Childhood misconceptions about Bionicle?

[PutYaGunsOn]

What kinds of misconceptions did you and/or your friends have about Bionicle when you were kids?  Here are some of mine.

 

Obligatory thinking that they were robots when I first saw them.

 

My friend and I both thought that Lewa Mata's hand could shoot vines out of it.  (It looks more like a gun barrel compared to Tahu and Pohatu's hands, and since he lived in a jungle, we came up with that.)

 

I used to think that MNOLG was about a human (i.e. you) who was taken to Mata Nui, mainly because it was entirely in first person, the character you were playing as was completely ignorant of Matoran culture, and they don't show that you're playing as Takua until the very end.

 

I used to think that Roboriders were motorbikes for the Toa or something.

 

My friend used to think that if the Toa Nuva's masks came off, they'd revert back to Toa Mata.

 

I think at some point, I just thought the Toa Mata could transform into the Nuva at will, like turning into a Super Saiyan (I watched a lot of anime as a kid, hence why I thought it worked like that).

[Taria Pakari]

Armour colour determined elemental power, so the Bohrok-Kal and Rahkshi were the same as the Toa.

[Tarn]

didn't someone already make a topic like this?

[PutYaGunsOn]

didn't someone already make a topic like this?

Last time I saw one of these, it was months ago, likely well past the bump/revival timespan.

 

I even dug through the last few pages and didn't find it, so I decided to make a new one.  If I'm wrong and that one's still alive, we can go ahead and move it there.  If not,t hat's exactly what this is for.

[Katanga]

Armour colour determined elemental power, so the Bohrok-Kal and Rahkshi were the same as the Toa.

I assumed the exact same thing before doing my research. Another big misconception I had before learning the facts was thinking Vezok and all of the blue Glatorian were female due to their blue colors. 

[The 1st Shadow]

Obligatory thinking that they were robots when I first saw them.

 

My friend and I both thought that Lewa Mata's hand could shoot vines out of it.  (It looks more like a gun barrel compared to Tahu and Pohatu's hands, and since he lived in a jungle, we came up with that.)

Pretty sure we all did the first one. Until my friend explained to me that they were living characters and not just machines.

 

At that point, I began to look at their designs and determined that Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohatu were female until I learned that Gali was the only girl.

 

As for the vine thing, I thought the same thing before I learned he was a Toa of Air.

 

 

One of my friends also had me convinced for a while that a Toa would suffocate if their mask was removed.

 

Can't think of any other misconceptions at the moment.

[Pohaturon]

 

Armour colour determined elemental power, so the Bohrok-Kal and Rahkshi were the same as the Toa.

I assumed the exact same thing before doing my research. Another big misconception I had before learning the facts was thinking Vezok and all of the blue Glatorian were female due to their blue colors. 

 

I too assumed blue = female for an embarrassingly long time.

 

As a child I also thought that, while being the Toa of Air and being able to control winds and whatnot, Lewa would also have control over plants and animals, due to his early depictions showing him swinging on vines and his near-telepathic calming of the ash-bear in MoL. Then it turns out that plantlife is an element and rahi-control is a mask power. Welp. 

 

For the longest time I thought Metru-Nui was physically the same size as the island of Mata-Nui, as opposed to being very tiny in comparison. I always loved the idea of a massive, sprawling metropolis wherein millions and millions of Matoran lived (as I mentioned in another thread) and that is still my headcanon.

 

In 2006, I thought Axonn and Brutaka were brothers for some reason. 

 

[PutYaGunsOn]

In 2006, I thought Axonn and Brutaka were brothers for some reason. 

 

In a poetic sense, they are, so you're not really wrong.  (Brothers-in-arms)

 

I think I may have had the whole Air/Jungle misconception too, so G2 Lewa would've fit into my childhood pretty well.  Though it's cool that they did introduce Jungle as an element later on.

[Bfahome]

Being an unimaginative 8-year-old, I fell into the Gali = guy assumption, though I quickly learned of my error.

 

I also assumed, based on a map from an old 2001-era comic or LEGO magazine, that certain villages on Mata Nui were -Koro, and some were -Wahi.  If I recall correctly, the map didn't actually have all the villages labeled, so the only labels for some regions were -Wahi, and I figured that something like "Ko-Koro" would be too weirdly alliterative to be the village name and that it must be Ko-Wahi.

 

It also took me an awkwardly long time to realize that the Bohrok's eyes were their eyes.  Based on the mask = face idea, and the fact that the promo art having Tahu in a stare-down with a Krana inside the Bohrok, I assumed that the Krana were the Bohrok's faces and would look out of the clear faceplates.  After seeing the comics I understood, though, and the Bohrok-Kal probably would've made me realize if I hadn't already.

[Toa Imrukii]

I knew they weren't really robots from the start, but with that in mind I thought that some species in the MU could reproduce sexually (not counting the unnamed species since we don't know much about them other than some of them grow up and develop like humans do, from child to adult sort of thing).

 

When 2009 rolled around I didn't really know what to tthink, I think It flashed in my mind that these were forsaken beings from an earlier time, and indeed they where, but specifically they were biological instead of biomechanical, which was the thing that confused me. I thought all beings in BIONICLE where biomechanical to some degree. Well I was wrong.

 

I did also think that color did represent what element they were, but of course I wasn't accounting for colors like silver of grey on the body. Heck I didn't even know about the other elements until years later, heck Tahnok-Kal's shields looked like more like fire to me than the normal varient of Bohrok of Fire whoch is what he had come from.

[Katanga]

For the longest time I thought Metru-Nui was physically the same size as the island of Mata-Nui, as opposed to being very tiny in comparison. I always loved the idea of a massive, sprawling metropolis wherein millions and millions of Matoran lived (as I mentioned in another thread) and that is still my headcanon.

The movie doesn't really help one's sense of scale regarding the size and population of Metru Nui. Having never read much on the Toa Metru or the '04 and '05 story arcs, I thought the same as you. I have to agree that I prefer the idea of a huge metropolis though. It sounds much livelier than a tiny city.

 

 

In 2006, I thought Axonn and Brutaka were brothers for some reason.

 In a poetic sense, they are, so you're not really wrong.  (Brothers-in-arms)

I think I remember advertising material mentioning the whole "brothers-in-arms" thing, so it's easy to understand why one might think of them as brothers.

[Bonkle]

Reposting one from the last topic like this
 

Oh, I remember a really weird one.
 
I used to think all of the 2001 Toa masks were for different Toa. The first part of their name, the elemental prefix, determined the color, and the second part determined the shape. So I thought there was a whole legion of Toa like Gahu, a Toa with the blue Hau, or Popaka, the Toa with the brown Akaku.
 
 
I was weird.

[PutYaGunsOn]

 

Reposting one from the last topic like this

 

Oh, I remember a really weird one.

 

I used to think all of the 2001 Toa masks were for different Toa. The first part of their name, the elemental prefix, determined the color, and the second part determined the shape. So I thought there was a whole legion of Toa like Gahu, a Toa with the blue Hau, or Popaka, the Toa with the brown Akaku.

 

 

I was weird.

 

Weird.  Would they look like recolors of existing Toa, or what?  (Like, would "Popaka" be a brown Kopaka, regular ol' Pohatu but with an Akaku, or something different altogether?)

 

And what about a Toa with a Pakari?  Let's say you had a Toa with a red Pakari.  Would that be Tanua, or Taa?  (since "Onu" is the entire prefix, leaving only the "a")  "Tanua" sounds so much better, but with your little naming scheme, "Taa" fits more.

[Bonkle]

 

 

 

Reposting one from the last topic like this

 

Oh, I remember a really weird one.

 

I used to think all of the 2001 Toa masks were for different Toa. The first part of their name, the elemental prefix, determined the color, and the second part determined the shape. So I thought there was a whole legion of Toa like Gahu, a Toa with the blue Hau, or Popaka, the Toa with the brown Akaku.

 

 

I was weird.

Weird. Would they look like recolors of existing Toa, or what? (Like, would "Popaka" be a brown Kopaka, regular ol' Pohatu but with an Akaku, or something different altogether?)

 

And what about a Toa with a Pakari? Let's say you had a Toa with a red Pakari. Would that be Tanua, or Taa? (since "Onu" is the entire prefix, leaving only the "a") "Tanua" sounds so much better, but with your little naming scheme, "Taa" fits more.

Thinking back, I think they were jute different colors of the Toa builds, based on what masks they had. So yeah Popaka is just Brown Kopaka.

 

My younger self probably would have gone with Taa. Guess I can justify it cause there were an awful lot of MNOG2 Matoran with names like that.

[Timageness]

I actually thought that the word Kanohi was both spelled and pronounced "Kahoni" until, like, way into the 06 - 08 years.

[Sybre]

I thought romance was canon for a while.

 

For a short time, I thought Garan was tured into Reidak by some kinda curse or something. I think I might have misunderstood an event in a BIONICLE Heroes trailer... Either way, I was not an observant kid. The memory's fuzzy, so I wouldn't ask about it.

 

I once thought Matoran Universe inhabitants could celebrate real world holidays like Christmas. This was another short-lived misconception.

 

After seeing those 3D Piraka animations with the mini games, I didn't think the Piraka could speak any languages and could somehow communicate through growls, grunts, and roars.

 

I thought Vezok and Vezon were brothers because I didn't understand the "double" shtick.

 

When I first saw pictures of the Toa Mata in 2006 or so, they looked small compared to the Inika, so I thought the Mata were children!

 

I thought Toa Ignika would never speak (not even during his sacrifice, but could communicate through sign language, which everybody magically knew.

 

My incredible seven-year-old mind turned the word "Rahaga" into "Raphga". To this day, I don't think I have a good explanation for this one. A terrible misread, perhaps?

 

As you could tell, I was a noob kid.

Edited September 20, 2016 by The Root

[Master Inika]

Thought every character (including Rahi, Bohrok, and Rahkshi) had masks. If a set didn't have a single head piece, I chose whatever was closest to the center of their face. For the Nui-Jaga, it was the little triangle piece.

[Kopekemaster]

I thought Vahki was pronounced "vuh-hawk-ee" for the longest time. It also took me a while to realize that everything that had happened before the whole Solis Magna saga happened in the GSR. I thought the GSR was just another thing within the MU.

 

Also, the fact that LoMN ends with the Toa turning into Turaga, but then WoS beginning with them as Toa again confused me a lot.

[Sybre]

I thought Vahki was pronounced "vuh-hawk-ee" for the longest time.

 

Also, the fact that LoMN ends with the Toa turning into Turaga, but then WoS beginning with them as Toa again confused me a lot.

Reminds me of an old friend who mispronounced Zaktan as "za-kuh-tan", Hewkii as "hyoo-wee-kee", Inika as "ig-nie-kuh", and Mahri as "Muh-haw-ree". Needless to say, our BIONICLE discussions back in 2006 and 2007 were frustrating to listen to. I had another old friend who said "tony" instead of Toa and I'd pronounce Toa as "toy-yuh".

 

I was right with you there. Years later, I decided to think that WoS happened before the ending of LoMN and I was satisfied.

[Pohaturon]

Oh, here's one - when I first watched MoL, I thought the Ussanui, the flying bike thing Takanuva uses was a Rahi. They put on Jala's mask to make it friendly, just like putting on infected masks would make Rahi violent. Being very small and not knowing that Bionicle: The Game was not canon, and since it has scenes were Matoran "build" Rahi, the part where bits of the Ussanui are put together did not make me question this theory. Then I was devastated when Takanuva practically deliberately crashed the thing into rubble. "Why would you kill that poor Rahi! It let you ride it into the most foreboding location on the island!"

 

Later I realized it was just a vehicle built from the corpses of the Rahkshi (I think...). Which is pretty metal.

 

[Master Inika]

Oh, here's one - when I first watched MoL, I thought the Ussanui, the flying bike thing Takanuva uses was a Rahi. They put on Jala's mask to make it friendly, just like putting on infected masks would make Rahi violent. Being very small and not knowing that Bionicle: The Game was not canon, and since it has scenes were Matoran "build" Rahi, the part where bits of the Ussanui are put together did not make me question this theory. Then I was devastated when Takanuva practically deliberately crashed the thing into rubble. "Why would you kill that poor Rahi! It let you ride it into the most foreboding location on the island!"

 

Later I realized it was just a vehicle built from the corpses of the Rahkshi (I think...). Which is pretty metal.

 

Not just Rahkshi, Bohrok-Kal as well.

[Alyska]

Oh, here's one - when I first watched MoL, I thought the Ussanui, the flying bike thing Takanuva uses was a Rahi. They put on Jala's mask to make it friendly, just like putting on infected masks would make Rahi violent. Being very small and not knowing that Bionicle: The Game was not canon, and since it has scenes were Matoran "build" Rahi, the part where bits of the Ussanui are put together did not make me question this theory. Then I was devastated when Takanuva practically deliberately crashed the thing into rubble. "Why would you kill that poor Rahi! It let you ride it into the most foreboding location on the island!"

 

Heh... How did you feel when Hahli popped out of it, then? 

 

 

As for me, I thought Mata Nui woke up at the end of Mask of Light.

 

I also misheard Takutanuva talking about Jaller's mask as "This mask is the mask of life" which got me real confused when the Ignika was introduced.

 

I also thought Takanuva was a Toa Nuva, but I think most people did at the time.

[SirChronicler]

 

Oh, here's one - when I first watched MoL, I thought the Ussanui, the flying bike thing Takanuva uses was a Rahi. They put on Jala's mask to make it friendly, just like putting on infected masks would make Rahi violent. Being very small and not knowing that Bionicle: The Game was not canon, and since it has scenes were Matoran "build" Rahi, the part where bits of the Ussanui are put together did not make me question this theory. Then I was devastated when Takanuva practically deliberately crashed the thing into rubble. "Why would you kill that poor Rahi! It let you ride it into the most foreboding location on the island!"

 

Heh... How did you feel when Hahli popped out of it, then? 

 

 

As for me, I thought Mata Nui woke up at the end of Mask of Light.

 

I also misheard Takutanuva talking about Jaller's mask as "This mask is the mask of life" which got me real confused when the Ignika was introduced.

 

I also thought Takanuva was a Toa Nuva, but I think most people did at the time.

 

Well, the plan for the original three year run was to awaken mata nui at the end of MoL, but then they decided to continue bionicle. Imagine if they ended it with MoL 

[Kopekemaster]

 

I was right with you there. Years later, I decided to think that WoS happened before the ending of LoMN and I was satisfied.

 

 

Yeah, that's what happened, LEGO just didn't make it very obvious. I have a feeling they hadn't planned on making WoS by the time they finished LoMN, otherwise I doubt they would've ended LoMN like that.

[Tuuli]

At the beginning I was unsure that the Toa were even heroes at all. I knew of course the matoran were good, and the turaga, yet the fearsome look of these characters also gave me a vibe that there was more to the plastic than I knew at that time. Also, I thought Metru nui was above Mata-nui (somehow?) And that there were several islands covering the giant robot, as shown on the map, yet I didn't know that the world was inside it.

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

Biggest  misconception I made as a child was thinking the writing for Bionicle was good :v

 

 

(honestly though everything i got just loops back round to the shoddy writing scheme:

 

"this is blue so it's a girl cuz that's how it goes, right?" = wrong, he's evil so he is not.

 

"rahi  are like animals, they eat things and have live young" = nah, every single rahi is made in a rahi factory because greg  thinks even implying birth will send children down a road to perversion

 

and lets not get started on young-me thinking "oh, magic cyborg men, that doesn't need an in-depth explanation to make any sense at all..." ohhh boy...)

[Lenny7092]

I always thought that every blue character from 2001-2007 is a girl, but it turns that that Vezok and Takadox are boys.

I also originally thought that when every villain character, who appeared in a canister set, from 2002-2007 has the same color as the Toa Mata, they have the same elemental powers as them. It's like this: red=fire, blue=water, etc. When I looked up, not all of them do. Levahk has acid powers, Bohrok-Kal with different elemental powers, and the Vahki, Visorak, and Barraki have different powers.

The Bohrok were like the Nuva versions of the ordinary Bohrok because of their silver pieces, but they are actually completely new types of Bohrok with different powers.

I also thought that Piraka and Barraki have red members for leaders, like Tahu with Toa Mata, Vakama with Toa Metru, and Jaller with Toa Inika, but I realized that Zaktan the green guy is the Piraka's leader instead of Hakann and Pirdak the white guy being the Barraki's leader instead of Kalmah.

I thought that the Toa Metru were the Toa Nuva's new forms, but when I watched the Legends of Metru Nui movie, I realized that they are actually the Turaga of Mata Nui.

I also thought that 2003's Makuta was originally an enhanced form of the Exo-Toa, like the Toa Nuva, but it turns out that it is Makuta Teridax.

Even my friend thought that all villains, which were released in canister sets in late 2003-2008, are sons of Makuta Teridax, but I realized that only the Rahkshi are.

 

Man, I had a lot of misconceptions when I didn't follow the whole story until 2007.

[Valendale]

For some reason I thought the names like Jaller, Hewkii, etc, indicated a role or title rather than a given name. 

 

Another thing was thinking the story would be really violent for some reason before I got into it.

 

And we won't get into all the mispronunciations...

[Toa Doublebee]

I think there some pretty common ones like blue=female, color=element, Lewa=toa of plant-life.

 

I'll admit, some of the things mentioned here I still thought until reading them. Like Metru Nui being smaller than Mata Nui.

Some specifics of me:

-I used to think Hydraxon was Axxon in aquatic gear (Hydro + Axxon, and they look similar)

-I used to pronounce Lewa as "Lawa"

-I thought Bohrok fell from the sky like meteors

-I thought 2005 was non-canon as I couldn't figure out where it fits in the timeline. As a presequal, apparently.

-I thought 2006 was labeled as "BIONICLE 4", 2007 as "BIONICLE 5" etcetera, following the trend of the movie numbering.

-Bohrok Va were the brains of the operation, much like the wise Turaga. Not tiny butler bots.

-one of the promotional images for 2008 had a closeup of Lewa's face. I thought the mouth area looked similar to the mouths seen in the films, and this lead me to believe a movie adaptation of the year was in development.

-not knowing Takua's blue mask was a fail on his part, I was sure blue was a normal color for Ta-Matoran

Edited September 21, 2016 by Toa Doublebee

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

As for me, I thought Mata Nui woke up at the end of Mask of Light.

 

 

Same. He was SUPPOSED TO, that's what the story promised, but nooo....

 

Me, I thought that Makuta and Mata Nui were brothers. You know, because that's what all the lore said was the case and he even refers to Mata Nui as "brother" in MoL... And then Farshtey's retconning what Makuta's whole deal was (along with his name) never really addressed its compatibility-issues with this established premise...

 

Another misconception I had: that Akamai Nuva would be formed at some point.

[Alyska]

For some reason I thought the names like Jaller, Hewkii, etc, indicated a role or title rather than a given name. 

 

 

This is a Jaller. He jalls for a living. He has years of jalling experience.

[Bfahome]

Speaking of Matoran names, back in '01 when all I knew of the McToran were that some of my friends had them, we assumed that the mask names listed on their disks were their names.  I don't remember how we reconciled Maku's, though, since she wore a Noble Huna but the disk showed a Kaukau.

[Toa Jaxus]

I thought that it was a sole tropical island in the middle of a sea like the Pacific Ocean on the planet that all Lego lines were set in. Also the term 'rahi' only applied to the monsters of the first year, and Makuta made them by throwing certain animals in a cauldron of dark power that mutated them into monsters.

[PutYaGunsOn]

I thought that it was a sole tropical island in the middle of a sea like the Pacific Ocean on the planet that all Lego lines were set in. Also the term 'rahi' only applied to the monsters of the first year, and Makuta made them by throwing certain animals in a cauldron of dark power that mutated them into monsters.

Reminds me of how I used to think that Mata Nui was supposed to be on Earth.

 

EDIT: Also, just remembered one, though this is more my friend's fault than mine.  We used to think that the ball joint on the Toa Mata's chests was their power source/core.  I didn't own Gali yet, so we never really took her chest socket piece in mind.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Shinken Green