Why they're all clones?

[Archius]

I know that the real world reason for them to be clone sets was because of the building system - They didn't want to spend money on making everyone too different.

 

But what was the explanition in-universe? Like, why all the Toa Metru have the same exact armor? Why the matoran of metru nui all look the same? And all Toa Nuva look the same? etc

[Zidonaro]

I like to think that Matoran of certain regions are certain types of cell.

 

For example, think of a neuron. They are a certain type of specialized cell that can be found on the brain, and all have the: same structure, a body, ramifications, and tail. Just like the Metru Matoran(who are in the "Brain" of the robot) all use that same armor, legs and arms mold.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

I know that the real world reason for them to be clone sets was because of the building system - They didn't want to spend money on making everyone too different.

 

But what was the explanition in-universe? Like, why all the Toa Metru have the same exact armor? Why the matoran of metru nui all look the same? And all Toa Nuva look the same? etc

A couple theories. First one is a reason for their overall appearance. Kind of like in nature, the organisms of the Matoran Universe have been constructed based on a master blueprint set(s) by their creator and their creator's creators. This doesn't fit for each toa team or some individual toa precisely, as well as all MU folks, so there are cultural tastes for each of them that is reflected on their armor and kanohi designs, and i wouldn't be surprised if these factors are taken into account by the hidden, automatic factory-machines that produce the matoran and their biomechanical cousins to ensure cultural acceptance and streamlined progress on their eternal labors.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Iaredios the Hip Historian

[MrSciFiGuy]

Well, they are mass produced machines after all

[fishers64]

I think Greg's explanation was that the Metru thought a Toa was what Lhikan was, so they all looked like him. 

 

That doesn't explain the Mata or the Nuva, though. 

[Zidonaro]

I think the Toa Mata bodies are supposed to be similar to the great spirit robot

Edited March 22, 2016 by Zidonaro

[Electric Light Gunhaver]

Well, the Toa Mata were all built by the same person, so why not make it easier on yourself by building the same design for each one? That isn't the best justification for laziness, but it's something. Honestly, there probably aren't better reasons than fishers64's or Iaredios's.

 

Going on what they said, though, most likely Takua imagined the Toa Nuva when he transformed into Takanuva, so that's why he looks like them. 

Edited March 24, 2016 by Godkarmachine O Inary

[evil_jaga_genius]

For Toa armor, I think it's to identify members of the same Toa team.  So all the Nuva have the same armor style, same with the Metru and Inika, because that's the team's own specific style.  Maybe the armor's made in batches, too, so the Nuva got armor version 1, the Metru got version 2, so on and so forth.

[ToaTImeLord]

I can explain the mata and nuva series.

The Toa are all part of the same species. So they would have very simular builds.

For example look at a group of six people within a family. They all look farther alike.

 

So when they fell into the Protodermis they would have mutated into simular forms.

Edited March 24, 2016 by ToaTimeLord

[Electric Light Gunhaver]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that all Toa would look the same after being dropped into Protodermis, as the Toa Nuva themselves don't ALL look the same after their transformation (Looking at you, Pohatu). And we've seen Toa who look vastly different from the rest with the Toa Mahri. Sure, they were transformed by the Red Star and then the Ignika, but I don't think they would look exactly like all other Toa. I know that that most Toa would look similar because all Matoran look similar whn built. I think that a Toa, by species, would be based off of his or her armor and abilities, rather than how they look, due to the many different designs that Lego has released of them. 

 

If all Toa would look the same, wouldn't that mean that every Toa would be based off of Helryx? 

[Aanchir]

I mean, in fairness, the differences between real people (apart from things like size and color which often did vary within a group of mid-size Bionicle characters) tend to be fairly subtle. Perhaps too subtle to be represented at Bionicle sets' scale without specialty parts for each character. So for biomechanical species like Toa it could easily be the same way.

 

Something that would be much harder to explain from an in-story perspective is how characters released as sets years apart would so often have much different builds, even if they were the same species, but characters released as sets close together (even those whose in-story origins were vastly different, like Lesovikk and the Toa Mahri) would still all have very similar builds. Of course, that could potentially be dismissed as coincidence. Or just "because destiny said so".

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

i try not to get the awkward flow of set design confused for hard canon species-rules, it gets messy. x:

 

do remember, after all, that the nuva are supposed to be as-tall-as the mahri/inika, (which they aren't) and that all in-canon reasons for even jsut matoran looking different have been.. equally messy. (rebuilt, degenerated/shrunk, mutated, mutilated...)

 

mostly i'd say it's armor/parts styles and that's it, the nuva all wear similar armor (displayed as smae to save costs on new molds) and the rest follow suit, though with their own team styles. (notably, they get less directly clone-y as time went on so this becomes less of an issue)

[Dallior]

And then the Glatorians happened, basically turning "clone sets" on their heads.