Deep in the jungle of Le-Koro, a beast resides. Watching. Waiting. Still as a tree branch, blending perfectly with the canopy. Iris, a Leaf Blender Rahi, sits perched above the forest floor, waiting patiently for her next meal of young Nui-Rama as they drift by. Only her large, independent eyes move, scanning the treetops—always hunting, always watching.

Slow-moving and immensely quiet, these Rahi are known to startle unsuspecting villagers. Some Leaf Blenders even seem to do it on purpose—just for amusement. The Le-Matoran aren’t quite sure why else they would! Yet Iris is peaceful. She has no interest in larger Rahi or in tormenting Matoran. Her true delight lies in the sweet Poko fruit, the perfect treat to wash down the dry taste of Nui-Rama.

Poko fruit are a delicacy in the treetops, beloved by both Le-Matoran and Leaf Blenders alike. And Iris, despite her size, moves so silently that many a Matoran has picked a fresh Poko fruit only to find it mysteriously vanished moments later. The clever villagers quickly learned to store their precious fruit in hanging caches, out of reach—or so they thought. Out of reach of a hand or mouth? Perhaps. But Iris’s tongue is twice her body length… and fruit quickly become reachable!

Leaf Blenders eat only insect Rahi and Poko fruit, never Matoran, and yet they’ve been known to “befriend” the occasional Le-Matoran. One moment they’re at a gathering, and the next? Gone—zapped away by a lightning-fast, target-locked sticky tongue. Iris, however, is a solitary creature. She needs no herd, but she does enjoy companionship now and then—especially the quiet, kind presence of her dear friend, Floru.

The choice of utilizing pterodactyl wings from the Flower Bouquet set (Set #10280) for the tree canopy, because of their dark green hue that slowly blends to sand green, influenced the choice for Iris to be predominantly dark green. Only dark green would be too bland, and few other LEGO elements blend from dark green to sand green like these wings, therefore I decided her accent color would be light green.

Using elements primarily found in the Bionicle Glatorian set, Gresh (Set #8980), the blend from dark green to light green gave Iris a similar enough color scheme where her dark green can disappear into the treetops, while the light green can be the slightly off-color moment that will catch the viewer's eye. Luckily, this worked! At Brickworld Chicago 2024, multiple viewers were enjoying observing my Islanders of Mata Nui MOC that Iris was a part of, and while I was talking about the creatures they would then exclaim, "Oh I didn't even see him up there!" This felt right as I had intended to create a loose camoflague that would not be noticed when first observing the build.

Each of Iris' eyes can move independently (you can't build a chameleon with each eye being able to do so!), thanks to being mounted on ball joints and positioned such that one can look ahead, while the other facing behind her. To support her weight fully without other attachment then her feet, the build needed to be relatively light and balanced. Like an actual chameleon, the long tail helps her to remain balanced despite it not being flexible and hang beneath the tree branch.

I decided the tail must be static because it was more important to me that the body of the creature be as similar to a teardrop profile as possible. Meaning the form swells just behind the head, arches up over the shoulder blades, then continuously tapers back towards the tip of the tail. The body shape must also flare out in a V-shape when looking at the creature head-on. And with this slimmer profile that needed to be lightweight, her structure is largely hollow with the primary design technique using a series of flex tubes to form the profile that are then skinned with Technic axle connectors and clips to create a scale affect as well as being able to reduce in size down her sides until the tail's end.