Apparently, brown/stone characters have always sold the worst, so in these later years the designers were just... DESPERATELY looking for different colors that might sell better. Gunmetal, keetorange, orange, yellow, ANYTHING but brown. It was a weird time to be a stone character. Fun thing about the shadow leeches lore-wise, those were a new Kraata sub-species just recently perfected by these Makuta. Chirox, I think. And instead of infecting masks to turn the wearer evil, they infect an entire person. In seconds. I remember at the time, this wave made a STRONG first impression for the year. The Makuta being so big and strong and... gothic, the Toa bringing back back... lime, and boasting these powerful blasters that seemed like the perfect evolution of the Zamor sphere launchers, we expected the moon for the summer wave. Then the Mistika came and OH MY GOD people hated them. Called them things like "Mistake-a." They- well, we felt the spindly, slightly simpler bug-Makuta were a step down from these imposing bat-Makuta, but most of the ire was saved for the Toa. With darker colors, MORE silver, and masks that didn't even attempt to resemble their past selves, it just left a bad taste in our mouths. These days, the Mistika wave has grown on me. Mostly. But I've gotta say this wave is superior. It just has such... PRESENCE. Even with the limited colors on the Toa, I can appreciate how bright they are, making each one immediately stand out like a lit match against these Gargoyle-like Makuta's darker colors and aggressive shaping.
I’d add that the Mistika just felt so much more lazily designed piece-wise compared to the Phantoka, cause all of the Makuta required Matoran pieces for regular body and limbs, and the Toa each basically only used the blaster for weapons. It all felt so same-y and weak compared to the Phantoka
Absolutely love the insight that you bring to the comments every time Nick! If the reviews were done in release order I just know my opinion of the Mistika would suffer because this wave is absolutely superior.
@@AllOutBrick Oh yeah.... another thing that made this wave feel special? Bad guys who wore masks just like the Toa did. Yeah, the designers weren't just being lazy giving the Makuta the same heads, but their mask powers are considered so immoral that most Toa wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. Like the mask of silence rendering a target deaf and mute. Yikes. The concept of evil masks wasn't something visited often.
Brown is not really a color on the light spectrum, its just really dark orange. This is why when you want brown LED light, you just get dim orange light. Technology Connections channel explains it nicely about the color brown. Pohatu was always orange, just different shades of it (dark orange in 2001-2003, light orange in 2008, burnt orange in 2015-2016). When you consider this, then this explains why the Phantoka fly adaptive armor forms used lighter color shades of the original Nuva forms (because in the sky so everything is brighter), while the Mistika swamp adaptive armor forms used darker color shades of the original Nuva forms (the swampy biome makes everything darker and dimmer light).
I always liked how Vamprah was given proportions more similar to a realistic bat than the others. It makes the model look really cool when the wings are spread
I was a hyperfan of Bionicle from beginning to end, but this line, particularly the Toa, instilled a permanent psychosis in me. From the moment I first saw the promotional poster of Lewa and Antroz in the comic book, I knew these guys were gonna be big. I got the whole lineup for my fifteenth birthday and remember that birthday fondly to this day. The cool gray base colors with highlighter-color armor fractured my brain. Even the little red and blue pins popping against the matte grays and blacks irreversibly mutated my mind. The solid, sleek body morphs that almost hearkened back to simpler Toa designs. I can't fully sum up what about it captured my imagination so; it's ineffable. But I loved these three. I was fifteen when these sets came out, but I actually engaged in the childhood practice of picking a favorite for the day and carrying them around every now and then, and I rebuilt them several times in between MOCs just because I loved them. The Makuta kicked ass too, to be sure, and I used their torso mold a lot in the subsequent months. God, I just loved this line.
I’ve always loved the bat aesthetic and silver rib cages of the phantoka makuta! They’re definitely the most intimidating villain designs in all of bionicle, in my opinion
Small tip for Kopaka: turn around his arms and put his armor back to the front. He has a huge design flaw: If you try to move the blaster in any position it'll break most sockets in both arms. Better to just display him holding it with 1 arm.
Lewa always stood out to me from this set, looks faithful, badass, never noticed how weird his feet are. His blade looks insane too though Also, I'm not Quentin Tarantino 🤣🤣🤣🤣 you're funny as hell
The Phantoka and Mistika were the first Bionicle sets I ever saw, I remember I'd always see them in the toy isle when my mum would take me round Tesco as a little kid, every time I saw them I'd bed her for one, they were the coolest looking things I'd ever seen in my short 4 years of life. She kever got me one coz there was too many small pieces and they were probably a bit too expensive. Didn't end up getting my first Bionicle til a year or two later, and I still never managed to get my hands on one a Phantoka or Mistika set, still whenever I see those canisters it brings back vivid nostalgic memories of seeing them for the first time. Another weird thing that I remember from back then is my mum telling me Bionicles were made of magnets and all u had to do to assemble them was shake the canister... ain't got a clue where she got that idea from 😂
@@Revilod I think she had them confused for something else coz there was a line of magnetic buildable figures out around the time, I think it was from a brand called Magnetix that claimed all u had to do to build them was shake the canister
It always amazes me when I hear nostalgic stories and that we all have our own memories that are so distinct with this toy line. For me it's the Tohunga, I remember 2001 so vividly with those Happy Meal exclusives
always wanted these as a kid (especially pohatu) after seeing them in the phantoka flash games but i got into bionicle the year it ended and i didn’t know about aftermarket stuff as a kid lol. happy to own a few of these now, and they absolutely rock imo
First of all WELCOME BACK!!!! And second. People usually pass on 08 sets and that's so unfair. I just completed the Phantoka collection recently and gosh I love them all! And third. Why you didn't showed us the combined form of the Toa/Makuta with the Matoran?
9:04 "I wish this is what we started with in 2008" funny you say that because technically they were what we started with. The Phantoka actually released right at the end of 2007 (December) but are understandably counted as part of the 2008 line. But they did actually come before the Mistika. Definitely was a strong start for the year though.
had all three toa phantokas and were so great. come to think of it, those were my only bionicle sets i had for the 2008 line :C wish i had bought more.
I remember having all of these except for Lewa and Chirox, though the latter of those I don't ever remember seeing in stores at the time. Lewa and Pohatu are also the final appearances of the Mahri visors in transparent fluorescent blue, and Kopaka was the first of these that I obtained at the tail end of 2007. Kopaka marks the first of three appearances of the rounded Inika feet in white, and the third of five appearances of the Inika knee armor in that color. He also marks the second appearance of the pointed Inika chest armor in gunmetal. Pohatu I obtained in February of '08 and he is the first appearance of the Piraka knee armor and spiked Inika feet in orange. He is the first of two sets to have the Hordika lower arms in dark stone gray as well. Lewa is also the first of two sets to have the rounded Inika chest armor in lime green, and is the first of five sets to have the redesigned hand sockets in that color. He also has Mantax's feet in dark stone which are exclusive and he is the first set to have the Inika torso in that color. It also came in Gorast and Onua Mistika later in that year. Vamprah marks the final appearance of the Piraka lower arms and clawed feet in Metru blue and the Mahritoran blades are exclusive in that color. Antroz I did not obtain until June or July of 2009, but he is the final set to have the Piraka legs in black and clawed Piraka feet and knee armor in Metru red. Chirox marks the final appearance of the Hordika legs and Piraka lower arms in black, and his weapons are also in one other set from that year. Additionally, the Tridax Pods appear in two other sets besides these...
I started my bionicle journey with phantoka. Biases aside, I think the dark mature look of this wave really captures the stakes of the story at this point and I deeply enjoy every single character they made for this wave. Truly think phantoka had the strongest lineup of toa/makuta out of any wave(but the mystika vehicles are still unmatched)
Glad to see this one, Antroz is one of, if not my favourite makuta set of the entire franchise, imo its up there with the other greats like the Rahkshi, Krika and Brutaka.
Ah the Phantoka. I remember when they came out. Looking back on them though, there are some flaws with the Toa Nuva but none with the Makuta sets. Kopaka's mask shifted his eye piece to the left which is inconsistent with his previous masks which had it on the right. Pohatu was the most radically altered. I understand the reason behind the colour change for brown sets, but if you were going to go orange, he should've had more of it on his set. There is too much grey on the toa sets. They all should have had their main colour more prominent.
My nostalgia always goes crazy when I see you upload a video. I miss bionicle so much it was the majority of my childhood. I wish they'd sell again. I'd give anything to have them again 😔
My thoughts exaclty. The Toa are cool, the Makuta are straight up amazing, Chirox being my favorite. From the Toa, Lewa seems to have more personality, but Pohatu and Kopaka just seem pretty average.
Only just discovered this channel last week and I'm absolutely loving it!! I went back and binged every single one of your videos. What's gonna happen when you run out of sets to review though??
Welcome to the community!! Hope you've really enjoyed the look back to the past. Once we run out of Bionicle sets we'll continue to produce LEGO® content for new & throwback sets, and look forward to expanding this platform with additional content such as livestreams. This is just the beginning for us!
I know this might sound like a weird request, but have you heard of the Mega Bloks line Dragons? I'd consider myself a Lego kid, but man the Dragons line was one of my favorite brick-built/toy line as a child, almost surpassing Bionicle. The line was huge here in Canada, not sure how popular they were in the U.S, but the quality was great and it was good because it wasn't a Lego copy but rather a different alternative to the brick-built system. I do understand the bad reputation Mega Bloks initially had, but they do have their gems. Anyways I think you should maybe should give it a try and review it sometime!
Man, that line was my jam before I got into Bionicle! I was only 5-6 years old and they were my favorite toys. Ah, the memories… I lost all of them to a house fire 9 years ago, and looked up the prices on ebay, but they’re too expensive now lol.
Lewa was my favorite of this year's Toa, that set felt good on its own and as an homage to past Lewa. You put on one of Pohatu's propellors backwards, and made the criminal choice not to combine these with the Matoran in this video. You should slip it in to the Mutran and Vican video though, as that set has the same functionality
We are getting close to the end of g1 😞 , let’s make the best of it , I wanted the orange one when I was little I don’t remember seeing a orange toa so it was unique to me , I didn’t know they were the og toas they look so different.
Actually, that color was somehow still present in education kits until 2010. It was present in "Bulk bricks" boxes and Bionicle "Parts tubs" until '06, but the last standard Lego sets to have that color were the 2004 version of the X-Wing Fighter (4502) and a "World City" set (7045) from the same year.
I feel like you have very different feelings about most sets compared to the average and I appreciate your videos all the more. Some of the "favorite" sets I don't care for, and ones ppl don't like for being too plain, j appreciate for being minimalist. I love all the flavors of bionicles!.... mostly...
Never liked the shadow leech gimmick of tiny losable rubber things in a breaking sphere, and the Makuta torsos were hard to use but fun if you could. The ribcages see good use of you can use them, the shadow leech container can be used to fun effect, like a mace. The saw wings of Antroz were my favourite piece, Vamprah gives us two long piraka arms, a piece I also love, oh, and those little feet claws in dark blue, and Chirox's long finger blades makes great polearm blades, also looks good on an angle from one of those angled three long axle receptor-pin receptor-axle receptor pieces. Antroz' claws are also a great piece and a lot better for general purpose than a lot of the other weapon pieces, can just slap em on a shoulder or make a claw.
I feel like I remember one or two of my cousins being over at our grandma's house when I was little and building a Phantoka set, I think I remember seeing a colorful weird web looking thing, which is what the canisters look like to me, so maybe thats what it was, and my cousin did have some Bionicle stuff or at least knew what they were if I'm right.
The one thing that I really feel LEGO let us all down on, was the rebuild-quality of sets, after 2006 and up to the “final” sets (Stars). These joints snap so easily - and thats THE ONE THING LEGO should never do when assembling/disassembling. As a kid I would near constantly rebuild my Rahksi or Toa Hordika - not a single part would snap on me EVER. But so many of my Glatorian, Phantoka (my dear Vamprah especiallly), Mahri and Barraki would just snap on the joints. The first time it happened was with Vamprah, and that just broke my heart. Great sets - but damn…
Man, i loved the makuta in phantoka, definitely the best villains imo, i remember my brother got vamprah and gavla and i got antroz and radiak for christmas, the villain designs were sick, not to mention that lore-wise they were the most powerful bunch of villains, i do gotta say tho, i was pissed bitil betrayed them all leaving them behind to die, but everything else was perfect (villain-wise)
Ngl I love Pohatu over the other Phantoka because he basically had 2 weapons and the Midak Skyblaster where as Lewa had the one weapon and the blaster and Kopaka had the blaster with an intergrated weapon. Edit also just realized you might have messed up on his left propeller 😅
I hope that maybe you will review the minifigures at the end of this series? I was still hoping to see it since you said you'd try to review them at the end of the series.
Not sure why you decided to place Antroz on all fours since he was never depicted anywhere to pounce like a big cat or dog like that. Vamprah was the only Makuta in 2008 that was intended to be on all fours. What I also don't understand is the propellers on Pohatu. You built it correctly on his right hand and completely ignored that you built it incorrectly on his left hand. I get that you may have been a little absent-minded when it came to this, but to me it's super obvious and would have stopped to fix it once I spotted it. Love your stuff, don't get me wrong, I just don't understand some of the blatant lack of attention to detail.
Appreciate the feedback. The instructions do depict Antroz on all fours toward the back of the manual. Unless it was a mistake in the instructions or a poorly chosen angle. As for Pohatu there are some things that slip by, just have to be better next time around
I'm always wondering how do you manage to build them wrong lol..? Like, the propellers of Pohatu here. The wings of the vehicle on the previous vid, etc etc
I remember getting two of these as a child, for some reason the build quality felt awful, they were a bit flimsy and sharp, the weird thing is that beyond the poor quality of the pieces everything else seemed perfectly legitimate, they came from a fairly standard retail store aswell, so perhaps I got super unlucky with quality control or it was just a really convincing knock-off?
