Random set of the day: Kopaka Nuva
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 8571 Kopaka Nuva, released in 2002. It's one of 28 Bionicle sets produced that year. It contains 42 pieces, and its retail price was US$8/£4.99.
It's owned by 3656 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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19 comments on this article
Kopaka Nuva is cool and all, but the original Kopaka was way cooler.
The upgrade to weapons that could also double as a mode of transportation was interesting, and the armor was very useful (if limited in color selection). I still prefer the original Kanohi, which looked more Polynesian in nature, and I hated the new Nuva limbs which looked like empty shells after all the mechanical stuff has been stripped out.
Kopaka was always my favorite--I'm a sucker for asymmetry, what can I say. His later 8685 incarnation had wings which was also pretty cool. I was firmly in the "that's not even Lego!" camp when Bionicle came out, but I've since gained a small appreciation for them.
Yo Yo Kopaka!
Yo Yo Kopaka!
Nuvas on the loose,
Nothin' you can do,
[Two lines that rhyme with Protodermis]
[Other rap lyrics]
Yo Yo Kopaka!
@MCLegoboy said:
"Yo Yo Kopaka!
Yo Yo Kopaka!
Nuvas on the loose,
Nothin' you can do,
[Two lines that rhyme with Protodermis]
[Other rap lyrics]
Yo Yo Kopaka!"
2120: Top two rappers have made a huge impact on modern culture: Carl Azuz and @MCLegoboy
Ah yes, Lego's lone wolf. Icy Master Chief cyborg himself, bending snow well before Elsa, rocking the X-Ray vision. Praise Kopaka!
Just remember he doesn't slip.
Probably my favourite of the Nuva, but the way the shield attached was even worse than his Mata set. Instead of using an arm with a joint at the end, it was the weapon arm piece that held everything upright. Because of this, his shield had to be down by his side the whole time unless you wanted to pretend he was a waiter with a drinks tray.
This absolute legend introduced me to the series and for that I salute him. Much love, ice man.
Kopaka, hands-down, is my favorite BIONICLE character. He wasn't the first Toa I ever got, but his memorable introduction in BIONICLE 1: The Coming of the Toa in May 2001 defined immediately who this strange robotic statue of a toy was. "Now the scattered elements of my being are restored. Now I am whole. And the darkness cannot stand before me." Cue hero pose in front of a setting sun on an icy beach, and wow, a LEGO set had never seemed so alive to me.
Kopaka didn't get much more individual time to shine within the comics in 2001, as the Toa learned to work together as a team in the run-up to Makuta's first defeat. But he came back strong in 2002! It was Kopaka who figured out the Bohrok swarms were emanating from deep within the island itself and showed Tahu and the rest the entrance to the hive. And after emerging from the battle with the Bahrag queens as a new-and-improved Toa Nuva (seen here in this set), he finally looked like he stood on equal footing with Tahu Nuva as one of the more powerful Toa Nuva.
The set itself wasn't too much of an improvement. The silver protodermic armor made him look more gray than white, and yes, the recycling of his old sword arm into the shield arm was a silly design move, especially since the other Toa Nuva got more symmetric and flexible sets of arms. But at least now, Kopaka Nuva had a history behind him that spoke on equal terms with how he looked.
In the continuing BIONICLE saga, Kopaka Nuva spearheaded the opposition to Tahu's leadership post-Bohrok defeat. In a one-on-one battle with the Toa Nuva of Fire, it was a practical draw. The emergence of the Bohrok Kal forced Kopaka and the rest back into a temporary alliance, but they all went their separate ways again upon restoring their powers. Kopaka's solo power, however, came in handy against the Rahkshi. He managed to defeat three chasing Takua and Jaller as they sought the Seventh Toa and later on took on all six Rahkshi alone. Though he only survived thanks to the timely arrival of some of his fellow Toa, it made sense that out of all the Toa, only Kopaka was the most badass to face their enemies alone and not get immediately curbstomped.
A lot of the "rule of cool" applied to Kopaka Nuva apparently came thanks to the man who authored most of the BIONICLE literature (books, comics, and even website stories), Greg Farshtey. Apparently, Greg revealed Kopaka was his favorite character in BIONICLE and it showed. Though he evolved the characters of the original six Toa over the course of BIONICLE's run, Kopaka's evolution was the most notable. He started out an aloof, know-it-all kind of warrior. He kept his distance and his guard up, and was one was of those characters who only trusted what his own hands or mind could achieve. By the 2008 "Phantoka" story, however, it was clear to see that Kopaka kept his calculating nature while developing a genuine empathy for his friends, the other Toa Nuva, and valuing their work as a team, not as rogue agents beholden to their individual tribes. He finally mended that rift with Tahu, and all was well with the world. Well, until of course, Mata Nui was reawakened with Makuta's mind...
Sadly, with the end of BIONICLE in 2010, we didn't really get an ending for Kopaka. It was perhaps too much to ask, of course, since BIONICLE had featured many Toa characters by that point, and giving every one a chance to shine in the epilogue of that great story would be narratively constricting. Even so, I think other fans would agree with me in that the ending of BIONICLE would been just as appropriate (dare I say, better?) if our "final scene" was seeing Kopaka Nuva, perhaps standing amongst his friends new and old, looking out across the glorious new paradise that Mata Nui had created for them all, noting his brother and sister Toa Nuva next to him, and thinking:
"Now, the scattered pieces of this world are restored.
Now, we are whole.
And the darkness can never stand against us."
Never... the end!
Bionicle was so different from the Lego I got used to. The parts, the designs, even the boxes were so different. Good, bad? Depends on the person.
Kopaka Nuva was the best of the Toa Nuva. The standard silver armor clashed with some of the other colors, but it went very well with Kopaka's white and light gray. His new mask was clearly an evolution of his old one, rather than something entirely different (Lewa, Pohatu, Onua all had entirely different masks in their Nuva form). The solid 8w shield was a real improvement on the webbed 6w shield of the original. Most important, his tools/weapons made sense in both their tool and weapon forms: skis or skates and a spear. Gali Nuva's tools made sense as swimming flippers, but not as weapons. Onua Nuva's tools made sense as some sort of powered roller skate, but not as weapons. Pohatu Nuva's tools - - - well, they didn't make any sense at all.
Kopaka is also my favorite Toa for his Kanohi (and Kanohi Nuva) that was the most interesting of the bunch, his general personality and his overall character development/growth, even though he was far from the first Toa I got (I believe my first two were Tahu and Lewa).
Kopaka Nuva is cool, but his sister, Kopaka Bana, is where it's at.
I think Bionicle was successful (and one of my favourite childhood themes) because, although it looked nothing like normal LEGO, it did incorporate a great balance of specialised parts and generic Technic which allowed for more imaginative building than you might expect. The Toa Nuva are probably among the worst examples of this though.
@bananaworld said:
"
Kopaka Nuva is cool, but his sister, Kopaka Bana, is where it's at."
Ah yes, Kopaka Bana...the hottest hero north of Ha-Vana.
I think the Toa Nuva are quite underrated Bionicle sets. A lot of people seem to not like them as much as the original Toa Mata, but regardless, I think they are a genuine improvement over the original sets, even though the masks might have been a slight downgrade. With that said, yeah, Kopaka's also probably my favorite of the Toa Nuva.
Oh hey, my first Nuva!
Did I even know about the Toa Nuva when I first saw them on shelves in Legoland Windsor? I don't remember; I might have, I might not have. But I know that when I did see them there, Kopaka was *INSTANTLY* my first go-to one. It might have helped that I was going through a phase where he was my favourite Toa; it might also have been due to the fact that I believe he was the only one they had in stock at the time?
But even if he hadn't been, I'm certain I still would have chosen him as my first.
He just... look at that picture and try to convince me he doesn't look epic there. He'd got an upgrade from his 'standing cool and aloof' box art of the Mata wave, and was now fully in action! His mask was one of the most recognisable transformations, while still being a suitably new variation on the design; and on him, more than the others, the silver armour just screamed "epic upgrade!"
My friend and I both bought him at the same time; and I remember building my Kopaka in the restaurant where we stopped for dinner on the way back home afterwards (while my friend built his 4731 Dobby's Release). Kopaka did not disappoint.
(Except for the shield arm, but that's already been mentioned by others above. Ultimately, I switched it out for a mirror of his right arm, like his design had in the Mask of Light movie.)
Of all the Nuva... he's probably the one I kinda wish I hadn't sold on when I did. There's, just... I dunno. To me, he really felt like a worthy upgrade to his Toa Mata form, and still honestly seems to me like the best of the Nuva.
@LegoDavid said:
"I think the Toa Nuva are quite underrated Bionicle sets. A lot of people seem to not like them as much as the original Toa Mata, but regardless, I think they are a genuine improvement over the original sets, even though the masks might have been a slight downgrade. With that said, yeah, Kopaka's also probably my favorite of the Toa Nuva. "
I think the Nuva did a few things right that made them an incremental step forward from the original wave. All of them included both friction pins and a second axle and gear set offering a few build options, one arm with a gear function and the other arm on a friction pin, with the remaining gear attached to the back to "lock" the gear function for posing; or both gears in the system allowing dual arm (or leg) action. The dual weapons function on each set was also well done too, Kopaka's sword/spear became skis, Tahu's sword became a lavaboard. The dual weapons function was well done enough, that 13 years later the G2 launch wave imitated many of the Toa Nuva's weapons with new takes on the dual functions in the Toa Masters line.
If the Toa Nuva is faulted by the fandom its for two reasons... 1) it uses a lot of pieces from the Mata sets again, especially that core 'Toa-block' that juniorizes a lot of the construction. 2) Aesthetics. I think a lot of people really dislike the Nuva masks in general, and I kind of agree they are not as recognizable and iconic as the 2001 wave's masks. I do think some masks are a clear evolution of their 2001 version (Tahu and Kopaka both are clearly wearing an evolved version of their OG mask), but in many cases the "organic" shaping of the Nuva stretched out, warped and changed the design. Not to mention most of the Nuva masks are larger than any of the 2001 masks, and it becomes a bit awkward to use them on any other sets from the same era (try putting a Nuva mask on a Matoran body and see how the massive head dwarves the body for example). With that said... I think as Bionicle's scale increased the Nuva masks fit a lot of the larger bodies from later years. I have incorporated the blue Nuva Miru into a MOC before, and would love to use them again because so few other MOCs incorporate them as a mask.
I never used to get why people considered Kopaka the "cool" one of the group when you had things like Nuparu inventing the Boxor or Kongu taking flight on his Gukko. That was until 2008. The chapter with Kopaka and Mutran duking it out inside the hive was probably my favorite fight of the series. That constant internal struggle over whether or not to hold back was great, especially since Tahu had similar moments in the past and never took other's advice to heart.
Still though, none of Kopaka's scenes hold a candle to Gali destroying Karzahni to me!