The Toa Metru

The Toa Metru are a far cry from their "descendants", the Toa Nuva. While the Toa Nuva are bulky, blocky and unposeable, the Toa Metru are sleek, slender and feature 13 points of articulation -- enough to give even the Rahkshi pause. For the small amount of money it'll cost you, what you'll be buying is one cool set.

There are six Toa Metru: prophetic Vakama of Fire, calculating Nuju of Ice, cautious Nokama of Water, unrelenting Onewa of Stone, impulsive Matau of Air, and practical Whenua of Earth. Each is most easily distinguished by his or her own color, mask and weapon, just like the original Toa. However, the Toa Olda and Toa Nuva also had many differences that were less prominent: Gali Olda and Pohatu Olda had those little #2 pegs in their hips and legs respectively, for instance. The lesser differences in the Toa Metru are far more subtle and fewer in number. Perhaps this is in some way indicative of the conformity and equality Turaga Dume demands on his island city... ?

Though white and black remain untouched on Metru-Nui, Vakama is a decidedly darker shade of red than Tahu was; Matau is also more of an olive green than Lewa; and Nokama, rather than being Gali's medium-blue hue, instead utilizes a dark-blue color identical to Hahli's feet. Onewa, in contrast, actually has a lighter, more terra-cotta-ish brown than Pohatu did (boggle). Oh, and dark gray has been replaced with a more gunmetal-like shade. Although I'm not a fan of the new colors anyway, it pains me the most to see that orange, light-gray, cyan, tan, lime and dark-gray -- the Mata-Nui Turaga's patron colors! -- were left out of these sets, besides the light-gray gears and such, and the gunmetal-gray (dark-gray) ball sockets and such. Also it renders the Toa Metru's pieces vaguely incompatible with those of other sets.

The new Kanohi are pretty darn good, especially the exactingly carved Matatu, and the Rau which I hold to be the only truly feminine-looking mask we've ever had. Granted, the lack of originality as far as powers go is a disappointment, but I'm here to talk about pieces, not powers. Also noteable is that these Kanohi are mounted on rods rather than pegs, like Avohkii or Kraakhan. Therefore they are just about impossible to remove from the Toa Metru's faces in plastic-toy-simulated battle. But that's okay, since LEGO doesn't seem to be paying much attention to plastic-toy-simulated battle these days anyway. But that's also okay, since I never paid much attention to it either. One final thing to mention on this subject: if only LEGO would release the new Komau in white, it would be the perfect mask to use for Star Wars scout trooper-based MOCs.

The weapons are an odd mix. Vakama is the only Toa who carries only one weapon: a flaming Kanoka launcher that, although it certainly looks cooler than regular Kanoka launchers, doesn't hold Kanoka very well. Or at least mine doesn't. Nuju's weapons are a pair of snowshoes that double in combat as... uh... well, I don't know what they are, but it sure looks like it would hurt if you got clobbered with one. Nokama's hydro blades are far more durable than they look; Onewa's proto pistons, however, are exactly as flimsy as they look. Matau has a pair of decidedly Lewa-Nuva-esque katana that mount onto his shoulders to become wings. Finally Whenua's half-drills combine into a... whole drill.

The Toa Metru introduce a truckload of new pieces into the BIONICLE mix, and I wouldst highlight one in particular: the new head piece. The face takes a little getting used to after years of nothing but Toa and Matoran faces, but I can't deny that this new head has the old ones beat on not one, but two counts. First: the transparent eye piece is now attached to the head only by a single #2 rod and can easily be removed, which I wish could have been the case all along. Second: the head is mounted on a ball instead of having to be connected to the body via a rod, which we also needed all along. The new head is fully compatible with all previous Kanohi as well as the new ones, although peg-mounted masks rather than rod-mounted ones tend to wobble side-to-side a bit. However it can't wear Krana, which I suppose makes sense anyway, since Krana weren't a threat to Metru-Nui.

The Toa Metru have two combiners, but they aren't the combiners you're used to. Instead of blending Fire, Stone and Earth (i.e. Tahu, Pohatu and Onua) and Ice, Water and Air (i.e. Kopaka, Gali and Lewa), the Metru combiners blend Fire, Stone and Air (i.e. Vakama, Onewa and Matau) and Ice, Water and Earth (i.e. Nuju, Nokama and Whenua). For some reason, this makes more sense to me -- I always thought Lewa was more fit to follow the Way of the Warrior than the Way of Wisdom, and that the reverse held true for Onua -- but since LEGO has gotten us so used to the Fire-Stone-Earth and Ice-Water-Air splits, it still feels somehow wrong to mess with that.

Anyway, the Ice-Water-Earth combiner is the Kraawa, a bizarre, mismatched creature that is supposedly very powerful, but only because of the power it has: the ability to absorb energy from its opponents. Sound familiar? LEGO has done this power to death as of late -- look at the horseman-like Water-Stone-Earth Rahkshi combiner, for instance. Fortunately the Kralhi, the Fire-Stone-Air combiner, is much better. Ever since the Bohrok-Kal arrived LEGO has done pretty bad Bionicle combiners, but I have to say the Kralhi is really, really good... I can't find anything to complain about. If LEGO keeps churning out combiners like this, I'll be well pleased.

Overall, the Toa Metru are extremely cool sets, well worth the money it'll take to buy all six. If you're new to the BIONICLE craze, picking up the Toa Metru would be a great way to begin your collection. And if you've been collecting BIONICLE sets for a while now, these six heroes will redefine your image of a Toa.  Review done by pohatufan1