Sergei Rahkmaninoff

Wow, a lot of people seem to think I was implying that Lego planned this all along. I had better clarify: this theory in no way proposes an intentional pattern by Lego. It's completely in-story, like Tolkien's Matoran dictionary, and I recognize that the reason Lego stuck with the Inika build was because it was the most versatile and resusable torso structure to date. Just to clear that up . But anyways... [/defensive] I totally forgot about the Hagah, which is a mistake seeing as they're actually the earliest (unmutated) Toa we have in set form besides Jovan. Let's see... The earliest date BSO1 lists for any of the Toa Hagah is for Norik, "sometime before 7,000 years ago," helping Varian on the Northern Continent in No One gets Left Behind (which is, again, fan content, so we can't judge Lego's intent with this, but I'm not trying to.) This was before Norik was selected as a Hagah for his merit in combat by the BoM. Working backwards from this, I would assume Norik became a Toa between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, leaving him around 5 to 18 thousand years to prove himself as an exceptional Toa in the eyes of the BoM before they recruited him as Teridax' personal guardian. (Do those numbers sound reasonable?) That's at least 4/5 of the way through the history of the MU before he became a Toa, more than enough time for the standard form of Toa to go from Inika/Original to Metru/Hagah, at least in the northern regions of the universe. And of all the Metru gearbox builds we saw, none looked closer to the Inika build than the Hagah, with their chestplates (although those are probably more beacause they're Hagah), Rahkshi/Vahki leg pieces, and Metru leg pieces as arms rather than Metru lower arm pieces. So I'd say the Hagah are good examples of the transistion, 'missing links,' if you will, from Original to Metru build. However, the Hagah might be an issue to the regional variations theory. [from BS01, emphasis mine.] The two Hagah we've seen were fairly alike in build. Of course, Norik is shorter, but other than that they're practically clones. We can't see canon images of the other Toa Hagah, unfortunately, so we can't judge how varied they are. Maybe of all of them Norik and Iruini looked the most alike, and some of the others would have had the theorized more rugged builds of the Northern Continent. (Or Stars builds .) So they aren't very good evidence against or for the regional variations theory. Well, I would say that since Lesovikk and Jovan became Toa before Lhikan, Norik, and Iruini, they're the ones closer to the ancient standard, regardless how many later Toa had Metru builds. The standardization of the Metru build in later years could be a result of some very sucessful and heroic Metru build Toa long ago inspiring a great many Matoran (or something). No, I forgot about him - sorry about that! Even though he was fan-made, he's canon. If I didn't count him because of that, I couldn't count Nikila either. Still, he only became a Toa, like, a year ago? He's not much evidence for the Inika build being the Original build. But he does support the regional variations theory, given his unique build and homeland on the Northern Continent. Where was it said that the Toa Mata deteriorated in their canisters? Even if that was the case, I'd think whoever made the Toa Canisters (likely either Artakha or the Great Beings) would design them so the Toa wouldn't deteriorate, especially since part of the Toa Mata's function was to stay there for an indefinite amount of time. That's from BS01. (Maybe someday I'll figure out how to get it to say that in the box.) Well, only for the first couple thousand years of MU history. After that, different Matoran' (Matoran's? Matorans'? What the Karz is the possesive of Matoran?) perceptions of how a Toa should look would begin to vary the build more and more. Check out the bloodline theory for more; that topic inspired me to this. Oh, and don't this theory can't kill anything for Gen 2. The new Toa are more varied than anything we've ever seen. Anyways, I hope my ideas make sense, and I'm not just seeing what I want to see here?

Right, I had thought it uncertain which Toa were certainly Matoran at one point. But upon checking I see that this is true. Thanks . Yes, it was, but in this topic it was theorized that this was as a result of the fact that a Matoran becoming a Toa will look, as a Toa, like they think a Toa should look. Hence a gradual evolution of Toa body designs throughout the MU based upon the whims of the destined Matoran and the Toa they had seen. Over time (100,000 years!) you'd end up with regional variations, even if you started with a single basic structure. True. Depending upon how long it was before Nikila became a Toa, there might have been a generation or two between the first Toa, with Inika builds, and Nikila. Or we could assume that Nikila never saw a Toa before herself, and her image of a Toa was based upon verbal description of these intial Inika build Toa, resulting in a build just slightly different. Based on the bloodline theory, we could even say that Nikila's design was the ancient antecedent to the Metru design, the gearbox becoming more pronounced over time. This does nothing to discredit my theory. If we assume that Helryx was an Inika build, or similar, then based upon this statement the Toa Mata would also have been Inika builds (or similar.) However, after 100,000 years of degenerating in canisters, they wound up looking quite different. (They reassembled themselves upon landing, too - perhaps in doing so, they put themselves together differently than they had been before? That seems implausible, but just maybe...)

Hey everybody. It's good to finally post something after lurking for so long. But anyways... What did the first Toa, created by the Great Beings ~100,000 years ago, look like? The earliest Toa to come into being that we have seen in set form were the Toa Mata; however, they might be considered an exception because they were created by Artahka, not the GBs. In addition, when Matoran become Toa, they take on the appearence of what they think a Toa should look like. So Lhikan and the Toa Metru are also irrelevant. The only sets we are left as with are the Inika, Mahri, Lesovikk, Jovan, Adaptive Armor Nuva, and Glatorian. We also have a text description of Helryx and, perhaps most valuable, a canon depiction of Nikila. Let us begin with Helryx, the first Toa ever created. In Swamp Of Secrets it says: This doesn't tell us much, given that most of the description is dedicated to her fraility. However, the last sentence does tell us something: she does not look like the Toa Mata, at least to Takanuva. (Sadly, this means that the beautiful depiction of her by GarryTheSkrall may be non-canon. ) So what about the Inika and Mahri? They were not transformed, as normally, by Toa Stones containing Toa Energy but by the power of the Red Star. The result looked nothing like the Toa Mata or Nuva. This, I theorize, is because the Red Star was transforming them to match built-in blueprints, which would have been supplied by the Great Beings. This implies that the Inika build is at least similar to the design of the original Toa. Do other sources support this theory? Let's see: -Helyrx's description isn't very specific, but it suggests a build unlike any Takanuva had seen. Takanuva never saw the Inika, so she could have had an Inika build. -The Mahri were transformed by the Ignika and had similar build as the Inika, but with water gear. The Ignika would have built-in blueprints of Toa, supplied by the GBs, and made the Mahri similar to these. -Lesovikk was mutated, but if we assume the mutations were minor (and they appear to be) he would have had an Inika build before. -Jovan, another early Toa, had an Inika build and may or may not have been transformed by a Toa Stone. -The Nuva, in Adaptive Armor, had Inika designs. (The usefulness of this is debatable. Is it reasonable to asume that the AA is designed to fit most Toa, and would therefore have to share the lowest common denominator of design - an Inika build? ) -Glatorian are known to have been the inspiration for Toa, and featured the Inika build. The final piece of evidence is the drawing of Nikila. Since Nikila is an unmutated Toa from the early MU, presumably transformed by a Toa Stone or even created by the GBs themselves, she is an exceptionally accurate image of a typical early Toa. And indeed, she matches quite closely the Inika build: note that upper leg armor looks similar to that of Pohatu Phantoka or Gresh, and the upper arm armor (arm-or? ) looks similar to Inika upper arm protection or that of Tarix. So, with no canon contradictions (that I have noticed), I present my final theory: The form of the original Toa, those created ~100,000 years ago by the Great Beings, is the Inika build. (Now all the Inika build haters can blanch at the disgusting thought of every Toa everywhere with the Inika build for thousands of years of MU history .) Anything I missed? I'm new here, so when you rip me apart, go easy . EDIT: Removed incorrect statement about the Toa Mata's deterioration. Oops.