REVIEW: 71302 Akida Creature of Water

[VBBN]

Set name: Akida Creature of Water

Set number: 71302

Pieces: 120

Price: $10.00 | £xx.xx | €xx.xx

Release date: 2016

Compared to other figures in the wave, Akida is, without a doubt, one of the most technic-heavy builds in it. Coming in at 120 pieces, she blows all of the creatures and even the $15 Toa out of the water in terms of her parts count. Of course, 25 of those pieces are studs, and when it comes down to it the price per piece ratio doesn't really work when you consider the price a stud costs versus that of the massive, dual-color creature head. Anyway, how does Akida stack up against the other creatures? Does she suffer the same issues that Lord of Skull Spiders and Skull Scorpio, last years more Technic oriented builds, suffered?

Box and Contents

Front

The front of the box shows Akida swimming through the water with the Shadow trap approaching. Although, Akida is shooting the guns forward, not even remotely in the direction of the trap. (and it looks like one of those studs is about to hit her in the face.)

Back

The back shows off the set's features. Of the creature's, Akida has one of the strangest functions, which we will touch on soon.

New/Recolored

In terms of new and recolored parts, Akida definitely takes a step back from some of the other creatures. The new sword, new crystal armor piece and new gear are all absent here. instead we get the piece of unification in silver, and a recolor of the fin piece is a really nice dark azure; we get five of them.

Head

As with the other creatures, Akida has the standard head in silver mixed with trans dark blue.

The Build

Shadow Trap

Of the shadow traps, Akida's is the largest, using the smaller bone-spikes as legs. Note that it also has a propellor on it's rear.

Body

Unlike the other 5 creatures, Akida's body isn't build around an XT4 torso, but rather a long CCBS bone. You can see there the more technic-heavy influence comes in to play in building this function.

Tail

The tail uses a bone and more of those fins. Also, it's nice to see some orange being thrown into the figure similar to Gali, which compliments the dark azure very well.

Fins

Some fins are added to the sides and we flesh out the function more.

Stand

The set also comes with a stand, which isn't anything special but it's nice to have it included since generally fish-like creatures can be difficult to display otherwise.

Finished Set

Front

Color wise, Akida looks good. There are a bunch of blues to be seen here, but I feel like they tie well together and the silver on the head corresponds with the gray in the body and the silver unification piece.

Back

There is definitely noticeable Technic here, but I don't find it any more distracting than on the other creatures.

Function

So here's the function, you push up on the back of the tail and the guns and fins aim downward. I'm...not really sure why you would possibly want to do this if you are just playing around with Akida, but when combining with gali, this can serve as a way to raise and lower the cannons. So, the function seems to be based on the unification feature more than on the standalone set. Either way the feature itself is neat to construct.

Posing

So this is the only pose that I really came up with that didn't look completely forced and senseless. Some people will likely complain about this, but it's a fish. it has all the necessary articulation to be one, so I can't exactly say the poseability is limited here. In fact, it's perfect for what it needs to do.

Overall

I feel like Akida is an "acquired taste." As a standalone set, you are getting a good amount of pieces for your $10 and the build is somewhat interesting. The final product does have quite a lot of technic influences, but I think it was pulled off better here than a set like LoSS where articulation was severely lost to the function. With that said, you are getting less new pieces than the other creatures and the function itself seems a little silly unless you have Gali, but you do get two gatling guns to fire off, so not all features are lost here. It's not my favorite of the wave, but definitely not a bad set.

[Dr_Chronos]

I caught a fish THIS big.

Anyway I really like Akida. It's a beautifully colored aerodyamic fish with guns. What isn't there to like? The function seems a little odd on its own and I'm not sure why they didn't use smaller bushings on the sides, but overall Akida is a good unique creature that I look foward to getting.

Plus I really like the machine guns on the combo. Akida is heavy weapons fish.

[SonofTheShire]

I really like Akida too! She's probably my favourite creature.

I don't like Gali much, though...

[Takanuinuva]

Akida isn't to bad a set but I feel its function could have been done a lot simpler. Something like Terak's function would have worked better and wouldn't have made the back fin stick out so badly when used.

[YellowCorvette]

Thanks for the review. Akida isn't my favorite Creature (My favorite will be Ikir and Uxar), but Akida is great if you want to buy it as a standalone set but for combining with Gali.... not so much.

[Kingslayer]

People keep saying that her function is useless but it isn't. It is for her attack mode. If she needs to stay in one place to shoot, she can put her body "upright" and shoot with her canons facing the right way. But yeah, Akida is a really nice set. She just might be my favorite of the creatures.

[TwistLaw]

Thankfully there are many who agree with me when I say that I LOVE this set. It's so technic-ish yet elegan, with great colours and a very interesting build despite the small size. Love this kind of stuff, Akida leaves in the dust LOSS and Skull Scorpio. Huray!

[WARHEAD]

The best parts pack of the entire wave.

[Logan McOwen]

Maybe a good parts pack, but not a very good figure. The body is awfully blocky, and the function unimpressive. Not sold.

[Iben]

I honestly can't see the "awful blockiness" you're referring to. The function indeed isn't the best, but other than that it is pretty much as blocky as a lot of fish often are.

"It's too blocky because it's Technic" is pretty much the same as "it's too smooth because it's CCBS" to me really, but I guess that's just my opinion.

-Iben

[Logan McOwen]

The body is literally a cuboid With some armour on the front. I don't think it gets more blocky than that.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Logan McOwen

[Iben]

I never said it wasn't blocky, you said it was awfully blocky, which I don't agree with. Several fish species have a rather blocky body , and for Akida I don't mind it having such kind of body really. Granted, the back could use some armor or something else to smooth it up a bit more, but I guess that wouldn't have worked with the function they wanted to use.

-Iben

[Logan McOwen]

I've yet to see a fish that is a cuboid, but okay.

[Voxovan]

I've yet to see a fish that is a cuboid, but okay.

Nothing about Akida is cuboid.

[VBBN]

The only part that looks blocky or odd to me is the mount for the stud shooters, it's really the part of the Technic build that looks quite unnatural.

[Aanchir]

I've yet to see a fish that is a cuboid, but okay.

There's a whole family commonly called boxfishes due to being box-shaped. Not that Akida's based on one of those (the overall look is more shark-like, I think), but box-shaped fish do exist in nature.

[TheDesuComplex]

This set is pretty neat! While it is possible to make a CCBS fish (Shoutout to Jawblade!), I am okay with the more Technic-based approach they went for here and glad that its head is blended with Tr. Dark Blue. Not too sure about her functions though- I am not too big of a fan of using the sixshooter as the primary function, and the lever to bring them forward isn't exactly the primary function. I think I may end up giving her a tail flapping function, which I have seen others do before.

Edited December 21, 2015 by TheDesuComplex

[Dorek]

I loved this set. Yeah, the build is really Technic-intensive but there's just so much going on. Plus, a stand! Seriously. Awesome.

Plus, the part count should easily be worth it.

[Fulcrumfan91]

This is yet another set I thought I'd ultimately dislike...but it turns out Akida is pretty neat. I love that it comes with a stand, I love the colours, the shooters are a bit odd...but they're propeller torpedo shooters....it's super cool. Very well done set.