Random set of the day: Visorak Roporak
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8745 Visorak Roporak, released during 2005. It's one of 46 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 48 pieces, and its retail price was US$9/£5.99.
It's owned by 1,737 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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Hey lore folks, did it matter which Toa was bitten by which Visorak, or do they kind of all produce the same effects that turn the Metru into the Hordika?
I can't help but think that Onewa had to be bitten by Roporak just because they're both the brown sets of their waves. Or at least each Toa had to be bitten by a different Visorak otherwise that would defeat the point of their being six main types.
Here comes the lore dump!
Is there a conlang to give any meaning to Bionicle names like Roporak, or are they as random as they seem?
Step on a crack, break your younger brother's Visorak Roporak
For more general Visorak lore, see my breakdown on a previous article https://brickset.com/article/60428/random-set-of-the-day-visorak-suukorak
As for this specific breed:
Roporak were the sly Visorak of Stone. A much more observant and cautious breed, Roporak would use their chameleon skin to blend into the background and spy on unsuspecting targets. Their spinners were capable of draining a target's energy, with the spiders preferring to wear their targets down from a distance before attacking.
@iwybs said:
"Is there a conlang to give any meaning to Bionicle names like Roporak, or are they as random as they seem?"
Yes and no. It's dependent on the color and biome.
The initial names for locations correlated with the first Toa sets, so Tahu is the Toa of Ta-Koro, Gali protects Ga-Koro, etc. This name spilled over into the horde villains, so you get the Ta-, Ga-, Ko-, Le-, Po-, and Onu- (Although this became Nu- or Vo-) preffixes followed by the back half of the name. Bohrok were named Pahrak, Lehvak, and the like, similar sounding stuff, same with their Va (brain carriers) and Kal (individualized superiors) spinoffs. The Rahkshi were the same way for the most part.
2004 happens, Metru Nui is the new island, but it keeps the same location prefixes. The main antagonists for the year are the Vahki, policing robots led by the corrupted Turaga Dume, who was secretly Makuta Teridax, and the naming convention just gets destroyed. I honestly don't know where the prefixes come from. 2005, it's the same thing, there's no correlation with color, past characters like Toa or Matoran, there's just nothing clear, so there's got to be some meddling with the Maori language that keeps LEGO in the clear of lawsuits or it is just made up.
By 2006 and onward, horde villains fell by the wayside and while they would have similar aesthetics per wave and be called a certain thing, everyone was an individual for the most part. The Piraka where individuals, the Barraki were individuals, the Phantoka and Mistika villains were individual Makuta that followed Teridax, and the Glatorian were from a completely different world and all the rules changed.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Hey lore folks, did it matter which Toa was bitten by which Visorak, or do they kind of all produce the same effects that turn the Metru into the Hordika?
I can't help but think that Onewa had to be bitten by Roporak just because they're both the brown sets of their waves. Or at least each Toa had to be bitten by a different Visorak otherwise that would defeat the point of their being six main types."
Visorak venom had the same effects across the board, and I'm pretty sure it was all Keelerak (the green ones) that caused the Hordika. The difference in breeds came with natural abilities (for example, Oohnorak could mimic voices) or spinner powers (for example, Boggarak could turn people to dust.) Personally I don't think the Vahki or Visorak were as well differentiated in powers/personality/need-to-exist as the Bohrok were, but if you do some digging there's some neat stuff.
@iwybs said: "Is there a conlang to give any meaning to Bionicle names like Roporak, or are they as random as they seem?"
It depends on the BIONICLE. In the early days BIONICLE sets had a lot of subtle patterns in their naming schemes to help you relate characters, for example "Ta" was the Matoran prefix for fire and the fire Toa and Bohrok sets were known as "Tahu" and Tahnok." After the Maori lawsuit LEGO changed how it named its characters in a lot of ways, and among those was more randomness in the names. There still were patterns (all Visorak names end in "*vowel*rak" for example) but in universe meanings weren't as established.
There is a fantastic fan-made version of Matoran, known as Matoric, that uses all known Matoran words, given BIONICLE names, and common language tropes to try and turn it into a full language https://outofgloom.tumblr.com/matoran-language
For some reason all I can think of is the Reservoir Dogs scene where they complain about their color codenames.
Roporak is a Visorak who likes to walk on ropes.
This is the only Bionicle set I own! I recall having some fun with it, but it's been left undisturbed in its canister for a long time now.
I got a little burned out on BIONICLE collecting in late 2005. It was a combination of being in a summer program for 6 weeks where, as living surrounded by fellow high-schoolers, it wasn't "cool" to be open about being a collector of LEGO sets, much less BIONICLE ones, and a general malaise with how long it took us here in the USA to get the Visorak and other large BIONICLE sets for that year. That was also the first year of BIONICLE "playsets" using System bricks, so there was MUCH more BIONICLE merchandise on the shelves than the year before. Consider that aside from combiners or promo sets, I managed to collect every standard release BIONICLE set in 2004. In 2005, the only complete collection I had was the Toa Hordika. It was overwhelming!
More than that, the designs were getting too lazy. The Hordika and Rahaga were so repetitive in build. I put up with it for the sake of the Toa Hordika being the main characters. But it was a waste of money to get every Rahaga. I only got Norik and Pouks. With the larger sets, only Roodaka and Sidorak were worth my hard-won dollars. Keetongu looked ridiculous in spite of his cool color scheme. And the Visorak...initially, I saw them as the next Bohrok, set-wise. Lots of new pieces, interesting functions, and a fascinating backstory. While they had some nice new pieces, their main function was shooting those Rhotuka spinner wheels off their abdomens. You could also make their mandibles snap shut. And there were some nice colors (I think Roporak here had classic Mata red in its limbs), but story-wise, they were relegated to window dressing for the centerpieces of character that were Roodaka and Sidorak. That's probably an issue of perception, since unlike the case of the Bohrok, which we saw in action for months before the reveal of their rulers, the Bahrag., we met Roodaka and Sidorak relatively quickly after the reveal of the Visorak take-over of Metru Nui (in the comics that year, at least).
All of that is to say that, as quickly as I jumped to give the Visorak a chance that summer of 2005, I only got as far as Keelerak, Oohnorak, Boggarak, and Vohtarak before calling it quits with them. So I missed out on Roporak. I am glad to report that I don't think I'm missing out on much by it not being in my collection.
Visorak, Roporak
Nokamari Koponak
Vik-vuk tipikan,
Garamuki topikan
/ Old Bionicle rhyme /
This one's color scheme has always stood out to me from the other Visorak. Medium Brown and Red is such a strange combination, yet one that works surprisingly well!
@MCLegoboy said:
" @iwybs said:
"Is there a conlang to give any meaning to Bionicle names like Roporak, or are they as random as they seem?"
Yes and no. It's dependent on the color and biome.
The initial names for locations correlated with the first Toa sets, so Tahu is the Toa of Ta-Koro, Gali protects Ga-Koro, etc. This name spilled over into the horde villains, so you get the Ta-, Ga-, Ko-, Le-, Po-, and Onu- (Although this became Nu- or Vo-) preffixes followed by the back half of the name. Bohrok were named Pahrak, Lehvak, and the like, similar sounding stuff, same with their Va (brain carriers) and Kal (individualized superiors) spinoffs. The Rahkshi were the same way for the most part.
2004 happens, Metru Nui is the new island, but it keeps the same location prefixes. The main antagonists for the year are the Vahki, policing robots led by the corrupted Turaga Dume, who was secretly Makuta Teridax, and the naming convention just gets destroyed. I honestly don't know where the prefixes come from. 2005, it's the same thing, there's no correlation with color, past characters like Toa or Matoran, there's just nothing clear, so there's got to be some meddling with the Maori language that keeps LEGO in the clear of lawsuits or it is just made up.
By 2006 and onward, horde villains fell by the wayside and while they would have similar aesthetics per wave and be called a certain thing, everyone was an individual for the most part. The Piraka where individuals, the Barraki were individuals, the Phantoka and Mistika villains were individual Makuta that followed Teridax, and the Glatorian were from a completely different world and all the rules changed."
In fairness, the Visorak do sort of keep the naming convention...it's just not used as a prefix anymore and is more hidden in the name. This one is roPOrak, for example, and the white one that popped up previously was suuKOrak
@iwybs said:
"Is there a conlang to give any meaning to Bionicle names like Roporak, or are they as random as they seem?"
Worth pointing out many early names came from the Maori language and other Pacific Island languages. After being threatened a lawsuit due to trademarking indigenous terms, Lego changed some of the words (Tohunga in particular was replaced with the fantasy word Matoran) while some Maori terms like Toa remained in use. By 2003, the language influence particularly in MNOG II was a mix of the old Polynesian words with influences from European languages such as say... Polish or German as well.
By 2004 and onto 2008 though, most of the names were nonsense that Lego came up with to avoid any further issues of using real languages, so the Visorak included were often nonsense terms. A few real though terms that got used included 2006's Umbra though, so they never fully dropped using some real words for story purposes. Then 2009 had this psuedo-Latin-esque naming scheme for its characters.
The reboot only used those original Maori words from 2001 that remained in use during the whole of G1 like Toa, along with some nonsense words for new character names; and an overall attitude of replacing some of the Bionicle terms with plain English (for example Kanohi became simply "Mask of Power" in the reboot). I honestly think the use of plain English phrases such as Protector or Mask robbed the reboot of a lot of the Bionicle appeal, since part of the original draw of Bionicle as a seven year old kid was being able to talk in the "jargon" of the line with your fellow kids who knew what a Turaga or a Kanohi was, much to the confusion of your parents. Just calling things plain English names such as "Skull Spider" drained a lot of the reboot's power.
Ah, Roporak. Whereas I loved the colour schemes of my Keelerak and Suukorak and respected the scheme of Boggarak, Oohnorak and Votharak... I didn't really care for Roporak's. It wasn't memorable and the red tries to overpower the brown. Not to mention the most forgettable pincers.
Fun fact: Roporak and Boggarak are the only visorak whose pincers never appeared in another set. Suukorak's even appeared in the Mindstorms NXT set 8527!
@GSR_MataNui said:
"Roporak were the sly Visorak of Stone. A much more observant and cautious breed, Roporak would use their chameleon skin to blend into the background and spy on unsuspecting targets. Their spinners were capable of draining a target's energy, with the spiders preferring to wear their targets down from a distance before attacking. "
You know, I never remember all those Specific Individual Traits that are given to different breeds within the same species. I remember Oohnurak being good mimics, because that was demonstrated in the story a couple of times, and I remember the different Vahki hives' varied traits due to the Templar animations giving them a little bit of emphasis, and deliberately learning them myself based off that. But otherwise, I'd never be able to remember which Visorak, or Bohrok, or Rahkshi, had what specific traits (or secondary abilities), they all simply blur together for me xD
At first in 2005, I only got two of the Visorak - Oohnurak and Keelerak - who I requested as my Easter present for the year since they were on a Buy-One-Get-One-Half-Price offer at the time. They didn't impress me very much, as far as it went; plus, as 2005 wore on, Bionicle's story started losing me as I went all-in with focusing on Revenge of the Sith hype instead, so I saw no desire or need to follow up the rest of the Visorak. It was only a couple of years later, when I decided to go completionist (main set-wise only, not even trying for all the collectables!) that I chased down the rest of the Vissies on eBay; with the space of time, I was able to appreciate them more than I had at first.
Roporak was the first one I chose to get when I did. A lot of that stemmed from one time a bit before that, when our family had visited some old friends of ours. Their younger kid was also a Bionicle fan, and got me into playing them together with him. Out of his collection, Roporak was, at the time, the only set that he had and I didn't, so I instinctively gravitated towards using him as the character I use. Playing about with him and inventing a spontaneous personality for that individual gave me rather a fondness for Roporak, specifically, out of the Visorak. So when I did chase them down for my own collection and was able to get three of my missing ones from the same seller, I made sure that he was the first one I bought, specifically because of that.
@ThatBionicleGuy:
It was a little easier with the Rahi. Nui-Rama has the power to slap you with its twiggy little wings, Nui-jaga had the power to sting you, Tarakava and Manas had the power to punch you, and Muaka and Kane-Ra has the power to lunge and bite you. That was pretty much it. All you had to do to remember who did what is play with the toys a bit.
And now for something completely different...
Star Wars
I have all of these except the red one, but I'm missing all the rubber bands (they tend to disintegrate on me).