Introduction

This little LEGO polybag was one of my birthday gifts last year. I was very excited for it because I never owned a LEGO Chima Phoenix before.

This small LEGO set would have gone for about $5 AUD back in the day in 2015, and I bought it for $9. So pretty good deal considering the contents. Especially the Frax minifigure.

First off, Frax is rare. Not as rare as other Phoenix Tribe minifigures like Fluminox or Firox, but he is rare. He comes in three sets - a mainline set, an accessory pack and this set - and all three of these sets are from the last wave of Chima. The only mainline set that he appears in, 70228 Vultrix's Sky Scavenger, did not attract many buyers because it was fairly expensive and did not include any main characters from the eight main tribes. If you were only interested in the Frax minifigure, this set would be perfect.

Packaging

This set is packaged in a traditional large sized polybag, and with some attractive art of Frax flying on his Phoenix Flyer above the frozen land of Chima, holding an orb of Fire Chi - a considerably rare piece nowadays - possibly attempting to thaw out the ice. The top of the bag has a beautiful Chima logo with an icy design for the Chima logo on a fiery background, which contrasts really well in my opinion.

There is a little strip of transparent plastic on the bag for a peek at some of the parts in the bag.

Contents and build

Inside the bag are the 32 pieces, with a spare printed Fire Chi trans-orange tile, among other spare pieces.

There are also some polybag-style folded instructions.

The build was basically over as soon as it started - as a fairly experienced builder, I built the entire set in a minute and a half, even taking into account the bit of time I spent marvelling at the Frax minifigure - but it's a polybag and I didn't expect much.

Minifigure

Up to this point in this review, I have spoken highly of the included Frax minifigure, and I will continue to do so as well.

Probably the only noticeable flaw with the minifigure is that his extended head piece is not printed, unlike most other Phoenix minifigures. No crown or headgear whatsoever, and the extended head piece is unusually bland compared to other Chima minifigures, who are all more highly detailed.

Frax has two face prints, both of which are really similar - something I noticed with quite a few Chima minifigures - with one side featuring a slight smile and the other a slight frown. I find the frowning side redundant as it could have more variation to better express other emotions, for example an excited face with raised eyebrows for when Frax is having fun piloting the Flaming Bastion.

Frax has pearl-gold light armour with gold clips as attachment points for his large orange Phoenix wings, and a Fire Chi tile plugged into the middle stud on the armor. His torso and legs have some nice printing, the torso depicting Frax's maroon flight suit - which is apparently tight-fitting as Frax's eight-pack abdominal muscles show through! Bits of printed gold designs decorate the suit. Grey straps appear over the suit, and these prints continue onto orange legs which match Frax's overall colour but personally I find the arrangement of these colours slightly awkward.

Frax does not come equipped with any weapons, but he holds an orb of trans-orange Fire Chi.

Build

Frax's Phoenix Flyer's build is fairly simple, as I mentioned. It surprisingly resembles Frax's fiery craft included in 70228 Vultrix's Sky Scavenger, especially the bright orange colour scheme and design.

There is ample seating space for Frax, comfortably accommodating his wings, and there are two black levers on red pivots for Frax to grab and manoeuvre his craft with.

The wings have a basic design but are sufficient for a model of this size, with orange details over a red angled wing base design.

Two blasters are clipped onto either side of the 2x4 sloped tile on the front, and while this set does not officially include weapons for Frax, you could easily equip Frax with the two-piece blasters.

The aforementioned 2x4 sloped tile seems rather lazy to me, like it was slapped on as an afterthought, and instead of that tile I would much rather have gotten a simple brick-built head or even just printing or stickers on the tile, further increasing this set's value. However, in my opinion, in its current form as a polybag model, it is sufficient, albeit only barely.

Playability

This is a simple polybag, which doesn't offer much playability on its own, not even containing any play features. However, it can be integrated into your own Chima Fire vs Ice collection very neatly. Frax doesn't come with any weapons as mentioned, so that is a slightly disappointing factor as well.

Overall thoughts

30264 Frax' Phoenix Flyer is an enjoyable little polybag with a great minifigure and would undoubtedly be a great inclusion to expand your LEGO Chima collection. There are few notable but relatively unimportant flaws that unfortunately seem to plague most of LEGO's polybags, but the set is good on the whole.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this review informative and helpful.

Frax' Phoenix Flyer was another complementary 'freebie' (next to the retro/classic spaceman) that came with the sets I ordered at Legoshop@home. This polybag is from the Legends of Chima Lego theme. According to the Dutch version of the Legoshop@home website the "free LEGO® Legends of Chima™ Frax' Phoenix Flyer (30264) offer is valid for orders online at LEGO.com/shop, in LEGO® Stores and LEGO® Catalogue telephone orders from 1st to 16th April 2014 or while stocks last. Qualifying purchase must be equal to or greater than 30 € in merchandise only. One Frax' Phoenix Flyer (30264) per household." Though I am sure April is wrong and TLG meant July. I assume this promotion will include all European countries that the Legoshop@home site caters to, however this promotional offer is not valid outside Europe as I saw when I changed the region on their site.

Box/Instructions

Packaging: a polybag. Dimensions 13,7 X 17 cm. Transparant plastic bag with printing on front and back, except for a 1,5 cm wide vertical stripe in the middle on the back. The Lego logo is placed in the upper left corner on the front, next to it 'Legends of Chima' is written in spiky frosty iced blue and white lettering with black outlining placed against an orange and yellow flame like background. Underneath this text is a picture of the Chima Minifigure Frax, soaring through the blue sky on his flame wreathed Phoenix Flyer, placed against a desolate storm swept, and mountainous landscape with lots of slanted razor sharp icey stalagmites. Underneath this picture on the front, at the bottom more blazoning orange background, and in the lower right corner a circle with gold outlining from which the Frax minifigure arises depicted in standing pose. On the back lots of small text is printed in many languages with a warning about choking hazard. Furthermore info about where the components are manufactured: Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, China, Czech Republic.

The instructions are printed on a four times folded leaflet. The leaflet when folded up (dimensions 5 X 6,8 cm) has the same picture, as that which is displayed on the front of the polybag. Four steps are printed on this manual for building the Minifig, and another eight for building the Flyer. The manual also contains a picture with other Chima sets where an alliance of Chima animals on their various vehicles is pitted against another group. One faction representing fire, the other group frost.

Parts

I don't collect Chima myself, but like Ninjago, it is obvious why this action driven theme will be very popular with kids (I assume predominately boys) in the age range from six to twelve. The colours of the Lego bricks used in this set are very bright. Lots of orange, bright red. One burgundy red arch. Some grey, sand yellow, and black.

The shoulder/chest piece of the minifig is very interesting with two studs on the back and one on the front. I imagine this piece will be useful for anyone interested in SciFi, fantasy, knights, and ninja themed MOCs. The same I think is true for the wing elements I think.

All other parts are fairly common, nonetheless very nice.

The sets contains 32 pieces and mine came with four spare parts: one extra black round one stud plate; one extra joystick/antenna; one extra orange grill; and last but not least one extra round transparent orange plate with golden flames print.

Minifigures

Frax is a beautiful Minifigure. He has orange legs with talons printed in gold on his toes. Red knee pads printed on his legs. On his upper legs (the round bit in the front) are printed bits from the harness of jet fighter flight gear, similar to StarWars X-wing pilots et cetera, whose uniforms also seem to be based on the pressure Anti-G suits worn by real fighter pilots and astronauts etc. His hips are darkstone grey, and also have printing. Gold and Black, showing buckles and more belts.

His torso is bright red, and his arms dark stone grey, and his hands yellow. He has printing on both the front as well as the back of his torso. He has the Lego bodybuilders look with very pronounced abdominal muscles in dark red, maybe it is supposed to be padding similar to that of the Batman suits from the films?! On both the front and back of his torso are more belts and buckles of his pilot gear in dark grey with black outlining. His red chest and upper back armour has lots of gold accents, some aviator style insignia decorations, a round orange energy indicator or gem on his chest. And on his back some fine greebling which might have something to do with power distributing, and temperature regulation of his G-suit?! Who knows, I suppose it is whatever you imagine it to be.

His Minifigure head is orange. He has a double face with a yellow beak print, but apart from a a black line underneath his eyes, which makes him look even more angry, there is no difference between the two faces. Little red dots on his Minifig head are indicative of some red feathers on this bird-man. His head piece is orange too, with a big yellow beak. I am not sure but it seems TLG molded this piece using two different colours ABS. It is very well executed. And might be useful for a carnival parade or masked ball MOC too.

He has a pearl golden shoulder/chest armour piece, with a round flat one stud plate with flame printing on the front, two studs on the back, to which you attach two pearl golden square one stud clutch plates (not sure how most people call that piece in English), to which in turn you attach his two orange wings.

The build

The build is very simple, and only takes a minute or maybe two, or less even if you want to set a speed record. Or you could ignore the instructions and use only the picture on the front of the polybag to make it a little more challenging.

What I think is always nice of the smallest Lego sets is; you can take it apart immediately and challenge yourself to find out how many other Flyers you can build with the limited number of bricks in such a set. Admittedly because of the number and type of bricks in this set all alternative builds I did left a lot to be desired, and did not look esthetically pleasing to me. Yet I had fun doing it, and I suppose a child might feel the same, and could very well play and entertain him of her self with it for some time.

This set reminded me of a tiny set I got in the early eighties when I was a little kid, I could easily put in my pocket, take with me, and rebuild in at least three or so different ways, I felt were good. It was this little set: #885 Space scooter released in 1979.

http://brickset.com/sets/885-1/Space-Scooter

The completed model

For what it is the completed model looks good, has a nice colour scheme and comes with an excellent Minifigure.

Overall opinion

Another fantastic little freebie. Great little gift for kids, or a good parts pack for MOCing.