Random set of the day: Kohrak Va
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8551 Kohrak Va, released in 2002. It's one of 28 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 28 pieces, and its retail price was US$3/£1.99.
It's owned by 1510 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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Yo Yo Bohrok Va!
Yo Yo Bohrok Va!
Something something something
Other random noises
Piraka Rap Parody
Yo Yo Bohrok Va!
Way back, Kay*Bee got busted for price fixing. They would mark sets above MSRP, and then "discount" the price back down to make it look like they were a much better deal (in reality, I think the "discount" prices were often over MSRP by a little bit). Then someone decided to save money and just print the price stickers with the discount already applied. That got them in trouble. If you mark a price as being discounted, the "original" price can be no higher than MSRP unless you've actually priced it that high in the past. When new product lands on the shelves with price stickers that clearly show a computer-printed red slash and "handwritten" price in red print, it's pretty obvious that you've done nothing of the sort.
So, someone sued, Kay*Bee lost, and they were ordered by the court to conduct an unannounced sale as punishment. All of the Bohrok Va sets were included in this sale, at 3/$5. I don't believe they had any Kohrak Va sets at my local store, but they had about 100 Nuhvok Va, plus just a couple in other colors. I bought them all. Why? Because each Bohrok Va set includes 3x black friction axle-pin, which was introduced with these sets and quickly changed to blue as the default color. Ironically, I've barely used those axle-pins since, so 86 of those Nuhvok Va sets are still sealed. The remains of that ~$150 purchase is now worth around $1700 just for the axle-pins. Ironically, it's only worth about half that for the sealed sets. Go figure...
I remember getting similarly sized Bionicle in my Happy Meals not long before this. I lost most of the pieces the minute I got the set (1388 Huki, if I recall correctly) home (folks wouldn't let me touch it until I got home); so I need to maybe Bricklink that one. It was kinda cool getting real Lego in the late '90s (which I didn't get until 2-3 years later--as I was like 2 when those sets were out) to these Bionicle sets.
I didn't appreciate the CCBS sets until well, right out of my dark age 2-3 years ago. These little mini Bionicle are kinda cute.
I never had any interest in the wider Bionicle range, but I was a grad student in 2002 and ended up getting all six of the little guys in this series to put on my desk. Just last weekend, my 4-year-old found the parts for several of them in a bin and started putting them together, so now they're around the house again. My favorite one (8555) is currently sitting on my desk again.
I finally started Bricklink'ingvthe Bohrok Va. Simple sets... but loads of personality in each one.
Of course all the ones I got online have the coveted black pins replaced with blue ones!
Some Bionicle sets are awesome but most of them... I don't know, like this...
Even when I was a kid and these were brand new, they just looked like spare parts to me. Guess I wasn't the only one to think so!
@PurpleDave has the best story here involving the Bohrok Va. Makes me lament not living near a KB Toys back in 2002!
My story is a bit more mundane. I was aware of the Bohrok Va sets, but the sheer amount of other great BIONICLE sets released that year (the six Bohrok, Boxor, Exo-Toa, Toa Nuva, Cahdok and Gahdok) had just about drained my wallet dry by the middle of August 2002. However, I was incentivized to get Kohrak Va here due to an interesting promotion I heard regarding Walgreens and the Vahi, the Mask of Time. Back in June, it was reported that Vahis would be given away at Walgreens with the purchase of any BIONICLE set. Back then, my town didn't have a Walgreens, and I spent most of June in a summer camp where there also was a distinct absence of Walgreens (small towns, man!). In August, my family went on a trip to Galveston to spend a few days living along the beach. One day, I noticed a Walgreens and recalled the promotion, discarding the reality the promotion was over in exchange for the hope only a thirteen year-old boy could have that maybe, just maybe, this Walgreens still had a Vahi or two leftover I could snag if I found a BIONICLE set to buy.
Inside, the selection was pretty sparse, and I didn't have a lot of cash on hand. But I did find Kohrak Va, and since Kohrak and Kopaka were the "coolest" characters so far in the franchise, I wanted to continue my "Ko" collection. Sadly, at the checkout counter, I discovered that there were no Vahis, leftover or otherwise, so I had to savor Kohrak Va for what he was: my first Bohrok Va, whose storyline significance was on the cusp of being finished.
When BIONICLE: The Bohrok Saga, began in January 2002, the Bohrok Va were actually the first to emerge from the Bohrok nests. They were the scouts and heralds for the swarms to come. It was they who were given Krana from the Bahrag queens to deliver to Bohrok in the field who may have lost their own Krana or needed new ones for new tasks (i.e. the Pahrak needing to fly over the water to reach Ga-Koro). I don't recall them having any specific powers other than resistance to effects of their given element (i.e. Kohrak Va had resistance to cold). Later, after the Bahrag were defeated by the Toa Nuva, the Bohrak Va retained some sort of autonomy, since they were not mechanical constructs like the Bohrok. They disappeared, but re-emerged with the rise of the Bohrok Kal, ready to serve these ultra-Bohrok with their Krana should the need arise. I presume with the defeat of the Kal, the Va went into hiding once again until the final, triumphant release of the swarms prior to Mata Nui's awakening.
Also, for anyone dogging the set: these were the first BIONICLE character sets to have full head articulation since each Va's head was on a ball joint stuck on a Technic axle. This was a full year before the Rahkshi were released!
@PurpleDave
Fascinating!
Just got this Guy a few days ago with some of his friends. Nuhvok Va’s hugging arms are adorable.
Of all the smaller Bionicle sets like the Turaga or Matoran, the Bohrok-Va have always looked the strangest to me. Though I will say that will great big floppy feet, a skinny middle and then a kind of bulbous head they do pull off a sort of ant-like look better the supposedly insectile Bohrok ever did
The Bohrok-Kal are nice little 3$ parts packs. The fact that they also some with exclusive Krana recolors is also nice.
The town I grew up in didn't get a toy shop until a couple of years ago, by which time I was already an adult. However, in 2002/3/4 the local post office and news agents occassionally sold smaller BIONICLEs. I remember going around town using my pocket money to try to get all six Bohrok Va but only the red, brown and black ones were sold there. A shame, but I think I managed to get this, the green and the blue in a job lot a few years ago.
I didn't know Bohrok Va even *existed* in 2002.
I'm serious. Here in the UK, we didn't get any of the 2002 Bionicle comics in full except for the first one; otherwise, we just got tiny two-or-three-page excerpts from them printed in the main Lego Magazine... naturally, none of which included the Va since they were relatively minor in the overall scheme of that year. I also didn't realise until a year later that the Wall of History entries on Bionicle.com had MNOG-style animations attached to them, I thought the in-universe news report articles were all they were (I thiiiiink they may have been mentioned in passing in one of those, but that was all), so I entirely missed *any* of the Va's storyline appearances at the time.
I think the first I learned of them was in 2003, when Pohatu or Onua mentioned in one comic that they were working with the Kal. And the first time I saw one in person wasn't until *2004*... in large part because I wasn't very concerned with buying Bionicle sets in 2002 when there was all this new Attack of the Clones merchandise to spend my money on instead; and by the time my interest returned to buying Bionicle, the Va had been retired. However, a local small Toy Zone toy shop had Pahrak Va and Lehvak Va in their bargain bin one time when I was poking around in there; naturally, since I'd missed them at the time, I snatched them both up.
I didn't get the rest until... oh, '06, early '07, when I decided to go completionist on my Bionicle set collection and started using eBay to fill in all the gaps. That was when I picked up Kohrak Va here, with two of the others soon after; the only one I didn't get was Tahnok Va, because I... cheated on him. (Between parts of a few spare sets (Tahnok, Turaga Vakama, and Pahrak Va) I had most of his pieces, so I just built him from them, and eventually grabbed his two unique parts - the red krana pan and feet - from bricklink several years later).
Speaking of the krana pan pieces, what colour was Kohrak Va's? His image makes it look like dark grey, and it was dark grey on the set of him I had; but the bricklink inventory says it should be light grey instead. Was my set a mistake (I did get it second-hand, so it's plausible that the seller got his piece mixed up with Nuhvok Va's), or is the inventory incorrect? :o
Aw good, the Va. Their story relevance didn't last too long, but I'm rather fond of those little helper folks.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
I bought at least six copies of the Exo-Toa so I could give one to all six Toa. The problem being that only Tahu really fit properly, so I had to tweak the design to get Onua/Gali/Lewa/Kopaka in, and heavily modify it to fit Pohatu's upside-down torso. By the time I got started on building the sixth Exo-Toa, I'd stopped using the instructions.
@BionicleJedi said:
"Speaking of the krana pan pieces, what colour was Kohrak Va's? His image makes it look like dark grey, and it was dark grey on the set of him I had; but the bricklink inventory says it should be light grey instead. Was my set a mistake (I did get it second-hand, so it's plausible that the seller got his piece mixed up with Nuhvok Va's), or is the inventory incorrect? :o "
Mine has a light grey one. I think the seller might’ve gotten mixed up.
@Bricktastic_builder:
Oh, no, I've got no plans to sell them. I _bought_ them for the black axle-pins because I was using them so much. Back when they were still in production, I know I bought at least 300 of them, and pretty much used them all up. I don't really build Bionicle MOCs anymore, but if I was these probably would have been depleted in a year or two. I still periodically have need for some, so whenever that happens I go raid one or more of the sealed sets. So if I ever need 200 of the Onua claws, I'm pretty much set...
@BionicleJedi:
No, all the Bohrok and Bohrok-Kal had them in light-grey. Four of the Bohrok Va had them in primary elemental colors (red, brown, blue, and green), while Nuhvok Va and Kohrak Va got their secondary elemental colors (dark-grey and light-grey). I'm not sure why they didn't make black for Nuhvok Va, but light-grey for Kohrak Va makes sense since it was already in production. But hey, at least you're missing the most common color, so it shouldn't be too hard to pick up the correct one.