While I was at Toy Fair, I was hoping to pick up something special to send to Mark and Philip, since neither of them were attending. As luck would have it, when I bumped into Colin at the GALIDOR™ party, he pulled a VAHI out of his pocket and asked me if I had one yet. If they still had some at the Times Square TRU on Sunday, I didn’t notice them (and they didn’t give me one when I dropped $50 on BIONICLE™ product either) so I was thrilled when he handed me one. I was able to get two more for my crew, and since I haven’t had a chance to mail them out yet, I took advantage of the opportunity to photograph all three together.

The design looks similar to the little picture that was posted on BIONICLE.com, but the flared sides are flat on top instead of having the upswept hook to them. There is also a round pit in the middle of the front, which is required to prevent distortion from the mounting point cooling during the injection molding process. I’m not as happy with the final design as I was with the original image of it, but it’s still a really cool looking piece, and the design looks a lot more Polynesian than the three Cyber-KANOHI (AKAKU, KOMAU, and MAHIKI).

The more I look at this thing, the more I’m struck by how much it looks like a Japanese samurai’s mempo (lower facial armor). It’s really odd since all of the other KANOHI cover so much of the head that they almost look like helmets, and this one doesn’t even conceal the forehead. I also noticed that while it doesn’t show up very well in the attached images, the VAHI is a slightly duller shade of orange than any of VAKAMA’s KANOHI.

One other important thing to note is that, unlike the other six GREAT MASKS, this one truly cannot be worn by the MATORANS. The flared wings on the side of the VAHI stick back far enough to hit the little hook-shaped tabs on the side of the MATORAN head.