John Ho Shows Off Ekimu and Kulta in New Designer Video

[Hapori Tohu]

Earlier this week on Bionicle.com, a new designer video was posted for set 70795 Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder. In this video, LEGO Bionicle designer John Ho demonstrates the set's play features, describes its new elements, explains the reasons for certain design decisions, and even shows off the combination model with parts from set 70794 Skull Scorpio! Follow the link above to watch the video, and be on the lookout for other Bionicle designer videos that are still to come!

 

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[Lenny7092]

I must say. That is a nice video. He analyzed and demonstrated the set and the combiner very well.

 

But there is one funny thing that bothers me lately: Skull Grinder's real name, Kulta, isn't mentioned in anywhere else in the Bionicle media except for the July-August magazine. Even this video never said his name, either. Why is that? I know it's like the Protectors' names in the book, Island of the Lost Masks, but this is kind of silly that the name "Kulta" was never mentioned even once in any video or chapter when he is the main villain of the 2015 storyline. I guess people are familiar with his title on the set box, like how we call Makuta Teridax just "Makuta" back in the G1 story.

[Nescent]

The power of the MoCr emanates from the runes inscribed on it. Neat bit of trivia.

[Naota Takizawa]

I must say. That is a nice video. He analyzed and demonstrated the set and the combiner very well.

But there is one funny thing that bothers me lately: Skull Grinder's real name, Kulta, isn't mentioned in anywhere else in the Bionicle media except for the July-August magazine. Even this video never said his name, either. Why is that? I know it's like the Protectors' names in the book, Island of the Lost Masks, but this is kind of silly that the name "Kulta" was never mentioned even once in any video or chapter when he is the main villain of the 2015 storyline. I guess people are familiar with his title on the set box, like how we call Makuta Teridax just "Makuta" back in the G1 story.

Maybe if Lego advertised the set as Kulta, some idiotic, overprotective parents would claim that the company is trying to brainwash their kids into a cult and sue them. Edited November 14, 2015 by Arnold Schwarzenegger

[Master Inika]

Did anyone else notice he said the combo model was the form Kulta has wearing the Mask of Creation?

[Lenny7092]

Did anyone else notice he said the combo model was the form Kulta has wearing the Mask of Creation?

Yes, but Kulta never transformed. Must be non-canon. I don't know why. Hmm...

[masterchirox580]

I don't think it was a very good designer video. It didn't really go into detail with the set's history and just kinda felt like an extended ad. I would have loved to have seen a prototype mask of creation. 

[Naota Takizawa]

I agree with Chirox, I can sum up this video pretty accurately:

 

"This is the Mask Maker, you can pretend he's creating a mask with his gear function, but we won't explain why he copies the protector of fire's body, there's an unnecessary gear that causes too much friction for such a tiny weapon or why he holds the hammer with the head too close to his hand."

 

"This is Skull Grinder, he's designed to be the polar opposite of Ekimu in terms of colorscheme, but we're going to waste a chance to explain Kulta's name, not address why he doesn't have Mask Maker's third gear, avoiding answering why we put a tiny spike on his weapon that only matches his printed chest and we won't even explain why we picked the name skull grinder."

 

"This is the Mask of a Creation, it looks cool, but we won't show you any concept art, prototype pieces or even explain in detail how it's powers work. Instead, we'll tell you that magic power comes out of the runes."

 

Speaking of runes, if you took the mask and melted the letters off the mask, does it mean it loses all its power?

[Wazdakka]

Does anyone else wish that this set had been split up and the figures sold separately?

[fishers64]

Does anyone else wish that this set had been split up and the figures sold separately?

It might have been nice, but then everyone would just buy Ekimu and forget about that Skull Grinder person. He is not important.

[Tarn]

Lord of Skull Spiders fulfilled the same role as Kulta, is he any different when it comes to importance?

He was the villain of the week and would've been bought by MOC builders, too, whether he was packed with a main hero character or not. I don't think people would've just bought Ekimu and let Kulta fade into obscurity if they had been separate.

 

(I tried quoting your post btw, and either I did something wrong or it glitched out on me)

[Aanchir]

I don't think it was a very good designer video. It didn't really go into detail with the set's history and just kinda felt like an extended ad. I would have loved to have seen a prototype mask of creation.

 

This is honestly what the majority of designer videos consist of. The Toa designer videos earlier this year were unconventional; designer videos for other themes generally focus more on the features of the final set itself (including new parts, play features, and color choices), as this video did, and less on concept art and development trivia.

 

Plus we already did get to see a bunch of Mask of Creation concept art on the LEGO Bionicle Facebook page over a year ago! So while it would have been cool to see something like that in this video, it wouldn't necessarily be something we hadn't seen before.

 

Ironically, the designer videos for the first half of the year were criticized by a lot of people for the opposite problem — focusing too much on the mask designs and not enough on the sets' other features like their color schemes, builds, functions, and other new parts. Yet even though this video is longer than those were and went into quite a bit of depth describing many of the set's design choices, there are people in this thread disappointed it didn't go into detail about what was important to them.

 

You really can't please everyone. That's not an indictment of the designer or of the people commenting here, just a statement of fact. No matter what they spent this video talking about, it could never answer everyone's individual questions, because everyone has a different idea of which aspects of the set need further explanation and which do not.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Aanchir

[fishers64]

Lord of Skull Spiders fulfilled the same role as Kulta, is he any different when it comes to importance?

He was the villain of the week and would've been bought by MOC builders, too, whether he was packed with a main hero character or not. I don't think people would've just bought Ekimu and let Kulta fade into obscurity if they had been separate.

Yes, but more people would buy that combined set just to get Ekimu. 

[Tarn]

 

Lord of Skull Spiders fulfilled the same role as Kulta, is he any different when it comes to importance?

He was the villain of the week and would've been bought by MOC builders, too, whether he was packed with a main hero character or not. I don't think people would've just bought Ekimu and let Kulta fade into obscurity if they had been separate.

Yes, but more people would buy that combined set just to get Ekimu.

 

The vibe I got was that you were implying that Kulta wouldn't have sold at all if he didn't come with a character so important to the story. I doubt that would have been the case had they been sold separately. Also, buying the set just for Ekimu, and not wanting Skull Grinder, seems like a waste of money to me. I think most people who have actually bought the set want both, or at least make use of Kulta through other means (like MOCing, to repeat myself).

 

I'm not disagreeing entirely with the concept of them being separate sets, either, it's just your assumption that no one wants Skull Grinder and that Ekimu is the single, driving force behind everyone's purchase of the set. He may draw people to it, but if they were separate I don't think Kulta would be turned into a shelfwarmer or something.

 

(and if the quoting gets messed up on this post too I swear...)

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Very cool. Big fan of the set (last to get before I complete the 2015 wave!) and the combiner looks surprisingly good. John Ho and team did an amazing job in 2015. Glad they get to talk about the processes in these videos.

 

-NotS