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Toy Fair 2015: Bionicle


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Bionicle is back at Toy Fair! Obviously, the thirteen sets that are already out were on display, but no one really cares about those at this point. You all want to see the five new sets due out this August. It just so happens that we're willing to oblige you guys and took copious amounts of photos and have some thoughts to share. Let's check them out!

 

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Well, at least we know the prices for them all, though I'm sure everyone guessed them.

 

Anyways, onto the sets.

 

Skull Warrior: A bit of a misleading title, considering he looks to be more of an archer, but I guess "Skull Archer" doesn't really fit here. Anyways, he really does capture an archer vibe well, and it's great to see a transparent light blue shooter! EDIT: Rahkshi Lalonde pointed out the spear/polearm that I missed! Guess Skull Warrior does fit here, hahah

 

Skull Slicer: To be honest, I knew a lot of people would criticize him for having the regular Skull Spider mask, but to be honest, it seems like that was the best move for LEGO money-wise. Besides, it doesn't look half-bad, and the 4 arms concept with all of them being gear-controllable is very interesting!

 

Skull Basher: Quite the bulky set we've got here (for Skeletal standards). Great to see some more purple in Gen2! Seeing as purple was severely lacking in Gen1... The lack of gears in favor of a button (? Not sure if that's really confirmed) will hopefully set this guy apart from all the others.

 

Skull Scorpio: Well, this is the least favorite of everyone it seems. Lack of leg-poseability is unfortunate, but I still intend on getting this guy (as well as everyone else). Besides, I previously thought LoSS wouldn't be too great for similar reasons, but I really do enjoy his function. Here's hoping that Skull Scorpio's function is just as fun if not better (not gonna say "funner", because that doesn't sound right...).

 

Mask Maker & Skull Grinder: YES!! Finally, the Mask of Creation in set form! And Ekimu too! His presence is odd, seeing as he was said to be in an "endless sleep", but I'm sure that'll be established in the story. And I'm SO glad they chose to incorporate a shooter into the hammer (as odd as that is), and I'm even gladder that they chose to make that transparent light blue shooter piece, especially in this set. Of course, I'm not gonna forget the (brutal death metal name-esque, in my opinion :P ) Skull Grinder, who looks to be the most substantial of the Skull villains and will probably be a formidable foe for Ekimu as he seeks to reclaim his mask.

 

Overall, I'm lovin' this wave, even if it is only 5 sets (D:).

Edited by Moku
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Great coverage, and up relatively quickly, too!  Thanks!  Basher looks neat, as does the two-pack of Grinder and Ekimu.  Scorpio looks a bit weird, but I can't quite tell how its tail function works, so it'll at least be an intriguing build.

 

Were you, by chance, able to see the backs of the packaging?  Any comics, combiners or other such info?

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These are some really good photos, we can finally see the details. Of the summer sets, I'm probably only getting Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder. Luckily, my favourite villain of the wave is packed with Ekimu and the Mask of Creation. I noticed some of the new parts look rather matte / grainy, though. I'm guessing they're 3D printed, but if not, I rather like the look of it on the skull masks.

 

Also, did anyone notice the small TV logo on the Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder display card? It says "Aug Oct" on it. Could we possibly be seeing Bionicle episodes hit television screens in August and October?

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Hello, Skull Slicer... goodbye, money.

 

I think there are some legitimate criticisms about the color schemes for some of them, especially Skull Warrior who's orange and blue armor is clashing in a bad way. I'm not too fond of the build of Skull Scorpion's tail, either. I'm sure it has a nice function and kids will love it, but it's just too bulky. And I still don't like the ginormous round shin pieces. That said, the sets introduce some nice transparent colors and the overall concept of skeleton warriors is too cool to pass up. I don't love them, but I like them. I think Skull Slicer stands out from the bunch due to the more uniform colors and gear function, so I'll definitely pick up that one. And of course Ekimu is a must have for the Mask of Creation. I can pass on the others.

 

Thanks for the coverage!

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Okay, I'm actually in love with the Skull Gang now. The really spooky background art on the packaging really brings them together, they look like an absolutely terrifying group of creepy skeletal baddies to come swarming over the horizon just when you think a couple small spiders are your biggest problem. Looks like Okoto has a very serious hidden threat. Reminds me of the Bohrok, but even more morbid, because these guys are clearly just here to be evil. Their bright, occasionally clashing colors really stand out and work well with what will prolly be a sorta chaotic theme for them. Very gruesome looking, very unforgiving. They definitely look strong. I've done a complete 180. Did you see those pistons on the chest art and on one of the new masks? Very Bionicle-y too, almost afraid that they're horrible twisted remnants of Gen 1 sort of characters D= Mask Maker is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm pleasantly surprised by Skull Bashers push button function. 

I might actually get all of these guys, I want to set up some seriously cool battlescapes with the poor Toa :D

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Man, this summer wave is pretty underwhelming. No titans, battle vehicles, or large sets of any sort. Not even a full group of bad guys (Tahu and Gali don't get to fight anyone?). I suppose I'll pick up the mask maker set, if only to get the Mask of Creation. I'll probably pass on the others though, at least until they go on clearance next year.

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Wow! These are much better than before in the other Toy Fair in Germany. Now we get to see a better view on these new upcoming sets.

They look epic! I love their masks. They look cool! The box art look very well designed! I love the new pieces on them, too! Man, I can't wait to get these sets once they come out in the summer!:)

One thing is that there is no transparent golden masks for Tahu or Gali. That is because I heard Eurobricks said there are no more villain sets containing them to save Bionicle's budget. Too bad. Oh, well. I was looking forward to that, too.:(

But the pictures look very great, anyway. Thanks for posting them!:)

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I hope i'm not the only one who think it'd be awesome of they kept the prototype textures. They just make the pieces pop and seem real rugged and old. It goes along PERFECTLY with the skeleton/undead theme they're going for here. 

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Well once again I'm pleased, I just hope to see multicolored Mask of: Fire, & Water; otherwise I'm content waiting until 2016 for any other specific sets (eg Makuta with his unique hammer & Mask, + different secondary colour bones, & even then I'm more than content for that to show up in 2017, or even 2018; just as long as it becomes a proper set :3)

 

Looks like Brickipedia had everything covered that I wanted to know exempting confirmation of all of Skull Slicers moving arms (although others had already agreed that Slicer appeared to have been modified as such since Nuremberg).

 

Welp now to wait until they arrive here and see if MMvsSG hits $50 *cough*

 

I can honestly say I like the colours on all of them, & well the asymmetry wasn't bothering me although they do seem a bit more balanced which is nice :3

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Hm... Is it just me, or do Lewa's half-trans mask and the Mask of Creation look unfinished? I mean, it isn't uncommon for prototype pieces to appear at Toy Fair, but these two stand out, in particular

 

Hopefully the finished MoCr is as glorious as the promo images make it out to be

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I'm loving the box art on these sets, as they're very energetic with the set color schemes and dark backgrounds. I also like how each box art shows the Toa trying to claim their masks back in certain corners of each box. 

 

There is nothing that really surprises me with the sets themselves, most of the stuff I had coming, so my thoughts haven't really changed that much.

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Skull Warrior and Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder are my favorites. Skull Warrior looks the most fleshed out and finished to me, and I also think it has the best color scheme. I'm getting the latter set mostly for Ekimu and the Mask of Creation. The on thing that kind of diminishes how these look is the prototype pieces. Those rough textures just look...blegh. I honestly will probably only buy a few of these because I'm not made of money, and I have limited shelf space. Besides, right now I'm busy focusing my toy collecting on Amiibo.

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Confirmed: All four of Slicer's arms are geared.

YESSS!!!!! :happydance:

 

 

Also, did anyone notice the small TV logo on the Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder display card? It says "Aug Oct" on it. Could we possibly be seeing Bionicle episodes hit television screens in August and October?

Whoa... maybe it could be a Bionicle TV special or something...

 

Hm... Is it just me, or do Lewa's half-trans mask and the Mask of Creation look unfinished? I mean, it isn't uncommon for prototype pieces to appear at Toy Fair, but these two stand out, in particular

 

Hopefully the finished MoCr is as glorious as the promo images make it out to be

Looking back at the Nuremberg pictures, the sets had the finalized masks in those pictures, and they weren't grainy like these. So yes, the Mask of Creation will look as cool as it has been made out to be. :P

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Hm... Is it just me, or do Lewa's half-trans mask and the Mask of Creation look unfinished? I mean, it isn't uncommon for prototype pieces to appear at Toy Fair, but these two stand out, in particular

 

Hopefully the finished MoCr is as glorious as the promo images make it out to be

How did the Mask of Creation look unfinished? To me it looks like the mould was constructed to mimic a textured look of a really ancient mask (and it looks awesome IMO). Not sure what you meant about Lewa's mask either - you might have to be more specific. :)

 

I think it's expected that almost everyone will want to buy the set with the MoC. I feel like I will too since I get two sets in one. They all look fairly decent but that one stands out to me most.

 

Again, it's interesting how they're not following a pattern of sixes. I like it - mixes it up and lets them refocus on what they would really like to bring to the shelves rather than setting themselves up for a cloning pattern. Still, it does seem like a couple of these sets could do with more pieces or features.


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Also, did anyone notice the small TV logo on the Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder display card? It says "Aug Oct" on it. Could we possibly be seeing Bionicle episodes hit television screens in August and October?

Those icons appear pretty much every year for pretty much every theme. They refer to TV commercials, not TV episodes. Sorry to disappoint you but I knew it was only a matter of time before somebody got confused, because it happens every year.
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I hope the mask of creation and the trans mask of jungle will look better and not horribly grainy looking. Other than that, I am excited for these sets. 

 

EDIT: These are most likely prototype parts. Look at the armour parts on some of the villains. Most likely, they will be smoother in the new sets. 

Edited by Craig B
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Well certainly not a terrible selection. Slicer's green is enticing, and nice to see that his arms are all geared, although they're placement means they're bound to smack into each other and will be mostly incapible of full rotations, but I digress. (And its not like the Toa Masters were any better in some regards.) Scorpio also looks more substancial in person than his box art suggests, but still rather weak as a set. (And there really is no leg articulation? Bummer.) It looks like we're only seeing two new mask styles with the villian (Scorpio and Basher have the same, as do Warrior and Grinder. Can't tell if there are any color differences, but the difference will probably only be grey to gunmetal.) The recolored Toa masks look pretty neat, although I am sad there's no recolor of the mask of water, which is the one that truely deserves to have a trans color. Hopefully there'll be another summer promotion, like with Tahu's mask of fire, or a store exclusive set. (Also realized that all the baddies have trans orange eyes, so glad we're seeing that eye color, even if I'm not a fan of the new style of heads.)

 

Thanks for the details pictures and write ups, Andrew!

 

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Skull Warrior: A bit of a misleading title, considering he looks to be more of an archer, but I guess "Skull Archer" doesn't really fit here.  Anyways, he really does capture an archer vibe well, and it's great to see a transparent light blue shooter!

 

I think my favorite part of skull warrior is that he's got two kinds of weapons: the bow, and the spear/staff/polearm.

 

makes him great for army-building, since you can have skull archers and skull warriors, o even just one guy who is proficient in two weapons! O:

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Well certainly not a terrible selection. Slicer's green is enticing, and nice to see that his arms are all geared, although they're placement means they're bound to smack into each other and will be mostly incapible of full rotations, but I digress.  :music:

 

Actually, judging by the three small gears on the right side of Skull Slicer, I'm pretty sure it's geared so that the right arms at least don't smack into each other. Looks more like right pair of arms will rotate with each other. The only pair of arms that will do that will smack into each other will be on the left side, and even then the lower left arm is the one without a sword, meaning it's less likely to smack into the upper left arm.

 

---

 

I like Skull Warrior. Bows make everything cooler. Asymmetry is nicely done too.

 

Skull Slicer is probably the most meh of the sets - sure, it has four arms and all four are geared. But other than that, not much is appealing about it.

 

Skull Basher... it will be interesting to see how well that function works.

 

Skull Scorpio is one of the most interesting sets. It definitely could be better though. Up the price point to that of Tahu, Kopaka, Onua and give it posable legs, then it'll become a lot better to a lot of people.

 

MM v SG I can't really say anything about that hasn't been said already. 

 

Might as well say that I really do dislike it when people dislike sets purely because they're asymmetrical. Asymmetry does not mean 'instantly bad'.

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Were you, by chance, able to see the backs of the packaging?  Any comics, combiners or other such info?

You know, someone tweeted that they wanted to see pictures of the packaging, but turning them around honestly never occurred to me. So nope, the pictures you see are what I took, sorry.

 

Hm... Is it just me, or do Lewa's half-trans mask and the Mask of Creation look unfinished? I mean, it isn't uncommon for prototype pieces to appear at Toy Fair, but these two stand out, in particular

The Mask of Creation was definitely a prototype.
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I'm going to have to switch Ekimu's eyestalk out for a blue one to make it accurate to what we saw in the animations. It's funny how they can't even stay true to their own lore, that really bothers me and makes me doubt the group's competence on telling a story. They've made a LOT of errors with spelling and releasing videos that don't really happen with other themes. It's almost like Lego doesn't even really care. They're afraid it will fail and unlike a lot of other themes, they're not going all in with advertising and media. It's really pathetic to look at.

Edited by BlatantlyHeroic
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One thing I'm liking is the prices! Based on the Euro pricing, I was thinking the skull villains would be $20 each, with the VS set at $40, so I'm glad that I was wrong there! 

 

One thing I'm not sure of...is 'Kimu's hammer also a six shooter? That seems kind of dumb to me, considering he already has a gear function (though I'm not sure that 2 friction gears are necessary). But then again, I've yet to actually try a six shooter, so maybe this is actually a pro.

 

Interesting to note is the backround on the Skull Warrior's box art. It seems the Toa are up against "swarms" of villains again!

 

Here's hoping too that the villains skull-masks get some sort of canonized power. (Heck, even the villagers get mask powers this time around- they better not skimp on the baddies!)

Edited by Takametru007
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I'm going to have to switch Ekimu's eyestalk out for a blue one to make it accurate to what we saw in the animations. It's funny how they can't even stay true to their own lore, that really bothers me and makes me doubt the group's competence on telling a story. They've made a LOT of errors with spelling and releasing videos that don't really happen with other themes. It's almost like Lego doesn't even really care. They're afraid it will fail and unlike a lot of other themes, they're not going all in with advertising and media. It's really pathetic to look at.

If keeping eye colors consistent was a prerequisite for competent storytelling, then the G1 BIONICLE team can't have been competent storytellers. Characters' eye colors varied wildly not only between different media portrayals like the sets, online games, movies, and comics, but also between different set versions of the characters. All things considered, I think the fact that one character's eye color is different in the set than in the animations is not a big deal, especially since it's not as though either eye color has any special significance to the character.

 

Anyway, it's great to see that Skull Slicer has all four of his arms geared! In general, I love the creativity of these sets' functions.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about the blade pieces Skull Slicer and Warrior use. I love their chaotic design, which reminds me a bit of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (in fact, I'm getting quite a few Zelda vibes from this wave), but it gives them an awfully specialized look which is not helped by them having just a single connection point. The axe-like pieces used in Skull Basher, Scorpio, and Grinder are a lot better in terms of connection points, but it'll take a while for me to warm up to their bizarre shape. Maybe once I have them in hand I'll find that they're more versatile than I give them credit for, but currently they just don't impress me as much as the weapon pieces from the Toa.

 

The new masks for the villains are nice and feel reasonably versatile. I appreciate that they are used across multiple sets. The new detail pieces on the knees and shoulders of many of the villains are quite strange and I don't know how I might use them in MOCs. They have both a fairly specialized texture and a fairly specialized shape. But at the same time, I definitely think they suit this undead faction.

 

The ribcage shell on the villains' torsos is very cool and I think it will definitely have some neat applications. I don't know quite what to think of the chest patterns, though. They are very cool and seem reasonably versatile, but they are not very standardized, and I can't say I like them anywhere near as much as the torso patterns of the Toa.

 

Piece counts are all satisfactory, and box art looks gorgeous, even though it doesn't feel quite as diverse as that of the Toa and Protectors.

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Interesting to note is the backround on the Skull Warrior's box art. It seems the Toa are up against "swarms" of villains again!

 

For box art, also note the hands reaching out toward the masks. It looks as if the Skull things are stealing the masks from whoever those hands belong to, which I would assume are our Toa heroes.

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I like all the sets, but I have at least one major problem for each of them I don't like how 4-arms' mask is just a skull spider, which I already have 13 of. I don't like some of the new armor placement on some of the sets, which causes some odd areas to be strangely bulbous, like the knees. And I REALLY don't like the scorpion's tail. If they wanted a pincher mechanic, they should have put it on one of its claws. I also don't like that we aren't getting Tahu's or Gali's masks. All the Toa sets came with 3 masks, including the skull spider. They could have fit those in somewhere.

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The box art for all of these is amazing. Fantastic job on that regard.

 

Pretty much all the sets look better here than they did in Nuremberg, and I didn't dislike them in Nuremberg or anything. Warrior is still on top. I love everything he's got going on. slicer actually looks pretty solid now, it's nice to see that all his arms are geared after all. Basher looks cool overall, but I'm still worried about his horn size... Scorpio is still kind of messy, but at least now we can see exactly how he's built. I'll probably build a mock-up of him to see how he handles and see what I can modify.

 

Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder looks fantastic. Still a bit bummed about the green eyes on Ekimu, but that's really minor in the end. They both look nice. I wonder if the mask stand for the MoCr is part of the set? That would be pretty cool.

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I'm going to have to switch Ekimu's eyestalk out for a blue one to make it accurate to what we saw in the animations. It's funny how they can't even stay true to their own lore, that really bothers me and makes me doubt the group's competence on telling a story. They've made a LOT of errors with spelling and releasing videos that don't really happen with other themes. It's almost like Lego doesn't even really care. They're afraid it will fail and unlike a lot of other themes, they're not going all in with advertising and media. It's really pathetic to look at.

If keeping eye colors consistent was a prerequisite for competent storytelling, then the G1 BIONICLE team can't have been competent storytellers. Characters' eye colors varied wildly not only between different media portrayals like the sets, online games, movies, and comics, but also between different set versions of the characters. All things considered, I think the fact that one character's eye color is different in the set than in the animations is not a big deal, especially since it's not as though either eye color has any special significance to the character.

 

Also, inaccuracies like this aren't a case of the sets being inconsistent with the lore—it's the other way around. Ekimu's appearance in the animations is clearly based on the set. In general, the sets always come first (except for characters like the G1 Karzahni who were not conceived with sets in mind in the first place).
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