Least Favorite Aspect of New Sets?

[Noxryn]

I don't own any of the sets so anything I say is likely to change at some point, but right now:

 

- Kinda bummed that Gali's mask isn't translucent. Not sure if that costs the company more money to implement or if it was just an aesthetic design choice, or if it's an impossibility with the plastic the masks are made out of (if it's different from the rest?). I always liked the translucent water masks.

 

- The yellow on the gearboxes kind of clashes with a lot of color schemes, but it might grow on me or prove to be really easy to gloss over.

 

- There's a lot of silver, I'm not a fan of the amount of silver on some of the sets and I do wish the feet came in more colors.

 

- I'm not really the biggest fan of all the villagers/protectors having the same shape and mold of mask, but it's something I can gloss over and ignore. Besides, at least we get a lot of the masks in different colorations.

 

But that's about it. It's all subject to change when I actually get one of the sets, but those are just what I'm like "eeeehhhh" about.

[Aanchir]

- Kinda bummed that Gali's mask isn't translucent. Not sure if that costs the company more money to implement or if it was just an aesthetic design choice, or if it's an impossibility with the plastic the masks are made out of (if it's different from the rest?). I always liked the translucent water masks.

As I understand it, the masks are made out of polycarbonate just like most other constraction parts. It's certainly not impossible to make transparent masks in the new style because the LEGO Group gave out transparent Masks of Fire at NYCC that work just as well as their solid-colored counterpart. And I can't imagine cost being a factor. I think it was an aesthetic choice more than anything else.

 

I wonder if perhaps future versions of the Toa might have transparent masks (or solid and transparent blends) for an "energized" look.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Aanchir

[Jakura Nuva]

I wonder if perhaps future versions of the Toa might have transparent masks (or solid and transparent blends) for an "energized" look.

*Looks at Jaller Inika figure*

 

Ah! I see what you did there...

 

But seriously - I hope so. That would be an extremely cool aesthetic, IMO, especially if used for rebooted Inika.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Jakura Nuva

[Noxryn]

 

- Kinda bummed that Gali's mask isn't translucent. Not sure if that costs the company more money to implement or if it was just an aesthetic design choice, or if it's an impossibility with the plastic the masks are made out of (if it's different from the rest?). I always liked the translucent water masks.

As I understand it, the masks are made out of polycarbonate just like most other constraction parts. It's certainly not impossible to make transparent masks in the new style because the LEGO Group gave out transparent Masks of Fire at NYCC that work just as well as their solid-colored counterpart. And I can't imagine cost being a factor. I think it was an aesthetic choice more than anything else.

 

I wonder if perhaps future versions of the Toa might have transparent masks (or solid and transparent blends) for an "energized" look.

 

 

For some reason I entirely forgot about the trans orange Hau's and the transparent ones, but in that case I do hope they make some translucent masks in sets in the future. Always liked how they caught the light and filtered it.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Kitania

[LegoSWfan]

I think that's the reason skeleball don't do it for me, its too simplistic.

[Eyru]

I've gotta agree as far as translucent masks go: Gali Mata's mask was always my favourite. I hope they decide to make some more translucent pieces in the future.

[abstractAgamid]

Not as big a deal as the dumb character bios, but I would've liked if all the small sets had unique names as well.

[32one]

Messy colour schemes: Kopaka, for example, has white, trans blue, silver, gold, grey, black, and yellow! Why does the new gearbox have to be grey?

 

Also, the body proportions are off, once again. Tahu and to a lesser extent, Kopaka have body and limb ratios that come close to resembling the Inika build (if only they had longer arms!). Thankfully, the three smaller sets are a bit better with proportions.

[Xarok]

 

 

 

 

*All the protectors are clones which probably means we'll never see villagers with actual personalities like in G1. Just mindless clones walking about in the background while the Toa get all the attention. 

 

What makes you say that? A lot of the G1 Matoran were clones with distinct personalities.

 

The Protectors do share the same mask, but that still doesn't mean that they won't have identities.

 

 

Literally all of them are exact clones. Look at the Fire protectors in the Masks of Power trailer. In G1 Matoran had different masks, colours and personalities. Proper names too.

 

 

I repeat what I said in another topic, if it's of interest: The 'G1' Matoran are sometimes depicted as all looking the same. There's a crowd of Jalas in one of the 2002 comics, and the Matoran crowds in MOL are also clones (making the main characters with their unique designs look a bit conspicuous). Even the first two villages (Ta and Ga-Koro) seen in the MNOLG had lots of clones, and individual designs for each Matoran didn't show up until Po-Koro and the villages after that.

 

I also think the 30-second animation isn't much to go on. We probably won't get any Protector names until the story at least begins.

 

The Protectors in the animation were shown for what, two seconds? They wouldn't design each individual with a unique appearance for such a small display.

 

You gotta take those animations with a grain of salt after you realize Gali has a man's voice.

I'd like Lewa to have more movement with his head but it's pretty much stuck in place.

My biggest issue is it's hard for me to add extra stuff to these guys like I used to with G1 Bionicle sets because of so many new molds and I completely skipped Hero Factory.

I'm not a big fan of the Protectors. I wish they had actual names instead of just Protector of X.

Also, I have some issues with the Lord of Skull Spiders. From what I've seen, it's not that big of a set, compared to the larger Toa. I know he has an army of spiders, but I just would have liked to see a more imposing antagonist for the first arc, I feel like two smaller Toa would be enough to take him on in a fair fight. Maybe he'll be bigger in the actual story, I just would prefer something cooler as the bad guy, or at least give him and the protectors proper names.

[Aanchir]

I'm not a big fan of the Protectors. I wish they had actual names instead of just Protector of X.

I think that now that we know the Protector title is passed down from father to son, the generic names actually make a lot of sense. This way, the Protector sets can represent either the Protectors of the present (when the Toa arrive) or the Protectors of the distant past (when Ekimu's body was first found and laid to rest). It isn't locked in to representing just one or the other.

 

I suppose they could achieve the same thing by having every Protector have the same name as his father before him, but that would be a lot more confusing than them just sharing a title, I think.

[bioniclepluslotr]

 

I'm not a big fan of the Protectors. I wish they had actual names instead of just Protector of X.

I think that now that we know the Protector title is passed down from father to son, the generic names actually make a lot of sense. This way, the Protector sets can represent either the Protectors of the present (when the Toa arrive) or the Protectors of the distant past (when Ekimu's body was first found and laid to rest). It isn't locked in to representing just one or the other.

 

I suppose they could achieve the same thing by having every Protector have the same name as his father before him, but that would be a lot more confusing than them just sharing a title, I think.

 

Based on the bios it looks like they're specific characters, but you can have a title and a name. Like the Toa are called Masters of _____.

Kopaka's stickers created quite the fiasco. I'm surprised I'm still alive after that.

[Xarok]

 

I'm not a big fan of the Protectors. I wish they had actual names instead of just Protector of X.

I think that now that we know the Protector title is passed down from father to son, the generic names actually make a lot of sense. This way, the Protector sets can represent either the Protectors of the present (when the Toa arrive) or the Protectors of the distant past (when Ekimu's body was first found and laid to rest). It isn't locked in to representing just one or the other.

 

I suppose they could achieve the same thing by having every Protector have the same name as his father before him, but that would be a lot more confusing than them just sharing a title, I think.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me, I take back what I said about the protectors. I like the idea of it being a title passed down.

[Sir Kohran]

I have no problem with 'Protector' as a title, but I think each character bearing that title should have an individual name too.

[Xarok]

I have no problem with 'Protector' as a title, but I think each character bearing that title should have an individual name too.

Or at least give us a name with the set, for example, Steve, Protector of Fire. Except he probably wouldn't be called Steve.

[EptyK]

My least favourite part of the new sets has to be the color schemes. I personally think that they clash to a certain extent ex. Kopaka's "gold" and his gunmetal parts. These colors don't go well white. Maybe I'm living in the past but only a very small amount of white sets had any gold parts and i feel that they should keep it that way to prevent the clashing of these colors. 

[Aanchir]

My least favourite part of the new sets has to be the color schemes. I personally think that they clash to a certain extent ex. Kopaka's "gold" and his gunmetal parts. These colors don't go well white. Maybe I'm living in the past but only a very small amount of white sets had any gold parts and i feel that they should keep it that way to prevent the clashing of these colors.

Kopaka doesn't use any gunmetal parts. Did you mean the Silver Metallic ones?

 

Personally, I don't think his colors clash at all, especially since the main non-neutral colors (gold and blue) contrast very nicely and help balance each other out.

[EptyK]

 

My least favourite part of the new sets has to be the color schemes. I personally think that they clash to a certain extent ex. Kopaka's "gold" and his gunmetal parts. These colors don't go well white. Maybe I'm living in the past but only a very small amount of white sets had any gold parts and i feel that they should keep it that way to prevent the clashing of these colors.

Kopaka doesn't use any gunmetal parts. Did you mean the Silver Metallic ones?

 

Personally, I don't think his colors clash at all, especially since the main non-neutral colors (gold and blue) contrast very nicely and help balance each other out.

 

My mistake, I meant the metallic silver ones. 

[IcarusBen]

Again, the Titans should all get a unique primary, a unique secondary and a unique metallic color, while the Canisters should just have a primary and secondary color.

[Aanchir]

Again, the Titans should all get a unique primary, a unique secondary and a unique metallic color, while the Canisters should just have a primary and secondary color.

In a manner of speaking, you could say all six Toa are "titans", since the smaller Toa cost the same as Nocturn. By 2007 the LEGO Group had stopped using the term "titan" and started using "warrior" instead, but most BIONICLE fans I know still consider Nocturn a titan set, and certainly don't consider him a canister set. But really, the term "titan" is a bit outdated, since it mostly existed to set the larger box sets apart from "canister sets", and "canister sets" no longer exist.

 

Anyway, I don't see any reason why the smaller Toa can't have metallic colors. It's not as though the larger Toa have some special "elite" status that accounts for their higher price. The price differences are mostly just to give them different physiques, and to provide a wider range of price options for buyers.

 

I suppose if you want all the metallic colors to be unique, then having them for only three of the Toa would make some sense, as the LEGO Group's current color palette only includes three colors of metallic plastic. But I don't know why Toa sharing metallic colors would be a problem in the first place. It's not like it's currently difficult to tell who's who.

[IcarusBen]

I.E. Tahu is red, orange and gold. Kopaka is white, sand blue and silver. Onua is black, purple and gunmetal. Simple and easy to distinguish. Meanwhile, Lewa is green and lime, Pohatu is brown and light tan, and Gali is two different blues. The big sets having metallic colors is to add extra flair to them, plus, Tahu is the leader, Kopaka has traditionally been the deputy, and Onua is... Well, he's Onua. 'Nuff said.

Edited January 4, 2015 by IcarusBen

[Jobber]

After having all of the Protectors my complaints are the following:
 

1. Water Protectors' build is awkward. That single chest armor just looks so weird with his/her skinny limbs.
2. The new launcher is really touchy, firing when I barely move the knob. 
3. Some of them can be a real pain to pose.
4. Stone Protectors' leg armor gets in the way, and makes him have really beefy thighs.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Chasm

[Killer Toa03]

The stickers aren't great, but it would have been great if Lego had just printed those parts. My main gripe is how the masks aren't very secure on the new heads.

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

The stickers aren't great, but it would have been great if Lego had just printed those parts. My main gripe is how the masks aren't very secure on the new heads.

This was discussed somewhere else, but apparently, Lego has printing machines for certain pieces and the pieces we're getting stickers for obviously don't have printing machines.

 

I have 2 of the protectors: Fire and Stone. I don't really have any complaints about the Protector of Stone. His thigh armor, while big, doesn't bother me too much. Fire however...His legs are very awkward to pose, his lack of elbows is just weird, and the shoulder mounted cannon isn't as pose able as it should be. Both of these protectors don't have back armor, BUT these guys don't need it. Lego did a good job of making them look believably proportionate. If they were this thick/thin at the size of say Brutaka, then I'd complain, but they're very proportionate and very good overall. Again, this is just for the 2 protectors I have.

 

Masks: The masks are looser than I was expecting, but that's OK! I love that the masks are loose again! I can't wait to have duels with my friends and see who can keep their mask on the longest! That being said, I can pickup my protectors solely by the mask and it won't come off. I can also pose their heads by just grabbing the mask so it's not so bad.