The 1st Shadow

Certain rahi were made to inhabit areas that were vital to the Great Spirit Robot's functions and keep Matoran and other races away from them, for their own protection. Others served to regulate some of the more natural aspects of the MU, such as the waterways, plant life, and such. Every flourishing ecosystem requires regulation in the form of various animal species in order to function, so it stands to reason that the various rahi serve those same purposes in the MU that their counterparts do in our world, if that makes any sense.

Holy freaking jackrabbits..... That is incredible. I can see how it could be mistaken for a still from the movie at a glance. Just about every last detail is spot-on! My only complaint is that I can't figure out what piece you used for the top of the head. It looks like the old Throwbot visor, but too rounded for me to be sure. If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to see how this was built so I can make one for my own collection, though in another color, perhaps.

I feel like it was a neat concept, but the execution was flawed. It could have been better. I didn't outright hate them, because they did have a lot of cool builds and neat techniques, but I didn't love how they turned out overall.

One thing of note that I would like to add is, Takanuva has access to the Light-based abilities that Av-Matoran could only access when combined with a Toa. So he can now move at the speed of light, create solid light etc., by using his element in ways that Toa of other elements presumably cannot. So while his mastery of his elemental power is more akin to normal Toa than a Toa Nuva, I would probably rank his overall power level slightly above other normal Toa simply based on the extra abilities he possesses. True, but other Toa can create "solid objects" from their elements (Pohatu or Onua creating giant hands to grab enemies, Kopaka throwing up walls in midair, etc). The only one that is really "special" to Av-Matoran (and, by extension, Takanuva) is the speed thing, and it was stated that Takanuva would require a lot of training to use that ability to the fullest extent. Even when we saw Photok use that power with Pohatu, they weren't moving at the full speed of light. Just a drastic increase in movement speed. It would require more training and experience than Takanuva ever had time to focus on in the story as we saw it. So, while he is capable of doing those things, it's still a stretch of whether or not he is presently able to. In the Battle for Bara Magna, we saw him struggle to cast an illusion against a pair of Rahkshi.

Um.... A few points to make. 1) Av-Matoran are NOT taller than other types. The only reason the Matoran in Karda Nui were taller is because their elemental Light was reacting to the closeness to the Core of the Universe. It was super-charging their bodies, so to speak. That's why Takanuva started growing larger once in Karda Nui. Outside in the rest of the MU, Av-Matoran were the same height as any other Matoran. (See BS01, under Abilities and Traits) 2) Takanuva was as tall as the Nuva because the Toa Nuva weren't any taller than other types of Toa--still just 7 feet tall. (See BS01) 3) The Avohkii does not boost Takanuva's existing Elemental Powers. This has been confirmed by Greg on multiple occasions. (See BS01, under Powers) That said, Takanuva has the same level of power as the Toa Metru, Toa Mahri, Toa Hagah, etc. All the Avohkii does is give him a source of backup energy in terms of Elemental Power, but it doesn't increase his natural abilities.

Well, for starters, they would have needed time to set up camp and have a place to live first. The villages weren't just waiting for them when they got to the island. They would have used that year to build their new homes and prepare for what was to come, and there wouldn't have been enough time or material to rebuild the Matoran in the first place. It's never explicitly stated, but we can infer that they used parts from destroyed Bohrok to rebuild themselves. And since those weren't around until later.... That's just my take on it.

That is too cool! Instantly recognizable, and nothing looks out of place. It's all very cohesive. Well done! If you're gonna do more SW ships, I'd love to see an X-Wing or an Ep. 3 Jedi Interceptor.

*looks at topic* *looks at avatar* *looks back at topic* Really? For appearance and power, the Kakama, easily. Only drawback is that it would only allow me to move myself. Imagine going on a long trip and having to carry luggage, too. Not very handy. For average purposes, I'd go with the Kakama. But for big trips, an Olmak to open a gateway to the place I'm going so I can just step through with my bags in the blink of an eye--now that's handy!. Kiril would be nice as well, for obvious reasons. Flying has it's appeal, but only if I had perfect control of speed and direction. Besides, the Kakama or Olmak could probably make the trip much faster.

Antidermis-infected Voyatoran. For me, it's a tie between Bohrok and Vahki.

I'm torn between the Rust Ghoul, The Condemned, and Asmund the Banisher. The Condemned makes good use of the upside-down face on the Ruru, and it's stylish in its simplicity. They've all got character, but I think the Condemned is the one that interests me the most. It has my vote.

They are 100% complete as far as the instructions go, no spare/replacement pieces or those things that rubber bands were on when they were in the box. I can send them next week, assuming you are interested. Definitely interested. One last question. Is the $40 for both of the Manas in one set, or are they priced separately? It´s for both. I just want to get rid of my old sets, or otherwive I might change my mind and have them laying in my room for another decade. Okay. Gotcha. Just wondering. I'll PM you for the details, then.

They are 100% complete as far as the instructions go, no spare/replacement pieces or those things that rubber bands were on when they were in the box. I can send them next week, assuming you are interested. Definitely interested. One last question. Is the $40 for both of the Manas in one set, or are they priced separately?

Assuming they're 100% complete and fully functional, I'd be very interested in the set of Manas.

Another MI comedy? I can already tell this will be entertaining. Loved the bit with Antroz. Good way to incorporate the Makuta into this. Can't wait to read more.

That actually looks really cool! Very intimidating. Wings look a bit small, but the rest of the detail more than makes up for it.

If I remember correctly, there was a bit on Bionicle.com about it, and maybe a brief mention of it by a Ta-Matoran in the MNOG. It wasn't in any books or comics, so that leaves us with Bionicle.com and games.

Correct. As the Shadowed One later noticed, in Makuta's rush to regain his normal size and shape, he accidentally kept some details from Nidhiki and Krekka as well. Anyway, the information you seek can be easily found here, here, or here.

To quote myself from another topic: Given that Teridax and the other Makuta had been around for about 99,000 years prior to him disguising himself as Dume, it's likely that he had other forms before that. Now, here's how Makuta's shapeshifting has been described in the past: They start with a certain amount of mass, and can easily reshape themselves to any form that retains that same overall mass. If they want to go smaller, that matter gets discarded or converted into energy. If they want to get bigger, they need to wait for a while while they build up that energy in order to attain a larger size. However, Teridax was in a hurry during Legends of Metru Nui, so instead of taking days or weeks to fully regain his true form, he absorbed Nidhiki, Krekka, and Nivawk in order to use their mass to supplement his transition. So, he wasn't always the size of Dume, no. He was as big as, if not bigger than, his fellow Makuta as seen during the Mutran Chronicles. Members of other species tend to describe the Makuta as being intimidating and "having to look up at them," giving the sense that Makuta are ordinarily very tall beings. Some, like the Karda Nui Makuta, take smaller forms when speed and agility are necessary, rather than brute strength. So, in conclusion, he was a lot bigger before. The size and shape of Dume was only a temporary thing for him.

Dunno if this is the place to put this, bud, since neither Dallior or myself have posted in this topic for ages.

Geez, it feels like I've been The 1st Shadow forever, but that's not the case. In the time before time..... I joined BZP in 2010, after lurking for a few years, and I didn't feel like using my LEGO ID (which was just my first name and a random set of numbers). Instead, I wanted to go for something a little bit out there but still fitting for myself. At the time, I'd been experimenting with writing short stories, and found that third-person view was best at the time. At one point, I decided that I filled a sort of third-person role in the general high school scene--I was never a main character, but I still looked in and knew who the other characters were and what was going on. I liked it. It gave me some inspiration when writing my stories. So, I adopted a sort of narrator title, The 3rd Person. It was cool, it was unique, and it stuck pretty quickly. Shortly afterwards, another member by name of Lewa Krom started up what he called the "Krom Club," comprised of members who had "Krom" in their name. I became The 3rd Krom, and it lasted for a few months. Around that time, I started working on an epic, centered around a sort of mystery character that ran around and did stuff behind the scenes in the Matoran Universe, never getting involved in major events but often starting them. Like, he wasn't involved in the Matoran Civil War in Metru Nui, but he and one of his companions were part of what got the conflict started. That sort of thing. Also around this time, I started to learn more about some show called "Doctor Who." I decided to make the character a shapeshifter, but he couldn't control the changes. They happened on a monthly basis (the title of the epic was "When The Month Ends"), and each form had a specific set of powers and abilities, and some differences in personality. I named each of these forms in advance, using the same name scheme as before (The # Title), and planned to rename myself as the epic went on, adopting the same name as the character as the story progressed. However, I never got past The 1st Shadow, so that one kinda stuck with me, especially after BZPower fell into the Great Dataclysm of 2011. When BZPower came back, I jumped right back into the epic. But the downtime had killed off too many active members, and the few that had been following my work seemed to have vanished. Since then, I've been using variations of The 1st Shadow, such as T1S, T1Shadow, Shadow, etc. I've often thought of changing it, but at this point, I don't feel like I can. It's who I am now, and I use it on other sites as well as Skype and Discord. I am The 1st Shadow, and I'm apparently not going anywhere.

There's no easy way to answer that. Makuta are shapeshifters--they can be however tall they want. Story-wise, the height of Icarax's set form was never described, but we can assume that he's a few heads taller than the other Makuta in Karda Nui, who had assumed forms that were roughly the size of Toa in stature. So, Icarax was taller than Antroz or Mutran, and both were probably a little taller than the Toa, which tend to be an average of 7 feet. Let's assume for convenience's sake that Icarax was around 9 or 10 feet tall. Now, if we go by the Mask of Light novelization, Teridax's shadow titan form was twice the height of the Toa Nuva, which would make him 14 feet tall at the time. However, in Legends of Metru Nui, he was also about 5 feet tall when he was in the guise of Turaga Dume. Like I said, shapeshifters--they don't need to have a specific height.

Not necessarily. Bear in mind that in Dark Mirror, we saw an alternate Turaga Dume wielding a battle-axe against Tuyet's Toa guards alongside Takanuva and some Makuta, and he survived for a few minutes, at least. And in Mask of Light, we saw Vakama single-handedly fending off a Rahkshi until Tahu arrived. Sure, he was just beating it over the head with his staff while it stood there, but I don't think he would have done so if he didn't think he was capable of harming it. In Tales of the Masks, Nokama is able to keep up with Gali while swimming to an underwater cave. In that same book, Whenua is shown to be rather agile as he and Onua evade the tentacles of a subterranean worm. In LoMN, Turaga Lhikan scaled the cliffs along the Great Barrier to interrupt the battle between Vakama and Teridax, and still had enough strength to run full-speed into the path of Terry's shadow hand. Turaga are significantly weaker than they were as Toa, but they are by no means "weak." Not counting masks or elemental powers, Turaga are probably equal to, if not stronger than, Matoran. The only difference is that they serve the role of spiritual leaders to the Matoran, and so they are "out of practice," so to speak, while the Matoran labor and travel on a regular basis, which keeps them in better shape.

They taught the Matoran how to do it, too. One canon bit of info we know from the MNOG is that the Matoran were more than capable of removing infected masks from the beasts, though not always easily in some cases such as Muaka and Tarakava. Besides, Teridax most likely didn't feel it necessary to infect every single Rahi on the island--just a few major ones in key locations, like guarding the Kanohi scattered around the island. tl;dr--Not every Rahi was infected, and the Matoran were able to free most of the remaining ones on their own.

Yes but Ive head-decanonized the the WoS Muaka. The Muaka in WoS was mutated by the Visorak, and had lost its treads and extending neck. But you get the idea. Precisely. The Toa Nuva had articulated limbs in the movie where the sets did not, movie versions had heartlights and the sets did not, etc. Now, consider the structure of the Tarakava set's body. How realistic do you think that twig-like torso is, and how effective the three twig-like beams for its arms would actually be in terms of hitting and mobility? Not very, if you think about it. The sets were designed with an action feature in mind, and the skinny torso is there to allow small hands to hold it and operate it. So, take away the fact that it's a toy and make it a real creature, how much of that do you need to retain? None of it, really. In-story, Tarakava didn't need someone to hold their torso and direct their arms to move, so there's no reason for them to look that way.

My impression of the set is that it doesn't accurately depict the creatures. The set's arms and waist are the only real points of articulation, and they can only move forward and backward. I once theorized that Tarakava would more closely resemble crocodiles, or, more specifically, Killer Croc from 2004's The Batman, as seen here: The only difference would be the fact that they're more mostly mechanical and would have the treads in place of the hind legs, and a tail that was barely more than a small stub. I always meant to MOC or draw this interpretation of them and make it look as close to the style of the Miramax films as possible, but that never happened, sadly.