Ah yes, the Voya-Toran. They're presumably just made using leftover parts according to the fanbase, and I can't really blame them, but I think they're also the most beloved of the Matoran because each has a distintly unique build from the next rather than just being copy paste clones with recolors.

@Bhahouighf said:
"This is Dalu, the archetypal girl who can fight."
Is that an archetype? I thought that was a trope.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Ah yes, the Voya-Toran. They're presumably just made using leftover parts according to the fanbase, and I can't really blame them, but I think they're also the most beloved of the Matoran because each has a distintly unique build from the next rather than just being copy paste clones with recolors."

Except for Garan and Velika. Those two were carbon copies of each other, with different masks and weapons.

8th! lol

Alright, lore time!

Long ago, in the fledgling days of the Matoran Universe, the powerful being Karzahni was assigned dominion over an island of the same name. Karzahni's job was simple. Broken or malfunctioning Matoran would be sent to his land, he would repair them, and they would be returned to their homeland. However, Karzahni was never properly trained for his position, and his attempts at repairing Matoran only resulted in twisted and malformed victims. Worried what such failures would do to his reputation, Karzahni refused to return the Matoran to their homelands. Instead shipping them to far away lands or keeping them prisoner. When word got out those shipped to Karzahni failed to return, new patients stopped being sent.

Dalu was one of the lucky ones. She found herself shipped off to the Southern Continent, alongside many of Karzahni's other failures. There she lived for the next few thousand years.

But eventually disaster struck. During the Great Cataclysm the reactor-core known as Karda Nui exploded. The blast of energy ripped a portion of the Southern Continent from it's foundations and blasted it through the roof of it's dome. The severed landmass came to float on the surface of the ocean moon of Aqua Magna. Those that survived the accent named the land "Voya Nui."

For the next 1,000 years the people of Voya Nui struggled to survive. While the rest of the MU was stuck in post-apocalyptical turmoil, they at least had each other. These shrunken and frail Matoran were on their own, and they quickly hardened to manage the tropical lifestyle.

But then the Piraka came. Seeking the Legendary Mask of Life, the six gangsters washed ashore on the Daggers of Doom. They convinced the Matoran survivors that they were Toa heroes, there to protect them from evil. But as the Matoran began to wise up to the Piraka's ways, the thugs struck. Using Antidermis-filled Zamor Spheres, the Piraka began to capture and mind control all of Voya Nui's people, transforming them into zombie-like slaves.

Only six Matoran survived the assault, including Dalu. This Voya Nui Resistance Team swore to break the Piraka's spell over their friends, by any means necessary.

Soon after, the Toa Inika arrived on the island. The VNRT were initially skeptical of another group claiming to be "Toa," but eventually they joined forces. Together they discovered Energized Protodermis could counteract the effects of Antidermis, and began freeing their old compatriots.

During the events of the 2007 story, Axonn saw to it that the Matoran survived Voya Nui's return to the MU. After the events of the 2010 story Dalu left the broken Matoran Universe to settle down on the reformed Spherus Magna.

Dalu was far more aggressive than your typical Matoran of Water. Her time on Karzahni and Voya Nui made her irritable and hostile, fighting tooth and nail to keep whatever minor supplies or comforts she could manage. She wielded a pair of Chargers. So long as her own strength and willpower holds, Dalu can use her Chargers to increase any of a target's attributes. This can be used helpfully, by increasing the target's strength or speed, or destructively, by making the target extra susceptible to loud noises or bright lights.

Y'now, as nice as it was to see the Toa Metru Kanohi again, it would have been nice if they'd swapped the colors like with the Metru Nui Matoran.

Yeah, BIONICLE fans may say the Voya Nui Matoran were just spare parts dumps, but officially, I've never heard that about any LEGO line of products. More likely is the theory they were the first response to the criticism of "clonism" so rampant in BIONICLE. Since they were the small "impulse" buy sets for the year, their designs were likely conceived later in the product development phase. Hence the lack of any new parts or mask recolors.

Dalu was first introduced to many people via the pages of the BIONICLE comic that was released in March 2006. We are thrust into the "present day" story in media res, with Dalu fleeing the Piraka on Voya Nui. In flashback, we then see that Dalu was one of several Matoran survivors of a great cataclysm that uprooted their home onto the surface of an endless ocean, marooning them. They eked out an existence together, led by the Onu-Matoran Garan, and life was tough. But things got worse the day six canisters washed ashore. Entities that claimed to be Toa emerged, but these so-called "Toa" soon demonstrated they were anything but in spite of their marvelous powers.

The false Toa were actually former Dark Hunters of the Skakdi race, though collectively, these six referred to themselves as "Piraka". They had come hunting for what they perceived to be the greatest treasure in the universe, the Mask of Life. They knew it was hidden somewhere on Voya Nui, and their moonlighting as Toa was part of a plan to find the mask quickly with the Matoran as unwillingly help. Unfortunately for them, some Matoran like Dalu saw through this ruse and began actively resisting the rule of the Piraka. Hope sprang anew when the six Toa Nuva showed up in search of the Mask of Life, but the Piraka defeated them in a massive battle. The terrified witness to that defeat, Dalu fled to the other Matoran to relay the tale, though she was captured by the Piraka and taken to their fortress.

In the fortress, Dalu was witness to the true nature of the Piraka as the gloated in their victory and immediately began bickering over the next route of action. Most Matoran were converted into mindless slaves thanks to the antidermis present in the Zamor spheres the Piraka carried with them. Dalu was only spared the process thanks to the in-fighting and a timely rescue by Garan and company. Their guerilla tactics impeded the Piraka's search until another set of heroes arrived, the Toa Inika.

While the Toa Inika and the Piraka clashed both above ground and under the earth in the race to the mask, Dalu and her companions discovered the defeated Toa Nuva and rescued them, along with their tools and Kanohi. When the Toa Inika and Piraka resurfaced in pursuit of the Mask, Dalu and the rest of the Matoran were left to ponder what happened next, as the mask went under the sea. Dalu and the other Matoran of Voya Nui were eventually herded underground right before the Toa Mahri (formerly Inika) blasted apart the stone cord that anchored Voya Nui to the seabed. This is how she and her companions finally returned to their original home, as free from the anchor, Voya Nui sank down to the original continent it was a part of.

In my headcanon she talks very fast with a high-pitched English accent. Yeah that’s about all I have to say really.

@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
"quick question for the lore guys: pre-2009, were all the water people in the Bionicle Universe female? just a pattern i've noticed, where practically every figure with a direct connection with the water tribe was female-coded."

Pretty much, yeah. Specific tribes/elements/colours tended to be all one kind of gender. With the good guys at least, the bad guys tend to shake it up a bit. Though worth noting that, since there are no biological differences between male and female in Bionicle, gender tends to be all in their head

@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
"quick question for the lore guys: pre-2009, were all the water people in the Bionicle Universe female? just a pattern i've noticed, where practically every figure with a direct connection with the water tribe was female-coded."

The short answer is yes.

That is the case for all the matoran/toa/turaga as with that species (the three are different stages of development) has the ga-matoran/toa/turaga in every wave.

The long answer is that funnily enough blueness is a surefire way for people to mis-assume gender as beyond that species there are a lot of exceptions however.

In 2002 we had the 8558 Bahrag Queens of the bohrok swarms. The red one is called Gahdok, the blue one Cahdok. Yes, the ga-suffix is apparently unrelated to color or gender for them, as they're a different species.
Then in 2005 there was 8761 Roodaka. The viceroy and briefly queen of the Visorak and a member of the vortixx species. Just look at her design! ... but all vortixx look like that. Even the male ones!

Furthermore the blue canister villains were almost never female: the bohrok are an insect-like hive, the rahkshi are 'sons' of makuta, vahki are robots, visorak breeds of spiders (presumably with males and females in each breed).
The next few are all individual characters.
8902 Vezok the piraka is a male thug (hence the stubble). He's from the skakdi species, which has females back on their home island.
8916 Takadox is a member of the barrakki. Each from a different ruler species that was imprisoned and mutated. They are also all male.
The blue makuta -8692 Vamprah- is a guy, but the green one -8695 Gorast- a woman.

In 2009 we went to a different setting with different creatures, the Agori and Glatorian. They have no gender segregation, as they can actually reproduce as they are more biological than mechanical in contrast to the biomechanical Matoran Universe inhabitants. With them we only got 8987 Kiina from the water tribe... which also has two other males in set form, 8975 Berix and 8981 Tarix.
The skrall have females, but they they live secluded in the northern mountains and are feared by their males (no sets, apparently they wear full-body cloaks).

In the lore the lightning tribe were also all-female. Except for the sole time one appeared in the story in one of the last story serials (beside previous flashbacks). For some reason that one was a guy, apparently because they only decided to make the tribe all-female after he was made.
Yes, late-stage serials were convoluted sometimes.

Scratch that, the lore as a whole can be convoluted. But for the most part makes it more fun IMHO

@TheOtherMike said:
"Y'now, as nice as it was to see the Toa Metru Kanohi again, it would have been nice if they'd swapped the colors like with the Metru Nui Matoran."

At least Dalu's mask is actually a recolor, being much lighter than Nokama's mask.

Fun Fact: her mask is a slightly different hue from Toa Nokama's Rau

@Binnekamp said:
"In the lore the lightning tribe were also all-female. Except for the sole time one appeared in the story in one of the last story serials (beside previous flashbacks). For some reason that one was a guy, apparently because they only decided to make the tribe all-female after he was made."
No, all Matoran/Toa/Turaga of lightning were always female. You’re thinking of Orde, who was a Toa of Psionics. After his creation, all beings with the element of Psionics were made female.

The Voyatoran were my favorite Matoran designs from Bionicle. I feel they really captured the short quirkiness of the original "McToran" from '01, but more articulated. Only thing that'd make them better would be recolored masks instead of just reusing the Toa Metru masks.

@GSR_MataNui don’t forget that she was particularly attached to Balta, her Ta-Matoran teammate. Because apparently the water girls go for the fire guys, unless it’s Hewkii and Macku.

@PurpleDave not “tropical” like a scenic beach with giant umbrellas and tasty drinks. Think more like the Australian Outback with a touch of the Amazon Jungle. Also ice, somehow. All of it pretty much , if not outright trying to kill you, totally okay if you die.

The Bionicle were my sons absolute favorite. He is now 18 and ready to go to college in a couple of months, but still occasionally gets one of the ones he is missing.
He currently has about 80% of all sets, and several duplicates of those.
He has been wanting to complete the collection eventually with also having 1 unopened of each for display behind the built one.
Yes it is an expensive endeavor, but he has so many fond memories linked with the Bionicle theme.
In fact he actually remembers when and where he got each one. It blows my mind.
Cheers.