The packaging on this particular set seems to have one unique advertising trait that I could not quite find on the other stars, they seem to have deliberately tried to hide his torso and legs, leaving all the emphasis on his spine, and his weapon. The weapon in his right hand cuts off the view of the right leg, while the picture of the included gold piece hides part of the left leg. Even his chin is covering up part of his torso. Well, his spine and weapon are the only interesting parts in the set anyway, so its all we need to see.

Piraka is built out of only 14 pieces, most of which are easy to identify and let you build the set even without the instructions. I still managed to build him incorrectly, with the instructions opened up however, and had to upload new pictures after I switched the arms with the legs…. The largest piece in the set, and the most impressive, is the blue rubber spine. While Rahkshi’s rubber spine seemed more like a shortcut, Piraka’s spine felt more of a necessity, and is the only thing that makes this model clearly a piraka.

Between the six star sets, three of them have one of this particular new armor piece in gold, to replace the orange ones on Tahu and make him the “Golden BIONICLE”. It is a nice piece of armor, but it’s thinner and smaller than I imagined it.

Piraka is missing a couple distinct features. First, it is missing it’s glow in the dark teeth. What would have been his grin has been closed up, leaving a crack that could allow him to hold something thin between his lips. Second, he lacks his light up eyes (but they are very photo friendly). I don’t mind these losses, and Piraka is another good Star set, if anything my only complaint is that one single piece is the only factor defining him as a Piraka. .