Scale of Bionicle

[NuparuDescendant]

So I've been wanting to figure out what is the scale of the bionicle universe. To elaborate i'm wanting to know the size of a Technic pin if it were sized in the bionicle universe.

 

So here is our first step. w know a Toa is 1.6 bio or 7'2.4". now this is where things get a bit frusterating, all of the Toa sets vary in size. the eirliest form this fact could come from is either during the Toa Mata/Nuva or the Toa Metru, in which the Toa Metru are a bit taller if i recall.

 

So whats the orgin of the 1.6 bio fact? Once i have that i can start up the math.

[Lyichir]

So I've been wanting to figure out what is the scale of the bionicle universe. To elaborate i'm wanting to know the size of a Technic pin if it were sized in the bionicle universe.

 

So here is our first step. w know a Toa is 1.6 bio or 7'2.4". now this is where things get a bit frusterating, all of the Toa sets vary in size. the eirliest form this fact could come from is either during the Toa Mata/Nuva or the Toa Metru, in which the Toa Metru are a bit taller if i recall.

 

So whats the orgin of the 1.6 bio fact? Once i have that i can start up the math.

One of the troublesome things about Bionicle in terms of scale is that the 1.6 bio fact was introduced in 2001, and according to Greg Farshtey, Toa have almost always been that height. What this means is that sets like the Toa Inika just aren't to scale with sets like the Toa Metru; they're apparently supposed to be about the same height in-universe.

 

That's part of what I appreciate about themes like Ninjago. They don't concern themselves as much with measurements, either real or created, and all sets are essentially to scale with one another. Also, while the scale of sets differs somewhat in the show (with vehicles and buildings typically being larger), there's not the same obsession with canon, particularly not with a canon that explicitly contradicts the reality of the sets that physically exist there on your shelf.

[Aanchir]

Yeah, there is no one unified scale to the BIONICLE sets. The Toa Inika sets are not taller than the Toa Mata sets because the Toa Inika characters are taller than the Toa Mata characters. They're just taller because the LEGO Group decided that kids really wanted taller and more articulated action figures. In the story, a typical Toa Inika is the same height as a typical Toa Mata.

 

Even within a given year, sets could have radically different scales. Think of the BIONICLE playsets as an example of this. The Toa Inika minifigures are two inches tall, while the Toa Inika themselves were eight and three-fourths inches tall. Did the Toa Inika REALLY get shrunk down to under a fourth of their original size when they invaded the Piraka Stronghold? Of course not. That'd be silly. Also think of the Toa Mata Nui set. Around 13 and three fourths inches tall at the top of the mask. The regular Mata Nui set from that year was just about eight inches tall. Did Mata Nui at any point in the 2009 story grow to over one and a half times his original height? Of course not. That'd be silly. The promotional Click set from that year was another set with a radically different scale than the typical sets of that year. Click certainly wasn't an Agori-sized monstrosity in the story, but you would think he was if you based your understanding of scale only on the sets.

 

Those are extreme examples, but there are plenty of other examples that are a little bit less ridiculous. For instance, Krekka and Makuta seemed considerably larger in their original movie appearances than they were in the sets that accompanied those movies. But Makuta in his "Winged Titan" form was much smaller relative to a Toa Metru in Legends of Metru Nui than the ridiculously tall and lanky Ultimate Dume set. Overall, besides the typical height of a Toa, there's no hard and fast rule about how tall characters from the sets are in the official story, and certainly not a specific scale that you can apply to every set.

[Hitoshura]

Yeah, there is no one unified scale to the BIONICLE sets. The Toa Inika sets are not taller than the Toa Mata sets because the Toa Inika characters are taller than the Toa Mata characters. They're just taller because the LEGO Group decided that kids really wanted taller and more articulated action figures. In the story, a typical Toa Inika is the same height as a typical Toa Mata.

 

Even within a given year, sets could have radically different scales. Think of the BIONICLE playsets as an example of this. The Toa Inika minifigures are two inches tall, while the Toa Inika themselves were eight and three-fourths inches tall. Did the Toa Inika REALLY get shrunk down to under a fourth of their original size when they invaded the Piraka Stronghold? Of course not. That'd be silly. Also think of the Toa Mata Nui set. Around 13 and three fourths inches tall at the top of the mask. The regular Mata Nui set from that year was just about eight inches tall. Did Mata Nui at any point in the 2009 story grow to over one and a half times his original height? Of course not. That'd be silly. The promotional Click set from that year was another set with a radically different scale than the typical sets of that year. Click certainly wasn't an Agori-sized monstrosity in the story, but you would think he was if you based your understanding of scale only on the sets.

 

Those are extreme examples, but there are plenty of other examples that are a little bit less ridiculous. For instance, Krekka and Makuta seemed considerably larger in their original movie appearances than they were in the sets that accompanied those movies. But Makuta in his "Winged Titan" form was much smaller relative to a Toa Metru in Legends of Metru Nui than the ridiculously tall and lanky Ultimate Dume set. Overall, besides the typical height of a Toa, there's no hard and fast rule about how tall characters from the sets are in the official story, and certainly not a specific scale that you can apply to every set.

To add onto that, look at the 2010 stars sets...and compare them to their "original" sets. Supposed to be the same size in the story, but aren't in the sets.

[NuparuDescendant]

Yeah, there is no one unified scale to the BIONICLE sets. The Toa Inika sets are not taller than the Toa Mata sets because the Toa Inika characters are taller than the Toa Mata characters. They're just taller because the LEGO Group decided that kids really wanted taller and more articulated action figures. In the story, a typical Toa Inika is the same height as a typical Toa Mata.

 

Even within a given year, sets could have radically different scales. Think of the BIONICLE playsets as an example of this. The Toa Inika minifigures are two inches tall, while the Toa Inika themselves were eight and three-fourths inches tall. Did the Toa Inika REALLY get shrunk down to under a fourth of their original size when they invaded the Piraka Stronghold? Of course not. That'd be silly. Also think of the Toa Mata Nui set. Around 13 and three fourths inches tall at the top of the mask. The regular Mata Nui set from that year was just about eight inches tall. Did Mata Nui at any point in the 2009 story grow to over one and a half times his original height? Of course not. That'd be silly. The promotional Click set from that year was another set with a radically different scale than the typical sets of that year. Click certainly wasn't an Agori-sized monstrosity in the story, but you would think he was if you based your understanding of scale only on the sets.

 

Those are extreme examples, but there are plenty of other examples that are a little bit less ridiculous. For instance, Krekka and Makuta seemed considerably larger in their original movie appearances than they were in the sets that accompanied those movies. But Makuta in his "Winged Titan" form was much smaller relative to a Toa Metru in Legends of Metru Nui than the ridiculously tall and lanky Ultimate Dume set. Overall, besides the typical height of a Toa, there's no hard and fast rule about how tall characters from the sets are in the official story, and certainly not a specific scale that you can apply to every set.

Huh, well in that case, that may help me out... kindof, now it is a given for the charecters to be scaled down for play sets. At the end of the day, most franchises don't pay atttention/care about scale. The reason i asked the question is going toward a project i'm doing, but thats for another thread. so let's say the Bionicle universe IS in scale, my next question is, How tall is Tahu Mata virsion in his tallest stance without his mask?

[Aanchir]

 

Yeah, there is no one unified scale to the BIONICLE sets. The Toa Inika sets are not taller than the Toa Mata sets because the Toa Inika characters are taller than the Toa Mata characters. They're just taller because the LEGO Group decided that kids really wanted taller and more articulated action figures. In the story, a typical Toa Inika is the same height as a typical Toa Mata.

 

Even within a given year, sets could have radically different scales. Think of the BIONICLE playsets as an example of this. The Toa Inika minifigures are two inches tall, while the Toa Inika themselves were eight and three-fourths inches tall. Did the Toa Inika REALLY get shrunk down to under a fourth of their original size when they invaded the Piraka Stronghold? Of course not. That'd be silly. Also think of the Toa Mata Nui set. Around 13 and three fourths inches tall at the top of the mask. The regular Mata Nui set from that year was just about eight inches tall. Did Mata Nui at any point in the 2009 story grow to over one and a half times his original height? Of course not. That'd be silly. The promotional Click set from that year was another set with a radically different scale than the typical sets of that year. Click certainly wasn't an Agori-sized monstrosity in the story, but you would think he was if you based your understanding of scale only on the sets.

 

Those are extreme examples, but there are plenty of other examples that are a little bit less ridiculous. For instance, Krekka and Makuta seemed considerably larger in their original movie appearances than they were in the sets that accompanied those movies. But Makuta in his "Winged Titan" form was much smaller relative to a Toa Metru in Legends of Metru Nui than the ridiculously tall and lanky Ultimate Dume set. Overall, besides the typical height of a Toa, there's no hard and fast rule about how tall characters from the sets are in the official story, and certainly not a specific scale that you can apply to every set.

Huh, well in that case, that may help me out... kindof, now it is a given for the charecters to be scaled down for play sets. At the end of the day, most franchises don't pay atttention/care about scale. The reason i asked the question is going toward a project i'm doing, but thats for another thread. so let's say the Bionicle universe IS in scale, my next question is, How tall is Tahu Mata virsion in his tallest stance without his mask?

 

You mean the set? Well, the Toa Mata had an inherent bend in their knees. If you could, hypothetically, straighten their knees out, Toa Mata Tahu would be about 21 modules tall (16.8 centimeters or about six and nine sixteenths inches). Toa Nuva Tahu would be 22 modules tall (17.6 centimeters or about six and seven eighths inches).

 

The BIONICLE Stars version of Toa Mata Tahu, with legs straightened, would be just 19 modules tall (15.2 centimeters or about five and fifteen sixteenths of an inch). Converting modules to imperial or metric measure is surprisingly easy — one module (what you might call one stud in System building) is eight millimeters or about five sixteenths of an inch.

[NuparuDescendant]

OK MATH TIME! So after conversions the real Toa would be 219.456 cm. The toy thanks to Aanchir is 16.8 cm. After some research the peg hole is about .485 cm. By calculating a ratio which came out as 2286:175 (sadly this is as simplified as it gets for the ratio numbers.) So using this ratio the peg hole size in the bionicle world would be 6.335485714 cm (or 6.335 if you want to round it.) So there's the bionicle toy to universe scale.

 

Well that took a while but it was worth it. Mind if this thread gets pinned somewhere so folks who were wondering the same thing as me can find this?

[Hitoshura]

Nah, sorry, from what I know pinning is only for important posts(rules, staff posts, etc). No offence, but this type of topic isn't that important for anyone for pinning.

[Aanchir]

Another interesting note about scale:

 

In 2001, the average height of a Turaga was close to 1/2 the height of a Toa (Turaga heights varied considerably, from Turaga Whenua at about 7.5 modules tall to Turaga Onewa at about 12 modules tall, but the average of all six was close to ten or eleven modules). Matoran were shorter, at just eight modules tall. In 2003, the Matoran of Mata Nui were "rebuilt", making them eleven modules tall — about the same height as Turaga, and about half the height of a typical Toa.

 

In 2004, while Matoran and Turaga were still around the same height as each other, their height with legs straightened was much taller compared to a Toa — a good 16 modules tall! Since the Toa that year varied between 25 modules tall (Nuju, Nokama, and Lhikan) and 23 modules tall (the other four), this meant that Matoran and Turaga were now about two-thirds the height of a Toa! I believe this was largely a cosmetic change to make the body proportions of the Matoran sets closer to the body proportions of the Matoran from the movie BIONICLE: Mask of Light, as opposed to the stout proportions of 2001 and 2003 Matoran sets. However, Matoran in the movies remained closer to half the full height of a Toa.

 

The Toa Inika had a standardized height of 27.5 modules, and the Toa Mahri varied from 27 modules in height (Jaller, Nuparu) to just 21 modules in height (Kongu), with Hewkii (22 modules), Matoro (24 modules), and Hahli (25 modules) in between. This was the most variation in height since the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva. Oddly, the Toa Mahri DROPPED the average height of a maskless Toa down to 24 and a third modules.

 

The Phantoka and Mistika were also somewhat varied: they ranged in height from 22 modules (Pohatu) to Onua (27 modules, now bizarrely the tallest). In between were Gali (24 modules), Tahu (25 modules), and Kopaka and Lewa (26 modules). Average height: 25 modules.

 

As far as Matoran are concerned, the only Matoran during the "Ignition"/"Battle for Power" arc who were (in story) not enhanced or modified in any way were the ones from Mahri Nui, who with legs straightened would be 15 or 16 modules tall — very close to the same height as the Metru Nui Matoran.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[~ShadowBolt~]

I honestly would not over think this at all. Many of the sizing issues come from the sets becoming more and more detailed and articulate over the years (which is an improvement because I hated how the original Toa couldn't move at all). It does get awkward when you have 2003 sets next to 2008 sets, but you're just going to have to accept they're built to different scales due to real life limitations.

 

I would just base everything off of how tall the respective characters were to each other in the most recent sets. The Voya Nui -- Karda Nui sets for consistency.

[Hitoshura]

Another note, the Matoran in Karda Nui seem taller set-wise, because they are taller in the story(absorbing the light energies of the place). Though once out they are around average Matoran height. Just something I thought of.