Hello guys! I'm Vakama Montana, and you've probably know me as the author of the BZP comedy The Inika Palace Hotel. Today, I'm starting a new blog called "The Chronicles of Vakama Montana", and it's a blog about my views of the Lego industry (from Legoland to the Lego Club and their products), as well as the Bionicle Universe (like my opinions of a Bionicle character or about the Bionicle comic books)

So let's start off with the Lego Club. As you may know, this year is the Lego Club's 20th Birthday (Yay!) , and I've been a member of the Lego Club since May 1996 (about 9 years after the Lego Club is started), and I really like the magazines they send to me every two months. Sometimes I like them, and sometimes I didn't like them (espically with those creepy Insectoids in the September-October 1998 issue, rememeber that?). Now that the magazine has gone through another "makeover", where is the Lego Maniac (remember him from the 90's and early 00's?)? Where's Redini (the dude with the minifig head who answer Lego Club Members their questions)? And is it good like the magazines from the late 80's and 90's?

Another issue I'm concerned about is the Lego Club website. Back then, I like the Lego website and I visit the site often, until one day, my computer won't allow me to post anything on Lego's Message Boards. Worse, the website is not up-to-date (i.e. you can't upload videos to your Lego Club page), but the only thing good is that the Lego Club Pages is updated so that you can spend your club points on new stickers (that got even better when it was integrated with the Kanoka Point system on Bionicle.com). Problem is that my computer won't allow me to run the script for the Lego Club Pages (a script is something that uses the Adobe Flash Player 9 or something; I'm pretty unsure about that). But what I like about the Lego Club Website is not only the Cool Creations and games, but also the monthly Comic Caption Contest (that makes me laugh! )

For some members, they like the upgrades Lego made to the Lego Club recently, but for other members, they don't like it (or vice versa). So here's my point of view: I really like the upgrades that Lego's going to make to the Lego Club Website, but I wish that they could add more stuff to the website other than what's mentioned in the July-August 2007 issue. Here are the stuff Lego needs to put on the Lego Club section:

-A Music section

-Allow members to upload videos, as long as it's approiate to younger members and it's Lego-related

And probably that's it. I'm pretty sure that some Lego fans (espically the AFOL, or Adult Fans of Lego) are happy with some of the new features of the redesigned Lego Magazine and Lego Club Website. And I don't think that Lego should add more stuff despite publishing the regular version and the BrickMaster version of the magazine (except bring back the calendar).

I'm also glad that they brought back the Lego Maniac, except that it's a minifigure named Max (he made an appearence in the May-June 2007 issue), but I wish that they bring back the Redini and some classic Lego characters...

NEXT CHRONICLE: Happy Birthday Hapori Tohu and BZPower! (Vakama Montana's Point of View)