Okay so, last post I made I kinda hated on 2016
my opinions have since… Kind of changed I suppose
Here is this overly long post I made expressing my opinions!
Starting with the Poster Boy for this wave,
Tahu
Tahu this year has gone through a route where he looks very
so and so? I don’t know how to explain it
Of course, we got the overuse of the gold (which would have been fixed if the chestplate was red instead of gold)
but also, I want to point out how heroic this tahu looks around
regal, elegant, this is helped by his unified form with Ikir, not sure I really like the wings, but eh
The mask is a nice, slimmed down version, at first I kinda didn’t like it, but it grew on me
Tahus swords warmed up to me, when they are folded all the way up/all the way down
Keeping it in the middle is weird
I dislike the staff idea though
Ikir is a neat little thing, I appreciate dat
Onua
This time, onua returned as a hulking giant, which I much prefered over his overly buff 2015 counterpart
I think what made this set work in comparison to the other sets is the unique weapon, and lack of the unification piece as armour
also the fact that the chestplate was black helped TREMENDOUSLY
out of the two new addon pieces from this wave, I would say the crystal element pieces are the best, but its hard to not beat trash
Anyhow, Onuas faults lie mostly in nitpicky things for me, the major thing being the asymmetry of the arms, really irritates me, not because it uses different types of connection pieces
But because they aren’t in transpurple
Onuas mask is okay I suppose, nothing extrodinary, I appreciate that its bigger then his tiny 2015 counterparts
Onuas weapon is AMAZING though, I love that hammer
Terak is… Okay I suppose, there is really little to say about him
Kopaka and Melum Unity set
Kopaka is a mixed bag, even moreso then tahu
His arms annoy me to high heaven, his random gold is random and even with the unified form its strange and awkward almost
the legs in general look strange
My solution to fixing him is to give him something similar to kopaka 2015 legs
I much prefer kopaka 2015 over 2016, I loved his knight esc appearance
without the gold, kopaka looks muchhhhhh better
the fact that kopaka ditched his lance and shield for a shield with a gun and sword is bothersome
his mask is awesome though
I dont mind the sword, but the gun shield is ugly
the stickers dont help it at all
The Unification is cool I suppose, Melum himself isnt all that interesting
Gali
Gali is my Favourite Least favourite of this wave, let me explain
I love her motif, with the tribal esc vibes she has going on, she too doesn’t use the addon pieces, but instead the Skrall armour pieces, used also on kopakas shoulders
The way I see it, the skrall armour kinda belongs to the smaller sets whereas the unification piece belongs to the larger sets, its cool, I like it
She has two skrall armour pieces in orange, but the here is where the problems show
the way the skrall armour connects to her upper leg bothers me a great deal, its awkward, probably juts out too much, and just doesn’t fit
Gali herself comes together as an all in all ok set, nothing really interesting, but not as good as her 2015 counterpart,
one of the major downfalls of Gali is her mask, I dislike the rounded bit at the top, its strange
Gali has a cool looking weapon, nothing too out of the ordinary, but I appreciate it
Galis creature counterpart is probably my favourite of this wave, its extremely unique, not to mention it comes with a stand
I am definitely picking up akida when I get the chance
Lewa
Lewa is one of the more disappointing sets
First off are the proportions, with the large torso thanks to the gear function (il get back to this), the limbs are too small due to one problem
His custom lower legs and upper arms
due to the way they are built, they come off as too small, its sad really
lewa was one of my favourites from last year, and this one is one of my least favourites
I do think lewa can be easily improved with a bit of modification
The weapons he gets are really, really cool, I miss his signature axes but these are just as cool
Strangely enough, I really adore his mask, its one of my favourite mirus, along with last years and 08’s
Uxar is an amazing creature, I absolutely love it, its one of my favourite uniter combos
Pohatu
Pohatu warmed up to me, in fact, I kinda really like him now
I despise his arms, I hate them so much
they just
Ugh
the dark tan is very out of place but it kinda works after looking at it for a while
his weapon is horrible though
I love his mask
Ketar is
the worst creature tbh, nothing all too cool about him
of course, similar to last year, we are given this years villain
Umarak the Hunter
And I absolutely love him actually
Other then his shoddy legs, he looks pretty dang cool
yeah thats pretty much all I want to say about him
another thing
I love it when he is combined with Uxar, it makes the entire set look really dang awesome
lets see
Final thoughts
One of the big downfalls of this wave is the use of these super greebled pieces, PERSONALLY they feel out of place, unnecessary, too unfitting for CCBS standards
Its like they are just trying to cater to the fans of G1’s building style
it just doesn’t fit really, I don’t mind the new chestplate as a whole, but the unification piece bothers me greatly
it doesn’t feel like it belongs with CCBS, its out of place
last years addon (aka the ones used on the protector torso) felt natural
it fit in with the style of CCBS, while giving that bionicle feel
If you noticed, I haven’t talked about this years “gimmick”
The waist swivel
Let me be completely honest
I dislike it, despise it even
it “ruins” sets like Lewa because the gimmick makes the torso overly long
I just
I rather they make a new waist, and add back the far superior gearbox
akin to how the star wars figures did it this year
I mean
They could have kept it on sets like tahu, onua, and gali
but Kopaka, Lewa and pohatu didn’t need it
Tl;Dr
I think this wave is fairly unique, had a lot of potential, but some of said potential is wasted.
My highlights (and personal suggestions) are as follows
Toa sized figures wise , I say go for Onua and umarak
Creaturewise, Uxar and Akida
You can take the pelvis piece out! How???
