Random set of the day: Rahkshi Guurahk
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8590 Rahkshi Guurahk, released in 2003. It's one of 39 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 45 pieces, and its retail price was US$9/£5.99.
It's owned by 3293 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
Help me come to life! If you like the set I've chosen for you today, please pledge your support for me on LEGO Ideas so I have a chance of becoming an official LEGO set!
54 likes
24 comments on this article
Hail Denmark, for we have another Bionicle day!
Hail Denmark!
Knees! Articulated heads! Swinging shoulders!
And weird slug things down the back.
I remember that these were incredibly posable, which was offset by the fact that they were all hampered by staff weapons. Ultimately, the only parts I really cared about from these were the head shells, the trans-neon orange socket joints, the elemental-colored socket joints, and then the really basic stuff like the long axle that forms the center of the staff. I mean, I _did_ care about the Kraata, but I never got close to completing that collection before I gave up.
I also remember that when I saw these at NYTF in 2004, some of the parts were painted because they didn't have them molded in the correct colors at the time.
Ah! The one I actually own!
A lot of Bionicle was hit-and-miss, for me ... but I loved this guy. I loved the general design, I loved how flexible and poseable he was, and I really liked the staff weapon (and the swinging feature).
I think I tracked down the red one on Bricklink recently because I regretted only buying one of them, originally, and not getting more.
Remember that time the Turaga made a nuclear waste depository... I mean... Kraata slug prison in the desert of Po-Wahi without telling anyone else about it? Good times.
There is some irony that for the Rahkshi being praised as the Bionicle wave that introduced proper knee articulation, their re-release/remake in 2010 with the Star's wave Rahkshi ironically lacked knee articulation... Take that as you will.
Also the pearl colors on the Rahkshi were... only used in these sets and some pearl black in the Makuta set from the save wave. That was SIX specialty colors only used in seven total sets. That era was peak Lego's excess in their color palate before their brush with near bankruptcy forced them to trim out the excess colors. Imagine Lego today trying to justify a full pearl blue color to use it in four pieces only in one set like they did in this set.
Step aside Clikets. It’s Bionicle time!
@xboxtravis7992:
Quick! Hide the Kraata before he notices them!
Guurahk the Disintegrator! One of the last Rahkshi I got in 2003, but definitely a nice color variation to have in order to complete the collection, particularly how Guurahk, Lehrahk, and Panrahk were the "first" Rahkshi unleashed upon the island of Mata Nui to seek the herald of the Seventh Toa.
The Rahkshi were the "sons" of Makuta, living armor for the Kraata slugs that Makuta issued forth, carriers of his dark essence and corrupting spirit. As a Rahkshi, Guurahk had the power of disintegration, able to use his Staff of Power to crumble even the mightiest mountains to mud and dust. Combined with Panrahk's power of shattering and Lehrahk's poison, these three Rahkshi were the "muscle" of the group, able to inflict the most physical damage to the island, the inhabitants, and their Toa Nuva protectors.
As seen in the movie "Mask of Light", from 2003, Guurahk took part in the destruction of Ta-Koro, Village of Fire, and then pursued Takua and Jaller eventually into Ko-Wahi. There, they destroyed the village of Ko-Koro before coming across the aforementioned Matoran with Kopaka, the Toa Nuva of Ice. Though initially rebuffed by the powers of Guurahk and the other Rahkshi, Kopaka Nuva recovered and managed to defeat all three by freezing them inside an elevated lake. Unfortunately, they were eventually freed. By then, however, three more Rahkshi had arrived on Mata Nui. This time, they possessed far more intangible, but still destructive, powers.
As others have stated, the Rahkshi were (r)evolutionary in design. They had the first knee joints and the first neck joints for posing ability far beyond what the Toa and Bohrok sets had to date. There was still a gear-based function in the form of the the swinging staffs, as well as a half-assed Kraata-launching function if you whacked a Rahkshi in the head hard enough. But in spite of these advancements, the Rahkshi were like the Bohrok Kal from earlier in the year. All had the same builds, and the only differences were the colors, parts for the staffs, spines, and Kraata, and the random chance some came with a mini-CD-ROM or not.
If you were patient, later in the year, LEGO started packaging Rahkshi with random "Seventh Stage" Kraata that looked like other forms of Kraata except for the fact they were purple. The significance was that these Kraata were the most evolved and could infect and corrupt Kanohi masks at a distance. Also late in the year, the final BIONICLE comic showcased the Rahkshi combiner models or "Kaita". Guurahk is part of a fun one that uses pieces from it, Panrahk, and Vohrahk (the black Rahkshi of Hunger) to build something like a two-headed steed for a mini-Vohrak to ride.
In retrospect, the Rahkshi were awesome and their pieces ended up being integral parts (particularly the lower limb piece) of BIONICLE sets and MOCs for many years to come. Even though they are all "clones" of one another, their prominence not just in the books and comics, but also the animated film, gave fans a greater reason to collect them all. Even more relevant to the success and legacy of BIONICLE, they showed that LEGO was keen to keep pushing the figure design with each new wave. I feel that was an unspoken promise that would come to color and haunt BIONICLE fans' perceptions when new sets just didn't seem as great as what came before (looking at you, Vahki and Toa Hordika). We all wanted the next wave of canister sets to be as amazing and revolutionary as seeing the Rahkshi for the first time was. I would say we would have to wait three more years before getting something that mind-blowing in the form of the Piraka, but that is a tale for another RSotD post.
I have soooooo many of Rahkshi limbs in my collection. Not sure how many of Guurahk I have, but I do know it was one of the ones I had originally. As well as Vorahk, Kuurahk, and Panrak. I really like the blue, but the vast amount of Dark grey on all the Rahkshi made them a bit boring. No wonder I keep finding them in used lots.
As a kid, the posability was FREAKING AWESOME.
Ah yes, time for my weekly dose of that sweet, sweet Bonkle lore
I guess the beauty is in it's simplicity?
Panrahk is the only one I never got, and Tahu is the only Toa from that line I didn’t get. Maybe I’ll add them to my collection soon
Seems Huwbot is stuck on bionicles, reckon someone should try turning him off and back on again :)
Neat. And I’m not even a Bionicle fan!
@MCLegoboy said:
"Hail Denmark, for we have another Bionicle day!
Hail Denmark!"
You mean Hail Huwbot I think.
;-)
Speaking of which, I really think he needs a hard reset. I miss my daily dose of Clikits.
Does anyone else have this weird minifigure glitch problem where all the minifigures you own in sets have disappeared from your collection?
As a kid, these were always the coolest thing around. Shame I never got one other than the utterly lacksuster 'Stars' version.
Those sets were so popular back in the day that LEGO had an overstock of them, and now they go for pretty cheap online because of how common they are. I alone got three copies of Guurahk, and I gave one of them away to a friend as a gift for his birthday, because he didn't own any Bionicle G1 sets, while I have more than enough of them.
All of the Rahkshi are insanely common on the secondary market, especially the more brightly coloured ones. I’ve got at least three of each of them, possibly 5 or 6 of this one?
@Monopoly said:
"All of the Rahkshi are insanely common on the secondary market, especially the more brightly coloured ones. I’ve got at least three of each of them, possibly 5 or 6 of this one?"
Well I think it can be argued that late 2003-2004 was Bionicle at its peak popularity. That year and a half saw one arc of the story close and then a minor reboot/prequel that dived into events that happened 1000 years prior to the original story; several improvements that innovated the line's style in articulation (knees and head articulation with the Rahkshi, elbow articulation with the Toa Metru the next wave), a new darker and muted color scheme in 2004, longtime comic writer Greg Farshety being promoted to churn out many junior reader novels about the story which got Bionicle a staring spot in every Scholastic Book Fair; and perhaps most importantly two direct to DVD movies released near the end of each year. So it kind of follows as @LegoDavid said already, those were the years that Lego produced the most sets to keep up with the bigger demand.
I have been able to chase down most of the 2004 sets down really easy second hand with only a few more to go before I have a complete collection, and I might do the same for 2003 just because they are so plentiful in the second hand market. I do think 2005 started to run the fumes though of that 2003-2004 surge, the third movie didn't seem to attract the same success as the first two, in part because it was a "mid-quell" that revealed what happened during a part of the finale of the second film that was glossed over, while still serving as a prequel to the first film! The story was getting a bit more bigger and bloated, and it didn't help that the 2005 Toa wave were some odd looking figures compared to the much more heroic designs that 2004 had. While Bionicle had always borrowed liberally from other influences (the first film has a lot of Lord of the Rings Jr. vibes) the third film felt like it was cutting way to close to the story that Revenge of the Sith had told earlier that year in theaters (right down to the hero being corrupted to the 'dark side' and ending in a climactic duel with the hero-turned villain facing one of the other heroes at the finale). Its a pity too the films ended with 2005, since I feel like 2006 offered much more story to make a good film out of.
This was my first LEGO set I remember having. Really takes me back.
I'm trying to remember which Rahkshi I got first, and I'm just drawing a blank. For the Toa, Turaga, Bohrok, Bohrok Va, Bohrok-Kal, and Toa Nuva, it's easy. The answer is "yes", as I remember being able to buy complete sets of all six elements for each of those waves (and for the McToran, it was "whatever order they released in"), but for the Rahkshi it got complicated. This was the only wave of sets I can remember where I actually got a review copy sent to me (we'll ignore the complete set of basic Galidor characters from the launch wave, which are still sitting unopened in a box somewhere). I do know I did _not_ get Turahk, and I don't think I got either Vorahk or Kurahk. Brown, green or blue seems most likely.
Ah... the last of the Rahkshi to make its way into my hands, along with Kurahk. It is, perhaps, curious that the two most visually appealing Rahkshi, at least to me, were the last two I got; but that was just the way it worked out, I guess.
I actually didn't plan, at first, on getting any of the Rahkshi. My first reaction to their images, in 2003, was that they were creepy and weird and I didn't much want them... despite the fact that I was on a huge Bionicle high that year, otherwise. Seeing them in the movie, I think, softened me on them slightly; but it was only when I received Panrahk as an unexpected birthday present that year that my opinion of them seriously changed. For that reason, honestly, Panrahk is still my favourite of the Rahkshi sets, in spite of his more drab colour scheme.
Guurahk here, if I recall, got the least screentime out of the Rahkshi in Mask of Light, and I don't even recall seeing its power used onscreen; possibly because disintegration wasn't as flashy (or as easily rendered in the animation style) as fragmentation or poison. I think its only major individual moment was when it was knocking down a stone hut with its bare hands to get at the two Matoran inside?
@fakespacesquid said:
"Ah yes, time for my weekly dose of that sweet, sweet Bonkle lore"
Now, it might just be my interpretation of the wording, but you're making that sound like it's a bad thing.
I unfortunately only got one on the Sons Of Makuta, and it wasn't this one. That would be the Earth one. (Forgot his name!) But the Rahkshi were just plain awesome. I liked the Bohrok and the Kal better, but these guys still hold a special place in the Bionicle lineup.
And honestly, I prefer the Bionicle streak to the Clikits one.