Jump to content

Set Review: 71308 Tahu - Uniter of Fire


Recommended Posts

71308_Tahu-Uniter_of_Fire_Review_teaser.

Another day, another Bionicle 2016 set review! Following up yesterday's creature of fire, today we're looking at 71308 Tahu - Uniter of Fire! Blog Leader DeeVee once again shares his thoughts with us all, providing insight into our favorite fiery hero. Will Tahu burn up the competition or will his spark be snuffed out before you can get him home? Read on to check out our video and text review to find out!

 

View the full article

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't say I disagree with anything in this review. Tahu's mask and weapons are brilliant, but his colours, textures and proportions are godawful. 

However, I think I've changed my mind on whether or not I'll get him. Originally, I was really salty and wanted to skip Tahu completely, but after seeing his parts inventory a couple of times (especially that mask), I think I'll redact that sentiment. He won't be a day one purchase, but a possible purchase all the same. I doubt I'll keep him built for long, though.

Edited by Logan McOwen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's funny to me when people bring up how the new chest piece can only really be used for these characters and is too specific to work for anything else, because... well, ever since it began, Bionicle has always had a reputation as being full of almost nothing BUT parts like that, pieces that spit in the face of lego's philosophy of play and are intended to be used a specific way, and only that way. And as far as Bionicle and constraction in general have come over the years, and as versatile as CCBS is, Lego is trying very hard to please every kind of Bionicle fan there is at once with these figures (that's why they're so all over the place), and so, yeah, we're still going to get a few pieces like that here and there. They'll probably have yet another new chest design next year, or another new backbone piece (they've already designed a new one for the Force Awakens figures).

 

 

 

As for Tahu's color scheme... it doesn't work, depending on what it's trying to accomplish. If it's supposed to be a red dude with some bits of gold and orange, then of course it fails. What we ACTUALLY have here, though, is a gold and orange dude with bits of red. And I know that may seem weird, but I'm fine with them making a Toa of fire that looks like this, just this once. I'm not going to fault them for trying something so different. They're clearly trying to make it look like Tahu's "frame" is primarily gold, with the trans-orange elements made to look like his inner body is half-turning into actual fire, and brimming out of the crevices of his new frame. And I think that's pretty darn cool. I love how the gold and trans-orange elements compliment each other.

 

I'd also like to bring up the complaint that Tahu's too generic, because.... I've heard people say the exact same thing about his 2015 incarnation, too. And as weird as it sounds, I think that's kind of the point. As diverse as the 2015 figures were, Tahu was the most "basic" out of them all and that was sort of his role. I get the feeling they designed him first, just to get a good idea of what this kind of figure could be like, and all the other Toa are just variations of the "default" that Tahu is. Weirdly enough, I get the exact same impression from 2016 Tahu. It's becoming an odd trend that's becoming attached to the character.

Edited by NickonAquaMagna
  • Upvote 3

the_toa_sig_by_nickinamerica-dbn0wau.png

The Toa- A Bionicle Retelling by NickonAquaMagna http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/25275-the-toa-a-retelling-of-bionicle/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I've seen so far, Tahu disappoints me. He was already one of my least favorites of the 2015 Toa, but he was still an excellent set, just as all the 2015 Toa were excellent sets. His shaping, texture, and color distribution felt coherent and purposeful. Neutral skeleton, silver extremities, smooth, red and orange armor that flared out at the ankles and shoulders, and decorative gold detailing. His textures felt consistent, and really the most bothersome thing about him was how long his upper legs were (though there was something poetic about him being the tallest member of his team).

 

Fast forward to today. Now, Tahu's colors, textures, and shapes are distributed much less evenly and purposefully. His legs are just as long, but his upper legs are now even more scrawny, and he's lost the flared shape of his lower leg armor. As the review states, his many textures compete for attention. I've warmed up to some aspects of him, but no matter what, he just doesn't feel as coherent to me as the 2015 version. I wouldn't even care that much about how much gold he has if his colors in general didn't feel so scattered and chaotic. I can't say for sure that ANY of the 2016 Toa really feel as good as their 2015 counterparts, except maybe Lewa, but Tahu really feels like he's lost a lot of what made the 2015 version great.

 

His weapons are nice, at least, though I already mentioned the poor color matching of the crystal blades in response to Ikir's review. It'd be nice if those were just a little more reddish. His mask is also a good design, and I don't think either of the color combinations looks bad. And the Dark Azur accents are quite tasteful. Still, I'm glad you chose to get and review this set, DeeVee, because it's begging for a revamp and I'm sure you'll be able to deliver.

  • Upvote 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my personal opinion I think the new Tahu looks great.  I think he looks more in control of his element with the trans. orange and since the creatures are suppose to make the Toa more powerful it makes sense.  I do not think the new chest plate is to "busy", I love the level of detail that was put into it.

 

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.  The second thing would be the red and silver mask, I agree with your review here it should have been solid red or also ended in trans. orange like the gold version.  Thirdly I wish LEGO would have made those lava blades transparent but I must say they look the best solid out of all the different colors.

 

I personally think this is the best Bionicle wave LEGO has made and I look forward to getting the sets, all of them if possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Tahu. I love him. THIS is the Tahu I've always wanted, he's more similar now to his previous incarnations than his Mistika form was, and looks more similar than his 2015 form did. Some people might hate the coloring and his proportions, but I love them. I love his skinny legs and bulky upper body, I love everything about him. THIS is the Tahu I've always wanted. 

Edited by Tarvaxx
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, DeeVee, your Lego photographing skills are pretty frightening here. I didn't notice the lack of red until you pointed it out...is it the blue background that makes everything look redder or was I just blinded by my expectations that Tahu should be red?

 

I can't disagree with any of the negative points, but I'm gonna focus on the positives here and say this mask is one of my favorites in a long time. To quote the review itself the design really does "ooze Tahu". I'd really like to see it on a classic Nuva revamp, I'm talking red/orange/silver. Not to badmouth Tahu's gold look in gen 2 (because I actually really love it), I think that mask would look really fantastic on a moc with silver instead of gold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tahu Uniter is not my favorite Toa out of this wave. It pains me to say that, since he is one of my favorite Toa ever, but it is true. Combining him with his creature does make him look better, but I'm still undecided if I'm going to get him or not.

 

Thanks for the review!

Everyone is one choice away from being the bad guy in another person's story.


 


pc0lX6T.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.

 

Fire can be blue.

 

Honestly, this review covers just about every problem I have with this set. A dearth of red, textures are all over the place, the chest piece is a monster, and honestly just overall a step down from the features that I felt made his 2015 form stand out. (I mean, obviously, they couldn't keep the blades on his back what with the combination gimmick, but I really loved the silhouette they gave him.) I mean, the trans orange makes him look extremely vibrant and full of energy... but throwing on a couple spots of red really makes me wish he either had more of it, or had none at all.

 

Tahu was actually one of my favorites last year (I have three of him!) but this is honestly, in many ways, a disappointing step down from that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.

 

Fire can be blue.

 

The blue, in fact, is one of the nicer touches on Tahu, IMO.

 

Regardless of how they turned out, you can't blame Lego for not trying to do some cool stuff with secondary colors this year. Generation 1 was all about establishing these paradigms out of arbitrary stuff: fire is hot, so their colors can be red/orange/yellow; water is cool, so they get blue/light blue/green.

 

In Gen 2, the elemental color motifs we're getting are far less abstract:

  • Tahu has red as his primary, but blue flames exist so they accent the primary color. Which is fitting for his personality: one might look at the blue flames (hottest part of the flame) as a symbol of intensity OR as a cool color representing his good heart
  • Gali has blue as her primary, but the orange that accents it can stand for sea life like coral. Incidentally a great care for life is part of Gali's personality.
  • Onua has black (color of dirt) as his primary color, accented heavily with trans purple. I really think that color brings to mind crystals.
  • Pohatu had tan in Gen 1 as well but I think the tan and chartreuse-ish we get in 2015 really calls to mind the desert: sand and sun, respectively.

Red/azure, blue/orange, black/purple, and brown/yellow-green are really brand new "universal" element schemes that are repeated between sets and I'm really liking the amount of variance in color, even if a lot of the sets don't quite hit the mark.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I appreciate that you were so conflicted at the conclusion of this review. Marks for you as a really in depth, consider-everything reviewer. I'm with you on most everything as well - Tahu makes for a beautiful parts bag. Not so convinced on the set itself. But with Ikir... you make the purchase of both simultaneously much more tempting...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tahu was actually one of my favorites last year (I have three of him!) but this is honestly, in many ways, a disappointing step down from that.

 

 

Did you really get two more Tahus since i last saw you? (okay i may have noticed you with two, but THREE?)

 

 

nyway, yep, p much my feelings: not enough red, too much gold, top-heavy with mismatched textures...

 

the fact his weapon-choice stayed the same is neat though, much better than, say, pohatu. o:

bnnrimg1.pngbnnrimg2.pngbnnrimg3.pngbnnrimg4.pngbnnrimg5.pngbnnrimg8.png

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.

 

Fire can be blue.

 

The blue, in fact, is one of the nicer touches on Tahu, IMO.

 

Regardless of how they turned out, you can't blame Lego for not trying to do some cool stuff with secondary colors this year. Generation 1 was all about establishing these paradigms out of arbitrary stuff: fire is hot, so their colors can be red/orange/yellow; water is cool, so they get blue/light blue/green.

 

In Gen 2, the elemental color motifs we're getting are far less abstract:

  • Tahu has red as his primary, but blue flames exist so they accent the primary color. Which is fitting for his personality: one might look at the blue flames (hottest part of the flame) as a symbol of intensity OR as a cool color representing his good heart
  • Gali has blue as her primary, but the orange that accents it can stand for sea life like coral. Incidentally a great care for life is part of Gali's personality.
  • Onua has black (color of dirt) as his primary color, accented heavily with trans purple. I really think that color brings to mind crystals.
  • Pohatu had tan in Gen 1 as well but I think the tan and chartreuse-ish we get in 2015 really calls to mind the desert: sand and sun, respectively.

Red/azure, blue/orange, black/purple, and brown/yellow-green are really brand new "universal" element schemes that are repeated between sets and I'm really liking the amount of variance in color, even if a lot of the sets don't quite hit the mark.

 

 

Well, G1 did do some interesting things with accent color, like how Toa Inika Hahli used a lot of White pieces and Toa Mahri Hahli used a lot of Bright Yellowish Green. But those particular examples weren't all that well received at the time, for various reasons. The 2001 Matoran also tended to have pretty creative accent colors, as did some enemy characters like the Visorak. It's nice that G2 Bionicle is bringing vibrant accent colors into the Toa sets so early on, though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice review, with loads of wonderful photos. The use of a blue background really pops.

 

Honestly, despite all the Tahu reviews, I simply can't bring myself to dislike him. I can see where the criticisms are, when reviewers point out the incoherent design, the gaudy colours, the conflicting textures, etc.

 

But I see him and I don't know what it is about him but he looks so good to me. He's in fact one of my favourite ones of the wave. I wish I had the skill of you reviewers to articulate exactly what I love about him, but I'm not so proficient.  :D

 

I guess I can say that while the criticisms are valid, they don't affect my liking of this toy, at all, and hopefully I'll find the words to express why he pops out so much to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously disagree with the cons, "bad chest design"...? Are you serious? How so?!?! "visually messy"... Yeah, only to people who can't squint their eyes or have any amount of fair criticism for ANYTHING. (ever heard of blue fire!?!?,or have you ever seen fire to begin with!?!?) "visually messy" my foot! feh, can we get some people (like me) who actually have an artists eye and can see the prettiness in things that may seem overbearing? maybe!?!

 

 

(I am very salty  :burnmad: )

Edited by Toa Imrukii

Quote: "Love has no fear, and no vengeance." |

:t: :m_o: :a: :i: :m: :r: :u: :k: :i: :i: | mEaHKlH.pngAndekas

 

pure_muscle.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"bad chest design"...? Are you serious? How so?!?!

 

The chestplate is, well, very busy. Containing only a single connection point in the form of a ball-snap on the inside, this is a large, mostly useless feeling piece. The elaborate printing is beautiful, and I don't think I can overstate how much I adore the red and dark azure over that gold. It is a stand-out design, and I wish desperately it was appearing on a superhero chest piece connected to another torso plate so I could buy a dozen and use them on so many MOCs. It's just so beautiful.

But the gold sections underneath. Oh. Where the piece of unity has been described as distracting and jarring, the new chest piece is more. There are so many pistons. I appreciate the way pistons harken back to the G1 feel, but it feels like someone in Denmark decided they were the only visual cue G1 ever had. Where the 2015 piston add-on faithfully mirrored the G1 design language, while updating it for the CCBS aesthetic, I feel that this piece fails in every regard. I'm not opposed to pistons or detailing - I like the skull villain add-on and I like the 2015 piston add-on a great deal. Those found the correct balance in bringing the two design languages together, but these are superfluous and over-the-top. It's weird to say that such an over-detailed piece "doesn't feel like BIONICLE," but in this case its true - it feels like what an armchair set designer complaining about lack of detail would decide is BIONICLE turned up to eleven.

 

Sometimes, when you want to understand a review, you have to, you know. Read it.

 

"visually messy"... Yeah, only to people who can't squint their eyes or have any amount of fair criticism for ANYTHING.

 

If you need to squint your eyes to ignore the blatantly clashing textures of a set and enjoy it, I'd say that's a more than valid criticism.

Edited by Dina Saruyama
  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(ever heard of blue fire!?!?,or have you ever seen fire to begin with!?!?)

 

Jess addressed the bigger points above, but DeeVee also made it pretty clear in the review that he LOVED the Dark Azure accents and they weren't what made the set look messy to him. Rather, that complaint was about the disorganized shapes and textures.

 

Having met him, seen the brilliance of his creations in person, and gotten constructive criticism from him about my OWN creations, DeeVee definitely has an artist's eye. But not all artists see things the same way, especially if they come from different backgrounds. He and I certainly don't agree on everything, but that doesn't make his perspectives on the things we disagree about invalid or unreasonable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

"bad chest design"...? Are you serious? How so?!?!

 

 

The chestplate is, well, very busy. Containing only a single connection point in the form of a ball-snap on the inside, this is a large, mostly useless feeling piece. The elaborate printing is beautiful, and I don't think I can overstate how much I adore the red and dark azure over that gold. It is a stand-out design, and I wish desperately it was appearing on a superhero chest piece connected to another torso plate so I could buy a dozen and use them on so many MOCs. It's just so beautiful.

But the gold sections underneath. Oh. Where the piece of unity has been described as distracting and jarring, the new chest piece is more. There are so many pistons. I appreciate the way pistons harken back to the G1 feel, but it feels like someone in Denmark decided they were the only visual cue G1 ever had. Where the 2015 piston add-on faithfully mirrored the G1 design language, while updating it for the CCBS aesthetic, I feel that this piece fails in every regard. I'm not opposed to pistons or detailing - I like the skull villain add-on and I like the 2015 piston add-on a great deal. Those found the correct balance in bringing the two design languages together, but these are superfluous and over-the-top. It's weird to say that such an over-detailed piece "doesn't feel like BIONICLE," but in this case its true - it feels like what an armchair set designer complaining about lack of detail would decide is BIONICLE turned up to eleven.

 

 

Sometimes, when you want to understand a review, you have to, you know. Read it.

 

"visually messy"... Yeah, only to people who can't squint their eyes or have any amount of fair criticism for ANYTHING.

 

 

If you need to squint your eyes to ignore the blatantly clashing textures of a set and enjoy it, I'd say that's a more than valid criticism.

 

(ever heard of blue fire!?!?,or have you ever seen fire to begin with!?!?)

 

 

Jess addressed the bigger points above, but DeeVee also made it pretty clear in the review that he LOVED the Dark Azure accents and they weren't what made the set look messy to him. Rather, that complaint was about the disorganized shapes and textures.

 

Having met him, seen the brilliance of his creations in person, and gotten constructive criticism from him about my OWN creations, DeeVee definitely has an artist's eye. But not all artists see things the same way, especially if they come from different backgrounds. He and I certainly don't agree on everything, but that doesn't make his perspectives on the things we disagree about invalid or unreasonable.

Sorry, I guess I was soaking in the brining barrels for too long, huh. (note to self, change profile pic to a pickle)

  • Upvote 1

Quote: "Love has no fear, and no vengeance." |

:t: :m_o: :a: :i: :m: :r: :u: :k: :i: :i: | mEaHKlH.pngAndekas

 

pure_muscle.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tahu looks awesome! I don't know why there are more gold pieces on him than red ones, burn I love the gold and transparent red pieces. His swords are very cool, even combining with one staff is cooler, too. His blue pieces are nice as they represent blue fire. His masks look epic, too.:)

 

Now as for the Tahu combining with the Creature of Fire, I would say this:

 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a fire angel! No, Tahu United with Ikir!:P

 

Anyway, I said this because Tahu looks more epic and better with Ikir United with him. He is like a Phoenix constraction set from Legends of Chima. I love it! This is a big must-have when he and Ikir will come out next month!:D

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure about that new axle in reddish brown. They could make it in white, that one's currently unused.

I feel like white would be even more prominent on most models that aren't white themselves. Reddish Brown is a much more subdued color (though personally from early pics I had hoped it would be Dark Brown, which is even moreso).

  • Upvote 1

Formerly Lyichir: Rachira of Influence

Aanchir's and Meiko's brother

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review. It pretty much sums up my thoughts on Tahu. Good parts, good combo, but not a great set in its own. He's a pass for me. His Master form had a lot of flaws, but I really liked the Samurai swordsman look he had.

Edited by Dr. Chronos

16311869655_9f57a9bb3b.jpg


 


Who touched Sasha! WHO TOUCHED MY GUN!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't really agree with the review. All of the pictures in it made Tahu look good, and I have no problems with the chest. It is kind of weird that there is a near complete absence of actual red pieces, but I do plan on picking this set up.

PSN ID: darthlego
Gamertag: SPARTAN J46
Steam name: jumpy46

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.

 

Fire can be blue.

 

Honestly, this review covers just about every problem I have with this set. A dearth of red, textures are all over the place, the chest piece is a monster, and honestly just overall a step down from the features that I felt made his 2015 form stand out. (I mean, obviously, they couldn't keep the blades on his back what with the combination gimmick, but I really loved the silhouette they gave him.) I mean, the trans orange makes him look extremely vibrant and full of energy... but throwing on a couple spots of red really makes me wish he either had more of it, or had none at all.

 

Tahu was actually one of my favorites last year (I have three of him!) but this is honestly, in many ways, a disappointing step down from that.

 

Yes fire can be blue but I don't personally think it fits well with the overall color scheme.  It is only found on his chest plate and feet which just looks odd to me.  If there was some on his arms and maybe on the Creature of Fire it might flow better.  IMO LEGO should have used orange instead.

 

As for 2015's Tahu and all the other Toa I felt they lacked detail, I liked them but I felt they were lacking something.  I love detail so the extra molded pistons don't bother me that much whereas poorly chosen colors do.  I am not saying the colors are bad but the way they were distributed is.  That's just my opinion and I respect yours.  So you like the rounder sleeker 2015 version better and I like the rougher mechanical 2016 version better.

 

 

The things I do not like 2016 Tahu are firstly not the absence of red but the inclusion of the blue, it seems a little out of place on the Toa of Fire.

 

Fire can be blue.

 

The blue, in fact, is one of the nicer touches on Tahu, IMO.

 

Regardless of how they turned out, you can't blame Lego for not trying to do some cool stuff with secondary colors this year. Generation 1 was all about establishing these paradigms out of arbitrary stuff: fire is hot, so their colors can be red/orange/yellow; water is cool, so they get blue/light blue/green.

 

In Gen 2, the elemental color motifs we're getting are far less abstract:

  • Tahu has red as his primary, but blue flames exist so they accent the primary color. Which is fitting for his personality: one might look at the blue flames (hottest part of the flame) as a symbol of intensity OR as a cool color representing his good heart
  • Gali has blue as her primary, but the orange that accents it can stand for sea life like coral. Incidentally a great care for life is part of Gali's personality.
  • Onua has black (color of dirt) as his primary color, accented heavily with trans purple. I really think that color brings to mind crystals.
  • Pohatu had tan in Gen 1 as well but I think the tan and chartreuse-ish we get in 2015 really calls to mind the desert: sand and sun, respectively.

Red/azure, blue/orange, black/purple, and brown/yellow-green are really brand new "universal" element schemes that are repeated between sets and I'm really liking the amount of variance in color, even if a lot of the sets don't quite hit the mark.

 

I am glad you can like it but it just bothers me.  

This isn't the best example but it's all I can think of right now.  It's like seeing blue on the sun, yes stars can be blue but ours isn't.  Orange would had flowed much better IMO and looked more consistent with the previous versions of Tahu we've had.

 

I might be switching some pieces and doing a little painting when I get him.  I have already done some part swaps to "fix" the color schemes on my 2015 Toa sets.

 

 

Edit: I didn't mean to connect both of my replies and now I don't know how to fix it, just one of those days :uhuh:.

Edited by Rakrondewl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This isn't the best example but it's all I can think of right now.  It's like seeing blue on the sun, yes stars can be blue but ours isn't.

 

 

You're right, it's not the best example. The sun doesn't have a color scheme, it has a color. Singular. (Well, up close it has more of a gradient of the same color in varying shades, but, semantics.) It's just a big orange circle. Of course a small blotch of incongruous blue would look weird.

 

A toy, however, has more components than one big circle. If Tahu were one big blob, I'd agree that he would flow far better were he monochromatic. But instead, he is a toy with many parts. Sometimes, those parts are allowed to contrast each other, for added effect.

 

For example, this toy of Springer from Transformers is a lot like you'd prefer Tahu to be-- he's almost entirely shades of green, with little to no contrast, especially in robot mode. Sure, it all flows together very well.

 

It's also exceedingly boring.

 

Hasbro's release of the same toy, meanwhile, uses far more bright yellow, and to great effect; it pops in a way the different shades of green just don't.

 

The same applies to Tahu's blue. Overall, the guy's warm colors! He's reds and oranges and golds. Left at that, they all kinda blend into an amorphous blob, like Takara's Springer.

 

Throw in some blue, though, and wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, it pops out among the colors, and makes him more exciting to look at. If you got rid of the blue, one of the few distinguishing features of this set would be lost. I mean, just looking at this sloppy photoshop i threw together, he just feels so much less... dynamic.

 

As for detail, I don't dislike the idea of detail. But as DeeVee says, it's pulled off atrociously by this chest piece. Not even in G1 Bionicle would a piece have upwards of 20 pistons crammed into a small place, not even serving any actual perceived purpose besides to meet some detail quota. There needs to be some coherency to the design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Lego must've anticipated that there'd be some huge, only somewhat warranted backlash against the focus on smooth "hero factory parts" in the first line and felt the need to make up for it, but can only do that so fast and with so many new molds at a time, so they end up overcompensating by cramming as much detail as they possibly can into this new piece.

 

Some of the pistons look nice. I like the ones on the top, that sort of look like collarbones. That's a good idea. A lot of these were clearly added in a panic, though, with not much more thought going into it beyond "MORE!! THERE NEEDS TO BE MOOOAAAAR!!!"

Edited by NickonAquaMagna
  • Upvote 3

the_toa_sig_by_nickinamerica-dbn0wau.png

The Toa- A Bionicle Retelling by NickonAquaMagna http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/25275-the-toa-a-retelling-of-bionicle/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

This isn't the best example but it's all I can think of right now.  It's like seeing blue on the sun, yes stars can be blue but ours isn't.

 

 

You're right, it's not the best example. The sun doesn't have a color scheme, it has a color. Singular. (Well, up close it has more of a gradient of the same color in varying shades, but, semantics.) It's just a big orange circle. Of course a small blotch of incongruous blue would look weird.

 

A toy, however, has more components than one big circle. If Tahu were one big blob, I'd agree that he would flow far better were he monochromatic. But instead, he is a toy with many parts. Sometimes, those parts are allowed to contrast each other, for added effect.

 

For example, this toy of Springer from Transformers is a lot like you'd prefer Tahu to be-- he's almost entirely shades of green, with little to no contrast, especially in robot mode. Sure, it all flows together very well.

 

It's also exceedingly boring.

 

Hasbro's release of the same toy, meanwhile, uses far more bright yellow, and to great effect; it pops in a way the different shades of green just don't.

 

The same applies to Tahu's blue. Overall, the guy's warm colors! He's reds and oranges and golds. Left at that, they all kinda blend into an amorphous blob, like Takara's Springer.

 

Throw in some blue, though, and wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, it pops out among the colors, and makes him more exciting to look at. If you got rid of the blue, one of the few distinguishing features of this set would be lost. I mean, just looking at this sloppy photoshop i threw together, he just feels so much less... dynamic.

 

As for detail, I don't dislike the idea of detail. But as DeeVee says, it's pulled off atrociously by this chest piece. Not even in G1 Bionicle would a piece have upwards of 20 pistons crammed into a small place, not even serving any actual perceived purpose besides to meet some detail quota. There needs to be some coherency to the design.

 

Ok that was a really bad example.  As for your comparison I don't like that version of Springer that aside I see what your saying but Toa represent their elements and blue just kind of throws that off in my eyes.  Like I've said this is just my opinion clearly your fine with it but it bothers me.  I know why LEGO did it but that doesn't mean I will agree with it.

 

I also made 3 edits of Tahu using orange, red, gold instead of the blue all of which look better.  How can I share these photos here?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the cons:

 

1: Visually messy

Really? I personally found him aestheticly pleasing.

 

2: Is Tahu red?? Or??

I kind of agree with this, he doesn't have too much red on him, which is unfortunate. However if he were mostly red, it'd be extremely boring. In fact, that's a problem I have with the buildable Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. Consistent color scheme? Check. But that's about it.

 

3: Very generic feeling

Again, really? I feel he's actually quite unique.

 

4: Bad chestplate

Broken record, whatever, but really? I honestly like the chestplate.

 

5: Relies on unity gimmik to create a cohesive character

Personally, I disagree with this. I think he's cohesive with and without Ikir.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously disagree with the cons, "bad chest design"...? Are you serious? How so?!?! "visually messy"... Yeah, only to people who can't squint their eyes or have any amount of fair criticism for ANYTHING. (ever heard of blue fire!?!?,or have you ever seen fire to begin with!?!?) "visually messy" my foot! feh, can we get some people (like me) who actually have an artists eye and can see the prettiness in things that may seem overbearing? maybe!?!

More of this ^

 

Less of sour reviewers and people who complain too much and can only bad mouthing Tahu. He is great! Deal with it.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...