Time for Crab!

Lego must have had a lot of Mana to release those sets that used Maori words.

Seriously couldn't have popped up six days ago? Such a missed opportunity.

*dancing crabs gif*

Those don't look like female Spanish hands to me

I wrote a scathing review on these guys here on Brickset, it's still up albeit with a forward edit. I never built these guys right as a kid, going back as an adult to make sure everything was correct completely fixed all my problems. They're fun to play with, watch them roll around the floor and battle them against each other. Every now and then I think of re-writing that review, these guys grew on me once I fixed their assembly.

Reject Toa. Become crab.

I can still remember when I ordered these guys (not from Lego, if I'm remembering correctly, I got them from Target) and rather than ship them in a standard shipping box, they just slapped a mailing label on the set's box.

"Hello, I like money!"

Oooo yes. On the one hand I love these guys, on the other hand they're a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Manas were one of the oldest creatures created for the Matoran Universe, with some debate they should even be classified as First Rahi. These gigantic crabs' true name is lost to time, with Matoran simply referring to them as "Manas," their word for "Monster."

Manas are rarely seen in the wild, to the degree many Matoran consider them little more than myth. Horror stories to keep people in line. But Manas are real, real and deadly, with even Toa falling easily to their might.

What few Manas remain are often employed as body guards for the most ancient and powerful beings in the Matoran Universe, a last bastion of defense of their lairs. Among those to use the beasts were Makuta Teridax and Karzahni.

Teridax was a massive fan of the crabs, and used them to guard his many lairs. Notably, Mangaia, his main base of operations that divided the lands of Mata Nui and Metru Nui. During the first month of their adventures, after claiming all the Masks of Power, the Toa Mata descended into Mangaia to face Makuta. While the exact number and method of fighting varies across media, at least two Manas descended on the heroes.

The six Toa were no match for the crabs. Inspired by visions Gali and Kopaka had received the Toa decided to meld their minds and bodies, fusing into the two legendary Toa Kaita. Theses giants destroyed towers that kept the beasts warm and functioning, giving them an opening to go deeper in the lair and confront Makuta himself.

Manas were also under the service of Karzahni, in the land of the same name. They lived, largely hidden, in the mountain ranges that encircled the lightness land of sand and misery. These Manas orders were simple. Any being, especially Matoran, could enter the land whenever they pleased... but the second anyone tried to leave island they would be forced back (or killed in the process.)

Back to Teridax, whether through his fondness of the creatures or their respect of his might, he had a special dominion over the beasts. Both Icarax and Karzahni, on separate occasions, raised armies of Manas to defeat the titan, but in both cases Teridax managed to usurp their command and use his power of Rahi Control to turn the crabs on their masters.

Aside from their immense strength, Manas were very intelligent. Their only weaknesses were that they became sluggish in the cold and had a tendency for in-fighting. Those who waged war with the Brotherhood of Makuta, like the Dark Hunters, quickly learned that seeing a Manas on the battlefield was a death sentence.

A close "relative" of the Manas are the Mana Ko. Despite the name and being an alternate/combiner model for this set, how closely related to Manas they are is unclear. Mana Ko are hulking mechanical beasts capable of launching powerful explosive blasts.

Many Mana Ko worked for the Brotherhood of Makuta, but were secretly double agents tamed and loyal to the Order of Mata Nui. The Order convinced these creatures to guard Makuta's most volatile and dangerous weapons to ensure they did not fall in the wrong hands. Makuta, in turn, forbade these creatures to leave his lair or go onto the surface, as their mindless rampages would kill the Matoran he wanted to rule. The only true weakness of the Mana Ko is they are only able to see movement, though after the first shot their target rarely moves again anyways.

Personally I love the Manas for how much the Matoran hype them up to be these ancient, deadly, and legendary monsters. However, I'm disappointed we never really see that. Zaktan claims he's seen them wipe out entire armies, and just two were enough to keep six Toa at bay, but even then their "superior power and intelligence" compared to other Rahi never really shows. Keetongu and Tahtorak seem smarter and stronger, for instance, and they are dwarfed by every other/true First Rahi encountered on the Voyage of Fear.

My personal headcanon is that, given Mana Ko were smart enough to be trained for mental shields, yet only action

My personal headcanon is that, given Mana Ko were smart enough to be trained for mental shields, yet only actions were "point, shoot, wait for next thing to shoot" is that Manas probably have near sentient intellect, capable of understanding speech and command, but are so cold, calculating, and bloodthirsty all they really want to do is wait for a fight and then win it. Much more robotic then most of MU's creatures, fitting for how mechanical they move and sound even compared to other Rahi.

Also, I can't remember who wrote it, but there was a really good fan-story that tried to explain the origin of the word a while back. Their idea was that "Manas" was a keyword prior to The Awakening meaning "wrong" or "broken." It was used to mark someone "in need of repair" to be sent to Karzahni. Giant crabs would emerge from the sea to take the injured and damaged... only for them to never return. People began associating the word "Manas" with these "Monsters" who themselves were "wrong." A fun reverse on the name origin and cool world building, but doesn't super mesh with canon (the Metru seem to be the ones to pick Manas as the beasts name pretty recently, though even that clashes with how the Maktua and Piraka use it too.)

I know it's a pipe dream, but I've always wanted some sort of open world BIONICLE game in the vein of Dark Souls or Breath of the Wild. Similar to BOTW, I'd love for the Manas to be some of insanely powerful mini-boss enemy like the Lynel (or Gleeok.) Something that attacks fast, attacks strong, but is not insurmountable and really tests your skills compared to other enemies in the game. Keep them in the dark and make their attacks relentless. I think that'd sell the terror you're supposed to feel for them better than either of the videogame animations we were given for them back in '01.

Also, from a toy perspective, good luck getting your hands on these guys. Their main body was essentially a giant motor, and they came packed with a remote control that let you drive them and make them punch. (And by punch, I mean it. These things go absolutely nuts.) Those four giant electronics made this pretty pricey at launch and even pricier on the second-hand market. As far as I know, it's the only time BIONICLE did a Mindstorms-adjacent set. Looking back, the fact LEGO didn't do more remote controlled bonks is a both a missed opportunity for children's play, and a massive relief for a collector's wallet.

Got these as a kid as a reward for doing well in exams. While giving a controller to another person and having them fight was fun, setting them both to the same frequency and using one controller to make them both dance in sync was funnier

These are so cool. They punch fast and repeatedly and they drive around like a tank.

They even have a wheel that can be knocked down to prevent them from driving as it will drag the ground underneath them. So they essentially have a 'defeat' condition like the removable limbs from Muaka & Kane-Ra, the dropping snouts of the Tarakava and the chunk of chest that jams the necks of the Bahrag when removed.

Just so much technic-y goodness even when not taking the specialized RC parts into account.

That said... there are smaller, more versatile rahi that don't require as deep a dig into your wallet and aren't dependent on batteries, so I wouldn't say they are the best to get. But boy are they surprisingly well designed. If you do own them, consider yourself lucky :D

@xboxtravis7992:
They did function well, but as I’ve said before, everything from the first year or two was only designed to fight themselves. These were only ever a threat to a Toa’s knees, but were incapable of knocking a mask off anything but other Manas. Whether Toa, Turaga, Rahi, or even Bohrok, everything had an attack that was targeted at how their own mask was vulnerable, even down to Muaka/Kane-Ra having the only attack that could pull their own shoulder pins free. But while none of this made sense from a story perspective, they were all designed to be extremely well suited to take out their own kind. Ironically, because they had thrown weapons, the McToran were really the only Year 1 class with a universal attack. Well, they’d need to secure high vantage points to be a threat to Nui-Jaga, and I’d argue that nothing else could threaten Muaka/Kane-Ra except each other.

@TheOtherMike:
I’ve had Bricklink orders ship in cereal boxes, and I’ve had Amazon slap ID stickers on carded Pixar Cars cars (which I’d intended to keep on card), but that just sucks.

@GSR_MataNui:
Worse, the main brick had an IR receiver, control components, and two independent motors (one for each track, like a tank). And being exclusive to this set, you can’t even efficiently Bricklink an approximation of the set. I’m good, though. Not only am I not actively buying anymore, but I got two copies to review all three models back in 2001.

What's weird about the Manas is that the Mata Nui Online Game presented them unequivocally as robots, in contrast to the other characters who are a mixture of mechanical and organic parts; Makuta had a small army of them, and they were beaten by the Toa Kaita smashing the control towers, the destruction of which disabled them completely.

Absolutely no other media ever corroborated this. The Chronicles novels a couple of years later, which retold the earlier story, turned them into living creatures just like the other Rahi, of which Makuta had only two, and they were defeated by being frozen with no mention of control towers in sight. I'm still not sure if this was a deliberate retcon, or just a side effect of neither of the book writers having played the Mata Nui Online Game and so not realising / caring that they were contradicting it, but every subsequent mention of them in media also went with the 'living creatures' angle for them, making MNOG the odd outlier despite having been the first - and, arguably, to the casual fan most familiar - appearance of them.

(Myself? I'm still with the MNOG interpretation all the way... but then, I'd say that about just about any differences between MNOG and the rest of the storyline; I know where my Bionicle preferences lie...! xD)

The Manas were amongst the very last sets I tracked down in my teenage years, when I was trying to collect most of the Bionicle sets; after scouring ebay for a while in the hopes of finding them cheap, my persistence was rewarded in probably 2008. They were kinda cool, but a bit unwieldy, and I don't think I enjoyed them as much as I would have if I'd got them earlier in Bionicle's run.

(Plus, after a while the batteries I'd put in them leaked, which... *wasn't fun*. Fortunately I found that out before it did much damage to the electronics, so when I downsized my collection I was able to sell them on still in mostly working order, but the experience kinda soured my opinion on them as a whole.)

Still, a neat piece of Bionicle's history ^^

@Norikins said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Seriously couldn't have popped up six days ago? Such a missed opportunity."

I don't get it."

https://brickset.com/article/121355/random-minifig-of-the-day-mk124

@SearchlightRG said:
" @GSR_MataNui Teridax may have learned of the name from observing/reading the minds of either the Metru or the Rahaga and taken a fancy to it. The Piraka presumably only learned it after the Brotherhood unleashed the Manas against the Dark Hunters in their war."

Given how big of a factor "Destiny" is in BIONICLE, and how that is usually reflected by stuff being secretly hard-coded into characters minds they don't know about (example, Great Beings designed Visorak and Archives Moles, but just planted the blueprints in the Makuta so they believed they were their ideas) I think it'd be cool if "Manas" is just a instinctual fear response all MU inhabitants have to these things. They don't know how they know it, but they see that thing and think "Manas." There's something eldritch about that idea I like.