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Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit

A gentle sea giant that lands as a display piece first and a build second.

Brick Rated Score

3.7/5

Set 75579 · 2023

Pieces761

Minifigs3

Year2023

Set number75579

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The verdict

Payakan is the reason to own this, a fifteen-inch tulkun with a face so expressive it stops you when you set it on a shelf.

The build itself is pleasant and quick, and the little crabsuit sub is a genuinely charming sidekick, but a good chunk of your hundred dollars is paying for three enormous printed head molds rather than clever brickwork. If you loved The Way of Water and want that whale on your wall, it delivers. If you build for the engineering and the piece value, this one will feel a little thin.

Best for: Avatar fans who want a big, screen-accurate creature to display rather than a technique-heavy build

The full review

What it is

Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit is one of the odder large sets Avatar produced, and I mean that fondly. The star is Payakan himself, a posable tulkun that stretches close to fifteen inches long, and the first time I stood him up I genuinely paused. That big printed face has real feeling in it, and in the dark blue and white color scheme he looks like he swam straight off the screen. Alongside him you get the crabsuit, a stubby little submersible with folding limbs that turned out to be my favorite thing in the box, plus a pair of reef stands so the whole scene has somewhere to live.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the money, because this is where opinions split. You are paying roughly a hundred dollars for 761 pieces, and three of those pieces are the enormous molded sections that make up the whale's head. Those molds are gorgeous and they are the whole point, but they also mean the actual brick-building portion is short and gentle. Nobody is going to call this a taxing build, and if you measure a set by techniques learned or hours spent clicking bricks, the value here reads a little slim. The minifigure count of three does not help that case either.

Who it's for

So who lands on the right side of this one? If you are an Avatar fan, if that tulkun face already has you nodding, this is an easy yes, because no amount of value math changes how good Payakan looks finished and displayed. If you build mostly for the process, for the satisfaction of a dense and clever assembly, I would point you elsewhere or wait for a strong discount. It sits in that honest middle: a lovely thing to own, a modest thing to build.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build breaks into three chunks that each feel a bit different. The tulkun body uses some genuinely interesting shaping to blend the molded head into a bricked tail, and there are a few clever connection tricks holding those big elements at the right angle. The crabsuit is the most conventional building, small and fiddly in a good way, with folding legs and a cockpit. The reef stands come together fast. All in, it is a relaxed couple of hours rather than an all-day project, and the pacing leans casual.

The headline pieces are those three large new head molds, printed rather than stickered, which is exactly what you want on a creature this size. They are unique to this release and they do the heavy lifting on accuracy. Beyond them, the palette of dark blue and sand-green reef parts is nice for anyone building underwater scenes, and the minifigures (Lo'ak, Tsireya and a Crabsuit Driver) bring a few printed Na'vi torsos. Just go in knowing the parts value story is really about those molds, not a deep pile of useful small bricks.

Fun facts

01The set launched on 1 January 2023 alongside the film's home push and left shelves around 31 July 2024, so it is now retired.
02Payakan's head is built from three massive new molded pieces created specifically for this set, shapes that would have been impossible to recreate with standard bricks.
03Two of the three minifigures, Lo'ak and Tsireya, were exclusive to this wave of Avatar sets when it released.