Monday, July 21, 2008

Tahu Review

Tahu Nuva review. Format credit to BZPower. No pics.

Presentation
From the design of the canister to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

Well, the canister is pretty cool. The lid is a neat Ignika, with half of it corrupted and half of it pure. The clean side of the Ignika is facing the front, and the damaged side is facing the back. The Makuta's canisters are the opposite. On the front is an neat picture of Tahu approaching with his weapons raised, and on the back is a demonstration showing how to connect Solek to Tahu. (this is non-canon) The front of the instructions features a close-up of Tahu. The inside of the booklet is pretty much the same as ever. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the designs of the Mistika canister and manual.

Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

Tahu's mix of red and silver pieces came right out of the canister. There's the main, bigger pieces, and there's the smaller pieces contained in a little plastic bag. Tahu has 73 pieces, the most ever featured in a canister. Of course, he does cost $12.99.

Well, the first thing you build is the Nynrah Ghost Blaster. It's 6 pieces with the ammo, four pieces just plain blaster. Very simple. Next, you move onto the main body, which is one of those old '06 Piraka torsos that they've been using for three years. The arms and the legs are pretty much the same, though the legs have spiky armor from the lower parts of them. Tahu is pretty basic, even though he has many pieces. There are just more parts to him than normal.

Tahu's rotating blades are made of some new pieces, and a Gahlok-Kal shield. He has the feet of Kongu of the Toa Inika, also from 2006. His mask is very awesome, reminds me of a knight or a ninja.

Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

New pieces include the three main parts of the rotating blades (mentioned earlier), the jets and the red fins, Tahu's mask, lower leg armor, and the Nynrah Ghost Blaster parts.

Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

Well, this isn't really my department since I don't really play with Bionicles, I just collect them, but I'll try my best.

His rotating blades spin, but they don't spin as fast as Pohatu's propellors or Icarax's shield. They just sort of...spin. Tahu's great to pose, as he has approximately thirteen points of articulation and eighteen places to move. Also, the Nynrah Ghost Blaster fires well. The only drawbacks are that you only recieve two ammo, in case one gets lost or something random like that.

Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

Pros
What's to like?

*Cool mask
*Rotating blades, Nynrah Ghost Blaster
*Great for posing
*73 pieces!

Cons
What's not to like?

*Not very original body design
*$12.99!
*Only two Nynrah Ghost Blaster ammo

I think that Tahu is worth getting, because he has 73 pieces, and some very cool pieces. The price tag may seem like a lot, but you'll be surprised when you see how awesome he really is.

Bitil review coming soon!

Mistika Ratings

These are actual ratings, now that the sets are out.

Tahu: 9.0
Gali: 8.9
Onua: 8.95

Krika: 9.0
Gorast: 9.5
Bitil: 9.8

Vultraz: 7.5
Mazeka: 9.5

Takanuva: 9.8

Rockoh T3: 9.1
Jetrax T6: 9.8
Jetrax T6 (Yellow): 9.94
Axalara T9: 9.95

Reviews to come.