Dr. Lakata

Hey everyone! So I recently rediscovered Bionicle, and I was struck with a big wave of nostalgia for what was a massive part of my childhood. Ever since, I've been mentally floating about the idea of doing a reboot of the original story. In particular, I love the story as portrayed through the Mata Nui Online Game. I loved the why it gave us a view of this epic quest through the eyes of an average Matoran. So that's the direction I am going for here. I wrote a brief short story to showcase my style and idea. If folks like it, I'll see if I can't make more. If not then it can just die out in this forum. No harm, no foul. Anyways, without further ado, here is The Chronicler. Balance. It is the order of things. Nature’s order. The only real order there is. There are two sides to everything. Fire and ice. The ocean and the desert. The towering heights and the great depths. Light and darkness. This duality is a necessity of life, for the truest way to understand something is through contrast. To know what something is, you must know what it is not. Even balance and order have their counterpart: Chaos. Though feared, there is a purpose to Chaos. It tears down the old so that the new can arise. Without chaos and destruction, life grows stagnant, old, and set in its ways. Chaos forces life to adapt and evolve. And death is the scalpel through which chaos shapes life. We flee death with such fervor, but death is merely the first step towards renewal and life. Death is simply another part of the great balance. My purpose is to observe this balance. To document it. I am the Chronicler. I am not like the others of my village. They seek only to do what they need to keep going. Routine has become their god, their protector. Like drones and beetles they scurry about, believing that if each does his duty, adheres to his responsibilities, we will all be safe. I know better. I have seen the storm coming. It is merciless. It does not heed our duty. It does honor our unity. We cannot stay behind our walls and expect to it pass over us. We will be wiped away, like dust in the wind. I have tried to tell them. They do not believe. Or rather, they choose to be blind. They fear me, because deep down they know I am right. This is why I must leave. I must find help outside the walls of Ta-Koro if my home is to be saved. I must find others like me, who know what is coming. I can only pray that I am not alone. End

This is stunning, absolutely love the approach, very stylized, but still detailed, which is quite a feat to pull off.

So I've been out of the MOCing game for literally years now, but I'm hoping to get back involved. Today I spent a couple hours making this fine fellow. I wanted to start with a more standard build to get my feet wet again. Hope you guys like it!

By this point I think everyone had heard the awesome news: Bionicle is coming back!!! I like everyone else was super psyched, and I can’t wait to see what Lego has in store for us. Obviously one of the big questions out there right now is exactly what this return if going to look like. Will it continue the story where it left off, or will we take off in some new direction? I’m of the opinion that the smartest move for Lego is a reboot of the story, and here are my reasons why. It will make Bionicle accessible to newbies. Let’s face it, Bionicle and Lego are kids toys that happen to be also appealing to older folks. Those of us that remember the old Bionicle fall into the latter category. It honestly isn’t fair to ask these younger, new fans to go back and review a multi-year story arc that spans several comics and books and movies if they want to get into Bionicle. If nothing else it’s just a bad bisnuess move. A reboot gives these new fans a chance to visit the world from its beginning, just like we did. We get the see the world with fresh eyes My favorite years of Bionicle were the first few, when everything was new and exciting. I remember the excitement when the Borahk were first teased, and then awesome rush when the Toa Nuva arrived. There is a certain magic that’s present at the beginning of a story that gets lost over time. A reboot gives us old fans a chance to rekindle those emotions without having to scrap the characters and settings we love so much. I think a great example of this is the Marvel Ultimate universe. By hitting the reset button on all their characters and storylines, Marvel was able to breathe new life into old tropes, and play with fans expectations while staying true to the core of the source material. Lego can do just this with the right reboot. Imagine getting to see the original six Toa back in action again, meeting each other for the first time. I personally get goosebumps just thinking about it! Set design has evolved Throughout the course of Bionicle, the design of the sets ebbed and flowed. Some of the changes were good, others not so much. A reboot could give us the best of both worlds. By revisiting the old set and revamping them, we could get sets that combine the solid, functional design of the early years with the more possible and flexible ones of the later years. Win win! Reboots can work, and work well I know the term “reboot” has become a dirty word these days, what with Hollywood retreading anything it can find to prey off of fan loyalty and make a quick buck. But let’s not forget that reboots don’t always fail. I already mentioned Marvel Ultimate, and there’s also Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. The new Battlestar Galactica was superior to its parent franchise, and Doctor Who was able to revive itself and keep delivering great stories. So reboots can work. The key to a good one is for those involved to truly love the original, while not being afraid to branch off in new directions. I think Lego is the perfect company to do a reboot proper. Pretty much everything Lego does is characterized by its attention to detail. Nothing is rushed or half-done. They would do it really well, and give us a Bionicle we could be proud of. It doesn’t eliminate the old Bionicle Restarting the franchise doesn’t mean we have to forget all the good memories. It just means we are heading off to a new direction, and embracing a new adventure. Like I said at the start, Bionicle is not for us, it’s for the kids who are where we were all those years ago, ready to be blown away by an amazing world, ripe for exploration and discovery. I think a reboot gives them the best chance to latch on to it like we did. Hopefully I am right, and hopefully a reboot is in store. But either way, we’ll have a lot of new fans coming to our beloved Bionicle, and we’ll need to welcome them in and welcome any changes that come with an open mind. What do you guys think of my reasoning, and what would you like to see in a potential reboot?

So I left BZP (and Lego in general) for a few years, and during that time my creative outlet of choice became music. A few months back I put out my first full length album on electronic music, which you can find here: https://soundcloud.com/dr-lakata/sets/known-and-loved-1st-final I'd love to what you guys think!

Really digging this! That mask really adds to the aerodynamic motif. Nice color scheme, good use of the light blue accents without overdoing it (you could add a bit more if you wanted, but it works as is). Torso is well sculpted, and the arms are sleek too. The legs have a nice bulk to them. I personally like legs limbs that avoid using the traditional leg pieces, but you've managed to add a few extra elements to tweak them slightly. Solid stuff!

There's some good stuff here. That torso is rather nice, and shows that you know how to use your pieces to achieve the shape you want. The shoulder spike are a lovely touch. The limbs aren't quite as good, they are a bit simplistic for my taste, and give the build a bit of a gangly feel. I would say make these a little bulkier and more complex, it'll really compliment the nicer parts of the build. Good design!v Hope to see more from you.

Hey! I've pretty much always been Lakata in some form or another. I was a pretty frequent BCC Contest participant, and general miscreant. Nowadays I do science and Music.

http://soundcloud.com/dr-lakata/come-along-with-me-cover-ofAn electronic cover of a great song from the best cartoon on television.BTW, the fact that we a bazillion pages of discussion about My Little Pony and and next to nothing on Adventure Time makes me weep for this generation. http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif

http://soundcloud.com/dr-lakata/the-exterminatorI made this track a month or two back. Was a lot of fun, though it took forever to complete.

Thanks, I actually based it largely off of the NES Metroid opening theme.

http://soundcloud.com/dr-lakata/ode-to-the-spacemanA song I made a few days ago. I was going for a spacey, old school video game feel. Hope you like it!

Thanks so much! Any favorties in particular?

Been so long since I've been on here, nice to see it up again.Anyways, I haven't done a ton of stuff with Lego lately, instead I've been busy making music over the last year.Most of my stuff is on my soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/dr-lakata. Hope you have the time to give it a listen, would love some feedback.BTW, I hope this isn't considering advertising or something, I tried to read the rules before posting... -Doc

The Time Machine Dr. Lakata -Doc