Review: 8728 Inika Toa Hahli

[Deinonychus]

Ahhh...don't you just love new Toa season? Well the Toa Inika are finally starting to hit and former chronicler Hahli is part of this new crew.

Yeah, the Inika canisters are that big! It should make it very easy to spot when they land on the shelves in your favorite toy aisle. They are a little thinner then past canisters so all told I think they might take up about the same ammount of shelf space...that's very important for both retailers and those of us who like to keep and store these things.

After cracking the top and building the Toa up (it feels a lot like building a Piraka does) you get a very nice and very big action fgure. Articulation is superb and twisting Hahli into a variety of cool poses is no problem. Hahli's coloration is magnificent with molded pieces in a two-tone dark blue and white. Sure, some may complain that pieces like this make it hard to incorporate them into other MOCs, but they look damn slick on the set they're designed for.

The Zamor launcher is really the only weak point of the design. While the figure comes with four spheres and the launcher's magazine can hold all of them, but it can't hold them well, and the topmost sphere will go flying out with the slightest movement. This is still a vast improvement over the Piraka who would loose their single sphere constantly. The magazine looks fine holding just three spheres and MOCing up a little stop to go over the top shouldn't be that difficult.

The mask is made of the same material as the Piraka mask-spines and it slips over a bi-color plug that is the head. The bottom part is white and it phases into yellowish-green at the top, so the eyes aren't a solid color. It looks very bizzare and very cool.

The neck is held in by a new (or at least new to me) abreviated ball piece. A little more abreviated then previous ball pieces, it allows for a little more smoother movement of the neck.

Aside from the Zamor launcher, Hahli is also armed with a cool new Laser Harpoon which can look like a rifle or sword depending on how the figure's arm is held. Pushing the button on the side, it goes through a changing series of flashes before turning itself off. It's a welcome change from the Piraka eyes which only stayed lit as long as you were pressing the button down.

Speaking of the Piraka...these new Toa make the murdering thieves look like dwarfish little sissies.

The trend seems to be for the Toa to get larger and larger with each incarnation, and Hahli certainly towers over her old hero Gali.

Overall, if Hahli is typical of the Inika, we can expect impressive large figures with great coloration and articulation posessing a very well done light-up weapon gimmick. The only minus I can really state is the afore mentioned problem with the Zamor magazine, and that's easy to overlook.

Toa Inika Hahli most certainly gets the Deino Stamp of Approval out of me. I can't wait until I wrangle up her fellow Toa-heroes! *y*

[Kahgarak]

Great review!I ordered Jaller a few days ago,and thanks to your review i now think that the Inika are sweeter than i thought!

Thanks for the back view also ;-) *y* .

[Zane]

Best. Hahli. Review. Yet.

Okay, the only one I've seen, but the photos are excellent. I'll definately be purchasing this one, after my Nuparu, Matoro and Kongu come. I did the order wrong, rang up Lego to change it, girl said she'd change it but didn't, waited for a week, rang again (annoyed) and said they'd dispatch it on URGENT!. Still not here yet...

-Tilius-

[Shakar]

Hahli was my favourite Inika, and those pictures and review just confirmed it. Her colour scheme is awesome, the white to blue parts are sweet, and her harpoon is pretty cool as well. Still uncertain about the mask, I guess I'll just replace her head with an Olda one and slap on it her old Kaukau.

Thanks for the review. *y*

Shakar

[optimus-convoy]

Nice review,

Hahli looks great, can't wait to find the Inika.

[vahkimetru]

Good review and terrific photos.

This makes me want my Jaller more even though she isn't Jaller, they're somewhat the same.

Hopefully Jaller will come soon.

[JINZONINGEN73]

The only thing that could make this review better is a pic of all the parts before assembly.

These Inika BLOW the Piraka out of the water 73 million times over.

[Shakar]

Indeed, Jinzo. The designs and colours are SO much better than the Piraka. Trust me, the masks actually look more normal than the Nuva ones, they're very nice looking. Except Kongu, I really hate his Suletu.

Shakar

[JINZONINGEN73]

Agreed. But the biggest thing to complain about is the swirly colors on thios particular set.

VERY worthless to mocing. Immensely.

But on a good note, all but one of the other Inika are NOT like that. Solid-colored goodness all around.

Despite the inability to really use her swirly parts (lol), the green strobe light color and the gun-metal silver colored weapon are VERY welcome.

All the pale, sickly looking silver and gold of recent sets are put to shame by this one's colors.

I wouldn't mind all the silly armor and weapons put out each year if they were in this "serious" color.

[Zane]

My Hahli has one mostly blue foot and one mostly white.

Dang....

[Zarkan]

But the biggest thing to complain about is the swirly colors on thios particular set.

VERY worthless to mocing. Immensely.

I can't really agree with that. As long as the main color you use in a MOC is white or dark blue, I see many cool uses for the swirly pieces. I know that you usually buy a kit just for the pieces, but I think that comment you made a while back about "popping the swirly pieces back into the canister as soon as you dump the contents out" is a bit one sided. Try using them in a MOC at least once, as I'm sure you, one of the best Bionicle builders ever, could do something cool with them. ;-)

These Inika BLOW the Piraka out of the water 73 million times over.

Well, maybe not 73 million times over, but I can agree with that. The weapons are much better, and the figures are much cooler! I still am having a tough time adjusting to the fact that the POOP spines are coming back in 2007. :-( Maybe if they had made the piraka faces like Vezon's, they would have looked better.

BTW, great review Deinonychus. Those crystal clear pictures enhance it so much. ;-)

~~END~~

[Mephek]

I hate the face

[arc]

I'm not a mod, but for future reference, please refrain from bumping ancient topics. some don't appreciate that very much.

[ShadowWolfHount]

The set for it's time is amazing, i did love the build and weapon of that year but the color is really odd because Blue and White colors are the color for the Vo-toa but yet Hahli is a Toa of Water. The mask, well i do agree with Mephek that i hate the mask as well plus it look more like it go's on a Male then a Female. The light up weapon is really good and the feet are great.