Jump to content

Bionicle G2 after 2017


Recommended Posts

You know what I've got against printed pieces, they add less detail to sets because they seem like it makes sets look childish like the rest of lego's themes and they can get scratched or damaged very easily as if they're chinese knock offs and basically printed pieces give a set a cheap chinese knock off feel to it.

It's kind of unusual that you think printed pieces are cheap or childish, because most AFOLs I've met absolutely love printed pieces and wish LEGO made more of them. For that matter, many AFOLs think Bionicle is childish in part due to its use of so many specially-molded pieces. I'm not saying I agree with either of those assertions, but it's weird that so many adults would feel that way if they thought printing was more childish than molded detail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

You know what I've got against printed pieces, they add less detail to sets because they seem like it makes sets look childish like the rest of lego's themes and they can get scratched or damaged very easily as if they're chinese knock offs and basically printed pieces give a set a cheap chinese knock off feel to it.

It's kind of unusual that you think printed pieces are cheap or childish, because most AFOLs I've met absolutely love printed pieces and wish LEGO made more of them. For that matter, many AFOLs think Bionicle is childish in part due to its use of so many specially-molded pieces. I'm not saying I agree with either of those assertions, but it's weird that so many adults would feel that way if they thought printing was more childish than molded detail.

 

If you ask me (which you didn't, but I'm impolite like that) pieces that are both printed and specially molded are the best. I always hoped that there would be official G1 kanohi masks with various patterns printed on them (there is a user on BZP doing customs like that, I think), armor pieces with printing, etc. I really like printed pieces.

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

:smilepohatunu: :smilehuki:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer pieces that are blended in different colours of plastic than printed pieces or stickers

Blended pieces are fine in small quantities, however they are unable to have any meaningful pattern, as the dual injected plastic just mixes together near the middle. Honestly, I personally don't really like blended pieces, much prefer solid colors.

 

You know. printed....

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

:smilepohatunu: :smilehuki:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

You know what I've got against printed pieces, they add less detail to sets because they seem like it makes sets look childish like the rest of lego's themes and they can get scratched or damaged very easily as if they're chinese knock offs and basically printed pieces give a set a cheap chinese knock off feel to it.

How do they add less detail? How does you thinking they make sets look childish equal less detail? I mean, a plain solid color piece is less detailed than a piece with unique printing. This has zero logic.

Also, I don't know about you, but when I was small I used to chew my Lego parts ( a sin, I know), and the printing is intact. Do you take a pickaxe to your printed pieces or something?

Printed pieces have always been a thing for Lego, and I'm glad for it. They do have budgetary constraints, and intricate molds cost more. If a printed piece will give a set more character and detail, I'm all for it.

 

Plus, printing always always beats freaking stickers.

 

:kakama:

You are right there printed chests are always better than stickers Onua 2015 I failed you putting those stickers was so hard for me I mean to put perfectly.

tZa6I5y.jpg?1


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love blended pieces in huge amounts! The toa masks that came with quake beast and lava beast didn't blend well, but the masks that came with ekimu the mask maker and storm beast look so awesome! They look like pieces of art the way the colours blend.

 

Printed pieces and stickers are both equally bad to me I guess

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love blended pieces in huge amounts! The toa masks that came with quake beast and lava beast didn't blend well, but the masks that came with ekimu the mask maker and storm beast look so awesome! They look like pieces of art the way the colours blend.

 

Printed pieces and stickers are both equally bad to me I guess

To each his own, it's all up to personal preference. I guess the randomness of the blending that goes on with blended pieces irks be a bit. That being said, I like them visually when they are used to emphasise the importance of a piece, however if a set has several blended pieces, they stop being interesting.

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

:smilepohatunu: :smilehuki:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like printed pieces in moderation.

A chest plate, a shield, maybe a armour piece. Anymore it becomes to much.

 

I hate stickers.

I like how they look on the figure but putting them on....

 

I like certain blended pieces such as the protector masks and the corrupted 2015 masks.

They have a nice balanced look.

The 2016 Toa mask are just no.

They blend badly they go against the colour sceem.

 

Things I like to see.

I would like to see variations of Protector masks.

Mask Packs

Blended armour pieces that make since.

Example:

Trans Blue and Silver protector has a armor piece that is trans Blue and Silver.

Hey I got a Flickr because I like making LEGO stuff.

https://www.flickr.com/people/toatimelord/
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like printed pieces in moderation.

A chest plate, a shield, maybe a armour piece. Anymore it becomes to much.

 

I hate stickers.

I like how they look on the figure but putting them on....

 

I like certain blended pieces such as the protector masks and the corrupted 2015 masks.

They have a nice balanced look.

The 2016 Toa mask are just no.

They blend badly they go against the colour sceem.

 

Things I like to see.

I would like to see variations of Protector masks.

Mask Packs

Blended armour pieces that make since.

Example:

Trans Blue and Silver protector has a armor piece that is trans Blue and Silver.

 

I'll second Mask Packs. I'm a tad irked about us not getting each G2 Toa mask in all six colors. Seriously, I'd buy up tons of G2 mask packs if they became a thing. They could even add colored Skull villain masks, colored Protector masks with different blends or solid colors and so on. I'd definitely want a full collection of every mask released in G2 in burned orange!

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

:smilepohatunu: :smilehuki:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like blended/co-injected pieces, but IMO it's no substitute for a printed pattern. They achieve very different tasks: a blended piece suggests a mottled material or a combination of two separate materials, while a printed piece adds sharper and more specific patterns. The Barraki heads and armor from G1 and the crystal masks, armor, and weapons of this year's Toa and Creatures strike me as good uses of blended pieces, while the scaly patterns of the Bohrok-Kal faceplates and the tribal runes and "war paint" of the G2 Toa chest plates strike me as a good use of printed pieces. In LEGO System sets, I feel like animals with highly specific patterns like parrots look much better printed than blended, flame or energy parts look much better blended than printed, and some parts like the LEGO Friends chameleon or LEGO City husky make great use of both!

 

There's also another technique LEGO uses calls "2K" (for "2-komponent"), also known as overmolding. This is where one section of a part is molded in one material, and then another section of the mold is added on in a separate material, so that you have a two-colored part where the colors remain separate instead of blending together with a marbled pattern. This technique is often used for two-colored minifigure arms, legs, and headgear in LEGO System, the evil brains in LEGO Hero Factory, and for some of the head pieces from the LEGO Star Wars buildable figures, but has not yet been used in Bionicle. Overmolding shares the crispness and consistency of printing as well as co-injection's ability to have a color combination across several surfaces.

 

Of course, like co-injection, overmolding lets you change the combination of colors on a piece but not their pattern, so putting different Nuva symbols on each of the Toa's torsos would require a different set of molds for each Toa's torso, as opposed to printed patterns where all you need is a printing machine set up for that one particular mold and new printing pads for each printed pattern. So for that kind of variety printing is a lot more efficient.

 

It would be interesting to see if LEGO ever uses 2K for Bionicle parts like masks or armor in the future. But I don't think there's any point limiting multicolored Bionicle parts to one technique when you could use different techniques for different parts, depending on what's best for them.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pieces blended in different colours is so much better than printed pieces. Hewkii Mahri's mask looks like a piece of art the way the black and yellow blend to make a green colour.

 

I didn't like the printing on the bohrok kal's heads that much and I like how the original bohrok had their faceplates be a blend of a solid colour and transparent clear. It made it feel as if the krana was inside of a container or a goo.

 

What exactly is overmolding? Also can you show me images of pieces of what exactly you're referring to?

 

When mega bloks does marbling with halo sets is that an exmaple of over molding because if it is that looks pretty cool. Because having little gradients or blends of slightly different shades of a colour on a piece looks super awesome!

 

I'd love to see ccbs bone pieces that have pistons molded into them

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't like the printing on the bohrok kal's heads that much and I like how the original bohrok had their faceplates be a blend of a solid colour and transparent clear. It made it feel as if the krana was inside of a container or a goo.

I liked the Bohrok-Kal prints as a concept, but I did like the blended Bohrok faceplates better for the sets that used them, since the transparency let you see the Krana (which, as a bonus, closely resembled the Bohrok's eye colors). Not being able to see the Krana-Kal made the Bohrok-Kal color schemes less exciting. Still, I don't think that can be singled out as a fault of printing, since if the designers had wanted to they could have either kept the blended faceplates or made them entirely transparent and still added printed patterns.

 

What exactly is overmolding? Also can you show me images of pieces of what exactly you're referring to?

 

When mega bloks does marbling with halo sets is that an exmaple of over molding because if it is that looks pretty cool. Because having little gradients or blends of slightly different shades of a colour on a piece looks super awesome!

No, overmolding doesn't result in marbling or gradients. In co-injected/blended parts, two or more colors are simultaneously injected into the same mold from two points, and thus allowed to blend together for a marbled effect. In pre-assembled parts (like LEGO motors, minifigure torso assemblies, or larger animals like horses), separately molded parts are put together by hand or by machine. But in overmolded parts, one section of the part is molded, then inserted moved to another mold where the next section is molded on directly, resulting in two discrete colors with a crisp edge separating them.

 

Some good examples of overmolding include minifigure arms with short sleeves (one color plastic for the top half, another color plastic for the bottom half), the Hero Factory evil brains (red plastic for the eyes, cross axle, and spikes, translucent rubber for the rest), the LEGO Games die (red plastic for the core and studs, black rubber for the rest). The Obi-Wan Kenobi buildable figure's head and beard are overmolded, so unlike a pre-assembled part there are no cracks between the hair/beard and the face, but unlike a blended part the hair color doesn't bleed into the face or vice-versa (though in that case, printing is also used to add the eyes and eyebrows).

 

In a Bionicle context, I can see overmolding being used to give masks interesting effects. For instance, remember how in Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui, Matau's Kanohi Mahiki used multiple shades of green and gold for the varying layers of detail on the mask Or how Dume's Kanohi Kiril used different colors for specific surfaces, instead of the colors blending from top to bottom? Overmolding could make that kind of thing possible on real masks in the sets without any need for painting or printing. Overmolding could also hypothetically be used for armor pieces like this one to make the pistons and accordion joint in the center a different color than the armor plating at the top and bottom.

 

But overmolding can't take the place of painting or printing for everything. Neither co-injection nor overmolding really let you have very different specific patterns for a part, only different color combinations (and, in the case of co-injection, some random, non-specific variation in how the colors blend together). Whereas prints and stickers can allow for lots of different patterns on the same part design, like a CCBS chest plate, a CCBS shell, or a minifigure face.

 

Conversely, there are things that overmolding can allow that printing cannot. Short-sleeved minifigures were not possible before LEGO started over-molding them, because their printing machines could only put patterns on one side of the arms, not patterns that wrapped all the way around from front to back. And of course, overmolding and co-injection alike let LEGO use multiple types of plastic for the same piece, which is great for parts like the LEGO die, Hero Factory brains, or Toa Hordika weapons that need one section to be hard and sturdy and another section to be soft and flexible.

Edited by Aanchir
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I kind of can't stand/tolerate over molded pieces because it looks like more than one piece and if you try to take it apart, you end up breaking the piece basically.

 

Pieces being blended in different colours isn't a paint on, it's when they mix 2 colours of plastic together and sometimes it's even different colours of plastic being blended with different colours of rubber and a good example of this is the barraki's heads

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...