You knew Bionicle was doing something special when punk aesthetics started infiltrating the theme.

I had this!

what if bonkle but spiky

Oooh, I remember this one. My brother and I found it so sick that our parents had to buy two of them because we couldn't share.

I mean... shoulder-mounted gun, big claws and spiked helmet. What more do you need?

Goth Bionicle?

Nuparu has a spiky mohawk and a biker goatee. Like, what? And that's supposed to be a mask that allows flight. On top of that, he's also wrapped in chains and has Wolverine claws. Oh man, I just realized that this is what Lobo would probably look like in Bionicle...

Hey, I own this one! I've owned it before and I own it (mostly--missing a couple minor pieces) again. Nuparu was probably my favourite Inika. Normally, I went red, but Inika Jaller's mask just doesn't do it for me and I got a kicked out of Nuparu having the Mask of flight. To my mind, he always sounded like a heavy duty helicopter when he flew. Unlike Jaller, I generally like the look of his mask, which might be the best of the Inika six.

Engineer Matoran turned Punk Toa of Earth and Miniguns and Claws... AND Engineering.

If anybody here has played Bionicle Heroes, you'd know that Nuparu was by far the best toa. Radius blast bombs baby!

I don’t know much about Bionicle or whether the masks are supposed to convey some kind of emotion, but this one looks rather...happy to be doing whatever it is he is doing.

The best Inika, and not just because of the resemblance to blacktron, but also because the shoulder mounted Zamor launcher made Nuparu look much less flat.

Before we begin with today's lore I'd like to give a shout out to a recent BIONICLE fan work I discovered from 810NICLE Day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjTph0xBC1A . The video is a collection of animations, comic panels, promo art, ect designed to summarize the BIONICLE story in around 1:30 per year. For those who haven't read BIONICLE, what's going on may be a bit confusing, but for those that have it's a great trip down memory lane, and for those who haven't it gives a good look at how stellar the franchise's visuals were (especially in the first three years.) It's some of the best editing I've seen in a YouTube video in a long time.

I can think of at least one other BIONICLE fan project I'd like to share with you lot, so if y'all are interested I could start doing a fandom shoutout before the lore on each of these RSotDs, but that's up to you. On with the show!

The City of Metru Nui was the crowning achievement of the Matoran Universe, a sprawling metropolis in an underground dome in the far north that produced massive amounts of electricity, high grade masks and disks, and masterful information displays and demonstrations. Metru Nui's populous was small, only around 1,000 Matoran, but it's people lived in prosperity and luxury. As you may expect, this prosperity bred jealousy, and criminals universe wide set their sights on Metru Nui to conquer or control.

Metru Nui had a Toa team*, and that was all well and dandy, but 11 heroes were hardly a good enough defense for potential armies or legions that could show up on Metru Nui's door. They needed something sturdy and tough, able to be mass produced, that would protect the city and enforce its laws to a tee, always obedient, and always vigilant.

A young Matoran engineer named Nuparu was selected for the task. He was to design a robotic defense force to guard the city of Metru Nui. His first attempt, the Kralhi, were deemed a failure and most were scrapped, but his second try struck gold. The Vahki. Six standard and two elite models of police robots. Unfeeling, ruthless, and driven for justice, the Vahki would defend Metru Nui from any giant monsters, waring nations, or rebellious uprisings the city would face.

But it didn't take long for things to turn sour. Makuta Teridax, Metru Nui's aloof overseer, had crafted a grand plan to overthrow the Matoran Universe's god, Mata Nui, and steal his power over the MU. In order to do this, however, Makuta would need control of Metru Nui and it's vital systems. And so the shadowy titan kidnapped the city's ruler, Turaga Dume, and shapeshifted to impersonate him. Under the rule of this false Dume Metru Nui fell to darkness. The sea gates to other lands were sealed shut from outside trade, and the Vahki's numbers were increased to 5 for every citizen. The once beloved robotic defenders become symbols of fear, enforcing Dume's harsh and radical orders as they demoralized and corralled the public.

Eventually this led to the rise of the Toa Metru, though that's a story I've told before. During the last few days of Mata Nui's rule, Nuparu grew regretful. His proud achievement of the Vahki had been turned into a force of fear and domination, and the Toa Metru were unwilling to accept his help in protecting the city. Nuparu swore, then and there, that someday he'd invent something to protect his people and become a hero.

Soon after the Great Cataclysm struck. Maktua's plan was taking full force. Mata Nui was cast into an endless slumber, and the people of Metru Nui were locked in pods by the Vahki that would wipe their memories and leave them slaves to the Makuta. Before Makuta could use his new workforce, however, the Toa Metru bested him in combat. The Metru took the Matoran pods out of Metru and up to the tropical island of Mata Nui where they awakened the amnesiac Matoran. These Matoran split up around the paradise, building six elemental villages.

Nuparu settled down in Onu-Koro, the underground mining village of earth. There he became an engineer, working on building and maintaining the mining equipment, and installing

Nuparu settled down in Onu-Koro, the underground mining village of earth. There he became an engineer, working on building and maintaining the mining equipment, and installing technical systems in the other villages. For 1,000 years Nuparu worked in quiet as Tunnel Engineer 2nd Class, Marn Tunnel 12, Section 4.

1,000 years after the Great Cataclysm, the Toa Mata arrived on the island of Mata Nui. Through trials and tribulations these six heroes eventually fought Makuta Teridax themselves, and in his retreat Makuta unleashed a terrible force on the island above. The Bohrok Swarm.

Bohrok were terrifying things. Gigantic rolling bugs that roamed the land, burning trees, ripping mountains apart, melting glaciers, and more in a quest to "clean" the island. They meant the Matoran no harm, but their efforts to destroy threated the Matoran villages that stood in their way.

This all lead to a devastating attack by the Bohrok on Onu-Koro. The bugs began collapsing mining tunnels and opening them up to the sea, causing massive floods throughout the underground. This flooding soon reached Onu-Koro, and it's people held a massive evacuation for the surface to escape the waves. All the village's people escaped in time, except for four. Onepu, Taipu, Nuparu, and Onepu's current racing crab. The four were trapped in a small air pocket by a cave in, with the village submerged just beyond and all exists collapsed. But our heroes were in luck, one of the Bohrok had been caught up in it's own destruction, and it's mangled corpse hung on the wall above them.

Here Nuparu crafted a daring plan. while Onepu and Taipu were busying trying to dig out the cave in, Nuparu got out his tool bag and started discecting and dismembering the beetle-like machine. He then began rearranging and reworking the creatures parts, and eventually the three Matoran had crafted the corpse into something new. A gigantic mech suit with two powerful punching arms. This machine had the strength to bust down the wall trapping the Matoran, and in turn defeat the Bohrok ravening the village's remains. Nuparu was an engineer, not a poet, besides a simple name would be easy for the monsters to understand. He named his mech "The Boxor."

Nuparu went to work building Boxors for the people of Mata Nui, and with the machine's help the Matoran were able to liberate the village of Le-Koro and defend the remaining villages from the swarm's advances. Even after the Bohrok were defeated, the Boxors helped protect the Matoran from Rahi attacks by the Makuta. The inventor had finally done it, he'd invented something to protect his people.**

Time went on and the Toa Mata transformed into the Toa Nuva, defeated Makuta Teridax, and reopened the passage to Metru Nui. But trouble remained. Turaga Dume had been studying the "stars" around Metru Nui, and had come to a terrifying realization. The Great Spirit Mata Nui was dying. The Turaga snuck the Toa Nuva off the island in secret, and sent them to the far off land of Voya Nui to retrieve the Legendary Mask of Life.

But the Toa Nuva ran into trouble. Voya Nui had been overtaken by a ruthless band of bandits called the Piraka, who quickly incapacitated and captured the Toa Nuva. Meanwhile the people of Metru Nui were growing restless and confused on where their heroes had gone. Eventually Jaller, the Captain of the Ta-Koro Guard, organized a city wide strike by the Matoran until the Turaga gave them answers. Turaga Nokama broke the silence, and informed Jaller of the Nuva's mission to Voya Nui.

Jaller decided to set off on a mission of his own. Gathering five trusted Matoran, including Nuparu, Jaller set off for the island of Voya Nui. After loosing their masks in the hellish land of Karzahni the rescue team climbed aboard six Toa Cansiters and launched for Voya Nui. As the Canisters washed ashore on the blackened beach a miracle occurred. Lightning struck down from the legendary Red Star, and it transformed the six Matoran inside into Toa!

These "Toa Inika' set off to rescue the Toa Nuva and recover the Mask of Life. Nuprau now h

These "Toa Inika' set off to rescue the Toa Nuva and recover the Mask of Life. Nuprau now had control of both the elements of Earth and Lightning, which when combined with some wicked shredder claws and a laser drill made him a devastating force for the Piraka to face.

There's more to Nuparu's story, but given this set is based on the 2006 story we'll leave that for another time.

*Actually, the Toa Mangai may have been recruited after the Vahki, I can't remember.
**On a darker note, it was revealed in the 2008 story that Bohrok are actually an evolved/transformed/mutated version of Matoran of Light, so the Boxors are technically built out of Matoran corpses. Yikes.

Nuparu was my second Toa Inika (after Matoro) solely because of that nifty shoulder-mounted Zamor sphere launcher. Much like his BIONICLE set predecessor, fellow Toa of Earth Onua, Nuparu's build differed just slightly enough to make me curious as to how it was done, and that made me want to buy and build it firsthand. Even though online photo reviews were more prevalent in 2006 than in 2001, I still found it an enjoyable "a-ha!" moment once I assembled the Toa Inika of Earth.

Like Toa Matoro, I was less than enthused about the slip-on Kanohi. While his Great Mask of Flight looks cool, I just wish it and all the other Kanohi were more like ordinary masks on some kind of head or skull, not a featureless green and white shell of plastic. This was explained in-story as a result of the Inika energies (shot down like lightning bolts from the enigmatic Red Star) coursing through their bodies with such vitality that their very faces were totally obscured by the bright light emitted. Whatever.

One curious thing about Nuparu's mask that I picked up on was its noticeable similarities to the Krana Vu from the Bohrok and Bohrok Kal sets. Ignoring the head spikes, the facial structure of the mask resembles the face of the krana. Additionally, it was not lost on me that the Krana Vu granted a Bohrok the ability to fly short distances for the sake of scouting. A krana that gifts the Bohrok with flight and a mask that allows a Toa to do the same? There had to be a connection! Back in 2006, the connection between the Toa and the Bohrok was still a deep mystery, one that I had been puzzling over since it was first mentioned in 2002 when the Toa Mata battled the Bahrag, Queens of the Bohrok swarms. Unfortunately, no one really gave it much thought on BZPower, and I think it was one of those questions I posed to Greg Farshtey where he provided a quick, "no" answer to. To this day, we still don't know much about the link between Krana and Kanohi (if there even is one) in the BIONICLE storyline, though the Bohrok-Toa connection was cleared up in 2008.

But I digress. Nuparu was cool. A Toa of Earth that could fly was such a fun flip on the norm for Nuparu, a character that as a Matoran was an engineer, not a warrior. This additional adjustment for Nuparu was fun to follow in the books and comic stories. And who couldn't love those Wolverine-like digging claws? Not to mention that laser-sighted earth driller he carried. In the battles to find the Mask of Life before the villainous Piraka, the Toa Inika brought a ridiculous level of power against their foes, and it made the story really take off in the summer of 2006 after a rather sleepy first half of the year as the Piraka consolidated their control over Voya Nui after a quick victory over the Toa Nuva.

He's seen things you wouldn't believe. But now that Bionicle is canceled, all those moments have been lost, like tears in rain. Time to say goodbye.

I never had any interest in Bionicle, but simply from an aesthetic point of view this box art image is so awesome imho.

When all you to keep is strong, move along, move along like I know you do!

IT'S MY BOY!

Don't mind me, Nuparu's just... was one of my favourite BIONICLE characters ever since he was introduced in 2002's 8556. As a kid, I was always drawn to the engineer / inventor type characters, so he fit the bill for me perfectly; he was also my first Matoran character (since the McDonald's promotion never reached the UK and my parents deemed the Powerpack bad value for money when it only contained nine actual Bionicle parts), so is forever associated with everything I love about the classic Matoran design. And his original mask was my favourite colour, what's not to love about that?

Somehow, in 2006, I just... missed the news that the Inika were coming. I'm not sure how / why, not when I was deeper in my Bionicle phase that year than I had been since 2004, and am sure I was checking BZP frequently for Bionicle news, but... I guess I must just have taken a while away from the site that summer and don't remember. In any case, I didn't even know the Inika were coming until they were already on store shelves; and seeing that MY FAVOURITE BOY NUPARU (or second-favourite at that point, since Lhikan had edged him out of the top space a couple years earlier, but still) was now a Toa was just... BIG WOW moment for me. I was allowed to get him right then and there so, naturally, I did.

Personally, I think the Inika build here wasn't bad for it's time. It was definitely, to me, fantastic and new on Nuparu himself, surpassing all previous Toa builds in terms of articulation - the Metru has the same number of points of articulation, but their shoulders could only swing back and forth in opposing directions, instead of being ball-joint-articulated like these - and, for someone who loved posing his sets to photograph them, that far and away eclipsed any other issues of the design. It was only when the build became absolutely commonplace, starting in 2008, that I found it started to wear out its welcome.

My only real (and minor) with Inika!Nuparu is the lack of any orange whatsoever on his design. Unlike the other Inika who also lost their more unique Matoran colour schemes, this is more justified in Nuparu's case - as a Matoran, his mask was the only orange part of him, and since that was taken from him earlier in the story, it makes *sense* that his new design wouldn't have that colour in evidence (unlike, say, Kongu, who still had teal hands and feet, but lost all trace of that colour in his Toa design). But it was such a defining part of him, that it still disappoints me on a minor level that they didn't manage to work in at least a small smattering of orange pieces as a callback.

I guess maybe the colour was just too bright for the Inika's Dark and Gritty aesthetic... :P

@fakespacesquid said:
" @Drzhivago138 said:
" @fakespacesquid said:
"I haven't looked into it very much, is there anything in the way of a "complete collection" of Bionicle lore?"

Yes, there's the Bionicle "Wiki," Biosector01."

I mean........yeah.........but that's like suggesting Wikipedia as the book of world history. Bionicle clearly has a main storyline throughout the books and comics, it seems like there would be a way to have this story grouped up rather than parsed out through a comprehensive database. The Iliad instead of an encyclopedia "

TuragaNuva of BZPower has compiled the entire Bionicle story together in one place, if that's matches what you're looking for, with his Biological Chronicle project. It's divided into ten overall books, one for each story year, which can be viewed online or downloaded: https://crosswiredgeeks.com/biologicalchronicle/

I'm not sure how easily accessible it is for a new reader, since EVERYTHING is sorted into order with regards to how the story progressed in-universe, so it blends multiple different formats in together and folds in a lot of the more obscure side-stories alongside the main story. But it's the best source I know for reading through the whole thing as a complete narrative.