Target had some more Bionicle... in fact it was one of the few Lego shelves that was fully stocked. So I bought some more. Muhaha. Now time for a quick review.

First things first, did I either not read the Lewa reviews closely enough or did none of them mention all the new technic goodies that he came with? +oo rods and 1 length rod spacers? First one was from last year and relatively uncommon, and Lewa has four, and the spacers are new, I believe!

Since I already started... Lewa seems fairly well done. I was especially impressed with how they did the shoulder spikes, which I expected to just be another random ball joint connection, since Hero Factory did that a few times. But the proportions, weapons, general colors... all Lewa. Except for the mask, which totally ruins it. I also wish he had longer handles for his axes; I'll probably throw in a rod myself to make them that way, but the official version just seems to have him gripping them too high up. They don't quite look as good as wings as they could, but it's a nice attempt, and the duel swords work. Wish he had more green; it could totally replace the Keetongu orange without issue.

Pohatu's a nice combination of armor and lack of armor for sleekness. While his mask looked like one of the best in promo images, I think it's a little too small. The trans neon green and burnt orange isn't my favorite combo, but I like the pieces in those colors. (I again wish we'd seen more of the primary color. You could've replaced those silver shells with burnt orange.) The Boomerang weapons are fantastic and I'm tempted to buy another Pohatu just for more. (Oh, yes, and in the picture I flipped him upside-down so his hips are wide and have the gear joints.)

Speaking of gears, I generally like how they did it. The big, Boxor gears are used for the direction change of the spins, but the smaller gears do a wonderful job of stabilizing it. Plus, I like that a different technique was used between the two, and I know that some of the other Toa have different designs too, so props for multiple creative uses and not just one-size-fits-all. Although Pohatu should've been allowed to move both his arms. Or, you know, had his motion translated to his legs. But I guess that doesn't work quite as well as it did with the original sets.

Another thing that does bug me; the masks seem to fall off way too easily. I know that's supposed to be a function, but it seems the connection is just really unstable. And I feel this is the same across all the masks; skull spiders, Kakama Mask of Stone, Miru Mask of Jungle, and the Protector masks. And with such a unstable connection on the heads, I don't know if they'd be stable enough for MOCs. Sorry, I'm just not impressed. I wish they could've included axle holes or something so we could attach em if we wanted to, but I guess that takes the challenge out of MOCing with new pieces.

And now that I have four of em, I want to MOC with the dark blue spider masks. I'm more of a fan of the scorpion spiders that came with the stone characters; it's a shame that none of the others seem to have tails. With the tail, they seem a bit imposing, less so with just the legs.

I guess I also got the protectors. Decent characters, I guess, but mostly parts packs. Like the flame pieces in different colors as their weapons. Not a huge fan of the Gatling guns, but they serve their purpose. The masks are nice in the two tones, although that will make MOCing with them a bit harder. Plus, 4 burnt orange shells with the stone protectors. Sadly, the shells are trans green on the jungle protector; could use more shells in bright green. Seriously, if they're going to introduce a new color into constraction, they need to give it more parts! (Technically I guess they're doing that with Lewa since Green Lantern Ultrafig has CCBS parts first... but still, I want more of them if I'm going to MOC in that color.)

I'm aiming next for Onua and Gali, although I'll eventually grab Tahu and Kopaka as well. Maybe also the purple Earth Protector, the other three don't really appeal to me, besides their masks, and currently the sets aren't worth the masks alone.

And that's my ranting about the new Toa. They still have to grow on me some more, but they're not half bad.