like since you can still enjoy the printing in all it’s half decayed glory, which makes me wish the good guys had trans-orange armour (but maybe that was a Health and Safety nightmare for everyone? :tongue: ). The patterning continues with the head, which is actually double sided unlike the Vultures. Stealthor’s two faces are both similar, one with narrow eyes, one with wider eyes. The head sculpt is different to that used on the Tiger and Lioness. The ice hand is Dark Azure in colour. Stealthor has an interesting weapon which uses two of the new claw pieces.

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Voom Voom: The other bad guy in the set. Once again, he has intricate printing depicting him wearing a tatty loincloth decoreated with bones, and showing the half-decaying body. He wears the heavy armour, which is trans-light blue so you can still see the printing. His head is just one-sided, with a cunning expression on his decaying face. I know vultures are scavengers, but it looks like Voom Voom scavenged himself at one point. The wings are new in Light Bluish Gray and he also has an ice leg. I do wish LEGO could have varied which leg is iced over on which figure though. Voom Voom wields a pair of ice axes. My only problem is why did they choose vultures if they were doing extinct prehistoric creatures thawed from the ice? Sabertooths and mammoths made sense, but vultures just didn’t as they’re still around? :wacko: I guess I’m just being nitpicky because I studied ancient life as part of a degree at university :wink:

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New parts and recolours: There are a few new parts and recolours, including new parts 15092, 16770, 15107 and 16768, 13547, 43723, 43722 and 43719 in Dark Orange, 11091 in Dark Red, 11127 in Trans-Orange and Bionicle Zamor Spheres in both new marbled patterns (representing Fire and Ice), as well as a new 1x1 round tile print. Brickset’s inventory obtained from LEGO.com contains a full list of parts used in the set.

Instructions: They are clear and well differentiated, though reddish brown and dark brown do look similar, but shouldn’t be a problem. Here's a random instruction image:

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The Build:

The build itself is an entertaining 2 ½ or so hours without too much repetition, but do be aware that the build is seemingly more Technic than System, which if you didn’t know about it’s function, you’d think that it was a strange choice to build a temple out of Technic. If you don’t like stickers, be aware that this set contains over 20 of them to apply, and some of them aren’t easy to get straight. There was one tiny sticker that was especially bad, but more on that later. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the build after each bag since I decided to review it after I built it all, so you’ll have to make do with my descriptions.

Bag 1 builds Stealthor and Voom Voom, as well as the base of the sabertooth vehicle. You start the vehicle’s clawing mechanism here, but you don’t finish it until Bag 2.

Bag 2 builds the claws for the clawing mechanism and assembles the detachable air vehicle.

You then move onto Booklet 2 and bag 3, where you assemble Tormak, Li’Ella and Foltrax, as well as build the temple gates.

Bag 4 extends on the temple gates, adding the two rather thin walls, and also assembles the “pool of fireballs”.

Bag 5 builds Flinx and Fluminox and starts construction of the base of the center of the Phoenix Temple, including building the bomb dropping function.

Onto Booklet 3, and bag 6 adds the Phoenix claws that also act as flaming torches, and finishes off the bomb dropping function.

Bag 7 finishes off the centre of the phoenix and you can then see the mechanism that allows it to transform into a phoenix flyer.

Bag 8 builds the walls of the temple/wings of the phoenix flyer.

Bag 9 finishes the build off by adding the engines and shooter turrets to the ends of the walls built in Bag 8.

The finished model:

Here is the finished Saber-Tooth vehicle:

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Side-on view. Not it's best angle I don't think, but here you can see it's aggressive forward tilt.

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Back view.

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Front view. From this angle it really does look quite a beast of a machine.

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Activating the clawing function is easy, you just push a rod that sticks out of the back until it stops, then let go, then start all over again in a reciprocating motion. This is achieved by slope bricks mounted on a modified plate with axle hole, attached to the vehicle with frictionless pins, as well as a rubber band. The motion works very smoothly for the most part.

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Here you can see the detached air vehicle and what the base looks like without the top. The wings are built with hinges and can fold in and out, but I think I prefer the two attached. Note that these actually sit loosely on top of one another, so don't go rolling the vehicle over your ceiling :wink:

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Stealthor sits in his new toy. It's quite a snug fit. Note the canopy is double hinged.

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Now onto the temple:

The complete temple is quite sizeable and works quite well as a temple, though the lack of entrance into the phoenix itself may be a bit puzzling. The bley stickered part in the centre is where you can load the zamor spheres for a function you can use in phoenix mode.

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Plan view:

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Here's the walls with the phoenix part detached. Note the trans-red circles - the phoenix slots into them when docked. The phoenix actually sits completely loose, so be careful when moving the temple as a unit. The wall section is also the most fragile part of the build, which doesn't help with transporting it.

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The Phoenix in Temple Mode, detached from the wall section, front view:

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Back view of the Temple Mode. The back central section is sparse and full of Technic, but with good reason.

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You can pick the temple up by the back and push the section where my thumb is to begin the transformation from temple to phoenix:

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The temple in Phoenix mode ("Fire CHI mode", but Phoenix mode is easier to say I think :wink: ), a front view:

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A plan view of the Phoenix in Phoenix mode:

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The Temple gains another entertaining function in Phoenix Mode. Push the pin where my thumb is in the picture and make the Phoenix drop Zamor spheres as bombs.

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Bottom of the Temple in Phoenix Mode. Not much to see here I suppose, but you can see the hole where the Zamors drop out when you push the pin in the previous picture.

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Here you can see the shooter turrets are not very moveable, but they are counterweighted. If there are no minifigs in them, they droop like in the picture, but they level out when a minifig is placed in command.

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A bit of a close up of the Phoenix, back in Temple mode. The sticker on the black tile is nigh-on impossible to position correctly :hmpf_bad:

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Fluminox can stand in the head of the Phoenix quite well, though how on Earth is he supposed to pilot it if he's sitting so far away from the controls? :laugh:

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As said earlier, the shooter turrets level out when a minifig is placed in them:

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This is the so-called "Pool of Fireballs", although simple, it looks very nice and compliments the Temple quite nicely when you position it in the middle.

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And finally, here's a shot of the whole set contents:

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So, in summary, this is a set that's worthy of being a flagship model in every way. It is a decent and interesting build if you don't mind building with a bit of Technic (I understand why this got a 9-14 age rating after I built it :wink: ), it really is excellent value for money, in the UK this is a whole £10 cheaper than the similarly sized 70010 The Lion CHI Temple, the Chima flagship set from last year, and boasts 1,301 parts compared to last year's Chima flagship set which only contained 1,258 parts, so on a price per piece basis, the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple is excellent value for money, especially if picked up on sale. I love all the interesting new recolours in the set, especially those marbled Zamor Spheres, and, best of all, surely it's the world's first swooshable temple? :laugh: Young kids will need good strength to swoosh it, the phoenix part weighs about 650 grams, but no problem for AFOL's. It's best swooshed with one hand on the back, thumb by the bomb dropping mechanism.

Now for the ratings:

Set design/aesthetics: 9/10 - This set is very well designed, especially the phoenix. It's clever in construction and looks good whatever mode it's in. Points are only lost on how the saber-tooth's vehicle looks in two vehicle mode.

Parts: 8/10 - Plenty of new and especially recoloured parts to keep new part aficionados like me happy, but for it to be a viable parts pack you'll have to deal with significant amounts of both System and Technic, which may put some people off.

Minifigs: 9/10 - They're excellent as always, though I think Tormak's lack of stripes and the fact you can see his reverse head print at the back with his mask on is a little disappointing.

Playability: 10/10 - it's fun to transform the temple into a phoenix and drop a few bombs on unsuspecting ice zombies. The addition of a substantial bad guy vehicle is also great.

Value for money: 10/10 - A pleasing PPP ratio to me in the UK, and there is much fun to be had with this set. Worth every penny I paid for the set.

Overall: 46/50 - an excellent set, definitely recommended if you have enough LEGO budget remaining, and even better if you find it on sale :thumbup:

Thankyou very much for reading my review! Thoughts on the set are welcome since I can't add a poll quite yet :classic:

EDIT: Changed picture location from Flickr to Brickshelf.

Edited by TheOneVeyronian

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Thanks for the review! :thumbup:

These sets seem a bit weird for me, but gosh! The printing on the figures! That's really what keeps my small interest in Chima is the astonishing details that some figures have! The Tiger and the Sabre tooth are brilliant, and the lioness and vulture is good too! ! :wub:

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It's a very well written review, thanks for making it!

I don't think Foltrax is bad, he looks really cool with the armor print and dark red, I think Flinx is the awkward one, I never liked figures with short legs (only Max Rebo and the Hobbits). But I have to agree with you on Tormak, he definetely needs more stripes (maybe arm prints too) and not just black but white ones as well. Also the more I look at the expression on Li'Ellas headmold the more stupid it looks, the lipstick just makes it worse, and still underneath the print on the head itself is so cute and well done. I'm planning to buy the Phoenix Temple, this review encouraged me to do so, even more, so I'm really looking forward to this set.

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Great review! I think Gloona also had short legs though, keep up the good work! :wink:

Oops, I forgot about G'Loona! That's embarrassing since I own every single character :blush: Guess the excitement of all the new figures was too much for me, I can't stop admiring all the little details on them :laugh:

And in fact, I also just noticed that Fluminox and Flinx have similar torsos because they actually have exactly the same torso print. They must be father and son in the story, surely.

It's a very well written review, thanks for making it!

I don't think Foltrax is bad, he looks really cool with the armor print and dark red, I think Flinx is the awkward one, I never liked figures with short legs (only Max Rebo and the Hobbits). But I have to agree with you on Tormak, he definetely needs more stripes (maybe arm prints too) and not just black but white ones as well. Also the more I look at the expression on Li'Ellas headmold the more stupid it looks, the lipstick just makes it worse, and still underneath the print on the head itself is so cute and well done. I'm planning to buy the Phoenix Temple, this review encouraged me to do so, even more, so I'm really looking forward to this set.

I quite like Foltrax as well, that torso printing is just awesomeness in physical form. I just thought that the several colours together might not gel well with some people. I think given that Flinx is so similar to Fluminox, you could easily take the Inferno Pit Speedorz set and put the legs of that Fluminox variant onto Flinx, and have an adult version perhaps. And now you mention it, Li'Ella does kinda look very weird to me now. I thought it was just the lipstick :laugh:

Thank you very much though for your nice words :classic:

EDIT: And I've just noticed that one of the Hero Factory fur pieces is actually missing from one of the legs in all the pictures. I didn't even notice that until now, but oh well.

Edited by TheOneVeyronian

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I would like to defend Foltrax; he is my favourite from the Phoenix tribe. The dark bley looks graet with that high amount of red. The only thing that is too much are the orange wings. They could have been dark red, or maybe yellow.

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I would like to defend Foltrax; he is my favourite from the Phoenix tribe. The dark bley looks graet with that high amount of red. The only thing that is too much are the orange wings. They could have been dark red, or maybe yellow.

As I said in another post, I like Foltrax too (well, I like all the Phoenixes actually, they're beautiful), but maybe the review wasn't that clear on that :classic: The wings would have been much better cast in dark red, even on Fluminox, as it would have matched the colours better I think. With orange wings, it just adds another colour to the already very multicoloured Foltrax, and indeed the orange clashes with the other colours. I'd love to try dark red wings on the Phoenixes, but unfortunately I guess we've got a bit more waiting to do :wink:

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I don't like the orange wings that much too. I thought when the first blurry pics appeared that the wings will be trans orange, I think it looked much better in that color, or a 2 colored paint, where the wing is basically dark red and the feathers are turning from red to orange.

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There's a lot going on here! Some features catch my eye for sure, and the whole attraction is something kids will love: simulating invasions with both tribes, engaging in battle between turrets and ground troops, not to mention the prospect of exploring new territories with the flying temple.

Nice review. You isolated the various contraptions well, and the flow of it was easy to follow. Especially liked seeing the different poses and transformations.

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While this set is a really neat concept and looks amazing, I still think that I wouldn't be very interested in it as a kid (and am also not so interested as an adult). The reason is that there just isn't anywhere to play in. It's essentially just a courtyard in Temple mode, with no actual interior to speak of, or a big ship in flying mode, which is nice but only has space for three figures in open-air cockpits anyway.

When I think of a flagship set, as a kid I always wanted something with at least some interior to play in. Even if you look at Star Wars, the biggest sets should be ships that actually have some interior. This set, on the other hand, has got nothing. The concept is still really cool, and I wouldn't mind a 50 or 60 dollar transforming flying temple, but as a huge set this just isn't doing it for me. The walking Mammoth is a bit better, since it at least has a little space inside.

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It's essentially just a courtyard in Temple mode, with no actual interior to speak of...

I'm glad you brought this up, actually, because it's a complaint I have with the set also -- it stood out to me as I was going through this review, and you've addressed it in precise terms. The fact that the structure is rendered incomplete, even barren, without the physical temple in place doesn't reflect design of a higher standard, even though the transforming model is an ambitious feat on its own.

Edited by Fritzy

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Looking at it again, I'd actually agree with you to an extent Clone O'Patra. I really like this set, however the lack of any sort of interior whatsoever is somewhat strange for a temple. In fact, the lack of a door into the temple which I pointed out in the review suggests this has no interior quite deliberately. Sure, I like it because it's ambitious and it succeeds to an extent, but I imagine that having both an interior and a transforming function would have been nearly impossible given the amount of Technic needed to achieve the transforming function. If you prefer an interior though, 70010 probably fulfills that desire better :thumbup:

Anyway, what's the use of a flying temple to conquer new lands if it has to build a new courtyard and pool of fireballs everywhere it settles? :laugh: Jokes aside, it must be LEGO's answer to "Vehicles sell to kids more than buildings", so LEGO tried to make the best of both worlds I guess.

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Personally, I have nothing against the idea of an "open-air temple", even as the subject of a flagship set. Frankly, in themes like Ninjago or Legends of Chima it's nice to get enclosed structures of any kind, since the emphasis tends to be on fantasy vehicles. This one may be an open-air temple but it at least has a very clearly-demarcated perimeter in the form of a stone wall, unlike the Eagle's Castle last year.

Good review. I love this set's function, design, and minifigures. The Sabertooth vehicle is nice enough that it could easily be a stand-alone set.

My favorite minifigures in this set are Li'ella (hooray for gender diversity!) and Flinx (sooo adorable)!

I think the reason for including vultures as one of the "ice age" creatures is simply for variety's sake: the designers wanted the evil faction to include at least one flying species. Even if vultures aren't thought of as ice age creatures (since, as you say, they still exist today), they did exist back then in some form, and they're creepy enough to be a prime candidate for an evil faction.

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Cracking review!

As you said, this does seem an odd way to build a temple but it may make more sense once it's introduced in the cartoon series. My kids weren't too impressed at the temple but the sabertooth vehicle and especially the minifigures are very tempting.

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Thanks for the review. It seems to be an interesting set for sure. I don't know about that price though.

The figures look pretty neat. I'd like them more if they didn't have the Chi on their chest. But I understand why it is there since it is the point of the theme. I like the new Phoenixes. I may have to pick them up. That tiger is amazing looking, again outside of the Chi.

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Thanks for the review!

I like the play features here. Not sure about it as a flagship set though...

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Fluminox's outfit remind me the Phoenix king Ozai from the Avatar: last air bender. please make a costume minifig out of it.

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