These two drawings were early concepts by artist Jan Kjær for the proposed LEGO theme Boneheads of Voodoo Island, which ultimately evolved into the BIONICLE theme. Likewise, these characters — Flame and Claw — evolved into Tahu and Onua respectively. Of these two, only the concept for Flame is colored. A colored version of Claw is known to exist, but it doesn’t seem to have been uploaded anywhere on the web.

The resemblance to Tahu and Onua is immediately apparent in both the tools held by Flame and Claw as well as the their respective settings. It seems lava surfing was part of Tahu’s character from the start, while Claw’s pose is also fairly reminiscent of Onua’s positioning on his canister back in 2001, not to mention his hunchback.

While the similarities are certainly noticeable, so are the differences. The faces of both are far more expressive than the final versions’ more stoic masks. Flame’s chin and grin combo gives the character strong heroic vibes. Claw meanwhile looks a bit like a dullard with the massive bottom lip and underbite dominating his facial features.

What I found particularly interesting about these drawings was how both appear to feature a triple armed figure in the background, giving off a malicious vibe. It’s an oddly specific design choice for a background detail, and one I suspect was meant to represent an antagonist for the line that we haven’t seen any further details about.

You can find more of Jan Kjær’s work here. (Please note that his website is in Danish.)