Lore please.

Also, happy 20th year to this set.

Wow. Original Bonkle.

Just like Blue's Clues, the blue one is the girl. Whodathunkit?

@MCLegoboy said:
"Just like Blue's Clues, the blue one is the girl. Whodathunkit?"

In before someone tries to build a Magenta one.

An interesting tidbit, of the original Bionicle wave, Gali's mask is to my knowledge the only one made in CAD, the rest were carved out of clay and then downscaled for production molds. The recolors of the mask are also some of the most expensive pieces out there, although the original transparent dark blue is very cheap due to being used in both this set and also 2003's Hahli set.

So is it "Gali" as in Ragtime Gal, or "Gali" as in Gall Bladder? For the non-bonkles here.

Unique: None

Rare:
32489 Large Figure Gearbox Torso in blue x1
32476 Large Figure angular limb with ball joint and axle hole in medium blue x2
32482 Large Figure angular limb with ball joints and hydraulics in medium blue x2

The oddness of a blue biomechanical...thing...being female was something I got over well before I got the set. Considering how alien and fantastical the Tahu figure was (the first Toa I obtained exactly 20 years ago this month), the CD-ROM and website revealing Gali to be female was the least exotic notion introduced by BIONICLE. The clincher was in July 2001 with the release of the second issue of the BIONICLE comic series, "Deep Into Darkness". Gali featured prominently in that issue, allowing the reader to extrapolate the simplistic trait of "this is a female" into a fleshed-out heroine who, while powerful and mindful of the world around her, could still make mistakes in the dangerous island of Mata Nui.

With all that background information, I was more than glad to receive Gali as one of the Toa I received for my birthday in October, the fourth Toa in my collection. I loved the dual hooks for hands almost as much as the dual claws for Onua. And the transparent mask, the Kanohi Kaukau of Underwater Breathing, was magnificent to behold in its "original" color (I already had Pohatu's trans-orange variant from a mask pack earlier in the year).

Gali, the Toa of Water, was continually the voice of reason in the group, and in 2001, early literature on BIONICLE.com made her seem like a wise lady of the waters, serene, but powerful; playful, but violent, much like the waters she commanded. This supernatural sense about her and the other Toa evaporated in subsequent years, but you can still see some of that oscillating nature in the movie "Mask of Light", where her feud with Tahu, the Toa of Fire, is only reconciled with the arrival of the sons of Makuta, the Rahkshi.

Gali had memorable battles over the years. After arriving on Mata Nui, she faced down a Tarakava beast threatening Ga-Koro, her village, and established her fitness as a Toa before undertaking the quest for the masks. Against the Makuta, her agility and natural speed allowed her to fend off the dark power of the evil one better than some of the other Toa, but in the end, only by uniting her power with the others did the Makuta manage to be defeated. In the wake of that defeat and the invasion of the Bohrok swarms, Gali became friendly with Pohatu, her Toa neighbor to the north, and they teamed up to collect Krana, giving the Tahnok a run for their money in Po-Wahi, where in spite of it being a desert, Gali could still sense enough moisture in the air to summon a flood.

The battle with the swarm queens, Cahdok and Gahdok, found Gali weakened, and only by shedding the Exo-Toa armor was she and the others able to use their powers to seal the Bahrag in a protodermic cage. In the process, Gali was transformed into Gali Nuva, a more powerful version of herself with new aqua axes in place of the climbing hooks. Now she could even share her mask's water breathing abilities with her fellow Toa Nuva! All that power, however, went to her head a bit, and for a time, took up arms against Kopaka, Lewa, and Onua alongside allies Tahu and Pohatu. The battle, which came down to a draw between Tahu and Kopaka, made Gali realize the error of their ways and strike a chord for unity once again. But it fell on deaf ears, just the super-powered Bohrok Kal struck and stole the source of the Toa Nuvas' powers. Forced to unite by necessity, the Toa Nuva tracked the Bohrok Kal across Mata Nui, with Gali at one point joining Lewa and Kopaka to form a Toa Nuva Kaita to fight three Bohrok Kal. Without their powers, though, nothing could stop the Kal for long, and in order to stop them from freeing the Bahrag queens, it took a combined application of Tahu's Mask of Time and Gali's realization of the bond between themselves and the Nuva symbols that gave them power to utterly defeat the Kal once and for all.

[continued in post below]

[continued from post above]

I mentioned the Rahkshi earlier, but it is worth it to bring up how Gali Nuva was the first to encounter these fiends while meditating on the stars at the Kini Nui. She fled to Ta Koro to warn Tahu, but it was too little, too late. She fought in many battles against the Rahkshi, but the most memorable fight was actually with Tahu, who had been poisoned by the venom in Lerahk's staff and had gone insane. She helped to cleanse and heal the fallen Toa of Fire, and once he was restored and her own water powers reinvigorated, she joined the other five Toa to defeat the Rahkshi at last.

With the return to Metru Nui after the Toa of Light's defeat of Makuta, Gali Nuva found herself on a new quest to find the Mask of Life. On Voya Nui, her and the Toa Nuva clashed with the Piraka and were utterly defeated. Luckily, they were rescued by the Matoran Resistance there and able to link up with the Toa Inika before parting ways and leaving the quest for the Mask of Life to them. From there, the Toa Nuva went on various quests of their own to prepare for Mata Nui's awakening. Gali went to the surface of what was once Mata Nui and recovered a sundial and then rejoined the Toa Nuva to travel to the realm of Arthaka, where they were gifted with new armor that adapted to any and all environments. Arthaka sent them into Karda Nui, the heart of the Matoran Universe, to fulfill their destiny. Here, Gali and the rest came full circle, as they began to recall memories buried during their long hibernation in the Toa canisters before coming to Mata Nui. Turns out Gali and the other Toa Mata (now Nuva) were trained eons ago by Hydraxon to become the best Toa possible, mighty warriors, and yet, a contingency plan in case Mata Nui himself were to ever fall.

In Karda Nui, the Toa Nuva faced the Makuta's Brotherhood in many battles. Gali found herself in the vile reach of Makuta Gorast, though Gali acquitted herself well with her water powers and the Nynrah Ghost Blaster she was equipped with. It was Gali who managed to convince the mysterious Toa Ignika to give up his newfound life to power the Codrex and restore Mata Nui. And with that mighty task done, Gali and the rest of the Toa were celebrated as heroes back home.

Too bad the Makuta, the ORIGINAL Makuta, had other plans. Gali and the others found out that they had been played, and while Mata Nui was brought back to life and awakened, he did so with Makuta's spirit in the titanic body of the Great Spirit. Gali committed herself to resisting the universal dominance of Makuta, but nothing really changed until Makuta brought his new form to Bara Magna, where an exiled Mata Nui defeated the evil spirit once and for all. In the new, glorious paradise that Mata Nui created as a final gift for his people, would Gali find the peace she long sought? And of this new world's inhabitants, would any appreciate her wisdom, both natural and hard-earned? These tales and more are part of the now-20 year old legend of the BIONICLE.

Enjoyed this back in the day! The hook hands inspired lots of play

@Galaxy12_Import said:
"So is it "Gali" as in Ragtime Gal, or "Gali" as in Gall Bladder? For the non-bonkles here.
"

I don't know what the official pronunciation is, but I've always said it like "Golly."

I was very fond of Gali for her personality as the foil to Tahu's figurative and literal hotheadedness, and her Kaukau mask (when I got the trans-clear one corresponding to Kopaka in a blind bag I thought it was the coolest thing ever).

@Galaxy12_Import said:
"So is it "Gali" as in Ragtime Gal, or "Gali" as in Gall Bladder? For the non-bonkles here."
It's Gah-lee.

@xboxtravis7992:
Don't forget the regular Toa/Turaga masks also came in the original Kanohi pack, so there were three ways you could obtain it. It is worth noting that the Kaukau seemed to be the rarest of the 12 mask shapes (with the theory being that they curtailed production because polycarbonate was more expensive than ABS...which is supported by the fact that the gold/silver ones weren't significantly rarer than the other ten gold/silver Kanohi), but if you already had any of the Toa, the last thing you wanted to see was their base mask when you opened up a Kanohi pack. At least if you got dupes of one of the off colors, it had trade value because most of those were only available as random pulls.

If it is indeed the only one that was CAD-designed, it's probably because they needed to make sure the visor was optically clear. Any variance in the thickness would produce ripples and distortions.

@lordofdragonss:
I don't think the original Toa were really designed around the story so much as the story was designed around them. I mean, Pohatu is playing soccer with a boulder, while two Toa have swords and another has a battleaxe. The toys were always designed to fight themselves more than they were other sets. So, each of the Rahi 2-packs was evenly matched against each other, but almost nothing but Muaka and Kane-Ra could pull their own shoulder pins free, while the Nui-Rama masks were designed to be vulnerable to attacks from the side more than from the front. Toa were built to fight each other more than any of the threats they faced in the story. So, when you look at any of the original Toa, think about how their own weapons would be useful in knocking the mask off another Toa. Except Pohatu. "Boot to the head" works as a TV skit, but he really doesn't work in a fair matchup. Either his mask is exposed while his feet have insufficient range to connect with any other Toa's mask (except _maybe_ Onua), or he's dancing on their head with his own mask well out of reach.

Good Gali, Miss Mali!
That’s a lot of lore.

LEGO usually doesn't reveal how much money their LEGO themes have made, but apparently it is public knowledge that the original Bionicle 2001 wave (which this set was part of) made over 128 Million dollars in sales. No wonder it was considered the most successful product launch in The LEGO Group's history for over a decade.

My first bionicle set! It started an obsession that would last a decade for me. A shame I sold most of my bionicle collection eventually. But I made sure to never, ever sell the first waves of Toa, Turaga, Bohrok Va and Bohrok. Weird to think it has been 20 years already.

I like to think of Ninjago as the spiritual successor to Bionicle. It's poetic how that theme is now at its 10th anniversary.

By the way, if you haven't already, check out Team Kanohi's Bionicle: Masks of Power. It's a fan game depicting the events and characters from the first year. And yes, that includes this very set's version of Gali! I can't wait until they're done! In the mean time I would recommend their twitch, as they regularly stream their playthroughs of old bionicle games :D

And in the same vein, Bionicle: Quest for Mata Nui. Just watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ggASWkA2c
It even has the approval of Lego!

@jol said:
"Only a fiver? Ah, those were the days! I get that people like the extra detail of gen 2 bionicle, but as a kids, having all your friends able to afford a toa trumps any of those benefits. Much less fragile too- the only thing likely to fall off the toa mata was the masks, which was all part of the fun."

As someone who owns all 13 G2 Toa sets... you are not wrong. The cheapness of the original Bionicle wave is what helped it skyrocket in popularity, it was the perfect price to buy using "allowance" money or other small income streams a child might have. G1 was extremely accessible and smartly priced.

In comparison, G2 was an expensive prospect and it took me years as an adult collector both buying sets in retail then after the line's cancellation carefully watching aftermarket prices as the value climbed. I got a few very lucky deals for most of the Uniters and Umarak the Destroyer at MSRP last year which allowed me to move towards completing both G2 Toa teams. Still not cheap, at all.