emily

Yeah, he was supposed to be the oldest because he's so wise. And Lewa was going to be the youngest because he's a moron. Seriously. That was one of the original ideas. It was Tahu that was identified as the oldest in some of the early literature. As BIONICLE was still being developed and defined in its early years, there are a lot of unused concepts and ideas that got left behind. One that has already been mentioned were the elemental beasts based on the six elements that the Toa would have to face. Another big one is the original seventh tribe of Makuta-following villagers, with the Comet ball trader in MNOLG originally intended as one of them infiltrating the village. The Shadow Toa are worth mentioning too. The ended up making their appearance in Tale of the Toa, but their original purpose and application is not precisely clear, and likely won't be unless the cancelled PC game comes to light.

Glad you liked them!

It's certainly an incredibly unique collectible. I won't have the opportunity to bid on it, but I hope it finds a good home wherever it goes.

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! There is a shorter video similar to this in English that has been floating around online since 2002, but the quality is far inferior and it lacks many parts of this video, including those wonderful new scenes with Vakama and Jala. if you are curious. What is interesting is that the English video was created to pitch the Bohrok to retailers and advertisers, it was never intended for public use. That makes it surprising to me that this extended German version was more widely available. Do you remember where/how you watched it when you were little? Could you link to the site you found it on? Again, thank you. It is great to see this.

Based on your image I would be very surprised if what you have is not a sky blue/trans-light blue Kaukau. The normal Kaukau is a much deeper shade of blue, while the shade of the mask in the image matches my own sky blue Kaukau very closely. For reference, here's Bricklink's image of the normal Kaukau.

I use Adobe Flash CS6. Good luck in your work on MNOG 1.5. The game seems to be coming along well!

This is the only unused music I've discovered in my perusals of MNOLG's files. I'll be sure to let you know if I ever discover anything new, though. This is a good resource on what unused content is in the MNOLG files.

There's been a fair amount of discussion about most of the unused, early content to be found in the game files for MNOLG. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, however, is Episode_9-2_v4_sounded.swf. As the name implies, it is a variation on cutscene 9-2, or namely the one showing Takua's descent into the Mangaia and revealing his appearance for the first time. It plays exactly as the final version does, but at the end a short musical track suddenly begins, running after the blackout signifying the end of the cutscene. For whatever reason, Templar decided not to use the music track in the final game (I suspect they decided it was too cheery for what is one of the most tense moments of the story). But, I thought it might be interesting to see how it would sound with the music correctly placed in the cutscene. So here you go! Link It certainly sets a new emotional tone to the big reveal of Takua.

Thank you, this is great to hear. I wanted to be sure to get a fair amount of action in with Kanohi powers, since in general they seemed underused in the official BIONICLE continuity, despite being really fun to work with. Thank you for giving your honest opinion, I appreciate it. If may ask, did you watch the third animation? Maybe it is just my perspective as the creator clouding my vision, but I feel that it might have addressed some of the issues you describe.

This is my big project. I cannot even begin to describe how much Templar's work on BIONICLE has meant to me, but suffice to say what they created is perhaps my most cherished story. I want to be able to pay homage to Templar, as a way of saying thanks, and this is how I am doing it. For those unfamiliar with this project, these animations are made to complement the ones Templar produced for BIONICLE in 2002. It may not be apparent how they are connected yet, but eventually they will fill in the blanks left by Templar's animations. Templar's work was, of course, perfectly functional as a story, but they covered so much ground in so little time that not everything could be shown. This project is sort of going back and looking at the things skipped over. I'm not completely satisfied with these animations (especially the first one, that one's awful), but I am new to Flash and I've intentionally used this first, three-part arc as a testing ground for my animation abilities. Future installments will have a greater focus on plot and character development. Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 I appreciate any and all feedback.

You're not crazy. Ta-da!

Just dropping in to say "Hello! I still haven't abandoned this!" Work continues.

Most excellent, thank you for sharing! Interesting that they were still calling it the Kahu and not Gukko at the time BIONICLE The Game was in production.

For what it's worth, take a look at these screenshots and compare: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gali1.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gali2.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/kaita1.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/kaita2.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/towers1.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/towers2.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/koli1.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/koli2.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gakoro1.png http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/VezokofZakaz/TheLegendofMataNui/comparison/gakoro2.png Edit: Please use spoiler tags for storyline spoilers only. (Furthermore, having pictures linked serves the same purpose.) -Wind-

Check out the comments here, particularly my questions and Gordon's response. The implication I've gotten from Kapura's presence in Onu-Wahi, as well as in the final cutscene and as a special entry in the game's glossary, is that he was to be a recurring character in the game. The developers would have presumably fleshed him out more with that in mind.

Templar may not have had access to a fully playable copy of the game, but they certainly would have had plenty of reference information from its production. Look at Onua's dialogue with Kapura in DeepBrick's walkthrough - it very clearly served as the basis for Kapura's first dialogue in MNOLG.

Another awesome update. I never would have expected the 11 year old mystery of that evolution image to be resolved, and the symbolism in the Bohrok logo is super neat. I think the concept just evolved over time. Originally the idea was that they evolved from a common ancestor, but as time went on and the BIONICLE story developed they altered things to better fit the story until we ended up with what we got in 2008.

As it happens, there was actually an official album planned for release in 2002, with contributions from Cold, Kenna, Rob Zombie, and Woven. It was cancelled when LEGO and the publisher weren't able to get past some disagreements.

Mark is RedQuark. As for DeepBrick, he remains completely anonymous. He appeared in 2004 when he shared a text-based walkthrough of Onua's level of The Legend of Mata Nui on the other BIONICLE fan site. After that, he didn't appear again until he began communicating through RedQuark on BZPower back when he first shared the game's cutscenes (I guess that was 2009 or 2010). As far as I know, he has only ever communicated through RedQuark and never posted something directly. It's too bad the topic on the old BZP forums isn't around anymore, it would no doubt fill you in on most of everything that has gone on concerning the game in the past few years. It sounds like you've already looked up what you can find on the WayBack machine. That's about the best reference there is.

Nope! The Blaster's still there and so are the statues. LEGOLAND has lots of stuff from older LEGO themes, it isn't all cleared out (at least not all the time).

As always, it's great to see more from Mr. Faber. That particular Bohrok nest image hasn't been seen before, I don't believe. I thought that we got some nice development of the villager characters through Templar's animations. Hafu's selflessness and courage really truly come to light. Huki and Maku had their romantic little moment. Perhaps most importantly, Jala and Takua bond and become friends - that's critical to the Mask of Light plotline, even if both of them end up being depicted rather differently in the movie.

Fascinating! I do believe this is the only time that the old "Find the Power" mantra was vocalized in an official item. Thanks for going to the trouble of uploading a video, lighting effects and all. It's always great when something newly discovered from BIONICLE's early years comes to light.

Super neat! Is there any chance you could record it saying "BIONICLE: Find the Power"? Obviously not a big deal if it isn't viable, but i would be interested to hear it if it isn't too much trouble. Thanks for sharing!

An alternate model for set 5975 T-Rex Transport. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h1Omwlyg20 "But Tazakk!" you say. "Why would you choose to share this MOC in a low-resolution video, rather than individual photographs that give us a clearer view of the model?" Good question! It's because this is my entry for the ReBrick "Be the Special" Competition. I chose to use a video to present the model in an attempt to make the presentation more interactive and engaging for the judges. Speaking of the fact that this model is being entered in a competition, you're certainly welcome to head over to ReBrick and like my entry. The 10 entries with the most likes go on to be considered by the judges.

It's about 30 - unfortunately I can't cite a source on that (because I wouldn't know where to look for one, heh), but I'm quite sure. There's the Quest for the Gold Masks sweepstakes that gave out two I think, plus the website design contest, and the Ignika design contest that tied in to BIONICLE Heroes in 2006. Those are the only ones given out in contests that I'm recalling, but a certain number were also given away as random, surprise door prizes at an event in New York, which would definitely bring the number above five. Others doubtless have been given out through other means, and the LEGO Group has probably held on to some. EDIT: Cartoon Network also gave one out in 2002. That would bring the contest-distributed total to 5, as Mask collector said below.