This is a cool figure to have, and it's fun to play with as well.

Instructions

The instructions have 32 pages and there're no mistakes in them.

Parts

This set has 33 pieces, and it was 7 USD when it was on sale. That means that the price per piece ratio was 21 cents per piece, which is perfect value for what we got here.

The build

The build is very nice and easy, and we also don't get any stickers to worry about.

The completed model

The arms, the legs and the feet can be adjusted. On the back of the torso is a gear which you can use to move the arm with the sword at a full 360°. I really like the design of this figure and I also like the mask which comes with this set.

Summary

All in all, this set is a great set and I would HIGHLY recommend you to get this. You can find this set on eBay and BrickLink for sure. Here is the link where you can check out the full gallery I made for this set on my website: www.klokriecher.de

Videos I made of this set:

Stopmotion 1

Stopmotion 2

Tahu was the last of the original six Toa my younger brothers and I acquired back in 2001; he was a birthday present for the middle brother, who had earlier been given Kopaka (yes, the three of us wound up with the element-opposite pairs). We were all very excited, and I in particular pushed Quinn to get Tahu built fast so that we could watch his clip mini-CD with him in hand. And of course the idea of finally being able to build Akamai was quite exciting.. I remember those days fondly. While my brothers' interest waned over time, mine did not and Tahu was given over to my keeping, along with the rest of their toa.

Box/Instructions

Being a classic Toa, Tahu did not come in a box but rather inside a canister intended to be kept as a separate-storage container (very useful, since many key parts are best stored separated). The lid (which in-universe represents a shrine) had six 1-deep axle sockets spaced evenly around it; these for placing Toa heads in order to store the collectible Kanohi masks on the lid. The top of the lid had a sculpted replica of a Toa head on it, for holding a Golden Kanohi (In-universe, these each had the powers of all the regular masks, and out-of-universe they look cool). On the underside of the lid was an axlehole for storing a Toa Tool. I use the past tense because sadly my mother discarded all of our Toa canisters and lids (and Tahu's original Fire Sword along with them, meaning I had to buy a replacement)

The instructions are crystal-clear and easy to follow, with no mistakes. The booklet also contains roughly a third of the instructions to build one of the two official Toa Kaita: Akamai, a gestalt fusion of Pohatu, Onua, and Tahu. Tahu's section is the final section.

Parts

Tahu comes with the original Bionicle torso and feet in red, a red Technic block with ball socket, an original Toa head in light gray, pinkish-red eyes for it, three orange original Bionicle legs, one original Bionicle weapon arm in orange, four black Technic horseshoe joints, two small gears and one large gear, assorted Technic axles, one #2 Technic axle-joiner w/hole, one black perpendicular axle-joiner, a Technic ball with an axle socket, a red Kanohi Hau (the mask of Shielding, and Tahu's default mask), and Tahu's fire sword. The parts are fairly nice, and the limbs and torso have some nice sculpted joints and pistons.

Also included with each original Toa, was a promotional mini-CD. The CD contained information about Bionicle's basic story premise, and fairly good-looking clips of the Toa in action that could be unlocked with the code on each Toa's default mask. Tahu's clip shows him donning his mask and then bashing a piece of rock loose to surf some lava on.

Minifigures

N/A

The build

Tahu:

The build is fairly straightforward. It starts with forming the gear assembly in the top of the torso, then moves to building the limbs on, and finishes with adding the weapon and popping the mask on.

Akamai (final third):

Pohatu and Tahu's heads are attached to the left hand's rods to create a hefty hammer. Then assembly of the legs begins, with Onua's arms and Tahu and Pohatu's legs forming most of them while Onua's legs are used to stabilize the thighs. Be a bit careful not to stress the shafts of the ball joints on Onua's legs. When the legs are completed, place Tahu's Kanohi Hau -or the golden Hau if you have it- on the head and Akamai is complete.

The completed model

Tahu:

Tahu stands tall, and broad-shouldered. His left arm is bulky and ends in a big red clawed hand. His right arm holds his mighty Fire Sword, and can be made to swing it by the Technic gear mechanism in order to topple an opponent or knock their mask off. His red and orange color scheme is a perfect fit for the cosmic element of Fire.

Akamai:

Akamai is a giant. He has decent bulk, and height-wise he comes up to about the base of Brutaka's neck. His legs sturdy (as well as broad in the hip), are articulated at the knee, and operated by gears (whose movement is restrained slightly by a ball on the end of the drive axle being plugged into a mounted horseshoe joint) in such a way that he can almost walk. He has hefty shoulder pads on his arms, which are individually-geared thanks to his construction. His left arm boasts a hammer, and in his right he wields Tahu's fire sword. His mask, while resembling a Kanohia Hau (canonically golden, but the instructions just show Tahu's red one since the gold and silver masks came from mask packs), is in fact meant to be Kanohi Aki, the Mask of Valor. All in all, very impressive.

Overall opinion

While original Toa like Tahu lack the articulation of later Toa designs, that was never their main goal. They were designed as Technic building sets with Technic gimmicks, and that also happened to be action figures when assembled but had plenty of alternate building potential. The Voya Nui-onward sets largely abandoned these roots and the Technic gimmickry, becoming instead buildable action figures held together in some places by Technic parts, and the alt-building potential diminished outside of Titan sets.

Tahu is fun to build, fun to play with, and looks good. There's fun to be had collecting his extra masks, even if they're a bit pricier (albeit less random) than mask packs were at retail. And the combined build of Akamai plus the general expanded building potential is well worth getting at the very least Pohatu and Onua as well.

I recently got this set for $6 on ebay.  That guy had no idea what this is worth!  The original bionicles are very popular now that there is no more bionicle.  Bionicle was better than hero factory!

I might be a little biased in reviewing this set, because I have so many fond memories of Bionicle in 2001. In a very rare occurrence, I became fascinated by the story surrounding Bionicle. The mysterious, dramatic and sometimes dark mythology was an incredibly unexpected move for LEGO - before then, we had been getting Roboriders and Throwbots (AKA "Slizers"), both of which barely had any backstory at all.

Aesthetically, the Toa "Mata" (back then they were simply called Toa) were leaps and bounds ahead of anything LEGO had attempted before. This is particularly evident in the masks - without exception, the 6 collectable "Great Masks" from 2001 were beautiful representations of the elements. Tahu's is one of my favorites, since it is very fierce and warlike in appearance.

Once constructed, Toa Tahu is a very tall and thin figure. At the time, more than half of the parts included with Tahu were completely new to LEGO Technic. The humanoid appearance of the model was also rather unusual, and Tahu stood quite a bit taller than any of the Throwbots. The Toa of Fire's appearance is very menacing, and I'd again describe him as warlike. With a fire sword (a completely new idea at the time) and a bright red color scheme, Tahu looked like the leader he was known to be in the mythology.

I gave this set 5 stars for playability, but that really has nothing to do with the functionality (you can turn a gear in the back of the figure to move one of his arms up and down). The playability largely comes from the story, which involved going on a quest to locate and claim the 6 Great Masks, guarded by minions and traps placed by the enigmatic Makuta... who, at the time, was nothing more than a spiritual presence. This rating is definitely biased, I admit - but it definitely highlights the "Bionicle effect", meaning that you're either really into it or you really aren't. In order to fully enjoy this set, it's worth it to read up on the 2001 mythology and fully understand the unusually deep and creative story that LEGO had created. If you're not really into Bionicle, though, I can't say I'd really recommend this set for anything more than a parts pack. Bionicle, for me, was an awesome theme that drew me in as a young adult because of the fascinating (and sometimes theological in scope) world that surrounded these action figures. Playing MNOLG probably had something to do with that, though.

If you were among the first to purchase one of the Toa "Mata", you got a free CD-rom full of cool CGI animations and interactive puzzles that tied the whole mystery of Bionicle together. For a fan like myself, that was an awesome bonus, especially for a mere $7.

I wish that LEGO had maintained the atmosphere of Bionicle throughout more recent years, and now the theme is officially discontinued. Regardless, I still remember 2001 very fondly, and I think other owners of the Toa "Mata" will understand where I'm coming from.

Definitely a great set, and in my mind, a true classic.

Tahu the leader of the Toa Nuva is also great in his Mata form. I really like the Mata for their techincal design, unlike the newer Bionicles and Hero Factory (bleh!), which are much more kid-friendly.

Anyway, Tahu is equiped with a super cool fire sword that moves up and down with the function in the back. He also has the cool, old "hands" that most of the Mata had. Tahu also has the original feet in a red color. He has all the original limb and connector pieces. His mask looks really cool, I think its called the Hau, and has been remade in the new star version. The color scheme of Tahu is perfect. The red and orange clash look amazing. I think his only con I can point out is his head. The original Bionicles did not have the movable heads, which is kind of a shame.

Overall, my favorite of the Mata. I highly recommend you try to get him on ebay for under $10 if you can.

10/10.

:{)