Tahu, the Toa Commander

This is Tahu, the Toa of Fire, and he's built as a part of a collab with many talented builders - in fact the same gang who did Toa Metru a couple of years ago, me making Nokama. Some time afterwards we chose to embark on the most legendary Bionicles of all time, the six original Toa Mata. I ended up with Tahu and that was definitely ending up with - others had clear preferences! I of course like all of the Toa Mata sets (and characters), but Tahu had never been very important personally. It was an interesting challenge.

Other participants used the original Kanohi masks, but I knew from the beginning that I was not going to use good old Hau. Why not? It is the symbol of Bionicle - more than the three virtues squiggle - and thus too dominating as the face. I do not feel that the other 2001 masks (or Metru masks) have such burden. Kakama equals Pohatu and Miru equals Lewa, but Hau is the symbol of the Great Spirit - and, if infected, Makuta.

My initial idea was to build the helmet Turaga Lhikan uses in Bionicle II Legends of Metru Nui, the best of the Bionicle movies. I liked it a lot as a kid, I adored Turaga Lhikan and especially the helmet which "nose" guard made the mouth arch of Lhikan's Hau look like a moustache. So I tried to build it with bright light orange and yellow and red - but it never worked. I couldn't make in such a small scale and neither I wanted to make the model huge. So I abandoned it, and rather oriented towards other stylised brick-built Haus. Lifesaver float thing was a decent mouth piece option, but a Scala shoe (what did you except?) was a much better. Some of the versions were very space marine -esque, and probably there's some of that in the final version, too. Most of the designs had a forehead using smooth Star Wars figure shoulders, but it looked too much like a knit cap. I ended up using the actual Hau to create a more helmet-like mask, and even added a crest - it's connected by sticking a 1x2 round plate to the mouth hole. 

With this design the MOC took a turn into more military-like direction. I think it fits the Ta-Koro feel, with Jaller as the stern captain of guard. My original idea was more medieval - a smith Tahu with several layers of armour. I toyed with black chain mail thorought the process, but it didn't fit in the end. Instead, Tahu got an imposing stature, heavy collar, sleek boots and an officer's cape. The side pistons and the black circle on the chest refer back to the original. I wanted to include some robotic details so that he wouldn't just appear to be a human person in red armour.

-Eero.