TOA NUPARU INIKA


Here we have the (color wise) polar opposite to MATORO, I’m guessing you’ll notice one of three things first about this set, either the mask (considerable different in style to the other masks, especially with the spikes), the shoulder mounted zamor launcher (oooh, shoulder mounted doom!), or the silver claws (I give it a month before I see a wolverine MoC). While I try to have the bugs taken care of you will probably see the details better if you saved the images and viewed them up close with your own software.

NUPARU’s color scheme is mostly black, including the same shape of torso that MATORO has. The secondary color is this sort of sand grey comparable to those grey little spacers or the piece on the back of the zamor launcher that the rubber rod passes through. In my personal opinion/preferences, his secondary color should have been crystal purple to give us more transparent colors, either that or silver to blend in the claws and base of the zamor launcher into the set more smoothly. Like MATORO, he uses vahki legs as lower arms, and unlike MATORO his shoulder armor is positioned lower and has the greater shoulder articulation with a slightly less articulate elbow, so you gey a greater range of movement which suits the claws for a digging toa. Of the tools NUPARU has his shoulder mounted zamor, which doesn’t have as much articulation as I hoped, but you have less to worry about and it frees up the left claw for other stuff. Not that I think about it, perhaps the shoulder cannon is a fluke design? Wielding those claws he can’t really hold the zamor launcher so that is likely why it’s shoulder mounted, if not for the LEGO® company’s ingenious diversity in these sets.

The claws themselves are rather nice, though I wish the hands fit into them like the grooves did for the VISORAK feet, however doing so would mean he couldn’t hold the laser drill tool thing in that hand, likely resulting in both of his armaments being shoulder mounted (Given that WOULD be neat, and free both hands for digging and such). I’m guessing the lot of you will abuse the claw tools (using them as weapons versus tools, but given the chance perhaps NUPARU would take a shot at a PIRAKA’s throat?).

Nextly we have his formal INIKA TOOL, which unlike other INIKA has a easily removed red element, which looks something like a laser sight. This is preinstalled with the tool in the display, and someone could potentially pull it from the tool without opening it up, so I suggest you make sure it’s there before you buy it because it probably wont be inside the can unless the LEGO company decides to change that. An advantage to that piece being removable is customization for MoCs, the downside being that you’d still have that red color for the tool’s flashing which might look odd having a green tube in the red tubes place for a tool that flashes red. But I have a theory. I don’t want to risk breaking the tool’s inner electronics (Or shocking and hurting myself), but assuming the electronics inside each box are all the same, except the light’s color, you might be able to switch the components with a more appropriate color for you MoC.

The last feature to go over, would be NUPARU’s feet as they are one key difference between MATORO and NUPARU. Looking at the ports you have the basic slot to slide the ankle onto, plus the peg holes parallel to each other on each side and lining up evenly with the gap housing the plus peg and the slot to allow the socket to slide onto the peg. It lacks having a center hole at the back of the foot compared to other feet but this of course has structural and functional advantages and disadvantages. For a MoC which needed a hook at the back of the foot (A sort of climbing ninja I was making but lacked black climbing hooks for the feet to fit the color scheme) this part can easily give that much needed function and finish the creation with how it curves in the back. Perhaps not the best foot, but it does the job and will be especially great for MoCers. I’ll add the foot seems to have a bladed edge and looking at the foot and comparing it I not notice that the TOA INIKA have this sort of faceted circle pattern to fill in the visual gaps in some of the parts, in fact the PIRAKA share this faceted pattern on several parts.

Overall, Like MATORO he has that flat kind of look to the front, but other than that and the annoying head parts you have some great diversity and a well rounded set.

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