Review: 8601 Toa Vakama

[Just Imagine]

Hello, and welcome to my review of 8691 Toa Vakama. I was rather surprised at the lack of Bionicle reviews, especially reviews of some of the older sets. So, without further delay, here is my first review for Eurobricks.

First off, the basic set information:

Item Number: 8601

Pieces: 49

Price: US $8.00 / £5.99

Released: 2004

49 pieces for $8.00 comes out to approximately 16 cents per piece, which is a reasonable price if you ask me. Compare that to today's Hero Factory, 19 pieces for $8.00, which comes out at approximately 42 cents per piece. Note that inflation and other economic factors may have played a role in the pricing of the sets of the present and the past. But anyway, let's move on.

Those were the words that closed an old door and opened a new one in Bionicle history.

The Toa Metru took one small step that would lead to one giant leap for the Bionicle series. They were what I, personally, considered the best of both worlds. I'll explain more as the review goes on. For now, let's look at the parts assortment for this set.

Dark red replaces red, dark gray replaces black. It started a trend that would go on for years and years, the classic colors would be replaced by darker shades. One thing you'll notice is the lack of silver. The only silver piece in this set is Vakama's disk launcher. In the years to come sets would start to include more and more silver, gold, dark gray and other metallic colors in their schemes. I like the lack of silver, it makes the Toa look more, well, elemental if you ask me.

Here you can see some of the more interesting and rarer pieces of the set. I didn't include that mask because it can be found in some other sets.

Here we get a comparison between Vakama's disk launcher and a Matoran's disk launcher. You can see that Vakama's disk launcher is wider and it has some decorative flames which look quite nice. Also not the bands that reinforce it on the bottom. As neat as it is, I found it couldn't launch very far. You'll see that the left side of Vakama's disk launcher doesn't grip the disk fully, which is probably why it doesn't launch as far as the Matoran's, which does grip the disk fully.

Here we see a close up of Vakama's trans dark red disk. It has his mask engraved in it, as well as his name in Bionicle language. Unlike the Matoran disks this one does not have a power level and does not glow in the dark.

Here we see the shoulder pads. You can see the resemblance between the thigh armor and the shoulder armor, which is a nice detail.

And here we see a white stick, one of the rarer pieces. I think the Metru were the only set to include this piece. You'll see its importance later on.

Not that we are done with the rare and interesting pieces included in this set, let's move on to the instructions.

The cover of the instructions. Nice little scene of Vakama jumping through the lava factories of Metru Nui.

Right inside the cover of the instructions is a nice picture of all the Metru posed with Metru Nui in the background.

A random page. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, with step by step building and arrow indicators. Metru Nui in the background looks quite nice.

Here it shows how you can fit him in the canister. More on the canister in a bit.

Also included are instructions to build 1/3d of this combo model. The combo models were one of the things I missed most about Bionicle in the later years.

The rest of the instructions mostly consist of pictures of the other Toa Metru and maps of Metru Nui.

Here we see all 6 Toa.

Images of Metru Nui and the 6 Matoran.

Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the canisters to the Toa Metru. As shown in the image above, if you took two canister caps you could fit them together to make a Matoran canister. It was one of my favorite features of the Toa Metru.

The back of the instructions. Note the lack of a screaming kid.

For such a standard set, these instructions were incredibly detailed. Not only just containing instructions for the set itself, but for the combo model as well. So, now that we have the instructions out of the way, we can finally move onto the completed set.

From the front.

The side.

And the back.

The instructions say to have the dis launcher facing up, but in the comics Vakama is shown flying using the disk launcher facing downwards. I personally think it looks better facing up, it makes him look like he has wings, almost.

Vakama's back without the disk launcher attached.

The thing that makes this set look so great is the fact that nearly every single piece was made for this set. In the coming years old parts would be recycled over and over for different sets, but at the time pretty much every single piece in this set was brand new and made for this Toa. Everything fits together, the color scheme, the armor, the limbs, everything. The body perfectly proportioned, the arms and legs are about the right length in comparison to the body, and the head and mask isn't too big or too small, either.

Moving on, I mentioned the white stick a while back in the rare/interesting pieces section. Anybody who's watched Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui will know of the scene where Toa Lhikan dies. As he dies you can see the light in his chest slowly flicker and go out. The white stick represents the heart in the Bionicle. It's that extra level of detail and care that the designers put into the Toa Metru that made them so great.

Here you can see the white stick acting as the "heart" of the Toa. That, along with the partially visible gears make this set seem almost real, in a way.

Let's move onto the mask, Vakama's Kanohi Huna, the mask of invisibility.

Sleek and smooth, it bears resemblance to Turaga Dume's mask.

Here we see the head from a side, without the mask on.

And with the mask on. It fits well with the head, covers most of the gray parts of the head and grips on nicely.

Now, let's do some comparisons between Toa Vakama and his predecessor Toa Nuva Tahu.

Here we can see that Vakama is slightly taller than Tahu, less bulky and just all around better proportioned.

Now let's compare the limbs.

Vakama's leg is longer, but only bit a little, despite the two different designs.

Here we see Vakama's leg can bend while Tahu's cannot.

Now for the arms.

Again, Vakama's arm can bend, while Tahu's cannot.

The torso.

For the most part, they are the same. About the same size and shape, but there is one crucial different between the 2. you can clearly see that Vakama's gears are angled up and out, where as Tahu's just stick straight out of the body. This means Vakama's arms don't get in the way of the legs when you swing them around with the gear system, which was one problem with the Toa Nuva.

Now let's compare heads.

As you can see, Vakama's head is on a ball join, allowing it to turn 360 degrees and up and down to a certain extent. One of the play features of the Toa Nuva was having their masks knocked off, although this could be fun with the Bohrok, it wasn't so much fun when in the middle of play it would randomly fall off.

You can also see that the "brain" of Vakama is easily removed, while with Tahu I usually had to use a knife to separate the skull and the brain.

Here you can see that Tahu's mask doesn't stay on very well, while Vakama's maks uses a stick to stay firmly in place.

The Toa Metru were the best of both worlds, in my opinion. They had the bendable joints and limbs of the future, while still retaining the gear system and color scheme of the past. In the future gears would be replaced mostly by launchers, and more and more silver and gold would be worked into the sets. In my personal opinion, this is one of the best, if not the best, Bionicle set ever made.

I'll wrap up this review with some posed shots of Vakama.

Bonus pic.

Gali digs guys who can flex their muscles.

(Does anybody know how to set up polls? I'd like to see how people would rate this set as a set today, and how they would have rated it if it was 2004.)

Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

[prateek]

Great review. I have Matau, but my favourite has to be Nuju. I love the Toa Metru because of their posability

[Captain M]

And here we see a white stick, one of the rarer pieces. I think the Metru were the only set to include this piece. You'll see its importance later on.

Exo-Toa had that piece.

Excellent review though, plenty of pictures. I like how you started off the review with a panel from a Bionicle comic.

[Extreme Sadness.]

I agree about the sore lack of Bionicle reviews on here, I might make a few myself, eventually . Anyway, that was easily one of the best reviews I've seen here yet, although, the white axle peice has been included in quite a few sets before, not just the Metru and Exo-Toa.

-ES

[Clone OPatra]

I have Matau, but my favourite has to be Nuju.

Me too! Nuju is my most favorite Bionicle set ever. If he wasn't all white, maybe I'd review him myself.

Good review. You've covered exactly why I myself loved the Metru Toa, although I only ever got two of them. The Metru are clearly just a much-needed upgrade from the first two sets of Toa, before Bionicle turned into continual rehashes without the gears anyway. The Metru are sleek and elegant, and still have a certain charm.

[hewkii9]

Great review! The lack of screaming child disappointed me too.

I've always thought that the Metru were by far the most stylish line of Toa that Bionicle ever did - they have a consistent aesthetic, are just this side of being clone-y, and are much better looking than, say, the Inika. My personal favorite'd have to be Onewa, though.

[Just Imagine]

Exo-Toa had that piece.

Ahh, I wasn't that into Exo-Force, I only got one set, but thanks for clearing that up.

Me too! Nuju is my most favorite Bionicle set ever. If he wasn't all white, maybe I'd review him myself.

Good review. You've covered exactly why I myself loved the Metru Toa, although I only ever got two of them. The Metru are clearly just a much-needed upgrade from the first two sets of Toa, before Bionicle turned into continual rehashes without the gears anyway. The Metru are sleek and elegant, and still have a certain charm.

Nuju is probably my favorite as well, though I never got him. I only got Vakama, Nokama and Onewa. The gears were one of my favorite features of Bionicle, they could make arms and legs swing, Bohrak heads move and so on. It's a shame that they took them out. I'll try to review Nokama and Onewa in the next few days. And maybe Nidhiki and some Vahki as well. I might throw in some Matoran, as well.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Just Imagine

[hewkii9]

Oooh, please do a review of Nidhiki. That was a fantastic set.

[Zip]

Nice review. I never got any Metru, but I did get a Hagah (Iruini), and it remains my favorite Toa set to this day.

Oh, and the Exo-Toa isn't an Exo-Force set, it's this:

Edited August 24, 2010 by Zip

[Just Imagine]

Nice review. I never got any Metru, but I did get a Hagah (Iruini), and it remains my favorite Toa set to this day.

Oh, and the Exo-Toa isn't an Exo-Force set, it's this:

Whoops, I misread that. I should have another review coming along soon enough.

[VBBN]

Nice review, with a ton of pictures! I did like the metru, though the geared chests were of annoyance to me, I much preferred the geared functions of the mata because you could lock them into place and such. Though for future reference, please try to keep the photos to a smaller size to reduce loading times.

[Just Imagine]

Though for future reference, please try to keep the photos to a smaller size to reduce loading times.

Right, will do.

[Aethersprite]

Great review for a great set. Really, really detailed and nice pictures.

I don't own any of the Metru, but IMO, they were great. My favourite has got to be Lhikan.

Oh, and the Huna's actually the Mask of Concealment, not Invisibility.

[Makuta Plasmix]

Well, I have to say, good review. You actually made a set with gears, (which are in my opinion the WORST play feature in the HISTORY of Bionicle play features) look good. But still, if I had to choose between A Toa Metru and a Toa Inika, Im going with the one with no gears. I feel that gears only work in system sets, not Bionicle sets. Your review gets 10/10, but Vakama gets 8/10. Its a step forward when it comes to bending arms and legs and replacing gears, but it still has gears.

[Zip]

Well, I have to say, good review. You actually made a set with gears, (which are in my opinion the WORST play feature in the HISTORY of Bionicle play features) look good. But still, if I had to choose between A Toa Metru and a Toa Inika, Im going with the one with no gears. I feel that gears only work in system sets, not Bionicle sets. Your review gets 10/10, but Vakama gets 8/10. Its a step forward when it comes to bending arms and legs and replacing gears, but it still has gears.

I wouldn't mind gears if they blend in or even help the aesthetics, like the Bohrok.

[Icesaber]

The Metru were awesome...the gears in their chest made for a cool appearance of armor covering "muscle" of some sorts...

The only problem I had with the Metru was their lack of secondary colors...such drab bley. That's why I liked Lhikan and the Hagah better.

[Aanchir]

The Metru were awesome...the gears in their chest made for a cool appearance of armor covering "muscle" of some sorts...

The only problem I had with the Metru was their lack of secondary colors...such drab bley. That's why I liked Lhikan and the Hagah better.

I don't think the Metru color schemes would have been nearly so bad if not for the fact that pretty much every single set that year had the exact same color scheme. Only the large sets were free of that problem.

Granted, having such similar color schemes made a lot of the combiner models look a lot cooler. But still, I think that a little more originality would have been welcome. The artists for Legends of Metru Nui obviously thought the same way, giving the Toa Metru metallic colors that accented their armor colors effectively. Even if metallic colors can be overdone, they're a great way to add originality to a character design.

[VK-318]

My apologies for necro-commenting, but when I found this review I just had to add my thoughts. Vakama was the second Lego set I ever owned, and not only do I have a lot of nostalgia for this set, but I really agree about the quality of the design and aesthetics. To me, this has always been what a Toa looks like: though I do appreciate the use of metallic trim colors as in Iruini and Norik, the single-color scheme of the Toa Metru gives them a very businesslike, no-nonsense look that really suits the character of the team. I still have my 8601, and it is one of the handful of sets I will never, ever get rid of.

My only gripe is with the geared arms. They make posing difficult, because whenever one arm reaches forward, the other has to go back, and they don't hold their positions without your hand on the axle. I devised a mod using technic bushing pegs and 2-stud-long axles to make them independently poseable, but I do kind of miss that little white highlight in the middle of the chest.

[Lord-Vorahk]

The Metru were awesome...the gears in their chest made for a cool appearance of armor covering "muscle" of some sorts...

The only problem I had with the Metru was their lack of secondary colors...such drab bley. That's why I liked Lhikan and the Hagah better.

I have to agree.

My only gripe is with the geared arms. They make posing difficult, because whenever one arm reaches forward, the other has to go back, and they don't hold their positions without your hand on the axle. I devised a mod using technic bushing pegs and 2-stud-long axles to make them independently poseable, but I do kind of miss that little white highlight in the middle of the chest.

I'd like to see that.

I have my own mod which only works for the Hagah. Remove the chestplate and add another gear, then cover with the Hagah's chest armour.