Illuminatus

LOL, the fact this is the first time you're hearing this is just proof of how convoluted this whole retcon is. I've seen it stated in the forums as far back as 2006 (someone must've asked GregF, I suppose) and you can currently find this statement on BS01.

Okay, so I want to clear up something that's been confusing me for a while. When Toa Krakua "came out" in 2005, i.e. was shown for the first time and simultaneously canonized, he was obviously wearing a Kanohi Hau (and generally resembled a cyberpunk Tahu but that's another story). At the time, that was explained away as him having a "Hau-shaped Kanohi Suletu" and I believe the Kanohi Suletu was in fact introduced with Toa Krakua (was that LEGO's idea, btw, or was it all John Dexter's head canon made real canon?). After the Toa Inika came out in 2006 and we were shown that Toa Kongu wears a Kanohi Suletu, albeit organic, Toa Krakua was almost immediately retconned to wear a regular (non-organic) Kanohi Suletu and not a Hau-shaped one. So up until maybe a year ago, I was under the impression that the latter statement was considered canon, until I started finding conflicting information and at a certain point I even thought Toa Krakua's mask was re-retconned to a Hau-shaped Suletu once again. So... which is it, in the end? Thanks. :)

Permission to make "Bioniclone" an official term.

I know, that's why I said "I can imagine a scenario where the Toa Mata had Toa Metru eye colors" as in my opinion those were overall better looking than the original ones. It's a proof of concept is all. I do also know that Pohatu's mask matches his eye color; that's partly the reason this topic occurred to me in the first place. Personally I think the main reason Pohatu's Kaukau is disliked is because it's the only major discrepancy. If the all of the Kaukau were to follow the same logic, perhaps they would've looked more harmonious. Of course for this to work, there would have to be very good eye colors for all of the Toa Mata. Clearly it's just me though. What you suggested for the visor may have been an interesting concept to explore.

I've been thinking recently that it looks like LEGO may not have had an entirely clear idea on how to handle the different variations of the Kanohi Kaukau from the get go and I suspect they may have even experimented with matching the mask color to the color on at least some Toa Mata, which might explain why we got a trans-yellow Kaukau even though none of the Toa are even remotely yellow. Considering how only some of the solid Toa colors can be approximated with transparent plastic (looking at you, Pohatu) and also considering the fact that the six Kaukau are already the odd six out of thirty-six by design, do any of you think that it may have been a better idea to just match those to the eye color of each Toa instead? Of course, that would've required that some Toa have better eye colors to begin with (looking at you, Tahu), but does anyone agree that that would've been an overall interesting and perhaps more consistent approach? If we consider the eye color of each Toa their "tertiary color," then that decision would've made sense in terms of uniformity and consistency. Personally, I can easily imagine a scenario where the Toa Mata had Toa Metru eye colors and each Kaukau matched each Toa's eyes. Here's how that would've looked: Lewa with a trans dark red Kaukau Kopaka with a trans medium/light blue Kaukau Gali with a trans orange Kaukau Tahu with a trans light green Kaukau Onua with a trans dark green Kaukau Pohatu with a trans dark blue Kaukau Perhaps it's a little counter-intuitive, but I do see a great deal of appeal in this approach. What do you guys think?

That is super awesome. Can we maybe see the other four sides of the box? I'm really curious to see what kind of images and legal texts are on those.

Fantastic!

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that 2005 was the only year we got 14 canister sets instead of just 12? While we've gotten canister-sized sets on more than one occasion throughout the years, we never actually got bonus canister sets outside of the Toa Hagah, and that is super special when you think about it. I read some complaints recently as to how the Toa Hagah are an "incomplete series" and were also clearly meant to be Toa Dume and Toa Nidhiki. The former statement is downright absurd for the aforementioned reason; did you expect that LEGO would produce 6 extra sets one year for no reason? No, that would've been at the expense at either the Toa Hordika or the Visorak and we would've gotten 2 sets less, not 4 more. Also, while I somewhat enjoy the notion that Iruini could've been Nidhiki (because of his mask shape), if we're being completely honest, Norik would've been a lazy Dume. No change of mask type from Noble to Great? Lazy. Besides, Dume and Nidhiki were from two different "generations" of Toa and they'd have had to be marketed as having lived and worked separately. And they would've had to be given different tools from one another. Given the circumstances, they were handled well enough. What I'm basically saying is that we got a treat and I for one loved it. Especially considering the pair wasn't available in Bulgaria and I had to seek them out abroad; it felt like a treasure hunt.

Can anyone tell me what the base color is for the Chromed Hau and whether it exists as a standalone LEGO color? Also, just how rare is it for a LEGO piece to be chromed in that fashion?

Well I mean it's not really a possibility lol; I'd say it's pretty certain that all of the Tanoka are Rock/Granite discs, as that color of discs was only produced in 1999. The mold and inventory number also checks out 100%. The black throwing discs on the other hand were produced in 1999, 2000 and 2001, so their origin might be different. I have yet to discover a method of removing print from LEGO pieces that doesn't leave so much as a hint of tampering. In that respect, I find it doubtful that anyone would attempt to sell discs with the print erased on the actual market, although I'm sure it's crossed plenty of people's minds. Anyway, the batch I have has various (production?) numbers, ranging from 01-1 to 01-8 (possibly indicating that the molding machine produced these discs at 8 pieces at a time) and as I already mentioned, only the 01-1 copies have that distinctive rough texture which is more or less identical on the two discs and appears a bit raised. So I would safely exclude the possibility of these having been scrubbed off. I can't fathom of a scrubbing technique that would produce precisely this type of roughness, let alone twice. That's not surprising; I would assume that these discs (ranging from 01-1 to 01-8) were produced in massive heaps and then quite possibly jumbled together before being assembled for branding. Only in the end were they assorted into lots according to each set's inventory so it makes sense that there are mixed types of discs in your sets, just as every individual piece most likely has a number on it that appears haphazard. You know, these tan throwing discs may very well have been originally intended as Millennium/Millennia discs, now that you mentioned it! In any case, I still stand by my initial assumption that these only exist because they were discarded. Think about it: you run a batch of several thousand discs one day, then you discover that some of them have an odd texture. You inspect the machine and realize that it's gotten slightly deformed (maybe from overheating) resulting in 12.5% of the produced discs being substandard in quality. Now you can either start going through the pile by hand to pick out the shoddy discs or you can discard the whole pile as defective, quite possibly earning yourself a pay deduction too.

So I recently came into possession of a bunch of "Tan Kanoka" or more precisely, tan throwing discs. Upon close inspection, I couldn't help but notice that two of the discs, both branded 01-1, had an identical rough texture in the middle. Here is one such disc as compared to a 01-2: My assumption is that at least one out of every eight discs had such a texture and hence an entire batch of these discs was discarded because they were considered defective. And they'd probably been sitting in a store room somewhere until someone in 2005 decided they might as well give them away at LEGOLAND Billund. The same logic may very well apply to the black throwing disc.

Thanks, that's good to know! Well, that about answers my question then.

I just had a thought. Is BZP legally required to comply with GDPR or is this type of board not necessarily associated with any kind of "personal" data? For example, if I were to close my Facebook account, then Facebook should theoretically discard all of my data from their own database. While there's room for speculation as to whether they actually do that, what's certain is that none of my data will be publicly accessible after I choose to hit "deactivate." My question is, in the very unlikely event that I should choose to have my BZP profile deleted, is it physically possible for a site admin to select and delete all of my topics, posts, blog entries etc. and, most importantly, would they consider an action like that permissible? I've heard of people asking to be banned around here, but I've never heard of people asking to be deleted. So I'm just curious what a member's options are, realistically. Thanks.

I'm so sorry to hear that, my friend. These things happen, unfortunately. :(

Hey, everyone. I'm in the process of submitting some additions and changes to BL's inventory and I need help listing some items that I'm pretty sure exist but that I have no access to. One of those things is Toa Onewa's Kanoka Card as it appeared in the North American release of the set. It's the only such card among all the Toa Metru and Vahki cards not featured on BL. I need a photo or scan of both sides plus the inventory number as it appears on the card. The other items are five Toa Mata posters, or at least what I'm suspecting were their 2002 releases. There is already an entry for all six Toa Mata posters here, and those particular inventory numbers are identical for all three of their 2001 releases: the earliest release that shows Technic sets on the back of each poster; the second release that instead shows the Rahi and Turaga on the back; and the third release which has a modified front to display all the remaining Toa and the Bionicle website. Now this is where things get tricky, as in addition to those three types of 2001 posters (a total of 18 under 6 consecutive inventory numbers), there's also an odd Pohatu poster which appears to have been released in 2002 as it has a new, distinct inventory number, only reads LEGO instead of LEGO Technic, and advertises the Bohrok sets among others on the back, as can be seen in this video. Now, can anyone actually confirm that they've seen or owned copies of any other Toa Mata posters that resemble that one Pohatu poster? As soon as I saw it, I just automatically assumed that the remaining five were also reprinted in 2002 but I may have actually been wrong about that, as I don't recall having ever actually seen any of them. It would be extremely peculiar if just Pohatu's poster was remade in 2002, but who knows. Thanks!

Have you seen any other variations besides the red Pahrak-Kal and green Tahnok-Kal shields? And can you provide some good photos of them by any chance?

Okay, thanks, guys. That's great to know. Is there any original content missing in the current versions? And how come I can't get the VNOG to start? It crashes every time it reaches the "Worker module" or something of the sort.

I've got an eerie feeling I've asked this before but for the life of me, I can't find where or when. So here goes again, possibly: is the version of MNOG 2 that's available on BMP beatable or not? I remember playing the game in 2005 on bionicle.com when some files were already corrupted (such as Nokama's dialogue), making it impossible to progress past a certain point. I'd love to be able to start the game all over again but only if I know I can finish it properly. The same question goes for the VNOG. Not that it was ever corrupted, I'd just like to know how complete and thoroughly playable it is in its current state? Thanks!

Neat thought. I have a bit of an issue with most of your examples, though, in that they sound a bit more descriptive and far less edgy than they ought to be, if we want to be loyal to the 2006 marketing approach. Remember, 2006 was all about the edge, to the point where it was borderline insensitive. Here's what I think the Toa Mata would sound like if we're being 100% accurate. The Bullet The Torch The Mole The Mute The Bust The Gibe

How come these misprint Bohrok-Kal face plates aren't more sought after? From what I can tell they are extremely rare and they're genuine misprints.

Nice, I'm happy to help, @Peri. I actually managed to recover the original recorded clip on my old computer. The audio is near-nonexistent because at the time I couldn't figure out how to adjust the input so I literally took a mic to the speaker. That's why the sound is so buzzy in the subtitled version. But yeah, here it is in case you're interested in the recording sans subtitles; you'd have to crop out the other commercials and maybe amp up the sound. If there's anything else you could do to make it sound better, that'd be awesome. Meanwhile, I might reach out to the studio myself if you guys don't plan on doing that. :)

Also why are they having breakfast when it's dark outside?

Back in 2006, I caught a Bulgarian commercial of the Piraka/Inika Nestle toys on the air. I recorded it, had another member put some English subtitles on it and it made the BZP news. Just today, I stumbled upon a very similar video (in English) that appears to have been produced by the exact same studio, albeit for some slightly different Piraka/Inika Nestle toys. Perhaps someone from BMP may be interested in contacting them to see if they have a better quality version of the first video still saved somewhere? @JrMasterModelBuilder?

This has been a fantastic read. I can't remember the last time I was so thrilled to read about Bionicle lore. While I'd read about the early store bible, I had no idea so many things were discarded and changed on the go. A cult of Makuta-worshipping Tohunga? I would pay to see this. I would literally pay to see this become a reality. Is it possible to modify the MNOG with new content? Can @Peri do that?

Has anybody else noticed that Lerahk's render is flipped on the Shadow Kraata + CD box? I don't think I'd ever seen this done on a box until just now. It's a very neat irregularity.