Using Preexisting Names on Unnamed Characters

Ask Ask Greg
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Mr. Farshtey,

I’m aware of the impossibility of giving Bionicle characters new names due to legal reasons, however I was wondering if it would be possible to give preexisting Bionicle characters preexisting names. For example, Midak, Kodan, Ihu all were names that were repurposed from locations/tools/weapons/characters.

The idea to reuse names from Mata Nui for the Toa Mangai was actually presented to you in 2008, and seems to be the inspiration for Toa Naho’s name;

Would it be legally possible to further reuse names of locations/tools/weapons to name obscure Bionicle characters now?

Some possible names could be *Tiro, Leva, Motara, Fau and Kanae, *. All are names LEGO previously used in Bionicle. I’m sure there are plenty of others I’ve neglected to mention.

Papu, Rangi, Kumu, Hura-Mafa were used as well, but as @KDNX mentions below, there may be complications with those names due to ties to Maori culture/language.

If it is possible to reuse these names, could you use them to name members of the Toa Mangai, Jovan’s Team, the Toa Cordak or other unnamed characters? Particularly the Toa Mangai…

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Not Greg (duh) but I’m unsure of the canonicity of a lot of those 01 toponyms. That was the era when a lot of the lexicon was straight stolen from Maori. I don’t know if any of those terms would still be approved for use today. Just my two cents though; again, I’m not Greg.

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After a quick google translate, Rangi, Kumu and Hura (from Hura-Mafa) all are directly from the Maori language. Mafa (from Hura-Mafa) is not a Maori word from what I could tell though. Papu also seems to be a based off the Maori deity Papa. Perhaps these four names would be off the list of possibilities.

I’m unaware if the others are taken from other language/cultures however. That’s an interesting perspective though, I’d be interested to hear how it could effect Greg’s answer.

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As much as I personally love the names Motara and Marn, the Mata Nui location names will likely never be reused:

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It’s not quite that simple. Greg does confirm that the in story origin of those names come from Matoran words and names of beings.

And he’s said it’s possible that the beings those places were named after were other members of the Toa Mangai.

He’s also said they were likely named after Toa, but they might not have been the Mangai.

But he also denied they were named after characters in the story at all.

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This doesn’t really answer your question, but the last list of legally approved names was used up in 2009-2010. Obviously, legal approval may not matter at this point since the names wouldn’t be used for a money-making venture, but those were the only names I had access to.

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