Random set of the day: Tahu - Master of Fire
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 70787 Tahu - Master of Fire, released during 2015. It's one of 22 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 89 pieces, and its retail price was US$19.99/£14.99.
It's owned by 2,798 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $87.50, or eBay.
54 likes
30 comments on this article
THE RED ONE!!!
Original character, not original version. Needs a bigger sword,
One of Lego's most iconic original characters! So awesome. All hail Tahu.
Long ago the land of Okoto was home to two legendary Mask Maker Brothers. Ekimu, who wore the Mask of Creation, and Makuta, who wore the Mask of Control. The two crafted many Masks of Power for the people of the island, but Ekimu’s were always more treasured. Jealous of his brother’s praise, Makuta decided to break their land’s sacred rule that no mask may contain more than one element. He forged a mask with all six, the Mask of Ultimate Power.
When Makuta tried to use the mask it corrupted him and drove him to madness. In the ensuing conflict there was a great explosion. The Mask of Ultimate Power was shattered, Makuta was sent to the Shadow Realm, and Ekimu was left dying in a crater. As the Protectors of the villages approached, Ekimu used his dying breaths to recite a prophecy he was given by the Mask of Time.
“When times are dark and all hope seems lost, the Protectors must unite, one from each tribe. Evoke the power of past and future, and look to the skies for an answer. When the stars align, six comets will bring timeless heroes to claim the Masks of Power and find the Mask Maker. United, the elements hold the power to defeat evil. United, but not one.”
1,000 years would pass, with this prophecy being passed from generation to generation of Protectors. Eventually, evil beset the land. Mysterious Skull Spiders began attacking the villagers, latching onto their faces and stealing their minds, marching them off never to be seen again.
But as luck would have it, the stars aligned, so the Protectors traveled to the Temple of Time and recited the prophecy. Six brilliant comments fell from the heavens carrying the Toa, giant warriors imbued with elemental power.
Tahu, Toa of Fire, landed in the Region of Fire. There they were met by Narmoto, Protector of Fire, who informed them of their quest. While Tahu’s mask provided the wearer with stronger elemental control than the Protector, they still lacked mastery over their element. They would need to claim their Golden Mask of Power to reach their full potential.
And so the two set out, traveling to a great volcanic cauldron. As Skull Spiders descended around them, Tahu took the waves and surfed across the lava pit to claim his Golden Mask and rescue the Protector. Narmoto then instructed Tahu to travel to the City of the Mask Makers to meet up with their siblings.
The six Toa met at the bridge to the long abandoned city, only to find it guarded by The Lord of Skull Spiders, a massive arachnid. The Toa each insisted on their own methods to defeat the beast, but were easily repelled. Eventually they decided to attack as one and threw the beast off the bridge’s side.
Past the bridge they found the city’s gates and were ambushed by a swarm of undead Skull Warriors. Wielding ice bows and spears, these zombies tried to overwhelm the Toa with their numbers, but the Toa were able to dislodge them from their battlements and proceed.
Inside they were attacked by the four armed Skull Slicer. Using his chain and claw, he was able to steal Lewa’s Mask of Jungle and began draining it of its energies, weakening the Toa. The Toa gave chase into the great Arena at the city’s center and fought the Slicer. Pohatu and Kopaka managed to retrieve Lewa’s mask, but in attempting to press the heavy stone button that would turn off the Arena’s traps Onua accidentally caused the structure to collapse.
The Toa survived and found themselves in an underground tunnel that led to the city’s graveyard. There they were ambushed by two Skull Scorpio’s who used their massive and powerful tails to steal Pohatu’s Mask of Stone. Lewa managed to lure the Scorpios to the tomb of Ekimu, where he knocked the headstone off its roof and crushed them.
Inside the tomb the Toa found the lifeless body of Ekimu. By combining their elemental powers they were able to bring the Mask Maker back to life, though his golden armor was rusted and rotten. Ekimu informed the Toa of what these skeleton creatures were doing in the abandoned city. Kulta, the Skull Grinder, had retrieved Ekimu’s legendary Mask of Creation, and planned to destroy it at his Mask Making Forge. The seven proceeded to the hill at the back of the city to find the door to the forge blocked by Skull Basher, a minotaur-like beast who stole Onua’s Mask of Earth. Ekimu reminded the Toa of their unity, and once more they charged as one making quick work of the brute.
Inside the forge they confronted Kulta just before he destroyed the Mask. Rather than break it, he decided to use its power to finish them off. This powered up titan was able to fell all six Toa with a single blow, knocking off their masks. But Tahu refused to surrender. He rallied his team to fight on and, weak and frail as they were, they latched onto Kulta’s legs to hold him at bay. They bought Ekimu enough time to find and repair his Hammer of Power, which he used to reclaim his Mask from Kulta’s face and fully restore his body.
I really gotta rewatch Journey to One one of these days. I prep the Gen 2 lore in advance, but now 2016 sets are gonna start showing up in these things. Oops
As the Master of Fire Tahu wielded two massive Fire Blades. In addition to channeling his elemental energy, he could combine these blades into a surfboard to ride across molten stone. While on his surfboard, he could use the golden swords on his shoulders as backup weapons.
Tahu actually had two combiner models with Narmoto. One was a proper combiner, taking apart both figures and combining them, while the other just involved taking off Narmoto's weapons to give to Tahu. Both of them had a shoulder mounted gattling gun. The former used Narmoto's blades to make Tahu's default swords even larger, while the later used them to create a flaming claw on his left hand.
As a side note, I think Tahu was one of the better translations for the Masters line of figures. A lot of Toa lost core design or personality elements in the reboot, but the 2015 Tahu just straight up is Tahu. While the Mask of Fire doesn't look as much like the Hau as the Mask of Ice does the Akaku, it's still one of the more faithful designs. The gold highlights mesh well with his Stars design, and they reused the surfboard mechanic of his Nuva design. The only OG Tahu who isn't reflected here is his Mistika version, which was already an outlier among the G1 models. Even still a spinning blade shield of some sort could've easily made this the ultimate form of the character. Actually, now that I think about it, orange bone elements would've been sweet here too.
There he is. Our glorious poster child in his second-most-glorious comeback (actual most glorious was 11021)
The only set I got from the rebooted BIONICLE in 2015. I was generally positive towards the CCBS as seen in the 2011 Hero Factory sets, so I was willing to give the new BIONICLE a chance based on that alone. Just like 8534 Tahu was my first Toa back in 2001, so too was this "Master of Fire". It's hard to say what didn't work for me. Objectively, the set design is great. But at the age of 26, I was not enchanted by this version of Tahu at all. Maybe it was due to work, or my personal interests now firmly in the adult sphere of things, but this set just...didn't have "it". For a Toa of Fire, it lacked the spark to ignite a new story and adventure. Admittedly, that is something I find less and less in LEGO sets these days, but I do still find it! So, too bad, Tahu of Rebooted Fire. Some things are better off left in the past and with fond memories.
@Miyakan said:
"Original character, not original version. Needs a bigger sword,"
Needs a flame-ier sword.
I have plenty of issues with how Bionicle Gen II was handled, but the first batch of Toa were still pretty high quality stuff, with a nice combination of nostalgia and new techniques.
@MCLegoboy said:
"THE RED ONE!!!"
...standing by.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"THE RED ONE!!!"
...standing by."
Red Ten, standing by.
@yodaloop said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"THE RED ONE!!!"
...standing by."
Red Ten, standing by.
"
Red Button, standing by.
Red Foxx, standing by.
Big Red, standing by.
Red October, standing by.
Helen Reddy, standing by.
Simply Red, standing by.
And there goes one of the few classy jokes I’ve ever seen come from Family Guy.
Hot damn these first wave of the reboot Toa were great. They all had so much individuality and character, made such a nice change from the clone builds G1 Bionicle had been giving us for a while. Tahu here has proper knight-in-armour vibes going on, and having his swords be a lava board like his Nuva form (even if the way they do it is more like Lhikan) is a great callback
Has it really been so long...? Tahu was my second toa Okoto, the only one which I didn't get around the same time as the originals in the same order. You see, I encountered a big bin of parts you could pick in Lego World in 2015 and noticed it was full of the new G2 parts. So I carefully got the parts for the 5 toa I didn't have. The rest I saved the building for to coincide with my original toa Mata acquisitions 14 years prior. I just had to bricklink the sticker sheets and remaining parts I didn't know I had missed, such as gears and such. It was one of the best deals I ever made!
Last year I finally got the instruction booklets as well :)
Tahu was the only one of the five I could complete immediately, so that's why I built him out of order.
The set is amazing! The two sets of swords are cool, and the way the armor is done reminds me of a samurai's armor. The design screams swordmaster. The trans neon orange is beautifully vibrant too. The toa especially look great as a set of six. Their varied shapes and sizes are the best bionicle's ever given us beside maybe the Barraki. Tahu was one of the three more 'deluxe' sized sets and although he's not as bulky as Onua or armored as Kopaka, he's the most armed and has a bit more armor and bulk too.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Miyakan said:
"Original character, not original version. Needs a bigger sword,"
Needs a flame-ier sword."
The set has you covered! Twice! See that surfboard? It's actually two giant swords combined into one with flames in their cores. It's like the swords on 8811 Lhikan and Kikanalo, but done better because the swords have a piece that keep them together on their own. And with color!
From one goat (earlier this week) to another!
I wasn’t a fan of the G2 story or animations, but the sets were fantastic. Wish I’d got more of them at the time, but I was still a student so money was tight.
Thankfully a close friend helped me get hold of the parts for this guy!
Probably the best G2 reimagining, except maybe Kopaka. Recognizably Tahu while still innovating.
Anyways, hopefully the Tahu 'cosplay' minifigure turns out pretty well.
The Lhikan magma/lava surfboard will never not be cool.
Tahu is soon to be coming to us in minifigure form, if the leaks for CMF S29 are anything to go by…
This was the first of the reboot I got, and back then I was quite happy with how they translated the Tahu-elements of previous sets. Looking back on it, that is still the case, but the mask is highly disappointing. It looks like a Duplo piece, and the mask of fire in the concept art and preliminary image was much better and closer to the original Hau.
@Jack_Rizzo said:
"From one goat (earlier this week) to another!
I wasn’t a fan of the G2 story or animations, but the sets were fantastic. Wish I’d got more of them at the time, but I was still a student so money was tight."
There are several G2 sets I wish I'd gotten, but I particularly regret only getting 71300, 71305, 71310, and 71311 from the 2016 sets. Every other set of the 2016 Bionicle wave (except for 71316) is on my wanted list. If I'd picked up 71308, I'd have every Tahu out there, including the two brick-built ones!
@LukeSkywalker said:"Tahu is soon to be coming to us in minifigure form, if the leaks for CMF S29 are anything to go by…"
Just Taho, or are the other Toa showing up to the party?
ALl hail Denmark.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Jack_Rizzo said:
"From one goat (earlier this week) to another!
I wasn’t a fan of the G2 story or animations, but the sets were fantastic. Wish I’d got more of them at the time, but I was still a student so money was tight."
There are several G2 sets I wish I'd gotten, but I particularly regret only getting 71300, 71305, 71310, and 71311 from the 2016 sets. Every other set of the 2016 Bionicle wave (except for 71316) is on my wanted list. If I'd picked up 71308, I'd have every Tahu out there, including the two brick-built ones!
@LukeSkywalker said:"Tahu is soon to be coming to us in minifigure form, if the leaks for CMF S29 are anything to go by…"
Just Taho, or are the other Toa showing up to the party?"
Just Tahu.
While there have been many replica Tahu's, there is only one true Tahu.
This is not it.
I dunno, as much as I love 40581, I'm feeling a bit of Tahu fatigue, honestly. Bionicle had so many cool characters; yet whenever Lego wants to throw a bone to the Bionicle fans, it's always this guy. I'd love to be excited for the above-mentioned rumoured Bionicle CMF, but it being Tahu (again) isn't doing it for me.
Come on, Lego. Give us Kopaka, Gali, Onua, Pohatu, Lewa... some of the Toa Metru or Inika, even! Anyone except still mopre Tahus...!
I mean, I do understand why they always go with Tahu. All these Bionicle references aren't really for those of us who were intense Bionicle fans back in the day, who Lego know will be interested in anything with the logo on it; they're more aimed to tickle the nostalgia of those who will recognise the theme but never got that deep into it... and in that context, of course Tahu, as the face of the brand, is the one who will grab the most attention.
I can't fault them for that, I suppose. But I'd really welcome some more variety if they're going to keep making these references.
-
That said, I definitely appreciated his Master design here, when I saw first pictures of it at the time; along with Kopaka and Onua, he was part of the half of the team who I felt successfully evoked their classic designs, so I tentatively thought 'well, I might get those three, just for nostalgia / to try them out'.
I didn't do that thing, because I promptly forgot all about the reboot, and by the time I remembered that it existed it was over. But it was a neat first impression at least ^^
@ThatBionoicleGuy yeah time for some of the other Toa to getting nostalgic throwbacks. Gali especially is past due. Tahu was the first Toa we saw in MNOG, but Gali was the first we saw properly in action in her Tarakava fight, then her sort of telepathic link to Takua gave her a closeness to the Chronicler he lacked with the other Toa. That Takanuva shares the same design as Gali Nuva makes me think Takua saw her as the idealized Toa, so his Toa form mirrored hers (the set versions are identical sans colors, tools and mask; the films make them look more different by giving Gali and Takanuva, feminine and masculine proportions respectively; but again the physical toys are spitting images of each other).
Obviously I want Lewa, Pohatu, Kopaka, and Onua to get their dues... and Vakama, Jaller etc. too. But Gali seems the logical next step after Tahu in terms of endearment to the series.
@Murdoch17said:" @TheOtherMike said:" @Jack_Rizzo said:"From one goat (earlier this week) to another!
I wasn’t a fan of the G2 story or animations, but the sets were fantastic. Wish I’d got more of them at the time, but I was still a student so money was tight."
There are several G2 sets I wish I'd gotten, but I particularly regret only getting 71300, 71305, 71310, and 71311 from the 2016 sets. Every other set of the 2016 Bionicle wave (except for 71316) is on my wanted list. If I'd picked up 71308, I'd have every Tahu out there, including the two brick-built ones!
@LukeSkywalker said:"Tahu is soon to be coming to us in minifigure form, if the leaks for CMF S29 are anything to go by…"
Just Taho, or are the other Toa showing up to the party?"
Just Tahu."
That's disappointing, for reasons I shall elaborate on.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I dunno, as much as I love 40581, I'm feeling a bit of Tahu fatigue, honestly. Bionicle had so many cool characters; yet whenever Lego wants to throw a bone to the Bionicle fans, it's always this guy. I'd love to be excited for the above-mentioned rumoured Bionicle CMF, but it being Tahu (again) isn't doing it for me.
Come on, Lego. Give us Kopaka, Gali, Onua, Pohatu, Lewa... some of the Toa Metru or Inika, even! Anyone except still mopre Tahus...!"
I'd sell my soul to Makuta for more Kopaka love. But I have a feeling he wouldn't have any to give.
@lordofdragonss said:
"ALl hail Denmark."
The Rebuilding Bionicle series is peak!
Sitting on my desk at work right next to me as a read this!
My parents wouldn't let me buy this when it came out when I was a kid. A few months ago my mom got it in a bundle of donations for the lego club she helps run for little kids with my hs age brother and saved it for me. Crazy what can change over time!