Mystery of Tahu's chin

and the plot thickens

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Can we just rename this thread “weird design details in Bionicle promotional material”?

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Nope. The title is too good as it is :+1:

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Can we share other unusual promotional things or are we keeping it limited?


The holes in this image kind of remind me of the ones on the Vahi, which seems to have been one of, if not the earliest mask designed.
vahi

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Hot dang bro that’s really good

I can’t believe I didn’t notice that; that must be where the design came from initially

And how come the hip axles are way too short?

Let’s just hope he recovered by 2008

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I would keep it limited if possible. There are meany unusual promotional and prototype things, but those deserve their own topic.

I actually highly doubt that - those do not seem to have any connection and is just a coincidence. The the triple dimples are the exact same as single dimples, just smaller and muliplied.

We know that the single depsression chin was the original mata head design from the start:
matahead2
mataheda1

Also I made this timeline where you can see how the triple dimple chin appears and dissapears very quickly and selectivelly.

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Possibly, but seeing as the figure holding the vahi is also wearing a vahi, let me put forth yet another extremely smart and definitely not spur-of-the-moment Ghid Theory:

  • single dimple mata design is created
  • vahi is the ‘golden mask’, intended as a temporary macguffin the Toa each collect one of
  • idea is raised to have three dimples corresponding with the three holes on the mask
  • the idea is tested with the tahu and pohatu advance character movies, which were either the first or last ones made, but was then rejected in favor of the initial design
  • single dimple is returned and the design is mass produced while the golden masks are altered to just be a golden version of each Toa’s standard mask

No proof for any of this, of course, just my musing.

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IT’S OVER!
Today I almost fell off my chair after seeing this in Faber’s latest revelation - the original Bionicle selling in video. It is there… IT’S REAL!!! IT existed once upon a time and it may be still out there! Tahu’s original CHIN :star_struck: :fire: :fire: Let’s GOOO!


You cannot believe how fullfilling this minor detail is to me - since all the way in 2000/2001 when Bionicle started and I watched the commercials, sifted through pamflets and saw the Tahu’s character spot - this minor detail bugged me. In 2021 I made this topic about it. Now, 2 years later, and 24 years after first asking this question, I have my answer :smile:

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Even though this is just one of many cases of a prototype design being used in promotional material, it’s super cool that this prototype was predicted before being seen, and then was actually found instead of staying theoretical forever.

All that’s left is to (hopefully) track down the actual part.

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Oh yes, it is awesome, though not the first predicted proto-pieces. All of the Prototype Tohunga parts were predicted years before Faber’s time travel video.
Do we have any more predicted parts?

Oh and have you seen the crazy VoodooHead-like Kanohi prototypes lying around the desk? I hope 3d modelers will get on to those some day!

EDIT: Batlle for Mata Nui Toa model is answered as well throught this:

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In terms of predicted parts that were later proven, there’s those uniquely-coloured Kanohi that surfaced about a year ago:

I’m not too sure about whether there are any other predicted prototype molds, though.

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I meant currently predicted, but not yet found.
By the way, there are 4 new masks with never before seen molds in the video: Two orange ones, one green organic looking and one medium blue with a scope.
There is also a rigged silver foot addition for Pohatu (although his model has normal ones).
Most excitingly of all, there is a full molded silver colored prototype Vahi with the same initial design as in the Dawn of Bionicle cinematic! The true first mask.

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This is an exciting development! I can’t wait to see more!

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The Bionicle community when the deep lore behind a character’s chin is finally uncovered 24 years later

We stay winning :goo:

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Could only happen in Bionicle community. Might I point out that prototype heads with both three holes and one hole are simultaneously present on the table in this video, meaning the two variants indeed co-existed for some time.

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