Hehehe...
He's dead

@MCLegoboy said:
"Hehehe...
He's dead"

Not merely dead, but ultra-dead - no hopes of resurrection for poor Matoro. Still one of the best Toa though, did his duty to the end.

Where’s the lore guy when you need him?
I watched a 9+ hour long Duckbricks video about Bionicle lore and forgot who Matoro was.
Nvm I didn’t recognize the Toa Inika version of this character. I was more familiar with the Toa Marhi version.

@Endermen39 said:
"Where’s the lore guy when you need him?
I watched a 9+ hour long Duckbricks video about Bionicle lore and forgot who Matoro was."

People actually watch 9+ hour lore videos? I admire your stamina.

Back in the 2006, BIONICLE just seemed amazing in a new way. The Piraka in the first half of 2006 showed the direction BIONICLE was taking, but the Toa Inika in the summer of 2006 were the destination. Matoro here was front and center in the ad campaigns and marketing. Even though Toa Jaller was technically the "leader", there was good cause to feature this Toa of Ice, although it wouldn't become more apparent until near the end of 2006.

Matoro, as a result, was one of the first Toa Inika I bought back in August 2006. Had him and Toa Nuparu mailed covertly back to my home while away at summer camp, timed to arrive as soon as I got home. I had already read some reviews of the Inika on BZPower, but I was excited to make up my own mind about these new iterations of Toa sets. Like the Toa Metru, the Inika were very poseable, very "cloney" builds. But there was more to them than that. The Toa Inika all had light-up weapons (powered by 4 tiny watch batteries in the hilt) and a multi-shot Zamor sphere launcher. This novel improvement to the Zamor sphere launcher introduced with the Piraka sets a few months earlier seemed like a no-brainer, and vastly improved the play experience.

It wasn't all roses, however. The weird faces and robotic heads that had been hallmarks of all Toa sets except for the Toa Hordika were gone, replaced by featureless lime green and white blobs stuck on Technic axles and ball joints. This was done to accommodate the rubber, "living" Kanohi masks that each Toa Inika wore. From an aesthetic viewpoint, it did indeed look cool, but in the context of what came before, it made the Toa Inika a little too freaky.

Digression into the BIONICLE legend: 2006 was a return to the "main" BIONICLE story, the one that began in 2001 and was interrupted to spend two years in flashback after 2003. With the Metru Nui history wrapped up, the story returned to the present, with the Toa Nuva and Matoran of Mata Nui making a new home in the once-abandoned City of Legends, Metru Nui. It wasn't long before troubling signs in the stars revealed that Mata Nui himself was not merely asleep, but dying, and only the fabled, dangerous Mask of Life could save him. Off the Toa Nuva went to find it, but they failed. Matoran such as Jaller, Hahli, Hewkii, Nuparu, Kongu, and Matoro banded together to go in search of them. Along the way, they had several misadventures, but on approach to the island of Voya Nui (where the Toa Nuva had been defeated), energy bolts from the Red Star lanced out to hit and energize each of the six Matoran. When they emerged onshore, they were transformed into Toa Inika. Inika meaning "energy from a star". This was in direct opposition to the Matoran-to-Toa transformation process shown in the movie "Legends of Metru Nui", where Toa power was channeled through special Toa-stones that turned the Matoran destined to become Toa into mighty warriors that could wear Great Masks of Power.

Since the Toa Inika were juiced up by the Red Star, their very physical forms were mostly raw energy. While their armor made them look like impressive Toa heroes, underneath it, they glowed brightly due to the power running through their bodies. Even their weapons, used to channel the standard fire, ice, air, stone, water, and earth powers, unleashed this excess energy in the form of lightning, making them particularly deadly in combat. All of this is to say that the BIONICLE story team justified the green, featureless blobs as Toa heads as due to the brilliant energy radiating out of them, blurring their physical features. As an extra piece of trivia, apparently the heads were supposed to glow-in-the-dark like the Piraka skull teeth did, but LEGO apparently didn't figure this out for the Inika in time for launch. So the green and white blobs are just that--boring blobs.

The weird, organic nature of the masks was also a result of the Red Star energy and the time the Matoran spent in the realm of Karzahni. The Kanohi were "alive" and operated almost independently from their Toa wielders. This caused some growing pains for the new

Now, I liked that they chose Matoro because I remember him from his Tohunga form in 2001 as Turaga Nuju's translator. He was a humble, "behind the scenes" kind of guy who was thrust into heroics out of loyalty to his friends. He never wanted to be a Toa or a hero. But he did his duty once transformed, even as he had his private doubts. However, these were suddenly squashed when, in battle with the monstrous Vezon and Fenrakk, the carriers of the Mask of Life, Matoro found himself an opportunity to wrench the mask off Vezon's head. Surprisingly, the deadly mask gave him permission to do so. Typically, anyone who touched the mask died or was irrevocably transformed based on the mask's whims. For Matoro to do this had deep ramifications for his fate and the quest of the Toa Inika. But that story will have to shared on Matoro's "Toa Mahri" RSotD post!

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
Depending on exactly what plastic they used, there may have been issues with making the faces GitD. The lime blend may have also caused issues, as they mostly only done GitD on various white bases. It looks like it wasn’t until the following year that they first started doing marbled GitD/transparent blends. So when you say they “didn’t figure this out”, I’m left wondering if they failed to realize the parts should be GitD, or if they had trouble figuring out how to make it work.

@DavidSkyroller:
No, different Tr-Fl colors just have different intensities. From what I’ve seen, the most powerful right now is trans-bright-green, along with defunct colors trans-neon-red and trans-neon-yellow (both used for eyestalks in the original Toa Mata, Turaga, and Toa Nuva sets). Trans-neon-green and trans-neon-orange are the next most intense. Trans-medium-blue is weak at best, and barely noticeable at worst. I don’t know why it has such an inconsistent level of intensity. It’s been that way for years, though. I made the Toa Nuva cube about 20 years ago, and the TMB 1x1 round plates were just…the worst. But you can see for yourself here:

https://www.maskofdestiny.com/news/cubic-moconium-part-2

As far as I know, exposure to UV light doesn’t do anything more to fluorescent colors than it does to others. It’s the result of materials absorbing, and then shedding, photons, so nothing is permanently lost in the process, since it has to be added before it can be shed. I don’t know that I’d want to make a permanent display that features the use of blacklight, but if you do it a few times a year, you’re probably not going to live long enough to see a discernible change. Polycarbonate is very UV-stable, and that’s what they made transparent parts out of for many years, including, I believe, the entire run of trans-medium-blue. I know clear PC parts have shipped in true clear, slightly yellow, and slightly blue variants, but I’ve never heard of polycarbonate transparent parts discoloring over time.

I’m not sure how it works for phosphorescence, so the GitD family may be a different story, especially if they’re made of materials other than polycarbonate.

When all you’ve got to keep is strong,
Move along, move along like I know you do

Seriously, Random Bionicle Set of the Day when?

@SwingTop said:
"Seriously, Random Bionicle Set of the Day when?"

unless they count gear, that would take just over a year (no rhyme intended) with 389 sets.

I had this guy once, passed down from a nephew. I didn't like the silver torso cover. There's no silver anywhere else except the sword and launcher!
It significantly improved its looks when I was able to Bricklink the zamor spheres in the right color. Green on this looks icky.

As for the lore, this is basically Bionicle jesus.
As far back as 2001 when he looked like this: 1393 he was a side character who worked as a humble translator. Back then he was already challenged with the thought of dying by getting lost in a snowstorm. Come 2006 the story revolved around the Mask of Life, which they needed to use to stop Mata Nui -their god (and giant robot they make function)- from dying.
In 2007 Matoro ended up coming to terms with his fate and he put on the mask to sacrifice his life for Mata Nui's.

This set is from when he had to find the mask hidden on the island of Voya Nui.

@B_Space_Man he does seem to break in a compound with chainlink fence because that's what they were depicted doing in marketing. If you watch the commercials for these sets you'll find there were a lot of traps too.
In universe, this is probably meant to be the Piraka Stronghold. At this point in the story the Piraka had enslaved the islanders and forced them to build a stronghold for them. It would make sense that they also have a secure perimeter. The stronghold itself is depicted in minifig scale in set 8894 Piraka Stronghold.
Out of universe this was because Bionicle's marketing was at its most 'edgy' back then. The Piraka were depicted as full on gangsters with their own rap theme song, for example. It WAS 2006 after all.

Jaller is now the only Toa Inika who hasn’t been on RSOTD yet! I wonder when he’ll show up?

Matoro’s pretty nice, probably my third favourite set-wise after Jaller and Hewkii. His mask is definitely my favourite of the bunch too.

Ahh, at long last, Toa Inika Matoro. If ever I had a childhood toy akin to Andy's Woody from Toy Story, this would be it.

I took this guy everywhere with me. Played with him whenever I could. He was the undisputed favorite of my young Lego collection, and still is my all-time favorite Bionicle, both the toy and character.

I loved all the media surrounding the 2006 storyline. I must've watched that CGI promo with The All American Rejects' "Move Along" playing in the background over 1000 times. The website had so many fun games that year too, along with the full fledged console/PC game of Bionicle Heroes.

Today, despite most of my other Bionicles being stored away and/or taken apart, Matoro Inika and his team still stand proudly on a shelf above my bed, watching out for any Piraka that may try to interrupt my sleep.

I miss bionicle

@DavidSkyroller:
I’ve never heard plausible cause, but I’ve encountered a few attempts at one. Bromine is not one I’ve run across before, so I can’t really comment on that. I do know there has to be another component. A few years ago, a white MOC I built back in 2007 had _one_ 1x1 brick turn nearly tan, but only on the side that was facing out. Everything else was fine. The other three sides were (mostly) fine. Whatever was in that single brick that went brown, it needed a catalyst to trigger the reaction. Heat or UV light (from sunlight) seem the two most probable catalysts. The adjacent parts didn’t react, but they would have been subject to the same catalyst, so whatever reacts must not have been present, or at least in insufficient quantities to react.

One thing I’ve heard, though, is that the brightening trick removes material from the surface of the plastic, and just exposes whatever is turning brown. If this is true, it’s just going to keep happening.

@Lego_mini_fan said:
"I miss bionicle "

We all do. Some people are just too scared to be honest with themselves. Or anyone else.

"I'm not dead yet!"

Nearly missed another Bonk, and he's one I can't do justice on such short notice, but I'll try

Matoro was a translator for the village elder of Ice, Nuju.

After the Matoran returned to their ancestral home of Metru Nui, their Toa protectors were sent out to retrieve the Mask of Life. Six Matoran grew suspicious of where the Toa had gone, and eventually followed them.

Matoro was among these Matoran. On the journey there was this notable bit where they had to link hands to get through a dark tunnel. Matoro was gripped by a hand that wasn't one of his friends, but held on anyway. The hand let go as they reentered the light.

When the Matoran landed on Voya Nui, lighting from the Red Star transformed them into Toa and Matoro became a Toa of Ice. He never valued himself as a member of the team. All of the others were military generals or star athletes, and as a scholar he didn't feel valuable as a hero.

Eventually the heroes recovered the Mask of Life, but they were too late. The Great Spirit Mata Nui had died. Matoro refused to accept defeat, and donned the mask, sacrificing himself to revive the Great Spirit.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Nearly missed another Bonk, and he's one I can't do justice on such short notice, but I'll try "

Wait, have we skipped over the latest RSotD just to keep this one open and give GSR_MataNui more time to properly lore Matoro?

So, no RSotD today? Or just later?

Matoro died, but apparently his RSofD article will live on.

I guess we wait until tomorrow to see if RSotD rises on the third day.