Name: Rino
Gender: Male
Species: Fe-Matoran (Toa)
Element: Iron
Weapon: Shield (I know that technically isn’t a weapon, but that’ll be explained later in this post)
Kanohi: Hau, Great Mask of Shielding
Home Island: Vaha Nui
Backstory: Before becoming a Toa, Rino was a swordsmith from a village in the northern region of Vaha Nui. After the _Vaha Nui Civil War*, most of Rino’s village was destroyed, forcing him, along with the other survivors, to relocate. Rino chose to move to the island’s capital city.
At some point after the war, Rino, and five other Matoran were transformed into Toa.
The island of Vaha Nui enjoyed hundreds of years of peace, but that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked when the Dark Hunters started their conquest of the island. The Toa fought back valiantly, but they were losing ground. Not long after the team lost its Toa of Sonics, Toa Koda, the leader of the team, came to a realization: his teams destiny wasn’t to defeat the Dark Hunters, but to raise the team of Toa that would end the war.
While the other four Toa relinquished their Toa powers to become Turaga, Rino remained a Toa. He believed that his destiny was to train and fight alongside the destined Toa. Turaga Koda then sent out the Toa of Iron to gather six Matoran from across the island, who would eventually become the Toa Vaha…
Toa Rino’s armor features somewhat mismatched colors (mostly shades of grey and silver), as a result of frequent, rushed repairs made to his armor in the middle of battle.
As for his shield, he often uses his power over Iron to transform the shield’s metallic Protodermis into whatever form he wishes (like a sword, as seen in the picture above).
Finally, here’s the team so far. There are only two members of the team that I have yet to build (a Toa of Fire, and a Toa of Plantlife).
Trivia: Rino’s name means “iron” in Maori.
Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for viewing!
