It's a fire spider!

(And you thought fire ants were bad...)

@MCLegoboy said:
"It's a fire spider!

(And you thought fire ants were bad...)"

In the long tradition of four legged spiders in Bionicle too!

@Mr__Thrawn said:
"It has a propellor on its back. Why does it have that?"

Maybe it's a heli-spider.

Or a Spider-Copter.

I remember they were good for the propellers or "Rhotuka spinners" as I think they were called, my friend and I would shoot them back and forth continuously shouting "I have disabled you with my legendary Rhotuka"

Think spiders are deadly? Picture a spider whose venom mutates you into a hideous (and inferior) version of yourself. A venomous spider that charges at you with berserker rage. A venomous berserker spider that shoots paralising spinners that also cause an unbearable burning sensation.
A venomous berserker spider of agony. Can it get worse?
Of course it can. There's an entire horde of them causing urban decay on the Great Spirit's brain and severe self-esteem issues on the only heroes available. Just dandy.

@Lip_McTile

There's always some deliciously nerdy Bionicle lore when they come along as RSotD, but yours is the best yet.

OK, I definitely own Vohtarak, and I agree, the Visorak get a bit forgotten in the memories of Bionicle fans. The sets were the victim of a weird, alternating release cycle between North America and Europe. Vohtarak and his ilk were released in Q1 of 2005, along with Roodaka, Visorak, and Keetongu in Europe. I think they also got the Rahaga, too. Meanwhile in the USA, we started the year with just the six Toa Hordika and six Rahaga. Over the course of 2005, the Hordika and Rahaga were constantly in conflict with the Visorak horde and their leaders, but for us US fans trying to play along, we had no antagonists until July! Even the comics that year sort of danced around the issue awkwardly, sometimes clearly showing off Roodaka in all her villainous glory, and other times making the Visorak appear in shadow, or as a background blob.

Overall, 2005 was a weird, transitional year for BIONICLE. Aside from the set release switcharoo, the story started to grow quickly. The basic premise of the story was that in the absence of the Toa Metru, an army of Visorak had taken over the city of Metru Nui. Since there were still imprisoned and comatose Matoran stuck in the city, the Toa had to go back to rescue them. However, their hubris cost them, and they were captured by the Visorak and injected with their venom, turning them into half-beast, half-Toa mutants known as Hordika. With the aid of the Rahaga (former Toa themselves), the Hordika had to free the remaining Matoran from the clutches of Sidorak and Roodaka, all the while fighting to keep their beastial natures in check.

Not terribly complicated, but this was a Bionicle movie year, which meant the main story had to be told in the film, which was due out in October 2005. That meant that in the meantime, the comics and website had to dither about with a lot of sidequests and flashbacks (remember, the whole 2004-2005 story already IS a flashback). So we had the Toa Hordika looking for the Mask of Light, the Toa Hordika looking for the real Turaga Dume, and the story of how the Rahaga went from proud Toa to diminutive Rahaga after a run-in with Roodaka long ago. Finally, we got to the movie and learned about Vakama joining up with Roodaka in opposition to the other Toa (because his beastial side was feeding his own insecurities as a leader), the other Toa and Rahaga on the quest for Keetongu (yes, ANOTHER quest), and a final battle between them and the entire Visorak horde. I'm sure there is more that I've forgotten, but already, that is a lot compared to, say, the fairly linear story in 2002. So much new lore was born in 2005 and many organizations were further developed (the Toa, the Makuta was now a brotherhood, the Dark Hunters). It was a lot to take in, especially, I bet, if you were a 6 to 7 year-old kid or a casual TFOL or AFOL noticing Bionicle for the first time.

The Visorak were very cool to me as sets mainly, since in the story, they were just powerful insectoids with no personalities. Although you could classify them as "clone sets", the designers did go out of their way to inject some uniqueness to them by varying the limb pieces. But Vohtarak here wasn't my favorite. That honor goes to Oonorak, the Halloween-themed Visorak with a name so hilarious, I didn't have to change it much for my long-running Bionicle parody, BORNICLE. They became the OhNo!rak, and that is perhaps my favorite memory of Bionicle in 2005.

@Mr__Thrawn said:
"It has a propellor on its back. Why does it have that?"

Bionicle liked having its projectiles, and this years was the 'rhotuka spinner'. That propellor launches via a ripcord, similar to some of the later Ninjago sets. In-universe those things were wheels of energy some beings had the ability to manifest and launch to various effects. Vohtarak here could cause intense burning pain or just paralyse you with his