Set Review: 71307: Gali - Uniter of Water

[Hapori Tohu]

It's time for our last Winter 2016 Bionicle review. Today, BZPower Reporter Xccj focuses on 71307: Gali, Uniter of Water. Is the latest iteration of our favorite Toa of Water a set that sinks or swims? Read on or watch the video review to find out!

 

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[Arcee]

I really like the comparisons to the 2004 Great Rau here. It prompted me to look closer at the mask and I think I might even see a bit of Hahli Inika in there--the famous "mustache," specifically.

 

The Uniter masks actually stand out to me as really fantastic and inspired. They take a lot of influence from G1 designs but also look like a clear progression from the former incarnation (Masters). That's something that can't really be said about many G1 character evolutions.

[Tarvaxx]

I liked her 2015 mask, but the 2016 one better because it retains a lot of last years features yet gets rid of that stupid triangle in between the mouth and the eyes. 

 

Seriously, the 2015 mask looked so good, but then I'd see that stupid triangle and it'd look like her actual mouth was right under her eyes which made the chin look big and the circle(the true "mouth") look weird.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Tarvaxx

[abstractAgamid]

Huh, black 2M axles. Unexpected.

 

Gali's 2015 mask is possibly my favorite ever made; this one I don't like that much.

[Naota Takizawa]

Wait,we get black 2M axles? Lego had finally answered our prayers!

 

 

Anyway, I'm fine with this set, although the lack of posability is putting me off the set. It seems stupid to give blue eyes to Gali, her eyes aren't going to be visible through the colored lenses unless you swap out her eyepiece with her old neon green one.

[fishers64]

I really don't like Gali's mask and weapon, although I have to admit those dark blue shells have an appeal.

[Bfahome]

It seems stupid to give blue eyes to Gali, her eyes aren't going to be visible through the colored lenses unless you swap out her eyepiece with her old neon green one.

There aren't any colored lenses, they're just eye holes.

[masterchirox580]

I'm just happy they've got more blue on her this time. My only problem with the set seems to be those yellow pieces on the arms and legs. I get what they were trying to do but it just really sticks out. 

[Dimension Lord]

I considered getting her and Pohatu but seeing how both look overall, I don't think I'll get either.  

[Aanchir]

Gali's design is generally good, aside from her shoulders being too high for the length of her arms. I love the asymmetry of her armor and her exciting color scheme, although her thighs are really bony compared to the 2015 version, and I wish there were an easy way to change this without sacrificing the other aspects of her design. It's surprising how narrow her shoulders have become — narrower, in fact, than the shoulders of any previous Toa of Water. I actually wouldn't have minded if they were a bit wider. And I'm not a huge fan of how tall the Toa in general have become.

 

Gali's new weapon is nice, and a good evolution of her harpoon from last year, although the dual functionality of the 2015 weapon will be missed, and I wish Pohatu's new weapon weren't so similar to Gali's in structure. Gali's new mask is awesome in both its color combinations, and I'm glad the gold mask stands out from the rest of the build. I love Gali's combination with Akida, which feels incredibly elegant and retains the creature's functionality (unlike Kopaka's combination with Melum or Pohatu's with Ketar).

 

Overall, I think I prefer the 2015 version of Gali. The 2015 Toa did such a good job capturing so many of the best aspects of classic Bionicle — geared shoulders, dual-function weapons, colorful armor, and diverse, slightly exaggerated proportions. It's ironic that in spite of all the pleading for greater use of Technic, these sets which use Technic so extensively actually feel less like classic Toa than the 2015 versions when it comes to builds, functions, and proportions. No official Toa sets ever had torsos this intricate, nor shoulders this narrow relative to their height. But this version of Gali is still probably my second favorite of the 2016 Toa, after Lewa. Her design, in spite of some strangeness, still feels very coherent and purposeful, which is more than I can say for Tahu or Kopaka.

[J46 Nui]

I like everything about this set except for the weapon.

 

Overall, I still prefer the Masters to the Uniters, but I do like that these sets call back to their earlier designs. I just wish that these had more solid weapons and better color schemes all around. 

Edited December 29, 2015 by J46 Nui

[NickonAquaMagna]

Gali's design is generally good, aside from her shoulders being too high for the length of her arms. I love the asymmetry of her armor and her exciting color scheme, although her thighs are really bony compared to the 2015 version, and I wish there were an easy way to change this without sacrificing the other aspects of her design. It's surprising how narrow her shoulders have become — narrower, in fact, than the shoulders of any previous Toa of Water. I actually wouldn't have minded if they were a bit wider. And I'm not a huge fan of how tall the Toa in general have become.

 

Gali's new weapon is nice, and a good evolution of her harpoon from last year, although the dual functionality of the 2015 weapon will be missed, and I wish Pohatu's new weapon weren't so similar to Gali's in structure. Gali's new mask is awesome in both its color combinations, and I'm glad the gold mask stands out from the rest of the build. I love Gali's combination with Akida, which feels incredibly elegant and retains the creature's functionality (unlike Kopaka's combination with Melum or Pohatu's with Ketar).

 

Overall, I think I prefer the 2015 version of Gali. The 2015 Toa did such a good job capturing so many of the best aspects of classic Bionicle — geared shoulders, dual-function weapons, colorful armor, and diverse, slightly exaggerated proportions. It's ironic that in spite of all the pleading for greater use of Technic, these sets which use Technic so extensively actually feel less like classic Toa than the 2015 versions when it comes to builds, functions, and proportions. No official Toa sets ever had torsos this intricate, nor shoulders this narrow relative to their height. But this version of Gali is still probably my second favorite of the 2016 Toa, after Lewa. Her design, in spite of some strangeness, still feels very coherent and purposeful, which is more than I can say for Tahu or Kopaka.

 

 

As I said in another thread,

 

"I think the idea with Lewa was for him to be almost naked, if we look at the Toa's silver/gold/gunmetal parts as extra armor, and the more colorful pieces as their actual bodies. In Lewa's case, he just has chest armor, and boots and kneepads, because he doesn't want to be weighed down by any more kibble than he absolutely needs. He's the guy who jumps around a lot, so if anything needs protection, it's his feet.

 

In Uniter Gali's case, I think they're trying to do what they did with Lewa's master form. Master Gali has a very slick, streamlined feel, like she's wearing special armor made JUST for someone like her, and it works. Her Uniter form looks more.... skimpy, should I say? More stripped down, less like an armored warrior and more like an islander who goes fishing by spearing the fish while standing up in a boat, then diving in to grab them. It's not great, but it's pretty clear. It just depends on which feel people prefer her to have."

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Gali Uniter looks alright. It's not the most exciting set out of this wave IMO. But it looks like she has some good Lego pieces, and her weapon looks good too. Though I kind of like her 2015 mask more than the one she gets with this set.

 

Thanks for the review!

[Arcee]

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post:

 

How does everyone feel about gold masks on sets with primarily silver accents? Something that really stands out to me with Lewa and Gali is how out-of-place their gold masks seem.

 

Even with gold masks established in both Bionicle's lore and rules of aesthetics, this year I almost wish they'd throw a bit of tradition out the window and try something more risky. I think a silver masked Gali and Lewa as their combiner forms would look really slick in a way gold just doesn't accomplish. Include Pohatu in there (someone whose colorscheme I feel is nearly beyond help) and you have a trio of silver-masked small Toa and a trio of gold-masked big Toa.

 

Maybe I'm overthinking it and gold creatures would've done the job? There's something, though, about the mismatched gold/silver heads on top of a body with no gold armor that feels wrong.

[Aanchir]

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post:

 

How does everyone feel about gold masks on sets with primarily silver accents? Something that really stands out to me with Lewa and Gali is how out-of-place their gold masks seem.

IMO, the gold masks look way better when they DO stand out than when they blend in with the armor. After all, part of the point of a gold mask is for it to stand out as something unique and special. If it blends in with the character then it doesn't stand out nearly so much.

 

This is especially true with the 2016 Toa since I think the look of a silver creature head over top of a gold mask is way cooler than the look of a gold creature head over a gold mask. The former looks like an elaborate and decorative helmet worn over top of the mask, and the latter just makes it look like the characters' foreheads have been stretched out.

[NickonAquaMagna]

 

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post:

 

How does everyone feel about gold masks on sets with primarily silver accents? Something that really stands out to me with Lewa and Gali is how out-of-place their gold masks seem.

IMO, the gold masks look way better when they DO stand out than when they blend in with the armor. After all, part of the point of a gold mask is for it to stand out as something unique and special. If it blends in with the character then it doesn't stand out nearly so much.

 

This is especially true with the 2016 Toa since I think the look of a silver creature head over top of a gold mask is way cooler than the look of a gold creature head over a gold mask. The former looks like an elaborate and decorative helmet worn over top of the mask, and the latter just makes it look like the characters' foreheads have been stretched out.

 

 

 

I disagree, somewhat. If a character's overall color scheme is consistent enough, the golden mask becomes a complimentary color and looks nice. If the character's other colors are all over the place, though, then the addition of the mask can make the color scheme fall apart and lose whatever focus it has. And if you add a differently colored animal head on top of that, it can become downright chaotic and messy.

[Aanchir]

I disagree, somewhat. If a character's overall color scheme is consistent enough, the golden mask becomes a complimentary color and looks nice. If the character's other colors are all over the place, though, then the addition of the mask can make the color scheme fall apart and lose whatever focus it has. And if you add a differently colored animal head on top of that, it can become downright chaotic and messy.

That's fair. I do definitely think that the gold masks look better on the 2016 Gali and Lewa than on the 2016 Pohatu, since the LAST thing this version of Pohatu needs is yet another color, let alone less Dark Orange. But I don't think the silver creature heads make any of the gold masks look worse, because the characters who are matched up with silver creatures already have silver as a major part of their color schemes. I don't think the creature heads and the Toa masks HAVE to match just because they're adjacent when combined.

 

Gali, Lewa, and their creatures all have really consistent color schemes, IMO, so I don't think a splash of gold on the Toa's faces really hurts them any more than it hurt the 2001 or 2015 Toa when they got their golden masks.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Aanchir

[evil_jaga_genius]

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post:

 

How does everyone feel about gold masks on sets with primarily silver accents? Something that really stands out to me with Lewa and Gali is how out-of-place their gold masks seem.

 

Even with gold masks established in both Bionicle's lore and rules of aesthetics, this year I almost wish they'd throw a bit of tradition out the window and try something more risky. I think a silver masked Gali and Lewa as their combiner forms would look really slick in a way gold just doesn't accomplish. Include Pohatu in there (someone whose colorscheme I feel is nearly beyond help) and you have a trio of silver-masked small Toa and a trio of gold-masked big Toa.

 

Maybe I'm overthinking it and gold creatures would've done the job? There's something, though, about the mismatched gold/silver heads on top of a body with no gold armor that feels wrong.

I'm not really sure what I think about the gold-silver job.  I like how each Toa has a set of gold and silver blended masks, so you can pick which one goes better.  With Lewa I would definitely use his stock mask for his linked form, so it matches Uxar's colors more.  With Kopaka I'd probably use the gold one, since both Toa and Creature have a lot of gold to them.

 

On this note I'm still waiting for each Toa to have their own specific metallic colors.

 

Anyhow, this version of Gali looks... surprisingly less terrible than I thought.  The colors do flow together nicely, and now that I look at it, the asymmetrical armor kindof looks like there's coral growing off of her.  I would have preferred something more coherent but I can see where they were going.  I still think that spear just has too much going on, and I don't see why they ditched the trident idea for what looks like a bunch of blades on a stick.

[MrSciFiGuy]

Only complaint with Gali is that she is tough to pose with her staff. Fun build with and totally got a Nokama mask

[Lenny7092]

Gali looks pretty neat. I like the armor and how it looks asymmetrical. The orange and blue colors go together in this set well because they represent a fish, a clown fish if you can think about it. I also do like her spear's design. The little spinning blade things are a cool and neat fearure.

However, I kind of feel that the spear is similar to Poahtu's. I mean, why? True, there are the spinning blade things, but the spears look very similar.

I can kind of see that Gali's mask is similar to the 2004 Rua, even though that it is a well-done transition of Gali's 2015 mask. Looks pretty cool, anyway.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Lenny7092

[Voltex]

eh, Gali 2016 isn't as good as Gali 2015 was

 

but I kinda expected that, so. At least Lewa 2016 is a clear improvement.

[Disciple]

Gali is the best of the bunch this time around, in my opinion-- though still not as good as 2015 Gali. The blue and orange complement each other well, and I find her spear weapon a fitting choice for a diver. Of all the Toa, her design and "power-up" mode seem to be the least cluttered. The fish tail and shoulder-launchers flow really well with her appearance, as opposed to say, Pohatu and Ketar, who are just a mess.

 

As noted in most of the Uniter reviews, I would agree that the overall BIONICLE aesthetic has gotten surprisingly cluttered in 2016. The Nuva symbols are a nice throwback, but I think the "tribal" printing has gotten a little out of hand, as well as the amount of pistons molded into the Uniter's chest armor. I'd have preferred single-color masks as well, simply because they're easier to MOC with, but these new masks aren't bad for what they are. At least they're recognizable as belonging to their characters-- something most transformations in G1 did not achieve. 

 

I guess I'm just a little confused as to what design motif these Uniters are going for. It might have been better for the set designers to just stick to "animals" as the theme (think "Savage Planet" from Hero Factory), and save the crystal armor for another year. On top of their already-cluttered appearance (see: Tahu), they just look like they're trying to be too many things at once.

Edited January 25, 2016 by Disciple