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Set Review: 8917 Kalmah
 Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 12:26pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Kohaku] Today we bring you our final Barraki review. It's been a long time coming, but, like fine wine and classic cars, reviews get better with age. So read on and see what BZPower Blog Assistant Kohaku thinks of Kalmah, creep of the deep. Presentation
The canisters are so far the most unique in Bionicle, the transparent blue is really nifty. The bubbles along the side give the canister a strange and new texture. The image on the canister shows Kalmah shooting a squid, under the familiar Bionicle logo, and the Barraki logo.
On the back we have some pictures of the other Barraki and Kalmah in a different pose, underneath that is a ton of writing. Copyrights, and a disclaimer which says, “CAUTION: Do not aim at eyes or face.” Poor Ralphie should have listened more to the warnings.
The base of the canister for Kalmah is truly a work of art. The mix of red, black, and white blends to make a nice volcanic effect on the base of the canister set. My only complaint is that due to the irregular shape of the canister it is impossible to stack the canisters.
Building
Now let's open this puppy up or in Kalmah's case, let’s open this squid up. Kalmah comes with 53 pieces, the most noticeable of which are his orange squid tentacles, his Metru red and black armor, his modified Metru red Toa Hordika feet, his head and the pieces that will be attached to it, and his squid and squid launcher.
Kalmah comes with six of the Metru red and black armor pieces - the very same piece that can also be found in Thulox. Kalmah comes with six of this piece which I can see many of you the MOCists out there finding useful. The squid tentacles he comes with are very flexible, I'd call them the most flexible pieces we've had in Bionicle.
Strangely enough his squid launcher is also very flexible and it has a hole on the bottom to wear it like a ring. Then you can let your squid fly, if you’re able to fire them. Kalmah and the other Barraki come with two squids which can only be described as squishy and stretchy.
I have named the orange one in particular, Squishy. The building is incredibly easy and straightforward. You build the body, then the legs, followed by the arms, and last, but not least, his creepy head.
His head was the most annoying; trying to get the small white teeth/mandibles/whatever-they-are can be difficult at times. At least it is still manageable. And now we have the final product.
Set Design
Kalmah is the most humanoid of the Barraki and he has 13 points of articulation. Personally, I think that if it weren't for his face (and the fact that he is evil) Kalmah would be able to pass for a Toa… well almost anyway. His head has three eyes and five small tentacles on the back of it.
His body is different from how the Piraka were, the torso is opposite from how the Piraka were. Think of him as a backwards Piraka. The only problem with that is it makes the set rather boring. I must admit I do like the Metru-red and black color scheme, then again, red and black go well with each other.
Kalmah's shoulder armor has the ability to move up and down when you move his arm, this adds to his posablity rather nicely.
The squid are attached to his back, although there is a small problem with keeping them there. The little vampires have a tendency to fall off.
Playability
The flexibility of his tentacles allows for him to hang on to plenty of different objects, so long as his tentacles can wrap around it. Anyone up for a game of Capture the Matoran?
Even with the instructions, it is still hard to fire squid.
With the amount of posability Kalmah has you can create a ton of poses and action scenes.
Final Thoughts
Overall, unless you are trying to complete your collection or need more pieces for MOCs, Kalmah is good. Otherwise, there are plenty of other good Barraki, Toa Mahri, and Titans to choose from this holiday season. We're one week closer to the end of 2007, and still have a couple more sets to go through. We'll do our best to get as many of these out there before we start reviewing 2008 sets. So, after you thank Kohaku for the review, check back on the main page to see if we've posted another review yet!
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