G2 new Multi-Colored Gold Mask Theories

[The Meta Knight]

So, in this image (which I'm sure everybody has seen by now) one can clearly see that the new villain sets come with new dual-colored golden masks corresponding to the Masks of Earth, Ice, Jungle, and Stone. They're (more or less) clearly supposed to be worn by their respective Toa. But if so, then why do Kopaka, Onua, Lewa, and Pohatu get fancier masks, while Tahu and Gali don't get in on the new fashion trend? What are these new masks for? What advantage do these new masks have over their regular counterparts? Here are a few theories:

 

- The new Masks are simply more powerful counterparts of their respective Elemental Masks. (i.e. New earth mask is more powerful than the Golden Mask of Earth.) (the boring theory)

 

- The new Masks are Gen 2's version of infected Kanohi. (the least likely in my opinion, though I've heard people say it's the obvious answer to the question.)

 

- The new Masks give the Toa control of more than one Element. (i.e. Onua gets Earth and Gravity, Pohatu gets Stone and Metal, (if you wanna go down that road.))

 

I'm drawing a big blank as to why Tahu and Gali won't be receiving such masks. (If they are indeed intended for the Toa)

 

There's really not enough evidence at this point to speculate anything, but might as well.

 

Any thoughts? other theories?

Edited January 28, 2015 by The Meta Knight

[Banana Gunz]

Honestly, I'm clueless. Maybe they're just collectibles? Maybe they're the next masks that the toa have to get, like a tier higher than the gold masks, similar to the gold masks being stronger than their original masks. I'd imagine that Tahu and Gali will get theirs soon.

[Jobber]

What if the marbled masks are supposed to represent the Toa getting close awakening Ekimu? AKA achieving their 'destiny'.   Much like how the Krana-Kal turned silver when they almost awoken the Bahrag Queens. 

They seem to be radiation raw elemental energy.

[Voltex]

So, in this image (which I'm sure everybody has seen by now) one can clearly see that the new villain sets come with new dual-colored golden masks corresponding to the Masks of Earth, Ice, Jungle, and Stone. They're (more or less) clearly supposed to be worn by their respective Toa. But if so, then why do Kopaka, Onua, Lewa, and Pohatu get fancier masks, while Tahu and Gali don't get in on the new fashion trend? What are these new masks for? What advantage do these new masks have over their regular counterparts? Here are a few theories:

 

- The new Masks are simply more powerful counterparts of their respective Elemental Masks. (i.e. New earth mask is more powerful than the Golden Mask of Earth.) (the boring theory)

 

- The new Masks are Gen 2's version of infected Kanohi. (the least likely in my opinion, though I've heard people say it's the obvious answer to the question.)

 

- The new Masks give the Toa control of more than one Element. (i.e. Onua gets Earth and Gravity, Pohatu gets Stone and Metal, (if you wanna go down that road.))

 

I'm drawing a big blank as to why Tahu and Gali won't be receiving such masks. (If they are indeed intended for the Toa)

 

There's really not enough evidence at this point to speculate anything, but might as well.

 

Any thoughts? other theories?

 

If we operate under the (almost certainly false) assumption that somehow every single Toa except Gali and Tahu ends up under the control of the Skull villains, then I would think that's what the new masks represent. But it's also not very likely at all when looking at how Bionicle's story seems to be operating this year.

 

It might be neat if these new masks give them control over multiple elements, though. Possibly a precursor to powered up redesigns for 2016, maybe?

[The 1st Shadow]

Well, the color of each seems to match the transparent colors of their respective Toa. I wonder if it's just a manifestation of their power getting stronger or something. 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the year has only just started (we're not yet done with January) so it might take a while for us to reach a point in the story where we would even get a hint as to what it might be.

[Tuuli]

Those masks are trippy!

[Munty]

I hope these masks are simply infected or otherwise somewhat drained of their power. To have another version of these masks be MORE powerful than the gold ones will be a bit tough to swallow given how important they were the first time round. Of course they don't seem to have been given ANY importance at all this time around and seem to be necessary so the Toa can even use their powers at all, so the new masks being more powerful could potentially make sense. I just hope not...

[Rooster Nui]

I personally think that they're the same golden masks that the Toa have obtained, just either weakened or in a stronger state. The theory that they could contain multiple powers is unlikely to happen in my opinion as I think that they're just going to stay with a single element.  

 

As for Tahu and Gali, I'm not sure about them either. I'm assuming that they're going to find Ekimu, and together, defeat Skull Grinder and save the others (that is if they actually do get captured or something).

 

It is hard to tell, as we're still only in January.

[Munty]

I personally think that they're the same golden masks that the Toa have obtained, just either weakened or in a stronger state. The theory that they could contain multiple powers is unlikely to happen in my opinion as I think that they're just going to stay with a single element.  

 

I agree, especially given that a core part of the story is that it's forbidden for a mask to contain more than one power. After what happened with the MoUP I think it's even less likely that the Toa will be getting additional powers! Especially powers like gravity and such as was suggested earlier. They'r etrying to keep this story simple and adding random elements that even Genwunners aren't particularly familiar with seems like it would be going completely the opposite direction!

[Votuko]

A possibility that I don't think has been said yet is that the masks are to be worn by the villains, not the Toa.

 

The big guy fighting Ekimu (I can't remember the skully name) is standing on a picture of what looks like a forge, so maybe he forged those masks so that his villain mates can have elemental powers to rival the Toa. That would explain why the masks come with the villains and why it doesn't matter that there isn't one "for" each Toa. Also the trans colour matches the colour of villain the mask comes with, so is not necessarily related to the Toa wearing a mask of the same shape.

 

Not sure which theory I support at the moment now - I'll be waiting for more information to come out.

[dotcom]

I think they might just be like the NRG Ninja. Not literal new versions of something, but a representation of the masks when they're powered up or using their powers or something.

 

@Xelphene: The box art for the villains shows what seem to be the Toa's hands, from which the masks seem to have been snatched. So it seems like they are implying they stole the masks the Toa already had instead of getting new ones.

[Takametru007]

Maybe the dual colored masks are meant to be worn by the villains. 4 of the Toa get their masks taken, and they change color when the villains possess the masks. At the very least, the dual colored Mask of Ice is gonna look sick on the Skull Warrior.

 

I guess this makes Tahu and Gali the lucky ones. I can feel a romance beginning to grow...

Edited January 29, 2015 by Takametru007

[Banana Gunz]

Idea: What if the MOUP is in a state where its powers can't be accessed and these quite simply are the golden masks, stolen from the toa by these Skull dudes. The elemental powers in them are needed to reactivate so Makuta can use it, and these versions are just the masks with their powers more exposed so that they can be broken down to refuel the MOUP. Just an idea... I don't know the likeliness of it, but I can only see these as collectibles, or the original golden masks, stolen from the toa.

[Pomegranate]

They could be powered up, or they could be drained. Those are the two options I'm sitting on. It kinda looks like they're glowing with energy, the trans areas. On the other hand the Protector masks are semi-trans, so it could mean they're becoming powerless like those too. Could even just be new masks entirely? Whatever is going on, they're really pretty. 

I think that the Toa don't really have like, total "control" over their elements yet, just have some snazzy elemental moves? In which case the new masks could grant them total G1-type elemental powers, maybe.

[dotcom]

They could be powered up, or they could be drained. Those are the two options I'm sitting on. It kinda looks like they're glowing with energy, the trans areas. On the other hand the Protector masks are semi-trans, so it could mean they're becoming powerless like those too. Could even just be new masks entirely? Whatever is going on, they're really pretty.

Actually, the Protector masks do have elemental power. (remember in episode 2, when the PoF made a little fireball on his palm). I think the implication is that only the Protector masks have power (while the regular villager masks do not) which is why the Protector masks have trans colors. (so trans color would equal elemental power) If this is the case, it would support the idea that they're powered up.

[believe victims]

I have a theory that the reason the Skull enemies come with the masks is that they will steal the Golden Masks from the Toa and use them to activate the forge seen in the image of the "mystery mask" in the back of the little bionicle magazine. That would explain the trans color; the masks are being converted to pure elemental energy to power the forge.

 

Judging by the MoCr coming with Skull Grinder, he could have a motive for wanting the (presumably) mask-making forge lit, perhaps to destroy the mask, or perhaps to make a mask of his own....

[Xabla]

I think there from 2001 Infected Kanohi.

[Sharnak the Bohrok Lord]

I think they're the gold masks that are somehow leaking their energies. It's possible that the villains tried to steal the gold masks and attempt to gain their powers. The villains gold masks match up with their colors and the Toa's too.

 

The idea of them being even more special doesn't seem likely to me. Why would only four Toa receive even better masks while Tahu and Gali get left out?

[Regitnui]

Nowhere has it been said that the Toa's masks are unique. In fact, the Mask Makers are known to forge elemental masks. Perhaps the ones the Toa have are forged by Ekimu with the same method as his golden MoCr, and the new ones are forged by the twisted Makuta for his minions. They're more on the Protectors power level, hence the two-tone shading.

[Cressona]

At first I was worried that there'd be some story reason that four toa have their masks stolen/infected, and the other two would have to fight them/win back the others' masks.. definitely would want the entire team to have to go through that, just because setting aside Tahu and Gali for story reasons vastly decreases playability outside of following along strictly with the established story.

 

But I like the idea that these are just new masks made by some Mask Maker (Ekimu or Makuta or some Skull guy who has access to a forge) to equip the bad guys with; it'd make sense if Lego's trying to save $$$ by reusing molds instead of introducing new masks, and it'd underscore the importance of the masks to the story, since bad guys and good guys have them, and will probably use mask powers to battle each other at some point.

 

The the half-transparent part of the masks could indicate corruption, because they're being used by villains, or it could indicate either a higher or lower level of mask power, if the bad guys' masks were made by an inferior mask maker, or they were powered up to present more of a challenge to the toa.

 

Either way, equipping the skull guys with some of the same masks the toa has sets up a cool confrontation that could be reminiscent of '01's shadow toa, with the toa "confronting themselves" in some way.

[Toa Tupac]

Looks like they are going to be another power up to me. I read this theory on bioniclee reddit page which was pretty neat. It suggested that each new set would include power ups for the toa, for example adding more armor and weapon pieces ala Tahu stars golden parts.

[aldero]

Maybe the dual colored masks are meant to be worn by the villains. 4 of the Toa get their masks taken, and they change color when the villains possess the masks. At the very least, the dual colored Mask of Ice is gonna look sick on the Skull Warrior.

 

I guess this makes Tahu and Gali the lucky ones. I can feel a romance beginning to grow...

 

Exactly what I would like to see happen. I'd suggest that the skull villains are ancient, long-dead, intelligent beasts (that would explain why Skull Basher looks like a minotaur and Skull Scorpio is scorpion-like) that are awoken by the presence of power, power being the Golden Masks that the Toa possess.  When they emerge from the resting places, they are weakened, lumbering zombies that are drawn to the power of the masks. But before they find the Toa, they find the Lord of Skull Spiders' cave, which contains the Golden Mask of Skull Spiders. 

 

Realising that this mask contains power, Skull Grinder greedily consumes all of it's energy, becoming powerful and menacing once again, but still undead and skeletal. The rest of the villains eventually steal four of the Toa's Golden Masks, stealing the power of the Masks, thus causing the leaking energy.

[Ford]

When looking at the box art for the Skull villains, you can see another hand in the corner of each box that is reaching for the marbled mask. I think that these are more powerful versions of the masks of power, but with this little theory I have no idea what lies in store for Gali or Tahu.

[Petewa]

They could just be the G2 reincarnations of the Nuva masks,

[J46 Nui]

The first thing I thought of when I saw the masks was Tahu's infected Hau Nuva, so I think I'll go with the golden masks got corrupted somehow by the new villains. Maybe the Toa get de-powered sometime during the second half of the year. It wouldn't surprise me considering how fast they got the gold masks to begin with.

 

On a slightly off topic note, I do hope that we recieve Tahu's and Gali's versions of these masks somehow. Maybe a promotion or something.

[Iblis]

 

On a slightly off topic note, I do hope that we receive Tahu's and Gali's versions of these masks somehow. Maybe a promotion or something.

 

I know right, I'm curious and somewhat excited to see what these Masks turn out to be specifically, but I'm anxious that they'll miss out :/

 

Theses Masks do look drained to me for whatever reason ^{(the protector Masks don't give me that impression)}, the other blended Masks are better than non-blended, I mean look at the Protector of Fire compared to the Fire Villagers ... So yeah I'm torn in two ways... maybe they're 'corrupted' but not weakened?

[MrSciFiGuy]

I like the idea of them being "controlled" way better than "stronger masks", unless they had a passive/secondary powers like the Kanohi Nuva

[Saint-14]

To be honest they're probably just in the sets for the purpose of being fancy masks, but if I had to choose a story reason for them to be there I'd pick the corrupt idea that this thread seems to be sticking with.

 

Also because the shipper in me really wants another 'Onua saves infected Lewa' moment because those two just break my darn heart

[Regitnui]

I'm holding the "inferior elemental masks" theory until we get evidence in July either way.

[Onvermel]

I have a theory that the reason the Skull enemies come with the masks is that they will steal the Golden Masks from the Toa and use them to activate the forge seen in the image of the "mystery mask" in the back of the little bionicle magazine. That would explain the trans color; the masks are being converted to pure elemental energy to power the forge.

 

Judging by the MoCr coming with Skull Grinder, he could have a motive for wanting the (presumably) mask-making forge lit, perhaps to destroy the mask, or perhaps to make a mask of his own....

This is actually a really interesting idea and I would love to see this come true.

 

As for why Tahu and Gali don't have mask I'm betting that there will be set released a little later (possable Makuta) who will have both. Another side note the pure trans orange hau from the little bag set maybe it's suppose to be a fully drained version as it's in his respected trans colour. Just my thoughts on this.

 

-Onvermel-

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

I personally believe that these masks have something to do with Ekimu.

My theories:

-these 4 toa awaken Ekimu while Tahu & Gali stand guard.

-Ekimu created 4 Higher level toa masks before Makuta interrupted him with the whole MoUP shebang.

-In conjunction with my 1st theory, the four toa awaken Ekimu and doing so drains elemental energy.

[Petersheikah]

Wait, aren't Tahu and Gali's masks included in Ekimu vs Skull Grinder? You know... Ekimu's got trans blue bones, the skull guy has trans red armor...

[Anapouri]

I want to say it's just because of the limited amount of sets so they just selected which masks to put in them. I want to assume the Skull warriors that they will be selling are ones that specific Toa end up fighting according to their location or element or something. They'll probably add Tahu and Gali in there at some point. 

Anyway, I want to say it's either the raw elemental energy of the golden mask or them being drained of their power or something. Who knows. We just have to wait and see I guess.

[Lyichir]

Wait, aren't Tahu and Gali's masks included in Ekimu vs Skull Grinder? You know... Ekimu's got trans blue bones, the skull guy has trans red armor...

They aren't... probably because THREE bonus masks would be considered too many for a single set no matter how much it cost.

 

I do hope the other masks show up in one way or another... but unless the summer story establishes that there are in fact supposed to be six of those masks or we learn about unrevealed store exclusive sets, there's no way to be sure.

[Regitnui]

Again, I like the idea of Makuta making inferior elemental masks that for his army. The Toa need to get them away from the Skull Army to defeat them.

[Petersheikah]

 

Wait, aren't Tahu and Gali's masks included in Ekimu vs Skull Grinder? You know... Ekimu's got trans blue bones, the skull guy has trans red armor...

They aren't... probably because THREE bonus masks would be considered too many for a single set no matter how much it cost.

 

I do hope the other masks show up in one way or another... but unless the summer story establishes that there are in fact supposed to be six of those masks or we learn about unrevealed store exclusive sets, there's no way to be sure.

Well Toa have got 2 additional masks (Regular one, Golden one and Skull Spider, which is also a mask) and the cheapest ones cost ~15 €. This is the biggest set we've seen so far, I don't think there's any problem with adding three masks to this one. Also it's not fair that 4 Toa got their masks and two are left with their regular golden variats. It just doesn't make much sense.

[Xan]

I would have thought that the half trans masks would be representing the power from them being consumed by the skull villains. The box art shows hands reaching out to try to get them. They could be the Toa trying to recover their Kanohi. 

[Lyichir]

 

 

Wait, aren't Tahu and Gali's masks included in Ekimu vs Skull Grinder? You know... Ekimu's got trans blue bones, the skull guy has trans red armor...

They aren't... probably because THREE bonus masks would be considered too many for a single set no matter how much it cost.

 

I do hope the other masks show up in one way or another... but unless the summer story establishes that there are in fact supposed to be six of those masks or we learn about unrevealed store exclusive sets, there's no way to be sure.

 

Well Toa have got 2 additional masks (Regular one, Golden one and Skull Spider, which is also a mask) and the cheapest ones cost ~15 €. This is the biggest set we've seen so far, I don't think there's any problem with adding three masks to this one. Also it's not fair that 4 Toa got their masks and two are left with their regular golden variats. It just doesn't make much sense.

 

The first difference between the Skull Spiders and other "bonus masks" is that Skull Spiders are actually articulated figures in their own right—they essentially serve as other characters fighting the Toa for the masks. If the other two blended Toa masks came in MM vs. SG, what would you DO with them? They wouldn't offer any more play potential, as there's already an exclusive mask for those characters to fight over. The other two masks would only really be good for piling up in the background as far as play potential is concerned.

 

The second difference between Skull Spiders and bonus masksis that Skull Spiders are widely available. Each Skull Spider appears in FOUR different sets, meaning that they're hardly meant as incentives to buy individual sets. Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder already has THREE masks that aren't available elsewhere. If Lego added two more exclusive masks to that set, it would literally be a waste of money, because the only people who would care about the blended Tahu and Gali masks (completionists, mostly) would already be buyig MM vs. SG for one or more of the other three masks (particularly the Mask of Creation, which is front-and-center on ALL the promo material and as such is pretty much THE mask to get even for casual fans). The point of "bonus" masks like that is to add an extra incentive for buying the sets—and that's something MM vs. SG doesn't need, since it already has enough factors which are sure to make it the most high-demand Bionicle set of the year.

 

Also, keep in mind... we don't KNOW that there won't be blended variants of the other two. Between store-exclusive sets, gifts-with-purchase, and other promotional giveaways, there are still MANY opportunities for additional masks to make an appearance.

[fishers64]

Also, keep in mind... we don't KNOW that there won't be blended variants of the other two. Between store-exclusive sets, gifts-with-purchase, and other promotional giveaways, there are still MANY opportunities for additional masks to make an appearance.

This is probably getting too set-y for S&T, but I imagine that they might go the same way the Trans-Orange Tahu mask did. It's probably in part because they want to reuse the new mask molds IMO.

 

Personally I'm not sure I want to endorse the "power-drain" theories just yet. The Mask Maker Ekimu is up and kicking, so maybe he made more powerful masks for the Toa to help them out and the Skull Villains stole them.

[Hellyam]

My theory is that the masks are actually the Protectors masks. The Master masks have a hint of the Protector's color specifically on them. Onua's mask having the purple tint of the Protector of Earth, Pohatu's mask having the yellow tint of the Protector of Earth and so on. Now, that being said the "guardians" of the transcolored masks haven't had any background yet so far. My theory is that the various protectors, PoS, PoE, PoJ, PoI are actually their various enemies with their respective masks. PoI being Skull Warrior, PoE being Skull Basher, PoJ being Skull Scorpio and so on.

 

Skull Grinder is seen on a furnace implying that either Ekimu or Skull Grinder make masks. We know that Ekimu makes masks, but what if Skull Grinder did too? If we go on the theory that Skull Grinder makes masks, then it would be reasonable to assume that he created masks for the protectors. The Protectors were kidnapped after the Masters left for the Golden city by Skull Spiders, and were forced to don the masks which in turn transformed them into monsters. The masks then became golden with the tint to symbolize that the Protectors are now monsters and need the Masters to save them.

 

My theory barely has any solid evidence, but as of now I perceive it to be the most likely theory, in my opinion.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Hellyam