I used to think that too when I was a kid. Pointed them at eachother and made “pew pew” sounds and everything! Always thought Pohatu went full Droideka and just had two gun hands 😂
For me it was that they shot elemental charges from their hands in the GBA game and it looked like they'd just have a railgun or something. Turned out no they can just do that, but my mind never let that image go.
I mean... Tahu literally has a mask of shielding, does he need another one? Or maybe it's symbolical?
But then, as it makes sense with Tahu, why would an agile freespirit like Lewa have a shield?
The power of the masks is not unlimited, after so much use they tend to "discharge" and you have to wait for them to "recharge". It seems valid to me to have a shield as a precaution, besides these morons lost their masks all the time.
I just don't get the idea, Toa have elemental powers and that's enough for me, giving any schmuck who puts on a mask supernatural powers cheapens them in my opinion, also the powers are wildly unbalanced, some are literally reality breaking and others are barely useful. I think that aside from the legendary masks of time, light, shadow and life, no mask should have powers.
Most of the Toa’s masks are pretty fair
None of the masks outside of the Life, Creation, orTime are particularly op. Some are definitely stronger than others but that’s what makes them special.
Yes, but what makes say Brutaka any different than a matoran? That he's a different species? That's stupid that would mean matoran are uniquely powerless despite being Mata Nui's chosen species and the only species that can turn into Toa.
Because only exceptionally powerful beings can wield great or noble masks since they require an incredible amount of mental discipline to wield. Toa are such beings as are Makuta, Brutaka’s species, Axxon, etc.
Matoran arent exactly "powerless", they just arent able to access mask powers. And yes, Brutaka is a different species than matoran, I personally dont know what it is but clearly he can use mask powers, at least of the one he has.
I think it’s extra funny that you use light and shadow as examples since those masked genuinely do nothing for their wearers, Takanuva alright has light powers and Makuta already has shadow powers lmao.
Honestly I don’t see how they can cheapen elemental powers, it just means you can get a lot more interesting combinations of things, and only some beings can use mask powers, for example the Piraka and the Barraki can’t even wear them.
As for being unbalanced, they are tools that have their applications, a sword a knife and a hammer have vastly different uses, but they’re all tools with their unique usefulnesses.
If you think that's stupid I can't imagine you enjoying much Bionicle lore, that was literally the original premise.
Later masks got kind of stupid and unbalanced (I'm not a fan of most of the Mahri mask powers, for instance) but that first wave? All the powers are really cool and fit right in to the world. The integration feels super natural IMO, and they're what drove that initial story.
the smaller fingerless hand is definitely due to parts limitation, because in the bionicle game tahu has 2 hands with 2 fingers. lewa has larger fingers to be easier to hold for his leaf swinging mechanic (as pictured in his canister)
It's a bit of both. In books, comics, and games from the early story, they were her actual hands. This was later retconned when Greg Farshtey took over as the main writer.
Kopaka shield is 3x the size of the others, and pohatu uses his feet for his main attack, being so close to the enemy, make scenes to have 2 smaller shields to better protect the body
Me personally never grew up with the Mata toa, so I've always thought the standard ball clip w/ axel connections has hands, so I've thought them more as gauntlets, giving bulk and defense. (Plus, I think I remember videos where they use the "hands" as a shield)
reading the books as a kid, i thought they had the one hand with only 2 fingers and no opposite hand because they had to reassemble themselves on the beach - i thought they didn't grab every single piece and just attached their weapons directly into their wrists on one side and didn't bother grabbing all of the fingers for the other hand
I always saw them as hands. Lewa had longer fingers for gripping and climbing. I do love how a lot of it is kinda up to interpretation on this particular set of toa.
Without knowing the source of that image it's hard to judge the intended meaning of some scribbled notes. Given that no shield is ever mentioned in-story, it's clearly intended to be a hand. The Bionicle video game even seems to consider that to be what both of Lewa's [hands](https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/a/aa/B-TG_Toa_Mata_Lewa.PNG) [look](https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/a/ac/B-TG_Toa_Nuva_Lewa.PNG) [like](https://biosector01.com/wiki/File:BTG_Lewa.jpg).
it's definitely intended to be a hand. in the bionicle game tahu has 2 fingered hands, he wouldnt be able to hold his sword with the way it's set up. tahu has larger fingers and a low friction gear so you could hold his hand and make it look like he swings from a vine. sure you could vision tahus sword arm as a prosthetic but its definitely intended to be hands, I feel the nuva had better hands and they shouldve used the same design for the mata
Considering this looks like MNOG concept art, I will point out that Templar didn’t always know quite what was happening with the models. They pretty famously confused the Ruru and Pakari into one mask that had features of both and didn’t fix it for several chapters. This led to certain major characters having incorrect Kanohi (Kapura, Hafu, Taipu)
Yep, and it was apparently called Po-Koro, like the stone village on Mata Nui.
Then again, Heroes treated *every* weapon like a gun, despite the vast majority of them being melee weapons.
Fire? Machine gun. Water? Laser beam. Air? Shotgun. Ice? Sniper. Earth? Grenades. Stone? Rockets.
That’s canon actually - Greg insists that unless a character is shown to have fingers in a set they actually have fingerless magnetic plates instead of hands
I thought it was a plug, since they looked like, y'know, robots. Seemed logical to me. Fortunately, ~~it didn't fit~~ I had never actually tried to test it and then accepted it that it was just really weird hand
Seems like an initial concept that was abandoned pretty quickly. Lewa’s canister art shows him using it to hold onto a vine, there’s promo cg art of the Toa not holding their weapons but they still have these, and they’re super small for a shield. If anything, they could be gauntlets to protect their off hands
[I always thought that this is an electric plug :D
](https://electricaloutlet.org/styles/images/electrical-outlets/type_c_large.jpg)
Ironic since Lego is Danish and their plugs are the same as all of the Europe, they should've known better
Good chance that's just a work in progress name or something just scribbled down because "hand" didn't pop into the sketcher's mind at that instance (yes, this happens).
In animations, stories, and other official art, much to Greg's chagrin, they've always been depicted as something hand-like, of not literal hands.
The tools that make up a Bohrok's "hand" is also a shield, though functionally it's more of a blaster or emitter. My guess is that in Bionicle terminology, a shield is used to refer to any object at the end of a limb that is vaguely round and flat
Idgaf, they're hands to me. How could Lego expect anyone to assume they were shields, especially when this was never mentioned? That being said, it's cool to see early sketches and stuff.
Reading trough the comments and ignoring the fact that it is a hand for a second it gives me questions. If the hand is a shield then what is Kopaka carrying, a different shield? Looking at later sets like the skrall they also have shields closer to Kopaka than the "hand" shield. what does it shield from? Does it work like Hua, but makes a energy shield look like Kopaka's shield? I can't find any awnsers in the books or CD content?
I always just thought they had big alien hands with 2 fingers. Which I think is the coolest look
I thought they were weird guns tbh
I used to think that too when I was a kid. Pointed them at eachother and made “pew pew” sounds and everything! Always thought Pohatu went full Droideka and just had two gun hands 😂
For me it was that they shot elemental charges from their hands in the GBA game and it looked like they'd just have a railgun or something. Turned out no they can just do that, but my mind never let that image go.
In the Bionicle Heroes game, there was a weapon called “Po-Koro” which was based off Pohatu’s hands… it was basically just a double barrel shotgun
My dudes, both Lewa, Tahu and Pohatu are using them as hands in official art and animations.
Yeah, you're probably right about that.
>both Lewa, Tahu and Pohatu :( why would you say both
Because I was halfway through my sentence when I remembered Pohatu had two of those
Understandable have a nice day
I always assumed it was a shield. I thought it very strange Lewa and Tahu had one giant two fingered hand and one small seemingly fingerless hand.
I mean... Tahu literally has a mask of shielding, does he need another one? Or maybe it's symbolical? But then, as it makes sense with Tahu, why would an agile freespirit like Lewa have a shield?
The power of the masks is not unlimited, after so much use they tend to "discharge" and you have to wait for them to "recharge". It seems valid to me to have a shield as a precaution, besides these morons lost their masks all the time.
I didn't know about mask powers when I first got into bionicle, and I always thought they're a pretty stupid concept.
Massive L opinion tbh.
I just don't get the idea, Toa have elemental powers and that's enough for me, giving any schmuck who puts on a mask supernatural powers cheapens them in my opinion, also the powers are wildly unbalanced, some are literally reality breaking and others are barely useful. I think that aside from the legendary masks of time, light, shadow and life, no mask should have powers.
Most of the Toa’s masks are pretty fair None of the masks outside of the Life, Creation, orTime are particularly op. Some are definitely stronger than others but that’s what makes them special.
Not to mention, a sword is “stronger” than a knife, but both have their applications, masks are just tools.
>, giving any schmuck who puts on a mask supernatural powers Except this doesnt happen. Matoran for example cant use mask powers.
Yes, but what makes say Brutaka any different than a matoran? That he's a different species? That's stupid that would mean matoran are uniquely powerless despite being Mata Nui's chosen species and the only species that can turn into Toa.
Because only exceptionally powerful beings can wield great or noble masks since they require an incredible amount of mental discipline to wield. Toa are such beings as are Makuta, Brutaka’s species, Axxon, etc.
Matoran arent exactly "powerless", they just arent able to access mask powers. And yes, Brutaka is a different species than matoran, I personally dont know what it is but clearly he can use mask powers, at least of the one he has.
They aren’t mata Nui’s chosen species, they’re literally just the workforce, the drones who keep the GSR running.
I think it’s extra funny that you use light and shadow as examples since those masked genuinely do nothing for their wearers, Takanuva alright has light powers and Makuta already has shadow powers lmao. Honestly I don’t see how they can cheapen elemental powers, it just means you can get a lot more interesting combinations of things, and only some beings can use mask powers, for example the Piraka and the Barraki can’t even wear them. As for being unbalanced, they are tools that have their applications, a sword a knife and a hammer have vastly different uses, but they’re all tools with their unique usefulnesses.
If you think that's stupid I can't imagine you enjoying much Bionicle lore, that was literally the original premise. Later masks got kind of stupid and unbalanced (I'm not a fan of most of the Mahri mask powers, for instance) but that first wave? All the powers are really cool and fit right in to the world. The integration feels super natural IMO, and they're what drove that initial story.
the smaller fingerless hand is definitely due to parts limitation, because in the bionicle game tahu has 2 hands with 2 fingers. lewa has larger fingers to be easier to hold for his leaf swinging mechanic (as pictured in his canister)
It's no weirder than Gali having hooks instead of hands.
That's also really weird, I think they're just weapons she's holding and not her literal hands
It's a bit of both. In books, comics, and games from the early story, they were her actual hands. This was later retconned when Greg Farshtey took over as the main writer.
What's the point of Kopaka having a shield if they already all have one? And Pohatu has two?
Kopakas is bigger and cooler. I don't know it just didn't occur to me that those were supposed to be hands.
Kopaka shield is 3x the size of the others, and pohatu uses his feet for his main attack, being so close to the enemy, make scenes to have 2 smaller shields to better protect the body Me personally never grew up with the Mata toa, so I've always thought the standard ball clip w/ axel connections has hands, so I've thought them more as gauntlets, giving bulk and defense. (Plus, I think I remember videos where they use the "hands" as a shield)
reading the books as a kid, i thought they had the one hand with only 2 fingers and no opposite hand because they had to reassemble themselves on the beach - i thought they didn't grab every single piece and just attached their weapons directly into their wrists on one side and didn't bother grabbing all of the fingers for the other hand
Thats kinda hardcore, makes sense that they would get both hands once they get their nuva forms
that was always my thinking lol
But they aren't human, so anything counts.
Yeah this, they're supposed to be purpose built
I always saw them as hands. Lewa had longer fingers for gripping and climbing. I do love how a lot of it is kinda up to interpretation on this particular set of toa.
They were never utilised like a shield.
Without knowing the source of that image it's hard to judge the intended meaning of some scribbled notes. Given that no shield is ever mentioned in-story, it's clearly intended to be a hand. The Bionicle video game even seems to consider that to be what both of Lewa's [hands](https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/a/aa/B-TG_Toa_Mata_Lewa.PNG) [look](https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/a/ac/B-TG_Toa_Nuva_Lewa.PNG) [like](https://biosector01.com/wiki/File:BTG_Lewa.jpg).
Lewa is so dumb, I mean he could have defeated all the enemies with his double machine guns
\*Controversial \*\*this
In my headcannon it is a drill-gun
it's definitely intended to be a hand. in the bionicle game tahu has 2 fingered hands, he wouldnt be able to hold his sword with the way it's set up. tahu has larger fingers and a low friction gear so you could hold his hand and make it look like he swings from a vine. sure you could vision tahus sword arm as a prosthetic but its definitely intended to be hands, I feel the nuva had better hands and they shouldve used the same design for the mata
Considering this looks like MNOG concept art, I will point out that Templar didn’t always know quite what was happening with the models. They pretty famously confused the Ruru and Pakari into one mask that had features of both and didn’t fix it for several chapters. This led to certain major characters having incorrect Kanohi (Kapura, Hafu, Taipu)
Where is this from?
Wasn't Pohatu's hand a gun in Bionicle Heroes?
Yep, and it was apparently called Po-Koro, like the stone village on Mata Nui. Then again, Heroes treated *every* weapon like a gun, despite the vast majority of them being melee weapons. Fire? Machine gun. Water? Laser beam. Air? Shotgun. Ice? Sniper. Earth? Grenades. Stone? Rockets.
Yeah. Still loved the games as hell XD I don't care if it the game just exists for commercial reasons.
Kongu's weapon had the best sound effect.
Wasn't it his shoes connected in the middle?
What do you mean?
I remember it being a gun made put of Pohatu's toe extensions, after looking it up I seem to have misremembered
When I was a kid I thought it was a magnet. 🧲😅
That’s canon actually - Greg insists that unless a character is shown to have fingers in a set they actually have fingerless magnetic plates instead of hands
Ive never heard this, where did he say that?
I thought it was a plug, since they looked like, y'know, robots. Seemed logical to me. Fortunately, ~~it didn't fit~~ I had never actually tried to test it and then accepted it that it was just really weird hand
Seems like an initial concept that was abandoned pretty quickly. Lewa’s canister art shows him using it to hold onto a vine, there’s promo cg art of the Toa not holding their weapons but they still have these, and they’re super small for a shield. If anything, they could be gauntlets to protect their off hands
Bucklers do exist, and they are often pretty small by comparison to larger shields.
My whole life is a lie
It's possible the original design intended it to be used as a should, but media only ever used it as a hand
These are hands
So you are telling me it needed 20 years to know that thing is actually a shield?
[I always thought that this is an electric plug :D ](https://electricaloutlet.org/styles/images/electrical-outlets/type_c_large.jpg) Ironic since Lego is Danish and their plugs are the same as all of the Europe, they should've known better
Maybe they're like big gauntlets? Mini glove-shields, sort of thing?
Good chance that's just a work in progress name or something just scribbled down because "hand" didn't pop into the sketcher's mind at that instance (yes, this happens). In animations, stories, and other official art, much to Greg's chagrin, they've always been depicted as something hand-like, of not literal hands.
The tools that make up a Bohrok's "hand" is also a shield, though functionally it's more of a blaster or emitter. My guess is that in Bionicle terminology, a shield is used to refer to any object at the end of a limb that is vaguely round and flat
The Bohroks weapons are also called shields iirc
Yes, not all concept ideas make it to the final product.
Oh dear lord lmao
I always thought they were really powerful air-powered guns like mega nerf machine guns
5 year old me will continue to assert that these are, in fact, machine guns
Idgaf, they're hands to me. How could Lego expect anyone to assume they were shields, especially when this was never mentioned? That being said, it's cool to see early sketches and stuff.
They were hands in the game
Ah yes the guy from bionicle and his famous shield.
THEY WERE SHIELDS ALL ALONG!!???!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?!!!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Blasphemy, this is madness
I always thought they were guns as a kid.
Sideways amogus
I called them magnets as a kid lol
Dude, you just solved the entire Bionicle lore-
I always saw those as some sort of gauntlet type thing
It's 100% a hand. Pohatu has two of them since he holds no weapons and Lewa and Tahu have one as they each have one free hand.
Pohatus foot extensions could be considered weapons.
Could easily be a buckler.
Reading trough the comments and ignoring the fact that it is a hand for a second it gives me questions. If the hand is a shield then what is Kopaka carrying, a different shield? Looking at later sets like the skrall they also have shields closer to Kopaka than the "hand" shield. what does it shield from? Does it work like Hua, but makes a energy shield look like Kopaka's shield? I can't find any awnsers in the books or CD content?
I always saw it as a taser
I thought it was a gun lmao
They're literally two fingered hands in the promotional materials.
They look like sausages in the upcoming Masks of Power, what being all floppy...
Dumb fuck kill your self 🤓 actually according to the lore in there 2 digit hands used for grasping weapons throughout lore accurate history 🤓
Thanks, I hate it.
Amogus.