From happygolucky Hero Factory just two days ago, to 2006 edgelord Bionicle. The scales have been balanced.

‘Tis the Snake!

Who needs dropships when you have an evil lizard man made up of microscopic insects wielding a mind-control gun and a triple-bladed scissor?

Yo yo

Ooo-hoo-hoo here's a good one. LORE TIME!

The Dark Hunters were a powerful villainous faction in the Matoran Universe. A band of murders, thieves, and scum. Among their ranks were six members of the Skakdi species, a race known for their violent and savage tendencies. When recruited, the last two of these six were jokingly called "Piraka" by their recruiter, a highly offensive Matoran vulgarity. The Skakdi took the name to heart, and soon the six Skakdi Dark Hunters formed their own sub-gang in the organization known as the Piraka.

Most of the Piraka had joined the Dark Hunters for their skills in combat and sabotage, and had relatively prosperous lives and thieves beforehand. But not Zaktan. Zaktan was a slave in a Protodermis Mine, working backbreaking hours in intense heat for days on end. He was eventually rescued and recruited by the Dark Hunters and soon became an aloof and intense agent, who's simple glance could send shudders down a foe's spine. Soon he rose as the (disputed) leader of the six Piraka.

The Piraka worked for several thousand years under the brotherhood in relative peace. Eventually though, Zaktan had enough. He was sick of always handing over such large hauls to the Shadowed One, and going on such harsh and unforgiving missions, and so he decided to revolt. Five of the Piraka (sans Avak) set out to break into the Shadowed One's chambers in the dead of night and slaughter the overlord, taking rulership of the grand mafia.

Their plan backfired. The Shadowed One quickly caught wind of their scheme and set up a trap for the brutes. Soon the five were captured and brought before the SO. Insubordination was intolerable among the Dark Hunters, and the punishment for the crime was execution. SO planed on killing Zaktan and letting the others go, and so his eyes began to sparkle as he charged his disintegration beam, and he fired the deadly lasers at Zaktan.

But when the smoke cleared, Zaktan had not been turned into a pile of dust. In fact, at first glance he appeared completely normal. The laser-vision had actually transformed Zaktan. No longer was he a single entity, his body had been transformed into a series of microscopic organisms known as Protodites. Zaktan could control these bugs to split and morph his body at will, including turning into a floating cloud or slipping through the smallest cracks. He was practically unstoppable. No-one had survived an attack from the Shadowed One before, and in terror the Piraka were scolded and dismissed.

Centuries rolled by and the Piraka were sent on more missions. Perhaps the next most notable was when Zaktan and Reidak were sent to guard a Dark Hunter fortress from an impending attack from the Brotherhood of Makuta. Before the battle broke, the two were approached by Roodaka, a double agent for the factions. She revealed that before it belonged to the Dark Hunters, the fortress had belonged to the Brotherhood, and for some reason Makuta was dead-set on reclaiming the base. Zaktan concluded the Makuta must have left something valuable behind, and retreated to explore the fortresses innards.

Using his protodite form, Zaktan began combing every nook and cranny of the fortress as battle broke above. Soon he found his target, a small crack in the floor that lead to a perfectly square room. The walls were coated with writing, and Zatkan quickly found their meaning. It was Makuta Teridax's grand plan to put Mata Nui to sleep take over the Matoran Universe! Zaktan memorized as much of the plan as he could and then used his impact vision to destroy the room.

Fast forward again, 1,000 years and 3 months after Mata Nui was put to sleep, rumors began to spread throughout the Matoran Universe. Teridax, Makuta of Metru Nui, was dead, slain by a Toa of Light named Takanuva. The Piraka saw this as an amazing opportunity, and snuck away from the Dark Hunters. By boat they travelled to the far north and the City of Metru Nui, and there they found the gate to Makuta's lair.

The gate was crumbled and destroyed, and the six began clearing the rubble away. Eventually they

The gate was crumbled and destroyed, and the six began clearing the rubble away. Eventually they came upon their first target. The corpse of Makuta Teridax! At first the sight encouraged the Piarka, but when they removed the Mask of Shadows they were surprised to find no body inside the armor!

This is because Makuta Teridax had not died during his fight with Takanuva. Makuta, you see, are not made of organs and tissue and pistons like the other creatures of the MU. They are actually sentient clouds of gas, known as antidermis, that posses and control vessels. Teridax's armor had been crushed beyond repair, and now he needed a new vessel before he dissipated into the atmosphere. He also needed to keep an eye on the Mask of Life for his plan to succeed.

As the Piraka explored Makuta's lair, he used his telepathic powers to implant ideas in their head, and soon the six came to the simultaneous conclusion that they should travel to the far off island of Voya Nui and search for the Mask of Life! Makuta tagged along. When on the island he revealed himself to Zaktan and the two struck a deal. Zaktan would build a tank to keep Makuta's essence safe, and in exchange Makuta would give Piraka portions of his antidermis to brainwash the island's population.

For five months the Piraka prospered, mind controlling the people of Voya Nui to construct them a grand stronghold and mine for the Mask of Life. Soon this lead to the Toa Inika arriving on the island to fight the Piraka and race for the mask. While traveling to the Chamber of Life, the Piraka were dunked into mutagenic water that would soon alter their forms. The Mask of Life was recovered from it's chamber underground, and it dove into the ocean!

While the Toa traveled after the mask the Piraka's mutations took effect. The six were transformed into sea-serpents and lost their ability to breath air. They were soon captured by the Order of Mata Nui and locked up in a water tank.

Do to Zaktan knowing the entirety of Makuta Teridax's plan ,the Order saw him as a valuable asset. He knew that the next step of Makuta's plan would take him to a secret chamber under Metru Nui known as the Core Processor. He was sealed in a glass sphere and sent with the Toa Hagah to stop the foe.

After a series of trials underneath Metru Nui, our band of heroes was confronted by Teridax who revealed it was too late to stop him. During the fight Makuta let out a sonic scream that caused Zaktan and his water sphere to explode. The Piraka was presumed dead, though his protodites actually managed to survive.

Sometime after Makuta Teridax took over the Matoran Universe, a strange experiment took place. The Skakdi on the island Zakaz kidnapped a Vortixx, a Zyglak, a Steltian Laborer, and the five Piraka Serpents and threw them together into a vat. Unbeknownst to the Skakdi, Zatkan also slipped inside the vat in his protodite form. The 9 entities were forcibly fused into one, the Golden Skinned Being, a powerful creature who could bring dreams to life. The full story of the GSB is unfished thanks to BIONICLE's cancelation.

Edgy angry protodyte boy is in the house.

Que the rap music.

I can hear the rap.

I was gonna say "Yo Yo, Piraka", but someone else beat me to it :P

But speaking of bizarre Bionicle promotional stuff, is now a good time to remind everyone that this guy and his fellows supposedly kidnapped the band All-American Rejects one time? I couldn't make this up if I wanted to: https://biosector01.com/wiki/Free_The_Band

Zaktan was cool enough as a character - he got one of the best character moments of all the Piraka when faced down the nightmare Irnakk (8626) at the beginning of BL5 - but I always felt like the set was a weak representation: in-story, his key physical trait was that he was made up of thousands of microscopic protodites and could separate his body into them at will. And while I get that it wouldn't be possible to entirely represent that in plastic form, I felt like some effort could have been made with the set to at least hint at that character ability, to make him stand out more from his fellows. As-is, only his weapon, his colour, and his spine-and-head piece differentiate him from the other five, with nothing giving a clue that he wasn't simply a solid being like the rest of them.

His tri-bladed scissors were a pretty cool weapon piece, though, in any case!

@Kostur said:
"Eeverybody's rapping, but for a second there I thought the Zaktan was playing saxophone on the picture..."
Saxtan

@Brickalili said:
"Is there a reason Bionicle went through it’s grunge phase in 2006 or was it just Lego thought that’s what the kids were into?"

We... really don't know. Best I can think is some Lego executive decided that the edge would keep kids interested in it? It kind of worked on me as a kid for a time, I thought 2006 was so cool because it was dark! But looking back now, the year is nostalgic, but cringe. Like sometimes 2006 crosses over into self parody because the edge is over the top.

I'll bet anybody a million bucks that Zaktan's favorite song is "Shake" by L.L.A.M.A. But he'd rather die than admit it. Actually, he'd rather kill everybody who knows than admit it.