Lore's gonna be a hot minute on this one. I got something to do first, but also, I'm going to full on rant about that Kanohi Mask. I am fuming just thinking about it.

Claims to have been "the fifth Bitil" but doesn't even have hands to play an instrument.

Alas, this is one of the few Karda Nui Makuta I didn't get. I like how- unlike his fellow Makuta Krika and Gorast- he has full articulation in his limbs, plus an additional one for his extended neck and the joints in his fly-like wings. The insectoid feel of the Summer 08 Makuta to me really lifted up the canister sets, what with their bright contrasting colors (lime green, white/red, and of course Bitil's own yellow-jacket coloration). Bummer he just uses an Av-Matoran torso, but this was an odd year for Bionicle in general. Always makes me reminisce to see a BIONICLE set in the Brickset set of the day

Bitil... Because he's a Beetle. How original. This sounds like a Hero Facotry name, not a Bionicle one.

Long ago, the Great Spirit Mata Nui grew weary of his work. Maintaining the Matoran Universe was a difficult task, and assistance was required. Using instructions from the Great Beings, the Great Spirit reached into his only pool of Antidermis and drew out its essence, crafting it into 100 powerful beings. The Maktua.

The Brotherhood of Makuta's primary task was maintaining the MU's Rahi population. They would experiment with creating new animal species and repopulate those that had perished. Bitil specialized in insectoid Rahi, though he long dreamed of being a warrior on the battlefield.

Eons passed, until the Matoran Civil War rocked the city of Metru Nui. Due to internal conflicts the Matoran of the Great City had stopped their labor, and Mata Nui had nearly died as a result. Fearing such skirmishes in the future, the Makuta separated across the universe. Each was assigned a liar and region to look after. They came to be regarded as the most powerful political figures in their regions, though their seclusive nature and control over shadow made most of the populous fear them.

Bitil was assigned a small chain of islands in the South West of the MU. Most of the SI were barren and largely uninhabited, Bitil's presumably included.

Their time with the Matoran quickly made the Makuta bitter and resentful. While the Matoran often sung praise and admiration toward Mata Nui they showed the Makuta little more than disdain and distrust. Eventually, one of their number had enough. Teridax, the Makuta of Metru Nui, grew sick of the Matoran's insolence, and forged a grand plan to overthrow Mata Nui himself.

Bitil was one of the first to side with Teridax. Any Makuta who did not bend to his rule were slain, and the old ruler of the Brotherhood, Miserix, was overthrown. For the next few thousand years the Makuta worked from the shadows to enact Teridax's grand plan.

Eventually this led to the events of the Struggle in Karda Nui, 1,000 years and 11 months after the Great Cataclysm. Teridax's will was being fulfilled. Mata Nui was on the verge of death, the Toa Mahri were nearing the Mask of Life, and the Toa Nuva were finishing the Scroll of Preparations (all long stories, don't worry about it.) The final pieces were falling into place. Teridax decided to send 7 of his top Makuta to Karda Nui to finish his plan.

Four of these Makuta remained on Karda Nui's ceiling, attempting to enslave the Matoran of Light who lived there. The other three, including Bitil, were sent to the swamp below to secure the Codrex - a mysterious structure that held the secret to awaken Mata Nui. The Makuta's job in Karda Nui was simple. Delay the Toa Nuva's progress and keep them from the Codrex until Teridax was ready.

However, early on these Makuta ran into two problems. Three of the four Makuta in the skies were blinded by a bright light when Matoro donned the Mask of Life. The three Makuta in the swamp (again, including Bitil) accidently touched the mutagenic waters of the swamp. These mutations prevented them from shapeshifting, and locked them into the insectoid forms they arrived in.

The Makuta successfully held the Toa Nuva off for a while. Eventually the Toa managed to slip past and enter the Codrex early, but Antroz snuck in with them to keep them distracted by stealing one of their escape vehicles. After a winding vehicle chase and the sacrifice of an ally (again long story) the Toa managed to successfully restart the Codrex, and they raced out of it on their craft.

It was here the Makuta realized their mistake. While Teridax had informed them of much of his plan, the final step was left vague. You see, Karda Nui was actually a gigantic energy generator. Restarting it and awakening Mata Nui would cause energy storms to build and rage throughout the chamber, incinerating everything inside. These generals had not been sent because Teridax trusted their abilities. They had been sent so he could ensure their deaths so they could never do to him what he did to Mata Nui.

Bitil remained in denial. in his final moments Bitil frantically

Bitil remained in denial. in his final moments Bitil frantically raced away from the growing storm. Forget trying to help the others escape, they'd only slow him down. He believed that if he escaped Teridax would grant him with an higher position in the Brotherhood, rewarding his speed and determination. Bitil's teleportation powers failed, electricity hummed around him, and with a zap of lighting the millennia old bug was incinerated. (Also, don't quote me on this, but I'm 90% sure Bitil was the last of the Karda Nui squad to die. He was the only one to actually run.)

In life Bitil's defining trait was ambition. The other Makuta often stuck him with mundane and boring tasks. Bitil assumed they simply feared his true potential, but in all reality he was one of their weakest members. He was always seeking an opportunity to prove himself.

According to BS01 he has a "high-pitched and sibilant voice" but I have no idea where that was revealed. Probably some Ask Greg.

Bitil wore the Kanohi Mohtrek, the Mask of Time Duplication, which... I'm just gonna make a whole 'nother post on 'cause it's a whole ordeal. He also carried a Nynrah Ghost Blaster that allowed him to temporarily control mechanical components if shot, including the bodies of others.

Bitil was the one Mistika Makuta I didn't buy back in 2008. Mostly due to his spindly nature, I didn't feel he was very "Makuta-ish" in design. But then again, a similar case can be made for the Mistika Toa Nuva. Back then, the impending climax of the BIONICLE storyline and just plain old nostalgic happiness to see the Toa Nuva return to the fore allowed me to overlook their shortcomings. So Bitil remains (?) out of my collection.

In the comics and novels, however, Bitil was a very interesting, if not convoluted, force to be reckoned with. Like all Makuta, he had access to hundreds of powers, so his yellow coloring doesn't denote anything elemental. Contact with the mutagenic swamp waters of Karda Nui forced Bitil, Krika, and Gorast into being "frozen" in their bug-like forms (Makuta, existing mainly as antidermic essence, could normally take on any form they desired). Bitil Kanohi mask retained its power, however. It could be used to summon duplicates of himself from the past. He used this power frequently in the battles with the Toa Nuva, realizing his past selves in all their myriad of forms might possess some advantage over the Toa Nuva and their adaptable armor. However, all the Toa Nuva had to do was find the "original" Bitil and knock him out to disable the mask's power and return all iterations of the Makuta back to the past.

With respect to Bitil's Kanohi power, I will make a quick note regarding how poorly it was depicted in the comics. Since the artists had only the sets as references, there was no time to create alternate past versions of Bitil as described in the novels. So all the past Bitil duplicates seen looked exactly like the present one. Not an unlikely scenario, mind you, but it shows a lack of imagination and perhaps belies the rushed nature of these comics. But they were free, so I'm not complaining.

Bitil, like Gorast, was all in on Makuta Teridax's plan to conquer the universe. So it probably came as no surprise that when the Toa Nuva activated the Codrex, the literal heart mechanism that powered the universe, Bitil insisted on continuing to fight. Only too late did he realize he and the other Makuta had been duped. In a vain attempt to escape the Codrex, Bitil was annihilated by the energy storm.

Okay so let's talk bout this mask. The Kanohi Mohtrek, the Mask of Time Duplication. I'm gonna drop the whole "flowery storyteller of ancient legends" thing here to say, this mask is ridiculous. In my opinion it is simultaneously the dumbest and debatably most overpowered mask in the entire franchise. Especially for something used by some one-off villain who barely utilizes it. So, what does it do?

The Mask of Time Duplication let's user summon past versions of themselves to the modern day to help them in a fight. The collection and dispersal of clones works something like this.

Step 1) A clone of the user is teleported from the past to the present.
Step 2) The clone assists the summoner.
Step 3) The summoner chooses to, or is forced to, get rid of the clone.
Step 4) The clone's memory is wiped.
Step 5) The clone is teleported back to the exact same millisecond it was taken form.

This summoning process comes with a few caveats.

1) The summoner must retain concentration to keep the clones around. If they break focus they will instantly disperse. This means the summoner will often remain out of conflict and in the background. One good blow to the chest could disperse the whole army.
2) Any injuries sustained by a clone will instantly apply to any other clones from around the same timeframe, as the injury is retained when sent back in time. Bitil personally considered this the Mask's greatest con, as he'd often gain random injuries he had no knowledge of.
3) An offshoot of the previous point. If a clone is killed, all succeeding clones and the summoner will instantly die and the user will be effetely erased from the universe after the time the clone was originally taken from.
4) A benefit, clones can be summoned wearing masks or armor the summoner is not wearing, effectively creating an on-command multi-task army.

So... there's a lot to break down there.

First off, minor one, Bitil's use of the mask is so lazy. While it's possible he always had a beetle form, being a shapeshifter I find that odd to believe, and having more than one mask in combat would be so useful, so I have no idea why EVERY SINGLE BITIL is also using a Kanohi Mohtrek that is now more or less useless. In all reality this is probably just a marketing decision. LEGO doesn't want to design a bunch of extra variants of a character they aren't going to sell, so they just copy paste the model sheet they've already got to sell the toy. Even still it makes the comic/animation scenes of fight Bitil a lot less interesting than they could be.

Second off, main point, THAT IS SO OVER POWERED!!!

Okay, so to put things into context, there are three "Legendary Kanohi" in BIONICLE. Masks that contain primary elements of the universe, that if destroyed could have devastating ripple effects. These are the Mask of Life, Mask of Creation, and Mask of Time.

The Kanohi Vahi, the Mask of Time is, obviously, the embodiment of Time. This goes to the point where destroying the Vahi would obliterate the space-time continuum. The full powerset of the Vahi has never been revealed. It is known to be capable of speeding up or slowing down time. However, it is confirmed to not allow time travel. I repeat. The LEGENDARY MASK OF TIME, does NOT allow the user to TIME TRAVEL.

So why, by Artakha's hammer, is this random Kanohi allowed to do that!?!? It's canon that deaths had by Mohtrek users split the universe into two entirely new realities. Why is this power trusted to the general populous?

I feel like a lot of my issues with this mask would be resolved if we knew more about its rarity. For example, Masks of Invisibility are super commonplace. Masks of Accuracy are a little less common. The Mask of Alternate Futures is one-of-a-kind. The Mask of Dimensional Gates is two-of-a-kind. The Mask of Detection and the Mask of Truth are considered "rare."

We've been given no statement on the Mohtrek's rarity. As far as we know it could be as common as a Mask of Steath, or Mask of Fate, or Mask of Repulsion. Which would be ridiculous.

Like, 90% of the Mohtrek's problems coul

Like, 90% of the Mohtrek's problems could be solved if there was just a lore aside of "Bitil has the only Mask of Time Duplication in existence." Giving an angel/demi-god an one-of-a-kind super power makes perfect sense, after all Teridax has the only Mask of Shadows. But a disclaimer like that is never given! This artifact is just out there in the ethos. Dave who runs the fishing shop down the street could have one for all we know.

Every other BIONICLE mask either has basic enough powers that the populous could craft them no problem, or are super powerful but only the Great Beings know how to make them, but the Mohtrek breaks that just so some side character can have a cool shot in a comic book. I hate it.

Okay rant over.

Oh also the Mohtrek is considered immoral by the Toa Code. But at this point that's the least of it's problems.

I have a large cloth promotional banner with this fella on it, which was never commercially available. Wonder what it might be worth. Also have the set, my favourite of the wave.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Lore's gonna be a hot minute on this one. I got something to do first, but also, I'm going to full on rant about that Kanohi Mask. I am fuming just thinking about it. "

Just curious: are you creating lore for all Bionicle sets on the spot or are the backstories to this theme really this fleshed out? My dark age coincided with the rise and fall of Bionicle and never got into it afterwards so I know next to nothing about the theme.. (Although I'm very much in the 'to each their own' camp. Cool to see the Bionicle fans are still going strong.)

@JPKuiper the backstory really is that fleshed out!

Always liked this one. The yellow reminded me of the Jet/Judge Slizer/Throwbot. My first ever constraction set!
Never got it though, and my wanted list of old sets I actually owned and want to repurchase is too long and expensive for me to go out of my way to get it anymore. Not to mention the prices of 2006-2009 Bionicle canister sets nowadays.

It's fun to see that in the lore Bitil was an insectoid specialist. Hence the super on the nose name, and not just because of his current form apparently.

As for the Mothrek... I think Greg just slipped up. I didn't know it could even create duplicates that didn't wear a Mothrek, which breaks the power far more than if it didn't.
But I always understood that the shared damage over time is a huge offset against its potential power. If you wear such a mask you might go from 100 to 1 hp randomly because of future you. And the current you would have to weigh that up against summoning a past self in the first place. The more clones, the more damage you're likely going to get on both yourself and your past self. So it's not very practical to build an army with it, or even a full squad most of the time.
Unless you're a master tactician with a cunning, super adaptable plan that allows you to do a 'no damage run' every battle, you'll basically have your health drained randomly, constantly. And for better or for worse, Bitil isn't that smart. At all. And there's better masks with way less drawbacks to choose from if you're a smarter Makuta.
The really broken part is that the damage time travels. You could theoretically make cuts on your dopplegangers that write out information your past self could read to know things only your future self would know. If course they wouldn't do something so graphic in Bionicle, but still...

If you ask me stuff like the Mothrek is emblematic of the late years of Bionicle writing by Greg: thought of at the last minute, sometimes needlessly convoluted, overly sci-fi and hit or miss in terms of coolness. I think this one just comes down to having to think of all those amoral masks for the makuta on a deadline or something.

@JPKuiper said:
" @GSR_MataNui said:
"Lore's gonna be a hot minute on this one. I got something to do first, but also, I'm going to full on rant about that Kanohi Mask. I am fuming just thinking about it. "

Just curious: are you creating lore for all Bionicle sets on the spot or are the backstories to this theme really this fleshed out? My dark age coincided with the rise and fall of Bionicle and never got into it afterwards so I know next to nothing about the theme.. (Although I'm very much in the 'to each their own' camp. Cool to see the Bionicle fans are still going strong.)"

It's really this fleshed out. Check out https://biosector01.com/ for more!

I don't get it, what does this have to do with dunes?

Always nice to see a familiar Bionicle face... or, I guess, mask.

I constantly find myself surprised by how long the Slizer limb pieces were going for. I somehow have in my mind that they fell out of use after being used as the Rahkshi arms in 2003; but they were actually used on a couple of 2005's visorak, Maxilos in 2007, several of the 2008 sets like Bitil here, and even beyond that. I should know this by now, but it still keeps on surprising me when I see them in later sets.

I remember at the time I thought that Bitil's mask power was interesting; but I can definitely see in hindsight how it created enough problems to outweigh its 'coolness' factor. Also it's more of a head than a mask, since it doesn't attach to a standard Bionicle face. But the piece still looks pretty nice, at least!

By the Mistika wave, I was on my way out of Bionicle for the most part, though I hadn't quite realised it at the time - because I was determined to stick around for the end of the Mask of Life arc, even though my interest was waning. I was still set on getting several of the sets, though; and I got Bitil on buy-two-get-one-free (along with 8698 Vultraz and 8689 Tahu; my last 2008 Titan and last Toa Adaptive, respectively) in Woolworths' closing down sale, when we were on a trip in late-October that year and I had birthday money to burn.

@JPKuiper:
Bionicle had comic books, actual books, at least three movies, an online Flash game, mini CD-ROMs packed with some sets, plus for about 20 years they’ve let Greg Farshtey add official story info by way of online forums. There’s a truckload of story that has built up during that time.

@Binnekamp:
Looper did that flesh-messaging trick.

@Aramor:
Clearly, he’s a scarab beetle. Scarab bitil.

@PurpleDave, @Binnekamp, @Jack_Rizzo

Genuinely did not know that, thanks!

@MCLegoboy said:
"Bitil... Because he's a Beetle. How original. This sounds like a Hero Facotry name, not a Bionicle one."

Bionicle had its fair share of uncreative names. The Phantoka Makuta were all named after bat taxonomies, and some of the Barraki were rather punny (Kalmah from Calamari, Carapar from Carapace (probably), Ehlek from Electric Eel).
Heck, Krika, from the same wave as Bitil, was mostly likely named after a Cricket, to keep with the bug theme.

Anywho, I always liked Bitil. Probably because I always collected the brown (and later yellow and orange) characters, so he was a must. Cool weapons, too!