OFFICIAL 2016 Bionicle Topic

[masterchirox580]

So... My Umarak's chestplate is misprinted, because that's a thing that can happen apparently. One of the green "tooth shaped" thingies isn't colored in; it's just silver.

 

 

Anyone else run into this issue? I've already emailed Lego to see if I can get a replacement, but that said, this is kind of cool. I wonder how rare it is. 

I actually kinda like the look. It makes him look like he's lost a tooth. 

[Nescent]

Just built Lewa, Gali, and Uxar. Gali is nice, she looks a lot better in person, IMO. The only thing I don't like is her torso - the extra module does not work on her (it does on the other Toa), and there's nothing surrounding the chestplate so it looks like the chest armor isn't sitting on anything. But she's a nice set, can't wait to get Akida.

 

Lewa is perfect, though. And so is Uxar. I wasn't particularly excited for either of them, but they are awesome. I love Lewa's custom arms & legs, love the mask, the colors (the yellow is sweet), and they are incredible when United.

[emily]

Everything disappeared from the Products page. I hope that means they're updating the site. 

Add to this that trying to access any of the character pages redirects to the character index. Might see the update within a week or so!

 

EDIT: the Mask of Creation game is gone too, as well as the City of the Mask Makers trailer and the first designer video in the videos section. And three of the Power Up videos.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Pereki

[Toa Smoke Monster]

So... My Umarak's chestplate is misprinted, because that's a thing that can happen apparently. One of the green "tooth shaped" thingies isn't colored in; it's just silver.

 

*Snip*

 

Anyone else run into this issue? I've already emailed Lego to see if I can get a replacement, but that said, this is kind of cool. I wonder how rare it is. 

I haven't had a chance to build my Umarak set yet, so I don't know if mine has this.

 

If it is rare though, wouldn't that make the chestplate more valuable, AKA more profitable, than a regular one?

[Lyichir]

 

So... My Umarak's chestplate is misprinted, because that's a thing that can happen apparently. One of the green "tooth shaped" thingies isn't colored in; it's just silver.

 

*Snip*

 

Anyone else run into this issue? I've already emailed Lego to see if I can get a replacement, but that said, this is kind of cool. I wonder how rare it is. 

I haven't had a chance to build my Umarak set yet, so I don't know if mine has this.

 

If it is rare though, wouldn't that make the chestplate more valuable, AKA more profitable, than a regular one?

 

I haven't ever seen that much evidence for misprinted parts being significantly more valuable than the regular variety. The best I can think of are things like the "flame" colored bricks that show up when Lego switches colors in one of their molding machines, but their value has more to do with the fact that they almost never make it to sets, and only really reach the aftermarket via factory workers slipping them into their pockets (and with the fact that they look substantially different than your average single-colored brick). The fact that two people in this very thread have the same misprint suggests that this misprint is unlikely to be all that valuable, especially considering that the misprint doesn't really create any brand-new MOCing opportunities.

[ToaDraco]

I got Lewa today. Onua was my first pick but sadly they only had have of the new wave at my local walmart. I really like the new crystal pieces although I think they did a really lousy job with the dual injecting. There should be a lot more trans apple green in the add ons and I don't really understand why the crystal blades couldn't be transparent. Maybe the softer plastic doesn't' work in a transparent color? The chest piece actually looks a little better than I expected and looks good on Lewa but is pretty useless for anything else. The mask is much thinner and and sharper than I anticipated, but it looks incredible, even topping the beautiful Mask of Jungle from last year. I really like the custom limbs and the shoulder construction isn't as inhibiting as I thought they would be, due in part to the free moving elbow joints. His back is a little empty but not a big deal considering it needs to be so Uxar can hitch a ride. Plus, when I get the creatures and the rest of the Toa, they'll be displayed in their unity forms anyway. His color scheme is perfect for his 'Nuva' form so-to-speak and it's well balanced and his overall shape is lean and lithe which suits Lewa very well. I actually quite like his weapons. As much as I love swords, it's nice to see something new like his new crystal tonfa. I've always found those to be fun weapons that would be well suited to a Toa of Air( or Jungle as it is now). 

[Aanchir]

...and I don't really understand why the crystal blades couldn't be transparent. Maybe the softer plastic doesn't' work in a transparent color?

Exactly. The softer plastic parts are polypropylene and generally can't achieve the same glassy look you get in polycarbonate. Vahki eyestalks are a good example of this in a non-blended piece, and Tarix's water blades and Malum's flame claws are good examples of this in G1 blended pieces.

[masterchirox580]

People really don't like Melum. And whilst I can see why (and do understand) I'd like to point out that Vizuna and Nilkuu are almost the same model. They have the same body structure and nearly all the same parts (just arranged a little differently). Not that I have a problem with people criticizing Melum but I'd just like to point out that the same thing happened in 2015. 

[Lyichir]

People really don't like Melum. And whilst I can see why (and do understand) I'd like to point out that Vizuna and Nilkuu are almost the same model. They have the same body structure and nearly all the same parts (just arranged a little differently). Not that I have a problem with people criticizing Melum but I'd just like to point out that the same thing happened in 2015. 

I don't mind Melum, and in fact Melum and Terak are more different than even the Protectors you mentioned, thanks to having totally different gear functions. However, even with that in mind, Melum has the lowest part count of any of the Creatures (since more of the price of the set goes to Kopaka, who on his own would probably cost somewhere between the $15 and $20 price points), and this is reflected in his overall look—he has fewer claws and shorter limbs than Terak, and is generally smaller. Also, while this is due almost solely to the color scheme for Ice sets, Melum has far fewer new or interesting parts than Terak, since most of his Trans. Light Blue parts already debuted in Chima, as opposed to how Terak introduces a bounty of Trans. Bright Bluish Violet parts.

 

Ultimately I kind of wish the Kopaka and Melum Unity Set had been a $30 set rather than a $25 set, so that Melum could've been slightly larger (and more bear-like) than the other Creatures, instead of slightly smaller. But he's still a decent Creature design as it is, and much less of a clone than it seems at first glance.

[Nescent]

The Bionicle website has been updated with the 2016 products.

[Blastcage]

So, I got Ketar, Akida, Pohatu, and Kopaka and Melum yesterday, and built them pretty much instantly. I do love them, but there are some...questionable design choices. Kopaka's random gold kneepads stick out too much, seeing as that's the only gold on him until you put on his golden mask. Then there's that dark blue on his forearms...sticks out a bit as well, but not quite as badly. As for Pohatu, his forearms are too translucent, and his weapon is a bit awkward, as is his unity mode...that said, I do like some of the design choices on all of them. I prefer Kopaka's new mask over his old one, and I like his unity mode, even though it doesn't line up as well as I'd like. Really looking forward to getting the rest soon! 

[Spiffy247]

I now have Kopaka, Melum, Pohatu, Ketar, Lewa, Uxar, Umarak, Tahu, and Ikir. I have four left to go, and I want two of Uxar. Need to unite with both Lewa and Umarak.

[McNugget]

I got Onua two days ago, and he looks really good, except for the feet, they're really just horrible.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Display Name Goes Here

[NickonAquaMagna]

I got Onua two days ago, and he looks really good, except for the feet, they're really horrible.

 

I've found that those feet seem more appropriate for his 2015 build. They provide a good base for such a hefty character.

[Ford]

I got Gali and Umarak yesterday, and I have mixed feelings about them.

 

Gali disappoints me. I've been a long time fan of the character and this set just baffles me. Proportions are way off, to the point where most poses are near impossible to achieve due to the stubby arms and weird legs; the body feels boxy/barrel-like and contributes to the near impossible posing. Light piping, which is my favorite thing of all time, is nonexistent in her eyes (even with the golden/transparent mask on) but almost exclusive to her limbs. The weapon... is kinda nice; I love the new crystal blade, especially in the light blue color here. Also, the torso swivel is extremely tight and very difficult to use without having to hear the most dreadful squeaking noise to ever meet your ears. I already scrapped this set and made a mini version of Gali, which somehow works better for me. 

 

Umarak is much better in person and much more posable than Gali. Proportions feel better, colors feel better, and functions are leagues better. The turntable waist does not squeak as much or as painfully as Gali's, and I feel that this set is a better use of that play feature. The legs bothered me before, but now they make sense. I can also finally comprehend his mask design and even that fits in with his theme. He is definitely worth it, even without the Mask of Control being described here (which is also pretty great to have).

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I must give my overall gripe with the Toa torso shell for this year: It does absolutely nothing. If the piston greebles contributed to posability, I would have loved it, but overall the piece seems useless. They used a traditional torso shell combo on Umarak, but why not on the Toa? We may never know the answer...

Edited January 7, 2016 by FordianL at the BCC

[NickonAquaMagna]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I must give my overall gripe with the Toa torso shell for this year: It does absolutely nothing. If the piston greebles contributed to posability, I would have loved it, but overall the piece seems useless. They used a traditional torso shell combo on Umarak, but why not on the Toa? We may never know the answer...

 

Because that would make them feel less new and more "hero factory-like" in ignorant peoples' eyes.

 

I'm just gonna extend her shins with longer trans-blue bones.

Edited January 7, 2016 by NickonAquaMagna

[Jobber]

I just love how TLG decided to put one of those sloped, vented, bricks on Gali's back.

[Ford]

I just love how TLG decided to put one of those sloped, vented, bricks on Gali's back.

That's another thing; why did they use bright blue for the back instead of dark azure or orange to go with her color scheme? They went through the trouble to make the short axles black in the same set, but they couldn't recolor any other small parts?

[Aanchir]

 

I just love how TLG decided to put one of those sloped, vented, bricks on Gali's back.

That's another thing; why did they use bright blue for the back instead of dark azure or orange to go with her color scheme? They went through the trouble to make the short axles black in the same set, but they couldn't recolor any other small parts?

 

Black 2M axles are not a new recolor. Even though they are no longer the standard color for those axles, not a year has gone by when they weren't in at least seven sets. By contrast, none of the Bright Blue parts Gali uses on her back currently exist in Dark Azur, and I guess they were worried about her not having enough blue on her back if they went with orange.

 

I don't really mind, though. From the pics I've seen, Gali's color scheme still looks very coherent. Akida likewise uses both Bright Blue and Dark Azur to great effect.

[bioniclepluslotr]

I got Onua two days ago, and he looks really good, except for the feet, they're really just horrible.

Really? I find them to be cooler since all the other Toa have the exact same feet.

[Regitnui]

 

 

I got Onua two days ago, and he looks really good, except for the feet, they're really just horrible.

Really? I find them to be cooler since all the other Toa have the exact same feet.

Just like last year.

[Tarvaxx]

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I must give my overall gripe with the Toa torso shell for this year: It does absolutely nothing. If the piston greebles contributed to posability, I would have loved it, but overall the piece seems useless. They used a traditional torso shell combo on Umarak, but why not on the Toa? We may never know the answer...

 

Because that would make them feel less new and more "hero factory-like" in ignorant peoples' eyes.

 

I'm just gonna extend her shins with longer trans-blue bones.

 

Actually, it would make them feel less new and more rehashed. Look, I was just as invested in HF as I was BIONICLE, and I've seen the same gosh-dang torso for WAY too long. It's my problem with the Inika all over again. I have no problem with re-using a torso, but a torso that plain and uninteresting really doesn't do much to characterize anything, since there isn't a big variety in torso pieces in the first place. It'd be fine if we had a variety of shapes, but we usually have the same general shape. There were a few variations made that had a few bells and whistles, but nothing that gave us new body shapes to create with the torsos. The only other torsos we have that brought something new when it comes to body shaping are the Stormer XL chest shell and the Brain Attack chest shell. I've been hoping for some time that LEGO would have expanded into making CCBS shells like LEGO bricks: having a large variety of shapes and sizes that create countless possibilities for body shapes and sizes. Instead for the last five-six years they seem set in keeping the same generic shapes (ignoring the awesome new Star Wars leg shells they gave us). The new torso shells we've received from Star Wars and BIONICLE are pretty... specialized in terms of size and overall shape which appeals to my want to have something new, but doesn't appeal to my inner-MOCer who still wishes they'd make CCBS achieve the same height in shaping combination possibilities as system pieces. 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Tarvaxx

[Toa Imrukii]

So yesterday I go all the sets, though I should be happy to have them all, I really don't know what to feel about them. I have been really down lately in general, so that may be contributing to it, but nonetheless, my view on Tahu being my favorite set still stands. I still think that even without the golden mask on, he still looks good. I do feel that the fact that not all the creatures heads are gold is a bit jarring, to say the least. But frankly I get why they did it. The least favorite set is probably Ketar, simply because his piece of unity (unless attached firmly into place by friction) wobbles up and down to much for my liking, but even with that being said, he's still a really fun set. His arms move around a bit to much when united with Pohatu, but you can place his tail downwards, and it will create just enough friction to stop them from flopping and flooping around so much. The rest of the sets are great, the unity feature looks great on all of them, my favorite ones are Tahu, Lewa, and Onua's united forms. Tahu, has wings and is a golden god (YES!) Lewa looks like a super powered, bullet-fast heroes of the skies and jungle. And Onua is much bulkier and stronger with his unity combo, it's just perfect in my eyes. The other three are pretty good, Gali seem to be pretty well rounded with her Unity combo, Pohatu looks a little janky, but the spiky nature of his unity combo just works so well with his element of stone that it passes for me. But Kopaka, though cool. Just, doesn't seem to work, the combo doesn't really add much in my opinion, and the lack of a shadow trap really kind of urks me, especially given the price. He just seems the most lack-luster of the bunch, but he is a great set nonetheless, but why only have them as a combo set, I dunno. Perhaps it has some sort of story relevance, we will just have to wait and see.

 

And, is it just me, or am I the only one who thinks that Umarak is a traditional makuta (from G1). I mean he has quite a lot of black on him, he has dark red, reminiscent of the makuta, and trans-green, also reminiscent of the makuta of G1, throw that together with the fact that he can "birth" a shadow-trap like how Makuta Teridax could "birth" Kraata in G1. Anyway, Umarak I feel like is a fantastic villain for this year and new generation, definitely a step up from LoSS. His design is just glorious, and has a great sort of wending feel to him. The antlers are great, his mask is fantastic, looking misshapen and malformed, but in such a way that it works really well for him. Plus along with the previously mentioned fact that he can create a shadow trap makes up for the lack of them otherwise. I really do feel that you are meant to buy Kopaka and Melum Unity along with Umarak the Hunter.

 

 

Anyway, this way just my two cents when it comes to the 2016 sets, I hope to see equally as great design, or better design in the summer of 2016.

[bioniclepluslotr]

I'm more hyped for the upcoming villains than the Toas

[hiddenderek]

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I must give my overall gripe with the Toa torso shell for this year: It does absolutely nothing. If the piston greebles contributed to posability, I would have loved it, but overall the piece seems useless. They used a traditional torso shell combo on Umarak, but why not on the Toa? We may never know the answer...

The shell extends one module further than a regular shell, which allows for you to fit more technic stuff in the torso. Also in my opinion it just looks more interesting, even if its too busy. For some reason that upper torso add on piece just looks way too big to me and messes up the proportions of the 2015 sets. I like how the new piece slimmed down the upper section of the torso so its less exaggerated. 

[32one]

Light piping, which is my favorite thing of all time, is nonexistent in her eyes (even with the golden/transparent mask on) but almost exclusive to her limbs. 

 

So is the 2016 brainstalk worse, or is it just the mask? 

[sydorack]

I got a set of mismolded feet with my terak. The bottoms aren't flat and the set wobbles back and forth.

[masterchirox580]

I got a set of mismolded feet with my terak. The bottoms aren't flat and the set wobbles back and forth.

All these mistakes are making me worry about my sets. Hopefully mine will be fine. 

[dviddy]

 

 

Light piping, which is my favorite thing of all time, is nonexistent in her eyes (even with the golden/transparent mask on) but almost exclusive to her limbs.

 

So is the 2016 brainstalk worse, or is it just the mask?

Both. Her mask's eyes are set too low with too heavy of a ridge for the eyes to even be visible. Add in the smaller eye stalk, and none of the Toa sets really have visible light piping. Edited January 8, 2016 by DeeVee

[Ford]

 

 

Light piping, which is my favorite thing of all time, is nonexistent in her eyes (even with the golden/transparent mask on) but almost exclusive to her limbs.

So is the 2016 brainstalk worse, or is it just the mask?

Both. Her mask's eyes are set too low with too heavy of a ridge for the eyes to even be visible. Add in the smaller eye stalk, and none of the Toa sets really have visible light piping.

 

 

It's also a problem with the head piece construction in general. The light blue eyestalk never really light-piped well, and the fact that the Toa all have a light blue eyestalk means no light piping. Hopefully the same eyestalk mold is produced in the trans yellow-green for some of the summer wave sets this year.

[believe victims]

That's not a problem of construction so much as of plastic color choice. Unlike trans neon green or trans neon orange, trans light blue isn't fluorescent. Light shines through it, but it doesn't glow. Thus, the only way to really "light pipe" well with it is to hold it directly in front of a light source.

 

Contrast that with trans neon green, trans neon orange, and the perplexingly unused trans fluorescent blue, which was Kopaka's 2001 eye color, and actually does catch the light.

 

(Of course, the shortened eyestalk doesn't help; even Umarak, whose eyestalk is a fluorescent color, is a little dim in the eyes. Still, I guess they couldn't have done the uniting thing without it...)

[bioniclepluslotr]

Woo, finally got some 2016 sets. Big shout out to Lego for using quality cardboard this year. No more smushed online orders

[Jobber]

Got all the sets. Thanks Lego for shipping them free of charge!

[Zidonaro]

Would sharing my stupid gif(which im actually proud of) be considered spam? :v

https://49.media.tumblr.com/e67ee3910d8e6fb5c0276090ce9847ac/tumblr_o0gft2oFqt1qm9p5uo1_400.gif


Edit: Nope, but please link to images over 750 kB.

-Wind-

Edited January 9, 2016 by -Windrider-

[IXRollOutIX]

I got a set of mismolded feet with my terak. The bottoms aren't flat and the set wobbles back and forth.

 

So are mine, as a matter of fact. I received both this issue AND the Umarak misprint in this wave. Which is great. Fortunately Terak's feet are easily replaceable. 

[NickonAquaMagna]

What is happening???

[Nescent]

While poking around the Bionicle website for anything new, I realized that the sections for the different Regions have pictures of the "Tribe Villages." They're different from the regular art, in that they show the whole buildings instead of just small sections:

 

Earth

Jungle

Stone

Fire

Ice

Water

 

They weren't there before, were they? I swear I've looked at those pages a dozen times and never seen these.

[emily]

They weren't there before, were they? I swear I've looked at those pages a dozen times and never seen these.

They've been there! You must've just missed them.

[bioniclepluslotr]

I got a set of mismolded feet with my terak. The bottoms aren't flat and the set wobbles back and forth.

Doesn't Terak use the standard small feet? If both feet are messed up, perhaps it was a batch issue. Lego replacement parts program can probably fix that for you.

[masterchirox580]

So has anyone noticed that when you look into the background of the kopaka + Melum set you can see some shadow traps. They look the same as the one you get with Ikir but they have blue legs instead of orange. So is this just for the box or are we getting more shadow traps this year?