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Set Review: 8979 Malum
 Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 4:05pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Ta-metru_defender] Time for another plain old set review. BZPower Forum Mentor Ta-metru_defender brings us a review of the fiery Glatorian Malum. Read on to see what he thinks of this warrior-in-exile. Presentation
Lookiethar. A canister. After the Mahri I am always glad to see a canister. It’s almost as if LEGO said “Hey look, we can make sets without canisters, y’know”. So I am happy to see canisters. Malum’s magmatic box art heralds the return of elemental set images, the likes of which we have not seen for a few years. Within the oranges, yellows, and reds, Malum stands looking proud and well, malapert.
The back has an image of Malum and Raanu as well as a demonstration of how the new launchers work and a plug for the Action Figure Game. It also shows Malum’s web code and him fitting in his canister. And a lot of legal malarkey that one would need a Rau to understand. Building
Sadly, Malum’s build is rather mundane. Almost identical to the crabby Carapar with the exception of one or two pieces. I guarantee you it won’t take you more than ten minutes. If that. Set Design
Malum has a handful of new pieces, the most eye-catching being his fire-claws. These malefic hands look great with the fire on the ends and it’s so nice to see elemental weapons again. He’s also got two of the straightened Hordika neck that everyone’s been raving about, the Thornax, said devices’ launcher, the new head and the helmet.
The head, as the other reviewers have said, looks like Iron Man. And it’s cool at that.
The helmet is spifftasticly cool. The flames leave no doubt as to which element he belongs to. The malar regions are slightly heightened so it looks like he’s got a maniacal grin on his face. Which looks good in some cases, and in other cases the simple line of a mouth looks better, as you can see in some of the pictures. Enough about the head and stuff though, on to the rest of him.
He’s surprisingly short, barely taller than good old Tahu Mata. His arms and claws combined reach almost all the way to the ground; to some his maladapted look might make some feel a bit of malaise, but it doesn’t really bother me too much. His big shoulders help give him a bulky look, which works for him. The chest piece, however, leaves a gaping hole below his neck if his head isn’t covering it. Kinda limits some things he does. Overall, though, Malum is a nice spin on Carapar’s design. Playability
So what does Malum the malapert malefactor do? Shoot Thronaxes. And that’s pretty cool.
It fires really well and easily. Best of all it’s a subtle launcher and not as maladroit as the launchers of yesteryear, and it remains pretty nicely behind his armor when you’re not using it. And Zamors fit in it too, if you get bored with the spiny fruit. There’s also the ACTION FIGURE GAME which I have not tried, but I’m sure younger fans will enjoy it. In my day, however, we didn’t need instructions to tell us how to whack each other’s masks off. The other good thing that Malum’s fun for is posing. Dancing, imitating a crocodile, looking plain maleficent, he does it.
Beyond that, well, he’s kinda bland. Final Thoughts
When it boils down to it, I do like Malum. He looks great when you pose him right. His colors are nice, with the bley and silver being subtle enough to not really notice. He’s also got the whole elemental flair that we’ve been missing for a while, another plus. But he is $13 dollars and does reuse an old design (better than it originally was, though). Malum is a pretty darn rad set, If you like fire sets Malum’s great for you, if not, well, he’s still a great set and at least worth consideration. So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed Ta-metru_defender's thoughts and opinions on Malum. Feel free to share your own thoughts in the Talkback, and don't forget to thank him there too! And of course, keep checking back for all the latest Bionicle news and reviews.
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