Review: 8922 Gadunka

[arc]

I was looking through the bionicle review index and saw that several sets were not reviewed. I have an extensive collection of bionicle myself, so here's my best try at filling in some of the gaps.

bionicle review: gadunka

set name: gadunka

set number: 8922

theme: bionicle

piece count: 176

price: US $20 EUR £14.99

date released: 2007

I apologize for some of the blurry photos, I haven't mastered my camera skills yet.

As far as his story goes, gadunka was originally a tiny sea creature, who was exposed to the mask of life, which transformed him into this giant monster. with his newfound strength, he went on a rampage attacking the toa. later on the mask reversed its effect and transformed him back.

I don't have the box, so I'll go to the instructions.

instructions:

Here we see gadunka in an attack stance, standing over a pit of some kind. I liked the 2007 box design. it appears as if you were viewing it from some kind of scope or radar. and the underwater effect is represented well.

the figure

front:

side:

back:

Gadunka is a very peculiar titan, he has an unusually wide and thick torso, and a huge gaping jaw, which makes for a very bulky look. His weapons include three claws on each hand, and a squid launcher. the color scheme is primarily dark blue, with silver and some lighter blue highlights.

torso:

It's an interesting build. using three inika torsos and a 2004 matoran torso. the lighter blue hordika limbs provide connection for gadunka's arms, his head connects the two ball joints up top. his legs connect to the four ball joints to the sides. two "squids" are included. although there are supposed to be an orangish-yellowish color, my cats chewed them up. so they have been replaced with blue ones.

here he is next to toa nuparu for size reference. He's not much taller than the average bionicle, but he is much thicker and wider.

arms:

The arms have kalmah armor in silver, (which was new at the time) dark blue rahkshi legs, and three small blades. (I believe those were introduced in 2007 as well) the hands make use of these small ball joints. which provide a good range of motion the middle one however, does not move.

squid launcher:

the infamous squid launcher. these have a pretty bad reputation. I actually like this things. although the idea of using live squid for ammo seems kinda odd. One thing I don't understand is if gadunka is just some kind of creature, how did he obtain a squid launcher and figure out how to operate it?

legs:

Interesting parts on the legs include silver piraka feet, vahki legs, inika arm armor, and these support type things. Again we have a very bulky look portrayed. which works well for this figure.

head:

The head is huge! you could probably fit one of the old matoran in there! the blue skull piece is glow in the dark, and it uses silver ehlek spines for teeth, a dark red clawed piraka foot for a tongue, and neon green bohrok eyes.

Here's gadunka and toa nuparu in battle.

Overall, it's a good set with decent pose ability and some interesting parts. it's bulky and intimidating compared to other bionicles. for a price range of about $20, i would recommend it.

thanks for reading.

[Infernum]

I feel nostalgia! He was probably one of my first two or three Bionicles. Thanks for the review!

[Jetrax99]

Even though I had this guy, I never really liked him that much. The large jaw was cool though Sadly, those f****ing parts just had to break. Grrrrr!

Edited December 9, 2013 by Jetrax99

[LegoPanda]

i always taught he was pretty cool, unfortunately never owned him, i like the colors

[MakutaNocturn]

I always hated the fact that its mouth was red. It doesn't look good and it hurts my eyes. Anyway, 2007 are still good memories.

[LegoPanda]

why, i only think it is a detail, your tongeu and palate are red/pink too, so why shouldn't gedunka's

[Csacsa234]

I was never fond of this set, but the building of the head and jaw is very clever and great looking. Gadunka looks like a giant mutant frog (Teenage mutant ninja turtles beware! ). Thanks for the review it was fun and brought back the good Bionicle times for a few minutes.

[arc]

Thanks for the feedback guys! much appreciated.

[Ikkad555]

Wow. Back in 2007 I merely shrugged this guy off, not bothering to care about such a weird set, but years later, I see this and I realize how much value he holds.

You can tell how much thought the designers put into their work when they start producing vastly different and odd things with pieces normally used as torsos and arms. The torso design is genius and really turns "Inika build" in on its head.

The head is just brilliant with the usage of the Ehlek spines to give ol' Dunky proper chompers, and I really like that they used ball joints for his jaw.

Thank you for a good review of what, in my opinion, is a really good set. The photography is good with clean backgrounds and just enough shots to show the set in its entirety. Good review.