Darknut

The lighting is weird and messing with it for sure, but in the first one out of the bag it looks to have some sparkles in it along with some markings that only show up on the Copper one, specifically the lines from the eyes to the top and the one line that is at the top of the right side vent. Those marks appear in all the flip/flop colors like gold, silver, and copper from early Bionicle, while the Brown Komau just has a solid color without those lines. Also, those bags look a lot like the bags that random Kanohi would appear in when found in Nesquik cereal in Europe when that promo was running in the the early years.

I'm split. The Kaukau feel right since it's what we've seen them wearing for so long. Feels kind of like the Hafu/Taipu mask situation in some ways, but with less important characters.

However, I do feel conflicted on Nuri specifically, since a matoran in the Bohrok-Kal animation "Theft of Fire" matching the new Nuri appears in it. These animations came out before MNOGII, and a lot of the matoran from them later appeared in the MNOGII (i.e. Damek, Kalama, etc.), so the Nuri with a Komau from the web animations appearing again with the Komau in MNOGII would make more sense than the Kaukau.

So yeah, I guess I'm down for the change to Nuri, but I'm less convinced on Kivi. He does wear a Komau in his Metru-Nui promo CD iteration though, which is less convincing since I don't think it was made by Templar and a couple other matoran in those change masks from their MNOG/MNOGII appearances.

Like Nato said, just keep reporting the posts. It will stop eventually when a number of the bot accounts are banned, but the best thing to do is to not engage and report the posts. Remember, topics can be set up to send email notifications to the account owner whenever someone replies to a topic, so if you engage in replying to the spam topics, you could be creating false "interaction" counts that the bot presumes is people wanting to buy/learn more about the product. This in turn might be encouraging the creation of more spam topics/accounts since the bot program thinks engagement is happening. Don't reply to these topics, just report them and move on. As others mentioned, it'll clear itself up in a few days probably.

Not sure really what you have without pictures, but based on the descriptions it sounds like mostly gear. Bricklink has a gear section in their catalogue, but just by searching Bionicle Key Chain I was able to find a decent amount of things matching your descriptions. If you check the price guide on items that have had recent sales you can see sale data of what stuff was sold for in the last 6 months, might give you an idea of what price people are willing to pay.

Wow I remember reading about the claims regarding this way back when, crazy to finally see photos of it! Makes you wonder how many people with no interest in Bionicle or Lego even may have had their hands on a Brown Komau at one point. Wish the image was clearer to make out the text on the card behind the mask, can only make out "wit__ Toys" myself. There were claims that they both came together in said pack, but looks like it may have only been one or the other.

They kind of look like VMKK, which were given out to Proto-Squad members. They were hard gray plastic Krana-Kal that had a vaccum metal coating applied to them, the ones that never got coated were handed out as the GPKK. My guess it's they're more than likely that, but maybe someone who has more experience ID-ing them can weigh in. You can check the official promotional and rare collectibles topic for more info, posting in there may get some traction too.

4 hours ago, That Matoran with a Vahi said:

Not quite! Vakama is very sliiiightly taller than Nokama: his neck is half a measurement longer due to using a https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32039 and a 3-axle instead of the https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6553 that Nokama and the rest use. It's barely anything, but it still adds just one more small step in their variety... which, I have to absolutely agree with you, has got to be my favourite thing about them.

The second I read the not quite, I immediately thought "They have different neck heights actually don't they!" Can't believe I forgot about that part, but it's been ages since I've built them haha. Yeah it's neat how with such a limited number of parts we got 6 completely unique builds!

58 minutes ago, David Skyroller said:

The seller said the light blue Kakama sold for $4,500 but I know in auctions like this, the higher bidders very often fall through and the sellers contact the next highest bidder(s). I think @Darknut probably has more info on this specific auction. I was expecting that one to land in the mid $2,000s and I think that $4,500 surprised everyone. My guess is it went so high because the seller has a good reputation, it was a cool color, and because a couple of the die hard fans who are actually willing to shell out that much money happened to know about the auction and have the cash/credit available.

@Owls I speculate the rank in "value" of your prototypes would be

1. Dark Turquoise Matatu (Because Dark Turquoise is really cool and because it would color match Kongu)

2. Yellow Ruru (Because of the Sand Tarakava Hype, but not #1, because there are at least 3x others of these out there)

3. Sand Green Rau (Because Tamaru and sand green is cool)

4. Violet Huna (Would rank 1+ higher if it was in a cool shade more commonly used in Bionicle)

5. Dark Orange Mahiki (Even though this is a color match for Huki, #5 Because kanohi in colors related to Po-Koro tend to sell for less (with the Trans-orange Kaukau being the exception), and the Mahiki is one of the weaker noble mask designs) The Brown Komaus go for much less than the white and yellow Hunas. (I know it is more common, but the color does play into it more than people realize)

6. Light Blue Trident (Because it's not a kanohi)

I speculate at the upper end of the rankings you will find a couple people who are willing to pay close to ~$3,000-$4,000, and at the lower end you are looking at ~$500-$600. A lot of that depends on the perception of the parts being genuine and your reputation as a seller.

I was really confused on how you knew about that since I usually keep my collection pretty private, but then remembered my Brickshelf handle is the same as this one, oops. But yeah the Medium Blue Kakama's final price is public knowledge, what the seller has listed is the correct amount. Wish it wasn't, I was pretty good about not using my Lego budget this year for anything other than the GWP until that auction. I'm out of the game for a while now.

But yeah @Owls, I would agree with @David Skyroller on pretty much all points regarding the pieces. While what you have is mostly one of a kind, I think we may be hitting the peak of what people are willing to pay for a piece of plastic these days. If you're just looking for offers it will probably end up in the $2500 - $4000 range. I wish the pricing @Letagi mentioned was still a feasible amount, but it seems that isn't the case these days. If you want to try your luck with an auction you can too, but there's less power in vetting who you're selling to that way so you might just end up getting it into the hands of someone trying to flip it (if you care about that, that is). With the auction route I feel you'll still end up on the higher end of the prices mentioned here for sure, but it might take longer and you'll have to drum up the interest.

As for the genuineness of the parts, I remember you mentioning trying to get some Lego designer's feedback on them (I think it was Prince Galidor), so if you have proof of that from them it'll gain you a lot more credibility.

2 hours ago, ToysRUs said:

am not plugged in to the community, I haven't been much since 2014. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the last golden Hau sold for 5k? It appears on his bricklink as 45k EUR. I don't imagine that would ever be sold at that price, considering that is not the only one in existence, and as far as I'm aware there were 30 in circulation, where his description says there was only 5. I was interested for above the 5k range. While its hard to value something like that, I'm more  near 5k ballpark than 45k. Am I mistaken, wasn't the last one sold for that much?

Yeah, hence the added context I included in the post about the seller being a bit ridiculous with their asking prices and their info on the rarity of their items. I don't know what the last one sold for, but they're nowhere near what Bionicle Universe is asking. I'm pretty sure he's had it listed for a while at that insane price, so you can try direct messaging him with an offer. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't go down though.

Also, someone once did a calculation of how much the gold would cost alone for the piece, so if you can dig up that number and adjust for inflation of gold since, you probably can build a good case for a more reasonable asking price when you find someone willing to hear your offer. Good luck!

On 10/5/2023 at 4:53 PM, Valendale said:

Also, the same illness-induced haze that inspired me to post this topic made me overlook a few major things. I completely forgot that Onewa is actually a bushing taller than Nuju, meaning their are four distinct heights. AND I neglected to mention the different arm styles that Nokama and Nuju had! The 2001 sets sure had a lot of variation despite using the same basic builds!

Yeah I was a bit confused when I saw the options, every single 2001 Turaga has a unique build. Whenua, Vakama, and Matau all have the same leg and arm length, but varying neck positions. Nokama is identical to Vakama with the exception of her longer arms, while Nuju is identical to Nokama but with longer legs due to the single bushings added in. Onewa has the double bushings like you mentioned, but otherwise is identical to Vakama.

I like them all for the variety, don't think I actually have a specific one that's my favorite.

Bionicle Universe has one listed for sale on his Bricklink store. Price is a a bit more than steep, so I would message them and try to get a more reasonable offer in.

Not sure how plugged into the community you are, but the seller has kind of developed a negative and questionable reputation over the years due to the prices and claims they make about certain rare pieces, so you may want to really ensure the authenticity of the piece. It looks real from a glance, but just make sure you do your research to ensure it's legit. Mask Collector should still own one, you can try reaching out to him if you want to learn about what to look for to ensure authenticity.

5 hours ago, Roger C-T said:

I'd take Bricklink sales with a pinch of salt, there's no way of proving if the item was correct, or the transaction even took place.

What's up with people distrusting Bricklink so much nowadays? Yeah the correct part arriving issue is true, but the transactional part is logged by the payment method used (PayPal, bank transfer, etc.) and then reflected on the site as a record of sale. Could buyers buy way higher on platform and then have the seller send them some cash back off record? Sure, but that can happen with any online seller platform, not just Bricklink. Also, that White Huna was up for quite a while if I recall, so I'm sure their was a lot communication going on between seller and buyers.

On 9/9/2023 at 7:44 AM, Anon3356 said:

I have a white huna I'm looking to sell, I have offers for 1400usd, however I've seen em go for significantly more, namely 3000usd on bricklink (whether that is accurate I don't know) can I ask for more or should I be satisfied?

The 3000 USD is a bit extreme like Roger C-T mentioned, but they seem to have rarely sold for that before. They pretty much have the same origin story as the Brown Komaus, which seem to have sold for around 1000-1200 USD lately from what I've seen and heard. But there seems to be a way smaller supply of them entering the market than those. 1400 USD is a fair price for sure, but you can always ask around to see if there's someone out there who's willing to pay more. A bunch of people on here are looking for one, I'm sure they'll see your post and reach out soon enough.

16 hours ago, Illuminatus said:

Part of what really fascinates me about the market is how much stuff went entirely under the radar because it didn't happen in the US. Collectibles that were previously considered astoundingly rare have been proven to be just decently rare (however still astoundingly priced); the brown Komau is a prime example of this; the copper Komau has in fact been proven to be entirely common within Poland (I can only think of a single Polish BZPer back in the day). I think we have yet to see what kind of treasures Eastern Europe has because the market is apparently just starting to blossom here whereas I previously thought it was dead after being practically nonexistent. Guess I was wrong. But yeah, new collectors from around here are especially vulnerable to buying fake hype and taking a scalper's price at face value.

I wouldn't say Brown Komau are only decently rare, they haven't necessarily flooded the market. I just think Lego resellers and old fans getting rid of their collections are more aware of what they are now. Having watched them pop up over the last 5 years, it seems the flow of them is pretty stable. Even then if we are just counting all of them that have shown up and assuming none of them are being flipped, there still aren't even half as many documented ones as there are say G2 Translucent Blue Masks of Water, which have always fetched an equal or higher price than the Komaus have. The Official Rare Collectibles topic has had them listed in the hundreds since 2014, and it seems like they are selling for $1X00s USD these days. I don't feel like that's a huge price jump, it's really just the market following inflation with a little bit of a boost of nostalgia from people coming back into the hobby as adults. Just trying to say that it's not the worst offender of recent prices.

I do agree on the the Copper Komaus though, and I would throw all the Euro Misprints (Kaukaus included) and special edition or rarer set masks like the movie Kraahkan and PGKs into that bucket. As @Letagi mentioned, there's probably hundreds of thousands of all of those masks out there, if not millions. The artificial inflation of them is insane. I remember the Kaukaus costing about $30-40 USD, and almost all of the Rurus and Matatus costing less than $20 USD each back in the mid 2010s. The supply has always been there for these, it was just harder to get a hold of them if you weren't in Europe was all. So yeah, none of those should be listed for what people are listing them these days. It is predatory, and it's sad that the same thing seems to be happening with some sets nowadays too.

16 hours ago, Illuminatus said:

Not defending him but if he's been through enough of those packs then I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this. It has crossed my mind that overlapping releases of Krana and Krana-Kal packs might both include Protodermic Kanohi Nuva as LEGO doesn't appear to care all that much about consistency; I also think I read that someone had stumbled upon one as a kid? Like I for one had no idea that Rahi Kanohi were available in 2001 polybags but that appears to have been proven at this point.

Almost all of the evidence from prior years goes against that being the case, but even if what you theorized could have happened, it's still incredibly disingenuous to advertise a possible production/release error as a feature of the product you're selling. If it happened a customer bought those packs and found a Protodermic Kanohi Nuva, people would chock it up as incredible luck or good fortune, not as the norm, so it shouldn't be advertised as such.

So I opened a bunch of Kanohi packs back in the day, and a couple later in life after the end of Bionicle. With the exception of the Infected Hau, I've never gotten or heard of any Rahi exclusive masks (i.e. Translucent Blue Ruru, Teal Kakama, Yellow Komau, Light Blue Pakari, Black Huna) appearing in those polybags or boxes. I'm genuinely curious about the proof of this happening, cause that would totally blow my mind.

Another point to bring up are the few instances where sellers who aren't aware of the rarity of their items sell them at great prices to collectors and re-sellers alike, only to feel like they got conned out of their items when they see their stuff re-listed by the predatory re-sellers. I feel like events like that only hurt the fandom, because it not only drives up prices like we've seen, but also ends up painting the private collectors who bought at low or "fair" prices as liars or cheats to the original seller. Events like that just make all of us on the buying side look bad, which I feel we can all agree really isn't a look we want for the fandom. To add to this, as @T.B.O.C mentioned, the fandom has hit it's nostalgia wave and the social media influencers creating videos about the rarity of certain items are absolutely affecting the market, and as many of us have mentioned there are definitely bad actors in the seller scene, and while some of them have always been predatory, others may have originally been enthusiastic fans who got caught up in the dollar chasing game. But having those videos and guides to pricing also help in protecting outside sellers from viewing the community in a negative light. And as @The Archivist mentioned, it sometimes can result in more product entering the market by setting an estimated value for said items.

While I am in agreement with the majority that the market is a bit haywire these days, I don't think it's as a unbalanced as most, at least on the very rare side of things. When we're talking about pieces that have less than a hundred, or sometimes less than a dozen even in existence, shouldn't they be priced pretty exceptionally? Yeah maybe not in the thousands, but at least in the hundreds. I still feel like the prices Letagi has collected/documented in The Official Rare Collectibles topic are fair. However, at what point are we just being sticklers for low prices? Not trying to say I don't want better prices for collectibles, but there is a line between predatory sellers manipulating the market for some items, and other times where us as buyers are just being priced out.

On 7/24/2023 at 3:33 AM, Axelford said:

Aging fandom is my only suggestion. I collected stamps for a while (grandfather gave me his old collection) and that is an old hobby globally, but stamp values have been dropping for a while now, because even though an item is rare, the amount of people interested in buying stamps is decreasing. Plus, perception of the item has changed, a piece of paper and ink is not really wiz-bang compared to a piece of laminated paper that can be used in a trading card game, let alone an item in a digital game where you can actually use the item and flex on noobs or whatever. Idk, just spitting random stuff 😅

I wouldn't say it's random stuff, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. The prices in any collecting scene in general just go up until people don't want to collect anymore, and the reality is, we'll probably all be gone or too old to care by the time the prices are really competitive again for Bionicle. As for Lego as a whole, especially licensed theme stuff where the IPs are either still going or have inevitable reboots every few decades, I don't think a market collapse is ever going to happen, since interest in those fandoms is continuously being nurtured, thus injecting more life and staying power into the collecting scene.

5 hours ago, doodleloot said:

9 hours ago, Aiden said:

To answer your question they do, several pieces in the trade show prototype Axalara were 3D printed, two being the adapted Miru and it’s HUD.

Keep in mind though that those parts are SLS printed (fusing Nylon powder with a laser), not FDM prints like tourmalinex mentioned. Not that Lego may have never used FDM for prototyping, but the parts we saw used for Toy Fair prototypes around that time were spray painted SLS prints usually.

Also to add to this, I recall a more recent interview from the last couple years with someone involved with Bionicle around that time where they specifically mentioned they were using SLS or "powder" printing to prototype parts instead of milling machines, kit-bashes, and other methods like they used to. If I recall the interview I'll link it here.

11 hours ago, tourmalinex said:

My 3d printer at home can make these in a higher quality in the same color.

Just to add to this comment, I feel like we're forgetting how much 3D printing has advanced in the last 25 years, and how much more affordable it has become. I remember back then how rare and cool it was to have a high school drafting class with access to a 3D printer, it was not at all the norm, and they were way slower and clunkier than the ones we see today that are a couple hundred bucks. So yeah, of course your 25 years of tech advancement for the consumer market 3D printer is better than whatever was easily available and top of the line back then, I would be mad if it hadn't come this far! It's awesome the phenomenal stuff we can print on budget printers these days, but remember that the tech wasn't always this good or affordable.

As for the leeches, I know Lego has done trade shows in Texas, and had had SLS printed stuff displayed at them, but no clue if they're real. If they can be proven to be SLS "Powder" printed, I would say they could be legit.

20 minutes ago, torax said:

@Darknut, I bought many second-hand lots as a kid (as well as traded sets/parts with friends!) so I can only say the country of origin for sure. At least I can say with confidence that I got it in Sweden as it is where I was born and grew up.

Cool, good to know that it still popped up in the area all the others seem to have.

Like The Archivist said, a lot of buyers these days aren't on BZPower so maybe visit some discord servers and other forums/groups to find more interest. You can also check out the signatures of some people who post regularly in this forum, they often mention they're on the hunt for stuff like this.

The last few I've seen have sold in the high hundreds, and that's what I got mine for a couple years ago. I've seen them range from $700 to $1100 lately. Damaged ones have gone for around $400 both times they were sold. This topic also has that as being the estimated price range, and is a good resource for stuff like this.

Side note, do you remember how you got it? Or what country you got it in? A lot of people are still interested in the origin of this and the White Hunas so any info you remember would be awesome!

4 hours ago, doodleloot said:

Is there any info on pricing for the Inside Tour exclusive transparent blue Mask of Water from 2015? I don't see any sold items on Bricklink and don't think there is a consensus on what would be considered a fair price for one, since I'm guessing it sells fairly rarely. I know that Duckbricks spent around 2.5k on his, but I don't know if that's representative of what the mask is actually worth.

I can't remember exactly what it was, but I traded about 1.0-1.25k worth of stuff for mine back in like 2021. I also know a few did sell from that range to up to 1.5k back then pretty regularly. Most recent one sold for 1.6k on Bricklink from the looks of it, which I don't feel like is a completely insane price for it to sell for when you account for a few years of tough inflation. I would say the ones that are listed at the moment are way overpriced though, even if they're the staff versions out of 50.

It's wild that they seem to often sell for more than some of the other oddities listed in this topic, I guess they're just more well known to the public as being something that's out there to collect.

1 hour ago, Toa Matia said:

Yeah I didn’t know that, but somebody on discord showed this pic 🤯

Oh neat, thanks for sharing this! Kind of wild to think we almost got pearl gold before dark gold.

11 hours ago, ToaDume said:

So what do you think that means? I'm pretty sure Eduardojj is not Bionicle Universe. So, either they bought this from them back in the day and are using old photos to list it, or they stole photos from bricklink (possibly after messaging bionicle universe for more photos), or it's a coincidence they have the same background. In my opinion it seems a bit more suspicious to me for it to match the background of a well known seller in the bionicle community, but then again I am a very skeptical person. Hopefully it is legit though.

I doubt they're the same background. Both look like they're sitting on pretty standard black poster board paper. I have a sheet that I use to take pictures of stuff with that looks pretty similar to both of those backgrounds being used, and the one from Bricklink even has the bent edge of the paper in it. Also, Eduardoji is selling from the US while Bionicle Universe is in the Netherlands. They're most likely different pieces, and like Letagi said it's highly likely a bunch of them were also out there at Lego or with employees.

Also, Eduardoji's story isn't that far out there. Binkmeister did work for Lego at least at one point as a webmaster (not sure he ever handed any of the masks out himself at the same convention he gave them to Black Six), and it's possible the seller is misremembering Black Six from a convention as a Lego employee.

Anyone else intrigued about the toothbrush stuff though? Bionicle Universe claims that they were used as test pieces for the toothbrushes, and Eduardoji apparently collects toothbrushes per his Ebay profile. Just a weird coincidence.

10 minutes ago, Letagi said:

I've been wondering about that too. He could have "bought" his own mask to establish a sales record with the intent of relisting it under a different account. I suspect that something similar has happened with other pieces that have exploded in value recently, like the pearl gold Kraahkan and translucent orange Kraata. Gradual price increases are normal but those spikes do not look organic to me. 

Who's the guy with two of each?

May also just be the supply running lower and lower with the exceptionally rare stuff, but the Pearl Gold Kraahkan has definitely been weird to watch blow up.

This is the guy on Instagram with two of each. Pretty sure he's in Scandinavia and found them all in random used lots.

On 5/26/2023 at 10:29 AM, Letagi said:

It was actually up there for a week or so. BrickLink's notification system is acting up again. I just happened to see it the day after it got posted.

I made an offer for $1000 and the seller seemed open to it, but wanted to wait for a bit and see whether someone would buy it for his asking price. To my astonishment, someone did.

For the record I think $3500 is ridiculous for any mask not made of a precious metal. I recently paid $1100 for a brown Komau which is about equally rare, and that's the upper end of what I think is reasonable. Hopefully this sale doesn't set a new precedent because it will price most collectors out of the market.

Ugh that's what I get for not manually checking just. Still, I'm with you and wouldn't of offered anywhere near that asking price, the 4 figure price tags some masks are asking for right now is just getting out of hand. I guess I can see it for real rare one of a kind prototypes, one offs, and as you mentioned precious metal masks, but there's been over a dozen reported White Huna and Brown Komau so it's wild they go for so much these days. I payed around $700 for my Brown Komau a couple years ago and I though I was overpaying back then, but everything just seems to be going up exponentially these days when it comes to the rare stuff. Really hope the market doesn't continue that way.

15 hours ago, Roger C-T said:

Nice to know BL alerts are hot garbage. Not exactly surprised.

Mental that it actually sold for that price. Unless it didn't, and someone just wants to make you think it did. Who would just chuck something like that up on BL? Someone who maybe does have one and wants people to think it's worth that much. There's that guy on Insta with 2 of them and 2 Komaus that doesn't reply to DMs.... Conspiracies!

Eh I think they just break occasionally like Letagi said, I caught my Brown Komau on Bricklink because of an alert actually so it can help. The few times I've seen stuff priced like that there usually is a note also asking for offers, which is probably what happened (Brown Komau I got that I mentioned above was listed for like $2000 with a similar note but I didn't pay that), but it looks like it may have actually sold for that price. I can't remember if Bricklink records the listed price or the final invoice price when they list that data, if you do PayPal through them it might get the right price, but private PayPal transactions offsite might not record properly. That's the first White Huna I've seen in years though, so it wouldn't totally surprise me if it went for that much.

Ugh yeah I wish that dude with the 2 Hunas and 2 Komaus would respond to messages haha. I messaged them on Reddit when he mentioned them there offering a trade for something of equivalent rarity. They did mention they weren't looking to sell them, but that the trade was interesting and that they would get back to me. They ended up never responding and after a couple reminder pings I just gave up and stopped bothering them.

Anyone actually catch this White Huna for sale recently? I double checked my alert settings since I missed it but seems like it may have sold instantly. Still, first one I've seen on Bricklink in like 6 or so years. Hoping it was one of you guys that has been on the hunt for one!

PM sent!

4 hours ago, Letagi said:

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.

Yeah that is the exact trend I was seeing too. I got mine from someone in Sweden, and the couple I saw pop up over the years that I missed were in Norway and Sweden, with one or two in Denmark. Thanks for the info and congrats again on the find!

2 hours ago, Letagi said:

In other news, always a fun day when you get to add yourself to an owners list. 🙂

Congrats on finding one! Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what country the seller/trader found it in? I noticed a trend when I was hunting for mine and am curious if the one you acquired follows it.