That’s why standard shapes exist.
That’s not just headcanon:
This further shows us it’s within the canon logic for masks to strictly represent their own shape
I mean… yeah.
Masks having their own shape isn’t just some fan theory that we’re piecing together right now.
Standard shapes have been a part of Kanohi since 2001. It’s not even “canon logic” at this point. It’s just canon.
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Aquatic Kanohi, organic kanohi, decorated Kanohi, Toa Hagah’s Kanohi, all Mata-shaped Kanohi worn by matoran, Voyatoran kanohi, Makuta Phantoka Kanohi and plenty of others - 70-80% of masks we know are non-standard in canon. How can we call standard those shapes, thant are most uncommon?
You’re makin’ me sound like some idiot xd
All i’m sayin’ is it should be Strictly like that, & we all know there’s been exceptions.
I agree that masks being shaped like other masks shouldn’t be a thing. Not that it doesn’t make sense (after all, shape is not what gives the mask its power), but it is annoying to have that option. Mask-makers should just adhere to the standardization!
What kind of always bugged me as a consequence is that, why don’t we see more of Toa, or rather some immoral beings using differently shaped masks just to decieve their opponents in battle. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see another misleadingly shaped mask ever again, but with that possibility, it would just make sense that someone would abuse it.
Imagine a Dark Hunter seemingly wearing Hau, but then he just rushes you with a Kakama.
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Exactly
But this being a toyline comes w/ it’s cons
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I think we should gather more & more logical headcanons & explanations, store them, & 1 day make our own G3 in trubute of G1 
…With the right 3D & graphic designers, writers & art directors. For non-profit.
There’s a lot of good stuff in here
https://board.ttvchannel.com/t/bionicle-headcanons
To my memory, all Toa can wear and use noble masks if they want. This just never gets represented later in the canon because we never see another Toa switch masks, at least to my memory.
Have you met any artists? 
It’s hard enough for one artist to recreate the exact same thing multiple times, but add on the fact that you have who knows how many mask makers working on these and no two masks are going to be the same. If they wanted masks to be exactly the same they would make them in factories, not by hundreds of artisans doing their own thing. Of course, most of them would follow the same style guide, but that doesn’t account for that one rebel that thinks they’re so artistic for making a Pehkui look like a Kiril.
Not only that, but there are potentially practical reasons for this as well. Look at Krakua. He works for a secret organization. It might be useful to them that people would look at him and think he has the ability to shield himself instead of reading minds. Alternately, in a circumstance where one person is switching between multiple masks, having the shapes switched up - or worse, uniform - would give them an advantage, not letting their enemies know what to expect.
And taking a step back from in-lore justifications entirely, really this is just a reflection of the fact that we have a very limited number of mask pieces to work with. Instead of trying to tell fans that they had to stick with this stock group of mask powers, they gave us the ability to be creative by setting a precedent that sometimes the masks just have weird shapes, and that is something I’m okay with.
And, while I disagree with a lot of what’s getting thrown around here, it is supposed to be headcanon, so it’s not like I can say you’re “wrong”.
Instead, here are some of my headcanons about Kanohi, relating not to the general mechanics of them, but to specific powers that I think could use some work:
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The Mask of Water Breathing: this would really be more useful as a “mask of breathing”. A bit of a goofy name, I know, but the power here would change from allowing the user to breathe underwater to allowing the user to breathe normally in any environment. Underwater, in toxic gas, when there’s lots of dust in the air, even in the vacuum of space. It’s still a niche ability, but now it’s a bit broader and might actually be useful more than once in a blue moon.
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Mask of Detection: to my knowledge this mask is just a metal detector for the mask of life with the ability to see spirits tacked on, so let’s change that. Instead, let’s give it the ability to act as a detector for anything the user focuses on. It doesn’t specify direction, but it will tell you how close you are, like a game of “hot or cold” with headaches.
Also it still has the ability to detect hidden things like before, since that fits with the theme. -
Mask of “Fate”: my proposed change here doesn’t actually involve the powers of the mask, just the name. See, as a kid I always thought this mask was way more powerful than it is, because that name has nothing to do with it’s powers. “Fate” doesn’t really describe the ability to perform great physical feats. But hang on now… “Feat” is a word that’s not only fitting, but spelled very similarly. For a while I thought “fate” was actually a typo and “feat” is that they meant, but no, I guess “mask of fate” is canon. Still, my headcanon will always be “mask of feat”.
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Lesnichiy was talking about- what if / it would better to him if: The Mata Team kanohi were just noble masks that the Toa Mata could use in full potential as great ones due to- quote:
In the times of Toa Mata’s creation, concept of Noble and Great masks haven’t existed, they were all same (Later, Helryx’s mask was decided to be a Great one, but Mata’s were decided to be Noble).
Okay… and what difference does that make? If they’re noble masks that can be used at the power levels of great masks, then I think they’re just great masks.
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Yeah, that’s why i’m sticking w/ the canon on that
A little clarification: In my headcanon, Toa Mata are able to use Noble-shaped and Noble-powered Kanohi. That makes their initial masks Noble-shaped and Noble-powered, and every Matoran that wears such a mask is wearing a Noble-shaped and Noble-powered mask. It is also an explanation for Lhikan’s different Hau. When Toa Mata became Toa Nuva, their masks became Great-powered and Nuva-shaped + could affect all nearby. Though I admit I have overdone with making wearing Noble masks a “unique ability”.
This kinda makes sense.
Not sure that I accept this, but it does make some sense.
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Each Makuta wears a Brotherhood variant of a mask; Krika, Gorast, and Bitil’s masks would share a similar aesthetic to their Phantoka counterparts.
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Masks shapes reflect their powers most of the time. But since masks are handcrafted, there are some cosmetic differences e.g. Lhikan’s Hau, Brotherhood variants, Kadin with spikes, Kardatoran masks, Nuju’s Matatu
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Bitil’s Mohtrek duplicates him without going back in time
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Movie Kiril is noble while the set variant is great.
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Good point. These are non-standard shapes…
… but what do these have to do with standard shapes? For starters, decorations don’t really affect the shape. Also, what makes you think the Mata-shaped masks worn by Matoran aren’t standard-shaped?
Yeah I guess so.
To get more specific, I think it’s still fair to say that the concept of standard shapes is a thing for the mask makers of the universe. With the exception of the Hagah Kanohi, every “wrong shaped” mask in canon had some kind of mutation or other thing happen to it; they weren’t intentionally forged as regular Kanohi in the wrong shape.
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True, you can see the noble Kiril in that 2016 empowering Faber poster
Something quite like this:
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The Hagah kanohi (Norik & Iruini’s) are rly just Dume & Nidhiki’s great masks.
Though before release Greg retconed them… The great Kiril counted as a “noble” (yeah sure) Kiril & Nidhiki’s mask being a tubeless (probably foreignly stylized too) Volitak
I don’t mean to take this all out on you, but I am sick and tired of people saying this. Especially about the Kualsi.
Greg didn’t “retcon” anything. It’s true that, early in development, that mask was going to be the Volitak, but the decision was made long before Greg that those sets were of different characters:
The Kualsi is no more of a Volitak than the Rode is a Sanok:
I don’t see why you’re skeptical of this; that mold was originally released as the Noble Kiril with Turaga Dume. If anything, it makes no sense for that to be the Great Kiril; why would the Great and Noble be the exact same shape?
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Because Norik was originally Toa Dume w/ a great Kiril.
Lego just wasn’t trying to press 2 different versions of the same mask (1- to minimize confusion between youngsters, 2- to keep things economic). Same reason why the Legend of Metru Nui made the noble Hau & Kiril so similar to the great ones (to not confuse fans).