35 replies to this topic

[Tazakk]

I recently aquired most of the rest of the MANIA Magazines (the LEGO Club Magazine Winter 1994 to March-April 2002) I hadn't already via Bricklink and I began to wonder whether it might be a good idea to upload the magazines for anyone to read. On numerous occasions, I have seen people mention how they wish something like this existed but it seems it has never been done.

The BioMedia Project has generously offered to host the magazines. They are currently being added to [a page on a website with forums] page, and later will find a home on Project Brick when it is launched.

Edited by Tazakk, Jul 29 2012 - 02:35 PM.

[rahkshi guurahk]

Yes.

[Meiko]

I'd love to see something like this done. Go ahead.

[Lyichir]

I recently aquired most of the rest of the MANIA Magazines (the LEGO Club Magazine Winter 1994 to March-April 2002) I hadn't already via Bricklink and I began to wonder whether it might be a good idea to upload the magazines for anyone to read. On numerous occasions, I have seen people mention how they wish something like this existed but it seems it has never been done.

Still, such a task is quite large and I thought I should ask around to see if there is enough interest before undertaking it.

So, my question to you is: Would you like to be able to access and read LEGO MANIA Magazines online?

This would be awesome. Are they in good condition? And are you planning to host them on your own website, or have you approached established Lego sites to see if they'd like to host them? I know a number of websites specializing in instruction scans or other Lego databases which would definitely like to have magazine scans as well. My only concern if you hosted them on another site would be whether that site would be linkable on BZPower.

[Tazakk]

Thanks for your replies, everyone!

This would be awesome. Are they in good condition? And are you planning to host them on your own website, or have you approached established Lego sites to see if they'd like to host them? I know a number of websites specializing in instruction scans or other Lego databases which would definitely like to have magazine scans as well. My only concern if you hosted them on another site would be whether that site would be linkable on BZPower.

Most of the issues are in near perfect condition, however I got them from a variety of sellers so some of them are a little worse for wear (March-April 1995 and January-Febuary 1997 are the worst).

I was actually quite uncertain as to where I might upload the magazines. I was considering Brickshelf or perhaps making a website using some free website maker. However, putting them on an already established LEGO site would probably be better- that way, more people would be likely to notice and enjoy the magazines. What site specifically were you thinking of? I know Brickset already has several Bricks n' Pieces issues...

[Lyichir]

Thanks for your replies, everyone!

This would be awesome. Are they in good condition? And are you planning to host them on your own website, or have you approached established Lego sites to see if they'd like to host them? I know a number of websites specializing in instruction scans or other Lego databases which would definitely like to have magazine scans as well. My only concern if you hosted them on another site would be whether that site would be linkable on BZPower.

Most of the issues are in near perfect condition, however I got them from a variety of sellers so some of them are a little worse for wear (March-April 1995 and January-Febuary 1997 are the worst).

I was actually quite uncertain as to where I might upload the magazines. I was considering Brickshelf or perhaps making a website using some free website maker. However, putting them on an already established LEGO site would probably be better- that way, more people would be likely to notice and enjoy the magazines. What site specifically were you thinking of? I know Brickset already has several Bricks n' Pieces issues...

Brickset was one of the ones I was considering, especially since it is, in fact linkable on BZP. Not to mention that unlike many instruction booklet resources, it is an English-language site.

[Tazakk]

The BioMedia Project has generously offered to host the magazines. They will be appearing on [a page on a website with forums] page, and later will find a home on Project Brick when it is launched.

Edited by Tazakk, Jul 29 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[jamesster]

All the LEGO Mania Magazines? Yes. Do want. There's a couple of sites out there with scans of some of them, but nowhere with a complete collection yet.

[avak3]

This is good, things like this need to be archived!

[Terra Nuva]

Awesome! Thank you so much. I have missed those.

[Nuparu1995]

If it were readily available to us, yeah, I'd definitely read it!

[Kohaku]

Oh man, I fully support the nostalgia something like this would create.

[Tazakk]

If it were readily available to us, yeah, I'd definitely read it!

Oh man, I fully support the nostalgia something like this would create.

I should've edited the first post earlier, but that's fixed now. The magazines uploaded so far are linked to on the bottom of [A page on a website with forums] page, with more coming every day.

Edited by Tazakk, Jul 29 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[Nuparu1995]

If it were readily available to us, yeah, I'd definitely read it!

Oh man, I fully support the nostalgia something like this would create.

I should've edited the first post earlier, but that's fixed now. The magazines uploaded so far are linked to on the bottom of this page, with more coming every day.

Sweet, thank you, sire!

[~~Zarkan~~]

Looking at these old issues almost makes me feel like I was a kid again. The Lego Mania Magazine was so much better than the barely-concealed advertisements that the current Lego mags are. It's crazy to think that its been years since TLC has printed a single building instruction in its pages. And you got to love how much effort the old mags put into connecting the playthemes with real world subjects - toys don't have to be totally vapid, you know.

Thanks for doing this, Tazakk!

[Tazakk]

Sweet, thank you, sire!

Looking at these old issues almost makes me feel like I was a kid again. The Lego Mania Magazine was so much better than the barely-concealed advertisements that the current Lego mags are. It's crazy to think that its been years since TLC has printed a single building instruction in its pages. And you got to love how much effort the old mags put into connecting the playthemes with real world subjects - toys don't have to be totally vapid, you know.

Thanks for doing this, Tazakk!

My pleasure! Be sure to thank -Auron- and the Biomedia Project, too. As you can probably tell from his post, he has contributed a lot to making this happen.

[Kohaku]

Oh man, I fully support the nostalgia something like this would create.

I should've edited the first post earlier, but that's fixed now. The magazines uploaded so far are linked to on the bottom of this page, with more coming every day.

Awesome, I didn't catch that, I'll definitely check them out.

[Sir Kohran]

Thanks for uploading these. They remind me of simpler, happier times that are unlikely to return.

From the first one:

'Send your completed entry by May 25th, 1995'

Is it too late to enter now?

[Tazakk]

I saw on another topic that the BioMedia Project is getting set to launch it's forums, so the links to the magazines have been removed. If you cannot find them, try Google.

Edited by Tazakk, Jul 29 2012 - 02:32 PM.

[BobaFett2]

Post them please. I never got to read them.

[Tazakk]

Post them please. I never got to read them.

I am not cetain that I can link to them directly here. Try running a Google search for "LEGO MANIA Magazine 1995" and see what pops up.

[jamesster]

Got any of the 1994 issues, or the first 1995 issue? Downloading May and July of '98 now, thanks for uploading these!

Edited by jamesster, Aug 12 2012 - 10:02 PM.

[Tazakk]

I don't have the Winter 1994 issue or the January/Febuary 1995 issue, but I know someone else uploaded them to the internet before and I have the pages saved on my computer. I may upload the pages as part of the archive if I get the original uploader's permission, but until then you may be able to find their original scans (I can't link to them here). Their copy of the 1995 issue is missing a page, the first half of the Adventures of the LEGO Maniac comic.

[Toa of the Blazing Inferno]

Are there any plans to scan the Club Magazines, or are they already in pdf form somewhere? I'd love to be able to back up my entire Lego Magazine collection on my computer, but I think I only have one Mania, if any, and the rest are Club.

[Tazakk]

Are there any plans to scan the Club Magazines, or are they already in pdf form somewhere? I'd love to be able to back up my entire Lego Magazine collection on my computer, but I think I only have one Mania, if any, and the rest are Club.

There are no definite plans, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I do not know if -Auron- would be interested in hosting any Club Magazines or the LEGO Magazines in between them and MANIA. I do have the majority of them, though, and I'm open to the idea of uploading scans.

I think it would be better if I made a descision after the school year has started, so I know how much time I will have to be working with. That way, I can decide if I could realistically undertake the project.

I'm not aware of pdfs of the magazines existing anywhere, except maybe the most recent of them on LEGO's website.

Edited by Tazakk, Aug 14 2012 - 01:26 PM.

[Toa of the Blazing Inferno]

Are there any plans to scan the Club Magazines, or are they already in pdf form somewhere? I'd love to be able to back up my entire Lego Magazine collection on my computer, but I think I only have one Mania, if any, and the rest are Club.

There are no definite plans, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I do not know if -Auron- would be interested in hosting any Club Magazines or the LEGO Magazines in between them and MANIA. I do have the majority of them, though, and I'm open to the idea of uploading scans.

I think it would be better if I made a descision after the school year has started, so I know how much time I will have to be working with. That way, I can decide if I could realistically undertake the project.

I'm not aware of pdfs of the magazines existing anywhere, except maybe the most recent of them on LEGO's website.

I guess I was thinking of the pdfs you made of the Manias. At least, they're pdfs now, if you didn't do it. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens, then.

[Tazakk]

I guess I was thinking of the pdfs you made of the Manias. At least, they're pdfs now, if you didn't do it. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens, then.

Ah, I see. Just to clarify, if I am not mistaken it is in fact -Auron- who makes the pdf files out of the scans I upload.

[Bambi]

A friend of mine found these, and I just want to say, thank you very much.

[Tazakk]

A friend of mine found these, and I just want to say, thank you very much.

Certainly!

As a general announcment, I would just like to say that I am still uploading issues and that they will be viewable eventually. At the moment, the BioMedia Project is transitioning to Wordpress, and so they (understandably) do not have the time to add magazines to the site.

[TehBestMemberEvar!1]

Thanks for the scans! Most recently, I checked out the two you have up from 2002 -- very nice to see. My subscription had run out at the time, and despite having received Mania for years, I didn't renew until ... well, until just recently. So I was seeing those ones for the first time!

On that note, you mentioned you would be open to uploading scans of later magazines. Since you have them all, I was wondering if you could help a severly OCD person (myself) out with a few questions I have been burning to find the answers to:

1) BS01 mentions that information reguarding the canceled Bionicle Legends #7 book was released through the LEGO magazine (about "the cord"). Is this true, and is the information substantive?

2) I was wondering if you knew if there was any substantive BIONICLE storyline information released through the LEGO magazine from 2002-2008. I'm not talking about the kind of fluff pages you see in the MANIA magazines, but more like the "Tale of the Toa" from the PDF version of the fourth BIONICLE comic.

Someone told me that there were bonus profiles of Dark Hunters (not included in the book) released through BrickMaster -- I wish I had scans of those, but such is life. I'm just trying to figure out what I need to track down or if you might be willing to share some scans of things I'm hoping to add to my digital collection.

Edited by TehBestMemberEvar!1, Sep 16 2012 - 04:07 AM.

[Tazakk]

Thanks for the scans! Most recently, I checked out the two you have up from 2002 -- very nice to see. My subscription had run out at the time, and despite having received Mania for years, I didn't renew until ... well, until just recently. So I was seeing those ones for the first time!

On that note, you mentioned you would be open to uploading scans of later magazines. Since you have them all, I was wondering if you could help a severly OCD person (myself) out with a few questions I have been burning to find the answers to:

1) BS01 mentions that information reguarding the canceled Bionicle Legends #7 book was released through the LEGO magazine (about "the cord"). Is this true, and is the information substantive?

2) I was wondering if you knew if there was any substantive BIONICLE storyline information released through the LEGO magazine from 2002-2008. I'm not talking about the kind of fluff pages you see in the MANIA magazines, but more like the "Tale of the Toa" from the PDF version of the fourth BIONICLE comic.

Someone told me that there were bonus profiles of Dark Hunters (not included in the book) released through BrickMaster -- I wish I had scans of those, but such is life. I'm just trying to figure out what I need to track down or if you might be willing to share some scans of things I'm hoping to add to my digital collection.

Are the magazines back up? That's funny. For some reason, I couldn't see them on the BMP site.

1. I'm pretty certain I would have remembered anything like this if it had ever happened, but I have a tendency to forget things like that. If there was anything, it was probably minimal and is already well-circulated around the internet. I'll double check and get back to you on that one, though.

2. Generally, it's fluff. Brickmaster had a few more in-depth BIONICLE themed features, but I don't think they introduced anything new. Oh wait! I just read your last sentence and that jogged my memory. Yes, there were two (possibly three?) exclusive Dark Hunters in LEGO Magazine. I'll dig those issues out and scan the pages.

Edited by Tazakk, Sep 16 2012 - 04:26 PM.

[TehBestMemberEvar!1]

The files are always up in the "bmp/files" folder of the site in question. That's the URL they directed us to when the site was down. You can click on the "LEGO" folder and you should be able to find the scans from there.

1. I'm pretty certain I would have remembered anything like this if it had ever happened, but I have a tendency to forget things like that. If there was anything, it was probably minimal and is already well-circulated around the internet. I'll double check and get back to you on that one, though.

Thanks! It's hard to know how accurate the information is from BS01. One of the problems that comes from discussing a "kids" franchise is people spreading misinformation more so than other topics. (If you recall the discussion about the alpha build of "The Legend of Mata Nui" PC game, people made bizarre claims that had no basis, and directly contradicted the emails I got from a few of the developers.)

2. Generally, it's fluff. Brickmaster had a few more in-depth BIONICLE themed features, but I don't think they introduced anything new. Oh wait! I just read your last sentence and that jogged my memory. Yes, there were two (possibly three?) exclusive Dark Hunters in LEGO Magazine. I'll dig those issues out and scan the pages.

Oooh ... that would be cool, if you have them! I don't want to be a burden, but I thought I'd mention them since you have the magazines, and have proved to be a reliable source of awesomeness in the past (when you started a topic for posting those "Legend of Lewa" comics, I bookmarked your brickshelf account -- it seems I missed a few things, like the 2001 version of the Bohrok comic scans, but the point is you're an authority on this kinda stuff to me).

[Toa of the Blazing Inferno]

I discovered this website when I was looking for scans of other magazines besides the mania, and I thought I'd share it here so others could benefit from it. It has magazines in a bunch of languages, and the English ones are at the bottom.

[Tazakk]

Oooh ... that would be cool, if you have them! I don't want to be a burden, but I thought I'd mention them since you have the magazines, and have proved to be a reliable source of awesomeness in the past (when you started a topic for posting those "Legend of Lewa" comics, I bookmarked your brickshelf account -- it seems I missed a few things, like the 2001 version of the Bohrok comic scans, but the point is you're an authority on this kinda stuff to me).

Here you go! I would be more than happy to re-upload the Bohrok comic, too - I was cleaning up my Brickshelf folder when I deleted that as I didn't think it was relevant to anyone but myself.

It's nice to hear that I am a reliable source of awesomeness!

[TehBestMemberEvar!1]

Here you go! I would be more than happy to re-upload the Bohrok comic, too - I was cleaning up my Brickshelf folder when I deleted that as I didn't think it was relevant to anyone but myself.

Thank you! I also looked through the available English language magazine scans from the link that Toa of the Blazing Inferno posted, and while they don't appear to have either of the scans you posted, they had one more Dark Hunter I didn't recognize. So looks like your gut instinct was right and there is a third!

Anyway, on that note, I was able to look through a bunch of the magazines I didn't have. They didn't have Brickmaster, but everything in the regular magazines looked like fluff. If you happen upon something that resembles an actual story or blog or whatever, I'd love to hear about it, but it looks like I'm not missing anything from the regular magazine if the available issues they had were any indication.

As far as the Bohrok comic with words, I'd love to see that, but feel free to take your time -- I'm not in a huge rush. I'm just grateful you're helping me out with scans and information!

It's nice to hear that I am a reliable source of awesomeness!

Yup! It's true. Your posts are always good.

In the spirit of milking this topic for all it's worth, does anyone still have the back side of the poster that came with the PowerPack? There's an ad for Bionicle.com in the lower right corner that shows the profile of Pohatu, and since I no longer have the original, I can't remember if the text is readable. I'm wondering because comic #2 says to go to Bionicle.com/Pohatu to find out how he got his first Great Mask, and the Wayback Machine never archived that page, and I wonder if the screen grab on the poster has that information.

[Toa of the Blazing Inferno]

Does anyone have the answer keys to the magazines from the clubcodes in the front? I have some 2010 ones and the one for the 2011 magazine that I have, but that's it.