Ok, so you are saying Lego opted not to use metallic colors for sockets because of the lackluster color-matching at the time between different types of plastic formally having the “same” color, correct?
That could have very well been the case, although I question the possibility of whatever difference in color being more noticable than having those sockets in both different material AND color.
Honestly it’s not a big deal to me, it’s just that sometimes when I look at a Rahkshi foot, I cannot help but notice the abrupt jump from metallic green to mata green (and others).
I feel like this could have been alleviated, no matter the slight difference between metallic ABS and polypropylene.
I agree with the conclusion that Wolk mentioned, as we got a “Flat Gold” mata head piece in the Visorak Battle ram set, yet the color is noticably lighter then the softer plastics used on the mask & armor of Takanuva
A few new things I would like knowledgable people like @Wolk to help me confirm/elucidate.
A few masks (2001) are present in the BS01 prototype section. Some of them do match with the predicted masks, but I am not convinced the actual pictures are necessarily real.
The prototype lime Ruru seems the most legit and has the best quality picture, so I have added that one into the sheet.
The red Huna and blue Rau also seem convincing but the pictures are very low size and quality, and the backgrounds do not help either. Does anyone know the source of those or have better versions?
The most unconvincing one is obviously the orange Hau, which almost certainly is nothing more than a red Hau photographed in a bright light. I know from experience that if you were to take picture of an orange mask under those light conditions, it would look yellow.
The rest we already knew.
There is also the picture with multiple Haus, but I cannot tell from the small picture if they all have the prototype mold.
The one with the multiple Haus, most of them don’t look to have the prototype mold, as the Hau’s stamp was on the forehead. The exception is an oddity, the Chrome Hau…
On the topic of the Chrome Hau. I’m not sure if I brought this one up already. There is the Light Grey Hau, present on the spreadsheet, which is the Hau without the chrome coating applied… so, technically released? But ye.
I noticed the Chrome Hau too, it is odd that one would have the prototype mold. It is still possible though that that one is just a reflection.
Too bad we don’t have these pictures in higher quality, at least I couldn’t find them anywhere.
That would be some very weird lighting then. The shadows is a normal color, and the background is white, a color that would expose any strange lighting immediately. Therefore, it can be assumed to be a legit photo, though I have absolutely no idea what the Hau came in.
Wow! Thanks for the heads up. These definitely seem legit. This is a great discovery and addition to Bionicle collection of rarities. I knew some of the predicted ones would pop up one day!
And yes, the Hunas are a typo - I fixed it in the updated table. I also made few minor corrections recently and even found one more addition to the table. Here is the updted one:
The errors have been fixed and the new Kanohi have been updated. I should put into everyone’s attention that the yellow Ruru is a new mask as well - the previous pictures were of a prototype yellow Ruru, but this one has the final retail mold. Such masks were claimed to be in possesion of several people, but I never saw any pictures to proove it. Now we know it does indeed exist!
It also looks like all of the masks from this batch have final molds, so it might be the case for all of the predicted items from the list.
The updated table also contains three extra things: 1) I fixed the reddish gold Avohkii to the prototype mold (because it is) and 2) I added a prototype flat silver Avohkii, which did exist at some point, but belongs to the “survival unknown” category. 3) Prototype sand blue Akaku was added.
PS: I never believed that particular orange Hau - it really seems just red. That said, orange Hau is predicted to exist and now that the Kanohi table continues to proove its validity, we can say that it, as well as the rest of the predicted items, are almost definitely out there somewhere!
Another thing we learned is that the predicted masks allegedly produced in non-Bionicle colors are real! This means the sand violet Kakama, medium orange Komau, trans-purple Kaukau and medium lime Miru are real.
That’s what I was thinking; I could maybe see it being a bit off-red, but it certainly doesn’t look like the same orange used on Turaga Vakama.
If it really is an orange Hau, the picture should be easy to replicate: just ask whatever collector has it for a better picture. Without that, though, this looks to me like it could just as easily be a picture of a red Hau that was later misidentified as orange.
If you look at the “mouth” on the Hau, it appears to have some Mata red mixed with the orange. This could be due to camera flash, although I would expect the mask to have higher contrast if it was taken with a flash. I think it may be made from a mixture of red and orange, with the colors not having been mixed as well as LEGO usually does, leaving us with the odd color.
That’s what I always thought. I used to watch a lot of Bionicle reviews where the set up had this kind of light and every red piece (such as those of Tahu Mata) looked like this. Orange pieces looked almost yellow under these conditions, so that is what I would expect.
Let me bring your attention to a new topic analysing and discussing data from the same sheet as I did. KDNX and co. did an amazing job and discussion is ongoing! The implications put forward there solve many curiosities detected here such as the reason behind Matatu and Ruru being more common in Toa colors then the other Noble Kanohi, chronology of the production process and the insight into thought process behind designing these masks, as well s the rest of the Bionicle pieces…
I think I saw a BrickLink listing for the white Huna for an alright price (as in not expensive for a rarer color, like maybe $40 or so) a month or two ago from either “Set You Up” or one of the other primarily Bionicle US sellers but I very well could be mistaken.
I don’t know much about these kinds of things but would it be possible to ‘fake’ a misprint or rare color by bleaching another color? I have some (I think) formerly white Bohrok limbs that are now closer to a standard Lego tan, so I guess my point is while we do know that there are some rarer never released colors out there, how do we know which ones are real or faked?
[EDIT: What I mean is that if someone is selling a tan Kanohi then would we be able to know if it’s legit? Because if not then how do we know that the rare colors really exist/are being sold?]
You made a really important point. Fake, bleached, dyed etc. masks were always a part of the whole collectibes community. How to spot them? Well the best way is to be well-versed in what is available or possible for a mask and what do these things look like when they are indeed real.
That is partially what this topic (and the other ones linked) are for.
When you know your stuff, you can almost always tell if a piece is genuine, provided you have quality pictures of the product.
The opaque Kaukau is interesting. That almost seems like a prototype-prototype, as opposed to the “test runs” of the other finalized masks in weird colours.
This is pretty huge! There looks to be an overlap between the prototype forms and “all 12 color era”. Prototypes of some of the other color/shape combinations are here.
And perhaps most importantly of all, this is the first Voodoo Heads prototype EVER that I am aware of!!!
Someone pointed out that the Voodoo Head looks to be attached with a “voodoo ball”- not only does this explain the part’s name, but since the Voodoo Heads had a play feature for knocking off the heads, it seems likely that the part’s infamously poor clutch power was actually intentional so that it could be separated in play. I guess they didn’t have time to remold it properly after switching from Voodoo Heads to Bionicle.
wowzers!!
