Onua the leader?

[Takanuinuva]

Did anyone else think Onua was the leader of the Toa due to him having the largest picture in this 2001 catalog?

Or was that just me?

 

https://youtu.be/yz6Ehc8edIA?t=14m5s

[CyclonatorZ]

No... I thought he was the villain.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I've never seen that catalog before. So I guess my answer to that question is no.

[Bfahome]

 
Nah, I just thought "cool!" and that his shoulders looked kind of like flowers for some reason.  I did think Kopaka's head worked like this though:
 

[Lenny7092]

Well, it's weird that Lego made Onua's picture bigger than the other Toa Mata. That kind of made Onua look like the leader of the Toa Mata. Lol. Well, we know that it's actually Tahu in the story.

 

Plus, Onua kind of acted like a leader in Bionicle G2.

[Taria Pakari]

Well, it's weird that Lego made Onua's picture bigger than the other Toa Mata.

 

They did that a few times throughout the run of G1. Like with the Toa Mahri for example, Hahli was always front and centre in a lot of the promotional material, but she wasn't the leader.

[TERIDAX941]

Nah, I just thought "cool!" and that his shoulders looked kind of like flowers for some reason.  I did think Kopaka's head worked like this though:

 

It's funny, when I first saw Kopaka I assumed he had one giant eye in the top center of his mask (the forehead holes, since the scope was solid. Looked really weird first time.

 

As for the Onua problem, no not really.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

I never saw that catalogue, either. First picture I saw of the Mata was on the front of the then Lego World Club magazine, where I'm pretty certain Tahu was predominant. Even then, though, I didn't really take him for being the leader until the rest of the magazine told me so; I figured he was just at front because he looked the coolest.

 

I do remember, though, that my nine-year-old self was really puzzled by how Onua's design worked, based on that picture alone. It was mostly his head being at an angle and coming from the centre of his torso confused me, I think - I do know that was my main reason for buying Onua first out of the Toa, I wanted to figure out just how his anatomy worked because the picture confused me so much xD

[emily]

It's funny, when I first saw Kopaka I assumed he had one giant eye in the top center of his mask (the forehead holes, since the scope was solid. Looked really weird first time.

aw man, SAME. I had completely forgotten about that. kopaka and his illuminati eye

[JrMasterModelBuilder]

Yeah, at first I thought Onua was supposed to be the main character.

 

It wasn't just the Toa, Whenua was also depicted in the front on the back of the Turaga boxes, and Onepu's mask is also the mask of the Matoran Nui.

 

 

Onua was also in the opening cutscene and first level of the canceled Legend of Mata Nui game.

 

A lot of early story stuff was inconsistent, maybe some debate early on over who should be the main Toa.

[SPIRIT]

Onua was also featured in his own trailer for the never-released Bionicle video game.  2001 was the year of Onua!

 

Oh how the turntables...

[Master Inika]

There have been a lot of non-leader characters presented forefront in promotional material. Vezok, Matoro Inika, Kalmah, Hahli Mahri, and Lewa Phantoka come to mind. Normally, it's vibrantly-colored characters being moved in front of non-vibrant leaders, so in Onua Mata's case it's very odd.

[Takatu]

There have been a lot of non-leader characters presented forefront in promotional material. Vezok, Matoro Inika, Kalmah, Hahli Mahri, and Lewa Phantoka come to mind. Normally, it's vibrantly-colored characters being moved in front of non-vibrant leaders, so in Onua Mata's case it's very odd.

 

Well, Matoro turned out to be super important in the story, even though we didn't know that at the time. I think Hahi and Lewa's prominence in the 07/08 promotional stuff can be explained by the environments there were in for those years. Swimming around the bottom of the ocean and flying around in the sky would lend the Toa of Water/Air some serious time to shine.

 

I don't remember if it was that catalogue specifically, but I do remember thinking that Onua was the Toa of Air, while Lewa was Earth because of that particular image of him. He looked more silver than black to me, so I figured silver would be a decent air/sky color (clouds, I guess), and "earth" just meant "nature" to match with Lewa's green. It made sense in my little ten-year-old brain.

[Krystufa]

My first impressions upon Bionicle from the limited media I ingested as a kid was that they were all against each other, all the Toa. I understood the Matoran (McToran) to just be downsized sets for advertising, and not actual characters. I was so uneducated in the ways of the narrative. Seeing cousins of mine fight their Toa together, using the swinging arm functions to knock each other's masks off, I genuinely understood them to be nothing more than unique elemental gladiators just looking for a fight. Despite this, the theme of tribal robots that controlled elements on a single island amongst ancient ruins of civilisations was so captivating. I never figured there to be a leader as such, but Tahu did seem to stand out to be the most. I'd say that's because of how much the Hau was portrayed as THE iconic mask, and he wore it, making him the special Toa.
Cheers for the thought-provoking post, I've never really considered it before.

[slifer3000]

How fun it is to look back at how we viewed bionicle before we knew/were old enough to understand the storyline.

 

Its interesting to note that Onua was the first Toa designed, I believe.

 

What I do know is that i used to think was that the bohrok challenged Toa to one on one fights and always won (based on the pictures in the back of bohrok instructions) and I thought that the Exo-Toa was some wise being that gave the Toa information as to what their mission was. 

[Krystufa]

 

What I do know is that i used to think was that the bohrok challenged Toa to one on one fights and always won (based on the pictures in the back of bohrok instructions) and I thought that the Exo-Toa was some wise being that gave the Toa information as to what their mission was. 

I understood it the same way, I could never understand how the Toa were so vulnerable to the Bohrok in the promotional art. I only ever remember seeing Exo-Toa in a series of small thumbnail slides telling the story of the Bohrok-kal, since the Nuva's power was stolen from them. The silhouettes of the Exo-Toa were so eerie, I never understood what they were. I never even saw the sets in stores, I felt so deprived as a kid trying to understand the lore that was being created, I could never keep up. 

It wasn't until I played Mnog with a friend (who was in my eyes the Bionicle guru, having bags full of sets and bits) that I finally had true insight into the nature of the story. My appreciation for Bionicle hasn't changed since I began to understand what it was all about, but those days when I knew so little about Bionicle made it just as more powerful, it truly fueled the imagination with a raw sense of awe trying to fill in the gaps. I know some are critical over the 'convoluted' narrative it tried to create for kids so early on, but I don't think I could have enjoyed it all as much if it didn't make my brain melt with disbelief.

 

 

Its interesting to note that Onua was the first Toa designed, I believe.

Huh, he was the first I ever owned. Still have the original sitting on my shelf... somewhere. Fancy that!

[2Tie]

I've heard a few times over the years that Onua was originally planned to be the leader of the toa, though since i was quick to follow along with MNOG, the comics, and later the scholastic books, i don't think i ever thought that on my own.

[Aanchir]

I say he should've been the leader. He really knows how to "grab" attention.

[TuragaNuva]

It's funny, when I first saw Kopaka I assumed he had one giant eye in the top center of his mask (the forehead holes, since the scope was solid. Looked really weird first time.

Same here! Glad to know I wasn't the only one

 

 

As for who was leader of the team: I was always aware that it was Tahu, but I had a friend back then who insisted that Kopaka was the leader "because he came out of his canister first" (he thought that this was the case because you see Kopaka exiting his canister before you see any of the other Toa in the first comic). I was never sure why that would make him the leader, even if it was true

[Tuuli]

Onua is the classic iteration of a voodoo head. His color scheme and mask are solid, including his weapons. I always knew Tahu was the leader but there was always something interesting about Onua. He was the closest to the Great Spirit, after all on Mata Nui.

[Icarax16]

Im afraid not.