Oh... _that_ guy...
(=_= )

Speak of Metru Nui, (from yesterday's RSOTD comment thread) and it shall appear!

this is possibly the most unreasonably despicable person in all of bionicle and it’s hilarious

Sure, there’s always the big villains of the year, but then there’s this guy, who goes out of his way to inconvenience people for no discernible reason.

This guy made a deal with a criminal gang simply because he was jealous of an acquaintances carving skills, proceeding to lure 5 innocent civilians into traps in return for money and then immediately attempting to leave the region when things went awry.

He’d go on to ally himself with the main villain of the franchise, then intentionally sell sports equipment infected with deadly viruses to people, all culminating in him becoming the ruler of the country, knocking down statues of previous heroes and ordering statues of said villain to be sculpted in their places.

These were my favourite out of all the series of little Bionicle helper dudes. I loved the design of them, and I loved the gimmick.

This isn't a very interesting story, but I'm going to tell it anyway. In 2004, I bought one of these guys (I think it was the red one), and liked him, but I was resistant to "collect the whole set!" because Bionicle seemed to rely too much on, "they're slightly different, but please, buy them all!" And I didn't want to cave. So I was down in the city a little while later (for my best friend's college graduation ceremony. I wanted to be there and cheer him on), and I found a toy shop that still had these guys. I bought another one, and that was the point I realised that, they're cheap enough, and I really liked them, so who cares if I wanted all six? But all the local toy shops had stopped carrying them.

So, lacking a car or any personal transportation, I taught myself how to navigate the public transport system to get the train down to the city, where I could eventually go back to that same toy store and buy the rest of these (which I did). I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I was suffering severe mental health issues in my early 20s, I was in a small town, and felt very trapped ... and the ability to head out to the train station (which is a fair way inland) and take the train down to the city for the day, it was a really big deal for me. And these days, I do it regularly (to catch up with my best friend, to check out the museum or my favourite comic book shop, to attend a convention).

And it was all because of that line of Bionicle figures.

I always wanted to make little platforms for these figures, and put them into my Lego city (in parks and by waterways and such) as abstract public art installations, but I never did. Although the big Knights Kingdom figures? I bought a couple of those and did make those into statues to decorate my Lego city streets.

@Murdoch17 said:
"What year did that last paragraph happen? I don't recall that in the comics / films!"

When Teridax took over the Matoran Universe at the end of 2008 and essentially became god, he appointed Ahkmou as the “Turaga of Metru Nui”, giving him authority over the entire city. It was mentioned in Reign of Shadows.

@Monopoly said:
"this is possibly the most unreasonably despicable person in all of bionicle and it’s hilarious

Sure, there’s always the big villains of the year, but then there’s this guy, who goes out of his way to inconvenience people for no discernible reason.

This guy made a deal with a criminal gang simply because he was jealous of an acquaintances carving skills, proceeding to lure 5 innocent civilians into traps in return for money and then immediately attempting to leave the region when things went awry.

He’d go on to ally himself with the main villain of the franchise, then intentionally sell sports equipment infected with deadly viruses to people, all culminating in him becoming the ruler of the country, knocking down statues of previous heroes and ordering statues of said villain to be sculpted in their places.
"

He honestly does look like a bit of a jerk. Like, just look at his face! Its probably one of the most irritating expressions to have ever been found on a Bionicle.

@Monopoly said:
"this is possibly the most unreasonably despicable person in all of bionicle and it’s hilarious

Sure, there’s always the big villains of the year, but then there’s this guy, who goes out of his way to inconvenience people for no discernible reason.

This guy made a deal with a criminal gang simply because he was jealous of an acquaintances carving skills, proceeding to lure 5 innocent civilians into traps in return for money and then immediately attempting to leave the region when things went awry.

He’d go on to ally himself with the main villain of the franchise, then intentionally sell sports equipment infected with deadly viruses to people, all culminating in him becoming the ruler of the country, knocking down statues of previous heroes and ordering statues of said villain to be sculpted in their places.
"

Absolute legend behavior, I see no problem with any of this

As much as I identified as a BIONICLE fan back in 2004, I definitely did not remember the name of duplicitous Koli ball vendor from the MNOLG in 2001 and therefore did not make the connection 3 years later that the same "Ahkmou" might be the traitor out of the six Metru Nui Matoran released. As pointed out above, the guy had a long history of being a scumbag. Even so, my forgetfulness regarding his Po-Koro days meant that his reveal as the traitor to the Toa Metru a thousand years earlier did come as a bit of surprise. Not that the efforts of one Matoran did much to hinder the Toa Metru, but everyone likes a little subterfuge in their plots now and then.

I can't recall in what exact order I bought him. I think once I had Nuhrii, I could tell the other 5 were going to be the exact same, just with different colors, masks, and disks. I was in full completionist mode back then, so I gritted my teeth and bought all the Matoran just to say I had them. It worked out. The 2004 BIONICLE lineup is the only year of BIONICLE in which I own all of the mainline sets released (no combiner models, just the standard, catalog sets).

"Get your Comets! Best Kohli ball in Po-Koro. You wouldn't want to be seen without one!"

Gesundheit.

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca: He wasn't identified by name in the first MNOLG. If memory serves, the second one was where we first saw his name.

Metru Nui was IMO a high point of Bionicle, at least in terms of parts and builds. The Matoran combo model Rahi were clever and different, for example. The Vahki were great toys, too.

In other news, $4 in 2004 dollars is supposedly worth $6.24 today. There isn't a current action figure-type LEGO line now (unless my mind is going...) but if there was, $6-7 for something like this guy seems reasonable.

Don't buy Kohli balls from this guys. He says they are they best, but they will make you sick.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Lego_Lord_Mayorca: He wasn't identified by name in the first MNOLG. If memory serves, the second one was where we first saw his name."

Oh well, now I don't feel so forgetful, since I didn't get too far into the second MNOLG due to being away at summer camp not long after it was released.

I'm amazed everytime I see people talk about the lore behind the Bionicle sets. Even with the little ones. This shows the brilliance of Lego. I don't remember any other theme having such deep history behind it. I still don't get the sets though.

I make that sound when I sneeze!

Do not accept anything this man tries to sell you

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"As much as I identified as a BIONICLE fan back in 2004, I definitely did not remember the name of duplicitous Koli ball vendor from the MNOLG in 2001 and therefore did not make the connection 3 years later that the same "Ahkmou" might be the traitor out of the six Metru Nui Matoran released. "

To be fair he’s not named in MNOG I, he’s a mysterious anonymous Kolhii ball seller. Part of me suspects the original intention is that he was some aspect of Makuta made manifest, hence why he can just disappear once he’s rumbled, it was only once another shifty noble Rau wearing Po-Matoran showed up that a slight retcon was made

@Lego_Mouse said:
"What ever happened to them in the story?"

Got stuffed in a memory-erasing tote at the end of the second movie. as the Toa brought Matoran to the Island of Mata Nui, this dude got dropped in the tunnels (Great Spirit's nose) and Makuta woke him up and made him his padawan.

Over the next 1000 years, sold smallpox soccer balls and other shenanigans. Turaga never did a thing about it, being the politicians they are. He came back to Metru Nui with the rest of the island, and when Makuta took over the universe, Ahkmou was appointed "Turaga" of the city.

After Makuta died, he still presumably faced absolutely no repercussions.

I believe this guy almost got another set. At one point in development of the 2008 storyline, he was going to become a Toa of Shadow. This was eventually discarded in favor of Takanuva becoming a Toa of “Twilight”.

@Brickalili said:
"To be fair he’s not named in MNOG I, he’s a mysterious anonymous Kolhii ball seller. Part of me suspects the original intention is that he was some aspect of Makuta made manifest, hence why he can just disappear once he’s rumbled"

From what I've gathered by reading things from people who have looked into MNOG's behind-the-scenes more deeply than I have, he was originally supposed to be part of a cult made up of Matoran who worshipped Makuta, and who counted themselves as a hidden seventh Matoran tribe. Apparently the player would originally pursue a lead behind the infected Koli balls and find that this cult had been the cause of many of the other problems they'd encountered, too - but the idea was ultimately dropped, leaving Ahkmou as the only remnant of that idea.

Again, this is all second- and third-hand info, so I can't vouch for its total accuracy. But it's pretty interesting to note, at least.

On the set itself: Ahkmou was the first 2004 sets I got, along with 8603 Toa Whenua. A couple we knew well from church offered to take me and a friend out somewhere for a day - and, being right in the middle of my biggest Lego phase, naturally I chose Legoland! It was riiiight at the beginning of 04, so these guys were only just appearing on the shelves, and it was the first time I'd seen them in person; and I came away from that trip with the two of them. I remember I picked Whenua because he was my favourite of the Turaga / Toa Metru at the time; and I picked Ahkmou because, of the first-wave Bionicle masks, the Rau he wore was the only one that I didn't already have in another colour, so that automatically made him the most interesting to me. That, plus the fact that, out of the six of them, he was the one we knew most of him due to having already been said shady Koli ball merchant...

Anyway. These weren't my favourite Bionicle little guys, their big single-piece torsos, while neat, felt like a step back, to me, from the 2003 Matoran; but I still liked them, nonetheless. The fact that they had neat recolours of some of the original masks definitely helped make them cool, too; we wouldn't see small sets with unique mask recolours again until 2007.

@Brickalili said:
" @Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"As much as I identified as a BIONICLE fan back in 2004, I definitely did not remember the name of duplicitous Koli ball vendor from the MNOLG in 2001 and therefore did not make the connection 3 years later that the same "Ahkmou" might be the traitor out of the six Metru Nui Matoran released. "

To be fair he’s not named in MNOG I, he’s a mysterious anonymous Kolhii ball seller. Part of me suspects the original intention is that he was some aspect of Makuta made manifest, hence why he can just disappear once he’s rumbled, it was only once another shifty noble Rau wearing Po-Matoran showed up that a slight retcon was made"

Look up the original plan in MNOG. There would have been a secret "Shadow Tribe" Ahkmou was a part of. The Shadow Tribe would have been responsible for more problems since they supported Makuta, but the plan was cut and Ahkmou is the only aspect of that plan that made it to the final game.

TRAITOR!

Great character and set :)

Oh right. Ahkmou.

We meet again.

Either this site attracts a disproportionate number of Bionicle adherents or TLG really dropped the ball by pulling the plug on a much loved and original theme, twice. I mean, that couldn't happen, could it? Once again I am impressed by the unified passion you guys share whenever one of these guys rears its funny shaped head on RSOTD, which not only fascinates me but without which I would have zero knowledge of what is (was) a major cultural phenomenon. Still have no idea what any of it means, though ...

@Fillone:
I actually get it. The first few years, Bionicle was _huge_. It was outselling both Star Wars and Harry Potter, and at a time when they were losing money on the whole, they had to install a new production line to keep up with the demand for Bionicle sets (paid for by raising the price of a few Bionicle sets about $1 each). Cut to 2008, and many of the original fans had aged out, Star Wars had probably pushed past it (Harry Potter had mostly withered away at the time), and the incredible amount of new parts required to keep generating new characters who didn’t feel too samey (e.g. the Bohrok Kal) was no longer sustainable. Skip forward a few more years and the dedicated fans were still engaged in the story, still trying to collect old sets, and still building new MOCs. Many of them also had bigger allowances, now called “paychecks”. It seemed only logical to revive the theme. Only this time the gargantuan size of the characters made them just as expensive to buy with a real job as they were when you were using chore money. What I don’t understand is why they immediately jumped to supersize the entire line.

As for what it all means, that’s easy. It’s all a metaphor for a little thing we like to call “cancer”. No foolin’.

@Fillone said:
"Either this site attracts a disproportionate number of Bionicle adherents or TLG really dropped the ball by pulling the plug on a much loved and original theme, twice. I mean, that couldn't happen, could it? Once again I am impressed by the unified passion you guys share whenever one of these guys rears its funny shaped head on RSOTD, which not only fascinates me but without which I would have zero knowledge of what is (was) a major cultural phenomenon. Still have no idea what any of it means, though ..."

Yeah the reboot fumbled for a few reasons like PurpleDave said... the price increases really made it harder to get all the figures. I thought they were great figures, but it was a pain to collect them all due to the price climb. Secondly, Lego tried to downplay the story to make it simpler; but ended up erasing a lot of the charm in the process (for example only seven characters from the original Bionicle the six Toa Mata/Nuva and the Makuta returned in the reboot, the rest were excluded). The story of the reboot just lacked the same depth the original had, and it disappointed old fans while failing to bring in new ones.

But yeah, Bionicle still has a huge fandom if Lego can ever figure out how to do it right it could have a good successful return. Passionate and dedicated fans, Lego just needs to remember the secret sauce that made the original so beloved.