This is a creation by Tooshey,

We begin after the great war between light and shadow in the matoran universe, Verhaiden had migrated into the Ta Metru of Spherus Magna. Verhaiden had been shortly exiled from the fiery region for the rest of the time due to not following Mata Nui’s ways. Angered, He had gone south to the city of Mata Nui’s old body which no longer was inhabited by the Tyrant of Makuta Teridax.

While there, he had been bored of his existence, day by day trapped by his work and duties. So he had simply left like a ghost, and not a single eye turned, no thought of him gone by. Now he claimed the old war grounds for energized protodermis as his home, but one day Verhaiden found a particular crack in the soil. It was glowing for unknown reasons, curiosity got the better of Verhadien and he grazed the glowing silver liquid.

Suddenly, nothing was around him except for the light that had blinded him. When he awoke from a blinding event. He had looked at his body, it was drastically different. His legs were double-jointed, torso felt like it was made of the densest material known to the matoran kind. He had become a toa, back on his feet he now knew his new body. He ran back to his humble home and looked in the mirror. He had dawned the mask of war.

Tooshey

Verhaiden has a slightly unusual appearance, mostly thanks to the unique positioning of his shoulders. The extra mass in his upper torso and double jointed legs also convey that he is a bit different. I cant help but like how he looks not quite humanoid. It reminds me that BIONICLE focused on mechanical characters, who didnt always need to be 100% humanoid. We did get some variety for the Toa Mahri line in particular, though I feel like some years could have benefited from characters with more distinct differences than the armor slapped onto their shoulders and length of their limbs.

Verhaiden’s design process was also interesting. He started out as something in the family of an exoskeleton, a piece of equipment without a backstory. Tooshey decided it could be something better, and tweaked it to be just humanoid enough not to be categorized as a Rahi

Tooshey took the time to photograph Verhaiden in front of a cleaner looking background for us, though I wanted to include the original WIP that caught my attention. I think the original picture does the best job of showing off Verhaiden’s unique shoulder design.