Having acquired the 2006 VOYA NUI MATORAN, I present you with my review for them. First off here is a picture showing the parts contained with each set, they are divided into six piles for each MATORAN, though I think GARAN’s mask got mixed in with the wrong part pile, and in DALU’s pile I have provided a mask from NOKAMA o compare with. The mask on the top is DALU’s, the bottom is NOKAMA’s. I’d like to point out that there is a great amount of variety in these sets, and let’s not forget the great parts these guys have. With the exception of KAZI, every MATORAN torso is comprised of a BOHROK foot, and despite using TOA METRU heads, none of them use any parts to give them an eye color, in part because the TOA METRU eye parts would only get in the way, as the toes of the BOHROK foot are like a hunchback that would keep the head from looking straight outwards. Another design issue is that al of them have fairly flat or neglected designs to the backside, I’m sure that if you like to improve upon official set designs that you will add more detail to the backs. Lastly for this section of the review please note that for some of the box pose pictures I had to re-arrange how some of the parts or limbs were attached, but the other pictures are showing them as how the instructions show to make them.

I think I will start with DALU, set number 8726. The Ga MATORAN of the bunch, and doesn’t have anything exceptional about her design, unless you value the three silver BOHROK feet to be useful. The design for connecting her legs doesn’t look that great, but it adds some variety to set her apart from the others. toa vahiki the toa of time brought it to my attention (a while before I got the ’06 MATORAN) that DALU’s mask may not be your standard NOKAMA mask. His findings proved correct, as DALU’s version of the great mask of translation is not as dark as its counterpart. It is still transparent, but you will hardly be able to see eyes through it unless you place it on a set that actually has an eyepiece, since as I mentioned before no ’06 MATROAN has a colored eyepiece. I’m guessing this rumor of a non transparent mask on DALU started when the leaked pictures got out, and that people assumed they had colored eye parts which the pictures mislead. Then people would have noticed they could not see the eyes shine through on DALU and think it was because it was not transparent.

BALTA the Ta MATORAN is set number 8725. Going by color scheme he is my favorite. The two silver BOHROK eyes are a nice touch, and they will probably look to you like either a rounded lower body, or more likely they will give him more of a TURAGA appearance the way they seem to dangle down like a decorative cloth. BALTA looks quite intimidating with the two tools which are nearly as tall as he is. Of particular interest is how his arms are attached. He features an extra long grey double socket, until now only featured in RHOODAKA’s projectile arm. Those who didn’t want to pay around $20.00 USD just to get one for a MoC can now pay a quarter of the price and purchase BALTA to get it. Unlike the other MATORAN in his lineup, his shoulders (the long grey double socket) are not firmly attached, and swivel up and down on a black friction peg. Chances are you will either love this or hate it. It does give him more movement or perhaps a “mechanism” to swing both arms by moving only one, but it just doesn’t make him feel like a solid build. Lastly the way he is intended to stand limits some of his legs ability to pose, but I say its for the better as he looks good that way.

VELIKA is set number 8721, the Po MATORAN of this bunch, and fairly neglected in detail. He just seems slapped together compared to the rest, however he makes up for it in articulation and having four TOA HORDIKA necks (a well sought after part by myself) in his arms, and perhaps the brown sockets where his legs attach to are of use to you as they ALMOST match the new standard shade of brown. If it weren’t for the fact GARAN (reviewed later in this article) also has four HORDIKA necks AND two chronicler tools, he would probably be one of the more sought after ’06 MATORAN for his parts. Lastly VELIKA may have decent articulation, but he cannot hold his tools together so the teeth can lock in and “combine” as they could potentially do.

Next up, we have KAZI, set number 8722 and Ko MATORAN of this bunch. He features a very unique torso compared to the other MATORAN, but has the least articulation. The torso looks great the way they attached the two transparent BOHROK eyes, which by the way are not solid blue as the box indicates. He also lacks a TOA METRU head and substitutes for a basic socket. Though a TOA METRU head could not easily be attached, it would not matter anyway unless you looked at him from the back to see his fairly empty gap behind the mask. I say his legs could use more articulation as his is harder to balance and pose compared to the others, only being able to adjust the angle of his feet, but already being the tallest in his bunch I can see where LEGO probably thought he would be too tall. Part wise KAZI’s best parts would be the two HORDIKA necks which his feet attach to, and the HORDIKA lower gear arm. He also has some light grey sockets, about as grey as the standard TOA METRU gear, which you might find to be of interest.

PIRUK the Le MATORAN, set number 8723, is quite articulated, though he has the same leg problem as BALTA. I think PIRUK is overall just more fun to play with than most of the other MATORAN in his set, and he’s a bit more well rounded since his shoulders attached to his back eliminate the overall flatness that some of the others have. If you like the metro green colored sockets, he has four of them, plus a metru green double socket. PIRUK has four of the BOHROK eyes, two on his torso and two on his shoulders. The one thing that looks out of place on PIRUK would be his silver colored claw/tools, but they play well along with his hunched back to make him my favorite overall design out of the bunch.

Lastly, we have GARAN the Onu MATORAN, set number 8724. With the exception of his tools and mask, he is exactly the same build as VELIKA, but his color scheme plays better with the dark grey legs and arms, though I wish the arms on him had more black as the dark gray starts to look unbalanced.

The VOYA NUI MATORAN include alternate instructions to combine one trio into a sort of spider, and the other trio into a kind of bird reminiscent of a vulture, both of which are not that bad either, which makes we wonder if the MATORAN’s strange appearance is due to what they combine into? To build the spider, you will need KAZI, DALU, and GARAN. For the vulture, you need VELIKA, PIRUK, and BALTA.

Last of all, getting into the extra details on the MATORAN boxes, you have a very clear image of VOYA NUI and dots representing each MATORAN’s region. It appears that the island is not a few patches of different elements, but instead layers, where the outermost region of the island, the sea shores is the element of ice, next is the forest/wind region, then earth, stone, and finally fire at what I’m assuming is a volcano. I did leave out water of course, but that’s because the water region isn’t really on the island but in the waters within the U shape of the island. Other than that, there is nothing of interest on the box unless you consider a possible mistake on the LEGO® company’s part, where overtop of the island it says “MATORANS OF VOYA NUI”, I always though “MATORAN” was a plural term which makes me think this is a mistake. Well, this pretty much sums up my review, you can find the forum topic here .