2008 was and always will be one of my favorite years of Bionicle. It’s the year I got into the theme, and what a time to be introduced! While I wasn’t active online, I could just feel the excitement around the line. Bionicle was buzzing. It was exciting. It was exciting to be a Bionicle fan, exciting to watch the story unfold in ways my young mind could’ve never imagined. Looking back, who could’ve? And the sets. The sets. The Phantoka wave was my sh*t man. I used to carry around the same club mag poster of the Phantoka sets everywhere I went (this one), gawking at Lewa and Pohatu and the three insanely cool Makuta. Although I never bought any until years later…
While I was in love with the Phantoka, my love for 2008 lessened when I saw what LEGO put out in the summer… Yikes the Mistika were bad. With the exception of Krika, (and maybe Onua), the Mistika remains the worst group of canister sets ever released. They’re all just so janky and awkward.
I’ve always considered 2008 to be my favorite year, but whenever I look back, I realized I only liked maybe 1/3 of the sets. But were those other 2/3’s really that bad? How could they be improved? Is there a way to reignite the excitement I got from the Phantoka with the other 2008 sets? My new goal was to “fix” the sets I didn’t like. To prove to everyone (or at least myself) that 2008 wasn’t that bad. Just a few steps away from a good line of sets.
Kopaka
Despite my love for the Phantoka, Kopaka was always my least favorite. He’s just… boring. Uninspired. But I had no idea how to fix him. Until I saw this. This Kopaka Phantoka by SpectreL is my ideal model of the character. I wanted to simply tweak a couple colors and call it a day, but unfortunately SpectreL’s mask design doesn’t have a 3D model. Perhaps I’ll commission a 3D modeler to make that gorgeous design someday. Who knows.
Tahu & Gali
Tahu and Gali Mistika truly deserve their titles as worst Toa sets. I remember being so excited to see Tahu in adaptive armor back in 2008. He was visually the coolest Toa from 2001 and 2002, so how could LEGO possibly fumble him this time? Ohhh… To be fair, I don’t think Tahu Mistika was a horrible design concept-wise. Sure he looks nothing like his previous forms, but that’s hardly the first time we’ve seen a poor adaption of a Bionicle character. My problem with Tahu is that he looks unfinished. Like he was 1-2 iterations away from a successful design. If you simply tweak his mask (Thanks Galva) and brighten his colors, he looks pretty decent. I just wish LEGO made these changes 14 years ago.
Gali, on the other hand, is almost completely redesigned. The original was just too troll-like. I kept the limbs and weapon and the… ear wings from the original set, but everything else is pretty different. The design actually came to me in a dream.
Bitil
You may’ve seen this MOC a few days ago. I made him for Senit’s Brotherhood collab. Read more about him in the original topic!
Makuta Spiriah
Spiriah was also made for Senit’s Brotherhood Collab and was posted a few weeks ago. I find the original Spiriah combo model to be a very compelling concept that was fumbled tragically. This Spiriah is still a combo model of the same four sets, just executed more in line with my personal preferences. yes he has a birthing function
Makuta of Stelt
The Makuta of Stelt follows the same concept as Spiriah, he’s a combo model of four sets; 8685: Toa Kopaka, 8692: Vamprah, 8948: Gavla, and our King; 8945: Solek. While not a official set, he represents the missed oppurtunities of making new obscure characters out of existing sets.
Makuta Kojol
Yes, Makuta Kojol was never a 2008 set, but what if he was? I honestly can’t take much credit for this Kojol, as he’s essentially an amalgamation of this contest runner-up, Kodiak’s, Galva’s, and a few official sets. This Kojol uses parts and building techniques present in 2008, and (I think) is a realistic depiction of what he might’ve looked like as an official set.
So that’s it.
… for now.
I’m nowhere near done revamping 2008 models, I have a whole list of others to come. This topic will be ever-changing, I’ll hopefully be updating it fairly regularly for a while. But I want this to be a conversation. Do you like my changes to these sets and models? How do you think the Mistika and company could’ve been improved? Show me your revamps! Tell me your thoughts!
