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Set Review: 8922 Gadunka
 Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 5:13pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: ~Makaru~] There are only ten more days until Christmas, but that's plenty of time for people to shop. This is a good thing, because today Forum Assistant ~Makaru~ brings us a review of Gadunka. Is he worthy of being added to your wish list? Read on to find out!
Presentation
All right, I’m going to put it out there. Gadunka is a mouth with legs. There. I said it. The box art does not try to hide this, nor should it. Our little Rahi-turned-monster is seen standing over a chasm, exploding for some reason. He looks intimidating while launching a squid.
On the back of the box, we see Gadunka situated center near the top of the box. Around him are images showing his posable claws, his wonderful glow-in-the-dark skull, squid launcher instructions, Kanoka Club Code and the usual image of Voya Nui situated above Mahri Nui and The Pit You are given a fairly good idea of what you get in this set. On the bottom, you can see images of the other large sets this year, Hydraxon, Maxilos and Spinax. Building
Gadunka has a remarkably interesting use of pieces. A lot of old techniques are used in making the limbs, but the body itself is not something I have seen a lot of. That aside, it’s a fairly easy build, taking a normal builder anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour. Set Design
The first thing I noticed was the addition of blue pieces, as in the classic blue seen as a secondary colour only recently. While we have seen some of the ‘dogbone’ hip-joint pieces before, this is the first time we have seen Hordika arms in blue.
The skull is something else. Like so many pieces this year, it glows in the dark. I would have to say it’s roughly twice the size of the Barraki heads. But unlike the Barraki pieces, inside you will find four connection points over the usual two.
As I stated before, Gadunka’s body has a unique build. He uses not one or two, but three Inika torsos. Two of which are put together in assort of triangular pattern. Not since the days of the Boxor have I seen Lego use Pythagoras in a set design.
I have mixed emotions on the teeth. One one hand, they are brilliant, fearsome and a delightful throwback to the Bahrag for me. On the other hand, they're exaggerated, silver and often bend with little stress applied, making the teeth look more like baleen on whales than teeth. Making him dangerous only if the Mahri are the size of krill. Playability
I'll say this first of all. Having thirty-one points of flexibility makes for one posable set. He can walk on all fours, bow, strike at a foe and even look like he's hiking a football.
One thing that stands out is his neck. Gadunka makes his mark on me by being the only Bionicle set to rotate his head upside-down.
There is one disappointing thing about him, though. His squid launcher. Because of his enormous cranium, he can't even hold his hands together, let alone load a weapon with live ammunition. He can however reach his own mouth.
So much for the squid launcher. And the squid.
His claws do make for decent dental hygiene tools, however.
Final Thoughts
Gadunka is ridiculous. He's obscure. He's an anomaly. He's everything I've been wanting in a set and more. It's a crazy Rahi set that only comes once in a while. Definitely something for the collectors. The only thing he's lacking is cool pieces. The Glow-in-the-Dark head is nice, and the [classic] blue pieces are always welcome, but aside from that it's mostly stuff you can find in the canister sets for the past two years. Nothing really out of the ordinary. So unless you like building with obscure pieces like I do, there's nothing much to excite you over.
And that's Gadunka-dunk in a nutshell. Well worth the price in my opinion, though more for the collectors than the builders. There are only a couple more weeks for 2007 reviews, but we plan to cram as many in as possible before we switch over to 2008 sets. Keep checking back for more reviews and the latest Bionicle news!
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