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Did the 2001 Toa Have Their Masks Swapped?


jed1ndy

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The question is pretty much the topic title: Did the Toa have their masks swapped during the design period of 2001? If we look at early artwork of 2001 done by Christian Faber, we can see an awakening Tahu on the golden beach putting on a Miru instead of a Hau, and at the 2001 Toy Fair reveal, the prototype Kopaka was wearing a white Hau instead of an Akaku. Additionally, early artwork of the Doo Heads shows Kick with a head that appears to be very similar to a Kaukau, and Flame with a head similar to the noble Huna. So again, did the Toa have their masks swapped during the design period of 2001?

 

EDIT: Links!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kEpwZHTXFh4/T4NiIBJjlbI/AAAAAAAAAGM/t75fEEKZm-I/s1600/Early+bionicle_the+birth+of+a+Toa.jpg

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/68096/1294326-tahu40.jpg

http://www.alteredstatesmag.com/mar2001/graphics/Bio_Kopaka.jpg

Edited by jed1ndy
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I don't know. Likely the prototypes went through a couple of iterations before they finalised the looks.

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The Element IDs for the Toa Mata masks do provide some clues that the Toa Mata masks might have at one point been assigned to different Toa, but they are not consistent with the observations you're basing this theory on. Sequentially, the first six Element IDs for Toa Mata masks are 4143538 (Bright Blue Kakama), 4143540 (Bright Red Hau — this one did not change), 4143543 (White Pakari), 4143545 (Earth Orange/classic brown Miru), 4143548 (Dark Green/classic green Kakama), and 4143550 (Black Ruru).

There are some definite quirks to this list — the Kaukau and Akaku are not listed for any of the Toa, while the noble Ruru is included and the Kakama is listed twice. This is not unheard of with prototypes — some of the Toa Hordika prototypes we've seen had masks shared between multiple characters — so it's possible these masks were never meant to be the characters' final masks and were just the first six produced because they needed masks for focus testing or something.

The next five Element IDs for masks (4143780–4143784) give us the remaining Toa masks in their proper colors: the Dark Green Miru, Black Pakari, Earth Orange Kakama, White Akaku, and Transparent Blue Kaukau, in that order.

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Don't quote me on this, because I can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, but I'm pretty sure the designers just assigned the original masks based on which mold they though would look best in which color. So I suppose it's entirely possible that some early material might have some of the masks switched around.

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It's possible, but I bet the kaukau was always blue, as it looks like a scuba mask.

Very true. Wasn't there a quote from an old interview saying the Kaukau was the last of the Toa Mata masks designed? I know for sure that it was the only one designed digitally with a CAD program rather than by hand-carving a 3:1 scale model.

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Technically they wore all the masks anyways, but I understand where you are coming from. I don't think they "swapped" out ideas. Each have character development and their mask design to represent their element/style/"culture". 


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Fun Fact: The Vahi was originally going to be Tahu's mask, but they replaced it with the mask you see now and made the Vahi something totally different. There's actually some concept art somewhere showing Tahu awakening wearing the prototype Vahi. It was the first mask LEGO ever designed.

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Fun Fact: The Vahi was originally going to be Tahu's mask, but they replaced it with the mask you see now and made the Vahi something totally different. There's actually some concept art somewhere showing Tahu awakening wearing the prototype Vahi. It was the first mask LEGO ever designed.

Get it? The mask has a "T" for tahu
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Fun Fact: The Vahi was originally going to be Tahu's mask, but they replaced it with the mask you see now and made the Vahi something totally different. There's actually some concept art somewhere showing Tahu awakening wearing the prototype Vahi. It was the first mask LEGO ever designed.

Get it? The mask has a "T" for tahu

I always thought it looked like cheese.

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Fun Fact: The Vahi was originally going to be Tahu's mask, but they replaced it with the mask you see now and made the Vahi something totally different. There's actually some concept art somewhere showing Tahu awakening wearing the prototype Vahi. It was the first mask LEGO ever designed.

Get it? The mask has a "T" for tahu

I always thought it looked like cheese.

 

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