Thanks to the LEGO ^® ClubShop offer (and Express Delivery), I have been able to get my hands on TAHNOK-KAL and NUHVOK-KAL. Here are my first impressions.

Much as the TOA NUVA are to the TOA, the BOHROK-KAL are to the BOHROK. Although the original TOA will always have a place in my heart, I have to admit that the TOA NUVA really are an improvement. Here too, the BOHROK-KAL are an improvement over their lesser-abled brothers. The color schemes are much better, with arms and legs matching the bodies, and the shared-silver extremeties unifying the six different KAL.

The official storyline says the BOHROK-KAL were “gifted with powers far beyond their brothers”, but I would not be surprised to find out those powers come from protodermis having leaked into their pods because that is exactly what they look like. Just like the TOA NUVA, the BOHROK-KAL have gone metallic. And that includes the KRANA-KAL within them.

 

The pods have not changed much from the BOHROK’s, although TAHNOK-KAL’s pod sports a bright red cap instead of the reddish-metallic color of TAHNOK’s. Of course, there is the little matter of a MINI CD-ROM. More on that later.

 

It is what is inside that counts, of course. Above are TAHNOK-KAL and NUHVOK-KAL, assembled and posed into their portrait positions.

Just like the BOHROK, the BOHROK-KAL can be rolled into a ball and suspended from their can-lids. Here we have TAHNOK-KAL hanging around in his pod.

This is a head-to-head comparison of TAHNOK-KAL and TAHNOK. I wonder if the anonymous BOHROK are ever jealous of their “special” brothers? “Mom always did like you best!”

Here are some of the “new” parts. Of course, only the tool is a new shape. The others, along with the silver joints and feet, are just new colors. The “reptilian” print on the face-plate is the most striking (no pun intended) thing about any BOHROK-KAL. Each print combines the feel of the original BOHROK print with a new scaly-look and incorporates the individual symbol of the BOHROK-KAL to which it belongs.

At first glance, the KRANA-KAL from TAHNOK-KAL and NUHVOK-KAL were very much alike. A direct comparison between the two though shows that TAHNOK-KAL’s KRANA-KAL is more of a bronze color and NUHVOK-KAL’s is more of an old-gold color.

From the back of the BOHROK-KAL’s instructions, shown above, it appears that all of the BOHROK-KAL will have metallic KRANA-KAL of their own unique color in each of the eight different ranks. It remains to be seen whether these 48 KRANA-KAL are all there are.

 

Included with the BOHROK-KAL are brand-new MINI CD-ROMs. What is more, each BOHROK-KAL gets their own MINI-CD. Each CD includes information on that particular BOHROK-KAL and the TOA NUVA with the same color scheme (TAHU/TAHNOK-KAL, ONUA/NUHVOK-KAL, etc.). System requirements are Windows 98/ME or XP, a 500 MHz or faster processor, 64 MB of RAM, and an 8x CD-ROM drive.

This is an image from the movie included with NUHVOK-KAL. NUHVOK-KAL is practicing with his gravity tool, as you can see by the floating rocks. TAHNOK-KAL just rolls slowly in an extreme close-up shot in his movie.

There are a couple more movies on each MINI CD-ROM, including a tech demo of the upcoming TOA-based video game due Fall 2003 for PC CD-ROM, Nintendo GameCube, and Sony PlayStation 2. It shows LEWA, not LEWA NUVA! , going about LE-KORO doing LEWA-like things. The trailer for BIONICLE™: Mask Of Light , previously released on the web , is also included.

And speaking of the MASK OF LIGHT, the end-screen image includes this picture of it along with what I assume is MAKUTA.