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Kabaya Hafu Unboxing & 2003 Kabaya Matoran Combiner part 2


Yeow

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Some of you may remember about a year and a half ago, BZPower member Volitak_Boxor posted a topic about a previously undiscovered 2003 Matoran Combiner, the instructions of which appeared to be included in a Kabaya promtional release of some of the 2003 Matoran. The only images of the instructions that were able to be located were quite low res, and no one seemed to own a Kabaya Hafu, Macku, or Hewkii. Now that I've nearly completed my Bionicle collection, I decided to order a Kabaya Hafu to get a copy of these instructions. I've also documented the unboxing process to show off this rare promotional item. In fact, this may be the first English review of a 2003 Kabaya Matoran set.

 

I didn't have access to a real camera, so some of the lighting and composition of the photos may be kind of off/bad. I also don't speak Japanese, so if you can and some of the images aren't clear enough to read, PM me and I can retake pictures if necessary.

 

Front Image. The entire set is shrink wrapped, and there is a smaller box with the Kabaya logo attached to the bottom.

 

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Back Image. Notice Hewkii, Hafu, and Macku on the back of the smaller box, presumably our first bit of evidence about the undiscovered combiner. 

 

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Right side of the box. The big white sticker is attached to the shrink wrap itself, and appears to be some kind of warning about the candy. Also note the image of the combiner.

 

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Left side of the box.

 

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At this point, we've removed the shrink wrap and are now looking at the smaller box by itself.

 

Front of the smaller box.

 

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Back of the smaller box

 

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Right side. Image of the elusive combiner.

Left side. Some Japanese text.

Top. Mostly Japanese text with a diagram showing how to open the box.

Bottom. Barcode and more Japanese text

 

I also took some images of the box compared with a European and an American box from my own collection to show some of the differences. In the next few images, the European box is always on the left, or the top when applicable, while the American box is always on the right, or the bottom.

 

FrontBack.

TopBottom.

 

The image of Takanuva, Makuta, and the island of Mata Nui on the Kabaya box is actually a sticker (more visible here) that has been attached to the box itself. It's my belief that the Kabaya box is merely a European box with the sticker slapped on, because after opening the Hafu set, I found what looks like to be a standard 2003 Hafu without any instructions to the combiner. The instructions were normal in appearance.

 

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Having gone back and opened up the smaller box, we're greeted by some white hard candy and a folded up instruction sheet. The candy looks surprisingly normal for being so old. It's unclear whether or not it fits in a Zamor launcher.

 

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High resolution scan of the combiner instructions. I've left these unedited.

 

High resolution scan of the back of the combiner instructions. Unfortunately, it just shows that you can combine 3 Rahkshi in to the Rahkshi Kaita Za and Vo models.

 

 

And that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed this unboxing. If you'd like to see the unedited images in their full size, there is an unsorted imgur album here. I must say, it's quite an interesting feeling to opening a set this old. Fresh G1 parts are always nice though. Meanwhile, I'm off to Bricklink to get another Black Pakari to turn Hafu into a rebuilt Taipu for my collection.

Edited by Yeow
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Great coverage!  I find it a bit funny that there's an image of the combiner on the side of the box, while most photos of these boxes online show just the front and back.  That's probably part of the reason why this model was forgotten.  It's also nice to finally see a good scan of that model's instructions.  Do you mind if I use some of your photos and scans for the set database on BS01?  

 

Thanks for taking the time to document this piece of Bionicle memorabilia.

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 ^               Often lurking, occasionally writing about sets on BS01.                     


L     This link is a bit old, but there's still some good info about combiners there.


 

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