“The tales tell of six great heroes who will come to aid us in our darkest hour. A powerful toa of fire. A wise toa of water. A strong toa of earth. A mighty toa of stone. A courageous toa of air, A brave toa of ice.” Has it really been 25 years since LEGO introduced us to the heroes of Mata Nui?
I created this series of minifigs for a collaboration with @majestyminifigs where we reboot a cancelled LEGO theme with custom minifigures. Of course I chose Bionicle. It took me a hot minute to figure out how I wanted to convert the toa mata into minifigure form, but I overall, I’m proud of the result!
Amidst Lego’s catalogue of various retired themes, Bionicle has always stood out to me in a really special and nostalgic way. I fondly remember seeing the six Toa Mata Canisters on shelves back in 2001, and the excitement of putting my first Bionicle, Lewa, together at the kitchen table.
The story of these heroes captured me completely. I would ask my parents to take me to the library, so I could read the novelizations of the Toa Mata and their adventures. I collected the comics and marveled at the dark and stylistic artwork.
The constraction pieces began to build in my collection, and some of my first MOCs were my own imagined noble Toa Teams, curious Matoran, and Fierce Rahi. So, with the 25th anniversary of Bionicle, I’ve found myself wanting to return to these characters, these stories, that had such a hold on me in my childhood.
Unfortunately, I let my old Bionicle parts slip away. I will definitely be re-collecting some of my old friends, but in the meantime, I decided to try my hand at turning the original Toa team into minifigures!
It was important to try and capture the personality and aesthetics of the different characters, especially since I wouldn’t be able to give them their iconic Kanohi masks. I did my best to achieve this by giving them their Toa tools, and also fitting color schemes to reflect the monochromatic stylings of early Bionicle.
It was also important to capture the feeling of Mata Nui, the island home of the Toa and Matoran. So, with each individual character shot, I did my best to place them in their respective biome, or “Koro”.
This project was so much fun! It made for a great little walk down memory lane, and I’m thrilled to try my hand at some more minifig-scale Bionicle builds. LEGO is pulling out all the stops to celebrate Ninjago’s 15th anniversary. Here’s hoping that the company will also honor this lovely, revolutionary retired theme that meant so much to a generation.