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Dark_Stranger

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Everything posted by Dark_Stranger

  1. Dark_Stranger
    Well, you're never too old to have a hobby. Plus, it's something I can have in common with my little siblings. And if I'm not afraid of being a bit pretentious, I can always declare that "It's not a toy, it's a medium." Being an aspiring artist has its perks.
  2. Dark_Stranger
    The Silent Mary is pretty incredible, even if I wish there were sets closer to my price range (no, Brickheadz don't count). Hopefully this monster will be discounted enough at some point that I can actually buy it.
  3. Dark_Stranger
    I was afraid that the summer Ninjago sets might not be open to photograph, given the lack of coverage elsewhere. The descriptions make them sound pretty fun, though...guess I'll have to set aside a few minutes to watch the trailer sometime and see for myself. Unreleased sets aside, the Vermillion have an excellent aesthetic to their vehicles--almost a bit steampunk-ish in places. It seems a bit odd to introduce a new color in only two pieces; I can't wait to see what other copper parts are released in the near future. Here's hoping for as much CCBS as humanly possible!
  4. Dark_Stranger
    I understand where you're coming from, but part of being a professional artist (which I'll admit I haven't accomplished quite yet, but I'm getting there) is understanding that passion and dedication, while essential, aren't generally accepted currency. Passion is the engine, but it needs money to fuel it. Or maybe it's the other way around. You can't do without either, regardless. In this case, I'm not really sure I could get this project done in a timely manner without donations. Admittedly, I jumped the gun in putting up a donations page before I had anything more than a cover picture, but I should be able to show off some semi-presentable Toa soon. As for the continuing legal concerns, I know there are at least a few people who accept token payment for instructions for MOCs based on licensed properties. If they can do it with no problems, I don't see why I would be prohibited from taking donations, which is far less capitalistic. And, again, I made sure to announce this project where Lego can see it; if they start chewing me out, I'll delete the donations page and just finish the project at a much slower pace. They haven't made an issue of it yet, so I haven't corrected the potential issue yet.
  5. Dark_Stranger
    I have thought for awhile that what the final Hobbit film really needed was battle packs. The actual "Battle of the Five Armies" set was okay, and had some nice Dale architecture, but wasn't nearly big enough to stage any kind of proper battle. Instead of a single ~$50 set, we really should have had a $10 battle pack for each army. Mirkwood Elves, Men of Laketown (both with an eagle), Iron Hills Dwarves (with a cavalry goat), Dol Gildur Orcs (featuring one or two warg riders), and Gundabad Orcs (along with a few war bats)--I would have bought scads of those.
  6. Dark_Stranger
    "This isn't the constraction you're looking for. Just move along."
  7. Dark_Stranger
    I think the Scarecrow set is actually my favorite of all these--a very well-designed impulse set featuring possibly the best Scarecrow minifigure Lego has ever released. (Gotta admit, he's one of my all-time favorites.) Bane is good, except for reminding me that the Whirly-Bat is a thing that exists. The big fig is just about perfect, and while I've never been a fan of TDKR, the Mutant has enough versatile parts for me to accept his inclusion. The Batwing is very blocky-looking; a real disappointment. The poor selection of minifigures doesn't help. The Two-Face set doesn't inspire strong feelings in me either way--I don't hate it, but I doubt I'll bother picking it up.
  8. Dark_Stranger
    This is certainly true to some extent, but it doesn't really cover all the instances mentioned. Some of these guys are fairly minor, yes--but plenty of others, eg. Faramir, Eowyn, and Bolg, are pretty darn important to their narratives. I myself am still a little miffed that we never got those three.
  9. Dark_Stranger
    Oh, man. I have no real interest in TLBM, and the sets and character designs have been pretty hit-and-miss in my opinion, but this is amazing. The combined vehicle is cool, and the Batmobile is easily spotted sitting up front (if anything, it looks even better), but I wish we could have had another picture to see the other three vehicles. It really says something that the beautifully realized Bat-signal comes off as an afterthought here. Couldn't agree more. Sauron>Polka-Dot Man; there's really no contest. Still, at least this way if I take the plunge and buy this monstrosity, I can easily sell off the D-lister to recoup some of the cost.Hopefully, there are one or two summer sets that are still unrevealed, because I would be rather annoyed if Lego passed up another chance to release a second-age Sauron figure, especially since they went out of their way to insert him into a franchise where he doesn't belong.
  10. Dark_Stranger
    Firstly, I suppose upon rereading that my phrasing was a bit vague, so I understand the confusion, but I am not selling anything. The story will be available for free. The set instructions will be available for free. The campaign is to fund Bricklink orders and paint--and obviously no one has to contribute, it would just be helpful and appreciated in the face of what is frankly a huge project. I could easily have just shared this with my little siblings and nobody else, but I thought I'd give a wider audience the option to see what I had in mind for a proper ending. As for LEGO themselves, this is admittedly in their hands, which informed some of the phrasing on the actual contribution page. But I made sure to immediately post this project to the official pages for both Bionicle and LEGO as a whole, and I haven't heard anything from them yet, so unless that changes I figure they're fine with it. Finally, I do intend to update the page regularly with content, and in fact I posted the first such update less than an hour ago. There isn't much physical to show yet, as the project is still in its infancy and much of it is still either in my head or in the phase where the prototypes are still half-built, full of parts substitutions, and overall kind of junky-looking. I'm working on getting them out of that territory, and they're slowly but surely getting there.
  11. Dark_Stranger
    Well, I've been mentioning it sporadically for a while now--and now it has officially begun! With some help from my siblings, I'm working on MoCing up sets and writing a storyline, but, as always, funds are low. Donations can help finance paint and Bricklink orders, as well as the time spent building and writing. More to come soon! https://fundrazr.com/bion_2017?ref=ab_26NoEc
  12. Dark_Stranger
    Stone needs to stick around. Replacing Air with Jungle was acceptable because Air always had strong thematic ties to jungle-type environments, and because Jungle still retained some air-based powers as part of its repertoire. Stone, though, has been a prominent quirk of Bionicle since the beginning, and should not be replaced. As for the whole "definition of Bionicle" debate, even G1 never completely phased out the Mata/Nuva, just moved them to the background. The reboot demonstrated that you can make some pretty dramatic changes without diluting the brand too much, but the original 6 heroes should be somewhere, even if they're not the protagonists.
  13. Dark_Stranger
    Well, I've never played many video games, but several of my siblings are excited about the board game version coming out this month. I don't think any of them had even heard of Doom before, amusingly enough.
  14. Dark_Stranger
    G1: Count me among the masses who think romance shouldn't have been stricken from canon. Makuta also should have kept the more morally grey motives hinted at in MNOG and Mask of Light. Even as a dumb little kid I thought mono-gendered tribes were stupid. They can be predominantly male or female, sure, but having it as strict as it is just limits options for MOCs and characters. Oh, and if I killed the whole Red Star reveal, would it stay dead, or bring itself back to life? G2: A more solid storyline. More and better background material. Names for the Protectors right off the bat. A proper ending.
  15. Dark_Stranger
    Offhand, I'd say the torso needs to be a little shorter (right now it looks a bit long compared to the legs), and the shoulders could stand to be positioned a bit higher (the arms seem kind of low on the torso as is). Otherwise, I'd call this solid.
  16. Dark_Stranger
    Egad I have a little brother who's under 10 and we could totally pull that off. I might have to talk him into doing that next year. I'll just leave you to contemplate what you've unleashed on the world now. Why not you and your little brother "Unite" this year, Dark_Stranger? I mean, there is plenty of time. Speaking of "Uniting", how could you guys do that? Would you decorate a backpack or dress a person much smaller than you to look like an Elemental Creature? You think that it's safe to put that person on your back like a backpack? If you do, be careful when you try to pull it off. People would think that it look like a piggy back. I can't do it this year because I already started working on my costume. I've poured too much time, effort, and swearing into this Witch King helm to backnowledge out now, dangit!I just hope my youngest brother is still small enough to ride on my back next year.
  17. Dark_Stranger
    Yeah, I have to agree with the general concensus here. The Toa would have been upgraded, and there probably would have been a full year of sets, based on how successful Lego likes to claim G2 was, but beyond that it's hard to say. I'm already working on giving the storyline a proper ending (though I've concocted a way to get around the Toa's departure without resorting to the whole "distant future" plot device)--which is another reason I'm keeping mum on my 2017 ideas for now. It's slow going, but my goal is to be done within a year, preferably by next summer.
  18. Dark_Stranger
    Egad I have a little brother who's under 10 and we could totally pull that off. I might have to talk him into doing that next year. I'll just leave you to contemplate what you've unleashed on the world now.
  19. Dark_Stranger
    Man, I've been gone way too long. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, airbrushing is probably not an option for me; I'm already dropping huge amounts of money on the actual parts, so I can't afford to spend too much on equipment that I'll probably never use again outside my current project. Any specific ones you can recommend? Just a cursory search showed me scads of varieties and colors, and I'm at a bit of a loss for where to begin.
  20. Dark_Stranger
    Sorry about being out of the picture for awhile. Unfortunately, real-life shenanigans mean I probably won't be able to post for about another week. Apologies again to everyone languishing in interaction with my characters.
  21. Dark_Stranger
    Forgot to mention how much I love this. It starts off a bit generic, but overall it has a great apocalyptic feel to it.My little siblings and I were just listening to this earlier, because we finally started building Makuta today. I suppose I already knew he was monstrously huge, but it was still quite a moment to see it firsthand.
  22. Dark_Stranger
    Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that won't work for me, because I'm not just changing the colors of certain parts--lots of them will actually have various patterns added. So it's basically paint or nothing, I'm afraid.
  23. Dark_Stranger
    As part of my project to MoC up a line of pseudo-sets for 2017, I find myself needing to commit the ultimate heresy... PARTS MODIFICATION. AIEEEEEEEEEEEE. Simply put, I'm going to be painting several parts, both official and from Shapeways, and I need help finding the closest matches possible for the following colors from Lego's palette: Bright Red, Bright Green, Dark Azure, Black, White, Sand Yellow/Dark Tan, Silver Metallic/Flat Silver, and Warm Gold/Pearl Gold. (Yes, finding perfect matches for Lego's exact black and white is relatively low priority, but I want everything to be as close to official as possible.) I'll be using something along the lines of enamels or hobbyist's model paint, so I'd appreciate it if any recommendations could stay along those lines. I'll also be looking for a finish or sealant that matches the gloss of the official parts. Any advice would be appreciated.
  24. Dark_Stranger
    You, my friend, are a life-saver, and I mean that almost literally. Any chance of having v2 ready in time for that free shipping deal Shapeways is doing this weekend?
  25. Dark_Stranger
    Huh. That's funny, I checked Bricklink a week or so ago, and I would have sworn they didn't have it. But then, maybe I was just being more oblivious than usual. Thanks for pointing it out. And now that I think of it, it's pretty sad that all the G2 collectables--with the sole exception of the Hero Pack--were exclusive to either Russia or convention events and tours of varying levels of exclusivity. I'm not certain it hurt the line's chances, but it sure didn't help. Ah well. Thanks, everyone!
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