That Matoran with a Vahi

Oh wow, I can't believe you all finished it! Sorry for vanishing; I got busy, and when that was over I took a look back at the RP but found I was completely lost, so I didn't try to get back in - but it's amazing to see it reach the point of wrapping up ^^ Congratulations to everyone for seeing the story through to the end Maybe I should read through it all sometime, find out all that I missed... I also have to wonder what even happened to my characters in-story; since they presumably kept on existing during this time and didn't just blip out of existence when I fell off the face of the RP, but just not accomplished anything else of note xD

Tangential: but why does Kualus sound like he hates Nivawk so much, in that quote that Bambi provided? Based on what Kualus says, I would have expected the preceding description to make it out to be a truly vile beast of unspeakable habits and mannerisms; but I see nothing in the text to justify calling it a "foul creature" which he implies to be deserving of mutation and / or death... is it just because of its association with Makuta that Kualus reviles Nivawk so? Or is it because it eats smaller fliers, and Kualus is a friend to all birds? I dunno, it's a bit off-topic, but that's just puzzling to me. Not least of which because I always thought Nivawk was cool...

These are fantastic! They're so cute... what you said further up the thread about them as blind-box figures, I'd love to get some of them if that ever became real! I've always loved the classic little Matoran designs, and these capture so perfectly everything that made them so appealing to me Having a little display of these as figures, particularly the ones who never got physical sets... like you say, would be a dream come true! I'm with those who love Wairuha and Akamai's jackets and keychains especially; and it's a really minor thing, but I really like the inclusion of the pins in Pohatu's legs too, it's the kind of tiny detail that adds so much character. Same with Hafu's tiny statue! And as a shameless shipper, I also really love the Hewkii x Macku one :3 Great work with all of these! I look forward to seeing who gets added next ^^

Onua Classic was my first ^^ It was waaaaaay back in January 2001, a couple of days after that year's first Lego World Club magazine dropped and introduced me to the wonders of this little thing called Bionicle... For subsequent years... My first 2002 set was Tahnok; 2003 was Lehvak-Kal; 2004, Toa Whenua and Ahkmou; 2005, a five-pack of the Rahaga (Pouks was the missing one); 2006, Kazi and Garan; 2007, Kalmah (not my first choice, but the only Barraki that was in stock anywhere at first!); 2008, Pohatu Phantoka, Antroz and Icarax (I had a lot of Christmas spending money to burn...); 2009, Fero & Skirmix (and also the only set I really bought that year) 2010, Tahu Star I didn't get any G2 sets at the time, I was in my 'dark age' and missed it completely; though Lewa Uniter ultimately became my first 2016 set a few years later.

I used to, for the longest time; it was the easiest way to store the sets when I wasn't playing with them, and I had some sturdy cardboard fruit boxes that most of the canisters fit nicely into and could be stacked on top each other, to save space. I started to go off that method of keeping them around 2006 / 2007, though, when the Inika canisters were too tall and rectangular to fit this arrangement, the Barraki couldn't be fit back into theirs without being seriously dismantled first, and the Mahri didn't even come with resealable canisters; so I first stuffed them all up in the attic, and eventually threw them out - except for the lids of the Toa Mata canisters, since they could double as Toa Suvas, which made them seem useful for keeping to me. If there's any I regret throwing out, it's mainly the Mata canisters... although they weren't exactly *intact* even so, since I'd long since pulled off their removable sleeves. And also the Barraki canisters just because, even if they weren't the most useful, I really liked their unique design. Ah well, what's done is done at this point!

There does seem to be some... not limit, exactly, but in my experience there can be an issue with certain longer posts. A couple years ago now, I posted a short story in the library forum; and while the post when through without error at the time, when I checked back to the thread a couple of weeks later I found that the post had cut off before the final scene, at around the 10,000 words / 48,000 characters mark. What was doubly weird was that the whole story had posted initially; not only for me, but the member for whom I'd written the fic also recalled seeing the complete story when it had first been posted. It seemed to have been only later that the end of the post had been lost. I never did find out exactly what happened there, and I don't know if anyone else has ever had the experience of it it's unique to me; but it might be something to be wary of.

I want to say a random McDonalds in America, 2001. I don't know if it was the case in the States; but over here, if you bought a McDonalds kids meal, you could spend an extra £1 to get a second toy in addition to the free one... my parents did that for me all the time when there were promotions on that I was interested in! We never got the McToran in the UK, due to Bionicle having been released half a year ago here by that point; but if the option of buying additional toys was available in America as well, I would PROBABLY buy as many of them as they'd sell me... If that doesn't count, or wasn't the case, or they wouldn't sell a kids meal to an adult ()... then it'd have to be mid/late 2001, the local independent toy shop. Mainly for the Powerpack, and its little Hafu in particular. It was in stock there for a while, but I vaguely remember that my parents, quite understandably, didn't see the value in a Lego set that was 50% a music CD and only like eight actual pieces, so I never got it. Probably a handful of Kanohi packs too, for the nostalgia of tearing them open and seeing which cool mask recolours I got... it was a rare experience for me, and I kinda miss it a little. ...also just to relive the atmosphere in that toy shop, since the shop has been gone for many years now. But I can't guarantee that I wouldn't also be eyeing up some of the non-Bionicle 90s Lego sets that they still had in stock at the time, too. Particularly anything Ninja or Adventurers or Rock Raiders... xD

Hi! Hope I'm not being a pain; but I've noticed a small discrepancy regarding the Le-Koro section of Book #1. In game, there were two versions of the linked MNOG cutscenes "Into the Great Hive" and "Onua Vs. Lewa"; one version that included Taipu, if the player had earlier allowed him to accompany them into Le-Wahi (with him getting zapped by a lightning bug in the former cutscene, and riding on Onua's head during the escape from the nest in the latter), and an alternate version without him for if the player told him to remain at the dig site. I noticed, however, that while the walkthrough text in the book describes the first scenario, where Taipu is present, the cutscenes found via the media links don't match; they are instead the versions where he is absent. I dunno, this might be too tiny a point to do anything about. But I saw in the first post that you wanted to know if any discrepancies were found, so I thought I ought to let you know ^^

Sent a few questions! I've no idea if mine will get used or not, but a couple of them are certain things that have piqued my curiosity recently, so I'd be interested to see if they get answered ^^ Thanks to all for arranging this opportunity!

I've genuinely never seen that picture of Pohatu before, what promotional material did it come from?

Random question: does anyone know what they do with the large brick-built character models from the LEGOLAND parks, when they've finished with them? I know the models are glued (I may have tried to prise bricks off a few of them as a kid, just out of curiosity, with no success ), so I doubt they can just take them apart for use in subsequent models; and on top of which, the bricks are probably quite faded after several years in the sun, too. I know some of the models are re-purposed - for example, in the Windsor park, the brick-built Rock Raiders characters from the Rocket Racers attraction queue area were added to the Extreme Team Challenge waterway when Rocket Racers shut down; and the life-size Darth Vader and R2-D2 from 1999 kept showing up in different places around the park for years afterwards - but what about the rest? I have a hard time believing that Lego would melt down their precious bricks, even for reuse, so... do they keep the old models in storage somewhere? Are they sold to collectors? Does anyone know? I just thought to wonder about it today, and it made me really curious about what had happened to some of my childhood favourites from the park. And on a non-brick-built note, I do wonder whatever happened to that life-size Onua model, too...

For myself, I'm terrible at MoCing! I've not really tried it seriously since I was a kid, granted, but I just find that, even when I have something in mind that I want to build, I have trouble translating the idea in my head into something that actually can work... even though my mind works visually, I don't really think in Lego Bricks xD I guess I just find it hard to get started in general, when I don't have instructions to follow, since I'm not really familiar with all the useful parts or how to use them to best effect, so my efforts tend to end in frustration very quickly! I'd say I find building from instructions more enjoyable, since that way I'm learning new pieces and new techniques that are already proven, which I find far more interesting than trying to come up with them on my own. Plus, I like knowing how a model is going to look from the outside, and then watching it slowly come together and discovering how it was achieved; I find that immensely satisfying ^^

I don't think anything does, in my case. Even when my collection was at its fullest, I didn't have anything rarer than a handful of odds and ends such as the orange vahi, a couple TNGMs, and a misprint white Ruru... and in my naiveté I applied paint to most of those when I was going through "a phase", and thus rendered them worthless. Maybe some of my sets were rare-ish, at least judging by the prices some of them go for nowadays, but I didn't have any that weren't widely available at the time... I guess the thing that made my collection most special was its size: by the end of '08, there were only sixteen regular sets (not counting combiner repacks, playsets, collectables, and most promotionals) that I was missing. That was a pretty big deal for me, at the time. Then I completely fell off the boat when 2009 rolled around, but hey. I don't have most of them anymore, though, so that achievement's a thing of the past now, whatever it may have been worth then. I do have a McToran Kongu, which is pretty rare from a UK perspective, at least, since we never got the McDonalds promotion over here; though I imagine, being McDonalds freebies, they're probably quite common over in the States? I also have five of six of the Burger King MoL tie-in figures, who are rare by virtue of the fact that no-one else cares about them since they're not actual Lego...? xP Yeah, my collection's pretty generic, honestly. I'd like to get one of the storyboard pages, I see they're still available on ebay and I've found one I particularly like, but... international shipping costs more than the boards themselves.

Oh wow, visually this is NICE. Your lighting effects are spectacular, and the animation is really smooth... and I know from recent experience how difficult that can be to achieve in 3D! I really liked the way you used the Bionicle Heroes texturing on the masks, and the music choices were on point; especially the Matoran Enclave piece at the opening, and equally the way you brought Lhikan's theme in perfectly in time with his entrance. If I could offer one suggestion, though? I feel like a bit more personality animation for the characters would be beneficial, there were moments where it felt like the Toa weren't moving as much as might be natural. I fully appreciate how tricky CGI can be, so this isn't a criticism; but since their ability to show facial expressions is naturally limited, it would really make the piece come alive even more if you were able to give them a little more room to express themselves with their gestures and body language ^^ Regardless though, this is some really, really nice work!

The movie trilogy, for me. Sure, they're... not great, and don't stand up well in hindsight. But they're a nostalgia trip that I absolutely ADORE, even for all their flaws. It still slams me in feelings a little whenever I see movie-style designs for the characters, because that style is so important to me on a nostalgic level, and THAT SOUNDTRACK... man. When it got released as full downloadable albums, and I listened to them for the first time... I got chills more than once. Hearing their music, clean and all on its own, made everything about the movies feel so much more epic than they had to me in a long time... I think, quite honestly, those soundtrack releases are responsible for, like, 60% of the time I still spend dabbling in the fandom, they just kicked my nostalgia so much. MNOG, too, and the Templar animation style in general. Not, perhaps, as much as it once did; I know that game back to front, almost, so a lot of its 'thrill of discovery', which was 70% of what hooked me on it so much back in the day, feels like it's worn off; but it's still absolutely nostalgic to wander Mata Nui all over again, as Takua, and really feel like I'm immersed in that world.

Thanks for the reassurance, everyone! @BULiK - Sorry for taking a while to get back to you, I've been busy lately and haven't remembered to check BZP. In any case, thanks for the detailed explanation! I ran the password through that site, like you suggested; I'll take this conversation to PM though, like you say, since I don't want to throw too much talk of sensitive matters around publicly ^^

Hi, sorry to be a bother, but has BZP had any hacking difficulties recently? I just received two identical spam emails, trying to blackmail me into sending them money. Normally, of course, I'd just ignore / delete / report these and get on with my life - particularly since their blackmail material was something I haven't even done - but I'm a bit concerned because they were titled with my login password for this site. Naturally, I changed my password immediately; but since I'm the kind of guy who uses a different password for everything, I can't see any reason why they would know *that specific password* unless they'd got it from here on BZ. (Though they have no clue about this place; I doubt the word filter will even let me say what kind of site they thought they'd got that password from!) Granted, I also hadn't changed said password since, um... I first registered here, which is terrible of me I know. So it's possible they could have accessed it anytime over the past sixteen years and have only just got around to me now; but I thought I ought to mention it, just in case something's up? And in case my account here does start doing unsavoury stuff, since I can't guarantee they didn't get into it before contacting me; how would I know if they had? And is there anything else I should do to make sure nothing else unwanted gets into my account here? Thanks; and sorry to be a bother, again.

At risk of sounding repetitive from my comment on your other story... I really, REALLY love this. How you dive so deep into Krahka's mindset, and all the implications of her meeting with the Toa, and of a shapeshifter's unique view on the world... I'd never have thought of approaching the story from her eyes, but the way you unpack it is so fascinating; I was completely hooked, reading it. I loved Takua's little cameo, too! And the way you built up that sense of ominousness at the end, from the view of the Cataclysm through a completely foreign set of eyes, to the Rahi joyfully claiming the city... but all the while keeping that undertone of something truly ominous building... it was really masterfully put together. Absolutely fantastic work!

Oh WOW, this is really nicely done! I don't think I've ever seen any writing get so deeply inside Turaga Dume's head as you do here, but I love it; the way you build him up as not just the wise leader of Metru Nui but also as a real *person* beneath that role too. You make him a really developed, believable character I really like, too, the way it's possible to see the change in tone in the text, as it suddenly gets dark and ominous; the juxtaposition between the long, casually-paced paragraphs in the first half, compared to the intensity of the many single lines in the second half... it works really well together. And that repeat of the opening line, right at the end, is just such a perfect touch to end it on, works so well. Really great work!

Brand new IP, I'd say. I know Lego might be wary of trying that again after Hero Factory didn't seem to be the huge hit that Bionicle was... but with the right spark of an idea, I think they have a good chance of making a success. I definitely think they would benefit from something that doesn't have the huge legacy behind it that Bionicle does, something that's free to be its own thing instead of being tied back to ten years of history. Plus... Bionicle was just the right thing at the right time to appeal to our generation; but those same things that drew in the kids of the 90s and 00s won't necessarily win over the current generation. I think Lego would do best, if they try constraction again, to aim for a fresh line that has the same novelty and appeal to this generation that Bionicle had for ours, even if that means departing from the themes we're familiar with. Or that's my thought, at any rate

My unpopular opinion is still that I LIKED the Bohrok-Kal arc xD I will grant that I can see why it's widely regarded as unnecessary 'filler'... because, in a sense, it was; it was just keeping the 'Bionicle hype' going until Mask of Light's release. And I will also grant, in hindsight, that it was a bit ridiculously placed; the Toa have JUST got all these fancy new powers that are a complete game-changer, so what's the first thing that happens next? Why, those powers get stolen because otherwise they're now too powerful! But even so? The idea that the Toa's power even could be stolen, and seeing them deal with that... I loved that. The Bohrok-Kal were finally villains with a voice, even if not actual *personality* per se, and had interesting powers that hadn't been seen before that point... plus, I found their main-and-silver colour schemes more appealing than that of the standard Bohrok - though worth noting is that this was before silver became so prevalent in Bionicle as it did in subsequent years, so it still felt like a big deal at the time. Tales of the Masks, set during this arc, is one of my favourite Bionicle novels to this day. And the Bohrok-Kal's defeat was so cleverly staged, in my opinion, with seeing their powers pushed to their extreme limits and turned on them... I dunno. I still have a lot of things that I love about that arc, even though it generally has a bad reputation in the fandom ^^

So. I'm being weird by being that guy who gives Heroes a (mildly) better ranking than B:tG... and yet still votes the 2003 game in the final round. It's silly and I'm nostalgic, I know that. I replayed Bionicle: the Game a couple of years ago and found it thoroughly mediocre and distinctly lacking in polish... purely in terms of polishing and finishing and coherent gameplay, Heroes has it outclassed by a mile. And yet. PlasmaJaller up there summed up everything I dislike about Heroes in their first paragraph about that game. It's repetitive to the max, there's little sense of doing much more than following a pre-defined pathway and shooting everything that moves... every level started, after a while, to feel to me like it was completely linear except for slight detours to find canisters. And the lack of real challenge bugs me a little, too; I've never once lost all my lives playing through Bionicle Heroes. Not even once. And that, to me... just makes it a bit of a dull game? Whereas, The 2003 Game... yeah, it hasn't aged well. It's unpolished and messy. And glitchy in places. And short. And the story is a hot mess. But the fact that each level is a fun romp with its own unique gimmick, even if said levels aren't challenging nowadays either? That's what really makes that game for me. I love the variation between walking levels and non-walking ones, the fact that they all play a little differently from each other. I like being able to climb and jump all over the scenery, something that just isn't possible in Heroes. And it gives me a feeling of being immersed in the world of my childhood that Heroes lacks. I guess what I'm saying is, I can completely agree that Heroes is the better game. But for myself, I'd rather take the bad game that I can get fun out of regardless, than the better game that I personally find repetitive and a bit tedious. Might just be the nostalgia goggles talking, though. Or maybe I just prefer platformers to shooters generally, there's that too xD

Okay, I have to ask. Of the images in that article, what games are these two from? Batlord and Royal King fighting outside the former's castle Johnny Thunder standing in front of the wall panel depicting Horus I thought I knew of every Lego game from the pre-TT era, but those two are completely unfamiliar to me, which leaves me very puzzled! xD