|
Right now, Lego fans are gathering their pennies and salivating in delight, while stores all around the US are busy putting their earlier Bionicles on sale, expecting the upcoming shipments any day now. It can only mean one thing - shelves are being cleared for the all new figures from the popular Bionicle line, the Rahkshi.
First came the Toa, fighting the evil Rahi beasts which plagued the once-peaceful island of Mata Nui. The battle waged on, but then the heroes needed something more, a new power to face a new threat (and Lego also wanted more money), thus the Toa Nuva were born, all new Uber-Toa to face the scary swarming threat of the Bohrok. Along the way, various extras were born (like my humble favourite, the ingenius Boxor) and later the Bohrok were re-hashed. Now comes the next step in the line, the Rahkshi.
In an unlikely series of events, my homeland Australia has seemingly got the new Bionicles before the US has, and since Lego hasn't got a bio of them up on the website yet, I don't have much to say as a background except that Rahkshi are new bad guys under the power of Makuta.
And also that they kick ass.
Once again Lego has outdone themselves with this incredibly fun, affordable line of toys. To begin with, although the Rahkshi are bigger than all of the previous Bionicle line figures, standing more than 9", they're still the same great price as the past lines. Each comes in what appears to be an upside-down cylinder that opens at the bottom, so the pieces and instruction booklet can easy slide out of the package. It's very well made and ideal for display behind the figure itself, and also provides a place to store the figure.
The figure looks completely unique and different to the past Bionicles - to start with, it's taller than all of the past Toa and Bohrok, and is much more posable. Lego has articulated these figures out of wazoo, and it's ideal for the tall, bug-like design - Kurahk Rahkshi has 12 points of articulation, most of them ball-joints (at the shoulders, wrists, legs, knees and feet) and the biggest improvement is the knee joints, which are snap-together balljoints ideal for the figure. They make Kurahk all the more imposing and athletic.
The design of the Rahkshi appears to be a combination of the human-like Toa and the insect-like Bohrok to make an armed, imposing ninja grasshopper. The Rahkshi are each one of the six Bionicle colors - Kurahk here is the white-ice version - each armed with a staff-type weapon, akin to their color/element. For example, the green-insect Rahkshi is armed with what appears to be insect-type spines on his staff, whereas Kurahk here has ice-cutter spears on his.
The Rahkshi have two action features - the first is an attack feature where Kurahk swings the staff weapon threateningly with the turn of the button on his back, which beats up any Toa easily. It works really well and looks great, created with a couple of simple cogs, but it most effective. Usually I dislike action features on figures, but as with all of the Bionicle toys, the design ingenuity makes this work well.
 The other action feature is similar to the Bohrok feature, in which attacking its eyes caused it to shoot out the Krana which would attach to the face of the Toa. The Rahkshi have a similar feature in which attacking its spines causes its back to open and fling out a little soft-plastic leech, which can attach to the face of a Toa. I don't know what exactly this little creature does to the Toa in the Bionicle storyline, but it's damn cool none-the-less. It's made of a similar rubber-plastic to the Krana and is an ideal accessory to the Rahkshi.
Overall, this is a fine addition to the Bionicle line and well worth the wait for. Bionicle fans will not be disappointed, and I'm glad Lego has gone far in making their toys even better than before, with a whole new design & extra articulation and, at same time, keeping them at the same low price. I'm looking forward to collecting the whole set.
Are you awaiting the new Bionicles and cursing Shocka's luck for living in Australia and getting the first? Want to laugh at him since he has to wait for everything else and pay double the price? Then go to our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
|
