Random set of the day: Toa Hewkii
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8730 Toa Hewkii, released in 2006. It's one of 47 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 62 pieces, and its retail price was US$9.99/£7.99.
It's owned by 2135 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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27 comments on this article
Is the Huwbot's Bionicle form? Close to being Toa Huwkii.
Bionicle something something Toa something something Inika something Makuta Bionicle.
Just when you thought Bionicle hit peak edginess with the Piraka, then the Inika came out later that year and showed that the heroes looked like this. Chains, glowy axe-swords, multiple round guns, spiky armor that was once brown turned gunmetal, and then on top of that, the graphic art has a busted chainlink fence and it's pouring rain.
This is peak 2006 edgelord greatness that has since been unmatched in LEGO form.
And I wouldn't change a thing.
2006 was the year that I completely noped out of Bionicle, having mostly lost interest in 2005. I'll take my 2001 vintage Toa Mata with a wedge of fresh camembert cheese and a pinot noir, thank you very much.
So, these were the good guys?
I got into BIONICLE in 2004 but 2006 was when I got really into collecting everything. Loved the Voya Nui sets.
Looking at the range of promotional sets that were offered that year, I'm kinda glad I'd dropped out by then, as several of them look like stuff that wouldn't have been available in the US (and don't look like things that would be worth paying a hefty premium to buy from overseas).
So, there were six actual McTorans given out at McD's, plus two more characters with the same build in the Power Pack and the Boxor. Of those eight characters, two of the McTorans (Jala and Huki) got new names* (Jaller and Hewkii) and became Toa Inika. Two others (Kongu and Matoro) became Toa Inika without any name changes. The Boxor pilot (Nuparu) becomes a fifth Toa Inika. One of the remaining two (Maku), and the Power Pack character (officially Hafu, but looks like Taipu in the game), don't become Toa Anything, but were part of the alliance you form in the Mata Nui Online Game. And poor Onepu apparently never got a moment to shine.
*I know they worked the name change into the story, but as I understand it, that was done as part of their response to the Maori controversy.
Woo Hoo. finally, i own a random set of the day. just don't ask me where the balls are.
@blokey9:
I'm doing my best not to crack a joke at that...
Can some lore master explain the chain link fence? Do chain link fences even exist in Bionicle world?
To tell Hewkii's story, you'd have to go all the way back to BIONICLE's first year, when he was the champion of the sport of Kolhii for Po-Koro and his name was Huki. For his acts of valor during the battles against the Rahi, he was renamed Hewkii.
Hewkii was one of the six Matoran who went off in search of the Toa Nuva. The race was on to find the legendary Mask of Life in order to revive Mata Nui and stop him from dying in his sleep. Upon arriving close to the island of Voya Nui, Hewkii and the others were struck by bolts of energy (or lightning) from the Red Star in the sky overhead. This energy immediately transformed them into Toa, the Toa Inika ("Inika" means "Energy from a star"). Therefore, Hewkii wasn't just a simple Toa of Stone. His elemental attacks were laced with electricity, adding a deadlier edge to his abilities. Plus, he now wore an organic, semi-sentient Kanohi Mask of Accuracy, which ensured he would always have bullseye aim with his laser axe and multi-shot Zamor sphere launcher (the "ball shooter" he carries).
In the story, as Hewkii and the other Toa Inika raced to battle the Piraka and find the Mask of Life, it could be argued his story sort of blended into the background. He had no defining roles like Jaller the leader or Matoro the Mask-Bearer, so he was just the "muscle" of the group. It was remarked, though, that in his private moments on Voya Nui, he thought about his dear friend Macku back home on Metru Nui and wondered what she would think of him in his new Toa form.
Set-wise, Toa Hewkii was both a revelation and a radicalization. In a theme that so far had established its heroes as wielding "tools", the Toa Inika bore the closest resemblance to soldiers with their almost-identical, towering, lanky anatomies and menacing, bulky metallic-colored weapons (they were bulky mainly to accommodate the three batteries that allowed the "tools" to light up). However, as cool as this was to see, it was a different story when it came time to the pieces individually. First of all, the new "head" and mask were downright weird and rather unappealing. Like the Piraka sets before them, the Inika were all given rubbery masks to go over a solid head piece. But unlike the Piraka, there was no standard Technic connection between the two, and the "head" was featureless! It was just a green and white blob that held the mask on by a clip in the back and friction. No glowing eyes and interesting skull-faces behind the mask, just a weird blob with the green areas roughly corresponding to the "eyes" and the white representing the "mouth" (or toothy grin?). It was ridiculous, and the story explanation was barely acceptable (the energies of the Red Star coursing through the Inikas' bodies was so powerful, it caused them to glow bright enough to permanently obscure their facial features).
Specifically, Hewkii introduced a new color for stone-aligned characters: yellow-orange. This was allegedly based on how the brown-colored BIONICLE sets sold poorly compared to the rest, so LEGO wanted to try to spice up the stone characters with a new color. From then on out, every new main wave of canister sets (except for the winter wave of 2009) would have a yellow or orange-armored character in the mix instead of brown.
Anyway, in 2007, when the Inika transformed again, they lost the blob heads, the crazy organic masks, and most of the weapons. But regardless, BIONICLE had permanently shifted in tone thanks to the Piraka and Inika that followed them. For the next few years, the characters and set designs got edgier and more varied. Whether that was for BIONICLE's glory or detriment is still debated among fans to this day.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
I wonder if Huki being tan and dark-orange was an initial attempt to help liven things up for the Ko-Koran contingent.
@iwybs said:
"Can some lore master explain the chain link fence? Do chain link fences even exist in Bionicle world?"
No I don't think canonically chain link fences are a thing in Bionicle.
Non-canonically though they're right between the Mechanical Bull and the prison cell The Piraka are keeping The All American Rejects in...
Set and story wise I love Bionicle 2006 with the Inika being former Matoran turned Toa, and the increased dark mood and tension in the action. But as far as advertising went, 2006 made Bionicle into a bit of an edgelord jokefest for 2006. The "white guy rap" for the Piraka, the alt-rock chain link fences of the Inika line. It really kills the serious mood a lot of previous Bionicle packaging had and slides more into the same camp that Linkin Park and Michael Bay movies belong in, which is not a good thing for Bionicle's image at the end of the day. I ate it up as a 12 year old kid, but I wonder if the reason I dropped Bionicle shortly afterwards for a time was the eventual realization that having Toa save the All America Rejects and all that jazz was just... dumb.
2007 was much better at reigning in 2006's over the top advertising blitz, and while it retained some of the alt-rock style most of the ads (Cryoshell for example) most of the ads were a return to the self serious form of the original 2001-2004 waves.
Just compare the ads from 2006 to ads from other years and you can see the tonal disconnect:
2006: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZbCsJttSyE (with spikes! and pop rock!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1CTPC02n0c (with rap! rap is cool with the fellow kids!)
2004: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KrcywzmUE (a decent example of the original style)
2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HSyDrYjxyg (keeps that alt-rock stuff, but its not as over the top bad)
I have this one. He is incredibly ugly.
Also, the head was connected to the ball joint with a 4M axle. It could be removed so easily that it caused lots of unintentional beheadings, rendering some good laughs for me and friends when playing with it.
@lynels said:
"I have this one. He is incredibly ugly.
Also, the head was connected to the ball joint with a 4M axle. It could be removed so easily that it caused lots of unintentional beheadings, rendering some good laughs for me and friends when playing with it."
Beheadings are always a good time. That’s why the guillotine is considered one of the most celebrated forms of family entertainment. It’s thought that the television set only overtook it in popularity because there was less cleanup required.
The one Bionicle set I have is from this series, Toa Nuparu. It looks badass...
I only got Kongu from this line. I wish I could find the sword piece. It’s probably buried in my bin of bionicle pieces
I was very late to the Bionicle party--one of those who questioned if they were even Lego. But I've since gained an appreciation for them and I have the next version of Hewkii, the Mahri 8912. He's pretty cool--gattling gun, blades, spikes, chains.
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @iwybs said:
"Can some lore master explain the chain link fence? Do chain link fences even exist in Bionicle world?"
2007 was much better at reigning in 2006's over the top advertising blitz, and while it retained some of the alt-rock style most of the ads (Cryoshell for example) most of the ads were a return to the self serious form of the original 2001-2004 waves.
"
While I do think the advertising in 2006 was just plain weird, the music from 2008 by Cryoshell was actually pretty good, and I thought it fit the theme quite well. The best part about the 2006 wave was the games though - Bionicle Heroes was brilliant on console, but on DS it was an absolute masterpiece; a platformer unlike any other, and light-years better than the previous Bionicle games (see Bionicle: The Videogame).
For me Bionicle will always be the pinnacle of Lego - great characters, a great story, and the coolest looking sets ever made. Sure, there are flaws, like the 2008-9 joints becoming fragile rubbish, or the final film being cancelled, and whatever G2's storyline was supposed to be, but Hewkii here has the privilege of being part of one of the best themes Lego has ever built.
47 sets to choose from, with lots like this guy under $10 made some great playtime with friends and never run out of choices for birthday presents. Looking back there were some interesting technic block pieces with balls which I wondered if anyone attempted to connect all together into some multi-head and body centipede figure?
The Toa Inika were the first Bionicle sets to ever introduce the Inika build... which would become essential to the way Bionicle sets were built afterwards. Not only that, but the Toa Inika were also quite unique among all the other Bionicle Toa sets, featuring some special rubber masks, and sword pieces that light up when you press on a button.
Overall, 2006 was a very unique year for Bionicle... being the most edgy and having some of the most unique sets in the entirety of the line.
It’s interesting reading the comments of Bionicle fans all these years later as adults.
I picked up a few Bionicle sets just to see if the parts could be useful, but I never got into the line. What really amazed me, though, were the huge all- or mostly-Bionicle MOCs that started showing up online. They were most impressive.
@xboxtravis7992 said:
"Set and story wise I love Bionicle 2006 with the Inika being former Matoran turned Toa, and the increased dark mood and tension in the action. But as far as advertising went, 2006 made Bionicle into a bit of an edgelord jokefest for 2006. The "white guy rap" for the Piraka, the alt-rock chain link fences of the Inika line. It really kills the serious mood a lot of previous Bionicle packaging had and slides more into the same camp that Linkin Park and Michael Bay movies belong in, which is not a good thing for Bionicle's image at the end of the day. I ate it up as a 12 year old kid, but I wonder if the reason I dropped Bionicle shortly afterwards for a time was the eventual realization that having Toa save the All America Rejects and all that jazz was just... dumb.
2007 was much better at reigning in 2006's over the top advertising blitz, and while it retained some of the alt-rock style most of the ads (Cryoshell for example) most of the ads were a return to the self serious form of the original 2001-2004 waves."
That's a great analysis. Yeah, 13-year-old me ate this [stuff] up, especially since I had gotten so few Bionicle sets the year before. But looking back, a lot of the sincerity of the earlier years was hollowed out.
I'm slowly learning about just how pivotal Bionicle was for The LEGO Group, and depending who you ask was actually the theme that saved LEGO. Even though I never bought a single set from either G1 or G2 it's a lot of fun to read through these comments and get a glimpse of what Bionicle was for a lot of people back in the day.
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"I'm slowly learning about just how pivotal Bionicle was for The LEGO Group, and depending who you ask was actually the theme that saved LEGO. Even though I never bought a single set from either G1 or G2 it's a lot of fun to read through these comments and get a glimpse of what Bionicle was for a lot of people back in the day."
Well Bionicle pioneered the formula that particularly Ninjago, (and well any action theme Lego has now, Nexo Knights, Legends of Chima, Hidden Side, Monkie Kid etc.) now follows. Ninjago is perhaps the most closely hewn from the same cloth, a set of elemental themed heroes, facing enemies in a mythic setting told across a multi-media story. Bionicle will always be special for doing it first, although it has a lot of rough edges its successors would avoid (the earlier issues of cultural appropriation from the Maori in New Zealand probably the most obvious mistake that Lego has avoided repeating since).
Speaking as a 26 year old who grew up with Bionicle, yes there is a whole generation who's childhood with Lego was defined by Bionicle the same way that current generations would look to Ninjago or to how older generations might look to Classic Space or Castle or Pirates. Its going to be interesting to see if Lego ever taps into the growing nostalgia for Bionicle, or if the failure of G2 will have them leaving it in the same dustbin of history all old Lego themes eventually go to. There is obviously a lot of Bionicle nostalgia starting to pop up right now (just look at the stuff Popular Mechanics and other news websites have started putting out about Bionicle in this year alone), but perhaps its to be expected now that most of the Bionicle fandom are adults with the time and desire to look back nostalgically on their childhood theme.
We are fortunate though the two other highlight themes of the early 2000's Star Wars and Harry Potter both are continuing strong in current Lego's lineup, although having two of the three iconic themes of the era still running highlights even more Bionicle's current sabbatical.
I somehow missed out on the news, at the time, that the Inika were coming. I'm still not sure how, because I practically lived on BZPower's front page back in the day; but nonetheless, I remember having legitimately no idea what the next wave of sets was going to be until they showed up on store shelves... and I was completely blown away by the fact that some of the little Matoran, who I'd loved since 2002/2003, were now Toa. Nuparu, being my favourite Matoran at the time, was naturally the one I leapt to get my hands on first.
Hewkii was my second... which kept up a tradition, although that wasn't my intention. Every wave we got of new characters as Toa, without even planning it, I had got the Earth Toa first; then Stone, then Fire and Ice interchangeably, Water next, and Air last. It was the order I got the original Toa, the Toa Metru and the Toa Inika. And I didn't intentionally plan to echo the order I got the Mata, either time; it was just the order the specific characters most appealed to me at the time.
I don't actually remember why I chose Hewkii second... I think it may have come down to being curious about his new colour scheme.
Personally, I thought the Inika were a huge step forward, at the time. The heads were WEIRD, sure, but the rubber masks didn't bother me; and they were among the first Toa sets to have a full thirteen points of articulation that were all ball-jointed, which made them a dream for posing and photographing, something I was big on as a teen. The flashing swords, while over-heavy for the characters, were also distinctly cool; the green and blue ones moreso than the red, in my personal opinion, since they showed up better.
The biggest down-side about them, for me, was that the colours barely represented their original Matoran designs at all; while it was explained in story, I would have loved for Hewkii here, just for one example, to have retained some of his classic tan-and-orange scheme.
@ambr:
I've daisy-chained a few components, sure. I did a whole series of dragons where the bodies were made of either a bunch of original Toa torsos (five for most, and nine for the largest), or a bunch of the Throwbot torsos. Necks and tails were built around a core that consisted of a bunch of the original Throwbot socket joints linked together into a highly flexible design...albeit one that puts significant stress on the loops of the socket itself. But the overall look worked out great.
@Galaxy12_Import:
I wouldn't say that it was 100% due to Bionicle, but it _did_ largely save the company. Depending on who you ask, they might admit/realize that. In 2001, the original Toa sets hit midyear. About a year later, the Toa Nuva sets landed. I can't remember which of those two waves was involved, but one of them was selling so well that, while the company as a whole was just trying to stay on its feet, they had to install a brand-new production line just to keep up with demand for Bionicle parts. They funded the new line by just raising the price on those six Toa sets by $1.
They're pretty stingy with their sales numbers, but they did pass around a fact book at NYTF one of the three years I attended (2002-2004). It noted that the four most popular themes at the time were:
1 - Bionicle
2 - Star Wars
3 - something really basic (either Creator or Classic)
4 - Harry Potter
So of those four, SW and HP each cost them a fat chunk of money for licensing. They earned their keep, but not as much as if they'd been original IP. Whatever was 3 probably wasn't super profitable, as the price per piece ratio tends to be significantly lower. But Bionicle was original IP, so there weren't any licensing costs (in fact, other companies paid TLC to license the IP for stuff like shoes and toothbrushes). It had a boosted profit margin by the fact that they inflated the prices a tiny bit early on. The downside was that they burned through a _TON_ of new molds with just about every wave of sets, but on the other hand they sucked the life out of those molds, both by the fact that they tended to use a single base design for a batch of six characters, or just the fact that they produced piles of these sets as fast as they could crank them out.
@xboxtravis7992:
CCBS is _not_ a success, so any revival really needs to get back into more complex part design if it's going to be a large-scale success. The problem is, that's a huge pile of money to leverage on the chance that you can recapture lightning in a used bottle. SW has never really stopped these last 20 years, and HP has a huge advantage with the new mold cost being fairly limited compared to what this would require.