Today we got the first good look at Bionicle summer 2008 sets. The BZPower frontpage article of the day displays an abundance of photos from their visit to Toy Fair 2008.

Sadly, it seems that all the Mistika canister sets will be sold for $12.99 USD. Greg Farshtey's response to one BZPower member's inquiry about this was that a number of factors have contributed to the high price: the price of oil and therefore plastic has spiked, the price of steel to make new piece molds has also spiked, and the Lego CEO has decided that the Bionicle line was strong enough in sales to take the price hit.

I personally like the sets displayed so far. I do not feel resentful that the Toa Nuva have completely changed in style and form; it is a different feel for Bionicle figures, one that may touch home more than the Toa Nuva's old forms did. I of course wish I had gone to the Toy Fair to see the new sets up close for myself.

Apparently, only the Mazeka set did not make an appearance at Toy Fair. The summer sets that were on display seem to have had their pieces that have not been previous molds made out of some sort of styrofoam material. The Mistika sets have new projectile weapons, obviously air-powered, much like the Cordak but hopefully having a better firing rate. The projectiles are reportedly called Nynrah ghost blasters.

Tahu Nuva has a rotating shield blade, in a way like Keetongu's. His body is covered with jets and flaps and has the strange claws found in the new Takanuva extending out of his calves. His new mask is streamlined and tower-like.


Onua Nuva has a Nynrah with laser sight, like Kopaka Nuva's Midak, and a new mask that looks more like a Kraahkan than any Mask of Strength.


Gali Nuva has brand new shoulder armor and also has a laser sight on her Nynrah. She also as an eyepiece over her left eye, again like Kopaka Nuva.


Gorast is an excellent example of a character called female that at the same time looks the exact opposite of anything feminine. Although the Mistika Makuta are supposedly wearing Kanohi, the actual mask pieces appear simply to be complete heads much akin to the Visorak shells. Not a bad set with a light green and black color scheme and four arms.


Bitil extends the skeletal, insectoid theme among the summer Makuta. He has a rich color scheme of yellow and black and some fantastic new tool molds.


But Krika takes the insectoid look to a whole 'notha level. The elongeated, spiked pieces simulate a translucent exoskeleton showing red flesh and blood within -- very cool, very creepy. Krika is a cricket -- like Ehlek was an electric eel and Mantax was a mata ray. Think it good or bad, but I hate it when the names get that cheesy.


Axalara T9 (who knows what the "T9" is for?) is mammoth. It's a beautiful set, but undoubtably expensive beyond belief. It appears to have a hidden Midak stashed in its bowels. And the rider is confirmed to be Lewa Nuva whose armor has specially adapted to riding the thing.


Jetrax T6 has a mystery rider -- unless it really is Tahu Nuva, in which case it seems to be a waste to sell two different forms of the same character simultaneously. Again a magical set.


Rockoh T3 holds the Toa Nuva of Stone, nothing less in elegance than T9 and T6.


Vultraz is mini-Jetrax!


Takanuva, now star of his own Biocast, makes his return in the product line, this time as a half-light, half-shadow titan wielding some monster weapons.


Also, I discovered today that the Toys 'R' Us Bionicle page hosts two Phantoka commercials as downloadable mpeg files. These are nowhere to be found on Lego's Bionicle site, so they were a cool find for me. The links can be found here.