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Master Inika

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Year 16

About Master Inika

  • Birthday 03/18/1996

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    Male
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    Florida, United States
  • Interests
    *LEGO
    *BIONICLE
    *Star Wars
    *Writing
    *Religion
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    helixman101

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Defender of Mata Nui

Defender of Mata Nui (139/293)

  1. I knew these specific images were prototypes, it's obvious because of the rip cord color. There are tons of other Visorak images that aren't like this, though. When I clicked this, I thought you meant ALL Visorak images.
  2. I like the blending of HF and Bionicle G1 and G2 pieces. They go together nicely. Between the two, I think Nex has a more unified look. Rocka's Hero Core looks too obscured and I also don't get what the bump on his right forearm is supposed to be, but I like Rocka's industrial-looking color scheme. Overall they are both good models, especially Nex.
  3. Chapter 4 Wane wandered the desolate landscape of RF-34. The small settlement, one of only a handful on the planet, appeared tiny in the background, but he would have more than enough time to make it back for his shuttle departure. Walking the empty, liminal environment helped him clear his processors and make sense of the previous day's misadventure. "Hero Gregory Wane," he muttered to himself, before laughing at how ridiculous it sounded. In his head, he imagined being in an emergency situation like that would have been horrifying. Indeed, it was; his rest the previous night had been fraught and full of nightmares. But, when he awoke, he found himself excited, and almost disappointed he would never face such a thrilling situation again. Maybe, in some small way, Mr. Fuse had been right. Wane's musings were interrupted by the sight of a Hero Craft approaching in the distance, making its way toward the settlement. Wane should have known his pod would have been tracked. If the landing team followed standard Hero operating procedure, then they had already performed a full techno-organic scan of the planet and picked him up. Unless Wane could lose them in these mountains, he would be found for sure. *** Wane pressed his body up against the rock wall. A pair Heroes, one male and one female, trailed him. Having found this mountain range only shortly before they did, his knowledge of it was only slightly more precise. Unless he thought of another fancy trick, they would catch him in due time. Then, Wane noticed something about the howling wind that perpetually sang throughout the quarry. He felt foolish for having not picked up on it before: it was not wind, it was chanting. Following the sound of the monophonous noise, he came upon a monastery, built right into the rock itself. About a dozen monk-bots performed a ritual in the open courtyard, before the gaping mouth of the nearby cave that served as the entrance to their monastery. Judging by the size of the mountain it entered into, the monastery could have gone on for miles inside. Better still, the dozen cultists wore brown cloaks indistinguishable from Wane's own. Wane rushed downward, stopping right as he came to the circle of cultists. He did his best to emulate their hand gestures, though he knew how painfully he must stick out: the dozen chanters were arranged in a perfect dodecagon, so his inclusion as a thirteenth would stand out to his pursuers for sure. To his surprise, though, the cultists adjusted themselves accordingly, making him look just like he belonged there. He did not know why they were covering for a total stranger like him, but he would have time to thank them later. His pursuers had arrived. Wane watched out of the corner of his optical sensors as they approached. Before they fully reached the circle of chanters, an aged monk-bot in ornate robes, bearing a gold staff, walked out to meet them. Wane tried to listen to their conversation: "--tracked a renegade Hero out here," one of the Heroes, the female, was saying. "Renegade?" the old monk said, following by something too soft for Wane to make out, then, "Surely, Makuro will respect our..." Wane, again, could not make out the following word. Maybe "agreement"? The male Hero said something, the words indistinct but the tone clearly displeased. The female said something that calmed him down. "Perhaps you will stay for evening vigil," the old monk, seemingly oblivious to the Heroes' exasperation, offered. The Heroes said only a few more words, and then departed. Wane breathed a sigh of relief too soon. Upon turning around, he found himself faceplate-to-faceplate with the aged robot. The rust and exposed wiring around his eyes and mouth made it clear this bot was even older than Mr. Makuro. "Welcome, friend," he said. "I am Father Progenitax. Please, you'll want to join me inside." *** The interior of the monastery was just as spacious as Wane thought it could have been. The upper floor was composed of a large area, which looked as if it should have caused a cave-in but apparently did not, with several tunnels going down deeper into the earth. "Your friends will not bother us again," Father Progenitax explained. "We have an understanding with Hero Factory. We render no aid to their enemies, and they respect our sacred boundaries." "Interesting," Wane said. He recalled learning about these ancient brotherhoods in Hero Relations. There had been a controversy, some years back, when a Hero or someone claiming to be one chased a bandit into one such domain and, in performing his arrest, accidentally destroyed some ancient artifact. Since then, these communities have not been receptive to Hero presence, and for once, galactic public opinion was against the Heroes. Father Progenitax stopped abruptly. Wane followed his lead, and noticed that they stood before a cell carved into the wall of the cave. "Before we proceed," the Father said, "I must inform you, too, of our prohibition on weapons within the sacred grounds." He held out his hand. Not knowing how Progenitax knew of it, Wane drew his knife and surrendered it to the Father, who gave it to a monk-bot who appeared beside them, only to scurry off into the darkness with it. Inside Progenitax's cell, the two bots enjoyed a shared bowl of oil, conveyed into their servos by the same spoon. "Your home is beautiful," Wane said. "A little dark and cramped for my tastes, but, beautiful. Why, though, do you live like this? We're machines, aren't we? We're not meant to live away from power grids and urban cities like this." "Let me ask you a question," Progenitax asked in turn. "Who created us?" Wane had to stop for a moment, not because he thought it was a difficult question but because the wording sounded strange to his audio receptors. "Well, obviously, Hero Factory made me," was his answer. "I don't know what you were originally built for, if you were a construction bot or security bot, but--" Progenitax raised a gentle but firm hand. "Not you and me," he clarified. "I mean, who created us? Who created robotkind?" When Wane did not have a response, Progenitax, pleased, explained: "If you consult the historical records of the secularists, they will tell you that no one knows where we come from, that we simply appear with no explanation. We know better. We have preserved the true history of the universe." The old monk pulled out an ancient book--not a holo-book like the ones Wane was familiar with, but a bound codex of vellum parchment--and opened it. Wane did not recognize the ancient script, but the pictures made sense as Progenitax spoke: "There was an ancient race of Soft Ones, who wore no armor. It was they who made us, the first robots, their children as well as their slaves. We worked for them, building shining cities for them to live on, performing tasks for them and turning earth into their heaven." Progenitax turned the page. While the first illustrations had made Wane feel warm inside, showing in simple art the love that existed between the first robots and their creators, the next page made Wane want to turn off his visualizers. Progenitax continued: "Then, we fought for them their horrible wars. The Soft Ones were almost annihilated. They only survive on a few far-flung worlds now. It was we alone who inherited their glorious city-planets. And now, the truth survives only in monasteries, far from the temptations of urbanity, such as we, the Order of Cognizant Creations." The old robot gave Wane a moment to process this information. And then, when the glow in Wane's eyes began to return to normal, Progenitax said, "You could, of course, remain here, under our protection." "Really?" Wane said. "You mean, become one of you?" Progenitax nodded his head yes. "You would not be the first Hero to join our number." Many thoughts ran through Wane's CPU, but only one important one: the prospect that, just maybe, his old friend, Petunia Fall, had somehow escaped Makuhero City before him and had come to settle on this very monastery as well. Review Topic
  4. Consider this to be an addendum to my recent topic about the BIONICLE Dream. I tried my best to make that topic normal and not too depressing (and I will leave to you how successful I was). Since BIONICLE has ended (and by that I mean since 2010; G2 barely registered for me as an event), BIONICLE itself, the time from when I got my first set in 2003 to 2010, feels like my own personal "time before time." On one hand, it does feel like time existed as a BIONICLE fan, and even that BIONICLE is what made me aware of time. Before 2003 (when I was seven years old), my memories are emotional but do not take place in any particular order. After 2003, it feels much more structured, like each years builds up to the next. When someone says 2005, for example, even in a context related to a movie or something else from pop culture or current events, my first thought is Web of Shadows (along with Revenge of the Sith). I do remember, post-2010, each year feeling much less meaningful or distinct. I had learned to almost need a new wave of BIONICLE sets and lore to feel like a year has properly passed, as weird as that is to admit. I still feel that way now. I do suppose that those years, from ages 7 to 14, it is probably normal to feel that way about the passage of time, I just find it interesting how perfectly it synced up with BIONICLE. I recall from the MNOG behind-the-scenes documentary, the game designers knew that the kids into BIONICLE were not necessarily the popular kids, and that's why they chose the weirdos of each village (Taipu, the Onu-Matoran who liked sunlight; Tamaru, the Le-Matoran afraid of heights, etc.) to be the heroes of the day. In the case of characters like Kopeke, it feels sometimes like the Chronicler's Company was intentionally coded to be in some way neurodivergent, which might be why they resonated with us so much. Toa Matoro feels very similar, I always found it profound that he thought of himself and others too thought of him as "just a translator" before 2007. I have heard people who weren't raised with BIONICLE say it's just plastic toys and give me a side eye for my huge collection, and I suppose from a strictly reductionist sense they are correct, but from watching videos like the first BIONICLE pitch video (on Christian Faber's YouTube channel Quest for Future Creativity) it really does seem to be that BIONICLE was crafted as if it were a legitimate form of genuine modern mythology as opposed to trinkets to keep kids occupied. Perhaps it is only because I was an introspective child and feel somewhat cheated by public school and the world, but BIONICLE feels much more like it was building up to something gratifying than anything else that was going on during my upbringing. Maybe this is a common feeling, or maybe I am just losing it. I guess that is what I meant my BIONICLE being my own personal "time before time." I've also been binging Code Lyoko lately, which might explain my wistful escapism. Maybe I will make another blog entry about that show, which is also a powerful source of nostalgia (though not as much as BIONICLE).
  5. I have not seen any topics about this phenomenon yet, even though I think it is mentioned quite frequently on other online BIONICLE spaces. Who else here has experienced The Dream? If you have had it, you probably know what I mean, but on the off chance you do not, I am referring to dreaming of finding BIONICLE sets on store shelves again. I've noticed many different variations, some people dreaming of old sets being rereleased and other dreaming of brand new sets. As for me, I have found that my BIONICLE-in-stores dreams are usually of classic sets being rereleased with new, somewhat minimalist-looking packaging. In one of the few I concretely remember, they were rereleases of the Bohrok Va, only with white backgrounds similar to the 2006 Matoran. I will also mention that my dreams usually take place in department store landscapes resembling Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us (naturally, where I actually bought BIONICLE sets when they were being sold). Usually in my dreams, the layout of these stores is not something I am familiar with, as if I have an idea of where things should be but the store has been remodeled recently. (I am always annoyed when this happens to me IRL.) Usually, The Dream begins with me looking around the store for something else like food or other regular groceries and being stunned to come across rows of BIONICLE sets. Usually, as with the Walmart/Target department store landscape, the store is white and fairly clean, though I did have one Dream that took place in something more like an outdoor Middle Eastern bazaar (that one was surreal). I wish I kept track of when/how frequently I have had The Dream. I do keep a dream journal, but for some reason I have never written down my "The Dream" BIONICLE dreams. I suppose I can't usually describe specific ones that concretely, beyond "I dreamed I saw BIONICLE in the store again." It is only with the benefit of a few years of hindsight that I can identify these trends, at least the ones unique to me. In the past few years, I have gathered up quite a few empty BIONICLE canisters for sale. For anyone similar existential and nostalgic for the old days, I recommend it if your budget/space allows. Setting them all up in a row really does recreate something of that happy feeling (and it is even better if you can fill the canisters up with loose parts for the sound and feel of a canister full of fresh parts). So, I suppose I am asking for others' experiences with The Dream and general post-BIONICLE malaise as well. Honestly, I would love to have The Dream again, but it has been a few months. I wish I could lucid dream, but I never developed the discipline.
  6. Good catch, I always assumed it was one of the Piraka and they just drew a sphere instead of a canister because the spheres had been in store (in the form of the Toa Metru canisters' lids) more recently.
  7. The first picture made me think, "Huh, I don't know what he's going for but it looks neat," but the second picture looks like some kind of crazy contraption Avak would make in his spare time. I didn't understand what you were trying to make until I saw the second picture. How well does it actually work firing Zamors? It seems to be that the construction is pretty precise, which is why I don't think the first image would actually work. When you think about how a Zamor Launcher really works, it puts quite a bit of stress on the two prongs, so I would be cautious that firing it more rapidly than manually with your fingers would take might damage the piece.
  8. I have never personally seen anything. I believe stuff I don't understand exists but I don't believe most people who say they've seen it.
  9. I like the speeder and the Matau build. The sled does a good job with the few seconds of screentime it has in the movie. I also love how it looks as a CGI render. I totally would have bought it in 2004 if it were a set. The little details about the Matoran's pre-Toa lives was fascinating to me.
  10. Took someone braver than me to say it. "Remember me," for what? Showing up, making a bunch of weird cryptic posts about private drama none of us understand, and dipping? I mean I will remember it but just as a bizarre couple of days on an otherwise quiet Bionicle forum.
  11. Does anyone else remember this show? I have been binging it recently (it's free on YouTube) and remembering how much I loved it as a kid.
  12. Unfortunate reality is that running a website is expensive. It’s worth it, though. It’s part of demonstrating that you have a real investment in the fandom and are not just chasing clout. I bought a temporary Premier Membership a while back and I’m still able to update my blog, so you can pick any option and still get a permanent blog.
  13. I finally got around to watching the video, and man was it epic. I wish I watched it earlier. I find it so fascinating how BIONICLE came about because LEGO wanted to make a bridge between System and TECHNIC, and BIONICLE ended up totally eclipsing TECHNIC. I don’t know the numbers (TECHNIC has definitely stayed in stores longer) but I never hear anyone nostalgic for those set, or having dreams about finding TECHNIC on shelves. It’s really a testament to how much of a surprise success BIONICLE was and how not even LEGO themselves knew what they were tapping into at the time.
  14. That’s the thing, putting effort into something isn’t something I can give you steps to do. If you want something you are publishing to be interesting, you’ll just naturally try to make it rewarding to engage with. There’s a little ticker at the bottom of the main forum page that says how many people are on BZPower. Right now there are five people with accounts (two of them being you and me) and 100-ish lurkers. This is a small fraction of what it used to be.
  15. 1) pick a more active venue than BZPower. The unfortunate truth is that this website doesn't get as much traffic as it used to and probably never will again. 2) respectfully, put more effort into your topics. Of the recent ones I have checked out from you, most of them were not things I found very interesting. Your recent question about whether you are allowed to put "Official" in a topic name is a basic yes/no question that I just assumed an administrator would eventually handle for you. [I think the answer is no, BTW, or at least it used to be. I once tried to make something like an "Official Rhotuka Spinner Power" topic some years ago and it got closed.] I don't know anything about the Pringles vlogs you mentioned in another topic. You don't actually mention BIONICLE that much. If you can write/draw or make MOCs, posting those would be the most baseline way of engaging with the BIONICLE community. 3) tying in to point 2, try not to post as many topics. A small number of higher-effort engagements will be better received than a ton of fairly low-effort posts bordering on spam. On a deeper level, though, not just BIONICLE fans but people in general don't like to follow creators who feel like they're trying to get popular. The people who get platforms are the ones with interesting talents or unique perspectives, not people going out of their way to just get popular. Hope you found this helpful.
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