Letagi

Hey Roger, good to see you back on here! I've actually been meaning to send the seller a message to ask about this. I'll let you guys know if I learn anything.

The seller lives in Denmark and says he got it from Lego headquarters in Billund many years ago. Most of these pieces seem to come from Scandinavia.

I've added entries for the new prototype Kanohi as well as for the prototype Kraata that were found a little while ago. In other news, always a fun day when you get to add yourself to an owners list. 🙂

I've wanted one of these since 2006. It's safe to say that Bionicle collecting today isn't what it was in those days, but I'm still immensely happy to be able to add the elusive brown Komau to my collection: This was a lucky BrickLink find. Immaculate condition, bought from the original owner who got it from Lego headquarters in Billund. Goes nicely with my Metru blue Matatu 🙂 Now to track down the white Huna - anyone have one to sell? 🤣

Those prototypes are amazing. The yellow Ruru is the first I've seen without external codes; as far as I know the two previous ones both look like this. Looking forward to hearing more details about these. @tourmalinexNice find on the mismould!

Yeah, I had forgotten about the gradient when I made that comment. Looking at it again, it's hard to say whether it's part of the print or dyed into the plastic... I only have one right now, but if I get a spare, I might try removing the numbers to see whether it's possible.

All of mine have the same marks. I'm inclined to think the tan Kraahkan is genuine because of the source. The BrickLink store they came from seems to have access to a lot of prototypes and pieces in unusual colours. As for the Disk of Time, it's probably impossible to tell for sure whether it's a misprint or just worn off. There are plenty of cleaners and solvents that can strip the printing off a piece without damaging the surface underneath. In fact, I'll go one step further and say I'm skeptical that there ever was a genuine numberless DoT; I wouldn't rule out the possibility that someone made a couple, passed them off as real, and now years later they are considered very valuable. Even if they were real, it would be difficult to sell one of the originals today because of how easy they are to copy. Just my opinion though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm about two decades late, but I finally finished my collection of European misprints from 2001. The values of some of these have really exploded in recent years. Fortunately I got the two Kaukaus, which are absurdly expensive on BrickLink now, when they were more affordable so buying the last few that I was missing wasn't too painful.

They were also pictured here, minus the brown Matatu which is replaced by a light grey one: Then of course there was the white Huna and brown Komau. I'd say it's a good bet that at some point the plan was to produce the noble masks in the six classic colours. This was probably an instance of two or more parts of the Bionicle team (product designers, story team, and factory, I would guess) not communicating, resulting in a short run of noble masks being produced in Toa colours and getting changed to the lighter colours at the last minute.

Your name is definitely familiar to me. Looks like we joined the same year! I didn't log on for a few years until I got back into Lego last year. Now I come in every now and then to update this topic or post a blog entry. I was at BrickFair this month and was surprised at the size of the younger Bionicle community that exists now, though they mostly communicate using platforms like Discord and Instagram.

I attended BrickFair for the second time a couple weeks ago, the first having been back in 2015. One of the things I remember most from that year was the heat and humidity. This time, believe it or not, east coast August weather was a welcome relief after spending June and July in the south of France. I was extremely limited in luggage space, but picked up these goodies from the vendors: And acquired these Kraata prototypes from a BZP member in a trade we planned in advance: To my knowledge this is one of only two complete sets of these. Said member will be receiving my prototype Strakk helmet in return. I've had it in my collection since 2009 so it was tough to let it go, but I'm glad another collector will get the chance to enjoy it.

Always wanted to get this one! An exclusive to Woolworth's containing comic #13, a rerelease of Vakama in polybag format, and an infected Hau Nuva. I believe it was produced to promote the Mask of Light film. This was the only one I could find on the internet: The box is opened, but at least that means we can have a look at the contents. I quite like the artwork on the polybag: Also found two of the three trading card games from the early years. All six boxes are still sealed: Curiously, both of these are printed in Canada. A few more items coming up! -L

Somewhat but not extremely. About $25 per polybag and $12 per Kanoka box. That's in Canadian dollars, so subtract about 25% for USD. I was hoping to finish my collection and get a couple of silver Kanohi Nuva, which would have made it well worth it, but sadly that didn't work out the way I planned.

Hey! Fancy meeting you here!

I ordered some old Nuva/Krana polybags and Kanoka boxes a couple months ago, and they finally arrived this week! Just for fun, here are some stats about the Kanohi Nuva polybags (though 20 is probably not a statistically representative sample, so this might be utterly meaningless). The masks were clearly not distributed evenly throughout the polybags; some were rarer than others. Focusing only on shape, the Miru was the most common, with 12 appearing out of 20 polybags (40 masks), followed by the Kaukau, with nine. In six instances, a Miru and a Kaukau were packaged together, making this by far the most common combination. The two most common masks were the brown Miru and white Miru, with four of each. Rarest shape was the Kakama, with just three out of 40. For colours, red and brown were the most common, with ten of each. Rarest colour was black - just two out of 40, and both were Kaukau. Curious that LEGO would stop producing brown sets in 2006 because of low sales, but they chose to make it one of the most common Kanohi colours in 2002/3. Annoyingly, there were five set masks, three of which were the white Akaku. The other two were a red Hau and a blue Kaukau. There were zero Protodermic/silver masks, not even any silver Miru, so the reason for the abundance of that mask, compared with the other five (which are now quite valuable), remains a mystery. I was surprised that these came with regular Krana, not Krana-Kal, but now that I think about it it makes sense: these polybags are from late 2002, but the Krana-Kal weren't released until early 2003 (the later boxed versions of these packs came with the Krana-Kal). All the purple Krana in these polybags were the lighter variant. There was less repetition in the Kanoka, but I didn't bother to take detailed notes. I got no more than two of any given disk out of eleven boxes containing two disks each, and there were only two instances of duplicates - 265 and 654 (there were 36 different disks in these packs; the 16 that came in sets and other promotions did not come in the packs). More cool stuff on the way! -L

I think it's plausible that there was some kind of product that included those masks, but which wasn't widely available or even documented. There's plenty of precedent: along with the Korean Piraka, there were also the Korean Bohrok Va polybags (see here), the Lithuanian Tohunga, and the Japanese Kabaya Turaga, Bohrok Va, and 2003 Matoran. I've heard that the white Huna and brown Komau tend to show up in old collections mostly in Sweden, so it's entirely possible that there was a Swedish exclusive that included them. On a related note, I've always suspected that these pieces are not as few in number as we tend to think; if in fact the white Huna and brown Komau came in a limited retail product, then there are probably dozens or even hundreds of them out there, but the majority of them are tucked away and forgotten in people's childhood collections. I've seen way more white Huna than Lithuanian Tohunga, and presumably there were at least hundreds of units of the latter produced. It's not sensible to produce a retail product unless you're making it in large enough quantities to satisfy the market you're aiming for. Of course, the limited retail theory could be false and they might really be rare prototypes. Thanks for the blog post on the Sand Tarakava, I hadn't come across that before. It makes way more sense that it was a prototype for the regular Tarakava. -L

A few more oddities found on BrickLink: The collector's tin version of the Quest for Makuta game. I regret not checking eBay before buying this because there's a sealed copy on there for the same price I spent on this open one. The advantage is this one can be played; maybe something to bring to Lego conventions for amusement value? These pins are deceptively large, just over three inches tall and two inches wide. Not sure what their backstory is but they're in excellent condition. And finally, sealed copies of the German edition of Comic #1 that was rereleased in 2003 and packaged with the infected Hau Nuva, of which there were four variations. Unfortunately one of them came unsealed during shipping; waiting to hear whether the seller is willing to replace it. He's got more and they are very reasonably priced if anyone is interested: https://store.bricklink.com/Yo_Yo_Flamingo?p=Yo_Yo_Flamingo#/shop?o={"q":"Ankunft","showHomeItems":0} More whenever my boxes from Russia and Ukraine get here... so maybe never. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -L

They were never in any sets, but a few people on here have them so you've probably seen pictures of them before. Maybe on a MOC? For some reason, Onua's weapons have never turned up. I've seen maybe six or eight people with these and nobody ever has the quake breakers.

Yeah, it was a lucky BrickLink find. There are a few on there still but none sealed. Definitely keeping the polybags sealed. The boxed versions were common but the polybag versions are hard to find.

I've gotten back into Lego recently. I had forgotten - along with what an incredible strain on one's bank account this hobby can be - how much fun this stuff is! I was always interested in rare and unusual Bionicle sets and collectibles and have gotten a few things recently that fall into that category. I thought I'd post some pictures here of my more interesting new acquisitions. Still sealed, including the plastic wrap; here's the back. Green Nuva weapons, probably late-stage prototypes used to test the new moulds. These show up for sale on BrickLink every now and then. Bohrak Va polybags that seem to have been only available in Korea. I recently learned that these actually came in the boxed Kabaya sets, which were sold in both Korea and Japan. More coming soon! -L

I'm not going to get embroiled in this, but thought I'd leave this here because I think you guys would be interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqOrrlN6cw It's a panel discussion with six of the people who were on the original Bionicle development team, including Greg Farshtey and Christian Faber. They talk at one point about the possibility of bringing the theme back in the future. I couldn't find where it is in the video but the whole thing is worth watching. -L

Arriving late to this, but here's a pic of all my rare or unusual items, collected over about fifteen years: The most unusual pieces here are the misprint partially clear Hau Nuva, the prototype Metru blue Matatu, the prototype gold/white Strakk helmet, the prototype red/black Zamor, and the WMKK. The Kraahkan on the bottom row of the main rack third from the right is the five-hole mismould, and the 175 Ta-Metru Kanoka was a limited European exclusive. The metallic purple Akaku and translucent red Miru are Flintsmith customs, made in 2005 and 2014 respectively; the empty head in that row is for the translucent purple Kaukau, which a friend of mine might be selling to me in the near future. The individually bagged copper Huna was a Nestle promotion. The Bohrok Va polybags were Korean exclusives, and arrived in the mail literally today. Funny story about the WMKK - I don't have the velvet bag or certificate of authenticity that would have originally come with it, because this WMKK was found lying on the ground by one of my friends in 2005, who later traded it to me. It looks a little rough since the powder coat has mostly worn off from being kicked around on pavement for possibly as much as two years. I continue to marvel at the statistical improbability of it being lost by one Bionicle fan and picked up years later by another! If the racks look a bit oddly built with pins sticking out in random places, it's because these were disconnected from a much larger display that I'm almost finished and will be posting here in the next couple of months, once I've filled in a few more gaps in the collection. -L

Congratulations, Pat! Hope to see you guys at a convention next year.

Thanks for the info on these pieces, guys. I had forgotten about that green Takua and Pewku prototype. Wonder why no one seems to have Onua's weapons. The term mismould is already used to refer to pieces that have physical deformities, so pieces that are the wrong colour are called misprints. It's not the perfect word since, as you say, they aren't actually printed. And yeah, the 2001 European "misprints" are almost certainly not real misprints. -L

Fair point, and the other thing that makes me think they might not be prototypes for the Toa Nuva is that they seem to be in pristine condition, as if they were produced very recently. If they were 20 years old, at least some of them should have some wear and tear by now. Some of the moulds have been repurposed over the years, so its conceivable that these were made as prototypes for other unreleased sets, not necessarily Bionicle ones. They look too good to be knockoffs, but I can't rule that out either. I'll change the entry back to the more ambiguous phrasing.