19th Anniversary Special, pt. 1

Today, October 1, 2020, is the 19th anniversary of Lego BIONICLE (GBA)'s American release! Well, supposedly. Some sources claim it came out on October 2nd. And the first known ROM dump is from September 29th. But in any case, I'm celebrating with two new posts, one today and one tomorrow. So without further ado, I present a spritesheet so large blogspot can't handle it: Takua.

Click for full size.

Frequent readers of the IMDb Trivia section might already know that Takua's sprites are renders of an older 3D model than the rest of the islanders (with some exceptions). The model in question is based on an as-yet-unseen McToran prototype, and has been found in the files of The Legend of Mata Nui. This same model was likely used as the basis for the vector graphics in Templar Studios' Mata Nui online game. Takua's cameo (as George) in Lego Backlot, also developed by Templar, uses the same model:

Backlot.

This prototype model has thinner arms than the final, and the two "toes" are not connected at the heel.

The Legend of Mata Nui.

Beyond that, I don't have much to say about the sheet itself. The most notable oddity is that Takua's dismount animation when he's facing north is 6 frames longer. Perhaps the rest of his dismounts used to be longer and were cut down to save space. Similarly, Takua has only one animation for using the firestaff, in which he faces southeast. The Power Pack demo footage shows him using it while facing north and west.

That's it for today... check back tomorrow for part 2!

EDIT: The Legend of Mata Nui model was extracted using LOMNTool, written by Ben Garcia of Litestone Studios. Big shoutouts to him and the rest of the team for their work.