The Toa Inika were a team of heroes which came into being when lightning from the Red Star struck six Toa canisters on the shores of Voya Nui, transforming the Matoran inside into Toa. The Toa Inika were Jaller, Hewkii, Nuparu, Kongu, Matoro, and Hahli. The Toa Inika all had organic Kanohi and elemental powers which were mixed with lightning. Their faces gave off a blinding glow when unmasked. They were later transformed by the Kanohi Ignika into the Toa Mahri.3
Toa Mahri was the name given to the Toa Inika after their transformation by the Kanohi Ignika into beings capable of surviving underwater. The Toa Mahri were Jaller, Hewkii, Nuparu, Kongu, Matoro, and Hahli. Each Toa Mahri was fitted with special breathing tubes which acted as gills, making it possible for them to breathe water, but not air.4
Notes
Toa Inika
When the Matoran Jaller, etc. arrived on Voya Nui, bolts of lightning from a mysterious red star transformed them. Now they were Toa Inika and unlike any heroes ever known before. Their Toa weapons were charged with incredible energies that made them light up when in use. Toa Inika were quite different from any seen before, designed to contain the energy that coursed through their forms. The masks they wore were very different from any Toa masks they had seen before, with awesome new abilities. Their Matoran allies on Voya Nui crafted zamor sphere launchers for them. They hurled spheres that could free the villagers of Voya Nui from enslavement. Now filled with the energies of lightning, even the features of their heads glowed brightly. Even the colors of their armor were changed by the lightning. Hewkii was the first Toa of Stone in memory to be a shade other than brown.5
The Toa Inika used Zamor spheres loaded with energized protodermis to destroy the antidermis virus.6
The Toa Inika had Zamor spheres of their own.7
Each Toa Inika had energy interlaced with their Toa tools. This improved their potential for damage.8
The Inika's weapons had pure energy that could be used in attacks.9
The Inika's weapons were used for more than just channeling powers.10
The Inika were all smart in different ways. There was no member distinctly more intelligent than the others.11
Jaller and Hahli likely had the closest friendship out of the Toa Inika.12
Jaller was the leader of the Toa Inika.13
Jaller, Matoro, and Hahli were among the wisest members of the Toa Inika.14
The Toa Nuva and Toa Inika were the same height.15
The Toa Inika weren't immune to Pit mutagen.16
The Inika tended to fight "dirty" because they had to; it was the only way they could win.17
The Toa Inika used their combat experience from fighting Makuta's Rahi, the Bohrok, and Rahkshi over a period of 1,000 years to make up for the fact that they hadn't been Toa for very long.18
The Ignika chose Matoro as its guardian because he possessed qualities the other Toa Inika did not. Toa like Hewkii and Kongu were beings of action, athletes, and military leaders while Matoro was a thinker, among other things, and had a past interest in Rahi that showed his deep-seated respect for life. Hahli would also have been a good choice, but she had a different destiny.19
The Toa Inika's destiny was to use the Ignika to awaken [sic] Mata Nui.20
The Toa Inika got their weapons from their canisters.21
Kanohi
The nature of the Inika's Kanohi had a lot to do with where they were found.22
The Inika's masks were organic because of where they were from and how the Inika were transformed into Toa.23
The Inika's masks were not organic when they were given to the group as Matoran.24
The Kanohi given to the Inika by Karzahni did not look unusual until they became organic as a result of the Red Star's lightning.25
The Inika's masks were made of organic protodermis.26
The Inika's masks worked slightly differently from other Great Masks. The Inika didn't need to spend as much time and effort figuring out how to make them work as the Toa Metru.27
The Inika's masks couldn't speak, but they could communicate with their wearers.28
The Inika found it easier to activate their mask powers than other Toa such as the Metru because their masks were organic and "alive".29
The Inika's masks were alive.30
The Inika's masks seemed to be sentient.31
The Inika's masks had a very limited sentience.32
The Inika's Kanohi were sentient, but not to the same degree as the Ignika.33
The Inika masks were sentient, but not sapient.34
It's possible the Inika's masks could feel pain.35
Inika masks looked different from those of regular Toa.36
If the Inika's masks weren't organic, their shapes wouldn't differ very much.37
The Toa Inika were capable of wearing inorganic Kanohi if they had any.38
The Inika's masks were not immune to being infected by kraata.39
Had the Toa Inika traded masks, their masks would change colors. The masks might initially be a little reluctant to be swapped.40
The Toa Inika's masks couldn't control their color changes. They could not change colors to match their surroundings.41
The Inika's masks were charged with the power of lightning.42
Lightning Powers
Lightning was wrapped up in the Inika's elemental powers.43
The Inika's lightning powers could only be used in combination with their standard elemental powers.44
The Toa Inika could not use their elemental powers with no lightning.45
The Inika's elements were laced with lightning when they generated them, but not when they manipulated existing instances of their elements.46
The Inika's lightning powers were not combined with their elemental powers, but they were interlaced. If Hewkii sent a rain of stones on a target, lightning would be interlaced with them - not part of the stones, but traveling with them.47
The lightning the Toa Inika were charged with counteracted the antidermis within the Piraka's Zamor spheres.48
The electrical energy infused in the Toa Inika blocked antidermis.49
The Toa Inika were different than most Toa, but not necessarily better.50
A Toa seal created by the Toa Inika would likely be electrically charged.51, 52
The Toa Inika were capable of emitting electricity laced with elemental power from their hands.53
Were the Toa Inika to become Turaga, they would retain their lightning abilities.54
Toa Mahri
When the power of the Mask of Life struck the six Toa Inika, it transformed them into the undersea warriors known as Toa Mahri. Now able to breathe water only, they had to rely on their skill and their new weapons to fight an aquatic battle against the evil Barraki.55
Defilak was the one who gave the Toa Mahri their new team name.56
Other Information
- In November 2005, Greg Farshtey incorrectly stated the Toa Inika were originally Matoran from Voya Nui.57, 58
- The strobe light effect produced by the Toa Inika's weapons in set form were meant to represent the energy within their weapons, not their lightning powers.59
- All of the Zamor spheres in the Toa Inika sets depict energized protodermis spheres.60
- The Toa Inika's Zamor spheres were different colors purely for set diversification.61
- The story team chose Hahli to be a Toa Inika rather than Macku because they felt the former would be better known to most fans, as she starred in the Mata Nui Online Game II and featured in BIONICLE: Mask of Light.62