The Lady In Blue
Considering people's initial reactions to the Inika, they're selling amazingly well ... I was at Target yesterday, and all they had were three Kongu, two Hahli, Jaller, and a couple Matoro. And when I left, they were down to only one Hahli.
Although I've had her since yesterday afternoon, I refrained from building her until this morning to wait for full light to properly admire her. She looks best in direct sunlight, which causes her blue to light up and become much brighter than normal, in which instance it looks totally awesome with her white. Otherwise her whole body looks dark, and the white stands out, but she still looks great.
The blended white-dark blue pieces look fantastic – and I was lucky enough to get a set where almost all six blends were very neat, fading from one to the other without being swirled all over. This combination also evokes poetic descriptions, like an arctic ocean or a white-capped wave, or perhaps the blue ocean against white sands, all of which suit Hahli very well.
I have only a few gripes with Hahli, and these are because of who she is, not her set. Firstly, the extremely broad shoulders of the Inika don't work at all on Hahli, as females generally have narrower shoulders. Secondly, her armor color. Iron grey is a great color, but it's the most bellicose of the standard three metallic colors, and it brings out the darkness of Hahli's primary color. Silver would have been more peaceful and more fitting for Hahli. Thirdly, that harpoon of hers looks deadly, again much more warlike than the peaceful, shy Hahli we know and love (Mask of Light excluded.) But these elements all come together for a very powerful, intimidating design, looking about ready to take on and defeat the Piraka singlehandedly.
But even with this image, you can still find feminine elements from the right angle – the narrow waist, slim upper arms (from the front, at least), and proper posing can bring out her hips. The Kanohi Elda, however, is somewhere in between. It looks different from each angle, with thin, round cheeks, but then it has a prominent jaw and chin. The breathing tubes don't look anything like a mustache in person, and they further emphasize that this is a Toa of Water. The mouth looks surprisingly natural despite its high placement on the mask (which results in it being pale green rather than pure white), and I personally think it looks good despite my initial aversion to it.
Hahli does look awesome, and even more so with a blue light-up blade and Zamor. Why Lego chose green is beyond me – blue is the obvious color for a water elemental, and combined with silver armor it would look even more like Hahli. But we can always switch the colors – I've rather fallen in love with the green light-up in Kongu's energy crossbow. I also like the pale green of Hahli's Zamor, but the pictures slightly alter the light-up color: it's more of a yellowy green in real life, but the pictures make it look bluer. She looks even better with the blue, though.
– ToM (Hahli fanboy)
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