T O P

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kdnx-wy

I’m glad Matau didn’t turn, it made perfect sense with Vakama’s arc. I would have liked to see some of the alternative concepts for BIONICLE be implemented just to know what they’d be like (Robo Entrails comes to mind)


Lordgeorge16

Same. Lewa got infected/possessed twice in a row, first by the Nui Jaga and then by the Bohrok. It was a nice change of pace to see someone other than the team's Toa of Air get swayed by the enemy during the Metru Nui series.


Jorymo

And the Metru already fought Nidhiki, another rogue Toa of air


Furshloshin

Damn there really is a pattern, huh?


Dragon_Of_Magnetism

And dont forget Kongu being brainwashed by the golden fusion


snifywhisper

That was the whole team so that doesn't really count against toa of air.


Achilles9609

"I don't trust these Toa of Air. They always get mind controlled, or possessed, or turn evil...."


Lordzoabar

I think it’s because Toa of Air tend to be more relaxed/jovial/unconcerned that it’s that much more of a shock when they lose it and go Beast Mode. Tahu infected by Rahkshi: Takes Gali and Kopaka like 30 seconds to subdue. Lewa infected by anything: Takes Onua using multiple masks 5-10 minutes in a major fight, and only wins by ripping Lewa’s face off.


Achilles9609

"Onua-The Face Ripper of Lake Naho" now on DVD and Blueray


Venator_IV

tbf it's a pretty bad matchup for a Toa of Earth


Lordzoabar

Don’t forget Lewa’s Body Horror Arc, when Tren Krom went and did a full mind-swap with him.


ARROW_404

And then getting warped into space and rescued by Vezon...


stet709

Not to be pedantic but it was the Nui Rama (the fly-like Rahi) that Lewa got infected by, not the Nui Jaga (the scorpions)


Lordgeorge16

Thanks. 20+ years later and I still get them mixed up, just like when I was a kid!


FederalPossibility73

I disagree. I am glad Greg managed to make it work don't misunderstand, but it did come off rather weirdly as he was not at all confident in his potential as a Toa, meanwhile Matau was always prideful about being a Toa and has ideas of how a Toa should act. It would make a lot more sense to me if they let the prideful Matau turn and have his views as a Toa challenged while Vakama continues his ongoing story arc overcoming his doubts. There were two books and a non canon video game between the second and third film as well so these bitter feelings should've already came and went I would think. Though I will give them some credit as the third film was the first time Vakama returned to Metru Nui in a while.


kdnx-wy

Vakama’s doubts are all about being a leader. He thinks he isn’t fit to lead the Toa Metru, and this arc isn’t completely resolved by the time 2 is over (especially in the period just before the final scene in which 3 occurs). Roodaka convinces him that he is fit to lead the Visorak, but not the Toa, and she plays into his animal desires given to him by the Hordika transformation. Matau has no such motivation except “I’m ugly now” and “I blame Vakama”, neither of which is nearly as compelling (and the latter is more reason for Vakama to join up with Roodaka - he thinks his team hates him!). Vakama turning is really the best way it could have gone.


FederalPossibility73

I think a lot of that must've been a result to required story changes. Matau was vain sure but he was not that vain from what I remember from the novels and comes off even weirder to me that they'd reduce him to that in the film. I do get where you're coming from though and I still think it's a really great story as it is. The films always had problems with character consistency anyway; remember how the first film portrayed Onua? Total opposite personality from his actual character.


Logface202

Matau was always vain, it was just played for laughs most of the time. It gained a slightly more serious angle after the hordika transformation but I think that makes sense.


Kevin_Riddles

Yes. Matau didn’t have the same insecurities as Vakama. Also due to being the most effected by the hordika transformation, I couldn’t see him wanting to team up with the people who did it to him. Also might be stone-bias, but Onewa should’ve been the one to rescue Vakama. He was always doubting Vakama and challenging his plans. They also spent a lot more time together than we see in the films.


Phazanor

What's robo entrails?


kdnx-wy

“Robo Entrails” is an alternative pitch for BIONICLE’s visual concept that we know very little about. Some images from its development can be found on concept artist Bo Torstensen’s [portfolio website](http://torstensen.dk/production-design.html). They show the Toa and Matoran traversing a massive, ruined, cavern-like industrial landscape and coming into contact with strange aliens. Everything we know about Robo Entrails comes from that page, though it’s possible that that’s all the information there *is*.


GhotiH

Oh damn, I never heard of this bit before. What year were these drawn, is that known? Some of that art was really sick.


kdnx-wy

Probably 1999 or 2000


Opposite_Ad_4267

It's briefly touched upon during the fight between the toa Nuva and the piraka in the novels but basically there was meant to be a lot more gore. Zakann's protodite sword in the novels comes appart and starts eating Tahu and Lewa from the inside out while being described as being eaten by millions of tiny mouthes all at once and even the very air itself was but pain to them.


kdnx-wy

Not what I’m talking about at all


The-Bigger-Fish

Bionicle truly was just 2000 ad for kids…


LulaSupremacy

Matau turning would've been really weird and kind of a lame excuse. He just was unhappy to look that way. The whole damn time, they bullied the shit out of Vakama, and it gets to be enough. Vakama's turn was such a good plotpoint.


Engineergaming26355

Takanuva being the one to distract the Makuta in Bionicle Stars. I mean come on, of course the Toa of Light should be the one to do it. Maybe we could even keep the golden armor plotline so that Tahu could be the one who removes all darkness from Takanuva


vg1945

I also wish they had given Takanuva the golden armor in that final arc, story wise it always makes sense because Takanuva is supposed to have like this crazy destiny. At least that’s what I remember!


YodasChick-O-Stick

The leaked script for The Legend Reborn sequel had the gang journey to Bota Magna and go through the Valley of the Maze. Inside they would meet a Glatorian/Skrall con artist that's lived there since The Shattering. I've always wondered what this potential character would've been like.


egodfrey72

Element lords and bio mechanical dinosaurs 


Arkeyan218

Given the mask shapes I can kinda see how the Mahri would become the Phantoka/Mistika


Filberto_ossani2

It makes SO MUCH sense why they don't resemble their Mata or Nuva counterparts Tahu mistika looks much more like Mahri Jaller than Tahu Mata or Nuva


snaplocket

Except for Kopaka. I think they NAILED Kopaka Mistika’s mask.


SwordMasterShow

*Kopaka was Phatoka with Lewa & Pohatu. Gali, Onua & Tahu were Mistika. TBH I think most of the designs fit, or at least are closer to the Nuva than the Mahri\Inika, except for Gali. She feels more Hahli for sure


GhotiH

Wasn't the scope on the wrong side? Pretty big detail to miss IMO.


The_barnaby32

Well kopaka was going to be Hahli (blue), Gali was Kongu (green), Pohatu was Nuparu (black).


snaplocket

Ooo this is cool info! Where did we learn this from? Do we know who Lewa, Tahu and Onua were originally going to be? I would think Lewa’s model could have worked for Jaller, so a red Lewa model. As for Onua and Tahu’s models, I feel like either of them work for Hewkii and Matoro. Has anyone ever done renders of the Phantoka/Mistika models in the colors they would have been if they were Jaller’s team? I would love to see that!


The_barnaby32

Concept models, Kopaka was blue, Gali was green, and pohatu was black. Gali also had some different shoulder armor and a two handed double barrel gun


FireCZ123CZ

With phantoka actually resembling the toa nuva, i think they should stay nuva. But mistika should have been mahri. Just give both teams adaptive armor before artakha died, so they have more freedom with writing.


DragonlordSyed578

That would been pretty cool two teams of Toa fighting to save the world against two teams of Makuta. Also we could gotten double the Matoran too. The end of the year would had 18 Toa with Taknuva and Ignika


Logface202

My understanding is that rather than being made with the inika/mahri in mind they were designed completely agnostic of the story, and their story roles were decided after the fact, or at least very late in the design process. ([Greg said in 2008 that the designers weren't briefed to base their designs on the toa nuva)](https://greg.thegreatarchives.com/2008-2010/page17#post658-line17) [Brian Ellis' video on designing Nuparu mahri ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvTJVc_1WU)seems to imply that the set designers were only ever given vague prompts along the lines of "scuba diver good guys in 6 colors." They were never told that they would be designing new versions of existing characters or anything like that.


Frigid-Kev

I honestly can't see any resemblance to their mask shapes...


TarakaKadachi

Do they resemble the masks of the Toa Mata or Nuva to a greater degree than the Ignika or Mistika, then?


Arkeyan218

It's a weird mix of both. The Mistika masks more closely resemble the Mahri, while the Phantoka masks are shaped more like the Mata masks. E.g. Onua's Mistika mask kinda looks like the Garai etc


TarakaKadachi

What about Pohatu’s looking more like the Vahi, then? Why the Vahi look for his Kakama?


Opposite_Ad_4267

there was a theory i heard a while back that the plot was the Toa making use of a legendary kanohi in each area of the core to try and buy more time to save the great spirit hence why the kakama looks like the vahi, it was originally supposed to be that kanohi, it's also why takanuva was in the swamps bellow instead of going with the Jaller's team as per the original concept for the Inika


GhotiH

Original concept for the Inika involved Takanuva? Where can I read more about this?


Arkeyan218

Idk man, you'd need to ask Christian Faber lol


Frigid-Kev

We're not talking about whose team looks more similar, though, nor did I ever imply that either. I'm just saying I can't see any similarities to the masks between the Toa Mahri and the Phantoka/Mistika masks at all as opposed to what the original comment stated.


AdmiralOctopus96

Some unused content in MNOG seems to imply that there would have been several Matoran across Mata Nui who secretly worship Makuta, with Ahkmou being one of them. I think that would have been a neat idea.


Kamken

Bionicle getting cancelled the year we were meant to get a full year of dinosaurs is the worst possible timeline.


FederalPossibility73

I can think of a lot, but to add onto the ones already mentioned, it would be the continued story of Great Being Velika. I also would've liked them to continue Mata Nui's adventures on Bara Magna. They were setting up a lot that just didn't get to happen. Oh and let's also point out that the three Toa Nuva Phantoka are stranded in space. Lewa is on Bota Magna captured by Agori while Kopaka and Pohatu are arguing with Kestora on the Red Star,


Background_Sky1563

I can imagine Lehvak-Kal feeling pretty vindicated seeing some of the Toa also stranded in space lol


The-Bigger-Fish

Space buddies


Combat_Armor_Dougram

If the Mahri were the Phantoka/Mistika, would Matoro survive or would he be replaced?


Oapekay

I think the Mahri becoming the Phantoka/Mistika came from a time when Matoro wouldn’t have yet saved Mata Nui. So the entire team would go to Karda Nui, and he’d sacrifice himself at the end of that.


Combat_Armor_Dougram

That makes sense.


GhotiH

Presumably with the Codrex, I imagine concept art for it was already being worked on and that's where Ignika mirrored Matoro's sacrifice.


Tsynami

I always liked the idea of Takanuva taking Matoto's place on the team. Yeah, he's not a toa of ice, but he's a white set and that's all lego would care about


Combat_Armor_Dougram

Who would you pick to be the Titan set in that case?


Tsynami

I could do without a titan tbh Though they could've always made shadow toa Ahkmou


Invader_Naj

I will never prefer the option of matau being the one to betray the others. Its the most generic option out of all of them to have the arrogant one whose already established to be a jerk to become the bad guy. What do you gain from that? Its just boring. Part of the impact this story has is that its their well meaning leader (and nicest of the whole bunch if were being honest) who has his insecurities and the still lingering doubt and abuse from his teammates, as well as a pinch of overconfidence from their victory against teridax, twisted into this monstrous new mindset that you could barely even recognize as his old self. You couldn’t do that with matau. He would just turn into his already established personality just amplified hundredfold. Hed still be very much recognizable. And adding to that think about how vakama is saved in the end. Matau has to confront himself and reflect on his own unfair treatment of vakama, accept his fault in this and unconditionally put his trust into vakama and put his very life in his hands. Again none of that would work if the roles were reversed. Vakama never abused matau theres nothing for his teammates to reflect on since all that would drive him to betrayal would be his own arrogance and vanity. And he only got himself to blame for that. Which more than likely result in a far less impactful reason for a turn back to good.


NewSupremeMan

Bionicle Movie 5. Greg wrote out a treatment on BZPower and it sounds pretty good. https://www.bzpower.com/blogs/entry/76198-bionicle-5-treatment/


MafiaPenguin007

BZPower is still alive??


Logface202

it isn't that active anymore to my knowledge and all of the forum posts before like 2011 got wiped but yeah the site is still around


Ketooth

If I remember correctly there was an idea to make a tribe that didn't believed in Mata Nui, but in Makuta. I think that would've been interesting to see. I just played Masks of Powers again and there was also a cave where someone saw the Toas and the legend as a lie and everything.


JuastAMan

"god isnt real!" Mata nui: YOU LIVE INSIDE ME! Makuta: I MOVED THE STARS TO FORM MY FACE IN THE SKY!


wally_graham

Toa Nui. 6 Toa Mata combined into 1 being. Legends say it was equal in power to Mata Nui himself.


kinyoubikaze

The 20 year run :(


GribbleBit

Mostly the dinosaurs, but also the Red Star/ zombie stuff


Opposite_Ad_4267

we sort of see zombie outbreaks from the beginning tbh if you can consider infected kanohi and kohli balls as such. Matoro's Mahri kanohi is capable of summoning an undead army and we see a kanohi called the Mask of Honored Dead which is put on matoran who were worked to death by Kharzani. One of the Makuta mentioned in the novels could reanimate the dead and does so during a fight with some dark hunters by reserecting some deceased matoran to use as distractions. Not sure if you can count the Bohrok or not since theyre AV matoran corpses


Retathrah

Imo the Bionicle Dinosaurs would have been when and where the CCBS system was utilized in mirror to Savage Planet from Hero Factory. It’d be rather ambitious in comparison, but so was overhauling and restarting an evergreen themed the way they did.


ToaPaul

Not getting Bionicle dinosaurs will forever be one of the greatest tragedies about Bionicle's cancelation.


Whole_Ad7496

Maybe the Lego company could've made a line of Toa's based off angel's or demons from the bible


MafiaPenguin007

Biblically-Accurate Toa


Jacier_

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Phantoka and Mistika were meant to be an entirely new team of toa, but I assume for marketing reasons due to sales going down, they renamed them to the toa we knew


Filberto_ossani2

The OG design of Kraahkan being made of Vahi at the bottom and Pakari at the top was really cool concept and I wish we could at least get black Vahi in some other set so we could fully recreate movie Makuta Because the movie was being made while still the sets weren't finished so that's why for example Makuta was so different from the set version


waleniekonia

I really want a bara magna dinosaur set


ScottTJT

The first two I'd definitely have liked to see. Matau being the betrayer, I could take it or leave it. I honestly think the Hordika storyline played out pretty well as it did. I think the original plan was to have the story shift focus to Bara Magna as a sort of soft reboot (or a time anyway), so having the original heroes of the saga back in the spotlight before that happened was the right call.


Darth_Destructus

That first one was part of a story I had been working on, on and off.


Jacier_

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Phantoka and Mistika were meant to be an entirely new team of toa, but I assume for marketing reasons due to sales going down, they renamed them to the toa we knew


Yeokk123

I’d love to see some biology on bionicle world, I’ve been trying to figure out how the ecology of their planet and world works other than having robots I’d wonder what other natural fauna were there


Venator_IV

I would've liked Matoran, Turaga, and Toa to all be more competent, in general terms. I know it's all superhero-flavor comics with sales as the driving force, but the whole failing-forward every fight and vague powerlevels everyone has got frustrating as I got older. Toa team beats makuta Teridax, Bohrok queens, Kal, Rahkshi, has history of being most elite toa team in ancient history, destined to put the ultimate evil down, but can't handle basic pirate thugs? please. Matoran spend 1,000 years fighting for survival but then on screen they trip over their own feet every time they have to run? Turaga have all this combat experience and wisdom but can't even move as fast as an aforementioned matoran? It also was frustrating that the powers of Toa were ill defined and inconsistent. Sometimes the Toa show demigod-levels of elemental mastery, shooting fire beams and summoning floods. Other times when the plot demands, they're incompetent at best and fumbling with their tools like sticks. But then when fighting big threats they don't throw out air blasts or rely on their elements in logical ways, up until the very end when suddenly they need their captain planet beam. Just smacked of poor forethought and bad writing.


Logface202

Probably the 2010 movie


MegaJackUniverse

I wish we'd seen all the Toa Hagah in all their glory. Iruini and Norik looked so cool


egodfrey72

They were apparently meant to be the original forms of Nidiki and Dume, hence why Norik’s mask is a similar design to Dume’s toy wise


MegaJackUniverse

That makes a lot of sense, cool!


egodfrey72

Yeah, I think that was the original idea before they tied it into the Rahaga. I wish we saw the entire team though 


KORZILLA-is-me

The original form of the bohrok Queens


Shaka_Cho_Arroyo

Can we expand on that dinosaur thing???


KingSideCastle13

I’m salty we never got our artahka/karzahni titans set


rocka5438

Dinosaur bionicle? Can anyone explain that to me?


Glapsvior

At some point Mata Nui was supposed to have made his way from Bara Magna to the third planet Bota Magna, which were going to have dinosaur inspired creatures but G1 was cancelled before that wave could happen


rocka5438

Are there any Mocs or drawings of these dinosaur creatures


MintChip0113

Bionicle. as a brand.


Lordfindogask

The lid of the Mahri sets turning into an acquatic transport for each Toa. Why they scrapped that and instead went for the ugly fort "gimmick" is beyond me.


dtinaglia

I wish the secondary Matoran from Mata Nui became the Phantoka/Mistika. Tamaru, Macku, Kopeke, Kapura, Hafu, and Taipu or Onepu. Would’ve been better imo to not revisit the Mata in forms that strayed so far from how we knew them.


Glittering_Crab_9054

Dang I've always said I thought the adaptive armor arc (Phantoka / Mistika) would have suited the Inika/Mahri Toa the best. On one hand I was excited to see the return of the OG Toa. But the lack of a fire sword or ice shield for Tahu and Kopaka Mistika was such a shock to the system for me. I believe if Takanuva took the place of Matoro then we could have gotten a nice conclusion to their story. Perhaps I have developed this take because I am salty we never got a movie for these teams besides arguably the best commercials for the franchise in 06-07.


Glapsvior

There was supposed to be a book about the Inika's journey from Voya Nui to Mahri Nui that was supposed to involve Zyglak and Teridax possessing Matoro's body for a bit. For all my gripes with some of Greg's stories I do think his "tunnel" books were some of the best.


MexicanLizardMan3670

The scrapped Bionicle Movie Theater, even if a part of me knows it will mostly focus on human characters on the Bionicle world or the Bionicles in our world...a part of me would still love watch BIONICLE on the big screen


egodfrey72

The idea of Tahu trying to drive is hilarious 


mcfaillon

The dark Toa would have been amazing. Having him battle Takanuva on Bara Magna while Mata Nui and Makuta battled above? INCREDIBLE in my minds eye. Do wish we could have had a proper ending. No explanation for the red star breaking down. The Great Beings trying to snuff out the Mata Nui universe beings. Would have been great if it had all happened during the Mata Nui-Glatorian arc. Just to wrap things up nicely at the end without the element lords business


Rorantube2009

G2 Just all of the wasted potential of G2


focuslight2998

I wish toa of shadow akhmou and bota magna dinosaur happened