Review: Official Set 8756 - Sidorak

Moving on through the list of 2005 Titan sets brings us to Simporak Sidorak. Sidorak was the famed “King of the Visorak” and ruled over the Horde. He was supposedly a great manipulator, but this cannot be true given the fact that Roodaka manipulates him with incredible ease in Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows.

Sidorak as a set contains 211 pieces and is recommended for ages  and up.

Packaging

The packaging is understandably similar to Keetongu’s just with a few small changes. The front of the box gives us a great look at the finished model, which appears to be crashing through a large hole. The ring surrounding this hole is dark red to match Sidorak’s color scheme, which differs from Keetongu’s packaging which had a gold ring to match his color scheme. In the background we can see a mountain landscape covered in fog, along with Visorak webs that cover the city. There is also a large label on the bottom that gives us the set name in front of a Metru Nui skyline.

The sides of the box show off the three titan sets of 2005 and have a pretty neat web design spreading across the background, nothing new here.

The back of the box gives us additional looks at the finished build, mainly to highlight the different functions packed into this set. At the bottom there’s an image that shows off two of the Titan combination models that can be built using the 2005 Titan sets. Only one of these includes parts from Sidorak so I find it a bit bizarre that they decided to include both of them.

I bought this set in used condition, so I received merely a large bag of parts, but if you were to buy this set sealed you would receive three numbered bags along with the instructions and advertisement material from 2005.

Base Model Review

The 27-minute build was one that I had a fun time with, nothing too special, but it rarely had repeating sections which helped it feel much faster.

After finishing the build the first thing that really stands out is the spectacular flow of the design. The model has great continuity between the different build sections, so much so that it’s tough to even pinpoint the different breaks between joints such as the shoulders and torso. There’s a few new building techniques included in this build that allow for some extra detail to come out in areas.

The arms are a notable upgrade compared to other Titan sets, which often went the route of using simple, lightweight arms as opposed to complex, detailed designs. The thicker, more detailed arms really add an extra bit of pop to SIdorak because at long last the arms are proportional in both size and complexity to the rest of the set. The arms are the central powerhouses behind the two main play features of this set, which are the Rhotuka spinner and a dynamic dagger. On Sidorak’s right arm is a spot to mount a Rhotuka spinner, which is then secured behind two claw pieces and a third hinge-piece. While it’s not nearly as cool of a mechanism as Keetongu’s spinner, I like the addition of being able to lock the Rhotuka spinner into place. The left arm includes a dynamic dagger, which can spring back and forth using a build technique similar to Nivawk’s wings. I wish it were a bit more clear the proper way to launch & retract the dagger, but it’s still a great thing to get a little bit of extra dynamics in the set.

The head design is one that follows the successful formula of simple but effective. There’s only a few parts that make up the head, but they really sculpt a neat shape using the available parts. It may not be a perfect representation of Sidorak’s film appearance, but nevertheless it’s still an original one that gets the job done.

There are some minor downsides when it comes to this set, mostly being the lack of friction in the shoulders. At the shoulders are these large, black technic gears, which would make you assume a gear mechanism is utilized to make the arms rotate. Wrong. They are merely just detail pieces, and the arms can rotate at the shoulders as you wish, but without friction in he left arm, and minor bits of friction in the right. Again, this isn’t a huge deal, but it does limit the ability to pose Sidorak as you wish to in a static display.

The only other design flaw that was an annoyance was the lack of completion of the back. The front is this incredible flow of dark red and black pieces, but on the back it’s really quite plain. Something as simple as the Matoran torso used on the chest would have really tied a bow on this set and bump it up a little bit more.

While it’s not necessarily a flaw, I wish there were a few more easter egg parts that pointed toward the Visorak. By looking at the finished build, it’s not really apparent the relation between Sidorak and the Visorak, so it would have been neat to include a few other parts seen in the Visorak sets to really push this plot point forward.

Final Thoughts

This may be a hot take, but I genuinely like Sidorak’s set over Keetongu. The fluidness of the design really does it for me, I’m not sure we’ve seen a Titan design even come close to being this well-accomplished all throughout. While the play functions are not top notch, there is enough going elsewhere all throughout the model that makes up for the minor issues I had with this model.

If you’d like to purchase this set for yourself, it’s priced while similarly to Keetongu. In used condition you’ll find Sidorak to go for around $35, and in brand-new condition this set generally is priced around $85. The only main difference I would suggest you consider while deciding whether to go used or new condition is whether or not you want to guarantee that the rubberized joints are in good condition and still have friction.

In terms of Titan sets this will be one of the ones I’d suggest getting early on. The design is top-notch, so much so that it is able to shrug off most of its flaws.

SCORE: 8.4/10

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