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Armors instead of small sets in 2017?


Armor instead of small sets in 2017  

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Before I start off, I'd like to state that even I'm not sure I'd like this happening, but its just a concept that came to mind.

 

 

Basically, the question whether or not the Toa from 2015/16 will return in 2017 in a third form, and whether or not we'd like this, popped up a few times in the forums. Personally, I'd like to see something new for the canister-sized sets of 2017 - but how to accomplish this?

 

From there came the following idea:

 

What if in the winter wave of 2017, instead of regular small sets, the small products for Bionicle would rather be new sets of armor, masks and weapons for the Uniters? You'd get the regular and gold masks, new armor (not just the attachments, but shells and actual buildables) and new weapons - not just new weapon molds, but things you build. That way you'd still have the Uniters around without a whole new set of Toa.

 

More importantly, this would free up the canister-sized line of the winter wave for something new and interesting other than the third iteration of the same toa characters. Specifically, the idea I had was that we'd get a set of villagers from all six tribes, and each with an animal mount.

 

Water: Villager riding a shark or crab

Jungle: Villager riding a bird (giant wasps are also possible, in keeping with Uxar)

Stone: Villager riding a scorpion or weaponized camel

Fire: Villager riding... I don't know, Fire serpent? I don't want to say phoenix because that's too bird-like, and we don't want repetition

Earth: Villager riding a mole... or something else subterranean. Ground squirrel, maybe? I don't want to necessarily stick to the same species as the creatures this year.

Ice: Villager riding a polar bear. Or penguin. Or walrus?

 

Obviously we're talking about over-sized versions of these animals, big enough for villagers to mount.

 

Not only would this give us more villager sets, which is awesome, and more fauna, which again is awesome, but we'd get them in pairs. Double awesome.

 

The only other way I see Lego not using the same Toa team for the winter wave is by, I don't know, releasing beefed up protectors? Not likely.

 

Come to think of it, this is more about how cool villagers and mounts would be, and less about armor instead of new small sets.

Again, thinking this over, I myself might not be too keen on having toa upgrade packs instead of genuine small sets. Just a thought.

 

Opinions?

 

:kakama:

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:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

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Before I start off, I'd like to state that even I'm not sure I'd like this happening, but its just a concept that came to mind.

 

 

Basically, the question whether or not the Toa from 2015/16 will return in 2017 in a third form, and whether or not we'd like this, popped up a few times in the forums. Personally, I'd like to see something new for the canister-sized sets of 2017 - but how to accomplish this?

 

From there came the following idea:

 

What if in the winter wave of 2017, instead of regular small sets, the small products for Bionicle would rather be new sets of armor, masks and weapons for the Uniters? You'd get the regular and gold masks, new armor (not just the attachments, but shells and actual buildables) and new weapons - not just new weapon molds, but things you build. That way you'd still have the Uniters around without a whole new set of Toa.

 

More importantly, this would free up the canister-sized line of the winter wave for something new and interesting other than the third iteration of the same toa characters. Specifically, the idea I had was that we'd get a set of villagers from all six tribes, and each with an animal mount.

 

Water: Villager riding a shark or crab

Jungle: Villager riding a bird (giant wasps are also possible, in keeping with Uxar)

Stone: Villager riding a scorpion or weaponized camel

Fire: Villager riding... I don't know, Fire serpent? I don't want to say phoenix because that's too bird-like, and we don't want repetition

Earth: Villager riding a mole... or something else subterranean. Ground squirrel, maybe? I don't want to necessarily stick to the same species as the creatures this year.

Ice: Villager riding a polar bear. Or penguin. Or walrus?

 

Obviously we're talking about over-sized versions of these animals, big enough for villagers to mount.

 

Not only would this give us more villager sets, which is awesome, and more fauna, which again is awesome, but we'd get them in pairs. Double awesome.

 

The only other way I see Lego not using the same Toa team for the winter wave is by, I don't know, releasing beefed up protectors? Not likely.

 

Come to think of it, this is more about how cool villagers and mounts would be, and less about armor instead of new small sets.

Again, thinking this over, I myself might not be too keen on having toa upgrade packs instead of genuine small sets. Just a thought.

 

Opinions?

 

:kakama:

Water should have a manatee, fire should have a crab, stone should have a flightless bird, like a roadrunner. Jungle should get a normal bird because it makes sense, maybe a new iteration of the gukko, Earth should get a bull or an ox, and ice should get a predatory cat.

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interesting idea but, uh

 

won't the Uniters be off most shelves by then? Lego setsthese days don't last more than one year cycle before they hafta be replaced, the Destroyer will be there by then, but not the uniters.

 

(correct me if i'm wrong tho.)

 

Edit, I also feel that a villager (protector-sized being minus weapon) with a mount large enough to carry it would probably be at bare minimum the $20.00 "large toa" price point, or, a titan like in g1, i don't see it working well to release two figures in one at the $15.00 tag...

Edited by Rahkshi Lalonde

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I actually like the dinamic they've had going so far. The armor thingh might just get confused for new characters, as the armor would most likely be displayed on the "skeleton" part of the CCBS.

 

As for the villager/Protector + Animal idea. I would like it of only to give the Toa a year to rest and then bring them back.

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Interesting idea. It reminds me of the Transformers arch with Minicons. I dont think Lego would do it because they really want current playability because that's what sells the bulk of sets. To give armor sets for a set that is technically not in stores anymore would be a stretch.


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The arguments about the Uniters no longer being readily available in stores, as well as the price point for the larger canister set not accommodating a villager plus mount sized creature are all valid. 

 

Come to think of it, this whole thing was more focused on the idea of the villager+mount idea, but since it stemmed from the armor packs, I thought I'd mention that too.

 

If nothing else, I'd love to see 2017 with a higher set count than 2015/16, with more titan-sizes. Maybe one of those could be dedicated to a villager+mount combo, since a titan-sized product's price point is high enough to pull it off in a decent fashion.

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

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There are a couple reasons armor packs like this would not be a good idea. First of all, because much like mask packs or other accessory packs, they would not be a complete play experience unless you also owned the Toa to go with them. Second, because as Rahkshi Lalonde points out, this year's Toa would not be reliably available at retail by that point. Making room for new Bionicle sets on store shelves generally means stores have to start clearing out older sets. So if the story is still focused on the Toa sets from last year, with or without new armor, it'd be effectively promoting sets that are no longer widely available.

 

It's an imaginative proposal for sure, but it just doesn't seem like it would work anywhere near as well as complete buildable figures. Accessory packs in general are a risky proposal due to their lack of completeness, even more so if they're meant to be accessories to sets that are on the brink of retirement.

 

The notion of villagers with animal steeds is not outrageous, but that wouldn't really work in place of new Toa if the Toa are still the focus of the storyline.

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Packs of armor shards?  Maybe not a good idea.  But I'd love an "Exo-Toa of Fire" set.  This is actually one place where the generic-ness of CCBS would be a bonus, since all the figures have basically the same bone structure, it'd be easy to make a mechsuit that fits multiple Toa.  So maybe not packs of individual armor pieces, but a suit of Exo-Toa armor.  They could use the same plug-in piece the creatures use now.

 

Pardon me whilst I experiment upon Kopaka to test the viability of this concept.

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Packs of armor shards?  Maybe not a good idea.  But I'd love an "Exo-Toa of Fire" set.  This is actually one place where the generic-ness of CCBS would be a bonus, since all the figures have basically the same bone structure, it'd be easy to make a mechsuit that fits multiple Toa.  So maybe not packs of individual armor pieces, but a suit of Exo-Toa armor.  They could use the same plug-in piece the creatures use now.

 

Pardon me whilst I experiment upon Kopaka to test the viability of this concept.

I don't see why CCBS would make a mech suit easier than it was in G1. If anything, it'd be much harder, since the 2015 Toa's body types were incredibly diverse, and even in 2016 the Toa still have varied physiques with the Toa's arm length, leg length, and shoulder placement varying widely compared to most G1 Toa teams.

 

EDIT: I just realized you seem to be suggesting a separate armor suit for each Toa. It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it'd be that likely because of another factor—the 2015 and 2016 Toa are also generally larger than Toa have ever been, and even assuming Bionicle is successful I don't think it has enough sales precedent to support a wave of six individual sets that are each larger than the Toa themselves.

Edited by Lyichir

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I don't see why CCBS would make a mech suit easier than it was in G1. If anything, it'd be much harder, since the 2015 Toa's body types were incredibly diverse, and even in 2016 the Toa still have varied physiques with the Toa's arm length, leg length, and shoulder placement varying widely compared to most G1 Toa teams.

Well, all the Toa have armor shells in pretty much the same places, right?  Lower and upper arm, lower and upper leg, shell covering the torso, pin holes on the back.  They're really easy to pop off, so - to put the Exo-Toa armor on, just pop off the lower arm shells.  The suit's 'arms' would have sockets on the ends, so attach those to the exposed connectors, and hook the suit's 'shoulders' onto a spot on the wearer's back.  Same idea with the legs.  Technic beams in a scissor-type pattern could stretch and make up for differences in height, arm length, breadth of the shoulders, etc.  Though, like I said, I've still to test it out.

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I don't see why CCBS would make a mech suit easier than it was in G1. If anything, it'd be much harder, since the 2015 Toa's body types were incredibly diverse, and even in 2016 the Toa still have varied physiques with the Toa's arm length, leg length, and shoulder placement varying widely compared to most G1 Toa teams.

Well, all the Toa have armor shells in pretty much the same places, right?  Lower and upper arm, lower and upper leg, shell covering the torso, pin holes on the back.  They're really easy to pop off, so - to put the Exo-Toa armor on, just pop off the lower arm shells.  The suit's 'arms' would have sockets on the ends, so attach those to the exposed connectors, and hook the suit's 'shoulders' onto a spot on the wearer's back.  Same idea with the legs.  Technic beams in a scissor-type pattern could stretch and make up for differences in height, arm length, breadth of the shoulders, etc.  Though, like I said, I've still to test it out.

 

I suppose that might be possible with some CCBS sets... but I think that wouldn't work too well with this year's Toa. Kopaka and Pohatu have custom upper arms and lack upper arm shells. Lewa lacks both upper arm shells AND lower leg shells. And Tahu's upper legs and Kopaka's lower legs use the Piece of Unification, which does have a CCBS bone underneath but is a little harder to remove than just "snapping off". All in all I don't really think sets like that would be that practical.

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weaponized camel

 

This is the funniest thing I have seen all week. But for the actual concept, I think the villagers would be cool, but really hard to pull off.

Not really all that funny if you know history. Sure they are funny looking things but they have been used for blood letting. Camels are taller than horses, the height allowing riders to use extremely long spears to pick off people and horses from their bestial 'towers', and their stench was used to throw men and beast alike into disarray. Parthians would armor them up to create the first cataphracts (something Romans would take and use themselves until their fall in 1453 and 1461, only on horses) and this was expanded upon by their Sassanid successors. pics (you can see how some used scale plating and others use lamellar plating) - 1 . 2

 

Camels were also used the the Muslim Conquests, helping in destroying the Sassanid carcass, crippling the Roman Empire, and conquering lands from Spain to India.

Edited by Iaredios the Hip Historian
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That's not a bad idea, though the creatures of this year already serve as the "armor" but also that would be a bad idea because what if nobody had ever bought a uniter? Then they would have armor with no toa... Though I would like to see some more love given to the villagers.

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That's not a bad idea, though the creatures of this year already serve as the "armor" but also that would be a bad idea because what if nobody had ever bought a uniter? Then they would have armor with no toa... Though I would like to see some more love given to the villagers.

Agreed with this! And actually, next year would be a good year to have some new villager sets. Doing the Protectors one year and villagers the next might've felt a bit repetitive because they're both short humanoids, but having the creatures in between should be enough to make it so villager sets can still feel fresh. :)

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That's not a bad idea, though the creatures of this year already serve as the "armor" but also that would be a bad idea because what if nobody had ever bought a uniter? Then they would have armor with no toa... Though I would like to see some more love given to the villagers.

Agreed with this! And actually, next year would be a good year to have some new villager sets. Doing the Protectors one year and villagers the next might've felt a bit repetitive because they're both short humanoids, but having the creatures in between should be enough to make it so villager sets can still feel fresh. :)

 

Oh yes!! Matoran-esque characters with the same kind of variation we saw in the Protectors? Oh yezz. I'm getting excited just writing this! :bowdown:

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Strongly opposed to armor packs instead of small sets, especially after the Elemental Creatures, which I think might be the best BIONICLE sets ever released. As for rider-and-mount sets, I don't think LEGO would commit to releasing six of them. Plus, a Protector plus something big enough for a Protector to ride would have to be quite expensive. Maybe we could get one or two as large sets, but I still think the six-small-guys, six-medium-guys dynamic is working just fine.

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The armor accessories may not work well, sadly they are gonna do what lego has been doing last time, make a team, make the team upgrade, make a new team, upgrade THAT team, go back to team one with completely new upgrades! 

 

As for villagers/okotans/ matoran sets, I completely agree, we should get these, it's all too doable. We have the parts, the variety, and there is no need to make new molds even, since the ccbs system has enough parts to make each matoran distinct. If you don't belive me, I myself have been buying multiples of the protectors to make my own villagers. So far I have made, 10 water villagers, three fire villagers, four jungle villagers, five stone villagers, four earth villagers, two ice villagers, and one mystery villager outta the Ekimu parts from the mask maker vs. Skull grinder set! (inhales) So the villagers should be a set of six to make!!

 

For the mounting animals ideas, we should have the return of the Rahi!!! It would be wonderful to get new sets of the wild life of Okoto, that was half the draw of G1 bionicle. Even if I couldn't afford them, they still were interesting sets! If not getting them in the 20 to 50 dollar range, at least, the VERY least, we should get beasts that the villagers uses as food sources/pets. Even if they can't be mounted, it would be fun to get a small ox or goat that the villagers have to herd. Also, each villager should come with a tool they often use in each set, like this creation for example....

http://addro.deviantart.com/art/Gone-fishing-525622197

Edited by PainofLego
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Yeah, replacing small sets with armors for soon-retired sets doesn't sound like the best idea. But the idea of armor packs is still neat. Maybe it could be pulled off with few enough pieces to that there could be a promo thing or polybag armor upgrade for at least one of the Toa (probably Tahu).

 

I don't know about villagers riding creatures, since we just had a bunch of creatures this year and that would be repetitive. Villagers in mechs might be cool though.

Edited by Sergei Rahkmaninoff

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I would actually prefer if the smaller sets were swarm villain sets instead of "good guys." They could fill a Bohrok-like niche in the current gen, so the swarm sets are more affordable and more easily massable as an army. The Toa-sized villain sets could then be freed to become distinct characters (army captains, maybe?) alongside the titans (either tanky brute units or the Big Bad/General), to bring in a huge variety in villain types. 

It used to be (in G1) that the heroes were outnumbered or equal in number to the villains, but the recent waves have had precious few villain sets, let alone memorable villain sets. This lack of strong/memorable villains really makes the enemies not seem as menacing as they could be, and the danger not as threatening.


 

Edited by Iku
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Maybe it could be pulled off with few enough pieces to that there could be a promo thing or polybag armor upgrade for at least one of the Toa (probably Tahu).

 

I agree with Sergei here. Small sets that consist of inanimate objects instead of characters sounds awry to me. These armor and weapon bonuses could do great as little pollybags or these...battle packs I thing I have been seeing lately.

 

 

I would actually prefer if the smaller sets were swarm villain sets instead of "good guys." They could fill a Bohrok-like niche in the current gen, so the swarm sets are more affordable and more easily massable as an army. The Toa-sized villain sets could then be freed to become distinct characters (army captains, maybe?) alongside the titans (either tanky brute units or the Big Bad/General), to bring in a huge variety in villain types. 

 

It used to be (in G1) that the heroes were outnumbered or equal in number to the villains, but the recent waves have had precious few villain sets, let alone memorable villain sets. This lack of strong/memorable villains really makes the enemies not seem as menacing as they could be, and the danger not as threatening.

 

 

 

 

I also like the ideas presented here.

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I think the closest Lego will ever come to this is Uniters: animal friends who become armor. A small set which has no playability and exists only to augment bigger sets goes against the "impulse purchase" nature of the small sets I think.

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  • 1 month later...

I wonder if we'll get small sets with extra masks and addons(almost like mask packs), but the small sets won't be islanders, but instead small villians...what are the odds of that? 

 

Also, this entire idea of having armour instead of small sets kind of reminds me of something mega bloks would do because they tend to have kits/sets that have specific types of minifigures and armour.

 

But...hopefully it would be more like 2001-2003 when they had mask packs except this time you'll know what masks you're getting and you won't just get 2 or 3 of them

Edited by LimeFlavouredLibertarian24
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