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    Toy Fair 2008 Lego Collector's Party: Bionicle
    Hot Bionicle NewsSunday, February 17th, 2008 at 4:56pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager

    This year Lego has mixed things up with their Bionicle line. First, instead of releasing six heroes at one time and six villains at another, they split them up into two mixed groups. Also, for the first time since 2004 there will be no playsets this year. Finally, instead of the usual titans or warriors, we have seen the introduction of vehicles, some of them being very large and all of them featuring great action features. So what do all those sets look like? Read on!

    Before we begin, a couple notes. First, these are only my pictures at this time. Once Andrew M. is able to upload his pictures this story will be updated. Also, this article only covers the Bionicle sets - the rest of the Lego sets on display will be covered later on.

    Current 2008 Sets
    Not much to say here. You guys have already seen these sets and many of them have been reviewed. But they were on display, so we took a couple pictures.

    Matoran

    Good Matoran Evil Matoran

    Phantoka

    Toa Makuta The whole family

    Toa Ignika

    Mutran & Vican were absent; store exclusive sets usually don't make an appearance at Toy Fair due to the agreements Lego has with the exclusive store.

    Summer 2008 Sets
    I'm breaking the sets down into four categories, the Toa Mistika, the Makuta Mistika, the Vehicles, and Titans (of course there is only one of these). I'll provide a brief description of each.

    All the Mistika And again

    Toa Mistika
    The three remaining Toa have seen similar transformations to the first wave of sets, barely resembling the original Toa Nuva. The Mistika feature an air dart launcher (called Nynrah Ghost Blasters) that is fired by the user pushing down on an accordion-like air bladder. The fire quite well and have a good range and power. Also, they all seem to feature little rocket jets on their legs, arms, or torsos, which I suppose gives them the ability to fly. They also have Matoran attachment points, but they are the same ones the Makuta Phantoka use, which is odd. The sets are somewhat lacking in other tools or weapons, which is a disappointment. A final concern is the listed price of $12.99 USD for these sets.

    Group Shot Tahu Nuva Onua Nuva
    Gali Nuva Top-down of Gali Head-on
    Rear detail of Tahu Read detail of Gali Rear detail of Onua
    Group Shot Tahu Gali
    Gali Gali Mixup?
    Gali

    A note on the last photo: You might have noticed the odd piece on Gali's back and the red plus-rod on Onua's arm. We're pretty sure the piece from the back is supposed to be Onua's shoulder armor and that it was just reassembled incorrectly.

    Makuta Mistika
    The last three Makuta canister sets prove to be very interesting. Krika may be the largest canister set to date and looks really cool doing it. The Makuta also have Nynrah Ghost Blasters but seem to have more claws, wings, or tools than the Toa. The design are quite unique and they look like good sets. Like the Toa, they feature the strange Matoran attachment points as well and are also listed as $12.99 USD.

    Group Shot Group Shot Gorast
    Bitil Krika Krika
    Bitil Gorast Rear detail of Gorast
    Rear detail of Krika Rear detail of Bitil Group Shot
    Two points of neck articulation
    Bitil Bitil Bitil
    Gorast Group Group
    Krika Krika Krika

    Vehicles
    This year's vehicles are very interesting sets. They all feature at least one launcher and all have a few action features. As far as the drivers go, Vultraz is a Matoran, and the rest are Toa-sized, though Lego would not reveal their names or confirm if they were in fact Toa. I really like this direction away from a bunch of large humanoid sets and hope the vehicles sell well.

    Axalara T9 Axalara T9 Axalara T9
    Jetrax T6 Rockoh T3 Jetrax T6
    Rockoh T3 Vultraz Vultraz
    Rockoh T3's Zamor Launcher Zamor Magazine Axalara T9 Engines
    Axalara T9's Midak Jetrax T6 Axalara T9's Midak Deployed
    Axalara T9's Midak Retracted Jetrax T6 Wings Unfolded Jetrax T6 Wings Folded
    Vultraz Vultraz Rockoh T3
    Jetrax T6 Jetrax T6 Jetrax T6
    Axalara T9 Midaks Closed Axalara T9 Midaks Open Axalara T9
    Axalara T9 Wingtips Open Axalara T9 Wingtips Closed Axalara T9

    Takanuva
    The last new Bionicle set is another returning hero. The last time we saw Takanuva was in 2003 at the end of the Mask of Light saga. He returns now, imbued with powers of both light and shadow. While he has grown in size since his last appearance and has gotten a new color scheme, he is still very much recognizable as the Toa of Light, moreso, in my opinion, than the Toa Nuva are.

    Hand detail One last look

    So that's all the Bionicle that was on display this year. Some of you may be wondering about Mazeka. That set is a store exclusive so we'll have to wait for it to be revealed. Keep checking back for more Toy Fair coverage, including more Bionicle pictures, images of the other themes on display, and our thoughts on all these new sets!

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