Who else liked the Bohrok-Kal?

[Tarix819]

Just interested since I just picked up Lehvak-Kal and Gahlok-Kal.

 

I know they weren't received very well since they're basically clones of the regular Bohrok, but does anyone here on BZPower like them or at least somewhat like them?

 

IMO whilst the design wasn't very innovative by 2003, I kinda liked them just by how they emphasised the 'Elite' Bohrok feel, with the heavy silver instead of bright colours and the reptilian pattern on the faceplate. to me they felt a lot more brutish and powerful, which is why I quite liked them.

 

In fact the biggest downside for me was not the lack of innovation, but rather the fact that the Krana-Kal of Tahnok-Kal, Nuhvok-Kal and Pahrak-Kal seem to be mixed up colour-wise.

 

But what did you guys think of them? I'm interested to see if anyone else actually liked the Bohrok-Kal somewhat.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Tarix819

[Toa Imrukii]

I loved them, I sill do, I love all of the Bohrok, you could do so much with them in terms of play. Yes, they're all clones of each other, but I couldn't care less. Out of all the BIONICLE sets I still have the most fun out of the Bohrok to this day, and when we got the silver recolors of them in 2003 I was, and still am, stoked.

[Ta-metru_defender]

Cool idea, kinda boring sets. I mean, they looked cool, but not really innovative. That silver's cool, though. Back before everything was silver.

[Pahrak Model ZX]

I love Bohrok (hence the username), so I mean I do kinda like the Kal.

 

I definitely understand the complaints, though--extending the story we just got an entire year of was fairly meaningless filler, rereleasing sets only a year later with minimal differences is odd, and this and the Nuva was where the whole "the stronger you are the more generic silver/bland gray you have" thing started...still, I feel like the Kal sets have some personality to them, and I'd love to pick up the rest I need someday.

[Steampunk Tahu]

*Slowly raises hand hoping no elitists notice.*

[Planetperson]

I did like the Kal. I understand the gripes about the sets being clones, but I thought their exotic powers and the drama of the Toa Nuva losing their own powers were very interesting. The ending of that little arc was a nice twist.

[Kopekemaster]

I like them, at least from a story aspect. The original Bohrok were just a horde, every Bohrok was just a generic clone, but the Bohrok-Kal are singular, and quite a bit more powerful.

 

I still like their sets, I love the Bohrok build in general and the protodermis-colored "headpieces" and weapons (which also had cool designs) were pretty sweet.

[xccj]

The Bohrok in general were some of the best Bionicle sets ever, with a good head-butting function, the krana pop-out feature, the ability to curl up into balls, and still be bipedal characters. The fact that the story had them in hordes even made the cloned sets not so bad. The Kal, however, stretched the limit to how many cloned sets the theme could handle. While the limb pieces in primary colors and the joints in silver were a plus, they didn't really bring a whole lot of new stuff to the table. (Granted, if you missed out on the original Bohrok, then you had a chance to get these.) I wasn't so much into the whole "they're silver and elite" but some of their shields were pretty cool.

 

The 2003 Kal storyline, however, was great, and Bionicle redeemed itself set wise with the Rahkshi later that year.

 

[CommanderKumo]

I like them alot! they had some nice new pieces and recolours and are generally interesting.

[BioFan95]

Yes, while they were clones sets of clone sets, the Bohrok-Kal had the distinction of being the first Bionicle (canister sets) antagonists who weren't either Rahi or members of a swarm. So that's a defitinate plus.

[Toatapio Nuva]

I liked them a lot, actually. As a kid, it didn't matter to me that they were clone sets, because the story for them was awesome enough to make me want to buy them all. It was always the story that compelled me to buy the sets, rather than the sets themselves per se.

[Pohaturon]

I loved the Kal, simply because I loved the Bohrok, and in my eyes more Bohrok can only be a good thing, even if they're just recolored clones. Hey, I wouldn't have minded Bohrok in even more color variations so long as they at least all have unique shield molds. Yellow Bohrok, Purple Bohrok, Teal Bohrok, Orange Bohrok, Gray Bohrok and Transparent-anything Bohrok would have been a neat third wave of Bohrok if you ask me.

 

[Planetperson]

Yellow Bohrok, Purple Bohrok, Teal Bohrok, Orange Bohrok, Gray Bohrok and Transparent-anything Bohrok would have been a neat third wave of Bohrok if you ask me.

 

I'd buy that.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

I always liked them! The Kal arc was my favourite for a while when I was younger - the challenge of the Toa being rendered powerless, and the idea of them eventually defeating the Kal in such a unique way, were really interesting to me. As for the sets, well...

 

It never bothered me that they were clones, though that may have been because I only had one Bohrok set before them, and didn't get the rest until I became a completionist a few years later, so it didn't occur to me at the time. In fact... truth be told, I always thought that the Kal were more aesthetically pleasing than the classic Bohrok; Nuhvok-Kal and Lehvak-Kal got a lot more love than my normal Tahnok when I was a kid, for certain. The silver-and-single-colour worked for them, and... like someone above said, there was a sense of personality to the sets that (I felt, at least) the original Bohrok had lacked. If you gave me a choice now, I'd still pick one of the Kal over a classic Bohrok set.

 

That said, some innovation in the design wouldn't have gone amiss. Maybe the head and mechanism could have stayed, but perhaps if something different had been done with the torso construction or... I dunno, I'm no set designer xD

[evil_jaga_genius]

I always have to have a Bohrok on hand for school assignments.  Banging your head against a hard problem?  Banging your head against the wall in frustration?  Just grab a Bohrok, press a button, and presto!  He does the hard work of head-banging so you don't have to!

 

Tahnok-Kal has been my loyal assistant in that regard.

 

So yeah, I like the Bohrok-Kal.

[bohrokmaster]

I loved them, I sill do, I love all of the Bohrok, you could do so much with them in terms of play. Yes, they're all clones of each other, but I couldn't care less. Out of all the BIONICLE sets I still have the most fun out of the Bohrok to this day, and when we got the silver recolors of them in 2003 I was, and still am, stoked.

 

^ same here.   And they were six Bohrok instead of six swarms. With Intelligence!

[Alligaytorrr]

I skipped them as a kid because I could hardly convince my parents to buy six clone sets, let alone twelve, but I was pretty jealous of kids who had them. The silver with the primary colors is a really nice color scheme, they're sleek and look elite, and the patterns on the faceplates were very cool. Would definitely love to get my hands on them sometime. And even if their story was filler, it still felt like the biggest challenge for the toa yet and for that I loved it anyway, and still really appreciate it today. 

[Lenny7092]

I do. I like their silver pieces. It’s neat that the Toa Nuva got their silver counterparts to fight with, even though they don’t share the same elemental powers. Plus, the Bohrok-Kal can think and talk about people.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Lenny7092

[TERIDAX941]

I loved them! The January 2003 comic was the first one I ever collected, so I got introduced to the Kal in the most epic way! Yes it was confusing that three of them had mixed Krana-kal, but that was an easy problem to fix (just switch them back to normal) Their new powers (first time we ever seen those elements) and the suspense of their mission, they were fun to read about and play with!

[Trijhak]

Lehvak-Kal was my first set so I would be very hypocritical to say I didn't like them. 

 

My only problem with the Bohrok-Kal is their silver ball sockets really seem to fall apart easily. Or maybe that's just my experience.

[TERIDAX941]

My only problem with the Bohrok-Kal is their silver ball sockets really seem to fall apart easily. Or maybe that's just my experience.

I had similar experience to be honest, I bought a TON of silver sockets from Bricklist just to replace them when they fracture (seriously LEGO, what's the deal?) 

[Wiriamu]

I liked the Kal. Sure, they were clones, but sometimes things are cooler after a bit of reworking.

[Toa of Ice - 1987]

I wouldn't say they were terrible but they did feel rather outclassed compared to the rahkshi villains that came during the second half of 2003.

 

It didn't stop me from buying a kohrak kal (white one) when the sets csme out since his power seemed very interesting and powerful because it could very easily lose control and cause indirect damage that affect teammates

But i never liked or understood why his silver was almost grayish or gunmetal grey-ish (instead of standard silver) on any promotional artwork made for the Kal sets.

Edited November 24, 2017 by necross hordika

[LightPurpleKrana]

The bohrok and bohrok-Kal are some of my favorite sets. The faceplate variations helped even out the similarities, and the unique powers were really cool.

 

LightPurpleKrana

[Pohaturon]

Bohrok-kal? I think you mean Baerok-kal!

 

...

 

I'll show myself out.

 

[Master Inika]

The Kal have a special place for me because Tahnok-Kal was my very first BIONICLE set. I loved them for all the reasons the Bohrok were awesome, which I'd never seen or played with. Years later, when I did discover the Bohrok, I naturally thought of them as derivative of the Kal, rather than the other way around. I did think the transparent headplates were a definite improvement, though.

 

Something interesting about BIONICLE colors I noticed is that the more streamlined colors tend to make for more visually appealing combiner models. Since all the Bohrok have silver, the Kal Kaita looked a little bit more uniform. Same thing with the 2004 combiners, since the duller colors and loads of gray, while awful on the individual sets, improved the combiners as unified models.

 

From a story perspective, 2003 suffered from being the more disjointed between the early and later halves of the year (though not as badly as Hero Factory 2011). Either half could have been more engaging if given more time; the Mask of Light arc has the definite advantage of coming second and having a movie. Still, it was pretty fascinating to see the Toa powerless, especially immediately after their hyped-up upgrade to Nuva.

 

In fact the biggest downside for me was not the lack of innovation, but rather the fact that the Krana-Kal of Tahnok-Kal, Nuhvok-Kal and Pahrak-Kal seem to be mixed up colour-wise.

To make the Krana-Kal situation even more confusing, Pahrak-Kal and Nuhvok-Kal have each other's Krana-Kal in the instruction manuals.

[Makuta_of_Oz]

I always loved them, but maybe that was because I never saw them in Australia (I was told by LEGO Australia in a letter that they were K>Mart exclusives, but they sol out long before I found any), and that made them all the more precious, just like all the other sets I didn't get before turning 18.

[CyclonatorZ]

They were boring the moment I saw them in the Lego Magazine, and this was coming from a kid who didn't start collecting Bionicle sets until the fourth year.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Zarkan: Master of Storms

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I thought they were cool. Sure, they looked a lot like the original Bohrok. But they had new weapons and cool face plates. Plus, the Bohrok design itself was cool, so having more sets with it was a good thing IMO. 

[ArchAngelleofJustice]

From a story perspective, which is the most important thing to me, I think they are really cool. The online animations were a bit rushed, but the book Makuta's Revenge was just as enjoyable as the first two. They helped flesh out the Bohrok and Bahrag.

 

From a set perspective, I never had one. I don't think they were ever really released in Australia, and I never had much interest in buying them. I had four Bohrok and that was all I needed. I think I ended up with the same amount of Rahkshi. I wasn't interested in more clone sets. I would have killed for a Tarakava set though.