Just Imagine

I'm defiantly picking up the Endor set, seems like a cheap and easy way to get some otherwise expensive figures. On a slightly unrelated note, does anyone know if the backpack will fit on the Scout Trooper? I see it attached to the back of the speeder, but Storm Troopers and Clone Troopers helms are too big for the pack.

Is the helmet "face" open, as in the face you see is the face on the mini figure head?

That V-Wing looks terrible, in my opinion. While the front looks thin and sleek the wings and blasters look terribly blocky.

The printed pieces in this set are fantastic. They really add another level of detail to this set.

Sorry for going off topic... Am I the only one who likes random colors inside Lego vehicles? If you look at cars, planes and other machines in real life and look at the inner workings they contain all kinds of colors. As long as the colors don't show on the outside of the set I don't mind them all that much. Anyway, great review, Starstreak.

Seems a bit small for a "UCS" model and the joints look extremely weak, but it's a nice model, nonetheless.

It surprised me too. I was about to ask whether or not he was one of the hidden images.

I found all 4. The police one was a bit challenging, but I eventually got it. The others were pretty easy, though.

Well, not exactly. I'm assuming the "Imperial" part is just because those were the V-Wings made to guard the Emperors ship. And yes, this set seems based on the ones seen flying around Palpy's shuttle at the end of RoTS.

Are the posts where the pictures are hidden by random people? Or are they all contained within posts of the staff of Eurobricks?

Just saw the new pictures... My thoughts on them: The Bounty Hunter Ship: Other than Aurra Sing I'm not all that excited for this one. Gungan: Ehhh, I'll pass. V-Wing: Interesting... Although it looks like they just gave the old one a new paint job and raised the price. I can't see any difference in the design. The minifigures are nice... Although I wish the torso for the pilot was different from the ones you get in the Tie-Fighters. The R2 unit looks like it's silver, which is nice. I'll probably end up getting this one. Mandalorian Battlepack: I like this one, though I wish they weren't all blue. It looks like at least one person comes with a silver jetpack. Clone Battlepack: I know the figs probably aren't final yet, but ehhh. The ARF trooper, while nice, is a bit too CW for me. The helmet just looks to cartoony for my taste. Clone Commando is a disappointment... The visor isn't the right shape or color, they still have the crest, the colors are kinda... meh. He just looks like another clone trooper. The bomb squad clone is bit more interesting, I like the color. As for the Jedi Ship, not interested in that.

Nice MOC you have here, Big Brick. The only constructive critisism I can give you is that the "wheel" looks a bit out of place. I especially like how you did the hyperdrive, though. Overall, a job well done.

Right, will do.

Disregard that last post. It still won't keep me logged in. Guess I'll just have to deal with it. Thanks for the help, anyways.

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

That's strange... Because I cleared all my cookies just yesterday. But anyway, I tried what you suggested and it worked. Thanks, Siegried!

First off, I apologize if this topic has already been made. I tried searching for it, but I couldn't find it, and Flood Control is enabled. Anyway, on to my problem. I have cookies enabled for this site and forum, and when I log in I check "remember me" but every time I leave the site and come back I'm not logged in. Thanks in advance.

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

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.

That Boba Fett looks wonderful, I love the colors. I wish I could get instructions for him.

Ooh, very nice, KielDaMan. Do you think you would do the same for the Starfighters from Ep III?

I'm really sorry for bumping a 3 year old topic, but when I try to put 3 images in my sig as links to my MOC's I get an error. How come other members have more then 3 images as links to their topics? I did as the tutorial said, but I get an error message because I have more then 2 URLS.

There's also the possibility that Lego might make that scene like the Mustafar Duel. Palpy's office, if I recall correctly, is circler. So they could make it have the minifigs on sticks that could 'fight' each other, with 'traps' like the breaking window. It could also be a return of the lightup lightsabers. Although, I doubt TLG will make this set, at least not in the near future anyway.

@ Brickdoctor Yeah, I sort of meant it to be that way. I have a little Star Wars story going, set in the Clone Wars. This was supposed to be a Bounty Hunter's ship. I'm currently working on a larger size shuttle based on this one that can fit minifigs.

Thanks for all the comments, guys. I love building in micro/mini scale, so hopefully I should have some more MOC's up soon.