[Lego] Black light - #71308 Tahu - Uniter of Fire, #71303 Ikir - Creature of Fire

"Run Tahu! It's too late for me."
"No, it's not too late - for I am the Master of Fire!"

 

Wow, that actually sounds more cliché on paper than it sounded in the animated show. Hi guys!

 

Today's black light post is going to be about the beloved-red-character-that-is-always-the-leader-in-every-cliché-group-of-heroes, Tahu! This shouldn't be a surprise if you paid attention to my last blogpost, so if you waited for it, here you are! And if you didn't wait for it and expected some EMS blogpost, then you're not the only one because I'm waiting to write one as well! Back on topic, I guess.

 

This fellow has been around since the start of Bionicle, loved by many, and is the mascot of the franchise ever since. And our hothead leader is showing off with his partner Ikir, the Creature of Fire.

 

Haters gonna hate, I actually never got to own any of the original Tahu sets, whenever it's the Toa Mata, Toa Nuva, Toa Mistika or the Stars variants of him - simply because I wasn't as excited to get him as the others. Well, ironically, I do own a few different Kanohi Hau's (his mask in the first generation), but those were obtained through other sets and polybags. If I'm going to get any of the older Tahu sets is another question, but perhaps time will tell. And well, most of you frequent readers of this line of particular blogposts already know that I own both Tahu's from the second generation, although the Master of Fire was a gift from a relative.

 

Regardless of how many Tahu's I own, I do believe he is one of the better Master and Uniter sets of Generation 2. Design, as a LEGO® set and toy wise - the overall package for what you get. For most people it's hard to beat the Mata and Nuva designs, but I do think that the Uniter is probably the best looking Tahu out there. And I think that his mask design for this year really helps to stand out. I know Tahu doesn't have his signature lavaboard in this set, but even if it's a signature thing of him, he doesn't have it in all sets though... You know there was a time (read: years) where I didn't have my signature Ribgol Sword in MapleStory, right?

 

 

Ikir, the Creature of Fire, might be one of the better designed Creatures from 2016. You can really see the Phoenix-inspired theme going on. It really feels like a creature of fire, I suppose. Arguably perhaps not the best creature set parts-wise (then again, what parts you need is a really subjective manner), but it certainly has all the points of articulation you want if that's your thing. This model even has the luxury to pose all toes so the feet can grab onto things!

The gears that are used in the model for the wings are certainly going to be useful! It might not be as compact as the Slizer gear(boxes), but it is certainly more versatile to use and it uses the "rounded" style of gears instead of the "square" ones, so you can get a bit of both worlds.

 

I'm very curious on how they're going to use these in upcoming years, and hopefully it won't be one of those gear pieces that is only used for a handful of sets (I'm looking at you, Hailfire Droid wheels and redesigned Worm Screws).

And well, last and probably least, the Shadow Trap! I do certainly like the idea behind those, and perhaps I'm one of the very few who has that opinion. I'm going to give this one, which was packed with Ikir in the same set, some bonus points for using legs made out of trans neon orange to get that black light glow.

Perhaps this isn't something I have talked about before, but if there is one thing that the second generation of Bionicle (and the CCBS system in general) did better than the first, is the amount of transparent pieces included. While the Toa Inika have been one of the very few subthemes to introduce several Bionicle socket connectors in (black light applicable) transparent colours, a lot of Bionicle sets from Generation 2 included socket pieces and armour add-ons in these colours! This made a lot of the sets a lot more colourful and vibrant, in a good way. And also gives me more to cover on this blog, ha!

If only Generation 2 could also use all those fancy (black light) brain stock colours from Generation 1... it's a shame that certain colours like Transparent Neon Pink and Transparent Neon Yellow are such a rarity even if they had a short lifespan. Well, the same thing applies to Transparent Medium Blue, which is still a rare transparent colour - you might have seen it in my Nocturn blogpost, or y'know, perhaps you have a set yourself because it has appeared in plenty!

Yes, I know I forgot to add the four-length axle in one of Tahu's weapons. Apparently it probably landed somewhere in my parts supply.

That's it for now! I'm surprised I haven't done any of the obligatory Kanohi Hau-puns in this blogpost yet. Hau couldn't I make one? Puns and drumrolls or tumbleweeds aside, the next black light-related post will be about the Elemental Beasts!

I'll see you guys again next post!