was bionicle getting better at the end

[banana92]

Honestly, I liked 2009 a lot better then 2008, the returning colors, some helmets simple designs, the weapons in actual colors, and not just silver and gold, too bad there were no real functions, except for thornatus, and i guess cendox since it steered (and i guess, though i would consider skopio pinching)

but the new weapons, some of which had multiple uses, and showed up on multiple people kind of like in 2001-2004, and even recoloring weapons that they came out with that year, like gresh's shield, mata-nui's weapon thing, ackar's fire sword, or matoro's axe (not exactly new, but nice colors) how about orange and lime green little electroblades, (like ackar's shoulders) anyway, did you think it was getting better at the end, or no, the only thing i did not like was titan Mata nui, he had yellow, and dark yellow, which I do not like together, plus only a small ammount of gold, and no new pieces except the mask in that color, honestly, I would have liked him better in dark grey, especially for a dark grey mask finally, anyway, state what you thought they did right, could have done, or why the year was (or was not) better then some previous years, (honestly I liked it more then 2006 too, but at least 2006 had nice colors and cool titan builds)

[Creep Of The Deep]

2009 was quite better than 2008. Varied shiny colours, cool designs. A good line, not perfect, but good. Then the Stars arrived, while cool, they could've been a bit better. But I kind of understand considering we're lucky to even get the Stars.

[Unauthorized Autobiography]

matoro's axe (not exactly new, but nice colors)

 

Matoro's Axe?

[Art Vandelay]

This is subject to opinion of course, but I would say that it was great at the end, yet not quite as great as 2001-2003. The storyline in the later years was much more deep and expansive, but the whole experience, from sets to the immersive-ness aspect of 2001-2003 was superior. The mysterious feel to those years was a large contributing factor to this despite the more simplified storyline. That's not to say I didn't love the later years. I did. But 2001-2003 will always be the best in my book.

[JaredNuva]

as far as boxed sets go, I believe 2001-2005 was by far superior to all other years except 2008 because of the aspect of building a set that actually functions to do something cool instead of just looking cool. however, 2006-2010 beat the earlier years in the area of canned sets, in that the newer sets were far more articulate and fun to display due to the fact that they were just more fluid than say, the Toa Mata. I have no regrets about set design but that's just the way I view the sets in general.

[banana92]

This is subject to opinion of course, but I would say that it was great at the end, yet not quite as great as 2001-2003. The storyline in the later years was much more deep and expansive, but the whole experience, from sets to the immersive-ness aspect of 2001-2003 was superior. The mysterious feel to those years was a large contributing factor to this despite the more simplified storyline. That's not to say I didn't love the later years. I did. But 2001-2003 will always be the best in my book.

absolutely agree with you there, 2001-2003/ even a bit of 2004 was nice, but I started missing the old colors (couldn't we have gotten regular green again just once lol) but yea, I think it went down hill in 2006 (except the titans were okay) I liked 2007 better, and the first half of 2008 was good (not the silver mistika XP) but then 2009, and it's like they tried to hit almost every point of nestalgia at that time, but not go just back into 2001 obviously, like giving us tan (then dark yellow again... why?) I would have liked another wave of agori, or a tan rahkshi instead of dark yellow (even regular yellow, I'd like) but I liked some of complexness, kind of inventive armor mounting on toa, or a new body for kiina, and some functions in the vehicles, though I think all should have had functions like the main 3 in 2008, but either way, we got them, got more tan on thornatus, and that at least was a beautiful thing...

 

 

matoro's axe (not exactly new, but nice colors)

 

Matoro's Axe?

 

I meant his claw, I often use it as a broud axe though, my bad

[Unauthorized Autobiography]

 

This is subject to opinion of course, but I would say that it was great at the end, yet not quite as great as 2001-2003. The storyline in the later years was much more deep and expansive, but the whole experience, from sets to the immersive-ness aspect of 2001-2003 was superior. The mysterious feel to those years was a large contributing factor to this despite the more simplified storyline. That's not to say I didn't love the later years. I did. But 2001-2003 will always be the best in my book.

absolutely agree with you there, 2001-2003/ even a bit of 2004 was nice, but I started missing the old colors (couldn't we have gotten regular green again just once lol) but yea, I think it went down hill in 2006 (except the titans were okay) I liked 2007 better, and the first half of 2008 was good (not the silver mistika XP) but then 2009, and it's like they tried to hit almost every point of nestalgia at that time, but not go just back into 2001 obviously, like giving us tan (then dark yellow again... why?) I would have liked another wave of agori, or a tan rahkshi instead of dark yellow (even regular yellow, I'd like) but I liked some of complexness, kind of inventive armor mounting on toa, or a new body for kiina, and some functions in the vehicles, though I think all should have had functions like the main 3 in 2008, but either way, we got them, got more tan on thornatus, and that at least was a beautiful thing...

 

 

matoro's axe (not exactly new, but nice colors)

 

Matoro's Axe?

 

I meant his claw, I often use it as a broud axe though, my bad

 

 

Oh, I get it now.

[Lyichir]

I do think that the sets were getting better near the end, but then again they had been continuously getting better since the theme's start. From the Rahkshi which introduced knee joints, to the Toa Metru which changed the style of hips to something more poseable, to the Inika which introduced a more versatile torso beam than anything which had come before, to the Barraki which finally abolished the trend of "clone sets", Bionicle set designs continued to become more and more refined as time wore on. The Glatorian continued this legacy of improvement by doing unique and new things with torso designs, like Kiina's narrower torso, or Strakk and Skrall's hunchbacked torsos. Additionally, they introduced actual hand molds so that sets could finally begin to look more like they had in Mask of Light and subsequent movies.Ultimately, though, that progress was halted by the reduced budget of the Stars sets, and it wasn't until the theme was over that the biggest leap in set design (the Hero Factory 2.0 building system) could be implemented.

[Aanchir]

I do think that the sets were getting better near the end, but then again they had been continuously getting better since the theme's start. From the Rahkshi which introduced knee joints, to the Toa Metru which changed the style of hips to something more poseable, to the Inika which introduced a more versatile torso beam than anything which had come before, to the Barraki which finally abolished the trend of "clone sets", Bionicle set designs continued to become more and more refined as time wore on. The Glatorian continued this legacy of improvement by doing unique and new things with torso designs, like Kiina's narrower torso, or Strakk and Skrall's hunchbacked torsos. Additionally, they introduced actual hand molds so that sets could finally begin to look more like they had in Mask of Light and subsequent movies.Ultimately, though, that progress was halted by the reduced budget of the Stars sets, and it wasn't until the theme was over that the biggest leap in set design (the Hero Factory 2.0 building system) could be implemented.

I agree with most of this, though there are also some ways in which 2009 BIONICLE failed to improve on previous years. Neither of the two 2009 titan sets was quite as nice as the previous year's Takanuva, for instance. 2009 also had some specific design choices I'd say were rather questionable, like Vastus's ridiculously specialized shoulder armor.On the whole, though, I agree with Lyi's premise that in one way or another BIONICLE managed to improve pretty consistently from year to year. That's just the nature of design, particularly when you have certain designers who have been working on the theme from the very beginning, like Christoffer Raundahl. Edited July 28, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[T.B.O.C]

I agree that 2009 certainly brought back some cool aspects - older colors we hadn't seen in a while, interesting designs and vehicles, etc. I'm willing to say I favor it a bit more than 2008 (except for a few sets that were great that year) Maybe the release of a movie also helped?

 

2010 was a bit disappointing, as many others have said. Personally, I liked the Stars better when we thought they were impulse sets and simply were callbacks to previous years... but the last line of sets made them seem slightly worse, though I did like the Golden Armor.

 

Of course, the later years don't compare to the first four years (01-04) and 05-06 had some great promotional material (Inika) and sets (also Inika). 07 wasn't bade, but was losing a bit of the BIONICLE feel, as well as 2008, which was a bit lackluster (man, that Pohatu set... blergh). In comparison, 2009 kind of felt newer, more of a callback, while retaining newer aspects of BIONICLE (mainly through Inika builds)

[Aanchir]

I agree that 2009 certainly brought back some cool aspects - older colors we hadn't seen in a while, interesting designs and vehicles, etc. I'm willing to say I favor it a bit more than 2008 (except for a few sets that were great that year) Maybe the release of a movie also helped? 2010 was a bit disappointing, as many others have said. Personally, I liked the Stars better when we thought they were impulse sets and simply were callbacks to previous years... but the last line of sets made them seem slightly worse, though I did like the Golden Armor. Of course, the later years don't compare to the first four years (01-04) and 05-06 had some great promotional material (Inika) and sets (also Inika). 07 wasn't bade, but was losing a bit of the BIONICLE feel, as well as 2008, which was a bit lackluster (man, that Pohatu set... blergh). In comparison, 2009 kind of felt newer, more of a callback, while retaining newer aspects of BIONICLE (mainly through Inika builds)

I liked both Pohatus from 2008, though... his mask was maybe my favorite of the 2008 Kanohi Nuva, especially with the gorgeous four-fin visor from Rockoh T3. He lacked his classic physique, but by that point the BIONICLE aesthetic had drifted away from such abstract proportions, and I can't really think of any way Pohatu's bottom-heavy physique could have been effectively maintained at that price point using contemporary parts and building styles without looking out-of-place.All things considered, I think the Stars are somewhat unfairly maligned. If we assume that small sets were all that BIONICLE could justifiably do for its final year (which is not an incredibly unlikely scenario), I think the designers chose what might be the best possible subjects for those small sets. And all things considered, they were an improvement on the Agori and Av-Matoran builds in terms of creativity. The Stars Rahkshi design was brilliantly efficient, even if the use of clawed feet on a Rahkshi is a somewhat suspect design choice, and Stars Tahu was very stylish with his retro Hau and firesword. Edited August 9, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Wazdakka]

I feel that at the end, there were a number of set-wise improvements: going back to the original colors, superior articulation, getting a launcher that satisfied everyone, vehicles, and super-titans (Mata Nui and Takanuva '08). I didn't really like the new heads. However, I think that the story (like the serials we got at the end) was fantastic at and after Bionicle ended, bringing together two universes. I feel that there remains so much untapped potential in those shorts. Farshtey got his groove. That said, I liked the pre-Bara Magna comics better (in general, Journey's End was great).

 

I also think, like Ranchir, that the Stars were unfairly maligned. In my opinion, they are the finest "small" sets we've ever seen, thousands of times better than the rubbish Av-Matoran. Heck, I think they could even go up against the Mata.

[Hitoshura]

Yes, but I think that the creators could've made the MU-Bara Magna transition a bit less confusing. I remember, at age 9, getting frustrated over what happened in the comics. 2010, though, was much more clear and really good as well.

[Art Vandelay]

I also think, like Ranchir, that the Stars were unfairly maligned. In my opinion, they are the finest "small" sets we've ever seen, thousands of times better than the rubbish Av-Matoran. Heck, I think they could even go up against the Mata.

 

Lets not get carried away here.

 

But you're right. They are often unfairly maligned. We are lucky to have even gotten them in the first place.

[Just A Dot]

Yes, but I think that the creators could've made the MU-Bara Magna transition a bit less confusing. I remember, at age 9, getting frustrated over what happened in the comics. 2010, though, was much more clear and really good as well.

 

Trying to follow ANY of the comics without the books got pretty confusing whenever there was a transition. 01-02, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08 (especially if you had read about the Toa back in 01 without any books), and 08-09. Kinda poorly handled there.

 

And the sets were getting better because it would be hard to get worse than 2008. The only cool sets that whole year were the T3, T6, and T9.