According to Bricklink, yes, it does. One came in 8744 Oohnorak.
Yet the instructions for Oohnorak and other sources indicate the set uses 50898 instead. Every review I’ve seen of the set (I do not own it) uses this piece as well.
Bricklink has 0 listings for 47296 in black. So… I’m assuming Bricklink just screwed up when making the parts list for Oohnorak? Or was there some sort of limited production variant of the set using 47296 instead of 50898?
The former is likely true. But I want the part to exist, and I also want Bricklink to stay as reliable a source as possible. So I’m hoping I’m wrong.
It should be that.
I have never seen a version of Oohnorak using that piece in black.
It would ve known if a version would exist. Furthermore, the place 50898 was used a 47296 piece would not fit.
No that part on Oohnorak didn’t come in black, since it’s used the Yellowish-Orange color for the part, but yes something mistakenly the square joint smooth version of that part belong to the Oohnorak set rather the actually long smooth part with the old joints on it.
That would make the most sense. This is the first I’ve noticed variation in instructions (although I’m sure others exist). But there’s plenty of variation in marketing, which might indicate redesigns. Rahaga Bomonga and Kalmah are two that come to mind. Bionicle can be a mess.
I believe Oohnorak has the longer variant because his front legs are Bohrok Legs. Suukorak the best Visorak is the same. My guess is the short connector would restrict articulation of Bohrok limbs too much or something.
But after looking into it, I don’t think the set was ever redesigned.
The stock images below are clearly earlier models of the Visorak. Parts are painted and Oohnorak’s headpiece looks like it was 3D-printed, not correctly molded. Same with Suukorak.
Yet both still retain the longer connector…
In the Visorak commercial animations, both Oonorak and Suukorak are built incorrectly.
Yet later in the commercial, we see the built models, and they are both correct.
I think this shows the animators and instruction-makers assumed all the Visorak are the same (understandable), and created faulty visuals that reflected this misunderstanding. Again, this kinda stuff happened all the time in Bionicle. And even if they were aware of their mistakes, I’m sure they thought no one would notice. Or care. But here we are on the message boards 16 years later…
Never seen one in real life. I guess as mentioned it seems some kind of error was made. But regardless whether or not that is true, there is at least one big mistake when it comes to the Visorak inventory: some sets came with a white instead of yellow rubber band yet Bricklink lists only the yellow one.
Shame this piece doesn’t exist though, would have worked a lot better than the fragile updated ones we got.
