Set Review ➟ LEGO® 71855 Ninja Dragon Riyu’s Battle

2026-01-14 | Mark

This is the fourth iteration of Dragon Riyu, and with every iteration Riyu gets a bit larger. This version teams an armored Riyu with Arin and Nya Dragon Form minifigures against Mutation Monster and Loyalist minifigures in a battle of perhaps not so epic proportions given the dragon is at least 20 times larger than the adversaries.

The four dragons Riyu.

Starting with the aforementioned minifigures, Mutation Monster shows up with some tentacles and barb attachments. Mutation Monster with tentacles and Dragon Form Nya are exclusive to this set.

Here is a chart if you are minifigure completist interested in the minifigure breakdown for this wave of Dragons Rising.

Cosmetically, Dragon Riyu has stepped it up from earlier versions. Riyu now sports some snazzy pearl gold armor. Attached to the elbows and tail via bar-and-clip is the new flame/leaf piece 7727 in transparent opal; the color I guess was chosen as to not compete with the pearl gold star attached to the tail, but it does not do much for me aesthetically in this application. And as the piece is more or less transparent, it tends to disappear visually.

The head is attached to the torso at the shoulders with a bar-and-clip assembly and the head is attached to the neck with a small ball and socket.

For the first time, Riyu has been given a jaw, held with bar-and-clip, and his tongue is equipped with a pin to hold weapons. The instructions suggest that you can mix and match weapons with set 71854, and the weapons from that set can be attached to the mouth, although the missile shooter gun thing is awkward. The star weapon from Riyu’s tail can be attached if the jaw is positioned at its furthest open, but it cannot spin and appears more as a foppish flower tie than a dangerous weapon.

Arms and legs attach at shoulders and hips with large ball-and-socket joints. Wrists and heels attach with small ball-and-sockets. Elbows and knees are fixed assemblies.

Arm assembly

Leg assembly

Riyu’s claws have transformed from white pointy bits in the earlier models to proper claws, now in black, and individually positionable. Front feet are equipped with pins for holding weapons. The star weapon cannot be attached here at all, but the other weapons can be.

Wing assembly is identical to that of the previous model and allows for a wide range of potential positioning.

The torso as in previous versions provides a saddle area for a rider. Torso sides also provide some pins for attaching weapons.

The tail is attached at the posterior by a pair of small toothed hinges. Three additional segments are attached with small ball-and-sockets and the flame/leaf tip is attached with bar-and-clip. The segment immediately before the flame/leaf has a pin for attaching weapons.

Going from nose to tail, here is the story with posing the model.

No particular problems with the jaw, it holds position well, however the pin used to hold the weapons in the mouth tends to get caught in the hole of the weapon and come off with the weapon when the weapon is removed. Subsequently a bar or axle or something is needed to push the pin out of the weapon’s hole so the pin can be replaced in the mouth.

I experienced no particular issues with the head-to-neck assembly but side-to-side pivot is limited to about 65 degrees total as head bumps into neck.

The head and neck is too heavy to be held reliably by the bar-and-clip assembly at the shoulders. While the head can be positioned at the upper limit of motion and it will hold more or less, the head position at the neck’s ball-and-socket plays a part in the success of upper limit positioning as the center of gravity changes with position. The farther from the shoulders the center of gravity is, the less likely the shoulder position will hold. Adding a weapon to the mouth of the dragon adds too much weight and the head will slump at the shoulder to its lower limit. As the tail is attached to the torso with toothed hinges it makes one wonder why the neck was not; that surely would be a more reliable assembly.

The ball-and-sockets at the shoulders are susceptible to the usual litany of problems associated with those connectors trying to deal with heavy appendages. Associated issues are with the bar-and-clip hinged shoulder guards moving of their own accord when the arms are positioned. It may be considered beneficial that they move themselves out of the way or wherever necessary as needed, but when the positioning is completed they may sometimes end up in unexpected orientations.

Uneven positioning of the arms, for example one arm up and one down, may result in the dragon tipping over. Dragon Riyu is not going to be able to dramatically hold his sword over his head in a standing position. Riyu sort of can manage one arm up if the dragon is put in a sort of seated bird position, but achieving that position is…well…a position the model does not willingly want to take and ends up looking less threatening and more like old man telling kids to get off his front yard while he is taking a dump.

This is where Riyu ends up when starting on all fours then raising one arm above the head.

This image shows some of the frequent issues with positioning the model. The head and neck has to be placed at the upper extreme or it slumps, shoulder armor is wherever, the elbow flame/leaf ends up wherever, the rear legs splay, the star on the tail can not spin when the tail is curved upward. But if you want Riyu’s arm above Riyu’s head, this is pretty much it.

The flame/leaf extensions at the elbow are basically a hindrance to positioning the arms, wings, and if attached, the weapons on the torso side. I guess it could be considered a blessing that they are attached at the elbow with a bar clip which allows 360 degrees of rotation so it can be moved out of the way, but it is a lot of moving out of the way. Or they move themselves out of the way.

Wrists were not particularly a problem, but the pin extending from the hand was often the balance point for the arm, so the absence of sufficient contact there would cause the arm to pivot at the shoulder until other parts could come into contact with the ground. Front and rear claws tended not to sag, but could move depending on weight from above and often would end up any which way.

I did not find a problem with the wings other than issues that may be associated with the arm positioning and the flame/leaf at the elbow in particular.

While the torso provides pins for holding weapons, the star cannot be connected here. Seems you are limited with the star being connected to the tail on this model or on the wrist of 71854’s mech. Of course, you may want to just frisbee the star at Loyalist and Mutation Monster, so depending on your inclination, not an issue.

Back leg positioning would hold fairly well at the hips, but depending on the weight distribution there was sometimes a tendency for them to splay. The ankle joints were altogether insufficient to hold weight above unless the foot was in direct line with the adjacent leg section and if legs were positioned directly beneath the torso with the leg perpendicular to the hip. The model would stand with one back leg raised, so if you are into having the dragon in puppy peeing pose you can achieve that. Other poses: not so much.

This will work.

Who’s the good dragon?

Mostly it ends up being this at the heel.

The tail section held to the torso with hinges was the most stable positioning connection point on the whole model. The whole of the tail was also quite stable given that it was relatively light weight. Some consideration to segment position was required if the attached star weapon was expected to spin.

I did not experience issues with pieces wanting to fall off the model, as is sometimes the case.

The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section

Rated for age 7, the set mercifully has no stickers. Aside from minifigure elements, printed parts are the dragon head and the round tiles on the shoulders. The print on the head is changed from earlier versions: the eye is larger and moved back from the nose, the nostril is larger, and the scales are more compact.

Nya, Arin, and Loyalist all use 3274 heads.

Key: DF: Dragon Form, RH: Rock Hat, T: Tentacles

Summary

As of this writing, if you want Dragon Form Nya and/or tentacle form Mutation Monster you will need to get this set, hop on over to BrickOwl, or wait for BrickLink to approve the inventory.

The dragon model looks great, but most joints possess insufficient friction needed to counteract the model’s inherent weight distribution and hold dramatic positions. There is quite more play value than display value with this model as assembly is sufficiently interesting with a good variety of connection types plus there are lots of moveable bits on the assembled model, which is good as long as you do not put a priority on things staying where you put them. Ultimately for me, fun is in equal proportion to frustration with this kit.

Disclaimer

Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.

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