In Defense of: The Bohrok Kal

LEGO BIONICLE
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The Bohrok Kal tend to be looked upon poorly, and that view is justified: They are indeed clone sets, they are indeed direct clones of the earlier Bohrok, and they are indeed fairly useless overall.

So why am I defending them?
Well, they did their job well.

The Bohrok Kal were, as far as I can gather, not really meant to sell like hotcakes, and were never intended to be the main villain of 2003 (obviously). What they were meant to do was fill the gap between the end of 2002 and the release of Mask of Light and related products - both from a story and set point of view.

Consider if the Kal had not been released, and MoL had been released in early 2003: We would have launched straight into a relatively Matoran-focused story, without spending any time getting to know how the Toa were handling their change into Toa Nuva. We would also not have had a good feel for how powerful the Toa Nuva were, and thus the Rahkshi may not have been as menacing, story-wise. The Kal arc showed us how strong the Toa now were, how they were interacting, and what was needed to defeat them (or nearly defeat them) now.

Just look at Comic 9, Divided we Fall - its first 8 pages serve only to show how powerful the Nuva are, and the remainder of that story arc showed us a.) What sort of threat could defeat them and b.) how they had grown as characters since their early days. It also served as an excuse to have the Nuva hunt down their Kanohi, so as to retain all their powers there.

Of course, this could have been done without the Kal - just have the opening 8 pages of Divided we Fall occur just before Takua finds the Avohkii - and I suspect that if Mask of Light had been ready for, say, February 2003, that’s what would have happened. As it was, Lego needed a quick story to fill the gap, and sets to last five months or so. Given that Lego wasn’t in great financial straights at the time (though they wasted money on those stupid Silver Krana), recoloured Bohrok were a good answer.

So, why do I say the Bohrok-Kal weren’t so bad? Because they served the purpose they existed for, and gave us some nice recolours. Were they great? Hardly. Were they that bad? No.

But that’s just my view - anyone agree?

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I enjoy the Kal, mostly because my favorite sets by far the Bohrok due to their build. I guess I really don’t know much of the story behind them, but what you said makes sense. Props to you for defending these poor, innocent, deadly creatures!

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I love all the bohrok (including the Kal) the haters can go (eat a pound of ice cream). They were great toys for their time and I hope of they do come back (or their equivalent) that they will be as fun and as creative as their predecessors where.

edited for less edgyness - slime

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I remember when I was a boy, back in 2006, I never had any sets prior. When I first saw the Bohrok-Kal, I thought that it’s silver parts were bigger, bulkier versions of the regular Bohrok parts.

Nowadays, even though I know that they are clone sets, the silver parts still give them a more intimidating feel and look heavier.

Even in the exact same pose, the Kal version just feels so much more brutish and… powerful. Also the print on its face plate looks so cool.

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I agree.

I always liked the Kal because they were technically good guys. They wanted to free the queens. That was their duty.

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I agree wholeheartedly. The Kal, even using basically the same parts, they feel like more powerful creatures

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Lehvak-Kal is still revolving around Aqua Magna. I wonder what he’s doing…

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My headcanon is that he gets hit by a comet that contained raw, mystical stardust. The stardust then merged with Lehvak’s body, transforming him into a powerful, monster who harnesses the power of dark matter from space and plans to consume Aqua Magna for revenge.

Seriously though, I made a MOC of that. :stuck_out_tongue:

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This is… this is fantastic :thumbsup: I like

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Anyone wonder how pahrak kal died, apparently he sank to the core of aqua magna, so he must have burned a hole straight through mata nui’s head, straight through metru nui and out of the back of mata nui’s head.

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The Bohrok nest is in the GSR. Maybe it’s in the GSR’s ear or something?

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I imagine it freaking out like it had a spider crawl inside it’s ear, and worrying about it making a nest…

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Without the Bohrok Kal we couldn’t have gotten metallic krana, silver sockets, and six more recolors of the small limb piece, so they’re winners in my book. :+1:

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When they first came out, I liked the Kal simply because of their color schemes and powers (Gravity! Sonics!) but now that we know more about the Bohrok and their role in things, I also really like how, as @Rac said,

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I like the bohrok kal as sets and concept. They were menacing, powerful and brought a bunch of cool new elements to the bionicle universe (gravity is my favorite element in the series). Although I do think there is a problem with them story wise. One of their defining features was supposed to be their distinctness and sentient personality but to me they still come off as super drone like, and honestly kind of dumb contradicting that feature.

The thing about the bohrok is that usually they would be good guys, but in their first appearance they unintentional threaten the GSR by destroying mata nui. This works because they are mindless drones and and unlike the toa can be seen as the GSR’s natural immune system, emotionless and automatically attacking anything it considers a threat, even if in the current situation it ends up doing harm instead of good like how allergies are caused by an over active immune system.

But the Bohrok kal are supposed to be sentient and yet they still don’t realize they endanger the great spirit by cleaning mata nui, and the fact that their speech is rather deadpan to me they seem just as drone like as the normal bohrok even though I think that’s the opposite of what they wanted. Although honestly this is probably a nitpick more than anything, the bohrok kal are still cool, even if I like the standard bohrok more.

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I loved the Bohrok Kal. THey were the first line I ever got all six of.

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The Bohrok-Kal definitely took 2003 by storm in its time; they were even featured independently in a toy magazine! now all we need are those Toa Nuva solo albums

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[insert obligatory “Bionicles” trigger here]

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And “Kranas” too…

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Not only did they call the characters “Bionicles”, but they even managed to get the name of the comic wrong. “DC’s BIONICLES comic…”

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I have a stone bohrok Cal disassembled in my Lego bin. I didn’t what it was back then. Now, I feel the need to rebuild it haha.

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