Toa Inika: Pros and Cons Discussion

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

G'day,

It has intruiged me that here on EB, there are a number of people who, while they with me on my views of Greg Farshtey and the BIONICLE storyline, really like the Toa Inika sets.

I for one hate the gorram things. Giant peices, solid yet still poor construction, horrible blob-heads, and above all hideous masks made me think more of "frogs and aliens dumped in a vat of battery acid that then got microwaved" then Toa of legend.

So, I thought i'd start a topic to discuss the high and low points of these sets, and what makes people like/dislike them.

Y'know... for discussions sake :P

[Visorak-kal]

Hello,

I've been watching Eurobricks for some time as a guest, and upon reading this topic I decided to join in. I've been a fan of LEGO since 1995, and a fan of BIONICLE since December 2000 (the first views of the Toa Mata in a measly little catalog.) I've watched BIONICLE grow from Toa with little poseability to Toa will amazing poseability, and now we've reached the Toa Inika and a point in BIONICLE in which changes must be made; things must take a different turn.

My family in total has all six Toa Inika, so I can give my own detailed opinon on these sets.

I will refrain from taking storyline into consideration here (one of my own gripes is the transformation of Matoran captains and war leaders into Toa, I would have preferred Jaller and Co. stay as they were.)

I must confess I do like SOME of the Toa Inika.

Pro:

The Toa Inika are the most poseable sets yet, with the exception of the Barraki, which allows for a variety of playability and poseability. (I like to sit around and pose my BIONICLE figures into battle poses, seeing what can be done with the sets in terms of how realistic their joints are.)

The Piraka would have been the most poseability if not for the spine, which limited head movement. This is a bonus for me, as gears made it hard to pose sets, and in later years had less function, with the disappearance of removable masks. (Toa Metru/Hordika)

Pro/Con:

The Toa Inika feature a variety of new pieces, although I must agree that a lot of those pieces are large and bulky. I can see why tastes would differ. However, looking at the original Toa, I see bulky one-piece bodies, which the Inika have gotten rid of to an extent. What long lacked in BIONICLE with the Piraka and Hordika was a good armored body. Spines do not really count as armor, and the Hordika were completely hollow inside. The Toa Inika gave this; their bodies were very armored, and each Inika had two different types of armor and feet, in essence 'paving' the way for the end of cloning.

Pro/Con:

The legs were iffy- I wasn't really a fan of their design, but the knee-guards were interesting. The leg armor was excellent, and the arms hold no problems for me.

Pro:

The Toa Inika have excellent color schemes, with the exception of Nuparu. The transparent pieces were a bonus for me, and Hewkii was excellently colored after (IMO) the duller brown of Piraka Avak. I was never a brown fan. The Zamor launchers were excelent in their launchability, though their collectibility was flawed.

Pro/Con:

Faces. Some of the Inika have nice faces, some of them have ugh! faces. According to The Lego Company, courtesy of Mr. Greg Farshtey, the reason for faces as he was told was that the market was leaning more towards expressions on faces. I don't agree with it, but I'm far older than the target audience, in both actual age and maturity. (Image an eight-year-old buying Mindstorms Robotics Invention in 3rd great, much less building it, a fact I am proud of, :-D ) Toa Inika Jaller and Toa Inika Matoro have excellent faces, which is part of the reason I bought only them for myself. (The rest of my family culminates the other 4 Inika.) I like Hewkii's face, it seems very like a stone Toa. Kongu, Hahli, and Nuparu are iffy. Nuparu's face I DO NOT like, Hahli's face is not feminine enough. (Once, I made a movie with my LEGO Studios where I would use very slow animation to make realistic movement. I swear, Hahli looked like DIno-Woman in that mug.) Kongu looks like Two-Face from Batman.

Con:

Despite their moving upwards in terms of differentiation, the Toa Inika are still, in essence, clone sets. I despise clone sets, because that removes any point of buying multiples. There is no point in buying Kongu because he is practically the same as Hahli, just a different color, weapon, and ugly face. The Barraki have truly advanced in thes perspective. In addition, the collectibility of the Zamors is a flop. I used to buy a lot of mask packs, and a lot of Kanoka Disk packs, a lot of Krana, a few Kraata, less Rhotuka, and only one Zamor pack. This lack of collectibility is due, according to Greg Farshtey, to the focus groups, who want more weapon ammo and are not interested in collectibles. (Curse thee, focus groups, why!!!??)

Blobs:

The blob heads deserve their own category. I must express my distaste for them, i much prefer original Toa and even moreso Toa Metru heads. Luckily for us, the heads were continued this year with Axonn, Brutaka, and Umbra.

My only consolation is that the blobs are hidden by the faces. There is no other excuse. The storyline cover-up was that their faces 'glowed with lightning power' (ooh, shiny!). While this is a poor excuse, I cannot blame Greg Farshtey for it (it isn't easy to cover up blob faces, poor guy.) I have no clue what I would have done to cover that up.

Result:

I approve of some of the Toa Inika sets. In essence they are clones, and I bought only two; Jaller and Matoro, for:

Transparent Parts

Limited Differentiation

No One-Piece Bodies or Flawed Armor

Great Articulation

Nice Faces (Especially Matoro)

That is my opinion. Good day to you as well. :-)

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

I don't see any cons except for these:

1: Blob heads

2: Some ugly masks

3: Zamors fall out too easily

4: Almost completly clone sets.

-ZotS

[optimus-convoy]

Pros:

Parts- some useful parts in good colors.

Articulation- These guys can get in some nice poses. I'm a sucker of articulated figs anyway. X-D

Cons:

Masks- they look alright, but not as versatile as normal masks.

Zamors- they're fun to shoot, but they're more of a burden really. Always falling out without modification. >:-(

Overall, I really liked the Inika as sets. I actually still have my Hewkii & Jaller together. *y*