Ah yes, Tahu, I totally see it.

"And for our next line, let's just cram as much stuff on here as we can!"

Bionicle: The Hero Factory years

Tahu’s the red one. He’s one of the Toa from Mata Nui. See, I know the lore too.

I actually really like the Mistika; I think I prefer them to the Phantoka, in fact. The silver just works so much better than the dull grey, and they introduced those technic fin pieces that are still in use today. I’d argue this still looks a bit like Tahu, if you look closely his mouth grille is circular in shape, reminiscent of his ‘screaming face’ of 2001.

Though the Mistika canisters were legitimately painful to open. For whatever reason, Lego decided not to mold any finger tabs under the lid, making them virtually impossible to take off once attached. It’s why I have my lids just resting on top of the cans.

I love the designs from the Mistika/Phantoka era, so bad I could never get one. Kopaka, Onua, Gali and Krika are amazing.

Mr Toa, sir, I served with Toa Tahu. I knew Tahu. Tahu was a friend of mine. Mr Toa, you're no Toa Tahu.

I never got the 2008 sets, and its always weird for me to look back at these guys...

Tahu Mata looks like Tahu to me.
Tahu Nuva looks like Tahu to me.
Tahu Stars looks like Tahu to me.
Tahu Master of Fire looks like Tahu to me.
Tahu Uniter of Fire looks like Tahu to me.

But Tahu Mistika? Honestly if it weren't for the name I don't know if I would have associated this figure with Tahu other than the red color (although the dark Metru style red instead of the bright firetruck red on the rest of the Tahu sets makes this one even odd in that regard). A shield instead of a fire sword too? A projectile launcher? So much just doesn't feel like Tahu in this set that every other version of the character nails.

Eh, its a cool mask even if it doesn't feel like Tahu's mask to me.

The Lore: Tahu and some others went to a swamp place, where their adaptive nuva armor changed to fit their surroundings so they got new unrecognizable looks, so they could fight swamp makuta.

I'm not a Bonkle fan, but even I know Tahu isn't supposed to look like that.

This is not Tahu.

This is not Blacktron.

Why does this set exist?

In all seriousness, Mistika Tahu is ugly. As others have pointed out, he does not resemble any other Tahu at all. BUT! He isn't as bad as Gali Mistika. That one is worse. So much worse. And Mistika Onua is way to lanky. His mask kind of (To me) resembles his original Mata mask, in the fact that it's a Diamond-esque shape.

@ElephantKnight said:
"This is not Tahu.

This is not Blacktron.

Why does this set exist?

In all seriousness, Mistika Tahu is ugly. As others have pointed out, he does not resemble any other Tahu at all. BUT! He isn't as bad as Gali Mistika. That one is worse. So much worse. And Mistika Onua is way to lanky. His mask kind of (To me) resembles his original Mata mask, in the fact that it's a Diamond-esque shape."

I mean this might seem petty of me since I never got these sets, but from my view 2008 was kind of were Bionicle hit some serious stagnation build wise (excluding those awesome vehicle sets!) The Matoran designs of years past that combined interesting small build methods were replaced with the new "Av-Matoran" build which was the most static the Matoran had been since the original McDonalds Tohunga sets (and a design style that would carry into the early years of Hero Factory too). The Toa all suffered from the Inika/Piraka build being default, so instead of introducing brand new building styles every year the franchise ran from 2006 to 2009 straight repeating the Inika model with mild variation, and its arguable that style peaked in 2007 with the Barraki and Mahri since the Mistika/Phantoka just brought so little new to the table in terms of the Toa. Not to mention that darn socket design t hat is so prone to cracking is a 2008 piece...

The one thing that stands out to me from 2008 though (other than the vehicles), is all the Makuta builds and is were in hindsight I wish I had picked up some sets from that era. Gorax, Krika, etc. all are neat examples of using the Inika/Piraka system and doing something bizarre with them like insectoid and vampiric villains. Icarax is a solid titan set that can stand in for OG Makuta "Teridax" and then you have stuff like Mutran and Vican pairing a medium sized figure with a small Matoran in the same set that is neat in concept and kind of something Bionicle would repeat again with the 2016 Kopaka and Malum Unity set.

So 2008 is a unique year I guess, but seeing the original six Toa portrayed so oddly (Pohatu is the only one who actually comes out sort of alright in both his 2008 incarnations thanks to his mask actually looking like you know, Pohatu should but even then he lost his upside down torso) feels like such a misstep it almost always eclipses how neat the vehicle, titan and Makuta sets are all. But when I remember those, the sockets and the Av-Matoran come back and even the field again. So overall, a year with a lot of ups and downs.

If it wasn't for the plot requiring the Toa Nuva to be present to awaken the GSR in Karda-Nui, I wonder if it would have been better to have had the Toa team be the Toa Mahri instead. Just say replace Matoro with Kopeke and then bring in Takanuva (by explaining he was trying to find the Toa Mahri since he was separated from them in 2006's story by the anti-light barrier thing) then have that team all face against the Makuta. Yes, it ruins having the GSR reawakened at the end, but the sets just feel like they would have fit the style of the Inika/Mahri team so much better than the Toa Nuva...

Hey, I had this one! Oh, nobody likes this one...

I don't remember getting this, and I only found out its name a few weeks ago, but it was always a core part of my collection as a kid. It was the mask I loved most about it. That went on Inika Jaller's body and made the character "Blazer X", because again, as a kid, that was the best name I could think of.

Turns out my mum gave away most of my Bionicle a few years back. Fair enough, cause I never did anything with most of it, but I wish I could have kept Blazer X. Still got one of the sawblades though.

The Toa Mistka get way too much hate IMO. Sure, they barely resemble their original looks, but does that make them bad sets? I wouldn't say so. The masks, while being completely different from the originals, are still cool on their own. And this wave also introduced a lot of very useful pieces, including the Mistika fin piece, which is still commonly used to this day.

This might be a unpopular opinion, but despite the Toa not resembling their older selves, 2008 is still one of my favorite Bionicle years. I love the vehicles, and the Makuta are some of my favorite Bionicle villains. Not to mention the unique Karda Nui setting, and the amazing Great Spirit Robot revel we got that year.

I'm trying to think of something I can say about this guy that's short and snappy and doesn't start me rambling about nothing for several paragraphs.

Nothing's coming to mind. So I'll just say that I really missed the Toa Classic / Toa Nuva all having unique eye colours with this wave. Suddenly they all had neon-green; which I get makes for less production slots needed for various recolours, but was still disappointing after the originals' more varied colours.

Bring back trans-neon pink for Tahu's eyes!

Out of the three toa Mistika, I think Tahu has it best. At least he has a weapon beside his Nynrah Ghost blaster (seriously, what is up with Gali and Onua's lack of a real weapon), and he isn't made a hunchback when he wasn't or no hunchback when he used to be one.
His colour scheme is also closer to the original than Lewa Phantoka or Pohatu Phantoka. And the silver gives off a better sense that he is wearing adapted adaptive armour.

Man, 2008 was quite a year for Bionicle. We received the excellent Brotherhood of Makuta sets, the titans were better than ever (and arguably since, with Takanuva), and the vehicles. Oh, the vehicles!
Not to mention the epic plot continuing on from the end of 2007: they were now in the heart of Mata Nui (without knowing it), and had to fight off the brotherhood of makuta (!) on two fronts, leading on to the toa Nuva to finally fullfill their destiny and awaken Mata Nui... and also let their arch-enemy Makuta Teridax win! It was also the last year to exclusively feature the familiar part of the universe of Bionicle before the soft reboot of 2009 and the hastened conclusion in 2010.

@Judgeguy said:
"I had this set and I loved it. Not idea what people are talking about with him not looking like Toa Tahu. I don't even know who that it is. But this guy looked cool."

Toa Tahu is the original version of this character 8534 and 8572 respectively. For a set that was branded as the same character as those two, it barely resembles either of them besides the color. So that is what put so many people off about this set (and the others in this wave).
That said, this set still looks cool regardless if it is a faithful adaptation or not.