I personally see Brickonicle Kopaka´s mask being a rounder version of Master mask, sort of a crossover between Mata and Master. Tahu´s is just a mose simple and rounder version of Master. They all look neat anyway.
My only concern would be the mouths. Why, exactly? I mean, I know the movies used that theme, but that kinda ruins the masks a little. Just me though.
Great designs.
They added more value to the underlying mini figure head, and it also actually gave them the ability to show emotion. I loved them ever since Ragdoll introduced what he thought they should look like, and I really think they work overall.
We went through literally tons of color designs before we arrived at the ones we have now. One thing about the tertiary/“glowing” colors is that they are directly made to contrast the primary and secondary colors of the Toa and give them a slight highlight. It definitely added a lot more to the palette.
Holy crud Kahi noticed me
Oh, uh, if you put it like that, it makes more sense now.
I´ve noticed the Lightning element… Does this mean Voriki?
One of the things I like the most is the little shoulder pad thing Pohatu has. Pretty neat.
Overall, great designs. Now, I´m intrigued to see where this is going to take us…
Gotcha. Fair point.
I really love the addition of cloaks and belts into these designs. These Toa look entirely unique, and the aesthetic here with the tribal patterns is excellent. Dunno about the cape for Lewa, but the rest looks good. Especially Pohatu. Pohatu is my favorite one.
One thing, though: Will the Toa have Toa Tools? I liked the iconic weapons the Toa had. Will these Toa have the iconic weapons, like Tahu having a fire sword and Lewa having an axe? I wouldn’t mind if they switched some of them up (Onua and Pohatu especially need new ones, although the G2 Master weapons were pretty solid) but some of the iconic ones would be nice to have.
I couldn’t imagine Tahu having anything other than a fire sword.
I dislike some but others are pretty good. Don’t make absolutes either man. That’s just begging for a rebuttal.
what about a flamethrower?
Would Onua having a shovel be a good idea in that case? I feel like it could make sense.
A hammer ((different from G2 Onua´s)) for Pohatu would be a nice idea, IMO.
Yes, they will.
No. IMO, it would be nice to keep the “weapons become surfboard” gimmick for Tahu. There’s a reason his Nuva fireswords are so iconic, especially when used in G2.
Actually, that would be really darn cool. Shovel Knight has proven that shovels are cool weapons, and in this case, a spade works for Earth.
Pohatu having a hammer could work. Although maybe a drill to get into rocks would be better? The Toa’s weapons should deal with their environments and help them get around in it.
No.
I don’t see the comparison. Perhaps you could elaborate as to how, and why this would be a bad thing?[quote=“Payinku, post:15, topic:35180”]
Everyone hates the kanohi nuva, that would have been a horrible decision.And they are very clearly taking more inspiration from g2, some look exactly like a g2 mask.
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The hyperbole and blanket statements make it difficult to understand your critique. We took inspiration from both generations.
Yes.
Probably my least favorite of the designs, but not by much. His color scheme is great and the design is suitably ornate, but he just feels like the blandest of them all.
Definitely one of my favorites. His color scheme is also great, and I really like how you incorporated Xeros’ eye scar thing. My only critique is the that the right side of the mask feels naked, and needs some detail.
Another one of my favorites. The tribal detailing on her is one of my favorites, and the pauldron thing looks awesome. Her mask looks a bit weird, though.
My second-to-least-favorite, but that’s only because of how derpy her mask looks. Even though I was pretty on board with it already, I love Shewa now.
Here is my favorite. I think he translated the best into minifig form, but then again, I’m biased to Pohatu. The only thing is his mask looks a bit weird to me, but I can’t put my finger on why.
My third favorite, after Kopaka and Pohatu. I really would like to see Axl’s chest piece, or variations thereof, used more, and it really works here. I don’t really have a critique for him, it’s just that I like Kopaka and Pohatu more so their my favorites.
These are some really nice designs. Even if they weren’t bionicle I would buy sets just to get these minifigures. The only thing that could make these cooler is if they were constraction sets (hint, hint). Seriously though, I realize good art takes time but if you guys could do designs of the minifigs in constraction form it would be awesome.
I noticed the heads all have a TTV logo on them. Is this a watermark or part of the actual design?
It is the most similar, it looks like the uniter mask with the nuva organic filtered over it, perhaps I was hyperbolic to call it near identical but the comparison isn’t inaccurate.
looks more like the ultron skullcap with jowels to me. It’s missing virtually every signature aspect of the hau, they’re vague hinted at, but so little it’s almost unrecognizable.
The art itself is great, but the masks just aren’t right imo.
I see no reason not to. Would you give your reasoning?
Rounded edges, curved lines, little to no layering, they have a very organic appearance, and the reason that’s bad is simple, are they supposed to be organic? If not then they shouldn’t look organic.
Perhaps I’ve greatly overestimated the hatred for the kanohi nuva, I was under the impression that most people really dislike them, if I’m wrong I’ll concede that point.
Which is apparent in the miru and pakari, however the kakama, akaku and kaukau are all very g2, the hau doesn’t look like either generation.
Given the limitations of having to make these masks on a minifigure scale as opposed to CCBS scale, I think the simplified designs are perfectly justified. At least each of them resembles what I personally believe to be the best iteration of each mask, regardless of whether that iteration showed up in G1 or G2.
Concern regarding the possible fragility of Tahu’s mask has already been brought up, and I definitely see it being a problem around the mouth area. Minifig scale is probably too small to split the cheek gaps into two, so it’d probably be best just to make the existing ones a bit smaller to beef up the area around the mouth a little. The shape of the eyeholes might be just a little… aggressive, almost disdainful, but at times both those qualities could be ascribed to Tahu’s character, so that works. The design on the torso looks epic as red characters tend to, but Tahu’s lack of any visible accessory compared to the other Toa kind of bothers me. Maybe he could use one of those over-the-back sword holders that we see in Ninjago all the time, complete with some golden swords to accompany his flame blade/lava board weapons, kind of like how Tahu 2015 carried his arsenal?
Would I prefer Kopaka’s eye color to be ice blue? Yes. Is there a good reason to make it yellow? I guess so. Nothing worth crying over. The idea of his scope-eye being scarred is particularly clever; it could be used for some interesting backstory stuff relating to Kopaka’s personality.
Definitely seeing Master Gali in G3 Gali’s mask, which I highly, highly approve of. The half-skirt thing echos a lot of varyingly humanized artwork I’ve seen of Bionicle characters over the years, which works fine. Her color scheme could maybe use a little more contrast between the primary and secondary blues, but I can’t say that I know of anything that would look better and I’m sure that’s been explored already.
I’m not sold on Lewa’s mask. It looks like it’s taking mostly after the 2001 Miru, which I would agree is the best-looking version of that mask, but it’s lost so much of the… attitude that that mask portrayed. I always saw the distinguishing feature of the 2001 Miru to be its almost manic smile, which I don’t really see translated here. I get that the jawline was cut back a bit to make it look more feminine, which looks fine, but I don’t get why the eyeholes were opened up to the point where the mask takes on this ‘perpetually surprised’ expression. I think it’d look better if it the eye shape was narrowed a bit, not quite to the point of the 2001 mask, but certainly less open than here. I feel like that’d channel Lewa a bit more, regardless of gender, unless there’s other character changes in play that I’m not aware of. Other than that… if pink accents have been tried and didn’t work, oh well. Blue works.
Pohatu’s probably my favorite; the printing around the waistline with the spikes/throwing knives, if it could be properly executed on set, looks great. The mask seems to take after Uniter Pohatu’s a lot, though that may just be a product of softer shaping, and I much prefer this to the Uniter mask anyways.
I can’t call myself a fan of the Axl body that Onua uses as, in my opinion, it takes the proportions just a little too far, but that’s what we have to work with so that’s what it’s going to be. The mask looks ‘heavier’ in design than the others, which is appropriate, and the color scheme works great.
General comment: at the end of the element debate, the idea of referring to the Toa and villagers as Toa/people of a region, as opposed to an element, was thrown out, like Tahu being Toa of the Volcano. Has that been dropped in favor of just calling them by the elements again? Just saying, if Tahu is now the “Spirit of Fire” that’s co-opted/taken over Jaller’s body, I still think calling him the “Spirit of the Volcano” or “Spirit of the Core” would sound cooler. Plus tying the spirits to the landscape might make the island all the more of a character, depending on how the spirits and the island are related to each other. Gali could be the Spirit of the Tide…
While I am still a little bit annoyed that Lewa is female, I can’t deny how awesome these are!
I love the way the colors are distributed and the variety of “tribal line” placement. I just have to say that they way it looks like moss is growing on Onua is an ingenious idea, and it suits him rather well for the new Earth you guys have come up with.
There are however, a few things I have issues with:
I love the all mask designs and how they pull inspiration from every Toa Mata iteration except '08 there ever was! That said I do feel as though Kopaka’s and Pohatu’s masks could be improved. I think you guys were trying to replicate The Akaku’s roundness with Kopaka, but at the moment, I feel as though something is missing; to me, it looks as though he has a balding issue (It just looks too round). Pohatu’s looks great, but I can’t unsee the ‘nose’ he has at the center on the mask (it reminds me of Nuparu’s in '06).
I love the face hidden from the masks, but I feel as though all the work in creating the expressions for each toa is lost under the mask. While this obviously occurred in every bionicle iteration, I feel as though it effects it the most here. For example, I really dig the challenging look Lewa has going on for her, but because the raised eyebrow is hidden, something looks off when she has her mask. I’m not sure if the issue can be fixed, just pointing it out.
I feel like some of the characters have more colors on them than others. On Gali, for example, I count 4 (dark blue, light blue, blue, and orange). On Kopaka, I count 3 (dark blue, white, and yellow). Obviously, I’m not counting blacks or grays, here, but I think (unless I just can’t differentiate colors) that some do, in fact, have more than others. Whether this is a good or bad thing, IDK, but some might say it breaks up the unity of them all (I don’t think it does, but some might)
In dealing with the weapons and added armor, are you guys going to use different armor and different weapons each year? Is the added armor going to have prints? Are the weapons, for year 1, going to be based off of the G1 Mata weapons? I was having a discussion on another topic whose main purpose is on whether or not the Toa should have mask powers. I’m still kind of against it, but the main argument that the mask and their powers could be used in a scannable gimmick similar to Nexo Knights convinced me slightly. Is that your intent with these masks? If not, then what would you say should be the collectibles, for year one at least?I’d say Nuva symbols that harness their elemental energies, or something like that
Some have already suggested that Lewa’s cape be specialized in some capacity. I assume Gali’s skirt has printing or stitching on it to get the orange design, so I’d suggest to do the same for Lewa (or at least have a design on the back of the cape)
Lastly, I’d hate to say this but, doesn’t the printing on a minifig only go down to their knees? I’m no Lego expert, but I don’t think Lego have specialized their machines to print designs at such a tight angle, as your concept suggests at the foot/leg angle. I do think Lego would allow a double molded leg and the printing from the knees upward, but not printing to the foot. The same restrictions, I believe, apply to the arms.
Whew!
Sorry about my super-long post, again. But I do think that Although these designs look exceptionally awesome!.. they still have minor flaws, or my personal nitpicks, that I find brings them down a smidgen.
Nevertheless, I really do enjoy these designs, and look forward to all the turaga, matoran, rahkshi, etc. when they come out!
You all have a LOT of work to do! 
I’ve been wanting to suggest a hammer for Pohatu for awhile now, but everybody else seemed to believe it better suits Onua. I think a hammer works much more in favor of the former (especially considering he doesn’t seem to have his steel toes anymore). But I could also see him swinging around a sweet pickaxe.
As for Onua, it’d be interesting to see him with a shovel or spade-type weapon. Maybe he could have dual claw-shovels, like his alternate weapons in G2?
@Jon Just out of curiosity, are the gods of the elements (Elemental Lords?) all male, a different genders, or genderless? Or is that considered irrelevant at the time being?
its their nuva symbol, and i’m guessing they took inspiration from the toa uniters on putting the symbol on the toas chest
I agree that at the moment Tahu’s mini-figure is certainly the most vanilla of them all. Perhaps something will be added to him to help give him some unique qualities, however the vision I have for him is that his uniqueness will come from his tools, which will be the only one of the Toa to have a dual function. This is very much conceptual though, changes may be made to Tahu going forward if this doesn’t pan out.
This is essentially the problem the eyes were trying to address. I agree they may be too open though, adjustments will likely be made. One thing I will point out is that I didn’t really illustrate just how thick I imagine these pieces to be in these samples, and I feel like that will contribute to how “open” the eyes will appear in an actual molded form. Regardless, adjustments can be made.
Truth be told, while I appreciate the thought behind it, I honestly felt like pink looked atrocious visually.
I feel like the Axl body template gives the appearance of it looking larger than it actually is in three dimensional space. But even still, the proportional difference is definitely a matter of tastes. I personally really like the varied body shape but I understand why you wouldn’t.
As far as I know, no. However, while their official title may be “The Toa of the Core” that doesn’t mean we won’t use “a Toa of Fire” to describe him.
Yes. Maybe. Most likely to some extent.
A lot of these questions are dealing with things we haven’t reached yet, so its hard to say for certain. I don’t even know if LEGO can print on armor pieces, because I haven’t looked into it yet. Future years aren’t really a priority at this very moment.
We also haven’t discussed masks collecting or collectibles yet. This is something that’s down the pipeline, but I can’t give you a definitive answer on anything until we actually have a chance to think about it.
The inside of Lewa’s cape has no stitching, but we haven’t seen the back just yet.
I would personally say they’re gender-less, or at the very least ambiguous. There’s no official consensus yet, however.
Its a water-mark. (I know, it threw me off the first time as well)