Were the Toa Mangai of different builds?

Since the Toa Hagah have the same Metru style build due to being an elite guard it would make sense for the Toa Mangai to look incohesive since they’re basically random Toa who formed a team to protect Metru Nui. Don’t know if this was asked before though.

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Searching through The Great Archives (a great, searchable resource for finding Greg Answers), I could only find one instance of Greg commenting upon the general look of the Toa Mangai:

“Speaking of Naho (and the other Toa Mangai for that matter), did their armor look similar to Lhikan’s, or did everyone have a different design? (judging from the fact that other toa teams have similar armor) Would you be able to confirm which masks they wore/what elements they controlled?”

“At this point I haven’t given any thought to what masks or powers they had. But it is reasonable to assume that their armor would have looked like Lhikan’s.”

So not a hard “yes,” but not a hard “no” either.

(I will also add that he has answered numerous times as to Nidhiki’s appearance, although as far as I’m aware those tended towards his Kanohi, with Greg responding with variations of “He wore a green/emerald Volitak that was the same shape as Nuparu’s.”)

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Interesting answer from Greg and the fact that that kind of question was only answered once. His reponse is vague but I find it hard to believe that Toa from different places end up having the same armor as Lhikan.

At least with the Toa Hagah they look similar because they were carefully handpicked and even given new armor(though they were just given metallic versions of their orginals). It’s either a big coincidence or that Lhikan’s armor was pretty common among Toa or maybe I’m just overthinking this.

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It is also a great factor that the original 11 Toa Mangai consisted of Lhikan’s original team and some other Toa he gathered on his way to Metru Nui.

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This answers are very interesting! :grinning: :grinning:
but when Lhikan was rookie-Toa, his early teammates(Makoki-gardians) has died.
so I think his original teammates(Mangai’s base) was have different background with him.

Where was it said that Lhikan didn’t have a team after the Makoki Stone guard exactly?
As far as I can tell Lhikan could have a team, as the Greg quote suggests, after the Makoki stone guard, which he gathered some other Toa to his team to defend Metru Nui and form the Toa Mangai.

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You’re right, and I didn’t say that Lhikan didn’t have a team after the Makoki Stone guard.
What I wanted to say that, the Toas who later became Mangai, are clearly of a different origin with Lhikan, so it remains unclear why their armor resembles him.
(Lhikan is a lone survivor of Makoki-guards, and rest member can’t join his later team for their dying)
(I can think of a number of reasons IF Makoki-guards wore armor similar to that of Lhikan, but the members of Pre-Mangai met him later, I couldn’t find a reason for the armor to resemble. )

I thought the quote suggests that Lhikan had a team, consisting of 6 members as usual, and gathered 5 more. Seeing the pattern of the normal teams, Lhikan, Naho, Earth Mangai, Stone Mangai, 1 Ice Mangai, and either Plant Life Mangai or Nidhiki were a team, with a unified design, and Lhikan found 5 other Toa (Tuyet, 3 Toa of Ice, and again either Plant Life Mangai or Nidhiki, they’re interchangable) who joined him, and probably had a different style of armor.

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Yes, and I have a question in this point.
If Lhikan had his team from 6 members, but even, I couldn’t find the reason for their armor-style has similar.

Remember, Toa Mata are created by Artakha as one-team. they are true “Brothers”. Toa Metru are inspirated by a Toa:Lhikan. Toa Inika had strange transformation by Redstar’s thunder in same time.
but Pre-Mangai are doesn’t have share the background with Lhikan, so their appearance shall be each defferent, just like Mahri.
Ofecourse If Greg said so this is canon, and I must find or create a reason to explain this. but I still couldn’t well

'The reason of I said that I can find the reason If Makoki-guards has similar armor with Lhikan:Guards are Lhikan’s mate when he was rookie, and May they has same/kind background or inspiration

(My guess -for now- is “Metru-style and its variants are the most popular model of Toa’s appearance”, ofcourse just a headcanon) :wink: :wink:

It seems this question may not have a satisfying answer.

I guess it makes sense for Lhikan to have a team while being part of another team for a short while. I guess while Toa joining and leaving teams is not uncommon it’s hard to ascertain whether he was transformed alongside his team, thus giving them the same armor.

If one accepts the headcanon that the Metru build was common among Toa then it would make sense for every member of the Toa Mangai to have it but the existence of Lesovikk and Jovan kinda put a damper on that.

However big Lhikan’s team originally was, some of the other Toa he had picked to go to Metru Nui with him had to had looked different than him. Also, he would just be picking them based on merit and skill without worrying about aesthetics unless at the end they decided to wear the same armor to commerate being a new team if they were all Metru builds.

Maybe Greg’s old response should be good enough for now?

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Yeah, I know it.
and If I build Toa Nidhiki and Tuyet, Maybe I built them with Metru-style, for just my liking. :joy: :wink: :revolving_hearts:

I understand that it is not good to think too much about things, but at least with BIONICLE, I can’t help but use my imagination. yeah, This is my bad habit. :sweat_smile:

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Totally forgot that Nidhiki and Tuyet are on the list for canonization mocs but I guess this question will be addressed when their time comes. Though I was thinking about making a Toa of Ice when that question popped up. Oh well.

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how can you speed trough and find things in greg archieve?

edit: found the search button, I was silly I guess.

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The contest is precisely why Greg won’t make any further clarification, so that fans can have the creative liberty, unless TTV imposes additional rules, like for Hagah.

They must have the same build otherwise my designs don’t work xD. But that aside, I think it could actually also make sense if they had largely the same build. Just look at the Toa Hagah. Members were carefully selected based on their achievements in other Toa teams. So for there to be a fair chance to select six Toa - each from a different Toa team - that all have the same build (like with Norik’s team) it may be safe to assume that a fair amount of all the Toa that ever existed had the Metru-style-build (although there could obviously still be slight differences). This would in turn also make it fairly possible that the Toa Mangai had the same build.

I’ve figured for a while that Toa generally have a base design that gradually shifts over time. Of course there are outliers and variants, but most Toa in existence at any given time look largely the same. For example, most early Toa likely looked similar to Lesovikk and Jovan and had Inika/Piraka builds, since that’s what Glatorian have, while toward the end of Mata Nui’s mission it was more common for Toa to have Metru builds.

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