Jacks

Yeah, Knights Kingdom II was the original constraction + minifig-scale landscape combo theme, a path which Hero Factory and Chima have both followed. It also had the most complete story of any Castle theme that came before (and possibly since). It deserves credit at least for actual innovation. And the swords were indeed very cool

Not really -- bear in mind that the Greg quote confirmed that Kal just means "mutated through any means other than EP." If we go with that explanation, then Nidhiki would indeed be a Toa-Kal, with no implications towards the Bohrok-Kal's mutation. Of course, I think there should be a better explanation, because if Kal is defined by a negative, it's not a very useful term

Aren't you mixing it with the 2003 Makuta? I haven't played the game, I only know about the character from the book with the same name and there there is little description about him hence him being able to shapeshift and all. Yeah, AFAIK the entity's appearance as a silver version of Teridax's '03 form is non-canon. I don't recall the book describing it in any significant detail. I love this moc, though. The gear function looks a little wobbly, but it is probably the most intricate gear system I've seen on any moc, and I have to congratulate you for that.

Well, they certainly fit the franchise better than the straight rock music we had from 2006 onwards But let's look at this a bit more closely. Furst's scores have something of a high-fantasy sound to them, so people who say they don't fit the franchise now probably came to the franchise after the films, once the slightly generic rock music had fully taken over. People who said the scores didn't fit the franchise at the time the films were released are probably the ones who were fans from the beginning, and thus were more accustomed to the music from the MNOGs and the other Templar pieces from the first few years -- like I said, it's iconic. But thematically, it's all over the dang place. Take MNOG1, for instance. When Kopaka battles the Muaka in the Drifts, you hear something that sounds a little bit like industrial-rock. When Lewa and Onua fight in the Nui-Rama hive, it sounds a little more like techno. When the Toa confront Makuta, you get more industrial-rock plus unintelligible operatic chanting. And you have funk-style slap bass playing when Gali battles the Tarakava. What even? Now, although Furst's film scores have more of a high-fantasy sensibility to them, he did a lot -- especially in the latter two movies -- to give them just the slightest hint of a mechanical edge. LoMN and WoS have a distinctly urban quality, while still retaining the broad, sweeping fantasy motifs introduced in MoL. And together, I think those scores are the only Bionicle music that has truly aged well. They can stand up to repeated listenings 10-12 years later, and be appreciated on their own merit without the aid of nostalgia. And I think they've grown to fit the franchise, if anything. Sorry to totally run away on this. I too am savoring the actual discussion of Bionicle music That drive crash was probably what taught him the importance of making backups :\

5/5 Love it. I have a real soft spot for short, fast punk songs. (if y'all have the time I highly recommend listening to this entire album -- the entire thing is one continuous narrative)

I second TheSkeletonMan. I would love to see an interview with Nathan Furst happen. His scores might not be as iconic as the music from the Teplar animations and the MNOGs, but it's probably the highest-quality music Bionicle ever had.

Like Toa of Geek said, this looks more like Dume than the original set did. I am in love with the way you fabricated a gearbox and managed to give it some extra friction while keeping it more compact than the new ones -- placing the forward gear in front of the arm gear appears to be what did it, and I think it was a stroke of genius

I'll fix any broken links later, at very least by tomorrow. You have no idea how long it took to put those links up before I discovered that I could copy and paste links if I was using the BBCode editor. BBCode is so much easier and more efficient once you get well accustomed to it. I've been manually typing all my code tags since 2006 sometime But I digress. I forgot to mention how perfect the gold Skull Spider mask is as the Krana -- I didn't even realize until I saw this that the bright gold is a near-perfect match for Nuhvok-Kal's krana, despite the latter preceding the former by three years.

Aw, I love this lil' dude. The orange lehrak staff makes a really good tool/weapon -- it looks like some sort of zappy drill thing. The only possible improvement I could think of would be to either make his shoulders broader, or his torso shorter. He looks a bit tall and reedy, even with the armor.

This has rendered me speechless. Not only is it big, scary, and functional, it has the distinction of being the first Bohrok revamp I've ever seen that can roll up into a ball (or at least an ovoid) This is amazing

That Ultra-copter looks like a sleeker, scaled-down version of the Dino Attack T-1 Typhoon, and I am so into it.

As I clicked on the topic, all I could think of was please use a Pakari, please use a Pakari, and I was in luck today! Good job for that right off -- the pattern of blatant disregard for MNOG!canon really grinds my gears. And speaking of gears, awesome job with those as well! The best part there is how it frees up the original shoulder joints -- that large armor shell in the middle looks too bulky on the Protectors, but with the smaller shells on each side, it flows seamlessly and looks freakin' sweet. The bone spikes are a great touch as well -- it's that motif that really makes him feel like a 2015 character instead of just a revamped G1 character. The only issues I can see are the pickaxe and the back gear sticking out so far, but those have already been mentioned, so I will not belabor them any further.

5/5 bloopin and grumblin right into my soul, like a dial-up modem that ran away from home to join a dance band. Need more, definitely checking this artist out. this is the song that's been stuck in my head for at least 36 hours

5/5 Technically interesting, lots of tempo changes. It never lets you get bored. here's the song I had ACTUALLY heard in the cafe, mishearing "broken parts" as "broken bones"

Excellent work with the colors -- we didn't get very many dark orange parts, but you incorporated enough to make it appear as the primary color. The Matoran foot in his back is particularly ingenious. I think the upper torso looks a little sparse, though, especially compared to the bulk of the legs and forearms -- maybe use bigger shells on the upper arms? And perhaps stick some tires on the Turaga arms in the shoulders, between the torso itself and the black gears (the gears are another nice touch -- it evokes the extra friction gears on the new Toa) Pretty nice overall, though, and good luck in the contest

I would give this a 5/5 if it were an instrumental. Like...I get the effect the vocalist was going for, but it didn't really work, and the lyrics sound to me like something they wrote in ten minutes before going into the studio, trying to be as ~dark and edgy~ as possible. Sooooo 3.75/5 overall, because other than that the music itself was super cool here's a song I discovered entirely by accident while trying to find a song I heard in a cafe yesterday by googling what tiny snippets of lyrics I can remember

I don't know how I missed this, but it's awesome. The references to early DARPG nonsense -- the raptor cult, mysterious black vehicles, etc. -- warmed my heart, but even without them, the story was compelling and awesome. I didn't realize I wanted to see the beginning of the friendship between Rex and Trouble until you were showing it, and it's also fascinating to see an early stage in Rex's journey at which he was less idealistic than the character we got to know in the RPG. It all reminds me of that short story I was gonna write like five years ago about Hotwire's first assignment and never did

5/5 Doomy and spooky. I like Well of course there wasn't, you mean you never heard about the great Note Shortage of 1886?

It could definitely make sense from a physics standpoint because the Legendary Masks, from what I understand, do not harness their respective powers so much as they function as a physical manifestation of those powers. There can only be one Mask of Time in the Matoran Universe* because the very concept, existence, and function of Time inside the Matoran Universe is tied to the Vahi. This would also explain why the Ignika can be used to resuscitate (or shut down!) the entire GSR -- all Life energy within the GSR is linked to the Ignika. Creation...I don't quite understand how that one would work. Bones will probably explain all this better *I suppose there could theoretically be other Masks of Time outside the GSR, since the Vahi was specifically designed to function as part of the GSR, but given how Time is shown to function in the Bionicle multiverse (steady progression, no time travel) it would probably be necessary for a second Mask of Time to tap into the Time of the entire universe, at which point the Vahi would stop working. This isn't to somehow prove that the G2!Mask of Time MUST BE THE VAHI OMG, because reboot, duh. Just trying to help illuminate how G1's Legendary Kanohi work, nothing more

I've been following this story since the fall and I am rubbish at responding to epics. But I could not let myself remain silent any longer, because the explanation for Kapura's teleportation ability was just too ingenious. It brought so much joy to my tiny blackened heart

I went for five minutes because that was about the average length of the Bohrok episodes in 2002, and I feel like those are pretty much the ideal. One of those per month was plenty to tell a compelling story, without feeling rushed or skimpy. Granted, those had the MNOG to build on -- they did not need explain to the setting, and they only introduced two characters whom we did not already know. But if the update schedule for the g2 episodes is once per fortnight rather than once per month, I still think 5 minutes is enough to flesh out the story.

4.5/5 Lovin the seamless fusion of synth sounds/beats and the guitars -- it makes the track feel like early Bionicle music that got totally out of control in the best way possible. The only complaint I have is that it's a bit long for what it is and the last minute feels just the slightest bit repetitive. Needs more buildup, essentially y'all are posting so much crazy awesome stuff today, though. I almost feel guilty for posting more nerdy hipster trash like I always do Almost. But this has been stuck in my head for two days now and I gotta spread it around:

5/5 I know a good jam when I hear one. It's got the perfect balance (IMO) of melodic vocals and screamed vocals, the guitar solo was unexpected and brilliant, and that drummer has a crazy amount of flair. Metal is not really my cup of tea but I could see myself returning to this track

4/5 Would've been perfect as an instrumental

Hmmm, I'm not sure. I was totally gone for several months in 2008, then in 2010 my activity started to decline, but that led directly into the downtime. However, although the site went back online in November of 2011 iirc, I didn't actually come back until March of 2012. Then in the spring of 2013 I basically dropped off the face of the earth again until this past October, with a brief period of low activity at the beginning of last summer. So I've probably been off the site for about 19-20 months total in the time since I joined. The hiatus in 2008 happened because I was more interested in LEGO Star Wars at the time -- for which I briefly joined another forum -- and then in 2010 I was losing interest in LEGO in general as I began to get more into music. I came back to finish the Dino Attack RPG, and stayed to try and run a TBRPG based on LEGO Universe. I screwed up and it died. By spring of 2013 I was totally burnt out on TBRPGs, and that was all I'd done here for years. Then I stayed away the following year because college courses were burning me out again. It was really the announcement of Bionicle's return that drew me back, possibly for good this time EDIT: Just remembered, I was also inactive for a lot of 2006 and some of 2007 as well, mainly just out of a feeling that the site was too big and there was no niche for me (fortunately I started making some friends in 2007), so the cumulative amount of time spent inactive is probably more in the neighborhood of 2-2.5 years