Lego Bionicle Review: Shadow Toa Nuva. Tahu, Lewa, Kopaka, Gali, Onua and Pohatu...but evil! 

I have never seen someone dye Lego before

Rest in peace gold Mata Nui...it was nice knowing you

Seeing you throw a pearl gold ignika into the black dye gave me an aneurysm.

"The undisputed king of thigh gap" omfg lol

7:17 gave me a heart attack

For real tho, I think that while all other toa would probably fight to the death with their evil counterparts Pohatu would just play a deadly-friendly match of soccer with his dark twin

This is honestly a gamechanger for BIONICLE parts. Imagine doing this with other parts, like Barraki armor, Ackar's ankleguards, or Kanohi masks. I'll definitely be picking this up and trying it myself! Thank you so much for demonstrating the entire process, even the failed first attempt. It's always so entertaining to watch your content and I look forward to all your videos!

At 6:20, the 8x8 radar dish in black first appeared in a Blacktron set (6987) from 1988, and appeared in an "M-Tron" set (6989) in 1990, and a Blacktron II set (6988) the following year. It wasn't seen again for twenty years until it appeared in a Creator set (5770) in 2011, and another eleven years before it was seen after that. Its most recent appearance is in a mini Star Wars Death Star II (40591) from this year. It is fortunate that the "Slizer limbs" in black on Pohatu Nuva are so common, appearing in twelve sets between 1999 and 2010.

There is a noticeable difference between the dyed parts and the regular ones. Dyed ones look more matted instead of glossy, light just doesnt bounce off of them the same. Plus the shade is a bit less darker.

When u put the inika in the dye I almost started crying

I think the silver works really well with the black

Prior to today, I didn't actually know dyeing was a thing you could do to LEGO parts. That's good to know for uh.. future purposes.

The fact that you can't spraypaint the parts with ball joints without chipping the paint off when using the ball joints is why I made my custom 2003-style Tamaru have a dark green body instead of giving him a teal body as he should have.

I was just thinking about this earlier, I think the Nuva armour from the Makuta titan could work well! Oh you did that!

Didn't expect dyeing lego parts to work that well, but I might have to give it a go at some point! I doubt you take suggestions, but even so I'd like to suggest the idea of more 'alternate' shadow Toa - imagine what black-dyed versions of the Toa Metru /Hordika might look like?

The amount of work you went through to do this is extremely admirable and the results are absolutely worth it! Bravo!

It would be interesting to see if you could make an alt-universe light toa doppelganger group, or a shadow Takanuva to match the rest of the shadow toa.

(7:20) *AUSTIC SCREAMING*

the dyed pieces look super convincing, i wouldnt be able to tell the difference

I'm still working on shadow Kopaka after your last video. Currently his head and shield have been replaced by the spider rahi combo model, so he's kind of a weird spider golem mock at the moment. Not sure how I feel about dying pieces, but damn they turned out great. So happy to see another video from you! Keep it up man.

These look SO COOL! 😱🤩 I'd love to see each of their weapons and armor pieces slightly smoked with black as well. It could picture their shadow selves always taking over any remaining light in them.

Great work imo, these would have been the coolest thing 20 years ago on the sandlot, but I won't lie - this makes me wanna go search my old ones out. First one I had was Toa Lewa

I almost had a heart-attack at 7:18, but then I noticed that the dye is not boiling.

Great video! While it's sad to lose original parts, it's cool to see new MOCs come from it. The reason why the RIT dye did not work was because the limb pieces were made of ABS plastic. RIT dye is used commonly in the Transformers fandom to dye 'unpaintable' plastics such as POM or PA for customizing. It's more flexible with more durability than normal ABS, so the 'softer' plastic can actually take to the dye.

7:17 *Pain, agony even!*

These look amazing! Great job

Your commentary makes the video so much more enjoyable. Great jokes :) Bionicle was my childhood. It's nice to re-live something through these videos without having to own a bunch of bionicle (that's past me by choice). Liked and subbed, hope you keep up the reviews of old sets and do these shadow builds! Maybe do the bad guys too if possible?

7:17 rip gold mask of life

I literally screamed when I saw you just dump the gold mask of life into the dye lmao

If you can dye these, I would love to see this series continue

Now do everyone in every color.

this is truly awesome dude

Will you go back and dye Lewa's axe and pohatus feet from the mata set with this dye technique?

I actually recoiled when you dumped that protodermis mask in the black dye.

This is amazing man, WOW

Shadow Tahu goes hard🔥 I approve

I'd consider these models cannon because you can never truly destroy your dark side. No matter how hard you try, there will always be a moment where fear overwhelms you, anger consumes you, and hate can eventually control you. Only by accepting the fact that your darkside exists can you truly begin to conquer it with resisting the urge to do evil.

I made an audible gasp when you just chucked in the gold ignika in 7:15

when the ignika hit the dye a part of my soul died

You could also make a 200 dollar injection molding machine and a 3d printed mold and just make new parts with plastic pellets

Quality Bionicle review in 2023.... Bless you o7

What happened to Bionicle's design during 2003 that made all the masks more "gooey" looking? I feel like Bionicle somehow never went back to the crispness of 2001's designs.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I tried dyeing several pieces purple using „violett“ dye from the same brand yesterday with some success. (White pieces worked the best.) Got myself a purple Mahiki, Akaku and some McToran food (Onepu very rare in EU). Also dyeing light and sand blue resulted in a darker shade but not bad tho. You can polish them with some microfiber clothing and a lot of rubbing afterwards to make them more shiny again.

This video came out at the right time thanks, not looking to make Shadow Toa Nuva for myself but I was however wanting to make a Voriki Nuva of my own design to go alongside my current Toa Nuva and Takanuva shelf, I switch out the Nuva Toa masks and weapons with their original 2001 Toa counterparts with the exception of Takunuva who still wears the mask of light. My planned Voriki will use shapeways for the torso, weapon and mask (which will of course fit the 2001 mask on Toa Nuva body style I'm going for) however the lack of black pieces for Nuva legs was a problem indeed, I didn't want to reuse Onua's dark grey since I wanted Voriki to not share any exact colors with the other Toa, the other 2 colors for Nuva legs (Metru Red and Green) didn't match Voriki, I couldn't find any non articulated Nuva Legs on shapeways or any other site and I don't have my own 3D printer, but I did find this chromebricks website that did offer the legs in several metallic colors such as silver, gold, red but black wasn't an option, until I found this video I was considering making my Voriki's limbs to be metallic silver instead since it was the best alternative, but now thanks to the vid I know how to get me some black Nuva legs thank you! I'll still probably use that chromebrick website to get the Toa feet since they offer those in purple, and like with the Nuva legs I couldn't find any options for non-articulated Toa feet that I could have in purple which sucks because purple is like the one color that those feet pieces don't come in, I plan to have an orange (plasma or time) and yellow (lightning or life) Toa Mata/Nuva as well eventually but first Voriki.

The gasp I made when you threw a golden Ignika in the black water

Awesome. What about a Shadow Takanuva in the future? Will you do one based on Set:8596 and/or Set:7135? Also, will you be able to dye the old Toa Mata weapons black as you have done with the leg pieces, or are they made of the same material as the silver Toa Nuva pieces?

It's like Shattered glass.

I’d love to see you do shadow Toa for every team

2:52 Bill Doran from Punished Props Academy used it for Adam Savage space helmet

amazing video, I think you could give Shadow Pohatu Black Claws, I don't remember the set but still have one and used it for some time on Makutas back, I think I should try to complete the Toa Nuva too now

I think the Makuta set had a dark grey version of the Silver chest pieces

Great video! It's awesome to see the upgraded forms of the shadow toa. Do you have any plans to dye Lewa and Pohatu Mata's weapons black or make one of the Shadow Takanuva regular Takanuva and Melding Teridax fight?

Shadow tahu hits different

I've been eagerly awaiting this video! Do you think you will do any more shadow builds?

Cool video! I was going to suggest red would look more evil than orange, but then I just looked and saw the red eyes only came with Orkahm, so they are like 3 times the price of the other colors

Cool, even though I made mention of this very idea in the Shadow Toa Mata video, I never considered the possibility of dying the Nuva legs to achieve this lol though I am a bit weary of attempting the dying process myself

One of a kind

Thry also be called 'Toa Nega' Nega = Negative/opposite. They do this in Japnese media alot.

You should give painting or dying some kanohi a go, I'd really like to see Gali's Kaukau be painted a solid color around the eyepiece, kinda like it's design in the online game.

Wow that actually hurt me a tiny bit. 7:17

Hello AJ, I have a question, did you notice the joints getting more stiff or stable? I'd imagine that paint would affect that! Thanks for the awesome video!

Did the gold pieces you tossed in the pot change color at all? Given how the metallic purple masks came out, I'm curious how the gold ABS masks like the Pakari turned out. Would be interesting if it turned them a darker shade of gold, similar to the one Takamuva uses!

Do you know if the dye can affect printing on lego part?

Can you make the evil once to be the same color like the hero

This dye. Can it work on technic pieces like throwbot pieces?

Was the speech set up in the beginning of the video? It felt a bit off to me. Besides that, great video as always. Thanks to you I made a shadow Toa Mata too ^^

Just an quick question, how hot was the water when you dyed the Bionicle parts?

Does anyone know where i can get tahu nuvas swords cus i have one with no sword

Did you just dump a gold inika mask in the dye?

The dye lools amazing and i didn't know that is a thing! I hope you don't have to worry about food safety though 🤞Is the axe of Lewa also made out of ABS? Otherwise it might be the way to get it in black! Resin 3d printing could probably be able to print nearly indistinguishable Lego parts. A mid-range resin printer manages a resolution of 0.01mm. I read resin printing needs good ventilation because of the fumes tho. Anyway, great video!

Will this work for the mask Inika with a Pearl Gold Dye?

Very nice, I do think the silver parts should be painted at least imo

The ultimate weapons created by Makuta Teridax infused with dna blood of the Rahkshi sons.

I feel that the masks should look molten or slightly different almost like corruption or something like that...

I think you may have been using the wrong kind of rit dye. The one I've seen people use is specifically for synthetic fabrics, which is different from their regular fabric dye

Spec ops Bionicle

Surprised I haven't seen this idea in physical form yet. My only critique with both the first and nuva forms is that I like the idea the shadow versions having more aggressive weaponry. As if Makuta doesn't quite want just shadows of them but to push the fight into his favor a bit more. So shadow Lewa with a huge axe for example is a bit more interesting story wise for myself. Pretty cool overall.

There were actually Shadow Toa?

Why are galis legs used upside down?

there's no way you just dropped a gold ignika in boiling sludge 😭😭😭

THE MASK OF LIVE WORT OVER 900 US DOLARS!!

They sat in the sun for too long

Join me Tahu, and I shall make your face the greatest in Mata Nui, or else you will DYE

7:18 no!😢 not the mask of life that thing is like 400 dollars

Hold up. What if He dyed The Lewa Mata Axe in black

you did not put a gold ignika in there......

make Shadow Takanuva

Why not make a shadow takanuva?

I think these could be improved if you used Makuta’s gunmetal Nuva armor for the shadow Nuva… can you post a photo of that?

Onua looks like... Onua...

yeah.... i tried the rit to dye a orange hero factory mask and it didnt work and wow, that other brand was super effective thats not darker and thats not pink... WTF PAINT DOES WORK, I BEEN DOING IT WITH ALL MY MOCS, YOU'RE BULLSHITTING