personally I’d like 3-3 gold/silver split
unfortunately I don’t think that will become canon
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Well, one of the finalists has a “soft” 3-3 split.
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hmm?
which one?
Giving them metru colored lids would cause confusion on shelves with the Toa Hordika, especially among parents buying sets for their kids.
As for the colors being rare, this is only partially true - see 8794 Sir Santis, from whom Kualus got his shoulder armor. We also saw plenty of gunmetal on Makuta/Teridax and later on Maxilos and 08 Takanuva. Besides the robots from Exo Force, I can’t speak so much for copper and metal green - the latter being a metallic color, not pearl, with the exception of maybe the Krana Kal.
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Fair point. Could use the six mettalic colours the Mata used, then. The Mata didn’t have any mettalic armour, so it doesn’t have to match the sets.
￦hich I would hope Lego wouldn’t use because it’s an illegal connection.
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Judging by other Bionicle sets on the market at the time they likely would’ve been 3:3 silver and gold. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe any other 2005 Bio sets used gunmetal.
Gunmetal was used in both 2004 and 2006 though, which is partially why I’ve leaned towards a 2:2:2. It’s realistic for the time period, has strong symmetry, and makes the team look very cohesive.
However, I’ll begrudgingly admit that the colors used at the time might not be the best argument. As Racie02 says;
So who knows, I guess.
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other metallic colors that could have been used for example the Rahkshi colors and the Kraakhan
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I can’t bring myself to agree with this reasoning as it flies in the face of the objective parts of this analysis. These “rarer” colours were also used pretty liberally in another line of colorful knigtly heroes from a distant past, adorned in uniquely coloured metallic armour from 2005 - Knights Kingdom II.
Those colours were all in production as of 2003, used in BIONICLE no less, and at least 5 of them to my knowledge were in use in 05. The scarcity of certain colours only affects what purists are able to build with existing parts - it’s not typically a constraint for set designers, so long as it’s within LEGO’s palette and budget, it’s fair game.
If the two existing Hagah’s identifying colours weren’t gold or silver, and instead… something else (other than the metru colours too - not entirely sure what you’d suggest be their new box colours,) or perhaps had an original canister and lid design, then sure.
So long as the other 4 followed this rule too, I don’t see why they couldn’t have all been gold/silver, or gold/silver/gunmetal in this case.
However, I did not go into this thought experiment with the plan to change released sets to fit a given preference - I was just looking at all the data we had and taking it as-is, then drawing one of many possible conclusions from there.
If the remaining Hagah’s appearances were “released” in comic illustrations, not as sets, then it’s entirely possible they’d fit one of those popular metallic colour distributions… But on the other side of that coin, the ‘rarity’ of parts doesn’t apply to the artists either, nor are they limited to physically released molds or colours, so it’s just as likely they’d be just about anything else. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think a single character design that’s exclusive to the comics is replicable with existing parts - except for maybe the skrall/vortixx palette swaps, and the like.
But that’s diverging from the point since I was looking at “what LEGO would have done, had the Hagah been released as a full 6-set wave in 2005” - as that’s how most people using that argument intend it, and some even like to imagine them - as “unreleased” sets.
The only other way LEGO could have released them that permits one of these colour splits that I can think of is if you dropped the “2005” part of this exploration, and instead assume they’d be released in 2-set special edition waves in the following years, like Norik and Iruni were in 05, as they’d no longer be intended to share shelf space.
This would however mean it wouldn’t exactly be an even split any way you spin it from this point onwards, as between 2005 and 2006, LEGO updated their metallics; replacing flat dark gold with pearl gold and silver with a paler pearl light grey. Gunmetal was also used prominently in 06, so it’s inclusion can’t be ruled out in this hypothetical either.
These comments, while not exactly the constructive, analytically-driven opposition I was hoping for, do still help me in highlighting the very emotionally/personally based opinions in this discussion about their colours being “backed up” by this claim I address at the start. 
It’s perfectly fine to have your own preferences, and hold them for whatever reason(s) you choose, but as I said In my closing thoughts; (which apparently needs to be reiterated)
I do really appreciate all the discussion, thoughts and compliments though, everyone - thank you! 
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How so?
I think your initial analysis is still completely valid; I’m simply pointing out a counter point you hadn’t addressed (though you certainly have now)
My point about the colours isn’t that they’re rare, but the amount of recolours a full set is six would require. Not counting new molds, Norik and Iruini each have 2 recolors, their chestplates, Norik’s mask, and iruini’s spear. How many would the Hagah require?
Kualus: the spear tip exists, as do the shoulder pads. That leaves the feet (unless he has mata feet) thighs, and chest plate, plus the mask. 3/4.
Pouks: the feet exist, but not in 2005. There were no viable spear tips for him in 05 either. There is a chestplate, lehvak-kal’s shield. The shin piece didn’t exist yet, so that counts too, and there weren’t any gunmetal masks yet. 4.
Bomonga: his feet are also used as his chestplate, and the gearbox cover could be black; that still leaves a spear, mask, shoulders, thighs, and feet. That’s 5.
Gaaki: ho boy, there are no copper parts made for a Metru build, except maybe a Mata mask. She needs 6 recolors, 5 if you use a Mata mask, 4 if you want to do like Bomonga and give her a foot chest.
Sure, bionicle did have high budget, but it still had a limit. The fact that Norik uses Nuva shoulder pads rather than Metru shoulder pads might indicate their recolour budget was limited. And while many of the parts needed to make a Hagah build already existed in 2005 in gold and silver, the same cannot be said of the other mettalic colours.
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Hmm, up until now I’ve been a fan of Copper Bologna and Green Gaaki, but that last point is something I never considered before.
have I got news for you…
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These look really good, it would be nice if you had wrapped the images around the canisters.
You put a lot of thought into this though which is really cool. Nice read 
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That certainly clears some things up, and I’ll admit that budgets, nor the builds/exclusive parts themselves really came up in my initial analysis because it just wasn’t really what I was looking at. I was just concerned with the colours as that’s the topic I’ve seen the “what LEGO would have done” phrase thrown around with the most, personally. I don’t expect LEGO to have ever released a canister-sized set with 5 modified torso constructions in place of prefab limbs, with like 2x the part count of the others in the wave - or like you said, utilized illegal techniques or so many new molds… 
We just happen to have a point of reference for their physical appearances now that the majority of the participating community agreed with, so that’s what I used - we don’t yet have that with their colour distribution.
However, a 3/3 split, or even a 2/2/2 one would still mean that 4 characters using only the primary Metru colours, + gold, silver (and gunmetal), in their designs, would need to have unique canister lid colours that weren’t any of the metru colours, gold, or silver, between them, as those were already being used.
As a rule, the colours also need to represent the toy being sold, and you’d even suggested:
Which I already explored in-depth, but as a refresher: Norik and Iruni use metallic silver and gold lids, so Kualus and Pouks couldn’t - meaning 4/6 of the Hagah’s lids/distinguishing colours would not line up with their elemental colour (using the Bohrok and Mata’s use as a guide for that)
As a side note, since you’ve brought it up, I think the reason we got so few new parts/recolours with the official Hagah isn’t too indicative of anything at all. They were two additional sets tacked on to the year as special edition releases to celebrate an important anniversary for the company, and likely had a relatively thin budget and limited parts palette to work with. The fact we even got new and exclusive molds/recolours with them at all is a testament to the lengths LEGO was willing to go to for BIONICLE at the time.
To be blunt; we will likely never know what they would have looked like for sure. I doubt the Toa Hagah were ever planned to be released by LEGO as a full team of 6 like we’ve been used to. For starters, their names we know them by now, “Toa Norik” and “Toa Iruni” were late changes - originally the character designs were supposed to represent “Toa Dume” and “Toa Nidhiki”, respectively, as two standalone figures.
The sheer number of new parts and recolours with each new year/wave is pretty big - who can really say for sure how these guys could have looked if they had an entire wave of sets to themselves?
Just saying that with the precedents set by the Hagah we actually got, the trends in marketing consistent across the entire release history of the franchise, and available colours in LEGO’s palette at the time - both used in BIONICLE in prior years, and prominently in a concurrent theme in 05, in a very similar application, I think that we can get a pretty good idea of “what if…” 
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I think it’s impossible to answer what Lego would’ve done if they had released six Toa Hagah because they wouldn’t have done it at all. Lego would’ve never released two full Toa teams in a year, and they probably wouldn’t have released another set of six Toa that just reused the Metru build.
Norik and Iruini are clearly designed to complement each other as a pair of special edition Toa.
They both have very contrast-y color schemes that also contrast with each other and prominently feature the two main colors that typically denote rarity/value (gold and silver). They also use different shoulder pieces, the only two shoulder armor pieces that existed in Bionicle at the time. And there weren’t six different pieces that could be used as shins and chest armor either. There’s just no way to maintain the uniqueness of each one while also maintaining the consistency, all without giving up the “specialness” of the gold and silver.
In a hypothetical universe where Lego released all six Toa Hagah, Norik and Iruini would look very different.
But I still think it’s cool that we now have canon designs for all six of them. I just think that rather than wondering what Lego would’ve done, we should be asking what do we think works best for these characters?
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Indeed. The point of all this was an exercise in futility I suppose - however,
My answer wouldn’t change
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And I do concur that the canisters you photoshopped look dope.
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ironically those colors became canon
Yeah. maybe this guy knew all along the contest results!
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based and humblematoran-pilled. you’re doing artakha’s work man
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you are too kind 
also, @SubParFauxPas I just took some time and read through this entire thread and it very cool to hear your thoughts. I’ve got some ideas in my head regarding the Hagah cansiters and your thoughts, as well as others, have really confirmed them, so thank you for putting this out here.
not anymore.
Just gotta finish Helryx and Artakha…
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