Lego Rayquaza is maybe one of the best Pokemon builds out there, even if the price remains less than legendary

Lego Rayquaza is an odd pull from the many Pokemon Legendaries, but not one I object to. The stratosphere-skirting mythical dragon of the air, Rayquaza served as the mascot of Gen 3's Pokemon Emerald, and has always occupied a solid spot in the Legendary B-Tier, at least when it comes to public acclaim. Somewhere below Mewtwo and Arceus, but certainly above the likes of Mesprit and Ting-Lu. But hey: I've always liked its ambiguous nature and meteor-blasting powers as shown off in the first Mystery Dungeon, and it seems Lego like him too, as now Rayquaza has got his own dedicated set. After the Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball build failed to impress or surpass the best Lego sets, can the mascot of Emerald do any better?

Rayquaza features

• An impressive stand that turns a Pokemon into a full scene
• Some articulation, though not a significant element
• A single obscure minifig

A recreation of the cloud-wrapped Sky Pillar location from the games serves as a stand and mount for Rayquaza, the dragon itself perched atop a translucent pillar artfully and cleverly obscured with a few drifting cumulus. Meanwhile, a minifig of "Draconic Loremaster Zinnia" (no, I don't remember either) can be placed anywhere on or off the stand, as well as being given a pair of Keystones to hold for an implied mega-evolution to come. I think that last addition is a bit strange, as there's no option to customize or modify Rayquaza into its mega-evolved form, so I guess those stones are... What, sequel bait? Regardless, the minifig serving as a tiny point of comparison for scale really does sell the dragon as this massive presence within the scene, a trick I'd like to see more Lego Pokemon sets make use of in the future.

Rayquaza itself has a certain degree of articulation and customization built in. You can take it off the stand with a bit of disassembly (more on that later), and there's the ability to tweak the position of its arms, ear protrusions, mouth and dorsal fins/flaps. It occupies a strange place between presentation piece and full-on action figure toy, but I think there'll be less confusion or frustration if we all consider it to be the former, as it doesn't quite have the easy articulation or sturdiness to survive a child's play session.

Rayquaza build

• Most of the time spent is creating the base
• A build that remains diverse enough to stay entertaining
• A clear and legible building process with no hiccups

Building the Lego Rayquaza set might throw some people for a loop, as the majority of the experience is spent not building the titular serpent, who probably accounted for maybe a quarter of the process, if that. Instead, most of my time was spent assembling the Sky Pillar base, a rising mountaintop vista frosted with crumbling ruins and wispy clouds. It's certainly more compelling than some stands I've seen, even if the fiddly details on the ruins weren't always hugely thrilling, and I rather liked piecing together the clouds and seeing how hard, geometric shapes nonetheless came together to form something convincingly ethereal.

Rayquaza, by comparison, is done in a flash, to the extent where I was almost disappointed by the brevity. Being so long and thin, it's effectively little more than a series of tube-shaped partitions clipped into each other, before a few final bricks come together to form the head and dorsal fins. I enjoyed it! I just wish it had gone on for longer.

But overall, this is one of the better Lego Pokemon builds. There's enough variety involved as to shake up the experience when needed, the manual didn't falter on legibility, and it's fun to watch the whole thing manifest from the ground up before quite literally finishing at the tips of Rayquaza's ears.

Rayquaza design

• A lot of articulation, but not much flexibility
• Can be taken off its perch (with some work)
• A good recreation of the legendary dragon

So once it's built, now what? Well, you can take Rayquaza off its stand... Sort of. Actually, the way it's structured means that the two are interlocked, so you have to cut the big dragon in half and reattach it without the support pillar in the middle if you want to carry it around separately, at which point he does tend to flop around flaccidly from the midpoint down. Well, I guess he is canonically an old dragon. It happens to all of us.

I'd say the body itself has a lot of articulation, rather than good articulation. You can reposition the arms... A bit. You can open and close the mouth... A bit. You can imperceptibly fiddle with his ears and dorsal fins in ways that won't look hugely different. All these elements are customisable, but ultimately it will always be just good ol' #0384 sitting upright and bearing his fangs at people, no matter what you do to it. Still, there's a lot of room to position the accompanying minifig, and ultimately this all just means this is a presentation piece more than all else. I've certainly seen less flexible builds.

Still, the overall appearance is good. Rayquaza is a creature of angles and ridges, far better suited to Lego blocks then anything defined by curves, and whereas Pikachu was spelunking the uncanny valley, Rayquaza looks pretty impressive, albeit with a certain goofiness about the face if you open its mouth too far. No stickers either, thank god.

Should you buy Rayquaza?

I'm willing to give a thumbs up to Rayquaza, but then again, I didn't have to pay for the damn thing, and Lego's tough pricing might be harder to swallow for those who don't have PR connections. There's nothing wrong with Lego Rayquaza, but I'm not sure that it quite justifies the hefty price tag. Still, that's less of a problem with this model specifically and more of a recurring issue with Lego generally.

If you can stomach the build's bill, then Rayquaza is a good time, and maybe one of the best Lego Pokemon sets out there at time of writing. I like that the minifig gives it a sense of scale, I like that the dragon's naturally angular appearance means it's a good fit for Lego and escapes the uncanny valley, and creating clouds is so oddly cathartic that Lego could well be advised to fold this idea into future skyscraper designs.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Lego Rayquaza #72168

I built the Lego Rayquaza (72168) set across a couple of sessions of roughly an hour and a half each, though these weren't rushed experiences by any means. I also made some attempts afterwards to push the articulation to its limits (i.e., seeing how much play it takes to break it).

For more, check out our guide to how we test products.

For more recommendations on cool collectibles, why not check out our guide to the best toys?