Cwog

Wait, is that an official Mr. Gus blog? I'm confused. Very confused.

Hm... a protodermis cage... of course, rename it. We don't need that kind of confusion in Gen2 as well. But that idea is pretty cool.

Heck, look at democracies in the real world. Sure, everyone is on equal footing, but they usually elect a leader. That was exactly my point. The "Heck" in the beginning of my comment was showing that I agreed with you, and I was just providing another example.

I agree with you on some counts, but I do think the "they're not human, they don't need to look like us" argument is an oversimplification. No matter what species they are, we, the human viewers, are supposed to be able to relate to them. That's why they have humanoid hands, faces, legs, and arms. The idea of giving them other humanoid traits is certainly not off the table, whether or not those traits are useful or necessary from an in-story perspective. But at the same time, I think the idea that the Protectors look overtly masculine, or that female ones should look overtly feminine, is silly. Not because of their species, but because of their dwarfish proportions and bulky armor. Why would anybody expect human-like gender differences to be clearly discernible on a figure with armor and proportions like that? Right! I have a comparison to make actually. So, in the Halo series, certain military operatives called SPARTANs wear MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor. Look at a comparison of a male and female in the same exact armor, and you'll see that while in their armor, their gender is not easily discerned. http://www.halopedia.org/images/6/66/Six_M-F_Comparison.png The one on the left is male, while the one on the right is female. Now, the Bionicle armor is kind of like MJOLNIR on steroids. We can see little to nothing under the armor, so this really goes to show that the subtle visual differences between genders don't show through full body armor well.

Right, especially because it seems that Tahu has natural heat-resistance, either because of his own power, or his mask. In any case, the Region of Stone is a harsh place. Look at this screenshot of episode 3: https://i.imgur.com/BToK7Pz.jpg See the exhaustion in the PoF's eyes? It's hot, it's tiring, it's everything unpleasant, but then look at Pohatu. Still going strong. If he had any heavier armor, he'd be a lump of metal, melting in the sun.

The Morbuzahk in early 2004 is another example of a villain that's minor enough to leave nearly all the spotlight for the heroes to be introduced in. God yes, the Morbuzahk. Remembering it makes me insanely glad about the inclusion of Skull Spiders in the new Toa and Protector sets. They may not be much, but they provide much more potential for conflict play than the 2004 winter wave, which only had a single tangible villain (Ahkmou), who was never a major threat in direct combat and was not even revealed to have been villainous until midway through that year's story. Yeah, I was never a fan of enemies like the Morbuzakh that didn't actually exist in a form that you could play with. A lot of the enemies in the Throwbots and Roboriders themes had the same problem — they were entirely non-LEGO entities. Even Makuta in 2001 had this issue to some extent, though it wasn't nearly so bad in that case because at least then you had the Rahi for the Toa to fight. Hopefully by the time the rebooted storyline gets to the point where there's going to be an actual, physical confrontation with Makuta, he will be in some physical form, so we don't have to simply "imagine" the villain again. I get that LEGO is about imagination, but you're supposed to be able to build the things from your imagination, not imagine them because they have some nebulous form that can't be built. Yeah. I imagine us getting the Protector-sized Makuta first, but then he gets his hands on the Mask of Ultimate Power and turns red and black and gigantic again. That'd be an awesome doomsday kind of scenario: The island is shaking, falling apart, and Ekimu is powerless to stop it all. Cue the Toa, rushing in to save Okoto from evil in their greatest act of heroism. I can totally imagine it ending with Lewa or Pohatu speeding in, and stealing the MoUP, then handing it off to Kopaka. He freezes it, making it brittle and fragile, then he tosses it on the ground. Onua raises his hammer in both hands, and slams down on the mask with all his elemental power. That would be cool.

What play value? I certainly never had fun putting the figures back in their canisters. Like, never.

Well, Munty, that's just the thing. These are toys first, collectibles second, and parents buying these for their kids don't want canisters cluttering the house/apartment. Trust me, we keep ours in the attic for a reason. Back in January, when I bought Lewa, Gali, Pohatu, and their Protectors, the first thing I did after building them was recycle the boxes. The instructions went soon after, as I had already downloaded the instructions to my Onedrive in December. Point is, unless you really want to collect the containers the sets are in... and I honestly don't know why you would (but to each their own)... these boxes are the best form of packaging Bionicle has utilized, ever.

While I agree with you, we're only 4 months in. Have patience. The worldbuilding will come.

Wait, what are? Mahri canisters? Mistika canisters? I assume you mean the 2015 ones as none of the gen 1 canisters were ever even remotely cereal boxes. But noone in any of those posts was talking about 2015 sets were they? I think that whole debate was more about the pros and cons of large shaped plastic pieces like the Mahri and Phantoka had vs the extra space for graphic design provided by other more regular packaging methods. That doesn't strictly mean cardboard boxes though, a whole bunch of the early plastic canisters had wrap around artwork without being cereal boxes Again, fixed Salvus's typo. He was referring to the 2015 boxes. What is your deal with them, though, Decepticonwarrior? LEGO has moved on from the older, more expensive, less eco-friendly containers, and gone to new packages that do their job just fine, if not better. Is this your vandetta against Gen2, in just another form? I think that the boxes are great. If not for the marketing value, they're better for the planet! Who doesn't want that?

The Morbuzahk in early 2004 is another example of a villain that's minor enough to leave nearly all the spotlight for the heroes to be introduced in. Right! You know, sometimes I forget about the Morbuzahk, because it tested the Toa when they were new and young, but it left the spotlight on them. Rather insignificant, really, but was a worthy opponent at the time. I feel that that's the role the Lord of Skull Spiders took... that is, if he really is gone now. I think he might come back.

The number of members who have been online since the start of this year is just under 2000. I didn't think so much of our userbase was inactive. In any case, my point still stands.

I don't know quite what you mean by 'game-breaking', but the lethal platforms have been stopping us from seeing the rest of the CD's content (and perhaps the rest of the whole game) for over ten years. Just about 14 years, really. And by "game-breaking", they mean the bug renders the game unplayable.

Really impressive mix of CCBS, technic, and System. All in all, a solid MOC. I especially love the bow and axes.

I think this is a pretty cool concept. I'll go through my analysis of each individually. Balta: I get that you were trying to get a gold color scheme to work, but... it's not amazing. Balta's original color scheme was maroon, dark gray, silver, and keetorange. It worked pretty well for him. Also, I know that LDD doesn't have a Huna in it, but I think Balta probably would have kept it. In addition, the lower arms need to be swiveled 90 degrees to allow for the right amount of pose-ability. As for those silver bohrok eyes on his feet, either make them gold or switch the entire color scheme over to silver. Hafu: The weapons are creative; they're alright. Why are only his lower legs black? What about doing it like Lewa, and having tan and black on each arm? Just a thought. Now, for his shoulder armor. If those were actually the Bionicle add-on pieces, putting them on both the upper and forearm would incredibly limit elbow movement. I'd suggest removing the forearm armor. These are both solid, but as I pointed out, there are a few design flaws, or at least, my own personal gripes. Good work on these! I'm looking forward to seeing the new ones as you "release" them. Good luck.

Never mind. That's just Destiny, no mention of Unity or Duty. If I remember, the Three Virtues were introduced very early on in the gen1 story, so while I don't necessarily think it's too late to bring it back, why would they? Pretty sure the UDD was released in 2003 with the Mask of Light Movie. Anyway, if they wanted to bring Unity Duty Destiny back, they've already introduced the most confusing virtue, destiny, back in as the story has opportunity. The other virtues haven't had an opportunity to be added in yet, which could indicate that they will be added in as the story has opportunity. (We've already had a scene showing teamwork beating LoSS, so I have the feeling that Unity isn't far away, even if it is never named.) But you asked why would they? Probably the same reason they introduced it in the first place - an easy moral code that's easy to remember and acronym. It actually reduces confusion as to how the "good" morals of the Toa work, and compacts it down into three little words like any good marketing tagline. I can see your point there. Maybe the Protector of Ice already told Kopaka about all this, and these are the strict morals he works hard to keep? That'd be interesting.

Well, would you look at that! I've been waiting for a CCBS/Technic rifle like this. I could give it to Kopaka, and he would use it and his eye-scopes to be an amazing sniper. Seriously though, when will Fett's be revealed? That Mandalorian armor... yum.

Y'know, here's hoping that we get quality games these coming years. Other than the MNOG series and a few other games, most of them were sub-par. Not really amazing, and I'm being generous here. Check out the Biomedia Project and play some of the games. They're... eh... At least Mask of Creation seems to have quite a bit of effort put in.

I like the way you think, friend. Of course, at this point, we have no idea what the Protectors' species is, let alone the Toa's. Are they mammalian? Reptilian? Completely organic wearing armor? Robots? We have no clue. I'm personally really interested in the past of the Toa. They seem to be from the past or future, but which one? Where are they from? I'm really hooked by Gen2, to say the least.

Never mind. That's just Destiny, no mention of Unity or Duty. If I remember, the Three Virtues were introduced very early on in the gen1 story, so while I don't necessarily think it's too late to bring it back, why would they?

SNIPSNIP SNIPSo, more room for the legal text no one cares about? No. More room that ISN'T taken up by the legal text no one cares about. That legal text is required by law to be there and be a certain size, which means that on a canister like the Mahri canister, there's much, much less usable space for more appealing design elements like environmental art, alternate product shots, and creative borders and layout. tl;dr, Printing on all sides (8, in this case) is very, very good.

Heck, look at democracies in the real world. Sure, everyone is on equal footing, but they usually elect a leader.

There's nothing about the image in question that tells us that the price is in U.S. dollars. Even if it had a dollar sign that wouldn't be confirmation, because that sign is used for a lot of different currencies, including ones that are much smaller in value than U.S. dollars. So you're right. Sorry bout that.

I wouldn't call the Mahri canisters "the best of both worlds". Frankly, I'd almost call them the worst of both worlds. They're not practical as reusable storage, not good for the environment, expensive to produce (at least, compared to foil or cardboard packaging), not able to be printed on all sides, not able to be stacked vertically, and not collapsible. Their playability was pretty much their only redeeming quality.What does printing on all sides have to do with anything? Fixed some typos you had. To answer the question, though, it creates more room to put information that should be on the packaging, legal and safety stuff aren't made almost unreadable to fit. Also, I'm going to assume that printing on cardboard is cheaper than printing on stickers, which are then put onto the plastic.

Alright, so maybe my prices are a bit off. Sorry bout that, non-Americans!