Revelations in the Element IDs of early BIONICLE

[Northmarch]

This is all super cool.
Just to visualize that graph, here are the speculative prototoran compared to the final.

[jed1ndy]

@DavidSkyroller

Now that you mention it, purple as a tertiary color for Ga-matoran makes a lot more sense when you remember Gahlok-Va had a purple Krana.

I hadn’t really noticed that myself; but you’re totally right when it comes to that!

@Wolk

I’m unsure they’d give a tan tool to a Matoran with a tan arm. Perhaps Huki and Hafu were still switched as well?

You’re probably right, when it comes to the idea of giving a tan-armed Matoran a tan tool, now that I think about it. The only reason I really gave the tan-bodied Stone Matoran a tan tool is because there does seem to be a little correlation between the tertiary-colored tools, and which Tohunga got them (proto-Kongu at the very least getting the same-colored tool as his mask, with proto-Kapura likely to have the same, if my hunch that the orange/yellow Tohunga was Kapura is correct), but they probably wouldn’t want to have the colors blend like that.

To be honest, the two stone Tohunga are the ones that I’m the least confident on, when it comes to both who gets which mask, which one gets the tool, and how the names/IDs line up. I think that the brown-bodied one probably gets the dark orange Mahiki, and the tan-bodied one the dark red Akaku, mostly because the dark red seems fairly close to the brown-colored feet (similar to how proto-Onepu’s dark grey feet and sand green Rau are fairly similar in color), and if the brown-bodied Tohunga got the dark red mask, it’s whole color scheme would be rather dark; but it could be the other way around. As for the tools/disk debacle, I already mentioned that above. Finally, with the names, it’s a similar situation to Onepu and Taipu; where we don’t really know who is the right hand and who is the left have swapped by this point or not, so we don’t know if a theoretical proto-Huki is supposed to have a tool (as the left hand, indicated in the early story bible) or a disk (as the right hand; as he appears in his final set form), which makes assigning either Tohunga a challenge. I’m still fairly confident about my assumptions with the fire Tohunga (since those roles never swapped, and since we know they did at least probably go back to these early designs/ideas to some degree with the Krana-Va colors, the fact that proto-Jala would get a Komau (which he was said to have had originally in canon, before it was replaced by a Hau), and proto-Kapura would get a Ruru all lines up too well to feel like just a coincidence), but the two stone ones really seem like a toss-up for me, to be honest; although I’m still fairly confident about the body-foot pairings.

[Mael_Str0M]

@jed1ndy

To be honest, the two stone Tohunga are the ones that I’m the least confident on, when it comes to both who gets which mask, which one gets the tool, and how the names/IDs line up. I think that the brown-bodied one probably gets the dark orange Mahiki, and the tan-bodied one the dark red Akaku, mostly because the dark red seems fairly close to the brown-colored feet (similar to how proto-Onepu’s dark grey feet and sand green Rau are fairly similar in color), and if the brown-bodied Tohunga got the dark red mask, it’s whole color scheme would be rather dark; but it could be the other way around.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned here before, but the colors for Kapura, Onepu, and Huki/Hafu line up pretty well with those prototype Tohunga with the tool arms.

Perhaps the original intent was a glow-in-the-dark mask, but maybe that was shafted around the time Onua’s glow-in-the-dark eyestalks were shafted (which was around the time of Huma and Whenua’s creation), I can’t exactly check at the moment given that I’m not home right now (I’ve got the Element IDs laid out in a file on the Mac and it actually tells a bit more of a story). Mind you, the pieces in these prototypes were 3D Printed most likely and weren’t officially molded by LEGO, explaining why they aren’t in the Element ID sheet. I imagine that the color schemes and general looks of the sets and characters were at the very least sketched out before the pieces were ordered into production at LEGO, making “Pohatu’s Blue Akaku” seem to not mean too much in terms of general design (or it’s just me being too used to the Toa’s final masks, I don’t know).

Wow, it is insane to see just how far these discoveries have come, from OwlKid getting those five masks and the trident to realizing that the Tohunga sets were originally meant to look quite different compared to what we got and we only got half of what was meant to be. From “test pieces”/misprints to full-on cancelled sets and ideas, this has come a long way. I think it says a lot about BIONICLE still having new things for us to learn even 23 years later (longer than I’ve even been alive), and that fans are just amazing. I am just so proud to be a part of this community, as late an arrival as I am.

[Wolk]

Yeah. I don’t know what’s up with the red feet, the Miru, or the differently colored tools, though. No IDs for them so far…

@Mael_Str0M

Perhaps the original intent was a glow-in-the-dark mask, but maybe that was shafted around the time Onua’s glow-in-the-dark eyestalks were shafted

That looks to be way before. To me, the Rau looks to be milky white (undyed).

@Mael_Str0M

“Pohatu’s Blue Akaku”

Still not convinced that wasn’t a typo, it seems more it was tried out on Gali, maybe going for a hook and eyepatch look? If they changed the mask names retroactively after naming the Toa – say the Akaku in general was “VOODOO MASK 6” and the Kakama “VOODOO MASK 5”, then writing a 5 instead of a 6 becomes an easy typo to make, which could then become Pohatu after a ‘find all, replace’. But that’s still just a theory.