Random set of the day: Carapar
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8918 Carapar, released in 2007. It's one of 31 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 50 pieces, and its retail price was US$9.99/£7.99.
It's owned by 1849 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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23 comments on this article
I'm starting to get what Huw meant when he said the Bionicle sets would be popping up often on the random sets of the days if they were ever added...
^Picture it this way, TEN! of them have been on the site since 12/4 -28 days ago!
Or once every three days, though we had 3 in 5 days last week, and then 13th and 15th had them as well. A 3 out of 4 between the 7th and 10th as well.
Today has been blessed with the great carapar!
Um... Why do I totally not remember a Bionicle wave containing anything like this? I really don't recognize it...
Joy! I was afraid that the algorithm would be reset now that we're in the new year. That's the only logical explanation I could come up with when we were able to get Bionicle added in 2018 only for it to have been removed from the lineup for half of 2019, right, Huw? Biomechanical Crab Men are sets, too!
Carapar was the third LEGO set I ever got, though ironically is probably my least favorite of the Barraki.
The Barraki (Matoran for "Warlord") were the six head individuals of the Matoran Universe. Each was a member of the six "ruling species" who took over Mata Nui's role of watching the populous when he moved on to other things, while the Maktua took over Mata Nui's role of creating creatures.
While intended to be simple leaders, the Barraki were much more ambitious and destructive. Together the six ruling species rallied and waged war on the Matoran Universe as The League of Six Kingdoms, claiming it's territories and splinting them up among the warlords. Only a small number of islands such as the seclusive Metru Nui or Makuta owned Destral escaped their rule.
Eventually they became far too greedy, and decided to overthrow Mata Nui himself to take full charge of the Universe. The Brotherhood of Makuta caught wind of this plot and attacked and captured the Barraki, who were eventually sent to a gigantic prison complex known as The Pit. Without the ruling species' leaders around to rule, the role of supervision fell on the Makuta who had already been overseeing select island/continent portions for sometime. Makuta Teridax, the Makuta responsible for their capture, eventually decided to do what the Barraki could not. He would overthrow the Great Spirit in the name of the Makuta.
The Barraki spent some time suffering in The Pit, until Makuta Teridax's lust for power lead to The Great Cataclysm. During TGC the roof of The Pit was broken allowing the mutagentic waters of Aqua Magna to seep in. The water transformed all of the prisoners into water-breathing sea creatures, so while they were free form their prison they could never return to the land.
Over the course of the next 1,000 years the Barraki had minor scuffles with the underwater city of Mahri Nui, until the Toa Mahri arrived. The Mahri and Barraki had a variety of duels throughout the 2007 plot over the Mask of Life, though eventually the resurrected Hydraxon managed to hunt down and recapture the prisoners.
Carapar was once a brilliant strategist and the most muscular of the group. He was close friends with Takadox. Takadox had hypnotic powers, and after centuries of brainwashing Carapar to take his side or do his dirty work Carapar lost his mind, becoming a dim-witted hulk and husk of his former self. Thanks to the Pit Mutagen he was turned into a crab-like monster and he commanded an army of Keras Crabs and Pit War Tortoises while in The Pit. Eventually he was (forcefully) enlisted in a task force to rescue Makuta Miserix, and ended up killed by the Legendary Tren Krom.
Carapar is pretty interesting in being the only Barraki to die over the course of the series, as well as the only Barraki to not have a minifigure in the BIONICLE Playsets. His color scheme is also rather odd for the "Stone" set of the wave. Usually early Stone sets were brown and later ones were yellow, but he was more of this marbled caramel and black color.
I liked this guy's yellow. The Barraki were the first Bionicle canister wave in several years to not be the first pure clone builds, instead mixing up each figure to be unique.
2007 was my last year collecting Bionicle as a kid. I think the "edgy marketing" of 2006 & 2007 backfired on me and it suddenly made Bionicle look very childish. The reveal of Café Corner suddenly drew me into System big time, so Carapar was one of my last Bionicle sets. I didn't get a Bionicle set again until the 2015 reboot when I started collecting it again.
This was the second Barraki I got for Christmas back in 2006, along with Kalmah. As distinct as each Barraki set was from each other in terms of construction and pieces used, Carapar was unfortunately a very standard (but squat) Inika-type build. Considering the crab design influence, I would've hoped the set designers made him more crustacean-like, but I guess they only had so many parts allotted in the design budget.
Considering Carapar is the only dead Barraki in the storyline, I wouldn't recommend him to those collecting BIONICLE sets after the fact. Even in the 2007 story, he was just a mindless brute after too many hypno-stares from Takadox, so his role was pretty cliche and minimal. Mantax and Pridak are by far the best of the bunch. Ehlek isn't bad either, and Takadox is only worth it for the really cool glow-in-the-dark armor pieces (also found in Nocturn).
Is it Karapar or Carapar?
I had this guy! The Barraki were really good sets, from what is in my opinion the best year Bionicle ever had both story and sets-wise
I'll start a car dealership called "Car-A-Par".
... sorry about the posts, guys. The connection was dodgy.
Craaaaaaab people, craaaaaaab people, look like crab, taste like people!
Loved these sets in bionicle, unfortunately these sets also marked the parts become either cheaper or constructed wrong as pieces from these sets onward ( mainly ball and socket joints) were very bad for play as they wore down a lot faster and snapped often
@Robot99 said:
"Um... Why do I totally not remember a Bionicle wave containing anything like this? I really don't recognize it..."
It was in 2007.
@SearchlightRG said:
" @Robot99 said:
"Um... Why do I totally not remember a Bionicle wave containing anything like this? I really don't recognize it..."
It was in 2007."
Um... yeah, I know. That's why I even asked - I was old enough to remember 2007 waves, yet don't remember this at all.
@Crae I don't think that affected this set actually. Of the few sets I have from this wave all use the original socket design dating back to the Slizers. The plastic quality may have changed, but it's not as noticeable of an issue while using the older sockets. I think it was either late 2007 or 2008 when the thinner sockets were introduced that started having all the problems.
@TransNeonOrangeSpaceman Have Ackar from 2009 as a business partner!
WAKE ME, CAN'T YOU HEAR ME CALLING
OUT OF DARKNESS, THEY COME CRAWLING...
HERE I AM, I AM LOST IN YOUR LAND
AND I HOPE YOU WILL BE
CREEPING IN MY SOUL
SHADOWS FALL, LET ME OUT, HEAR MY CALL
AND I'LL ALWAYS BELIEVE
Creeping in my soul...
Don't mind me, I just heard that song again, for the first time in literal years, the other day; and then, for one of the Barraki - the sets who that song was promoting - to come up now? Kinda had to happen xD
I'm with those saying Carapar (misspelled on the instruction manual) was one of the weakest of the Barraki sets. Pridak and Ehlek were my far away favourites, although I seem to recall liking Mantax character-wise, too. Unlike their very unique designs, though, Carapar just... didn't seem all that special to me.
Not to be confused with 'barakî', the Walloon equivalent of British chavs and American rednecks!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baraki
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @Crae I don't think that affected this set actually. Of the few sets I have from this wave all use the original socket design dating back to the Slizers. The plastic quality may have changed, but it's not as noticeable of an issue while using the older sockets. I think it was either late 2007 or 2008 when the thinner sockets were introduced that started having all the problems. "
It was winter 2008 that the newer, weaker connectors were introduced. But there was another problem: the lime green parts were brittle starting from winter 2007. This was apparently due to a production error involving the cooling of these parts. It was so bad that pretty much every single bracket from my 8920 Ehlek broke in one day! I was able to order replacements from Lego customer Service. It was also present in 8939 Lesovikk, 8914 Toa Mahri Hahli and pretty much all green 2008 toa.
This really put a dent in my enjoyment of the bionicle sets. After all, the whole point of constraction is that you can build the sets with the knowledge that you won't break the parts when doing so!
Does anyone know why the newer connector design was more brittle than before? How did that design come through quality control? Why change what wasn't broken (except when it was lime green)?
@Binnekamp wow that sucks. I must have somehow got lucky... my Ehlek is still intact with original parts and no sockets broken yet (knocks on wood). Then again; since I put him on a shelf to display and didn't play with him that much that might have explained some of my luck there.
The cracking in joint parts, particularly in the long, t-bone sockets seemed to be present throughout late 2007 and into 2009. My Skrall has a red socket cracked at the shoulder. Mata Nui's hands have a small crack in the sockets. Hahli Mahri has a couple of cracks in her lime green sockets. I'm sure there are more, I just haven't had the heart to look carefully at my entire BIONICLE collection yet. The point is, I don't think it was limited to one color. Lime green may have been where it was first witnessed, but it was just a harbinger of bad things to come. Really pisses me off to know that probably in another decade, most of my BIONICLE parts with ball sockets will be useless (already had to replace many on my original Toa, Toa Nuva, and Bohrok). This may end up being BIONICLE's ugly legacy at TLG.