BOHROK VA

They’re certainly interesting little critters, for how simple the design is. It’s very easy to see why people mistakenly call them the ‘evil TURAGA’, since the construction is very similar in appearance, aside from a few key points. The first of these is the head, which is formed by a BOHROK shield in the primary TOA color. (I.e. same color as the matching TOA’s torso/feet/KANOHI) The second difference is the BOHROK brain-pan, which seriously resembles a turtle shell, since they tend to lay flat down the back of the torso. The third big difference is the feet, which, very happily are TOHUNGA feet, and present lots of possibilities for TOHUNGA MOCs since four of the colors are new for that piece, and one of the other two is not cheap enough for most people to splurge on.

All of you southpaws should be happy in that three of the BOHROK VA are ambidextrous and the other three wield their weapons in the left hand. Not a single rightie in sight, though it wouldn’t be too tricky to change that. Of course, the ironic thing is that this seems to have been done entirely for the benefit of right-handed people, since the right arm activates the other attack form, which is a KRANA-pult. Yes, when you flip down the right arm, it causes the turtle-shell brain-pan to flip up and launch the KRANA at some poor unfortunate TOHUNGA. Well, unless the BOHROK VA isn’t smart enough to duck, in which case the KRANA, well, ‘brains’ him. Literally.

In addition to the new TOHUNGA feet, there are a couple of other aspects that will make these great sources of new parts. One is that the heads are all mounted on plus-rod balls, just like you find on TAHU’s chest. This means these sets will oust POHATU for having the highest plus-rod ball per dollar ratio, since his shoulder balls run you an extra 50 cents apiece. It also means that these are the only characters in the entire line who have truly posable heads, which can be turned and elevated to almost any angle. The other thing is a piece that I believe is new. Remember the light grey plus-rod/pin combo that is used for the left TURAGA shoulders? These guys all come with three of that part. In black. And yes, like the black pins, they are stiff in the pin-holes, allowing you to pose the loose arm. Since you only use two of the three when building these guys, that means with one full set of them, you can retrofit all of your TURAGA to have more posability.

Incidentally, I’m now even more convinced that the BOHROK and BOHROK VA come with random KRANA. All of the BV instruction sets show the same KRANA as the one that was used for the revamped logo artwork, but none of my BV sets came with that KRANA. I also noticed that the KRANA all have a KRANA-CODE written on the inside of the forehead. Unlike the ones in the KANOHI, these are all written in the BIONICLE™ font.

TAHNOK VA

First off, yes, they reused VAKAMA’s FIRESTAFF. I was a little less-than-impressed with that choice, but the red feet more than make up for it. Switch them with Jala’s feet, and now you can recreate the entire population of Ta-Koro as seen in the online game. Including Kapura, the Ta-Kornan guard who joins you on your quest. As for the rest of him, this is the standard BOHROK VA pattern, with two black hands, a #2 plus-rod neck, a brain-pan in the primary TOA color, and a perpendicular coupler with one plus-rod hole and one pin-hole for the lower spine.

TAHNOK VA wears a yellow KRANA.

NUHVOK VA

Okay, once again you get completely reused weapons, but unlike the FIRESTAFF, ONUA’s black claws are very nice to find in a significantly cheaper set, since they can be used to build FIKOU spiders, Evil TAHU, or, well, anything that could use a couple of nasty looking black clawed hands. The claws, incidentally, are one of two design aspects that differ from the standard BOHROK VA pattern. The other is that the brain-pan is dark-grey instead of black, which is ONUA’s primary color. Like TAHNOK VA, this guy comes with legs that are ripe for the plucking. Black TOHUNGA legs from this guy combined with HUKI’s torso should run you less total than buying yet another Powerpack, and that means you can fill out a bit more of ONU-KORO and PO-KORO.

NUHVOK VA wears a black KRANA.

PAHRAK VA

This one gets a little more interesting. Yes, he’s got ONEWA’s hammer, but it’s tan instead of brown. I’m not sure how many people have been dreaming eagerly of getting this piece in tan, but for all both of you, here it is. For me, it’s just nice to see that it’s different from the original. This is one of the two taller BOHROK VA, since he’s got a #3 plus-rod for his neck instead of the standard #2. Dark brown legs are less usable for filling out PO-KORO, but I’m sure someone out there will combine them with a brown KANOHI to make a previously unseen breed of TOHUNGA.

PAHRAK VA wears a tan KRANA.

GAHLOK VA

This one is probably the most non-standard of the lot. Primary blue feet are largely useless for building TOHUNGA MOCs, since they’re the same thing that you get with MAKU, and all of the GA-KORNANS have the exact same body coloration. The left arm is a basic blue GALI hook, which combines with the standard right hand to give this critter a look that reminds me of a male fiddler crab. In addition to having the only mismatched hand, this is the only BOHROK VA with a different lower spine, using a #1 angle-coupler (same as the BV neck joints and the TURAGA hips) instead of the perpendicular coupler. This odd construction means that this is the only BOHROK VA that can literally bend over backwards.

GAHLOK VA wears the extremely cool purple KRANA.

LEHVAK VA

Like PAHRAK VA, these legs aren’t really very usable for TOHUNGA MOCs, and it would have been nice to get some light green ones instead. The design of this one fits that standard pattern perfectly. I’m a little less thrilled with the LEHVAK shield, especially as a BOHROK VA head, since it doesn’t even pretend to look symmetrical. Anyways, he wields a pair of light grey katana, and anybody who has ever heard of Legends of the Five Rings will understand why I’d be happier if the eyes were yellow instead of red.

LEHVAK VA wears a dark grey KRANA.

KOHRAK VA

Running a close second to GAHLOK VA for being most non-standard, this guy has a brain-pan cast in the secondary TOA color, which coincidentally happens to be the exact same shade as the full-sized BOHROK use for their brain-pans. Unlike the rest of the BV’s, the angle-connectors used for the shoulders and neck are all in the primary TOA color. The other difference is that, like PAHRAK VA, he’s got a #3 plus-rod sticking out of his neck joint. White feet make it possible to do an all-white TOHUNGA, and anyone who has finished the online game should be able to see where I’m going with that idea… Anyways, he’s got a couple of the BOHROK lower fangs as a sort of kama-like weapon. For those of you who are unfamiliar with oriental armaments, a kama is used for threshing grain and looks similar in shape to a scythe, but small enough to be used one-handed like a sickle.

KOHRAK VA wears a white KRANA.

Combiners

There are two combiners for the BOHROK VA. Like the TOA KAITA, they split up into Fire/Earth/Stone and Water/Air/Ice. There are no included instructions, but it appears that LEGO® has learned from the TURAGA NUI experience, as there are arrows pointing from the combiner pics to the website URL. There aren’t any instructions there yet, but it certainly looks like there will be at some point.