Every Bionicle set had the character wielding some form of weapon-swords, axes, shields, and whatever launcher was being used that year. But there were a lot of points in the story where the Toa, or Matoran, or whoever, had to use their hands for something. So where did they put their weapons when they weren’t in use?
And it’s not just putting them aside for practical uses. Some characters had too many weapons to be held with just two hands. For instance, Jaller Inika canonically wielded two swords and a Zamor Sphere launcher, yet he only had two hands. He clearly wasn’t smart enough to put his launcher on his shoulder like Nuparu did, so he must’ve alternated between weapons. But here rises the same question: Do Toa have scabbards or some other form of holster for their weapons? We don’t see any such thing in the sets or animations. Even in The Legend Reborn movie, when the Glatorian put their swords on their backs, they just kind of stick them there, and then they stay. So…is there some form of actual canonical weapon storage?
In the movies, they just reach behind their backs and pull them out from hammerspace. One of the '04 books (I forget which) refers to Vakama having a backpack, so presumably that’s what’s going on there?
Actually, I got it wrong. The Toa Metru all had a feature where you could put their weapons on their backs. In Vakama’s and Matau’s cases, their weapons could also double as means of making them fly/glide.
It depends on who you’re dealing with. The Suva for each Toa is a teleportation storage facility, masks and weapons are stored inside it and get teleported to the Toa when they want it. That is how the Toa Mata swapped Kanohi in MNOG and it is how the Toa Metru pulled out random disks, since the Great Temple is pretty much one giant Suva.
Or hammerspace I guess, I suppose SirKeksalot’s version also works.
As for Jaller, that was an error based on the Inika prototypes. His set originally had two swords, but one of them was dropped. But he could have always pulled a Kopaka Nuva and held both swords in one hand, just one of them being upside down.
Though the others are correct, to explain away how some of the Toa and others can hold weapons, since not all sets had hands, it’s by magnetism. Mask, weapons, back attachments, usually all magnetism. The scene in the Mask of Light in Onu-Koro where Takua’s Kolhii stick flies into his hand with a little energy spark? Magnetic summoning of the tool. Also as a fun consequence of this, the already powerful Toa of Magnetism are even more dangerous. Especially to fellow Toa.