Master Inika

This MOC sounds like the Transformers sound effect.

On the other hand, the internal narration from the Zadakh in the quoted portion isn't lacking in any way. That Vahki seems to be acting reasonably enough given the circumstances, even recognizing to retreat from a dangerous situation. They just got handed an unwinnable position, and were probably only included to make the Visorak look even cooler and more dangerous (not unlike the Exo-Toa in 2003 or Toa Nuva in 2006 being easily defeated).

Nice models. The first one in particular is a good mix of early G1, late G1 & G2. They are very cute, and the printed mask is awesome too.

Couldn't the Vahki in 2005 also shoot disinegrator blasts from their staffs because of the power surge, and also talk? That was a really underexplored element of 2005.

Episode 9: The Truth Time had lost any semblance of meaning for Roger Smith. How long had he spent wandering the bizarre and unsettling landscape of Karzahni? Months? Years? He was grateful that he had his son Jake as a guide. The boy seemed to know everything there was to know about the otherworldly island. Jake was flipping anxiously through the pages of BIONICLE: World by Greg Farshtey. He had thus far been able to avoid the Dust Falls and the canyons where Karzahni’s Manas dwelt, but finding a way off the island without facing any other dangers would be difficult. “We could find the Tunnel of Darkness, which leads straight back to Metru Nui,” he pondered out loud. “But then again, it is full of darkness.” “I just want to get out of here!” Roger cried. It was at that moment Roger realized something. “The weapons,” he cried in horror. “Son, where are all the weapons we bought? We came all this way, and now we don’t even have the weapons!” “Dad, chill!” Jake said. He opened his palm, which he was holding miniaturized versions of an assortment of dangerous tools in the middle of. “I used our Kanoka Disk of Shrinking to make them easier to carry. I have a Disk of Enlarging back home to make them full-size again.” “Oh, you wonderful child!” Roger said. “Only, we need to think of a plan for when we get back,” Jake said. “We can’t actually hand all these tools over to the Dark Hunters. They’ll destroy the city. We need to find some Toa to bring back with us.” ---- Toa Vakama, Toa Nokama, Toa Matau and Human Jessica ducked down behind a stone slab. Energy blasts from the Dark Hunters Mimic and Tracker threatened to vaporize their hiding spot--and them along with it. “Surrender, Toa, if you know what’s good for you!” Tracker roared. “I’m not doing this because I want to,” Mimic cried out. “But just the same, we must return to the Shadowed One.” That comment resonated with something deep in the teenage girl’s mind. Jessica wracked her brain for meaning. She poked her head out to get another good look at Mimic. His body was massive and alien-looking, but there was something… off about him. Amateurish. Unrefined. Not bad or ugly, but he didn’t look like he fully belonged. Neither did her ally, now that she thought about it. That was it! They were Dark Hunters. On every family road trip, Jake bored the family to tears by reciting, page by page, the BIONICLE Dark Hunter guide he got for Christmas. They were fan-made characters that won a contest. There were so many of them, though… How could she ever recall which ones the two attacking her were? A memory came back to her. One of the Dark Hunters had a friend, but he lost her, and he only served the Hunters because he wanted to find her again. She couldn’t quite remember if it was one of the two attacking her, but it might be the first one, Mimic. She took a deep breath and stepped out from her hiding spot. “Jessica, no!” Nokama cried. “It’s okay, Nokama. I know what I’m doing,” Jessica said calmly. She walked out to face the two giants. “Mimic!” she called out. “I know you miss someone.” Mimic lowered his weapon uneasily. “Don’t listen to her, brother!” Tracker called out, firing another blast. It took a focused gust of air from Matau to divert the attack. “I know what happened,” Jessica said, wracking her brain for more details. Jake must have spent hours reading verbatim from that book. He had to have something useful to her current situation. Then, finally, with great difficulty, the memories came. “I know what really happened to her. It was the Shadowed One who kidnapped her!”

LEGO survived the late 90s downturn because of Bionicle and Star Wars together (Source: "The only reason Lego survived during this difficult time was due to the success of the Bionicle and Star Wars series"). The writing was on the wall with Bionicle. It was a unique and innovative property that caught lightning in a bottle for a surprising span of time from about 2003-2008. But they can't just keep making Bionicle products until the end of time. That's not a reasonable thing to expect. It takes LEGO time and resources to make products and it's not realistic or respectful to LEGO to just want them to make things for us at a loss. Let's look at a few of your proposals in more detail: 2. #recontinueandendBionicleG1sstory Greg Farshtey frequently reminded us that the BIONICLE storyline existed to promote the BIONICLE toys. That's what made it worth LEGO's time to pay Greg to write it. And even then Greg gave us more than LEGO requested of him--the serials in the later years barely had anything to do with the sets being released; Greg just worked on them out of passion for the craft. And even more the unfinished serials after the first cancelation, when there were no BIONICLE toys and Greg just wanted to do something nice for us. Compare BIONICLE to any other LEGO line that ended--the sets and storyline just stop being updated. 5. #makeG1TahuaToaNuvaagain and #giveTahuhisKanohiNuvaback I've never heard anyone want that, and it doesn't specifically bother me that Tahu's not a Nuva or doesn't have his Kanohi Nuva (which he lost in 2003). For all the problems associated with later BIONICLE, this wasn't one of them. For that matter, how would LEGO even fulfill this one? Do you want them to release an official statement that Tahu became a Nuva again and got his Nuva masks back? 6. #moreToaKaita , #makeAkuamiNuvahappen , #moreMatoranNui , #makeMatoranKaitahappen #makeToaNuihappen , #makeTuragaKaitahappen , #makeTuragaNuihappen , #make36moreRahkshitypesinLego ,#make8moreToatypesinLego , #make8moreMatorantypesinLego , #make9moreTuragatypesinLego , #make8moreSkakdiinLego Why would it be desirable for LEGO to produce stories and products involving every conceivable fusion or elemental type in BIONICLE? If I want to experience a Turaga Nui or Skakdi of Magnetism doing something, I can just make a MOC or write a fanfiction about it. That's the beauty of LEGO. 7. #bringbackthePiraka , #bringbackVultraz , #bringAlternateTeridaxbackhome , #bringAlternateTakanuvabackhomes Again, LEGO isn't preventing anyone from creating fanmade media in which those characters return or those events happen. 8. #MakeLegocelebrateBionicles20thanniversary The idea that we should "Make" LEGO do anything is just disrespectful. 11. #moreMataNuiOnlineGames The media form that made MNOG so wonderfully early 90s (Adobe Flash) no longer exists. As much as I wish LEGO continued making interactive games with Templar all throughout the 2000s, it's a bit late for it now. And MNOG's ambiance and storytelling just wouldn't be done justice in HTML5. 13. #releaseBionicleTheLegendRebornconceptart and #releaseBionicleTheLegendRebornsoundtrack Here is a fan-produced isolated score of the entire film. There's no reason to ask LEGO to do pretty much the exact same thing and they're not going to take fan requests seriously if some of the things we ask for already exist. 14. #makeBionicle5thmoviehappen and #makeBionicle6thmoviehappen (or #make5thand6thBioniclemovieshappen ) The 4th BIONICLE movie is across the board the most reviled of all of them. Why would LEGO continue along that trajectory when all we did last time was complain about Kiina going "WOO-HOO"? 16. #makeBionicleHeroes2happen , #remakeandimproveBionicleTheGame2003 , #remakeandimproveBionicleHeroes , and #giveBionicleareasonableTTvideogame Again, the storyline (even the video games) exist to promote the toys. LEGO's not going to expend resources fixing or making video games involving toys that haven't been commercially available for over a decade. Has any company ever done anything like that? 17. #releasetheG2Makutaset and #releasetheMaskofUltimatePower LEGO has already released enough images necessary to make your own G2 Makuta using secondhand sources like BrickLink for parts. The request for an official release of the Mask of Ultimate Power is the only one I would call even moderately possible. I could see LEGO offering a MoUP with every order over $50 on LEGO.com or something. That would be something the average fan like me could consider backing with my own money. But it's nuggetted between so many outlandish demands that LEGO's not going to take it seriously. 18. #makemoreMatoranspeciesmembersandremovethegenderlock LEGO's not producing more BIONICLE story media. Changing the rules now would be an empty gesture. If you want to make a female Po-Matoran now in 2021, you can do it. 19. #remakeBioniclesets This is called revamping. BIONICLE fans have regularly revamped sets as long as I can remember. 21. #makeLegopromoteBionicleTheLegendofMataNuiRebuilt and #makeBionicleTheLegendofMataNuiRebuiltcanon Why? The game has already been 100% finished and released. You can go play it and enjoy playing it right now. LEGO's not stopping you. Why do you feel you need LEGO's permission to enjoy fanmade BIONICLE content? If the fanbase as a whole were to actually try spamming Twitter with even half of these requests, it would just annoy LEGO. All of them are either things LEGO couldn't feasibly do if they wanted to, things that would inevitably only satisfy some fans and not others, or things that there's no conceivable need for them to do. All of these are drowning out the few meaningful ideas, like the Mask of Ultimate Power. It feels like you can't enjoy something LEGO-related unless LEGO actively stamps a seal of approval on it--which completely defeats the point of playing with LEGO!

According to BS01, even the Bahrag are in that not-Rahi-but-considered-Rahi-by-Matoran category. Rahi are, to us, a type of fauna in a fictional LEGO franchise. For us to disagree with the characters in the fictional franchise about what is a Rahi creates a weird objective definition for something that we know it's real. Imagine if Pikachu wasn't really a Pokémon--Ash Ketchum and Professor Oak just erroneously thought he was.

I have to agree. The only Bionicle hashtag that's ever been arguably necessary was #BringBackBIONICLE, which captures the spirit of all the other ones, and even that one wore out its welcome quickly. Some of them, like #4 and #9, are things I don't want to happen. #10 and #22 are odd for wanting Lego to release material that was never even completed. I also don't get #12. Have you even seen BIONICLEsector01's concept art gallery? I've seen more concept art for Bionicle than any other LEGO line--plus, it's not exactly difficult for us to get more. Thus far whenever we find individuals who posses it they've been very generous about sharing it. The implication behind a hashtag is almost like calling a company out for not treating its consumers fairly, and LEGO doesn't deserve that. I miss BIONICLE too, but all LEGO did was decline to continue producing a series that was giving them diminishing returns.

That's a really cool headcanon. This does presume that Keetongu's species were created after or alongside the Visorak. For some reason I assumed his species would have been older. According to BS01, Matoran consider Krana and Kraata (and even Shadow Leeches) to be Rahi, "even though they are not", but not Makuta. It raises some really interesting questions about epistemology--how can Matoran identify something as a Rahi and be wrong? Since the definition is already so subjective, isn't anything Matoran consider Rahi technically one?

I wonder if Keetongu's species were created by the Makuta out of viruses and liquid protodermis. That's probably the most objective definiton of Rahi we'll get, even if some (like Crystal Serpents and Protodax) do not fit that description.

Is it just me, or does the prototype with the smaller mouth hole look more like Hewkii's mask in Mask of Light?

No, it's a

That's a good point. It was a spoiler in 2003, not only that Takua was the Seventh Toa, but that Matoran could become Toa at all. It's interesting how at the time Takanuva was interesting for being the only Matoran turned into a Toa, but in hindsight the Toa Mata were the unique specimens for being one of very few Toa who were never Matoran. Matoran/Toa/Turaga are all in-universe words, though, presumably developed by people who were aware of the connection.

Greg never got enough credit for putting up with our antics.

Those things are a lot smarter than I thought.

I don't doubt Midak was a Boxor pilot, but that specific Matoran actually has slightly different colors than Midak. That Matoran is black with dark gray feet, Midak is dark gray with black feet. (Interesting note, all of Boxor pilot's pieces actually exist, while none of Midak's parts do.)

It'll be so cool to hear Bob talk about Bionicle again. In the Mask of Light special features, there's something to visionary yet approachable about how he talks. I've always wondered what happened to him. Greg and Faber and the others have been with us this whole time; it'll be interesting to see someone to pivotal to the early years but absent from the later give his take on it.

"Good thing I'm squeezing it super hard, otherwise we'd really be in trouble!"

Yeah, I'm sure there's something special about the Avohkii that protects it. Doesn't answer why the Shadow Kraata didn't infect everyone else nearby, though.

Very funny! I put the original song on right before to get my mind in the rhythm, and you did a good job packing so much detail into so few syllables. I like it.

Very nice. It looks so clean and shiny. It would be a Toa Krakua trading card. I especially like how expressive you made the mask. The Hau usually looks so stoic, but you managed to work in a very human-looking gaze that is more emblematic of Krakua himself.

[How quickly the time goes by. I've been working to muster the drive to get this story restarted for a while now. Without further ado, I present the much delayed next installment of Out of Their Element!] Episode 8: The Smiths’ Darkest Hour Claire’s home, already on the smaller side housing a family of four, appeared comically tiny containing the assortment of brigands and cutthroats that went about making small talk and commenting on her immaculately placed family photographs. She had always been too much of a lady to ask unnecessary questions about her husband’s line of work, but something about these men, especially their leader who insisted on being called “the Shadowed One,” set off red flags in her head. “Claire,” she whispered to her daughter, “go to Turaga Dume and tell him the Dark Hunters are here.” “I don’t want to,” Jessica whined. “Then I have to get on that weird blimp thing, and it takes forever!” Claire would have to think fast to get around her daughter’s teenage moodiness. “Did I say Turaga Dume?” she asked, feigning fatigue. “I meant to say, tell Toa Lhikan.” Claire, needing no further convincing, darted for the front door. However, the Shadowed One intercepted her before she could escape the house. “Where are you off to in such a rush?” he asked with a sinister smile. “It’s none of your business, Shadowed Weirdo!” she said. “So feisty, like an untamed Shallow Cat,” he purred, running a cold metal claw down her cheek. “Far be it from me to allow my hostess’s daughter to wander this dangerous city without an escort.” The Shadowed One summoned an orange-eyed giant, whom he introduced as Mimic, and told him he was not to let Claire out of his sight. Seeing no other choice, Claire accepted the chaperone, already forming in her mind a plan to ditch him later. ---- Kio away, Roger and Jake slowly made their way back home aboard a tiny dinghy, an even smaller and less seaworthy vessel than the already modest one they left Metru Nui aboard. The father and son were struggling to keep the vessel on course through the harsh waters when the father spotted a landmass in the distance. “Land ho!” he cried with joy, wasting no time redirecting the boat’s trajectory. “No, Dad! Wait!” Jake shouted, but it was too late. The current carried the dinghy to shore, smashing it against the rocks. The father leapt from the destroyed boat and began kissing the ground. “Oh, Metru Nui!” he sang joyfully. “Metru Nui, I never thought I’d be so glad to see you.” “Dad?” Jake called. “This isn’t Metru Nui.” “What do you mean?” Roger said. He looked up, and only then did he realize that the distinctive skyline of Metru Nui was not present. What he did see, however, was a horizon of rocky outcroppings punctuated by bizarre architecture that hurt his eyes to look at for too long. The sky was purple, the clouds scattered about it were green and black, and the atmosphere itself above the land seemed darker and more twisted than it had seemed just minutes earlier. “Where… Where are we?” he begged his son. “This is Karzahni,” Jake answered. “But it has another name: the Land of the Abandoned.” ---- Jessica had not actually been to the Coliseum before this point, but she recognized its distinctive shape from all of her little brother’s BIONICLE building instructions. Getting away from Mimic had been difficult enough, and it was only a matter of time until he tracked her back down. She ran inside, wondering how she would convince Lee to give her another chance after their less than enviable first date. Then, she recalled the other problem regarding her mom and the Dark Hunters, and against her better judgment decided she might mention that first. What she was not expecting was the situation she ran into: the central arena in a state of pandemonium. Crowds of those little people--Matorians, or something like that--filled the stands while Turaga Dume watched the chaos unfold below him. A small handful of beings the same size and build as Lee were fighting the order enforcement robots, the Vahki, as a whirlpool of sorts whizzed in the midst of it all. Jessica pressed her body against the hallway as another of the Lee-sized beings--the Toa--fell into the swirling whirlwind. Three of the beings, one red, one green and one blue, rushed past her. Seeing no better option, she gave chase and reached them outside the Coliseum. “Wait!” she called out. The green one was the first to turn and notice her. “Who in the wide-world are you?” he asked. He readied his dangerous-looking blades. “And, if you’re looking for a hard-fight, you’ve found yourself the right Toa-heroes.” Claire stopped in her tracks and raised her hands. “Matau, wait,” the blue one said. “Are you in trouble? You don’t look like a Vahki or Dark Hunter.” “Them! Yes!” she cried. She struggled to get the right words. “The Dark Hunters! They’re at my house, having dinner with my mom, and they’re getting weapons!” “More Hunters?!” the red one lamented, sounding as if he were going to faint. Even Jessica thought he seemed like a drama queen. “Then that settles it,” the blue one said. “We help her. Take us to the Hunters, friend.”

Do not be so hard on yourself. I think Tuma is my favorite of what you made. I like how he looks like a giant metal samurai.

Great models. If only there were UCS Bionicle sets and they looked like these.

We know what happened to one of them. (I know it's not an official lifesize LEGO model, but it's the first thing I thought of.)