Canister

After cracking open Toa Onua, I can confirm that the canisters are indeed the same canisters used by the villains, with the front and back sides switched by placement of the stickers. I had considered, maybe they did make two separate canisters, what if they made it so the mouth of the hero canister is reversed to match the mouth of the villain canister? Having investigated, the manufacturer didn’t go THAT far into detailing the canisters, but even if they had I think I like the idea and novelty of the hero and villain characters’ canister reflecting the side their on using the corroded and unscathed sides of the mask shaped lid on the canister. Those who want more details should check out Krika’s first look since I tend to leave the majority of new features and details reviewed in the first character reviewed out of the set to make room for other speculation in the other articles, like this one.

Parts

Toa Onua has several parts of interest, and while I haven’t opened any other toa or makuta other than Onua and Krika (well, technically two toa counting Takanuva, but he’s a boxed set) but I want to say he packs most of the new elements that the canister sets boast.

Mini Rockets , these smaller parts are supposed to look like some sort of rocket, and are attached to Toa Onua Nuva’s lover legs.

Red Mini-fins , these are common to most sets this year, at least a half of them have one or more but most sets have them in silver. They seem to be in the original red color, and not the metru-series red.

The Mistika Mini Plate , also seen in Krika is that small plate which covers Onua’s chest, except Onua’s is in black.

Mistika Shields , these curved shields are one of my favorite additions, they are so versatile that many Mistika sets use them.

Nynrah Shield , this piece seems to be specifically designed to fit around the nynrah ghost blaster, and is Toa Onua’s equivalent of a toa tool. Too bad, it seems, that it’s only available in black with Onua Nuva. I would be happy to be proven wrong as this part seems very useful.

Onua Mistika’s Mask Of Strength , this mask is pretty cool, but its one of the farthest things from the original mask of strength. While other models of the same mask do exist in the BIONICLE world, I see very little if any resemblance to his original mask, but I do like the way it looks. You can expect other sets to use this mask as armor, and to add to it’s versatility, the mask is made so you must plug in a plus peg before it can be worn.

Other parts of interest include the transparent grey air pump and gunmetal (or close to it) colored nynrah ammo. It seems the heroes all use grey air pumps while the villains have the transparent red ones. We also have four silver colored Rahkshi legs, five revamped sockets and four revamped double sockets

Construction

Toa Onua has a few small details that I think merits this. The left shoulder uses an odd construction that offsets the asymmetry of the red mini fin’s position one length out further than his other shoulder’s mini-fin, I imagine there are ways they could have corrected this but I suppose it was the best way they could fit the mini-fin on there while finding a good position to fit the shoulder shield on. His right arm has an armored elbow design that Ive used before in a few MoCs, with one slight difference. My MoCs that have that design have some sort of peg under the back end that otherwise rests on nothing, to help prevent it from being tilted off or otherwise not staying on straight. I don’t think I need to go into great detail on this since most of us are clever enough to put in one of those one-and-a-half size free swivel plugs to give the back end something to rest on.

The mistika Mini Plate on his chest is actually where his neck socket is connected, meaning Onua must have gotten vaccinated for the bobble-head syndrome that most toa and other villains are suffering from, though the silver metru chest armor that the mini plate helps hold on wobbles in place just slightly, so he didn’t come out completely unscathed from the disease. With the lack of other means of securing the upper body to the lower body, the mini plate also helps keep the hips from being pulled out so easily. Since the neck is plugged into the mini plate, the matoran mount on his back rests vertically which is not common in the design of the toa intended to carry matoran who usually use the required space to plug in their neck socket (also the underlying cause for most cases of bobble-head syndrome). The last element of construction that I would call notable is in his lower legs. The black armor on the front also holds a three-long pin connected to a number five angled elbow part which holds on his mini rocket.

Articulation/Display

In Onua’s case he has two valid reasons to discuss his articulation. First of all, the mini rockets only slightly, if at all, interfere with the angle that his knees can close at. This is because the upper leg fits neatly in between the forks of the back end of the mini rockets where they attach to the lower legs. More notable however is the use of the Nynrah Shield and Onua’s arms. Yea, his hands do have those annoying blue colored friction pegs, but your not really going to care because you will be having fun posing his arms with the blaster in a way that would have been desirable on Toa Kopaka Nuva (Phantoka) who’s hand sockets were pinned onto the Midak Sky-Blaster in two places. It was very limited in comparison to Onua who has a great level of movement while holding his tool. His shield arm does on the other hand limit his left arm’s range of movement, but not more than other toa who had their range of motion limited to a ninety degree angle.

Onua looks cool, and the mini plate and skinny build which I have heard complaints about aren’t that bad in my opinion. The argument seems to be that he should have been a bulky build, while I say the bulk has been spread out between his shield arm and armor plated blaster. His skinny build really has more depth and color to it than other toa based from the inika torso, and he sits well on shelves just about anywhere, holding his nynrah ghost blaster ready. His red fins seem to catch the eyes, where they would then fallow to the set itself, so you might take that into consideration and place him where the fins stand out better.

Overall

Again, the Mistika are pricey, and if thats been keeping you from getting everyone in the series, Onua is one of my recommended sets as he contains several good new parts. Im limiting myself from opening them all at once to help me focus on the reviews, so I cant really compare him as a whole to other characters and who you should buy under these constraints, but I’d say he’s a solid choice, perhaps more so than Krika but thats a matter of opinion. The past few years of toa have been sub par in many opinions with the lack of newer torso parts and a proper mechanism, but the new parts and construction of this character make his strong points stand out pretty well.