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Bohrok Secrets Revealed


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Christian Faber recently updated The Faber Files with some entries regarding the Bohrok. First, we get some insight into the Bohrok logo and some art that shows the relationship of the Toa to the swarms. Next, there's some background on the Bohrok and their awakening. Finally, Faber talks about a familiar teaser from 2002. There's some cool insight and nice info to be found - check it out!

 

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To be honest I don't really understand what this one's supposed to mean. The thing about the family tree sounds different to what we learned about the Bohrok's origins later, which makes me believe that the original concept was scrapped and replaced by the similar idea that the Bohrok evolved from Matoran. Or maybe that's what he's talking about all the time? Or he's simply referring to the fact that they were all created by the Great Beings. It's great to see some updates once again, this is cool stuff.

 

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Another awesome update. I never would have expected the 11 year old mystery of that evolution image to be resolved, and the symbolism in the Bohrok logo is super neat.

 

To be honest I don't really understand what this one's supposed to mean. The thing about the family tree sounds different to what we learned about the Bohrok's origins later, which makes me believe that the original concept was scrapped and replaced by the similar idea that the Bohrok evolved from Matoran. Or maybe that's what he's talking about all the time? Or he's simply referring to the fact that they were all created by the Great Beings. It's great to see some updates once again, this is cool stuff.

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I think the concept just evolved over time. Originally the idea was that they evolved from a common ancestor, but as time went on and the BIONICLE story developed they altered things to better fit the story until we ended up with what we got in 2008.

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So the next question is, what are the creepy things on the sides supposed to be? Perhaps a cross between Bahrag and Manas? Or something of Great Being nature?

 

They're an early concept of the Bahrag, as Faber imagined them.

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When I read that headline I thought that Greg had dropped some bombshell on the LMBs. This is interesting too, but whenever I read that the Toa and Bohrok are suppose to be from the same evolutionary background I think to myself, "Wow, maybe Greg wasn't that far off with that whole Av-Matoran thing."

 

Just a thought.

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Hooray for old mysterious images and concepts finally being explained! Pretty cool reveals.

I'm also kind of surprised to find out that they knew Mata Nui was a giant robot as early as the Bohrok saga. And that's when they were just planning it and making rough concepts, which could've been way before 2002.

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Hooray for old mysterious images and concepts finally being explained! Pretty cool reveals.

I'm also kind of surprised to find out that they knew Mata Nui was a giant robot as early as the Bohrok saga. And that's when they were just planning it and making rough concepts, which could've been way before 2002.

The concept of the Matoran living inside the giant Mata Nui robot has been the premise of the entire story since Day 0. Every concept of BIONICLE from the beginning (which they started planning as soon as 1999, I think) was based on that.

 

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Edited by Gatanui
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Hooray for old mysterious images and concepts finally being explained! Pretty cool reveals.

I'm also kind of surprised to find out that they knew Mata Nui was a giant robot as early as the Bohrok saga. And that's when they were just planning it and making rough concepts, which could've been way before 2002.

The concept of the Matoran living inside the giant Mata Nui robot has been the premise of the entire story since Day 0. Every concept of BIONICLE from the beginning (which they started planning as soon as 1999, I think) was based on that.

 

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Well, not necessarily. According to "Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry", back in the earliest stages (when it was still going by "Voodoo Heads" and similar names) the idea of the characters living inside a giant robot was not established. The giant robot as the "big story engine" was not adopted until summer of 1999 when ADVANCE joined the project. As an art director, Christian Faber introduced the concept of the Mata Nui robot based on his recent diagnosis with a benign brain tumor, and the medication he was taking to keep it from spreading. It was around this same time that the theme finally acquired the name BIONICLE (for "biological chronicle").

 

"Faber imagined the toy canisters as vials of medicine drifting toward the head of a giant, comatose robot that was infected with a virus. The medicine's active ingredient was an army of nano-size creatures that arrived in pill-shaped capsules, entered the titan's body, and fought to liberate it from the virus." (Page 154)

 

So there were concepts for the Voodoo Heads product line (which would become BIONICLE) well before the Mata Nui robot was introduced as a driving force behind the story, but it had been established by the time the BIONICLE name was attached to it, and well before other integral ideas like the Polynesian-inspired lexicon and the Kanohi Masks of Power were introduced.

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I gotta say that I really like that the "family tree" one. There's so much potential for further sets and story from that, especially in the "transitional" Bohrok. And I really like Faber's design for the Bahrag.

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Hooray for old mysterious images and concepts finally being explained! Pretty cool reveals.

I'm also kind of surprised to find out that they knew Mata Nui was a giant robot as early as the Bohrok saga. And that's when they were just planning it and making rough concepts, which could've been way before 2002.

The concept of the Matoran living inside the giant Mata Nui robot has been the premise of the entire story since Day 0. Every concept of BIONICLE from the beginning (which they started planning as soon as 1999, I think) was based on that.

 

-Gata signoff.png

 

Well, not necessarily. According to "Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry", back in the earliest stages (when it was still going by "Voodoo Heads" and similar names) the idea of the characters living inside a giant robot was not established. The giant robot as the "big story engine" was not adopted until summer of 1999 when ADVANCE joined the project. As an art director, Christian Faber introduced the concept of the Mata Nui robot based on his recent diagnosis with a benign brain tumor, and the medication he was taking to keep it from spreading. It was around this same time that the theme finally acquired the name BIONICLE (for "biological chronicle").

 

"Faber imagined the toy canisters as vials of medicine drifting toward the head of a giant, comatose robot that was infected with a virus. The medicine's active ingredient was an army of nano-size creatures that arrived in pill-shaped capsules, entered the titan's body, and fought to liberate it from the virus." (Page 154)

 

So there were concepts for the Voodoo Heads product line (which would become BIONICLE) well before the Mata Nui robot was introduced as a driving force behind the story, but it had been established by the time the BIONICLE name was attached to it, and well before other integral ideas like the Polynesian-inspired lexicon and the Kanohi Masks of Power were introduced.

 

...

So BIONICLE was designed around Faber's disease? That's... A bit morbid.

Do not trust corrupted memories.

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Hooray for old mysterious images and concepts finally being explained! Pretty cool reveals.

I'm also kind of surprised to find out that they knew Mata Nui was a giant robot as early as the Bohrok saga. And that's when they were just planning it and making rough concepts, which could've been way before 2002.

The concept of the Matoran living inside the giant Mata Nui robot has been the premise of the entire story since Day 0. Every concept of BIONICLE from the beginning (which they started planning as soon as 1999, I think) was based on that.

 

-Gata signoff.png

Well, not necessarily. According to "Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry", back in the earliest stages (when it was still going by "Voodoo Heads" and similar names) the idea of the characters living inside a giant robot was not established. The giant robot as the "big story engine" was not adopted until summer of 1999 when ADVANCE joined the project. As an art director, Christian Faber introduced the concept of the Mata Nui robot based on his recent diagnosis with a benign brain tumor, and the medication he was taking to keep it from spreading. It was around this same time that the theme finally acquired the name BIONICLE (for "biological chronicle").

 

"Faber imagined the toy canisters as vials of medicine drifting toward the head of a giant, comatose robot that was infected with a virus. The medicine's active ingredient was an army of nano-size creatures that arrived in pill-shaped capsules, entered the titan's body, and fought to liberate it from the virus." (Page 154)

 

So there were concepts for the Voodoo Heads product line (which would become BIONICLE) well before the Mata Nui robot was introduced as a driving force behind the story, but it had been established by the time the BIONICLE name was attached to it, and well before other integral ideas like the Polynesian-inspired lexicon and the Kanohi Masks of Power were introduced.

...

So BIONICLE was designed around Faber's disease? That's... A bit morbid.

That... makes a lot of sense now.
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I would love to see someone's MOC interpretation of the early Bahrag design. I like that it has a much more insect look than the official Bahrag got. It even has sort of an egg sac thing going on, with what I think are Bohrok attached to its back.

 

I sort of want to know more about what the original concept for the Matoran/Bohrok link was. The chart definitely does not match up with the eventual Av-Matoran explanation even though that explanation is clearly inspired by it.

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That picture of what Fable thought the Bahrag looked like makes me wish their sets were actually like that. They would've made for some really cool sets.

The Bahrag were pretty cool sets even after being radically redesigned from these early concepts. Their function was not quite as radical as that of Muaka and Kane–Ra, but it was more streamlined so it didn't make that ratchety sound and really made you feel like you were in control. Like the Rahi before them, they were designed so that they could fight either each other or a hero character. There was an area around their chest or the base of their neck that could be grabbed by either the other Bahrag's jaw or the Exo-Toa's hook-arm to disable their biting function, similar to how the Manas would be immobilized when both of their masks had been struck or Muaka and Kane-Ra would lose their legs when their masks were yanked off. Really fantastic sets in general.

 

The Bahrag in those carvings are definitely really interesting, what with the ability to carry rolled-up Bohrok on their backs, but I don't know if giant spiderlike creatures would be quite as fun as the final, slightly dinosaur-like Bahrag sets ended up being.

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I honestly prefer the idea that Bohrok and Matoran/Toa evolved from the same common ancestor than the rather silly notion that a small percentage of a very select sub-species of Matoran that lives in a single location are destined to lose their minds and turn into robots.

 

I think I might try and make something like on the sides of this image.

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The weirdest part to me was the fact that Toa (and bohrok) were originally imagined as growing from infants of some kind.

 

Those Bahrag look really interesting. I wonder if they ever made it to the set prototyping phase. However, I have to agree with Aanchir - the dinosaur/big bohrok design that made it to production was more fun and fit the story better. Also, the arachnid look of the precursors to bohrok and prototype bahrag doesn't really seem to complement the design of the bohrok.

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The weirdest part to me was the fact that Toa (and bohrok) were originally imagined as growing from infants of some kind.

 

Those Bahrag look really interesting. I wonder if they ever made it to the set prototyping phase. However, I have to agree with Aanchir - the dinosaur/big bohrok design that made it to production was more fun and fit the story better. Also, the arachnid look of the precursors to bohrok and prototype bahrag doesn't really seem to complement the design of the bohrok.

I can see how the Bahrag we got were more fun (I haven't taken mine apart since I first built them back in '02), but I don't really see how the dragon design fit the storyline better. The Bohrok had a whole insect theme going on, and I think that a more insect-like Bahrag would have fit better in terms of theme. They were supposed to be like insect queens after all.

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The weirdest part to me was the fact that Toa (and bohrok) were originally imagined as growing from infants of some kind.

 

Those Bahrag look really interesting. I wonder if they ever made it to the set prototyping phase. However, I have to agree with Aanchir - the dinosaur/big bohrok design that made it to production was more fun and fit the story better. Also, the arachnid look of the precursors to bohrok and prototype bahrag doesn't really seem to complement the design of the bohrok.

I can see how the Bahrag we got were more fun (I haven't taken mine apart since I first built them back in '02), but I don't really see how the dragon design fit the storyline better. The Bohrok had a whole insect theme going on, and I think that a more insect-like Bahrag would have fit better in terms of theme. They were supposed to be like insect queens after all.

I don't know about storyline, but the Bahrag did have the same lunging-neck, "chikt-chikt-chikt" action feature as the Bohrok. While the Bohrok had insect motifs in some respects (like being presented as an invading swarm), it wasn't anywhere near as apparent in their actual design as in those Bahrag concepts.

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The weirdest part to me was the fact that Toa (and bohrok) were originally imagined as growing from infants of some kind.

 

Those Bahrag look really interesting. I wonder if they ever made it to the set prototyping phase. However, I have to agree with Aanchir - the dinosaur/big bohrok design that made it to production was more fun and fit the story better. Also, the arachnid look of the precursors to bohrok and prototype bahrag doesn't really seem to complement the design of the bohrok.

I can see how the Bahrag we got were more fun (I haven't taken mine apart since I first built them back in '02), but I don't really see how the dragon design fit the storyline better. The Bohrok had a whole insect theme going on, and I think that a more insect-like Bahrag would have fit better in terms of theme. They were supposed to be like insect queens after all.

 

I don't know about storyline, but the Bahrag did have the same lunging-neck, "chikt-chikt-chikt" action feature as the Bohrok. While the Bohrok had insect motifs in some respects (like being presented as an invading swarm), it wasn't anywhere near as apparent in their actual design as in those Bahrag concepts.

 

Well, the insect queen versions of the Bahrag could as well have got the Chickt feature.

 

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