ZeldaTheSwordsman

Ah ha ha ha ha ha so much of what you said was wrong. 1. There is a difference between "watered down" and "divided viewpoint." Mask of Light doesn't show the events you mentioned because it's mostly from the viewpoint of Takua and Jaller. If MoL is "watered down" for not showing those then "Rise of the Rahkshi" and "At Last -- Takanuva!" are watered down for not showing much of Takua and Jaller's journey or the actual final battle. MoL is the main story that covers the final leg of Takua's journey to heroism and the big showdown, while the comics are a complementary story that fills in more of the Toa's offscreen adventures. (Also, if they're anything like other Bionicle comics, the exposition is mostly infodumped rather than integrated smoothly. Which would be even more graceless in a movie than it is in a comic.) Oh, and given the publication timeframe the comics were quite possibly written AFTER the movie was; it's not like the 2004 and pre-Time Trap 2005 storylines where things were plotted out (somewhat) more cohesively. Heck, "Shadows and Secrets" came out after the movie. 2. The Toa encounter six Rahkshi either way. No more, no less. 3. I'll grant you have something of a point about characterization being spotty, but really the one who suffers IMO is Onua. Most of the humor with Jaller comes from him being exasperated by Takua, which makes sense in the context of him also being Takua's more responsible friend. Really the worst he gets is not being able to solo an ash-bear, and that's honestly not too bad. And you know, he's shown as being quick to arms in times of danger, and bold enough to take on a Rahkshi head-on... Takua's characterization also makes sense in context - blowing the Kolhii match brought forth a lot of self-doubt, quite possibly mixing with subconscious fear of change. And his having a foolish side isn't something the movie made up; it was established in the games that his antics actually got him temporarily exiled from Ta-Koro! Frankly, I find the omission of the Chronicler's Tool (which is what the Staff of Light is obviously supposed to be a transformed version of; you only have to put them together to see that) more of an annoying oversight. The Metru Nui movies are decidedly weaker for me. LoMN forgets about the Toa's elemental powers until the final battle, and WoS doesn't have (a) transition(s) to give space for the comics like LoMN does.

Would have posted this in the tracker, except the tracker seems to be busted. Frankly I think the topic revival time limits are kind of a joke right now because of the evident overall low activity level of the forum. We have threads from months or even years ago still on the front pages of individual boards, and the second pages even further back. Arbitrarily cutting those off from further posts even though they're front-page or close to it feels excessive in the current climate, and seems like it'd make it harder to get things going again.

There are two problems with the tracker. First, the link to the tracker at the top of the QA main page - the one that says "Improvement suggestions go in the Tracker, not here" in big mostly-red letters- actually points back to the QA main page; same for the link that's supposed to point to the Compendium. Second, after finding a link that actually points to the Tracker in the Compendium thread... the Tracker seems to be currently out of order.

Which would be the most appropriate place to post custom-made parts? For instance, I have a Ta-Koro Guard bident and a couple of Kolhii Goalie Shields that I made using printed templates and painted up that I'd like to show off, but I don't know if they'd belong better in BBC or Fan-Created Media.

Which movies? I can definitely see that being said for Legends of Metru Nui and Web of Shadows because they skipped over the initial Metru and Hordika quests on account of needing screentime for the finale arcs; I think WoS is the bigger offender because it doesn't even have a transition sequence to fit in the quest like LoMN does. But Mask of Light isn't watered down - it's the main presentation of the late 2003 storyline; that's where it starts and that's where its focus is, and it makes sense enough and does well enough in that regard. I was disappointed by the Nuva not having longer fights with the Rahkshi or going Kaita, but the latter makes sense spectacle-wise. Yeah, I saw it this way myself. Vakama has a lot more weighing on his mind than wounded vanity - he's trying to be a leader and live up to Lhikan's legacy, Lhikan sacrificed his life because of Vakama's failure to control the Vahi, and now he's gotten himself and his team captured and horrifically mutated with their powers inhibited and their minds under attack by their new bodies. That's a big mountain of insecurity for you - add in the pressure from the Hordika mutation and his own temper, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Greg Farshtey's idea of "Matau turns b/c vanity" feels shallow in comparison - no surprise, since Greg was a hack. Oh, and here's something to consider: The 2005 comics show all six of them increasingly struggling under the strain of the Hordika mutation and getting closer and closer to cracking. I think any of them turning could be justified based on that alone. Vakama just so happens to be the one Roodaka targeted first. That's what ultimately turns him, after all: A toxic outside influence preying on his insecurities at a time of extreme psychological vulnerability. And judging by the comics, it could have happened to any of them. Sailor Wah!, your comment about 2009 doing so much for worldbuilding in one year would hold more weight if most of that worldbuilding wasn't garbage. I think the Karda Nui Toa sets would have been better as new characters. As for comparing it to the Inika not resembling their Matoran selves.. A. Different case, since the Inika are ascended Matoran rather than alleged re-armored Toa and B. The Inika have more resemblance than you'd think (Hewkii's dumb palette swap aside). It's obvious from studying the Inika masks that, contrary to how the comics present them, they were designed by the set creators as mutant versions of their Matoran masks. Just look at Kongu, for instance - you can clearly see a Kanohi Miru in that mask. If you were to cut away the organic growth under and above the chin bar, it would be even more blatant. Based on having Nuparu, Kongu, and Jaller (somewhere), I agree about the Mahri largely feeling like downgrades from the Inika (and I don't even own the Inika). I think Kongu got it the worst - he has an Earth Toa build and no unique Toa Tool. I dunno, plasma was at least already-present through the Bohrok-Kal. Although really the Toa that should not have existed is a certain Toa of Water whose name starts with H. As for Toa of Stone colors... I think dark orange (like Matoran Hewkii has) was fine, although better as an accent color than a primary. Regular orange... That would be maybe-okay as accent, not good as primary (too close to Fire); same for yellow. Gray is fine as an accent, but as a primary it's too close to Earth colors, same for black. Hewkii Mahri being both black and flaming orange? Wrong! Wrong wrong! I'm a fan of the Bohrok-Kal arc as well. A "powers lost" arc is kind of a rite of passage for superheroes, and Bionicle did it well. Additionally, it makes sense lore-wise for there to be contingency agents for the Bohrok swarms. And the solution was clever too. ============================================================================================== Now, as for my actual contributions... * Cathy Hapka and Henry Gilroy were better writers than Greg Farshtey. * Clone builds aren't automatically bad. Case in point: Wairuha Nuva suffers pretty badly from trying too hard to be a divergent build from Akami Nuva. * IDK where this falls on the popularity scale, but the 2004 palette shift did Fire and Air Toa super-dirty. Dark red and green didn't work for Fire or Air the way standard red and green did, and the loss of accent colors on the Metru (instead just having the dark stone gray joints) didn't help. They course-corrected with Fire, but main Air Toa suffered through 2007. * Again, IDK where this falls, but the overwriting of Rahi reproduction was dumb. * The Nuva Redesigns of the original six Great Kanohi are perfectly fine, thank you. The changes still fit the theme of the mask, and from a real-life perspective are very understandable - they were done to address where the original designs were prone to bowing and breakage (hence the flimsy Miru being perhaps the most changed versus the mostly-solid Akaku and Kaukau being the least changed; heck, the Kaukau's biggest change is being opaque). * G2 was perfectly fine. In several ways it's kinda like the story overhaul I wish G1 would get - it returns to the roots and works out a more pure story from there that sticks to its guns (and doesn't badly inject edgy characters, plots, and non-fantasy sci-fi traits that don't mesh well with the existing fantasy-sci-fi traits and plot points). And the sets may be CCBS-looking on the outside, but they restore the action gimmick of yore. I wish it had been given more of a chance - maybe then the sets wouldn't be so blasted expensive on eBay. I would have bought some myself when it was on the shelves, I always meant to, but Transformers was a bigger collecting priority for me in 2015. And in 2016 I was focusing heavily on model trains.

This looks very good! And in the case of the Nuva and Great Matatu, would look even better with detail paint! The Great Akaku normally would too, but I don't see it as working well on the Golden version.

I never forgot about it.That was one of two things that particularly bugged me about the movie: The Morbuzakh never being mentioned by name, given it was the driving force of the early 2004 storyline. The other thing was mostly forgetting the Toa's elemental powers.

I hope whatever we get has 2003-style Le-Matoran and Onu-Matoran. I realize that's a long shot, but..

Here are the biggest ones for me: * The entire G1 storyline from Time Trap onward. That marked the point where Greg started writing Hero Factory instead of Bionicle, the lore and ongoing storyline got increasingly hijacked and derailed ("Teridax" is a dirty word in my book and should be added to the forum's swear filter, and Greg's never resolving his about Makuta with the explicit establishment of Makuta and Mata Nui as brothers... that alone proves he was unfit to run the show), and all the work of the actual hero characters started being minimized compared to his god-mode bad guy guilds and edgy anti-heroes. Greg should have been transferred or told to clear out his desk when he turned in the manuscript for Time Trap. Because Time Trap was and nearly everything we got in the story from that point onward was . I would rather have seen Bionicle canceled after the 2005 line, than get the we got. Lego needs to do a reboot of G1 that rewinds to before Time Trap happened, and throws it and everything that came after it out. Well, a reworked version of the baseline plot of 2006 (one that doesn't involve an inappropriate ignominous defeat for the Nuva) has the potential to be decent. And maaybe the same for 2007. But everything else definitely needs new story material - repurpose the Karda Nui Toa sets as a new team instead of the Nuva they barely resemble anyway, for instance. * The fact that we never got Le-Matoran and Onu-Matoran in the 2003 style.

Looks awesome! But please fix the eye color

I know they were published around that time. But I brought them up to nitpick your original wording - they cover pre-MoL and have Lewa speaking that way. As for TLOMN, while other sources may not have had Lewa use Treespeak until 2003... I think it's a possibility. After all, Farshtey (who hates Treespeak/Chutespeak; notice that Kongu doesn't speak it in Challenge of the Rahi) was less involved with that game and its dialogue. Honestly it's stuff like the art and composition flaws that really pushed me to bring this up. Art fails, bad panel layouts, poorly-placed and even misplaced speech bubbles, the constant fluctuation between which kind of emphasis bold text is used for...

Actually, he also spoke it in the Bionicle Chronicles books and I believe in the MNOG, where it originated (although I haven't gotten far enough in that to see for myself. Also, no idea as to whether he uses it in TLOMN). But beyond not speaking in Treespeak, he also seems to lack his canon chidlike carefree personality. Just finished comic 9. More pain: Tahnok-Kal using Pahrok-Kal's Plasma power and Kohrok-Kal using Nuhvok-Kal's Gravity power. Or at least, that's how it looks since Nuhvok-Kal is nowhere to be seen. Oh, and among the recurring art errors: Matoro is miscolored.

So... I've been reading the old Bionicle comics recently (currently on the Mata Nui saga). Never got to read most of these back in the day... and I can't exactly say I'm impressed with the quality. Writing-wise.. The dialogue is clunky half the time, the dialogue and narration are painfully edgy in places (an aspect of Farshtey's writing that went completely out of control circa 2005), Lewa seems a bit out of character and doesn't speak in treespeak like he should, and Farshtey switches between using bold text for vocal emphasis, and using bold text for narrative emphasis (the way video games use different-color text), on a whim - sometimes within the same set of speech bubbles! That's bad form, and something the editor should have busted his on. The art has numerous errors - characters being drawn misassembled, iffy proportions in places, weapon arms randomly changing which side of the body they're on, the Lehvak Va being drawn as holding Tahu's mask when they should be holding Lewa's mask... Ugh. Now, I've seen some of the amazing creative efforts put forth by the community. I don't just think you can do a better job, I know you can. The question is, does such an effort interest anyone? Is there an interest in overhauling the comics to be more competent?

It's part of a big picture that had been growing increasingly covered in toxic mold since late 2005, and anything good in it is undermined by the fact that's built on a road paved with utter garbage that the story should never have taken in the first place. You know how you said " However, a movie can be lighthearted and still be fun"? You're absolutely right, and so can most any story. It's a shame that outside of this movie, the writing attitude for Bionicle from late 2005 on was "lightheartedness is for babies, everything must be edgy edgy edgy edgy edgy! Substance and happiness bad, edginess and darkness good!" Why yes, I am bitter. I am very bitter, and it will take an apology and a massive external retcon from LEGO to make me stop being bitter.

IMO LoMN is the absolute weakest of the Miramax trilogy. I share the complaints of the OP, and little of their affection for it. It fails to integrate the rest of the 2004 storyline, Whenua only has one Proto-Piton and it's misinterpreted as a pickaxe, the Matoran models are lazy and so are the Vahki, aside from Matau flying the movie largely forgets the Toa have elemental powers, Makuta's "Ultimate Dume" form is portrayed as the 2003 set with Nivawk's wings stapled on... I would also like to add that the final battle is far too video game-y and unlike with MoL there's no reason for the other Toa to be just standing there. Mask of Light was never meant as a jumping-on point. It was meant as the grand finale to the Mata Nui saga and I was off that the subsequent storylines undermined that. I will continue to remain off until LEGO fixes that mistake, and I will NEVER forgive Greg Farshtey.

I had the same thoughts.

No, the buddy's a dumb, because Pohatu's wide at the shoulders too. Never really saw Pohatu as fat. He's just in the hunched posture used by runners. The Bohrok definitely have that "chubby beetle" thing going. The "Makuta Nui"/Ash Bear design has some chub to it as well. Krekka's a bit on the pudgy side, as fits the "big dumb muscle" stereotype. Gadunka's right up there... But nothing's as fat as Greg Farshtey's head.

I would like to see a return to the original series that rewinds it to before the late 2005 story (In other words, to the point before Greg Farshtey turned into a hack and started perverting his own creation) and throw out a LOT of stuff that came after that point (and a couple things from 2004). Here is what I want to see gone: * Almost everything established about Greg's Guild of Gary Stu Villains The Dark Hunters, and most of the Hunters themselves. Including Eliminator and especially Judas Traveler with Darkseid's Omega Beams The Shadowed One himself. That or severely dial him back. * Helryx * A lot of the Order of Mata Nui stuff, actually * The name "Teridax" * The entire "Makuta as species" idea. Maybe keep the characters, but with a tweaked backstory. Both this and the previous entry were a complete derailment of the mythos. * Matoro's pointless death * The Toa Nuva getting pantsed by the Piraka. Sorry, but no. * The "Toa Nuva getting Adaptive Armor" idea, because the finalized designs look nothing like them (especially the Mistika) * The idea of the Toa Inika's masks being replacements, because they're obviously supposed to be mutations of their Matoran masks. It's especially obvious with Kongu * The dorky "It's not water, it's liquid protodermis" idea * Bohrok shells being transformed Av-Matoran. Greg deserves to be pelted with Boxor sets for that idea. * Velika being a disguised Great Being * The redesign of the Kanohi Ignika, because the Pakari Nuva already did the Vitruvian Man thing. * Probably the idea of Dekar becoming Hydraxon * Probably the idea of "The Red Star revives folks except the return function is broken", because it didn't go anywhere interesting - and Greg painted his dumb hiney into a corner on that plot anyway by having Botar (the guy whose shtick is omnipotent mass teleportation) end up there. * The "Doing in the Wizard" that started to happen post-2005. Mata Nui being a giant robot need not rob the world of all its mythos and majesty (after all, that idea was there from the beginning) * The whole "Makuta never really loses, he totes let that happen and has a backup plan because Greg says so" idea. Utterly tiresome. * Makuta taking over Mata Nui's body * Tahu's Stars body and the 2010 stuff in general * The terms "The Great Cataclysm" and "The Shattering" since Greg ripped those off from World of Warcraft. * The idea that Mata Nui wasn't awakened after the events of Mask of Light. The Mask of Light storyline was supposed to be the "Makuta's beaten for real, Mata Nui's awakening and this time we mean it" point, hence why 2004 and 2005 went back the The Time Before Time. I was initially intrigued by the Mask of Life storyline, since going by the catalog blurbs it seemed like it could be a case of "Mata Nui may be awake, but that forced nap wasn't exactly good for his health". When I found out that wasn't the case, that the promise was broken? I felt cheated and betrayed (and I still do), and rapidly lost interest. Especially since from that point on the story only compounded the betrayals. Here's what I would propose doing: In General: * Characters get to smack enemies with their weapons a bit more. Not always wounding or anything, but still. * Reaffirming the whole "Makuta is Mata Nui's brother" thing, whether it's a spiritual kinship or a more literal one. But either way, it's a core aspect of the mythos and is not something to be swept under the rug. Modifications to 2001-2003: * Recanonizing (at least most of) The Legend of Mata Nui. Also finishing and releasing the game if possible, or at the very least digging up the plans for how the actual battle with Makuta (Missing from both the alpha and the beta) was going to go (I suspect it might be as portrayed in Tale of the Toa and the MNOG, but confirmation would be nice) and sharing them. * Redrawing the swirling mass of parts seen in the Makuta fight to feature parts from the "Ultimate Dume" build * Redesigning Wairuha Nuva to be on even footing with Akamai Nuva instead of a gimpy midget. * Giving Mask of Light some model tweaks, those being: ** Not bending the lower corners of the Kanohi Kaukau in (both Hahli and Gali) ** Keeping Gali's Nuva armor silver ** Making Gali the same size as the others ** Showing Gali's Aqua Axes working as flippers ** Giving Gali and Lewa the correct eye colors ** Redesigning the Matoran models to resemble the toys better, and adding more masks ** Using the proper Ta-Koro Guard staffs ** Redesigning the Rahkshi models to not be so radically off from their toys. At the very least making their heads more toy-accurate on account of the Rahaga. ** Having the Staff of Light transform from the Chronicler's Staff, like was supposed to hand. Also make it a glaive like it's supposed to be, rather than a scythe/pickaxe ** Fixing Takanuva's colors. ** Fixing Makuta's colors and the shape of the Kanohi Kraahkan. ** Making Takutanuva resemble the set, albeit either using the alternate face of the Kraahkan for the Mask of Light and Shadow, or designing a more harmonious-looking fusion * Adding a more clear sign of Mata Nui starting to awaken at the end (possibly dubbing in some extra exposition), as well as the planned signs beforehand (the only remnant of these in the film as-is would be the tremor that shakes Jaller off the cliff) * Throwing out the "Makuta Nui" designation of the Jaller & Gukko + Takua & Pewku + Makuta combiner model (which I think was originally unnamed) and affirming it as an Ash Bear Modifications to 2004-2005: * Redrawing the comic panels where Vakama uses his launcher as a jetpack so that it's pointing the other way, because as-drawn the direction of the launcher's flames makes it look like it should be rocketing him into the ground. * Photoshopping in the Toa Metru's gearbox covers * Re-doing Legends of Metru Nui because there's a lot to fix with that one. Fixes needed: ** Properly integrating the Morbuzakh storyline and the search for the Great Disks instead of relegating the search to a mere montage and the Morbuzakh to an unnamed background cameo. Have the Morbuzakh be mentioned in the opening narration as part of the darkness creeping over the city, have signs of its encroachment be seen, have it mentioned as the main impetus behind seeking the disks, have a cliff-notes narration of the search and the battle with it, have the Toa Metru speak of defeating it when they present themselves in the Coliseum, and have Makuta!Dume cast doubt on it somehow - or dismiss it as either a fluke, or proof of the Great Disks' power rather then theirs ** Correcting people's eye colors ** Correcting the Kanohi Kiril's appearance ** Including both of Onewa's Toa Tools and not misinterpreting them as pickaxes ** HAVING THE TOA USE THEIR FREAKING ELEMENTAL POWERS MORE, FOR MATA NUI'S SAKE ** Accurately depicting Makuta's "Ultimate Dume" form rather than just slapping Nivawk's wings on the 2003 body ** Making the showdown with Makuta less videogame-y ** Inserting a timeskip transition between the initial escape and the Toa Metru sacrificing their powers to awaken the Matoran, one that alludes to the events of Web of Shadows * Speaking of Web of Shadows: ** Inserting a "passage of time" montage that gives room for the Toa Hordika's other adventures. ** Maybe being a bit more explicit about the fact that Vakama's guilt over leading his team to disaster combined with the mental strain of the Hordika mutation rendered him particularly emotionally vulnerable ** Maybe establishing that in Vakama's case, the Hordika venom isn't making him become like just any Rahi - it's making him like a Visorak (which was the original premise of the venom, from what I've read) * Re-doing the retrieval of the Mask of Time - or relegating it to an offscreen event of no drama * Possibly reinstating the planned names for Norik, Iruini, and Bomonga (Tahkon, Lahka, and Nuuhkor respectively) so that all six of their group have names derived from the element prefixes * Establishing that a normal Kanohi Volitak actually looks like Iruini's mask, and tweaking the backstory of Iruini's Kanohi Kualsi to say that it's carved in honor of a Volitak wearer. This to fix the damage done by the Story Team deciding to turn the Toa Nidhiki set into a Toa Iruini set. Modifications to 2006: * The Piraka aren't subconscious puppets of Makuta * Avoiding the "New toys beat up the old toys" clash between the Piraka and the Toa Nuva, since it should really be the other way 'round. Especially when you factor in the Toa Nuva Kaita (speaking of sets to pelt Greg Farshtey with, the Toa Nuva Kaita got cheated). Better ways: ** They just never meet, the Toa Nuva are completely elsewhere on their quest while the Piraka terrorize Voya Nui ** The Piraka initially try to invade Metru Nui, but are seen off by the Toa Nuva before that team's departure, which is what leads to the Piraka going after Voya Nui instead. ** The Toa Nuva fight with the Piraka much later in the story, to keep them out of the Toa Inika's hair while the Inika deal with more important matters * Speaking of clashes involving the Toa Nuva, if they fight Brutaka at all in this do-over then he has the advantage at first... but then they merge and turn the tables on him. * Jaller and Takanuva get to fight alongside each other as Toa at some point * Have the Mask of Life get knocked into the ocean by the recoil of separating it from Vezon, because while an annoying loss that's less of a blatant "LOLpsych! The search just got extended/reset because the writer says so" than the original version. Honestly, the Ignika could do with being a little bit less of a pain in the arse in general. * Maybe, and this is a big maybe, throw out the Mask of Life plot entirely instead and just have this and the subsequent stories be new challenges in new worlds Modifications to 2007: * Dekar possibly does not become an oblivious Hydraxon clone * Redrawing the normal forms of the other five Mahri masks to not have the scuba apparatus so that they actually look normal and not like "undersea variant just with the hose disconnected". * Maybe a new name for the warlords * The idea of Makuta potentially redeeming himself is kept this time, and he shows leanings to this the whole time he is in Maxilos * Explaining why Voya Nui sinks back to its proper place when the Cord is destroyed, instead of just resuming the aimless drifting it was doing before the Cord formed. * Makuta's redemption comes through when the Ignika is used. He seizes it from Matoro, and either A. Sacrifices himself in Matoro's stead to heal his brother and amend his misdeed, with a line about "Sacrificing nothing" to call back to his " or B. Unites once again with Takanuva (who has been tracking him down after sensing his survival), and Takutanuva proves a being powerful enough to use the mask and live, allowing the now-repentant Makuta to live and work to mend fences with his brother, who now stands once more * Mata Nui's body is redesigned to look cooler, and perhaps instead of a bare Toa head the head is masked with a Hau - it's the iconic mask of the series, and it would tie in with the Giant Hau Gate in Mangaia Modifications to 2008: * The Phantoka and Mistika Toa sets are repurposed as new Toa characters. * Antroz et al are given revised backstories. Possibly fiends who crept into Mata Nui's heart as he slumbered but exhausted themselves in the process to the point of being comatose... until they were inadvertently revived as a side effect of the Life energy pumped out by using the Ignika. And now they are the first threat he faces after being revived. * The Takanuva set from this era is thrown out or repurposed * The "Toa" Ignika set is decanonized Modifications to 2009: * Most of the story needs to be rewritten to account for Mata Nui being properly awake. * Reworking Tren Krom's backstory as follows: After Mata Nui was fully brought to life, his next duty was to eventually help the Great Spirit heal the broken outer world... and he got impatient during the big snooze, tried to do it all by himself, and that's how he got fused to his island. So he's a bit grumpy when Mata Nui finally shows up. * But in the end, everything is eventually healed, and things end on a high note. Sets: If possible, I would love to see a reissuing of several classic sets to go along with the the overhaul. And in that event, I would like to see the following changes and additions: * Everybody benefitting from the solid Technic "horseshoe" joints (what I call the piece with three axleholes and a balljoint socket that was used for the original Toa sets' shoulder and hip joints, and the hands of all Toa from the Nuva through the Mahri) * 2003-style Le-Matoran and Onu-Matoran * Bulk jar of 2003-style Matoran parts * Correcting the Toa Metru eye colors * Switching the Toa Metru and Vahki canisters. Because it makes more sense to have the Matoran Sphere Half lids on the canisters of the mass-produced antagonists that you have a story reason to buy multiples of. Especially since the Vahki were instruments of the mass imprisonment. * Toa Vakama having some orange parts in his color scheme to better fit his fire motif and Toa Matau having turquoise or regular green in his color scheme to better depict the air motif. Of all the Toa Metru, they suffer the most from the color scheme darkening combining with the lack of an accent color. * The same color scheme tweaks for Toa Inika Kongu. * Toa Inika Hewkii being brown like he was supposed to be, with some tan accents to liven it up. * An actual Toa Tool for Kongu Mahri. I suppose they could also give the original trainwreck the ending it deserves: * Velika is unceremoniously killed by a collision with Lehvak Kal, and the remaining "Great" Beings are thus found without incident * Botar teleports everyone stuck on the stupid Red Star off. Problem solved, the end, good riddance.

Turahk: Dinosaur Hunter

Hmm... 2001 and 2003 are tied for first in my book. 2001 had some awesome stuff going. The Toa Kaita vs. the Manas (especially the Legend of Mata Nui version of the battle, which is the one that SHOULD be canon), the battle against the Shadow Toa (I prefer Cathy Hapka's version even though it's non-canon since that one actually made use of the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors between the Toa - something no other battle has done even though it was very deliberately established. I wish Farshtey had combined the two versions so that they had to stun the Shadow Toa by beating them like that before they could absorb them, instead of just insisting on his absorption version), and the actual fight with Makuta. Back when defeating him was hard because he was super-powerful and they were literally fighting a shadow, instead of it being hard because of his being Farshtey's pet. 2003 was pretty good too. The first half, the final showdown with the Rahkshi, was lovely. The Rahkshi had proven themselves fearsome opponents... but united, the Toa Nuva were able to wipe the floor with them, making great use of their elemental powers. And Takanuva's one-shotting of Turahk was quite satisfying, especially in the wake of Jaller's death. The second half was awesome. It was well-choreographed, making it a treat to watch. Makuta's dialogue was appropriately chilling when it needed to be, and actually fit the story. And the fusion into Takutanuva and this being the final battle against Makuta and Mata Nui was finally going to wake up thanks to Takanuva and the ceremony at the end. For going back on that, for breaking the promise, the story from 2006-2010 earned my eternal scorn. Not sure how to rank the 2002 and 2005 final battles, as to which gets third and which gets second. I know which battle ranks lowest, amongst those I acknowledge: 2004. I hate it. It's Vakama-centric, it's stupidly videogame-y with how Makuta can't stop his Shadow Hand before it drags the rocks into him or make it let go of the rocks, and it's only when they create the Toa Seal that the Toa Metru ever use their elemental powers (prior to that, the movie acted unaware said powers existed ugh..)

I've always pronounced Lewa's as "Lay-wah" because that's the pronunciation given on the informational mini-cd that the original Toa sets had. As for Jaller's name.. I definitely go with "Dzah-ler". Yes, in MoL it's pronounced "Dzah-lah"/Dzah-luh"... but if you listen to how "Hewkii" and "Pewku" are also pronounced in the movie it seems highly likely that the people writing the dialogue hadn't got the memo about the characters' namechanges and were using the 2001 spellings. In any case the J being pronounced as "Dz" instead of "Y" would fit with how Pacific Islander languages like Maori are transcribed, and considering that TLG was cribbing off Maori to the point that they appropriated words from it (and subsequently got sued, hence the altered spellings and "Matoran" replacing "Tohunga", etc) I think that's what they were going for.

The answer is: Rau, Rau, Rau Your Boat. What do characters risk getting when they binge eat too frequently? Gadunka-dunk butt

I certainly agree that the variety in weaponry was nice. I especially liked the use of hammers. However, I'd like to point out that hammers were used by at least two characters in G1; Pahrahk-Va and Turaga Onewa. But ch'yeah. I'd just like bows a little more if they didn't limit posing abilities. You forgot Akamai

I believe Lewa's fingers were done the fancy way they were to keep them long while using them to supply extra #2 axles used in the Wairuha build. That's another reason for the clawlike Technic connector block hands: the Kaita builds. Outside the Kaita builds, the clawlike hands are great for posing the Toa holding or donning masks.

Hmm... Tough to pick between 2002 and 2003.. 2002 had lovely affordable enemies and some great big sets (though I personally don't own any.. I soooo want six Exo-Toa though). 2003 had some awesome sets and the story promised Makuta being defeated for good and Mata Nui finally awakening (and for breaking this promise, plus other reasons on top of that, 2006 through to the end of G1 have earned my eternal scorn).