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The Awkwardness of the Toa Metru?


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Am I alone in thinking that the Toa Metru are extremely awkward, more so, to an extant, than even the Toa Mata? 
 

One of my biggest gripes with the sets themselves is the terrible way that you are supposed to attach the weapons. Nokama, Onewa, and Whenua each have their weapons held in by a sole blue pin, which is just about the most awkward way they could have done it. This is illustrated here:

 

 4135X7CH6CL.jpg

 

The next, and arguably the most hindering aspect of the Toa Metru are the way in which the shoulders are held into place, although this is simply my opinion.

 

So what did you all think about the sets?

Edited by Jaek_3
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Honestly they are some of my favorites. I really like how they have the Mata aesthetic but a bit more urban.

 

I don't really mind the weapon connections, especially 'cause Nokama and Onewa are kinda supposed to be flinging them around.

 

The shoulders? Yeah, they're super awkward. I kinda wish they were normal and didn't have a gear function.

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I personally loved these sets, they are actually the reason I got into Bionicle.  The detail of the sets and setting of the story where, for the time, incredible.  The masks also remain to this day some of my favorites (Matau's in particular, as he is my all time favorite Toa).

 

I don't quite understand what your talking about when your talking about the shoulders, but lets face it, there isn't really anything more awkward than Mata/Nuva Pohato's upside down torso.

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I don't think the pin weapon connections were particularly awkward.  All of them are also shown using the axle connectors as handles (Onewa and Whenua on their canister art and Nokama in her promo video) so even based on what's advertised there's no reason you'd have to attach them via pins.  If their weapons didn't have the axle handles I think it'd be a different story, because then you wouldn't even have the option.  In Whenua's case I especially can't fault it, because attaching them like that is meant for the combining-weapon feature, which is really just a fun bonus.

 

The shoulders, on the other hand, are a step down from the already-lacking posability of the previous Toa sets.  At the very least the Mata/Nuva could raise and lower each arm independently via ball joints, whereas on the Metru to get anything other than rotationally symmetric movement you'd have to take apart the gear mechanism.  And even then they're locked into single planes of rotation, giving raised arms less of a "triumphant pose" look and more of a stiff "gonna dive into this here pool" look.

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the Metru were a bunch of nerds
 
oh wait we're talking about the sets
 
I didn't mind the weapons because I never used the blue pins; save for Nokama (whose weapons really worked with the pins, aesthetically), I used the axle connectors on the weapons to attach them. As for the shoulders, I liked them for posing and their functionality was neither more or less practical than the Mata or Nuva.

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I mostly hated the bland grey being used for a secondary color on them. Even the vahki and metru nui matoran had that problem with grey color sockets in the color scheme.

The neck socket positions available on the toa metru build felt awkvard, but if you wanted a stubby hunchback like whenua then you could adjust the position of the waist-piece

Edited by necross hordika
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Bear in mind that when they came out, we were all freaking out that they had 13 points of articulation. Huge leap forward.

 

The weapon mounting was indeed awkward for some of them. I don't recall using the pins on Whenua though. Pretty sure I just had him hold the drills the standard way (e.g. Tahu Nuva's swords).

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The pin weapon connections were pretty awkward. However, my memories of the Metru are not affected by that since I decided to ignore the instructions and had them hold their weapons the "traditional" way.

 

As noted before, at the time, they were pretty mind blowing. We all forget that knees and elbows used to be non-existant.

 

Also those masks are probably some of the best we got in Bionicle's entire run, IMO.

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Bear in mind that when they came out, we were all freaking out that they had 13 points of articulation. Huge leap forward.

This is what colors my whole perception of the Metru. These Toa had moveable heads! And elbows! And knees! Wuuuuut

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Bear in mind that when they came out, we were all freaking out that they had 13 points of articulation. Huge leap forward.

Actually they are not the first. I immediately doubted your words and did a check and the Rahkshi were the first to have 13 with the gear articulation in their chest and each separate end on their arms and hands.

The Toa metru just seemed to look cooler when whe noticed 13. This diagram of mine proves they beat the Toa Metru to it  :hehe-sign:  

Even the Vahki of all sets, mind you the Vahki have nearly very same build as the rahkshi... only had 11 points of articulation which is a 2 points of setback   :headbonk:

articulation.jpg

Edited by necross hordika
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Rahkshi only had 12 points: 2 shoulders, 2 wrists, 2 hips, 2 knees, 2 feet, 1 function, 1 head.

 

I'm also a bit hesitant to grant the Metru a full 13 points of articulation, though, since the arm movements were linked as one function.  That really put a damper on the posing and even the utility of the function, since to get a good downswing from one arm the other arm would have to be awkwardly thrust backward.

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Yeah, the Toa Metru shoulder articulation was undoubtedly a step backward (the Toa Nuva included replacement elements that made their limbs fully poseable, so there wasn't really much of an excuse) BUT they were so conceptually out there and new that I find it hard to fault them for it. Yeah the Rahkshi may have had just a tiny advantage, but the Metru were the first Toa to be so articulated. They also carried the burden of ushering in an entirely new texture and style to the sets for the Metru Nui arc. I think they're pretty cool.

Edited by Pereki
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Rahkshi only had 12 points: 2 shoulders, 2 wrists, 2 hips, 2 knees, 2 feet, 1 function, 1 head.

 

I'm also a bit hesitant to grant the Metru a full 13 points of articulation, though, since the arm movements were linked as one function.  That really put a damper on the posing and even the utility of the function, since to get a good downswing from one arm the other arm would have to be awkwardly thrust backward.

 

Yeah the weird angle that the shoulders are linked at to the body can make some look weird because of the gears but that's why can fix it with removing all the gears and instead, add 2 of this piece 32054.png and 2 plus rods as shoulder connections.

 

If anything i'll give the Toa Metru brownie points for being able to use their arms into a sharp diving pose or look their resting positions looks like shrugging.

Edited by necross hordika

 

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Look man, these sets were a huge step for Bionicle at the time. Just a year before, you know what we got? KNEES! There are members here that remember when knees were invented. All of a sudden it became a staple. Metru had knees, attachable armor, ARMS that can bend at the elbow. Plus all those beautiful Metru colors. 

 

Metru weren't awkward. They were a big step forward in the set design. If you want to talk about awkward sets, look at the Hordika. 

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Look man, these sets were a huge step for Bionicle at the time. Just a year before, you know what we got? KNEES! There are members here that remember when knees were invented. All of a sudden it became a staple. Metru had knees, attachable armor, ARMS that can bend at the elbow. Plus all those beautiful Metru colors.

 

Metru weren't awkward. They were a big step forward in the set design. If you want to talk about awkward sets, look at the Hordika.

 

It is fitting since hordika is likely derived from the term horrible.

Floppy gears for 1 main shoulder giving them only very basic arm articulation.

And the torso and head looked as if they were anorexic. The torso on the chest are was anorexic at only 4 brick units in thickness while the mata/nuva and metru were roughly 6-7 units thick (not counting nuva chest armour.)

Edited by necross hordika

 

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Look man, these sets were a huge step for Bionicle at the time. Just a year before, you know what we got? KNEES! There are members here that remember when knees were invented. All of a sudden it became a staple. Metru had knees, attachable armor, ARMS that can bend at the elbow. Plus all those beautiful Metru colors.

 

Metru weren't awkward. They were a big step forward in the set design. If you want to talk about awkward sets, look at the Hordika.

It is fitting since hordika is likely derived from the term horrible.

Floppy gears for 1 main shoulder giving them only very basic arm articulation.

And the torso and head looked as if they were anorexic. The torso on the chest are was anorexic at only 4 brick units in thickness while the mata/nuva and metru were roughly 6-7 units thick (not counting nuva chest armour.)

 

I must be the oddball. I loved the look of the Hordika. The floppy arm was a little irritating, but no more than synced arm gears (i.e. Toa Metru).

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  • 1 month later...

Gear function always bothered me. I didn't see the fun in that small gimmick. I'd rather have my Toa have full control over their arms, rather than have to bend their one arm backward in order to raise their weapon/tool above them. The motion made sense for Onua, as the Toa of Earth dug, and that was a similar animation to the gear movement.

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Now, to me the Technic functions were one of the draws of Bionicle (Even when "win condition" features like stud-attached masks were phased out it was good for having figures give each other a good solid smack) and I would have liked to see them become more refined. Like perhaps separately-geared shoulders as the Toa Kaita had becoming standard, and putting ball joints on the end of the axles so you could have it both ways..

 

I agree that the Metru designs are awkward due to some fails in execution. Worse to me than the pin attachment point is the fact that if you stick to the parts a set came with then you have no choice but to build them double-geared - unlike the Toa Nuva, they didn't come with alternate parts. The double gearing combined with the angle of the shoulder sockets does not play nice with the intended use pattern of some of their weapons... and Vakama having to thrust one arm backward to raise his disk launcher looks silly. The double gears also make them a bit awkward to build - I find it practical to go against the instructions and leave off putting on the chestplate until the shoulders have been attached, the better for making sure the shoulder gears are aligned juuuust right. Beyond the awkwardness of the double gearing, I think some of the color choices are awkward. Particularly Vakama and Matau - the dark red and dark green with only dark stone gray as a secondary color don't say "fire" or "air" to me as well as previous and successive (in IRL terms) color schemes. And then there's the fact that all of them except Whenua and perhaps Nuju have the wrong eye color... Lhikan is perhaps the best of the 2004 lot to me - he still has the awkwardness of double gearing but if attached in the right way his greatswords play nice with it, and his parts colors work better for fire to me.

 

I think the best users of the Metru design are the Toa Hagah - only one geared arm, so no weapon collision issues. The other arm is free to turn on a pin-with-bushing piece.

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  • 3 years later...

I personally like the metru PLATFORM.

by that I mean that I think the sets are alright, but the system is good. for example, I have a metru based toa of air that has full articulation (yes, even shoulders) and still retains the gear function (of which is linked to one arm and has added friction)

basically, Its a good platform to start with, then use a variety of mods and changes to get it just the way you want it

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9 hours ago, The Dark Ruru said:

I personally like the metru PLATFORM.

by that I mean that I think the sets are alright, but the system is good. for example, I have a metru based toa of air that has full articulation (yes, even shoulders) and still retains the gear function (of which is linked to one arm and has added friction)

basically, Its a good platform to start with, then use a variety of mods and changes to get it just the way you want it

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