Mazeka and Nidhiki are from the same area.
so I imagine that their volitak are the same design
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they are? TIL
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I’ve always preferred the Volitak, after all these years I think of it more as Nidhiki’s mask now than I do Nuparu’s to be honest 
As for my personal preferences, canon aside this is what my Nidhiki moc looks like at the moment:
(Before anyone says anything about the RSG mask or silver armor, I don’t intend on entering this version in any contests)
But I also made sure to take photos of him wearing the official Volitak & Kualsi as well, to see what they’d look like:
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yeah with kualsi he looks like silver iruni lol. Think volitak works better altho urs might need to be painted to be darker green lol
The color’s a match, it’s just not shiny like lego parts so the light hits it different 
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Glossy clear coat, spray paint, one light layer should do the trick.
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I like the second one the best, not that it would be allowed in the cannon contest. The third one I had similar thoughts about but I think I would like to see that one used on Chiara more so. Just to help her stand out more and to add a more feminine touch to her, the original version has a menacing appearance to it which I think works for Nidhiki’s character. I’d rather see that ghostly emerging from the shadows than than the Kualsi on him.
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feminine touch
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Not really.
Official Greg Discussion | Page 133
Official Greg Discussion | Page 112
Chat with Greg Farshtey | Page 464
Chat with Greg Farshtey | Page 653
Official Greg Discussion | Page 100
Even if we accept that the Kualsi was modelled after the Vahki head, that doesn’t mean it was modelled after Nidhiki; the Vahki head was used on other sets as well, and kitbashing was a popular Kanohi design method.
As for the topic of which mask I would rather he had, I am of the strong belief that he should have a standard Volitak. I know there’s some disagreement about what that means in terms of the rebreather/muffler/protrusion, but I don’t want any wrong-shaped mask shenanigans. I’m not a fan of it on the Hagah or on Lhikan, and I’d like to avoid it here.
I know it’s possible in-universe, but I think everyone grossly exaggerates how much it actually did happen. Greg didn’t just say it was possible and leave it at that; he would always compare it to real-world street signs, like a yellow triangular stop sign. In both cases, it’s something that is within the capabilities of technology, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll ever see one in the real world beyond as a novelty item.
Plus there’s the point that @Racie02 brought up; it kind of undercuts Nidhiki’s mutation if his mutated face still looks like his original mask.
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I’ve never been a lore-hound before, but I do recall Nuparu mentioning that he wears the same mask as Toa Nidhiki.
And to me it makes more sense that he would recognize it by the shape (since that’s how masks are usually identified).
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Fair enough. To better explain is that that one looks less like a death/skull mask than the original. Which fits with with her up beat adventurous personality from what little we got of it.
Doesn’t make sense to me.
- He is stated to have figured it out after using the power.
- He can’t really see the shape of his own mask without taking it off.
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understandable
reflective surfaces exist
I guess maybe he could see his reflection in his shield
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I’ve never been a fan of the “mask shaped like a different mask” thing.
as much as I would like for Nidihki’s mask to resemble the vahki head as was originally intended, I’m fine with him having the Volitak design we ended up getting with Nuparu Mahri.
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IMO we can’t use Greg as a source for the intentions of people that weren’t him. Half the time he doesn’t even remember what his own intentions were- understandable, considering the things the fandom ask him about were written over a decade ago- expecting him to have inside knowledge on the thought process of the set designers is a bit much. And just because they usually created sets in a vacuum, doesn’t mean they always did, and in truth, they probably often had some idea of what they were making, even if the story team changed plans.
Things like Icarax’s set almost certainly having been meant for Teridax at some stage (and I’ve heard rumours that the same was true of Maxilos, that it was always meant to be Makuta in there), that sort of thing.
And given that the set that would become Iruini has:
- The same colour scheme (elemental colour + gold) and basic layout of said colours as Lhikan
- The same chestplate as Nidhiki
- Shins made from the same parts as Nidhiki’s upper arms
- A speartip that uses the Chronicler’s Staff piece, a folded-in-half version of the Staff of Light used for Nidhiki’s claws and legs (or is the Staff of Light an unfolded Chronicler’s Staff?)
- A brand-new mask designed to evoke the Vahki head…
Then then Dume/Norik’s just along for the ride, there’s much less that goes into him, beyond mask, chestplate, and maybe the black torso correlating with Turaga Dume’s secondary colour.
I think it’s possible that Greg is wrong about the thought process of some set designers 16 years ago, as much as the notion of Greg not having the concrete answer might confuse the Bionicle fandom. Especially since the oldest source we have from him, from 2005 itself, has him saying that it was originally meant to be Nidhiki, but it was very quickly changed.
All the Greg quotes tell us for certain is that Greg and Bob threw the idea out immediately in case they wanted to do another prequel wave… even though doing so would probably necessitate giving Lhikan a new set as well, so… it’s not even a good excuse TBH.
In any case, the sticklers can pry this headcanon from my cold, dead hands. If I ever make a Nidhiki as a Toa it’s gonna be a straight recolour of Lhikan with Defilak’s mask and the flat gold Gahlok-Kal shield plonked on the chest, as Mata Nuithe set designers (probably) intended.
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