I bet he sinks like a stone.

Very possibly the funkiest mask in Bionicle.

Why is Star Wars the one ridiculed for Glup Shutto characters when Bionicle literally exists

@MCLegoboy said:
"I bet he sinks like a stone."

Actually, his girlfriend-fie on Greg Farshtey’s antiromantic declarations-taught him to swim!

You hear them moanin' their lives away
Then you hear somebody say
That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang
That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang
Can't ya hear them singin'
Mm, I'm goin' home one of these days

Whoa, oh, oh.

Hot take: most of the 2007 Bionicle sets were really ugly. Yeah, they beat the "six recolors of two sets" allegations to some extent, but in some cases you get haphazard cases like Hewkii here, with an ugly exposed chest due to using the torso in reverse, really skeletal ammo storage on his shoulder, slapped together spiked mace halves for leg armor, random chains, an ugly crustacean mask that fits with the villains' aesthetic instead of the heroes', and no right hand. Easily the worst of the Mahri by far, which is a darn shame for the character.

On the island of Mata Nui, Hewkii was the Right Hand of Turaga Onewa, essentially making him second in command of Po-Koro, the Village of Stone. Hewkii was renown island-wide as it's star athlete, being a master of the futbol-like sport of Kohlii, and people would come far and wide to see his skills. However he and Macku had a nasty habit of skimping out on work and shirking their duties to spend time together.

During the early days of the Toa's arrival on the island a mysterious illness took root in Po-Koro, causing many Matoran, including Hewkii, to fall ill. Takua the Chronicler eventually discovered the source of the disease was a traitorous salesmen named Ahkmou, who had infected the Kohlii balls with Makuta's will.

During the Bohrok War, Po-Koro was one of the first villages to be attacked. They held out for a long time, but near the war's end the Bohrok burned the village to the ground. With Onu-Koro also decimated by the swarms, the nearest refuge was Ga-Koro, the Village of Water. The Po-Korans begrudgingly went there, as they couldn't swim! (But Hewkii was happy he had a chance to see Macku again.)

At the final battle of the Bohrok War the swarms attacked Ga-Koro. During the fray Hewkii saved Macku's life by knocking away an incoming boulder with a fishing tool and helped dismantle the only bridge into the floating city. Doing so inspired a new, more lacrosse-like, form of Kohlii that took root after the war and became popular island wide. Macku thanked Hewkii with swimming lessons, which he hated at the time but would come to appreciate later.

To celebrate the end of the war and the Toa's many accomplishments, an island-wide Kohlii Tournament was held. With Hewkii's help his team made it to the final match, a three way game between Ta, Ga, and Po-Koro. Hahli won the match for the Village of Water, but during it Takua and Jaller revealed they had discovered the mysterious Mask of Light. This led to a quest for the Seventh Toa which eventually opened the way to the Matoran's ancestral homeland of Metru Nui.

Back in Metru Nui a terrible secret was uncovered by the Turaga. The Great Spirit Mata Nui wasn't merely asleep, he was dying! They chose to keep this information secret from the Matoran, but informed the Toa Nuva the only way to save him was with the Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of Life, located on the island of Voya Nui to the far south.

The Toa Nuva set out on this quest, but once on Voya Nui were captured by the vicious Piraka who also sought the Ignika. When much time passed without the Toa present the Matoran became suspicious of their whereabouts. Jaller, Captain of the Guard, organized and island-wide strike until the Turaga gave them answers, and eventually Nokama went behind the other Turaga's backs to give them the truth.

Jaller assembled a team of his closest friends to go after the Nuva and rescue them. Hahli the Second Chronicler, Hewki the Athlete, Matoro the Translator, Kongu the Pilot, and Nuparu the Engineer. Together the six ventured through Karzahni, a hellish land of Matoran myth, and reached the shores of Voya Nui. There they were struck by lightning by the mysterious Red Star, and transformed into Toa themselves!

These new Toa Inika only existed for a short time, but in that time they managed to free Voya Nui's enslaved Matoran population, break into the Piraka's Stronghold to rescue the Toa Nuva, and ventured down the secret Staircase of 777 Steps to reach the Chamber of Life. There they defeated the mighty Kardas Dragon to claim the Mask.

But the Ignika had other plans. It could not be used here, it was required elsewhere. It fled it's chamber and dove into the Black Waters of The Pit to the underwater city of Marhi Nui. There it was claimed by the Barraki warlords, who bickered over how to use its power and fought themselves over it.

The Toa traveled after the mask, eventually finding themselves barred by the deep and mutagenic waters of The Pit. The Mask of Life sensed their approached and transformed them into new aquatic bodies, the Toa Mahri (pictured here.)

Thes

These Toa Mahri fought the Barraki in The Pit to claim the mask, along the way rescuing the Matoran of the underwater city. Eventually they were instructed to destroy a mysterious structure called The Cord so Voya Nui could sink to it's original place in the Matoran Universe (long story.) While doing so, three giant sea monsters they had fought previously attacked at once, but Hewkii used his Mask of Gravity to easily dispatch them.

Eventually The Cord was destroyed and the Toa headed to the bottom of The Pit, but along the way the worst happened. The light of the Mask of Life faded away. The stars in the Universe went dark. The winds and waves all became still. The Great Spirit was dead.

But Matoro refused. He took the dulled Mask and raced Voya Nui to a massive crack in the darkest depths of the Black Waters. Meanwhile Hewkii and the others fended off the combined might of the Barraki armies to buy their friend time.

Matoro reached his goal just in time, finding himself in Karda Nui, the Core of the Universe. There the Mask made its true intentions known. It could not simply revive the Great Spirit, lifeforce was needed for lifeforce. A soul for a soul. Matoro's Destiny was not a hero to claim victory, but a lamb for the slaughter. It was now his choice to step on the copping block.

Matoro showed no hesitation, donning the Mask and giving his life to save the Universe. For his bravery the Mask of Life granted him one wish, and Matoro knew exactly what it would be. He wished for his friends' safety, and the other five Toa Mahri were teleported back to Metru Nui and out of the Barraki's clutches at the last possible moment. While the Toa reeled from the change of scenery, Hewkii was the first one to notice they could breathe air again.

Initially the Mahri cheered with their victory and success, Hewkii even frolicking in the garden they landed in, but attitudes changed when they realized one of them was missing. In the coming days Hewkii would help build a statue in Matoro's honor, and continued to be a protector of the city. His time as a Toa did cause some lament, as he was no longer able to spend nearly as much time with Macku as he used to.

Due to BIONICLE's unfinished nature, Hewkii's story has an unhappy ending. He and the other five Mahri eventually found themselves brainwashed in servitude of the mysterious Golden Skinned Being. They were released from their trance by the end of the unfinished epilogues, but how and if they made it home safely was never revealed.

Hewkii Mahri wore the Kanohi Garai, the Mask of Gravity. This mask allowed him to alter the gravitational pull of a target, making them lighter or heavier to easily take them out of a fight. This mask actually introduced an interesting new element to BIONICLE lore, Elemental Masks. Most Kanohi Masks are crafted from Kanoka Disks. These typically have 8 base powers, which can be combined to create new disk powers. However a rarer form of Kanoka exist known as Toa Disks. These are disks imbued with Elemental Power, usually given to Toa as a badge of honor on their creation. Toa usually keep these disks as certifications of their status, or memoirs of their past, but some Toa choose to have these disks melted down into Kanohi Masks that can provide other's near-Toa like control over an Elemental Power.

He also carried an Aqua Warblade, a giant spear that could channel his Elemental Power, Electrified Chains, which could be flung towards others and shock them with lightning, and a Cordak Blaster, which was basically a torpedo-minigun.

@Lego_lord said:
"He looks dark and dangerous. I'll wait for someone to tell this guys place within the the lore."

Believe it or not, this medieval BDSM torture chamber looking guy is actually supposed to be a good guy, and not just any good guy, but the good guy that used to be the friendly champion athlete kid that appeared in your McDonalds order in the first year. (1388) I'll leave the specifics to the compulsory GSR_MataNui seven-paragraph essay.

EDIT: 20 paragraphs...

@Alia_of_AG
I was counting on GSR_MataNui to tell us the story. I like his posts, he enlightens us about the long gone Bionicle culture/lore.

@Sandinista said:
"Inb4 the GSR_MataNui cringe "

How is gsr cringe? Is this a troll?

Ah, the wave that introduced the from-then-on ever-present red 2-length axles to Bionicle. Specifically, three of the Toa Mahri had those axles in traditional black, and the other three had them in red, though I don't completely remember which Toa had which. That's not to say that those axles hadn't existed in red before, because I'd had a couple of them since 2001's 6773 Alpha Team Helicopter, but they had rarely been used in that colour for Bionicle before this point. Half of the Mahri changed that, and they were the standard going forward for the rest of the theme's run.

I think my personal least favourite thing about the Mahri was that they didn't return to the varied eye colours of earlier Toa teams. On the classic Toa and the Metru, each team member had their eye/brain piece in a different colour, which was always very cool to me and lent them more distinct character. The Inika, of course, didn't have that because they had non-standard heads that were only produced in one colour, but the Mahri returned to the same head design as the Metru. Only, instead of each having a unique eye colour, they all had either neon-green or neon-orange eyes, with none of the other equally interesting transparent colours getting a look in. If I'd known about Bricklink at the time, I would likely have bought some spare Metru eyepieces in the other four colours and swapped them in for some of the Mahri, but...

Still, on the whole I liked this wave... although the Mahri also didn't feel particularly exciting to me, given that their main thing was all being different to each other, rather than introducing a cool new build like most previous teams of Toa had done. They were enough to draw me back into Bionicle again for another year when my interest had been wavering, and some of them have some nice details to them; but on the whole they didn't quite grab me like previous waves had. I'd actually initially planned to only get two of them and not bother with the rest, breaking my completionist streak; but the story hitting us with the impactful moment of Matoro's heroic sacrifice changed that plan, since that made me want to get him too, and I ended up just keeping going from there! It would be another year before I dropped out of collecting for good.

Hewkii here was the second Mahri I got, unintentionally continuing my trend from almost every previous Toa team (the Nuva being the only exception) of the Stone guy being my second no matter who was first. I know it's divisive but I actually liked his mask, as well as the use of minifigure chain pieces, and his more creative way of having his Cordak Blaster mounted on his arm instead of just stuck to his hand. I wouldn't say he was one of my most favourite sets, but he was passable for me at least ^^

On a different note, would have been nice if the story had let us see him reuniting with Macku ( 8586 ) after they returned from Mahri Nui, though. They'd been portrayed as a couple in early story media, and while romantic love in general was deemed "non-canon" later, it still would have been nice if they'd had some resolution to their relationship even if depicted simply as "very close friends".