How I found a previously undiscovered Lego Bionicle brain. (part 1)
And also a prototype Toa Mata face.
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Bionicle is the name for a line of toys started in 2001 by the Lego company, and fuelled by a multimedia empire that spanned multiple books, games, movies, and at one point a weird theme park ride (featuring Toa Onua throwing people around). It followed the adventures of six elemental heroes called Toa, and later, countless more. Each of these heroes wore a special mask, a Kanohi, that would give them extra powers. Some of these were scattered around the mysterious island of Mata Nui, a location that would be returned to again and again throughout the story.
Bionicle began and ended in mystery, with one final reveal breaking the story universe wide open, and revealing a plot twist that was over a decade in the making.
Basically, it is one of the reasons I became a science fiction novelist. I can’t claim one particular member of the Bionicle team was responsible for this, because they all worked together. The point-and-click Mata Nui Online game ate hours of my time, the toys are still inspiring twenty years later, and the books – despite being written for kids – have stood the test of time pretty well.
Despite being made primarily of Lego’s more technical (and thus aptly named) technic brand of toys, Bionicle branched out into the classic Lego brick system in 2005, retiring only in late 2007 because I imagine someone at Lego headquarters wanted to hurt my soul.
BONUS CONTENT, woohoo!
(I would later go on to recreate 2001 and 2002 environments in Lego system and post them on Legoideas, where I amassed quite a following and inspired a few people).
(Above is a google search result for Tahu. This little Legoideas vignette is very similar in design and execution to my BIONICLE TOA TEMPLE project and TAKUA’S JOURNEY, which has the same design, but a moving feature (because otherwise, how can you get the mask out?) I like this little moc. I hope the creator of this isn’t getting upset messages over using a Hero Factory minifigure… some people were really upset with me for some reason when I did it, as if Hero Factory is ideologically bad and that badness resides in plastic parts… They’re great figures!
I also had some fan art by the wonderful Nerift and a moc based on my projects by someone else, whose name I have forgotten, alongside where photos of the moc are… sorry.
You should still go vote for Takua’s Journey. It has 300 days left.
The sad thing is once one person’s project came and went with 10k followers, people stopped thinking Lego would accept them. I still believe my project would get through moderation if only more people would vote for it…
Anyway, I’m getting carried away…
Bionicle ended in 2009, yet the theme enjoyed a soft reboot in 2015 only to end again in 2016 for a myriad of reasons. The second time round it had to compete with Lego’s Ninjago, which had been providing kids with Bionicle-sized mechs for a few years before Bionicle’s return. This, and a lack of wider advertising saw Bionicle’s second run go out with a whimper. Unusually for an old toy line, Bionicle has a rich cluster of communities working around the world, playing and building. I would make the argument that it has now transcended its source material. People are designing new masks, resin-casting and 3D printing new parts. It is as if the mask-makers of Ta Metru are real, as if the fans themselves now embody the creativity that the Bionicle story inspired.
But there are official Lego pieces that occupy a third, strange space. They are not officially released parts, nor are they art created by a fan (although sometimes they can be replicated by fans). These are called prototypes, misprints, or unreleased colours. I’ll quickly describe them for you before we continue. It may get confusing otherwise.
Prototype – An unreleased or unfinished Lego piece that doesn’t exist in any official sets.
A prototype is always a different shape to released parts. It may sometimes be very similar, but a collector can tell the difference.
Above you can see prototypes of part 32307 “Axle Connector Block 3 x 6 with 6 Holes.” These first appeared in the Roborider theme. These are both physically different prototypes and unreleased colours (it is a common practice for Lego to prototype parts in colours that don’t intent to be released, to lower the chances of them getting out of the factory by accident).
The ones on the far right are the only ones that are in a colour which actually came out in an official set (Dust) however these ones are different, lacking some of the finer details added to the final part. My favourites in this collection are the trans clear, trans neon orange, and trans light grey. However the trans light blue is particularly useful for ice-themed roboriders (and yes, I play with these very rare pieces. They aren’t valuable, just rare, so I may as well).
Misprint – A released Lego piece that for some reason, came in the wrong colour in a set.
A famous example for this would be the misprint Matatu, a Bionicle mask.
Above you can see my set of twelve Matatu. The six on the left are the officially released colours, the six on the right are European misprints. These all came in collectible mask packs in 2001, and the prevailing theory is that someone used the Toa colours instead of the Turaga colours. Basically, Turaga are the elders and Toa are the warriors.
(In the picture above, Turaga vakama wears an orange Huna, mask of concealment
The Toa in 2001 used the six colours on the right for their masks, but the Turaga masks were supposed to only come in the secondary colours on the left. For that reason, the six on the right are misprints.
You will see a bonus misprint in my next Lego post, so subscribe if you want to see it first.
BONUS PHOTO.
Bonus trivia. Above is my collection of Ruru, another Turaga mask. Again the primary colours are misprints, however I got about six of the black one when I collected the mask packs in 2001. And if they weren’t already common enough, the black Ruru stopped being a misprint half way through 2001 when the Bionicle Power Pack was released, although it was hard to get hold of. I actually “won” mine when my biological father called Lego and told them how much I wanted to win. The actual winner got one too, and I think they were later sold in stores anyway.
The red Ruru was also eventually released, in 2002. It came in a Bionicle branded clock set, but was an alternate part, meaning you might have gotten a light grey one instead, which is a lot less rare (that said, I got mine this year, long after the red one!)
Unreleased colours – A Lego piece in its final form, but in an unreleased colour.
These are very similar to misprints, but closer to prototypes. As I said earlier, Lego often uses unusual colour choices to differentiate late stage prototypes from final parts. These are different to misprints because they did not ever show up in sets by accident, and so are significantly harder to find.
Above is a good example, some unreleased Roborider bodies, part 32305 “Technic, Pin Connector Block 7 x 3.”
This part only ever came out in Black, Dark Gray, and Yellow.
So the yellow one on the right is not an unreleased colour, but the rest are. My favourite is the Teal one. Mixed with the proto trans light blue parts from before, the White or Teal body would look fantastic and make for a great sci-fi or ice themed Roborider… but I’m getting carried away with myself again.
From left to right, the first four parts are unreleased colours because they satisfy BOTH the following conditions:
1. Are not prototypes, but finished pieces in their final form.
2. Didn’t show up in sets in these colours, even by accident.
So, now we know a whole lot about rare Lego, let’s finally begin.
How did I find a previously unknown Bionicle brain?
I collected most of my misprint Bionicle pieces on Bricklink and eBay, but these are not good places to go hunting for prototypes, as they get picked up quickly. Instead I went the long way round. I turned to my Instagram account, which had exploded in popularity since my aforementioned Legoideas projects. From there I was able to get talking to creators and collectors in the wider Bionicle community, and I discovered a few interesting things.
Firstly, that what we know about prototypes, misprints, and unreleased colours from Brickshelf, MaskOfDestiny, and BZpower, is not all there is to know. The lists aren’t comprehensive.
Secondly, that ex-employees of Lego, whether they worked for technic, FF (the team that preceded technic), or system, could all find themselves walking out with prototype Bionicle parts.
Thirdly, that if your budget isn’t high, you need to be quick. Hunting for prototype parts needs to be called hunting, because that is precisely what it is.
With this knowledge in mind, my trigger finger on the left click button of my mouse, and my eyes looking away from my bank account, I began the search.
It wasn’t long before someone spoke to me about prototypes I had never heard of before. I discovered that one Bionicle collector had in his hands an entire prototype Toa Lewa, the green Toa of air. Now if I was still collecting I would grab that as soon as my book makes me enough money, but I’m not, and even if I was I said I would quit (even if you have money, it’s nice to save it).
A while later someone told me about an “Orange Kakama” which is this mask here.
I have yet to find an orange one, but I know a light blue one exists, and I know it is a prototype because it has the mask code where the forehead vent should be (early Bionicle masks came with codes on the inside that you could use in games, but their prototypes had the codes on the outside).
I actually found the unreleased colours and prototype Roborider parts above in the same lot. It was a house clearance and I had spoken with the seller about a ridiculous quantity of Lego they were shifting.
I think I actually got a pearl light grey Pakari nuva in there as well. This isn’t a proto, misprint, or unreleased colour, but one of thankfully few times when Lego makes a really rare part as a collectible and people lose their minds over it. Anyone else remember Mister Gold? I was so pissed off about that whole thing that I stopped collecting minifigures for a while out of protest. It was probably one of Lego’s worst marketing decisions.
Anyway. I purchased about 35kg of Lego and sifted through it, just because I spotted something unusual in a distant corner of one picture. Five or six pixels out of place, a Roborider body in the wrong colour, and something transparent that shouldn’t be. A few weeks later I had gotten my hands on parts that nobody else has. Sure, they’re not worth much, but I like them.