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Earlier I was looking at how this year's Hero Factory sets compare to similarly-priced BIONICLE sets in terms of complexity. Turns out they fare rather well. Let's look at one in particular: 44024 Tunneler Beast. Tunneler Beast is a $9.99 set coming out this summer (as such, it's at the lowest price point for this year's sets). It boasts 59 pieces (45 if you don't include the minifigure or his accessories) and 20 points of articulation (15 if you don't include the jaw and fingers, which only rotate along one axis each). A typical Piraka cost $9 in 2006, which according to WolframAlpha would be about $10.60 in today's money. Each Piraka had 41 pieces (plus one extra for Hakann and Thok's weapons) and 13 points of articulation. If we reach back a bit further, the Vahki cost $9 each in 2004, which would be $11.32 today according to WolframAlpha. Each one of those had just 32 pieces and only 10 points of articulation (perhaps eleven or twelve if you count the squeezable launcher-jaws, but that's being extremely generous since those couldn't really hold a pose). Now, obviously I'm being a bit selective here. There are a number of BIONICLE canister sets that had more pieces than Tunneler Beast, particularly if you don't include the minifigure and accessories (though several of those sets, like the Toa Mahri, are inflated by lots and lots of ammo pieces, not to mention a plethora of pins and axles). I don't know if any canister sets have more points of articulation than Tunneler Beast, though. Chirox had just 17 including the chest that splits open, and Pridak had just 16 even if you count the mandibles separately. Even Gorast, with her six limbs, had just 18 points of articulation including the wings! And in any case, you have to be just as selective to suggest that Hero Factory, as it exists today, is considerably LESS complex than BIONICLE sets of similar size or price. Just food for thought. I'm personally fascinated how far Hero Factory has advanced since 2010, when the $7 hero sets were pitifully simplistic and repetitive even by BIONICLE standards. There are some rumors floating around that Hero Factory might be ending soon, and now that it's been around for four and a half years those rumors are starting to seem more believable than every other year of its life that they've been thrown about. But we've been assured that its building system is here to stay, and that gives me great confidence that the NEXT constraction theme will not be hindered by such a rocky start. The new building system really did put Hero Factory on the fast track to greater complexity and diversity of designs, and this year I feel like the Hero Factory sets in general not just one or two have finally stepped out of the long shadow of their BIONICLE predecessors.

Too bad nothing more under "Legends" is going to ever be produced to continue that timeline. :/ I'm really really upset about this. I was excited for VII, but now knowing that sure, Luke, Leia, and Han will show up on screen, but that they won't be the same ones I've cared about for twenty years really ruins it for me.

That is for you to question and for me to mysteriously dance around.

Behold this glorious beast: That's right - it has been announced that Super Smash Bros. 4 will be playable using the almighty Gamecube controller! Let us all bow down and praise Lord Helix, for truly he has delivered us a wondrous thing. Also, if that picture is any indication, we will not only be able to use Gamecube controllers... but Nintendo might be releasing special Smash themed brand new Gamecube controllers as well! While it might not be the standard controller of the console (although if Nintendo truly loves us they will make it so with their next console), it is nice to see Nintendo acknowledging that the GCN controller is the best of their arsenal. The only way this announcement could have been better is if they had announced Agnes Oblige as a new character in the game alongside it.

Do you watch YouTube videos? Of course you do; this is the internet. When you watch a YouTube series (if you don't then just pretend) where each episode is roughly 9-30 minutes long, how often do you like them released? Twice a week? Once a week? Every two weeks? TN

the reason my hand is in the picture is I found that the Micromanager is both top-heavy and front-heavy and thus falls flat on its face when you try to stand it up. I suspect that's why there are no movie-accurate micromanagers in the sets.

Dude, I wish my favorite series went twice a week.

SO GOOD

I suppose I just yearn for Bionicle's aesthetic. A lot of sets, particularly the early ones (the Toa Metru being my favorite example) looked a lot more cohesive and complex than HF sets. For all its versatility, the HF system can't match the level of detail and unique character personality that Bionicle sets often had. I feel like the stark, geometric shapes of HF pieces aren't particularly "cool" or believable. The edges and backs of HF armor in most sets makes the character look incomplete. Maybe it's the nostalgia, but the pinholes and Y-sockets in the first four or five years of Bionicle never felt that out of place. Later sets, though very original build-wise in general and creative in their parts use, started to look less cohesive in many cases, but still more aesthetically pleasing to me that the last couple of years of HF. Also, I feel that points of articulation are over-stressed in discussions of playability. Yes, as far as creating cool poses go, any and every joint adds new possibilities. And few key joints really matter- a lack of shoulder, elboy, knee, hip, or heat articulation is usually a bad thing. But I find a solid build, with a good frame work and no more joints than necessary, to facilitate really satisfying play (or just handling, if you don't "play" anymore [you do and you know it]). You can't adjust the pose of a set well in the middle of a dynamic fight scene without pausing and carefully adjusting each joint. Adjusting the joints involves forethought, dexterity, and the ability to change that one joint without your grip on the toy messing up the toy's whole pose. Designing sets to make posing quick, intuitive, and satisfying is what matters to me, and I don't think HF sets as a rule really facilitate that. There are exceptions, but for me most sets with many legs with multiple joints each are very inconvenient to pose, especially is those legs are too close or too far from each other. I love the Rahkshi and Vahki because they're so satisfying to play with. The single-piece arms lacked elbow joints but looked so dynamic and cool with their respective staffs you only needed that one joint- in fact, I had more fun with them because they lacked elbow joints to keep track of. I'm not saying that HF sets need similar functions, but the arm-waving gear function was convenient to use in a dynamic play environment and did more to produce and absorbing play experience than any number of joints. Their legs were well-proportions and fun to use. I'm no longer the younger kid I once was, so the playstyles of the target age group have changed since then. But while HF set design has been getting truly excellent in creativity and value in the last few years, I feel like the direction they're going in as far as playability is concerned is a good. I will say that some recent play features I really love, like the soft-tube wing motion in the recently reviewed Chi sets. I just think that joints don't add as much to the product as a lot of people say they do. Edit: Just realized how much I wrote. Um.

it's mine tho :c - Indigo Individual

Maybe when I get my new headphone amp I'll take some pics. : P

I back up the Princess Tutu recommendation; I wasn't actually certain if anyone else had seen it on here before; but I'm six episodes in, and it's pretty interesting.

Steins;Gate is my current favorite, and I'm just starting Attack on Titan, which seems interesting so far.

Tomorrow I will be out of town for a week and may or may not have Internet access during that time. So I might not post the next chapter of In the End on Monday or the next story in The Biological Chronicle series, nor will I be on BZP in general during that time. Just thought y'all should know so nobody thinks I dropped off the face of the earth or anything, heh. -TNTOS-

I feel like this conversation isn't complete without a puff of smoke. so *puff of smoke*

my parents' 31st wedding anniversary We had a small breakfast at our Hyannis hotel, then checked out, loitering in the lobby at the business-center computers looking up routes to Boston until the dealership called. They called, and we left, the last time I'd ever be in that terrible excuse for a car, the loaner Saab. As always, it barely turned over, but it got us to the dealership amid rain, wind, and cold blowing in off of the Atlantic. Back in our car by 12:15, we rolled out of the dealership and made good time off of Cape Cod. We stopped for gas a little before 1:00, knowing that we'd likely get snarled up in traffic as we approached Boston. We'd looked at several different routes, but there was little difference in time between them - going up secondary roads or just sucking it up and going up the Interstate into Boston would get us there at the same time. As such, we just decided to go up the Interstate, which would be the most direct route. Our first stop, however, was the town of Plymouth, site of the famous Plymouth Rock. We found some parking and got out to see the rock, which is underneath a neo-Gothic façade which keeps people from touching it yet keeps it on the beach, near its original location. While it has shrunk in size to about a third of what it was - due to tourists grabbing their own chunks, as well as the natural forces of erosion - and has been moved from its original location for display elsewhere, it's still there to see. I wish I could say that it was impressive, but ... well, it's just a rock. There's really not a whole lot to it. Plymouth Rock itself is in a complex also housing a replica of the Mayflower, which we would have gone to - but the weather was very bad. It threatened to rip hats off and send us flying into the air aloft on our umbrellas à la Mary Poppins. The cold - about 50 degrees - turned into a biting chill with the help of the wind, and the rain, while not hard, sliced diagonally at anyone unfortunate or insane enough to be walking around. We made surprisingly good time out of Plymouth and onto the Interstate up to Boston. Traffic increased and there were some slower sections, but we never came to a complete stop. Along the way, the most interesting thing was a truck built to re-arrange the concrete barriers along the side of the highway. It'd roll through the lane, feed the barriers through its body, and deposit them on the other side, thus marking off the lane. At 1:49 we crossed over the river into the Boston city limits, and a little after 2:00 we'd parked in a parking deck in Cambridge, just across from the U.S.S. Constitution. The ship - "Old Ironsides" - was our first stop of the day, although we tried to keep our time spend outside to a minimum. The Constitution was never officially decommissioned, and thus could still officially be sent into active duty - although her weaponry is over 200 years out of date. We toured around above and below deck, saw some things, asked a few questions ... but all in all, there was nothing particularly special or mind-blowing about this ship as compared to other old ships I've been on. As far as history is concerned, the Constitution has a long and gloried one - many victories in the War of 1812, a trip around the world in the 1840s, and has sailed under her own power in 1997 and 2012. From the Constitution, we hoofed it over to Bunker Hill. Though the celebrated Battle of Bunker Hill was a victory for the British - a fact sometimes overlooked or downplayed by jingoistic historians - the casualties for the British were immense. The American loss was due to lacking another round of ammunition for their muskets - when the ammo was out and hand-to-hand fighting commenced, the British were the only ones with bayonets. One of the more interesting characters in the battle was Joseph Warren, a doctor who was commissioned as a Major General in the Massachusetts militia shortly before the battle began. He opted instead to enter the battle as a private, and was killed during the final British assault. His death served to spur on the movement for independence, as he was the first real martyr of the Revolutionary War. After the battle, his mangled body was identified by none other than Paul Revere, who organized a proper Masonic burial. Despite having relatively little impact while alive, he was immortalized in statues and in town and county names across the nascent nation. Ironically, most of the fighting at the Battle of Bunker Hill didn't actually take place on Bunker Hill, but rather on nearby Breed's Hill. While most of these hills are now taken up by quaint houses, the spot where Warren was killed now has an immense stone obelisk. We got our tickets inside the Bunker Hill museum and proceeded to walk up the hill. For the obelisk is not a solid structure - it's hollow, with 294 granite steps to the top. It was a long walk - one which I made much faster than my parents - but the views from the top were excellent, although the windows were rather small. After resting from the climb at the top (and looking down the grate right down the center of it), we went back all 294 steps, which was a considerably easier endeavor. With some light left, we headed back out into Boston itself - technically these first two stops were in Cambridge - along the Freedom Trail, a link between historical sites in and around Boston denoted by red bricks in the pavement. Getting to Boston meant walking over a bridge. The walking surface was a massive grate, which meant that one could look down all the way into the water below ... (At the beginning of the bridge, there's a spray-painted sign on the ground: "Acrophobia Friendly Zone." I don't think they're kidding.) Once across the bridge, we decided - a little on the spur of the moment - to eat in an Italian restaurant. It was exceptionally authentic - I'm pretty sure our server was the owner and a first-generation Italian-American. I got a dish of calamari (tentacles and all - yum!) served with a rich tomato sauce over linguine. My parents got the same thing, some sort of crab-farfalle concoction which was a little bit of a let-down. Despite this, we enjoyed the authenticity, appreciated a little time away from the bustle of Boston, and really came to appreciate the quick service. We got to the Old North Church five minutes before they closed up. It's still in use today, and you can tell that they've kept it up - the pews are boxed off and rented out to families, who could, historically, do what they wanted to do with regards to decorating them. The pulpit was accessible by spiral staircase, the week's hymns were put on a board for all to see, and the place, in general, looked simply divine - pun intended. Leaving the Old North Church, we continued along the trail to Paul Revere's house. We got there just a few minutes before it closed as well, and were able to have enough time to leisurely work our way through the four rooms of the house open on the tour and pick the brains of the two ladies who served there as tour guides. We learned interesting information on the production of accidental stained glass, the fate of Paul Revere's manufacturing company, his immense family, and architectural trends of different periods, as the downstairs was decorated like the 1690s, when the structure was built, and the upstairs like the 1790s, when the Reveres lived there. Working our way back, we noticed something - we were in Little Italy. We heard Italian spoken on street corners, saw dozens of Italian restaurants, and saw three shady-looking characters dressed in all black, loitering outside a building. I generally like to assume the best in people, but I'd honestly be surprised if those guys weren't involved in some kind of black-market dealings. They were simply too stereotypical. With the wind and rain having long since stopped, we worked our way back through the quaint and surprisingly quiet little neighborhoods, then back out over the bridge and finally to the car. We'd managed to do everything we'd come to do in a little less than four hours. At 6:00 we left the parking garage and began worming our way out of Boston. This was insane, mainly because we had to go through a traffic circle. Now, traffic circles are generally not that bad. In fact, for most low-traffic intersections, I'd like to see more traffic circles. But this one had about a million people in it, a million people trying to get off of it, a thousand people cutting a thousand other people off, and exactly zero demarcated lanes. You read that right - there were none of those handy dashed lines to mark off the lanes, which turned the traffic circle into a road-rage-fueled free-for-all. After getting through this mess, we were confronted with even more roads without lane markings, until we finally were back on the Interstate, with the same start-stop traffic as earlier. After a few interchanges, we made it to the hotel. Now, most hotels are generally built as a solid block, with the lobby, amenities, and maybe a few rooms on the first floor, with the upper floors devoted exclusively to rooms. This hotel is built nothing like that - it's sprawling, spreading its wings and floors out to fifteen different counties and three time zones. It took ten minutes of walking to get to a room only a floor above the lobby. After a long day of walking - not to mention up and down those 294 steps - we really weren't looking forward to walking anywhere, but we were still hungry and we knew we had to. With the traffic of the day, it was an easy decision to eat at the hotel. My parents split a lobster roll, and I got the second-largest sandwich that I've ever seen, which consisted of a massive hunk of fried cod, garnished with massive slices of vegetables - but, despite the immenseness of both tomato and lettuce, they just seemed puny when compared with the enormousness of the fish. I ate it all. We finished it off with a cheesecake garnished like a turtle - caramel and chocolate sauce over the top, with three chunks of walnut over that. Tomorrow: more history at Concord and Lexington before heading north to New Hampshire. The second leg of this trip is about to begin.

BZP Mafia is like an addiction. When you stop partaking in said addiction, you go through withdrawal. Said withdrawal is your immediate demise.