Some time ago in a related topic I participated in a joint effort to build the Kanohi Dragon as close to the book entry as we could, in order to finally provide the long awaited instructions. However, as I was building a preliminar digital version of the model, that you can find in the linked topic above, I noticed some elements that made me think the original build had more Kanohi than what we see in the picture. I don’t know if this was already confirmed, if that’s the case then this topic is pointless, but let me expand my point.
First of all, the name Kanohi Dragon clearly suggest the animal was covered in a lot of Kanohi masks, however the final built we got only features two or three masks: an orange noble Huna on the back of the head, and an orange great Pakari on his side. There’s probably another one on the side we don’t see in the picture, to keep lateral symmetry. The places were I think masks were supposed to be located are the following:
1: The hips hose:
There’s a ribbed hose in between the bohrok torso pieces. Why do I think there is supposed to be a kanohi there? Because the Huna is attached in a ribbed hose, as you can see in this picture:
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The empty skulls:
This one is pretty obvious. If we assume the Kanohi Dragon is laterally symmetrical, then there’s another empty skull on the right side of the rahi. -
The empty ball:
There’s an empty pre-2006 technic ball that at first glance looks like it is just filling the gap of the red mata hand, but remember these old balls not only had axle connections, but also stud holes that could’ve hold a kanohi.
So, why are they missing? If I’m not mistaken, the builds had to be shipped from the builders to Lego to take pictures. Kanohi with stud connectors tend to fall easily, and thus probably once shipped the Lego workers that had to reassemble the MOC found many Kanohi that fell from the build, and not knowing where to place them decided to not include them when taking the picture.
I’m not stopping there, and I’m proposing alternatives of what masks and where would they be placed. The first thing we need to know is that, as I said, for kanohi to fall easily they had to be 2001-2002 masks with stud connectors, so no Toa Metru masks, Avohkii or Kraahkan should be considered, as they have axles and thus it is very unlikely they would fall during S&H. The second element we need to consider is that the Kanohi Dragon has a very consistent color scheme, being restricted to red, orange, black, dark gray and silver. Therefore, the masks used in the build very likely need to be in those colors.
Now that we know what masks can’t be considered, these are some of the most likely masks that were possibly included in the original build:
-Black Noble Hunas and/or infected Haus: They come in Muaka & Kane-Ra. The build uses the red horns therefore the builder had access to that set. Note that the Hunas can’t be placed in the black balls, as the lower part of the masks would interfere with the arm connectors. This also excludes any mask that elongates downwards, like the Pakari.
-Orange Noble Rurus: They come with the Manas. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no other piece unique to the Manas that was applied in the build, so it is the least likely of the alternatives, but they are good place holders for both the empty balls and tohunga heads.
-Red Hau Mata and/or Red Hau Nuva: The build uses two Tahu swords, so the builder very likely had access to two mata Haus. They are good place holders for the balls, but they would interfere with the orange Pakari if they were placed in the empty skulls. The Hau Nuva in particular would look great in the ribbed hose located in the hips, as it is wide enough to fill in the gap and not interfere with the bohrok torso pieces. This can also be said about the Pakari Nuva.
-Any red, orange or black recoloured masks that came in the masks packs: I’d prefer if they weren’t used, because as far as we know the masks that remained came in official sets, and I’d prefer to stick in that direction.
I’m unaware about how the community handles wrongly build Rahi or Dark Hunter entries canonwise. For example, Firedracax was built incorrectly by Lego workers, and I don’t know if his canon appearance is that of the original design, or how it is shown in the book. Anyway, I’d like to know what you think about it.