Random set of the day: Kazi
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8722 Kazi, released in 2006. It's one of 47 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 25 pieces, and its retail price was US$4/£2.99.
It's owned by 1527 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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14 comments on this article
Ah yes... the Bionicle guy without a proper head! While the recycle of the Nuju mask was a missed opportunity... props to the Bionicle team for trying to make the Matoran builds unique in 2006.
Bonkles! Bonkles! Bonkles! Bonkles!
One of the six Matoran of Voya Nui to escape Piraka enslavement and assist the Toa Inika. I gotta say I loved Velika and Kazi's dynamic, the overly metephorical and out of touch wiseman paired with a cold, calculating, and sarcastic worker who's fed up with it all. Unlike Velika, I don't think he stands on his own as a great character, but he was an excelent accent. Something I had forgoten about but just spotted on Biosector was he was the first Matoran of VN to meet Axonn, and he kept the warrior secret; quite a noble move.
A shame the Voyatoran didn't have any special masks. A part of what made all previous iterations of Matoran special was that they had custom colored masks, and where compatable with the mask packs made for the Toa. Having these Matoran (sans Dalu, but let's be honest it's not that drastic of a color change) have the exact same color AND shape of the Toa Metru masks felt really lazy, at least the Marhitoran (sans Sarda) fixed this issue and recolored the masks like their predecessors.
I have Kazi. But in spite of the work LEGO did to differentiate the six Matoran of Voya Nui, I still felt they were, on the whole, lackluster. I only ever got (in addition to Kazi) Balta, Garan, and Delu. Their additions to the BIONICLE lore were minimal to my perception (I was still only reading the comics as the main source of lore, although I did buy the "Island of Doom" novel by Greg Farshtey in early 2006, in which the Voya Nui Matoran play a small role) of the story. I definitely did not like how Kazi was not given a proper head behind his mask. It seemed to be a lazy move that was echoed in other aspects of BIONICLE that year (eg. the Toa Inika having featureless green blobs for heads and explained away as "raw elemental energy"), but thankfully, did not weigh the theme down to the point of disinterest.
I had all these guys - love 'em still!
Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish the Random Set Of The Day would be Bionicles more often so that we can be treated to more of the incomprehensibly fantastic musings of the superfans.
Never stop!
Not having a proper head didn't help, but I liked the very unique design of Kazi's build. I liked the odd builds of the Voya-Nui Matoran, probably one of the better waves of small Bionicle sets.
Would have been nice if the masks had been mixed up for these guys-having the exact same colors make these seem like they were thrown together from surplus parts...more so than they already do.
@bananaworld-quite a few of the random sets have been from Bionicle.
Did they not realise that they named this set after a slang word for toilet?
@Evil Twin, I think that inspired the head design.
The 'no head' look didn't bother me with this guy; I think he was my favourite Voyatoran, design-wise, because Lego had tried to do something different with him... though whether they succeeded is, I will admit, open to some debate.
Still, as the only one of these matoran not to suffer from 'my torso is also my foot' syndrome, I thought it was a nice attempt ^^
Bionicle is a little strange theme for me.
Ah, Kazi. And the Voyatoran in general. Easily my favorite Matoran designs from the franchise. Small and unique. Yeah, the lack of eye color (and in Kazi's case, the lack of head) was a little strange, but on the whole, I love these guys. 2006 was such a good year for Bionicle.
Does Kazi have a couple of friends called Bog and Dunny? If he does I bet they're built like brick... Sorry that's out of bricks :-)