I do apologize for the delay, my review on the individual PIRAKA being about a month late… As a tradition I always purchase and build the white canister set first, so I will be starting with THOK.

Assuming you’ve already read my PIRAKA basics review , there’s not much left to say. PIRAKA THOK’s tool has to be my favorite out of the bunch, as it looks like a big bazooka like tool on one end, and once flipped over looks like a syringe from a horror movie of sorts. The blue transparent piece along the top of the tool is actually a soft plastic tube that you bend to slip into place on a couple of knobs, which I hate as these knobs could have been plus rod to attach other parts, but instead they are built so plus rods cannot fit on them, nor can the knobs click into place through an axel slot. Something that has me a bit confused on THOK, is how the canister depicts his upper leg armor. The cans show the “bladed” side down, and the instructions show the bladed side up. THOK also happens to be the only PIRAKA with the blade side up. THOK’s tool and chest color are a shade of silver, which compared to the silver in a VISORAK’s mandible is a couple shades lighter. As with all PIRAKA, THOKs socket parts are all the same color, for him it’s the same shade of light blue found in the blue VISORAK. A big downfall in his main color is that he is a sort of off white color as I mentioned in the basics review, making him harder to mix with older parts where usually the black and white colors stayed the same between color changes back in 2004 When they changed the colors it was harder to use older masks on newer TOA MoCs and you found yourself forced to mix odd colors from the older series if you wanted to use an older TOA mask.. When it comes to the feet, THOK has the solid colored webbed feet. His tool is rather basic as it is just a solid plastic weapon, but perhaps it’s long proportions will do good for MoCing? What I think is a plus is that the buzzsaw end has a hole in the center so you could clip on a spinning blade of sorts. As for his spine pattern he has a sort of upside down T shape which is smaller towards the bottom of the spine, and grows taller as it gets closer to the base of the back of his head.

PIRAKA REIDAK has turned out to be my favorite PIRAKA when it comes to the spines and face. He sports a sort of goggled eye look, and when his eyes are lit in the dark, they project two big red ovals on a nearby wall. If you have seen his new bio on BIONICLE.com you will notice a sort of third red eye, unfortunately there is no hole to allow this third eye to glow on the actual toy, which would have been an interesting feature to set him apart even more. The rubber part of the face fits neatly overtop of the glow in the dark jaw part, and comparing him to the other PIRAKA, REIDAK has more of a chin than the other PIRAKA since the others just have this sort of gap under the jaw. REIDAK still has a gap, but a much smaller one that doesn’t start until halfway past the underside of his jaw. As far as his color scheme goes, REIDAK has his socket joints in that familiar metru gray shade all the TOA METRU shared. While the extra long gray double sockets are a plus in his design, the normal sized double sockets are all too familiar and useless as you likely have too many already.

VEZOK, the blue PIRAKA features the standard metru blue, if it’s not the same shade in the ’05 sets it’s pretty close, meaning you can mix the older parts easy enough for MoCs. His secondary color is the same sand blue as MOTORO’s mask, If you happen to have one for reference. I understand though this set is blue it’s a guy, which I’m rather thankful for because with that kind of mug, you would have never thought it to be a girl. The face looks to be a lot smaller, or more proportionate than the first pictures depicted a few months ago. VEZOK’s face being similar to HAKANN’s makes me believe that the fin in his forehead was put there to make the faces more distinct, but then again VEZOK being a swimming PIRAKA the fin is just as, if not more likely, to have been placed there for a more aquatic look. The spine is again kinda T shaped, only it is broader and flatter with a sort of U cut out on each end which is perhaps not so streamlined as I’d like a swimmer to look. VEZOK’s tool is yet another hunk of plastic, nothing really special about it. One end has a harpoon like end, while the other is something like a saw blade. The tool and torso colors are the same as THOK’s, lightish silver.

We are already a bit familiar with ZAKTAN since we had some pictures sent in to us by Vashwood earlier. The green PIRAKA’s colors also match the last year’s standard green quite well, but it is just slightly darker. It’s really hard to see the difference, unlike THOK who’s parts definitely stand out compared to the last years white. His secondary color is new to me, as I haven’t seen it in any other BIONICLE set, which makes it hard to compare it. On the plus side it does match his color scheme quite well. His tool and torso color is the same yellow gold as REIDAK. His tool is a little less generic compared to VEZOK’s, at one end are three scissor like blades, at the other is a claw. Not exactly in the center, but close to it is a sort of eye hole, perhaps this would be useful for a MoC, but nothing really attaches to it so perhaps you can thread something through the hole? If not, right under the eye is two slots to click stuff into, which aren’t too decorative and don’t fit well into the overall tool design when ZAKTAN wields it. However take those out and you couldn’t do much with it for MoCing. ZAKTAN’s spine and face are quite interesting to look at, the pointed chin give him a bit of an evil look, along with he slight horn like protrusions form the top of his face. His spine overall has the most variety in it, looking something like REIDAK’s only smaller, with the top most ib being much wider by comparison to the rest. It tends to get in the way of the arm spines that branch off. The smaller arm spines are kinda like his back spines, except they have the look of being split down the middle with the left side on one arm spine and the right side on the other. Between each arm spine is a sort of band which gives more detail and plays well with it.

PIRAKA HAKANN is our fiery red enemy for this year, featuring an almost dead on metro red primary color with TAHU red as his secondary. His tool and torso color is my favorite out of the bunch, a sort of gunmetal dark gray, which looks far better than the grey seen in the TOA METRU. His tool looks similar in the back end as it also has a claw like ZAKTAN’s, but bigger. HAKANN’s tool looks great in gunmetal (being a gun and all) and though it looks simple and small it’s neat to look at. The only exception is that where you load the transparent red piece, one side is left “open” making it not perfectly symmetrical. You could just insert the transparent red piece from the top, but this open side gives you the option to click it in from the side as well which I think is unnecessary and ruins part of the fun of this tool. His spine is comparable to THOK’s, only more sword like, with every other spine being smaller and flatter, which is a great design I think. His face is a little basic, and rather simple, unless you think the barbed spots on his chin play well with the look of the arm spines, then I suppose that’s a bit of coordinated design.

When it comes to personality, AVAK is my favorite PIRAKA, though you would have to look it up in his profile online as no PIRAKA comes with any character detail sheets (and for that please check out BIONICLE.com’s PIRAKA bios ). AVAK’s primary color is darker than last years, and for the better I think. It looks like you won’t have much trouble mixing older parts, but if you only use one or two ’06 brown parts they will stand out so you will need some color coordination. His secondary color is, like ZAKTAN’s, new to me. The best way for me to describe it is as a darkened down version of HEWKI the MATORAN’s light brown shade. I think his secondary and primary colors mix well to create a stony look, so perhaps it would capture the look of a stone TOA well to use the same colors? His tool and torso color is the same color gunmetal as found in HAKANN. I’m still debating if this plays better or worse with his design. AVAK’s spine reminds of the brown RAHKSHI, who’s spines where half pointed one way, half pointed the other way. I’m almost certain that was the inspiration for this spine design. The arm spines don’t point one way and then the other, but instead the spines pointing left are on the right arm spine, and the right pointing spines are on the left arm spine. While the spine looks interesting it covers far less of the back, and leaves more of a gap than other PIRAKA. His face is rather fat looking around the cheeks and reminds me of a gerbil with a face stuffed full of food. A big downfall in his face is that I cannot get the seems around his teeth the fit perfectly on, leaving a gap and causing the cheeks to flare out more than they were probably intended to, but perhaps I’m just not attaching it right? If so I can’t seem to fix it. His tool seems to have three different functions but I’m not sure if I’m looking at it right. His bio seems to indicate that the back end is a pick axe with the front being the jackhammer, but I think the back end is a sort of hack saw, with the bladed part on the front end being a pick axe along with the jackhammer bit on the front. Considering he’s an expert at making weapons and such out of just about anything I would think the hacksaw end would fit in well with the storyline but unless I’m mistaken the hack saw is in fact the pick axe end.

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