We went from a wing in RPotD, to this.

And Rahi in Maori means great, so is this a great that's winged?

It's actually a little weird being able to comment about a Bionicle set that I own. This is a really goofy looking animal, and it only showed up once in a comic if I'm remembering correctly, but I was just glad to receive it as part of the BrickMaster subscription. Pretty sure the jets on the side of its head are actually supposed to be the eyes, but the eyestalk piece wasn't likely to be recolored for a polybag.
Also this rahi has a name, it's a Klakk. Not sure why the Brickset Database renamed it to Winged Rahi. It's not an inaccurate description, and perhaps internally that's what it was called at LEGO, but I also seem to remember seeing the name within an official capacity and promoting the set, not just in the comic, but I could be wrong, it's been 16 years (Holy crap, has it been that long?)

As opposed to a... walking Rahi?

Sorry Bionicle fans, I started playing with LEGO long after this theme died, so the nostalgia goggles don't work on me. Therefore, I have absolutely zero clue what the heck this is supposed to be.

And if someone tries explaining to me, it's gonna be so much infodumping with obscure lore and random pseudo-Maori names that I'll immediately forget everything you said afterwards.

@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
"As opposed to a... walking Rahi?

Sorry Bionicle fans, I started playing with LEGO long after this theme died, so the nostalgia goggles don't work on me. Therefore, I have absolutely zero clue what the heck this is supposed to be.

And if someone tries explaining to me, it's gonna be so much infodumping with obscure lore and random pseudo-Maori names that I'll immediately forget everything you said afterwards."

it screams loud

loud enough to break the mental barrier preventing Shadow Matoran from regaining their inner Light

i know a boy his name is klakk
he loves to fit and loves to stakk
yes, screaming at kra-matoran is his knakk
hes klakk the rahi maniac

The Makuta were a race of powerful beings in BIONICLE responsible for creating the Rahi beasts that inhabited the land. Among their many creations were the Klakk, a breed of bats that could unleash powerful sonic screeches. They were used to guard important locations, and when the Brotherhood of Makuta overthrew their old ruler Miserix a flock of Klakk were placed in his prison to keep him sealed, and he'd eat the pests if they let their guard down.

Eventually the Maktua staged a campaign to conquer Karda Nui, the Core of the Universe, and enslave the Matoran of Light who lived there. They developed the Shadow Leeches, creatures that could drain the inner light of a being and create a shadow barrier to keep their mind full of dark and cruel thoughts. They used this transform all but one village into Shadow Matoran.

Eventually the Toa arrived in Karda Nui and destroyed Mutran's Hive where he grew the Shadow Leeches. Makuta Mutran was forced to relocate to the swamps below and needed extra protection, so he decided to create some Klakk. His new equipment was poor however, and the Klakk managed to break out of its tank and escape. On the way out it used a sonic attack on Mutran's Shadow Matoran assistant, Vican. Vican suddenly felt uneasy and unwilling to listen to Mutran for the first time in ages, but still listened to his command to follow and recapture the beast.

While searching Vican ran into Takanuva the Toa of Light. The two quickly realized the Klakk's sonic screech had broken the shadow barrier that was keeping Vican evil, and so they began rounding up all the Shadow Matoran to cure them. Eventually the captured Gavla, the first Shadow Matoran*, and she was ironically the final one to be healed. Vican and the cured Matoran of Light fled Karda Nui before its destruction in the coming battle.

*or rather, the first citizen of Karda Nui to be turned Shadow. Vican and Vultraz where already a slave and recruit of the Brotherhood respectively who were used as test subjects before the invasion.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"And Rahi in Maori means great, so is this a great that's winged?"

Rahi actually had a very interesting history as a BIONICLE word. Even in its early days BIONICLE was meant to be a metaphor for a body dying of brain cancer and medicine being taken to fight it, though exactly how this metaphor was depicted changed as the story developed. In the earliest known version of the story bible, the Toa (medicine)'s quest in 2001 ended with them entering the Mangai Volcano Mangaia tunnels (which functioned as Mata Nui's mouth and throat) to enter his body.

While there they were stopped at the gate by the Rahi, twin guardians of the underworld, who were meant to be a metaphor for the body's immune system. I don't remember for certain but I believe they were Rahi Kahu the Great Hawk and Rahi Muaka the Great Tiger. The Toa had to prove themselves to actually enter the body and start to heal it.

Eventually the story was altered and the Rahi's purpose was completely changed. In the final cut of BIONICLE Rahi is the Matoran word for "not us" and was used to refer to most animals of its world. We got 5 full Rahi sets in 2001 instead of just 2, and lots of other combiner models, book/game only Rahi, and future Rahi sets were made. While its never been officially confirmed their final role in the story was more akin to bacteria, coming in all shapes and sizes with some being helpful to the body's function and others being harmful, or harmful only in certain situations.

On that note its interesting that even in the 2001 story the Manas weren't really considered Rahi. Nowadays they officially are, but a lot of stories at the time treated them as something more alien and strange.

@Billbuilds said:
"i know a boy his name is klakk
he loves to fit and loves to stakk
yes, screaming at kra-matoran is his knakk
hes klakk the rahi maniac"

One of my favorite random bits of BIONICLE trivia is that the Shadow Matoran reject the name Kra-Matoran as they don't see themselves as siblings and a unified tribe like the other Matoran elements do.

@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
"As opposed to a... walking Rahi?

Sorry Bionicle fans, I started playing with LEGO long after this theme died, so the nostalgia goggles don't work on me. Therefore, I have absolutely zero clue what the heck this is supposed to be.

And if someone tries explaining to me, it's gonna be so much infodumping with obscure lore and random pseudo-Maori names that I'll immediately forget everything you said afterwards."

If you want the short-easy to understand version:

It's a bat that screams real loud and the screams un-brainwash people.

@GSR_MataNui said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"And Rahi in Maori means great, so is this a great that's winged?"

Rahi actually had a very interesting history as a BIONICLE word. Even in its early days BIONICLE was meant to be a metaphor for a body dying of brain cancer and medicine being taken to fight it, though exactly how this metaphor was depicted changed as the story developed. In the earliest known version of the story bible, the Toa (medicine)'s quest in 2001 ended with them entering the Mangai Volcano Mangaia tunnels (which functioned as Mata Nui's mouth and throat) to enter his body.

While there they were stopped at the gate by the Rahi, twin guardians of the underworld, who were meant to be a metaphor for the body's immune system. I don't remember for certain but I believe they were Rahi Kahu the Great Hawk and Rahi Muaka the Great Tiger. The Toa had to prove themselves to actually enter the body and start to heal it.

Eventually the story was altered and the Rahi's purpose was completely changed. In the final cut of BIONICLE Rahi is the Matoran word for "not us" and was used to refer to most animals of its world. We got 5 full Rahi sets in 2001 instead of just 2, and lots of other combiner models, book/game only Rahi, and future Rahi sets were made. While its never been officially confirmed their final role in the story was more akin to bacteria, coming in all shapes and sizes with some being helpful to the body's function and others being harmful, or harmful only in certain situations.

On that note its interesting that even in the 2001 story the Manas weren't really considered Rahi. Nowadays they officially are, but a lot of stories at the time treated them as something more alien and strange.

@Billbuilds said:
"i know a boy his name is klakk
he loves to fit and loves to stakk
yes, screaming at kra-matoran is his knakk
hes klakk the rahi maniac"

One of my favorite random bits of BIONICLE trivia is that the Shadow Matoran reject the name Kra-Matoran as they don't see themselves as siblings and a unified tribe like the other Matoran elements do.
"

oh, i didnt know that. cool

@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
"As opposed to a... walking Rahi?

Sorry Bionicle fans, I started playing with LEGO long after this theme died, so the nostalgia goggles don't work on me. Therefore, I have absolutely zero clue what the heck this is supposed to be.

And if someone tries explaining to me, it's gonna be so much infodumping with obscure lore and random pseudo-Maori names that I'll immediately forget everything you said afterwards."

Oh don’t worry, even as a Bionicle fan I can recognise that this is a hastily cobbled together tangle of spare parts that Lego wanted rid of. They needed something as a magazine exclusive, and since they were giving it away for free they didn’t want to put too much cost into it, that it was given a weird amount of prominence in the story doesn’t alter that

@Maxbricks14 said:
" @pohaturon said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"We went from a wing in RPotD, to this.

And Rahi in Maori means great, so is this a great that's winged?"

Small note: "Nui", not "Rahi", is the Maori word for "Great" and was used as such in Bionicle (Mata Nui - Great Spirit\Metru Nui - Great City, the six-member combiners were something Nui like the Turaga Nui, etc etc). "

Nui, means important.
I am literally a New Zealand citizen. I'm not Maori, but I know a lot more about the language and culture than you do."

My understanding was direct word-for-word translations were imperfect due to the linguistic differences and that's what it meant in a closest/broadest terms - but with "important" the usage still tracks. I'm very happy to learn new information about these things, thank you!

So, Toa Matau showing up in RSotD last week ended up triggering a brief Bionicle binge for me. I spent some time over a couple of days refreshing myself with some info online, and also went through my unorganized parts bins to see what pieces of the Toa Metru I could find. (Unfortunately, my success with the latter was minimal - I only managed to definitively find Matau's arm and Vakama's torso. I suspect that much of their parts have been thrown out by my mom at some point over the years. Ah well, I'll have to Bricklink the full set of Toa Metru at some point, they thankfully don't seem too pricey.)

While I was looking into the Bionicle timeline... I found out that story had a conclusive ending in 2010, with an epic showdown between continent-sized Mata Nui and Makuta? What?? Where was I when this happened, how did I miss this??? This was the peak of when I was into Bionicle, Stars is literally the only line where I bought the full wave (still have 'em actually)... and I missed this!! For many years I had thought that the series abruptly ended with Mata Nui chilling on Bara Magna while his original planet was slaving away as Makuta's empire.

Okay, so it sounds like the 2010 arc is basically just a cute tie-in for Stars. Tahu being turned back into a basic Toa Mata in particular is really silly lol. Still though, they had a conclusive ending that I didn't know about!* Makuta and Mata Nui both perish, but not before Mata Nui merges all of the Bionicle planets and turns them into one big fully-featured ecosystem. Nice to have some closure after all these years!

(*Disregarding the stuff Farshtey tried shoehorning in later of course.)

@Maxbricks14 said:
"It will always be a Maori word, The Maori people were not happy when LEGO used some of their language in the Bionicle line, so they took it to court, and won."

That’s…not exactly what happened. I’ve never once heard of a court case (for that to happen, an actual law would have to have been broken). TLG absolutely used Maori words (sometimes incorrectly), and the Maori people were legitimately pissed, but once someone explained the situation to TLG, they voluntarily agreed to a few key policy changes. These included a ban on further borrowing of words from foreign cultures (those that were already in use were mostly left unchanged). One notable exception was Tohunga. Being the specific word usage that drew most of the ire, it got replaced with the totally made-up word “Matoran. And as far as TLG was concerned, that was apparently agreeable, as we never heard of them having further problems.

Then there was BZPower, where one of the three founding admins mouthed off to the Maori community, and got their site smacked down with a DNS attack. But again, no court cases were ever filed.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"
It will always be a Maori word, The Maori people were not happy when LEGO used some of their language in the Bionicle line, so they took it to court, and won.
"

Oh and I will agree with you that it will always be a Maori word, I'm just explaining that originally LEGO's story team was originally using the word correctly, only for corporate's demand for more profits and products to completely change what they had planned. That's the same reason you got stuff like Earth and Stone being separate elements or the Water tribe being the only female one. Those big wigs don't care what he intention and logic was behind a decision, they just want to hit as many check boxes for "action adventure toy for 8-12 year old boys" as possible.

For what it's worth, LEGO's reaction to the controversy was pretty fair. They removed or altered every word the Maori had issue left, and kept whatever terms they were still okay with. From that point on most mainline BIONICLE sets either had a totally made up name (like Tarix or Dekar) or had a Latin root (like Axon or Vamrpah.)

Contrary to popular belief, they actually did keep pulling from real life langues. Most Matoran of Earth have Hungarian names while most Matoran of Air have Japanese ones, ect. But this time those names were not copywritten and kept to characters they wouldn't sell as toys so they weren't profiting on or stepping on the toes of other cultures.

All that said I don't think I'm ever going to forgive LEGO For using "Tohunga." I have no idea who in their right mind considered that a remotely okay thing to do. At least now they have cultural consultants, but things still slip through the cracks.

@Crasha said:
"
Always happy to attend one of your Bionicle lectures Professor!
Just curious: since the word Rahi and Rahkshi kind of sound related, is there any relation between those two?"

Officially no. The closest we have to info on that is that the Matoran considered Rahkshi to be Rahi, even though biologically they were not.

@GSR_MataNui:
I wouldn’t presume to say it would have avoided causing a problem in the first place, but if they’d simply switched Tohunga and Turaga, their use of the former at least would have made sense, linguistically speaking. I mean, you have a set of characters who are basically equivalent to shaman, and you have a word that basically means shaman, and you use that word to mean “basic, plain-vanilla villager” instead?