Just to update you on the new serial -- the first chapter is done, and Bink will be posting it as soon as he can (he is traveling for work, so it may be later this week). This chapter features three new Toa -- Psionics, Lightning, and Iron -- and a new villain.
As I finish off the first three Chapter Ones, a quick preview of the winter serials --
#1 - At the end of last year's Gali Nuva Blog, we learned how Tahu and Kopaka had been sent on a mission by the Order of Mata Nui to quell a series of active volcanoes on a southern islands. Now, the Order sends a bizarre team -- Brutaka, Roodaka, Makuta Spiriah, Vezon, Carapar and Takadox -- on a suicide mission to that same island to save a potential wild card in the conflict to come -- the original leade
As promised, here is some info on Vamprah (Chirox and a better Antroz write-up to come later in the week):
Vamprah (8692)
Quote: Vamprah does not speak.
Weapons: Tridak pod with shadow leeches; claws; knife-sharp wings
Personality: Vamprah is the true hunter among the Makuta, who delights in silently stalking his prey. Even his allies are uncomfortable around him. Thanks to his mask power and his own experiments, he now literally feeds on the hopes and dreams of others. Vamprah hates
Yay, I am on vacation for a week ... Seven days of baseball, Playstation baseball, and WoW ...
Finished Bionicle Legends #8 on Easter Sunday, so am going to try not to do any LEGO writing this week, other than answering questions on BZP. (Yes, I will still be here.)
Had a good day today -- went up to Renbrook School in West Hartford and spoke to a few classes of fifth graders. One of the students there (who is also a BZP member, I believe) had sent me a letter a while back as part of a
Just some quick news --
-- A lot of people on here have been talking about a set they have seen with a Hydraxon mask on it and suggesting that is the 2008 BrickMaster exclusive set. It's not. No images of the BM exclusive set are on the net (I've looked), but I do have an image of it and it does not have a Hydraxon mask. The item number for this set is #20005 and we aren't even showing BMs what it looks like yet. The March issue will show what the May and July sets will look like, but the BIO
Just some news and notes:
-- Got a chance to see the villain sets for 2008 up close -- man, they're nice, particularly the January ones. Definitely buying those -- very BIONICLE, but very creepy.
-- Look for more substantial Matoran sets in 2008 than we have done before, and for them to play a more significant role in story.
-- Book sales have evidently stabilized. While they are still well below where we were in 2004, the cutback schedule means stores are selling through the new books
Some comic, book, movie updates today:
1) The first full-length chapter book in 2009 should hit stores around June.
2) There will be at least three Level 3 readers next year.
3) Plans are for five comics next year, same size as this year. We will start with a new issue #1, which is already written.
4) Story will flow like this -- January comic, March comic, then the first chapter book, which will lead into the July comic. So the chapter book will not duplicate story from the comics
Yesterday, I got some sad news -- Fiona Simpson, my editor at Scholastic, has decided to move on from her position there. This is a great loss to the world of BIONICLE and I thought it would be a good time to talk a little bit about her.
I first met Fiona in summer 2003. She had recently taken over as editor for the BIONICLE line. Prior to that, the books had been done by Cathy Hapka, a very talented freelancer -- and although I wished I could write them, there didn't seem to be much I could
Two fun things that happened this week --
1) AMEET sent me author's copies of the English-language version of the Makuta Guide to the Universe. Hardcover and printed on glossy paper, this blows away every BIONICLE book ever done in terms of the quality of the publication. They did a spectacular job and I am very proud to have my name on this.
2) I got to see about three minutes of finished animation for the 2009 movie yesterday. It was a big action sequence. With all due respect to the fol
I mut say, Dark Mirror has provoked some of the most interesting discussions and PMs I have seen in my time on here. It has been really interesting to see the reaction to the story, with Tuyet's Toa being branded as "evil" and "corrupt." And yet ... let's consider:
"Toa Tuyet announced today that the Brotherhood of Makuta poses a potential threat and should be eliminated before they threaten the peace of the universe."
OR
"The leader of a major nation announced today that the country of Gaz
Nothing too earth-shaking, just bits of news --
-- Probably the one of most import to you guys will be something I did yesterday -- the first ever official map of the BIONICLE universe. I sketched it out for a Polish BIONICLE guidebook set to come out this fall, and it will now be redrawn by some people who can actually draw So if there are Eastern European BIONICLE fans on here, expect to see some scans of it later this year.
-- Busy month just past, getting that book done for some very
Decided to flip the order of the serials, so just finished part 3 of PTB (yes, you actually don't have to wait six weeks for the next chapter -- I know you're shocked ) In this episode:
* We meet the "Who Am I?" winner
* We answer the age-old question, "What happens when Nynrah Ghosts have too much time on their hands?"
* We go inside the red star for the first time, and while we don't come out knowing just what the heck is going on there yet, it sure SOUNDS disturbing
* We get the retur
Recently, there was a very interesting discussion on BZP about people who no longer buy sets (what we in the biz call "lapsed users") and how much influence they can or can't have on product.
There are, based on what I have seen, three main types of lapsed user. We will call them Joe, Bill, and Tom. All three have stopped buying BIONICLE sets, and all are in their teens, for the purposes of this example:
Joe still thinks BIONICLE is interesting, but stopped buying sets in 2004 because he
As we start another new year of BIONICLE, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to BZPers for their support of the line, their creativity, and their friendship over the last several years. You are a truly special bunch of fans and you should know that.
I have met people on this board that I consider friends; others that I don't know as well, but who strike me as intellectually very sharp and fascinating conversationalists; and a few I wouldn't even want to be in an elevator with Bu
Just my traditional January posting --
Please do not PM me questions re: the summer sets, as I am not allowed to talk about them. I know some of you have jumped ahead and gone looking for images purporting to be of those sets -- I cannot comment on them, including whether they are faked or leaked. I would be going against LEGO's rules and BZP's as well, neither of which I am going to do.
We have six months before the summer sets hit shelves. Patience, grasshopper.
Greg
Some of you may have read that BZP member Nuhrii the Metruan made some suggestions regarding the name of the Mangai/Mangaia which I really liked and told him could be official.
Ever since, I am getting buried in PMs from other people trying to find other uses for existing names or "explain" other storyline things, in hopes of getting to say they came up with something official too.
I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I really don't have the time for this. Having to go through these suggestion
... But if you do something nice for someone, like send me one of their theories because they are too new a member to be able to PM, please make sure you can be contacted by the PM system or I can't respond to it. If your ability to receive PMs is shut off, there's not much point in sending me questions.
A few pieces of news:
-- Just completed a new 10-page Hydraxon comic story that will run in BIONICLE Graphic Novel #6, from Papercutz.
-- It looks likely that GN #8 will be an all new comic story, set on Bara Magna, as opposed to just collected comics ... more on that as it develops.
-- AMEET, the people who made the excellent Makuta's Guide to the Universe, are going to be doing a similar book on Bara Magna, which I will be writing between now and early summer.
Greg
Thought this was an interesting to my earlier blog entry regarding the inevitable revelation of plot secrets and what it does to the sense of "mystery and wonder" -- it's from a NY Times review of a new TV show:
"... “The Prisoner,” shown on CBS from 1968 to 1969, is one of the most legendary television thrillers, partly because it wrapped after one 17-episode season. Most recently “Lost” on ABC kept core fans going for an improbable six seasons, but it also shed most of its intrigue long bef
I was looking through a topic on 2001-2003 vs. later years, and Lewathetoa made an excellent point about the appeal of the early years being the spectacle of advanced beings on a primitive island, and how much of that was lost in 2004 when we got to Metru Nui. I felt it worth reprinting my response to him here, as it is a very interesting topic from a literary point of view:
"What made 2001 work was the incongruity of advanced technological beings living on a tropical island with no tech at a
-- I have been getting this Q a lot, so let me answer it here -- no, the shapeshifters mentioned in Empire of the Skrall are not Makuta, proto-Makuta, Krahka, or anything else from 2001-2008. Remember that Mata Nui created the Makuta, who then created the Rahi, so neither ever existed on Bara Magna.
-- Looks like I will be appearing at New York Comic-Con in Manhattan on Saturday, February 7th, in the afternoon at the Papercutz booth. More details as I get them.
-- I am working on a six-par
A few pieces of news today --
1) I finally got a look at a pic of Mazeka today -- looks from the photo like he's an Onu-Matoran.
2) The Jan. 2009 sets are in our showroom now. Gotta say, very impressive. The new mask pieces are particularly cool shapes and the weaponry is slick too. On the whole, they manage to stay recognizably BIONICLE while still looking nicely different from past sets. I think the new pieces will probably be good for those who like to MOC, too. I will tell you up front
