VooDoo Heads on Camera

[CyclonatorZ]

Now that I've seen this, I like to think that Voodoo Heads are just one of the many alternate dimensions in the Bionicle universe. At the very least, I hope this video spawns at least one fan-fiction where the Toa Mata or some other random selection of characters travels to Voodoo Island.

[Owlexander]

Now that I've seen this, I like to think that Voodoo Heads are just one of the many alternate dimensions in the Bionicle universe. At the very least, I hope this video spawns at least one fan-fiction where the Toa Mata or some other random selection of characters travels to Voodoo Island.

 

Where, instead of the Bohrok, there's a mass army of Voodoo Heads!

[Nescent]

I just watched this again, and noticed that there are five other tapes at the beginning of the video, all of which are labeled Bionicle. Incoming Faber Files, hopefully.

[Infamousevil]

I would buy those if they got released.

[Adventurer]

Very very cool to see this! Seems back then the design process prioritised play-functions first, determining which worked well and were fun to play with, then adapting the sets to be more aesthetic and visually appealing. That's the impression I get anyway, particularly from the way they presented the sets. Even if the original concept in that form had stuck I suspect there would have been another visual stage of development following the functional one given the lack of colour variety in the sets we saw there.

[Aanchir]

Very very cool to see this! Seems back then the design process prioritised play-functions first, determining which worked well and were fun to play with, then adapting the sets to be more aesthetic and visually appealing. That's the impression I get anyway, particularly from the way they presented the sets. Even if the original concept in that form had stuck I suspect there would have been another visual stage of development following the functional one given the lack of colour variety in the sets we saw there.

Yes, even if these had stayed "Voodoo Heads", they would definitely have evolved further before being released. This is true with any prototypes from this early in development.

 

However, even if these might look a lot different from the sets we ended up getting (they almost closer resemble the LEGO Technic hockey players from a few years later than the Toa we know and love), they definitely worked as a proof-of-concept to show LEGO there was a market for Technic action figures with dynamic action features. Even as rough as they are, they seem to demonstrate a lot more action play value than the Slizer and Roboriders sets that came before them.

 

It's really amazing to see these concept models. The amount of time, care, and attention that went into planning BIONICLE before its release is one of the major factors that sets it apart from flops like Galidor. These models really show how far the concept evolved during that development process. Though the similarity of the Muaka prototype to the final set is not too surprising, since the 2001 Rahi generally had more Technic Competition/Cyber Slam DNA than action figure DNA, and so had a lot more precedent to fall back on.

[Swanka]

Am I the only one who wants instructions to build these, as well as the 3D file to print out the prototype heads? (Which shouldn't be too much of a hassle, seeing as the parts never made it past the prototype stage.)

 

These are really cool. They are slightly creepy, which is to be expected with a name like "Voodoo Heads," but not overly creepy. I do understand that children might be uncomfortable with the faces. The functions are REALLY cool, especially that they seem to be mostly rubber band- or motor-driven, instead of the gears systems we've seen in G1 and G2. I love seeing where BIONICLE came from.

[Aanchir]

Something else to keep in mind about these is that it's not just the LOOK of the models that bothered kids. Before the idea of masks was introduced, the idea of the Voodoo Heads' competitive play features is that they'd actually knock each other's heads off — which, while perhaps not totally scary, is definitely a lot more aggressive than just knocking an opponent's mask off.

Actually, learning that the overall design of Muaka and Kane-Ra dates back to the Voodoo Heads era suddenly makes their surprisingly violent arm-fall-off function make a lot more sense...

[Adventurer]

 

Very very cool to see this! Seems back then the design process prioritised play-functions first, determining which worked well and were fun to play with, then adapting the sets to be more aesthetic and visually appealing. That's the impression I get anyway, particularly from the way they presented the sets. Even if the original concept in that form had stuck I suspect there would have been another visual stage of development following the functional one given the lack of colour variety in the sets we saw there.

Yes, even if these had stayed "Voodoo Heads", they would definitely have evolved further before being released. This is true with any prototypes from this early in development.

 

However, even if these might look a lot different from the sets we ended up getting (they almost closer resemble the LEGO Technic hockey players from a few years later than the Toa we know and love), they definitely worked as a proof-of-concept to show LEGO there was a market for Technic action figures with dynamic action features. Even as rough as they are, they seem to demonstrate a lot more action play value than the Slizer and Roboriders sets that came before them.

 

It's really amazing to see these concept models. The amount of time, care, and attention that went into planning BIONICLE before its release is one of the major factors that sets it apart from flops like Galidor. These models really show how far the concept evolved during that development process. Though the similarity of the Muaka prototype to the final set is not too surprising, since the 2001 Rahi generally had more Technic Competition/Cyber Slam DNA than action figure DNA, and so had a lot more precedent to fall back on.

 

 

Oh yeah I get you on that - might point was more that it appears in the decade following this it appears there was a shift in the order of the design process - i.e. it feels to me as time progressed they started worrying about the visual aspect of the sets earlier in the development stages than in this case where it appeared to come after the functionality was designed.

[Ballom Nom Nom]

This is incredible. They're so breathtakingly terrifying. It's also quite amusing to realize how close this came to actually being a reality in terms of Lego themes.

 

~B~