An interesting story: the pictures of the Stars came out on a day that I was completely twitterpated over a certain someone, so the combination of those emotions and the surprise/confusion of the stars was rather ridiculous. It was something to the effect of "What the heck – wha – I need my life to pause for a little so I can properly react to and judge these sets without having a whole bunch of completely separate, intense emotions going on at the same time" It was bad.

So the biggest part of that mess was "confusion." Especially over Gresh and Skrall, given that we had just had them this year. Also over Tahu and Takanuva as small sets. But after that I rather liked them, since they are rather well put-together, both in colors and design. (Let's take a moment to remember when the last time I said that about a series of sets was. I can't remember.)

And then we found out they were the last sets ever. That just made the few problems I had with them even worse, and got me particularly annoyed at the Piraka. I'll go into these later. A lot of people don't like them because they were expecting reissues/redesigns of the old sets (in full canister size) – an expectation I think I would have had too if I had known their names before suddenly seeing photos in Tilius's blog one day – but for me, I like them as the tributes to old sets that they are, because they function very well as that.

And they're CUTE!

TAHU :: The best of the bunch without competition. He has perfect proportions and a great color scheme – AND it's his original one! The biggest problem I have with him is the ridiculous length of his head, but that's a flaw with the Avotoran design rather than Tahu specifically. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the Hau(s) being smaller than the original. They're more proportionate to the Avotoran size this way, but the Hau wasn't a big mask and I find the typical Kanohi size to be endearing on the Avotoran build... I'll have to wait until I have him in person to judge properly.

TAKANUVA :: He, too, would be perfect but for one ridiculous flaw – his Avohkii is silver. And none of the rest of him is (not counting tools). It throws the color scheme off-balance (a silver chest, for example, would work fine, because that would be in a central location, but the Avohkii is off at the top of Takanuva's design and all alone there, resulting in unbalance). If it were white, he would be perfect. See? Much more unified. Plus, a white Avohkii would be awesome by itself. But apart from that, I do love his shoulder armor especially, and I've always liked Takanuva with twin staffs.

GRESH :: There's just something very slightly off about him. I think it's the solid dark green under the lime – though I'm not sure how one would fix this without, say, making his torso black. Or maybe it's the distinctness of the lime and dark green – the blended pieces on big!Gresh brought the two colors together to perfection. Glad for the recolors, though, and I like his new armor piece.

SKRALL :: He is so adorable! Isn't he? He's posed all fierce and scary but then he's chibi-sized and the result is overwhelmingly cute. I'm not sure why his ankles are black rather than lime, but it doesn't look bad. And the neck is quite creative, though I wish something could be done about the awkward exposed ball and socket that it results in... But he's definitely my second-favorite after Tahu.

THE RAHKSHI :: I love that we have a yellow Rahkshi with which to bid farewell to Bionicle (that, at least, is a really nice sendoff), and I like how it was done, except for one thing. The back/head/spine piece. It's just so ... unnecessarily oversimplified. I mean, it's a given that we need a new Rahkshi back mold for it, since there's no way to attach the old piece without getting more complex than Lego is willing to go with the Stars. But I don't see why we need this one-piece rubbery mass, especially since it deprives us of the chance at a yellow Rahkshi head.

This is what I would do: instead of having the head, back, and pin holes all horizontal (in the free, unattached mold), I would have the head separate, and the pin holes vertical relative to the back (the way they are when you attach the assembly). Then the mold could just be normal solid plastic, since it wouldn't need to move at all. Finally, I'd make the spines be the spikes on the left in this photo (new molds for 2010 in the first place) – the Rahkshi back could just have three holes and appropriate indentations in it for them to plug in.

Thus, same amount of new pieces, but more pieces in the set, and more mobility for the head! And no awkward bit bridging the head and back. As for the rest of the set, the only other thing I can think of to change is the feet... the claws look good, but they aren't what the Rahkshi originally had. I might do Metru feet instead.

THE PIRAKA :: The only one I really think is boring. The dark blue and dark grey combined are just too muted. And I just don't think the set as a whole looks good. I'm also confused by the spines – why are there two from the side of his head rather than one from the back? The result looks too cluttered to me.

And that's one of the problems with the Stars. That the blue Star is a boring and ugly set. Who I would have chosen – someone much more brightly colored, much more interesting, and much more a star of Bionicle than Vezok (or whoever, though I don't see why it can't just be Vezok) – is Hahli Mahri. Yes, I know you're thinking "well, duh, of course ToM wants Hahli." But think about it. She was the poster girl for 2007 (Star status), she'd be much more brightly-colored than Vezok (I personally would make her secondary color light blue, not lime, since Gresh and Skrall have lime already) – and she's female. Because I can hardly fail to remark that the last group of Bionicle sets there is contains no women. Way to be typical, Lego.

Not that that makes Hahli the only choice – Gali would be a great candidate for the blue Star – but I can't help but feel that the Mahri are kind of being slighted for how important they were in the story. You have Tahu representing the original six, Takanuva, who stands on his own and is quite important by himself, Gresh for the Bara Magna heroes – and no one from the Mahri? (We can ignore the Toa Metru since it would be a bit odd for them to suddenly come back. But then, it's a bit odd to see Tahu olda here as well.)

Anyway. I have a few designs for Hahli drawn up and I'll post them hopefully soonish. Since I, at least, think she'd have been much better than Vezok.

~ ToM