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Set Review: 8694 Krika
 Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 7:54pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Gatanui] Two reviews in two days? You better believe it. Today we have a review of another summer Makuta as Forum Mentor Gatanui shares his thoughts on Krika. Read on to see if this monster is worth the hit to your wallet.
And here we go with another set review, this time BZPower presents you one of the newest canister sets: Makuta Krika! Presentation
The Mistika canister has a completely new and original design.
It reminds me a bit of the Inika canisters, though. Like the Inika canisters, it is black, blocky and it has the BIONICLE logo on the side, too, as well as the symbol of the location where the BIONICLE story is currently taking place: Karda Nui.
You have probably already noticed that the top of the canister has the form of the Ignika, the Mask of Life, its colour corresponding to the set's main colour. So, in this case, it is white. What caught my attention especially is that the surface of the Ignika's left side is plain, while the surface of the right side is broken, corrupted.
On the back side, there are the well-known images of the six Mistika, another image presenting the non-canonical team-up function and a last one showing the Nynrah Ghost Blaster in action. And of course, the B.I.O code, very well visible, so that everyone can copy it down in the shop and get a reward on BIONICLE.com without having bought the set. Building
Now, on to the set itself. When first opening the canister, you are surprised by an avalanche of black, white and red pieces, which are quickly built together to a mostrous Makuta. Disappointingly, the building was not as fun as I had expected, due to the few (and especially too big) pieces, as well as the low complexity. Plus, I left away the L-shaped beam, since it looks quite silly without a Matoran attached to it. However, the team-up function turned out to be not as fun as on the Phantoka anyway. Set Design
Krika consists of only 40 pieces, which is definitely pretty small for a $13 set. Out of these 40 pieces, twelve are new and eleven haven't seen before in their colour, which means that 57.5% of the set is new and 42.5% is old.
As you can see, most of the new elements are those spiky-milky-white-red pieces, which are extremely important for Krika's overall appearance, making him look similar to a Mantis, despite that he's got only four extremities and not six as any insect, the kind of animal he's obviously based on.
Surprisingly, those pieces aren't white because the designers just wanted it in another colour, but because of the kind of plastic, which turns out to be extremely...flexible!
The most interesting piece is the mask, of course. It has a form never seen before on any BIONICLE set.
I also like the fact that Krika actually has a real neck, giving him an additional articualtion point and allowing one to move his head more easily.
Something that specially excited me was the return of the arm-piece first seen on the Slizers/Throwbots back in 1999. It was last seen on the Visorak (2005).
Another interesting piece is the white chest, which is used on Onua as well. It perfectly fits into the hole that was originally supposed to hold the Tridax pods of the Makuta Phantoka. I am sure this piece will be very useful for MOCers (although I really have no idea how to use it...yet!)
And finally, of course, the Nynrah Ghost Blaster, this summer's new launching system.
It consists of six pieces: The red pump, the main silver part, two grey axles and- of course- the projectiles, which are made of rubber and are shot thanks to the very simple pump system.
And there is still one final surprise you'll find out when holding the blaster next to a light:
After this "horrible" discovery and after examining every detail of the Nynrah Ghost Blaster, I finally realized that it is the most creative launching system since the Zamor Launcher back in 2006. It is not very original and it doesn't shoot very well either. But at least, it doesn't consist of only one piece, as the Midak Skyblaster, but of six, as already mentioned above. Playability
The first thing you notice when starting playing with Krika is his annoying fifth arm, which wobbles around all the time! That's because this arm and Krika's head are both connected to the Makuta Phantoka torso thanks to an axle piece, which is put into a pin hole, as already seen on the Makuta Phantoka.
However, this problem can be solved by simply putting a 2-axle into the axle hole of the white chest and a 5-axle into the pin hole of the Makuta Phantoka torso and then connecting both axles with two small liftarms. Now let's go on the the poseability. To my surprise, Krika is far more poseable than I thought. You can try out the weirdest positions without worrying that he could suddenly fall over, as long as he is standing on his four extremities.
But as soon as you lift too much one of the legs, Krika will fall over and lie helpless on the ground, which means that you may have problems when fighting against your Toa Nuva. One thing is clear: Your poor Krika won't be able to defend himself against the Toa Nuva with those spiky limbs. Fortunately, he has his Kanohi Crast and of course his Nynrah ghost blaster, which is said to be a dangerous weapon in any combat.
However, in real life, the Nynrah Ghost Blaster shoots only 1.65 meters or 4.95 feet, which is pretty short if we compare this range with the Zamor Launcher's range, for example. Plus, the Nynrah Ghost Blaster has no magazine with reload function, which means that after two shots you'll have to go pick up your ammo and put it into the blaster again. At first, this seems to be no problem, but after the first six shots you'll get tired of interrupting your play only to get the projectiles back and the Nynrah Ghost Blaster won't be interesting anymore. Final Thoughts
Yep, so that's Krika. A good set with a great appearance which is not influenced by its small flaws, especially if you like insects. However, unfortunately there are also major flaws that cause Krika to be just a good set instead of a very good set, specifically the lack of pieces and the relatively high price. If you really want Krika I suggest to wait until there is a sale or buy one of the double-Mistika sets off Amazon for the price of one. Read the BZPower news archive of August for more information. And this is where the review ends. I hope you enjoyed my very first set review.
Thanks to Gatanui for taking the time to review Krika. Hopefully you found it informative and insightful. As always, keep checking back for more reviews and the latest in Bionicle news.
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