[REVIEW]: 70787 Tahu: Master of Fire

[VBBN]

Set name: Tahu: Master of Fire

Set number: 70787

Pieces: 89

Price: $19.99, €

Release date: 2015

A short tempered leader. For many of the long-standing fans of Bionicle, Tahu was one of their very first sets, and continues to be one of the most iconic Toa in existence. For me, Tahu is the set I think of when I hear the word "Bionicle." Tahu was the first Bionicle set I got back in 2001, and the Tahu Stars set was the last one I got in 2010. Now we get to take a closer look at a brand new, much taller Tahu.

Packaging and Contents

Box Front

The packaging for the new Bionicle sets comes in the form of a hexagonal shaped box. While not the canisters many people would like to once again own, it still makes quite a statement with it's bright fiery background and Mask of Creation set in the top corner. Please note that this is the European packaging, so information such as the parts count is absent here.

Box Back

The back of the box offers an interesting slew of information about the sets features. Unlike my laughter at the Invasion From below sets showing of "features" that were hardly more than poseability, there is quite a lot to look at here. A lot of neat stuff awaits us with these sets. You'll also see a comic, as well as a "combo model" of Tahu and the Fire protector. It's nothing more than Tahu arming himself with the Protector's weapons.

Instructions

The instructions offer the same image as the front of the box. If you'd like to see the contents of the set, I have taken a photo of the inventory page that you can view here.

New/Interesting parts

Chest and add-ons

We have a torso shell in bright red, the new piston add-on in gold (you get six of them in this set!) and the printed breastplate. I originally wasn't a fan of the prints, but I quite like them after having them in hand. The red lines on the print are actually a chrome-red/pink color.

Gearbox

Here we have the new gearbox. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of applications of this piece in the future, both in Bionicle and possibly Technic.

Head and Claws

The new head and eyestalk are a welcome change from the glatorian-styled head we have seen since 2009. I am not so much a fan of the mask-detachment feature, but more about that later. Also we can see the new claw piece, which is a remolded variant of an older Hero Factory claw.

Sword

Tahu and Kopaka both come with this massive sword. Tahu's is in silver, and I could see someone making a next-gen Lihkan with this. The sword halves connect together in the same way that Lihkan's swords did. However mine weren't in the box in the proper way that they were in Kopaka's, so they are a bit warped and require the extra connector to really keep them together.

Masks

The Hau is a very iconic mask in the Bionicle universe, and here we see the new version of it. It still has a ton of cues from the original mask (unlike the 2008 Hau), but the overall shape is much more square, and the central mouth region isn't as pronounced. Also you have the new skull spider mask in a very bright green. I'm sure Aanchir can give us a bit more information on the color, but I would love to see armor shells in this green in the future.

Building Process

Torso(1)

Let's begin by looking at the build of the gearbox.

Torso(2)

Mind you, the gears aren't actually bent like that. Since there is no axels in the box yet the gears were trying to fall out. I was surprised to see that a notch is molded in to actually keep the gears in place. The smaller 8-tooth gears are used to increase the friction of the gears, and they do a fantastic job of it.

Torso(3)

The finished gearbox includes some attachments for Tahu's golden swords.

Action Frame

I decided to do my building process a bit different this time. Usually, I show the legs, then the arms, etc. I wanted to first focus on the gearbox, now I can show you the "action frame," which really just means I'll show you an unarmored version of the build so you can see the framework of the set.

Armoring

Next I will show you the basic armor of the figure. The only thing not visible here is a red 5-L shell placed on his back, under the gearbox.

Finished Build

Finishing touches are added on.

Lava Board

As previously stated, the sword connect together very similar to how Lihkan's did.

Finished Set

Skull Spider

As with the Onua review, I had to switch to a black backdrop to display the very bright green Skull Spider. (And I might switch to a black backdrop in all of my reviews for the winter season, I have to rely on lighting since it's always dark in Michigan in the winter so white backdrops always require way too much editing)

Front

Tahu looks very cool when finished. yes, he's not the Tahu you remember. Yes, he uses CCBS. Yes, he has a different Hau and a chest print and sword coming out of his back. Maybe you don't want to think of it as Tahu, but man does it look good as a set. My only complaint here is the rather strange shoulder pads that stick up quite high. And I suppose high thihgs have some undesirable armor from a front view.

Back

The main eyesore on his back is those lower legs. I don't see why they couldn't have added one of the pieces that Kopaka has on his legs to give him a 5-L shell behind that.

Profile

Pose 1

Tahu poses well. In fact, he poses better than the other two $20 Toa, since he doesn't have the piston pieces on his ankles to limit their poseability.

Pose 2

The swords can be put together to form the lava board as seen before, and they you can arm Tahu with the golden sword from his back. The board looks great, and is the highlight of these new sword pieces in my opinion.

Gold Mask

This isn't the first time we have seen Tahu come with a gold Hau, the Stars set also came with one. I don't know why that matters at all, but hey it's a fun fact. Anyway, I'll take this moment to talk about another minor complaint I have about the figure- Not a major one, and one that is easily fixable, but his feet and hands. Why silver? Red or black hands and red or gold feet would be much more suitable I feel, and I will need to try that out.

Skull Mask

Of course the Skull Spider mask can be laced on Tahu's face as well. The box shows that you can wrap the legs around the head, but the front legs don't wrap around all too well and create a cluttered mess.

Comparison

Unfortunately Tahu is the only Toa Mata I have assembled (and all the parts for), so it's the only comparison I can show at this time.

Sword Storage

For most of this review I showed Tahu with his swords up like his animation model, but as you can see they are on a mount that gives them a bunch of poseability, both horizontal and vertical motion.

Conclusion

Tahu is a defining character. But is he a defining set? He has the lowest amount of parts of the three $20 Toa, but don't let that put you off. He has a great design, that offers a grand amount of poseability and playability. There are a bunch of new and recolored parts to choose from, which are awesome within their own right, such as the fantastic new lava board swords. He is fun to build thanks to the new gearbox system, and personally, I feel he has one of the greatest designs of the new Toa. Of the three larger Toa, Tahu is the one I have enjoyed the most, and would in turn recommend the most.

[Kalhiki]

Good to see Tahu lives up to his reputation. I'll definitely be moving those shoulder pads to the torso shoulder balljoints a la Kopaka's shoulders. Seems a bit gappy as-is.

Actually, could we get a shot of that? I'd like to see how it looks.

[Aanchir]

Also you have the new skull spider mask in a very bright green. I'm sure Aanchir can give us a bit more information on the color, but I would love to see armor shells in this green in the future.

As you wish! This color is called Spring Yellowish Green (just Yellowish Green on Bricklink), and it's ostensibly one of the six colors that was introduced for LEGO Friends, though surprisingly LEGO Friends has not used any bricks in this color (it might be used for some printing in that theme, though). Spring Yellowish Green has actually been extremely rare in sets — all twelve previous parts in this color to date can be seen here. It puzzles me a bit why the designers would use this color for the Skull Spiders instead of another shade like Olive Green or Bright Yellowish Green.

Anyway, good review! I really like Tahu's new design, though I wouldn't mind if his legs were a module shorter. I actually think the silver feet and hands look pretty cool, though gold could have maybe been cool too. They do match the silver head piece.

The shoulders look better than I would have expected, though I'm a little bit surprised the set doesn't use any Tr. Fluore. Reddish Orange bones. Seeing as there are transparent bones on so many of the other Toa, I think it would have been cool for Tahu to use them as well. The glowy look could have been really fitting for a fire character.

I actually think it's awesome how the Skull Spider's front legs dangle in front of the Toa's chests, and to be honest I don't quite understand why the packaging designers chose to show them wrapped around the head, which is not only near-impossible but impedes posability and doesn't look that great anyway.

Thanks for the side-by-side comparison! Even with so many changes, I think the personality of the new Tahu set feels much the same as the original.

The swords on his back do look cool whether they're folded up or down. Down seems like it'd be more practical, though.

[Ventum]

Ah, Tahu. This set looks so much better in these clear photos than in others I've seen through the months, so thank you for that. The set itself looks great imho, I really like the look he gives off. I must agree on those shoulder pads and lower legs, they're kind off and not the best looking. As a figure though, he gets the point across and I'm glad to see Tahu is back in action.

[CMP]

I like it. It's got the look of the original but with the modern structure of the Stars model and the impractical but undeniably cool lava surfboards of Tahu Nuva. I love how the different levels of armoring give each (of the twenty-dollar sets you've reviewed so far anyway) a unique look. Onua has the same bulky hunchbacked look from his original form, Kopaka might not have the classic sword and shield of his but he's heavily armored much like a knight, and Tahu here has a good mix of armor and agility.

Does the gearbox do the same thing it did back in the good ol' days? And does it work as well with those odd four-toothed gears (that I've never even associated with gears before? )

[Chimaninja454]

Ah, Tahu. This set looks so much better in these clear photos than in others I've seen through the months, so thank you for that. The set itself looks great imho, I really like the look he gives off. I must agree on those shoulder pads and lower legs, they're kind off and not the best looking. As a figure though, he gets the point across and I'm glad to see Tahu is back in action.

Ventrum, you're right! Definitely getting him... :happy:

[MontyPython]

Altought I like the simplicity of the old one, this looks quite good, with majestic colours which are great for the toa of fire. I like those reviews very much, can't wait to see more!

[Aethersprite]

Good to see Tahu lives up to his reputation. I'll definitely be moving those shoulder pads to the torso shoulder balljoints a la Kopaka's shoulders. Seems a bit gappy as-is.

Actually, could we get a shot of that? I'd like to see how it looks.

I second this. Though, like Gali, I think there might be a reason why they chose to attach the shoulder pads on the gearbox instead. I'm guessing it might hinder the articulation.

[Aanchir]

I second this. Though, like Gali, I think there might be a reason why they chose to attach the shoulder pads on the gearbox instead. I'm guessing it might hinder the articulation.

That, and also this wouldn't make the torso that much less gappy. Part of the reason Kopaka's shoulder armor fits so snugly is that his gearbox is raised up one module, so the shoulder armor is closer to the actual shoulder joints. Tahu's gearbox is not raised up this way. I also don't know how well this would even fit. Kopaka's shoulder armor needs to be angled back to fit over his actual shoulder joints, which looks just fine with those larger shoulder pads but might not work so well with smaller shoulder pads that are supposed to fit snugly over the shoulders themselves.

Attaching the shoulder armor to the torso beam would let you make the shoulders two modules narrower, if you wanted to do so, since there wouldn't be a need for the extra ball joints.

[Cheatster9000x]

Something which is going to be annoying for me, for all of the toa/protectors, is that I often use the part at the back of the eyestalk to lift the head (most of my moc's eyes involve metru/piraka eyes), but the mask is gonna come off if I do that here...

Aside from that, this looks AMAZING.

[TheDesuComplex]

Something which is going to be annoying for me, for all of the toa/protectors, is that I often use the part at the back of the eyestalk to lift the head (most of my moc's eyes involve metru/piraka eyes), but the mask is gonna come off if I do that here...

Aside from that, this looks AMAZING.

If you pull upwards on the back end it shouldn't come popping off, but only when you push down. I usually move the heads around by grabbing the mask, but I will probably have to find some way to move the head around without ripping the mask off now.

[One Very Agile Cat]

Thanks for the excellent review! Tahu looks pretty awesome as-is, but yeah, I'll have to fish around my parts bin to delete the silver hands/feet and fill in the leg backs. I quite dig the high shouder pads. Just kinda different and cool, changes up the profile.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Thanks for this review VBBN! Tahu Nuva was one of my first Bionicle sets, so if I don't end up buying all 13 at once and don't win any in the BFTGM contest, this will be my first purchase along with Pohatu.

That said, I can't stand the armour on the legs as it currently is. I can't help but feel that the 6M shoulder armour would have been better on the femurs (maybe with the piston piece) and the 5M with the piston extension on his shins. It's also too exposed at the back of the legs and I also quite dislike the use of the friction joints on the ankles. But to be fair I've never been a fan of that anyway. I will probably mod Tahu to fix the legs as I describe, and free up some of those wonderful red 2.0 torso armours for some of my character MOC's that have been crying out for them for years.

Also, I agree with you, the use of silver is quite baffling especially as the hands AND feet both exist in black and red. And am I the only one that thinks his arms look a bit weird? What with the piston extension only being on the lower part of the arm?

Otherwise, a very nice set and I look forward to picking it up and working my magic on it

[DuckBricks]

Nice review as usual, VBBN! I really like how the piston elements are curved inwards in order to create a less-gappy upper leg portion as shown...

[Aethersprite]

That, and also this wouldn't make the torso that much less gappy. Part of the reason Kopaka's shoulder armor fits so snugly is that his gearbox is raised up one module, so the shoulder armor is closer to the actual shoulder joints. Tahu's gearbox is not raised up this way. I also don't know how well this would even fit. Kopaka's shoulder armor needs to be angled back to fit over his actual shoulder joints, which looks just fine with those larger shoulder pads but might not work so well with smaller shoulder pads that are supposed to fit snugly over the shoulders themselves.

Attaching the shoulder armor to the torso beam would let you make the shoulders two modules narrower, if you wanted to do so, since there wouldn't be a need for the extra ball joints.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I didn't notice Kopaka's gearbox is attached higher up than the others'.

[ZORK64]

While I'm not the biggest fan of gold, I like Tahu's colour scheme, and design-wise I think he's the best of the three Toa (though I'd be tempted to try Kopaka's shoulder design on him, I think it would look nicer than his current shoulders).

Anyway, thanks for the review!

[Echo]

So I'm assuming that if you attach the trans reddish-orange small shell on his shoulders directly to the ball joint rather than putting the little black connector part on first, the arms won't be able to move? That's unfortunate.

[Lyichir]

So I'm assuming that if you attach the trans reddish-orange small shell on his shoulders directly to the ball joint rather than putting the little black connector part on first, the arms won't be able to move? That's unfortunate.

Actually, the arms could PROBABLY still move, since the shoulder shells would be attached to a ball joint that could still rotate inside them... but the shoulder attachments would shift around as you moved them, and would make the arms that much harder to move smoothly. I doubt it'd look nearly as good, either, since the way the set has them lets the shell details on the shoulders cover the top of the arms themselves, something that wouldn't work as well if they couldn't be angled downward.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Lyichir

[VBBN]

Good to see Tahu lives up to his reputation. I'll definitely be moving those shoulder pads to the torso shoulder balljoints a la Kopaka's shoulders. Seems a bit gappy as-is.

Actually, could we get a shot of that? I'd like to see how it looks.

I will get a picture of that soon I've got a few pic requests to fulfill.

So I'm assuming that if you attach the trans reddish-orange small shell on his shoulders directly to the ball joint rather than putting the little black connector part on first, the arms won't be able to move? That's unfortunate.

Actually, the arms could PROBABLY still move, since the shoulder shells would be attached to a ball joint that could still rotate inside them... but the shoulder attachments would shift around as you moved them, and would make the arms that much harder to move smoothly. I doubt it'd look nearly as good, either, since the way the set has them lets the shell details on the shoulders cover the top of the arms themselves, something that wouldn't work as well if they couldn't be angled downward.

You cannot place the armor directly onto that balljoint, the pieces that connect the swords to his back prevent you from being able to put the armor piece down. If you try it, you'll end up causing the arm to be pulled out.

[Lyichir]

I will get a picture of that soon I've got a few pic requests to fulfill.

You cannot place the armor directly onto that balljoint, the pieces that connect the swords to his back prevent you from being able to put the armor piece down. If you try it, you'll end up causing the arm to be pulled out.

Ah, right, forgot about those parts there. It'd work with a smaller shell on Gali (but again, just because it could attach doesn't mean it'd look that great)

[K-Nut]

Nice review! It's nice to see some pictures of the actual sets, opposed to just the box art. Tahu's looking pretty good here! It's nice to see some references to his former looks (mostly the Nuva form). Bit sad that he's one of the $20 Toa, but its not standing in the way of getting him into my personal collection along with at least Gali, Lewa, and Kopaka (though who can deny it, I can't stand to not get all of them).

[Aedai Rivin]

Definitely getting this guy when he comes out, maybe two so I can have one for a Lhikan.

I like to think of Tahu's smaller back swords as sort of eyebrow like extensions when mounted on his back, so they would move and express themselves while Tahu talked.

[Aanchir]

Definitely getting this guy when he comes out, maybe two so I can have one for a Lhikan.

This comment makes me wonder what the set would look like if you used the gold mask and swapped all the Bright Red shells for Dark Red ones. After all, the two sizes of Bright Red shells are coincidentally also the only two sizes Dark Red shells are currently available in.

Obviously, Bright Red is a better fit for Tahu as a character, but this is just idle curiosity.

[Im a brickmaster.]

Wow, I don't quite know what to think of him! The new one does look more intimidating and detailed but I still like the classic Hau better. Glad to hear opim not the only one in the snowy darkness... Excellent and informative review 'BN

Edited November 11, 2014 by Im a brickmaster.

[Aethersprite]

This comment makes me wonder what the set would look like if you used the gold mask and swapped all the Bright Red shells for Dark Red ones. After all, the two sizes of Bright Red shells are coincidentally also the only two sizes Dark Red shells are currently available in.

Obviously, Bright Red is a better fit for Tahu as a character, but this is just idle curiosity.

Wow, I would love to see this! I've thought of making a CCBS Lhikan ever since we got images of the new sets, but I don't think the new Hau fits Lhikan very well.