Cheesy Mac n Cheese

Umbra’s eyes can be canonically explained by the fact he has elemental Light powers. Making specific parts of his body glow is theoretically the simplest thing he could do. Lesovikk’s eyes may not actually be glowing. Perhaps he’s wearing some kind of “headlight” visor to help him see in the Pit.

Nivawk could well have been created by Teridax specifically to monitor Metru Nui (and give him rides), based on the fact that nobody seems to have seen a similar animal before or since. Rather than a member of a species, he could have been a completely unique individual.

Prominent use of lime green joint pieces.

Mostly boats, and caravans of cargo carts (often pulled by Rahi) for landlocked travel. I don’t think we ever saw airships used outside of Metru Nui, which was one of the wealthiest and most technologically-advanced regions, so that may explain it. And we don’t know the travel range of the airships; the only time we saw them leave the island is when the Toa Metru were taking the comatose Matoran to the surface, after which they were dismantled and recycled as building material (maybe they broke down upon landing, who knows)?

If I could jump back in, if it were created as, say, a movie, or a TV show, or even a book, there is always the possibility that toys would be made anyway. And when a franchise strikes a toy deal, even if the toy line is not the core aspect of the franchise, the story is inherently influenced by the toys, anyway. Ever heard of the word “toyetic?” It’s when movie and TV artists specifically design something, be it a character, vehicle or building, to be appealing enough so that kids would want a toy based on it (thank you, Freakazoid!). For decades, people have accused Lucasfilm of creating Ewoks solely to sell toys, for example.

It’s a tough one, but realistically, I should probably narrow it down to one of the years with large, expensive sets I never got, and which have only increased in value in the aftermarket. Those would be 2001 (Manas, any toy retailer), late 2003 (Takutanuva, Toys ‘R’ Us) or late 2009 (Toa Mata Nui, LEGO Store or Shop at Home), and to a lesser extent late 2002 (Cahdok & Gahdok, any toy retailer). I ended up getting basically all the sets released from 2006 to 2008, so those three years can be completely eliminated.

“Huna,” eh? They may not have gotten that term specifically from Hawaiian, though. I suspect it exists in several different languages both in and out of the Pacific region. By the way, has anyone else ever thought that Kopaka’s original shield does a pretty poor job protecting him? I mean, it’s full of holes! I don’t even think the piece was originally meant to be a shield. Years before I got Kopaka, I think I had this piece in a Star Wars Echo Base set as an antenna dish. Edit: Oh yeah, here it is, the Snowspeeder set:

Like a cigarette smell? If so, that’s a tough one that toy collectors have been struggling with for years.

Do you think there are any TV news recordings mentioning it? Stuff like this. I mean, I know it was never a craze quite like that example, but maybe some report about popular Christmas toys or something, and they happen to mention Tahu, or the Bahrag.

That bothers me to this day: Teridax went out of his way to avoid killing Matoran for a couple different reasons (he knew he needed them for the robot to survive, plus a smart ruler knows that the less people there are to rule over inherently makes you less of a ruler). The infected Rahi, while dangerous and bestial, weren’t free-willed pawns he just happened to be manipulating; they were under his direct mental control via their masks.

I’ve mentioned this before, but Bricklink has some colors on file for certain masks that don’t seem to be documented at all, and are likely fakes. For example, a regular blue Noble Rau, and the picture looks suspiciously doctored, like someone did a digital color replacement using some image manipulation software. So don’t believe every so-called “misprint” or “prototype” story you find. Off-topic, but Bricklink also once had someone selling a supposedly ultra-rare pink Darth Vader minifig head, and as I recall, it turned out to be real! So on the other hand, bizarre things do indeed happen.

There is only one truly good reason for them to exist: for us fans to mock them and have fun doing it! While I have knowingly bought bootleg products before, it was only because there was literally no possible way for me to buy them legitimately. For example, a couple years ago I bought a well-known bootleg CD from a seller on eBay. It was the soundtrack for both of the Ewok TV movies. While an official release does exist, it was only released on LP, which doesn’t have the same versatility of CDs (fight me), and while I would gladly have bought it, I’ve only seen it for sale once, and the asking price was ridiculous. But in general, I don’t believe in giving someone money in exchange for something they are producing without having the right to do so. I will say, though, it might be fine to own one of these, just as a curiosity or conversation piece. Just buy it secondhand, so that the maker doesn’t get that extra sale.

This is another topic for another...topic. Or forum...or site, frankly.

Let’s put it this way. Vahki were very, very good at doing what they were meant to do: subdue and neutralize Matoran criminals. Anything beyond that, well...they never had much success. The Toa Metru acknowledged that they were a threat, but they were still able to escape them almost every time, even without Mask or Elemental powers. As for the Vahki-Visorak battle we saw, I see this as Greg world-building by including some past characters, plus relieving some frustration he had over the Vahki, which he has stated are his least favorite characters in the franchise due to their simple, pre-programmed personalities. He showed them getting their butts handed to them because he didn’t like them, but also tried to rectify their “uninterestingness” by making them more complex, via the peek into their (albeit surge-corrupted) minds and revealing their previously-unknown speech capability (also partially caused by the surge, as mentioned a few posts up).

Turaga also order a new Matoran if one of the old ones has died. Before anyone mentions the Red Star, it seems that a being is rarely sent to their original home. The fact that you can be revived after dying doesn’t even seem to be common knowledge; when a character dies, everyone they know seems to have a “he’s gone forever” type reaction to it. Not to mention Gaardus, who only knew about the Red Star because he himself was resurrected by it, had to hunt down the Nynrah Ghosts he killed every time they were revived.

For what it’s worth, there seem to be two different definitions of Rahi: the Matoran definition and the real definition. The Matoran think anything foreign, alien or otherwise dissimilar to them is a Rahi. It needs to have at least one of so many traits (it can speak, it’s a biped, it has discernible facial features, etc.) in order to be considered a “person.” The actual definition is more specific: it is a large marine creature created by the Great Beings or it is any creature created by the Makuta using viruses...or it’s a Crystal Serpent. It’s kind of like an inverse situation of the word “animal” in the real world: a lot of people use it to describe any creature that isn’t human, implying humans are distinct from animals. But the actual definition is any organism in the kingdom Animalia, which includes, of course, humans. By the way, there is also a third definition that fell out of use early on. In 2002, the official site had two sections for non-sapient character bios: “Rahi” and “Creatures.” The Rahi section only included the Rahi released as Titan sets in 2001, while the Creatures section had the Rahi that could be built using the Master Builder Set. The implication was that the name “Rahi” specifically referred to large, dangerous animals that Makuta fitted with Infected Masks.

Non-existent. Edit: To further elaborate, it was always meant to be a multimedia franchise. That was a huge portion of its appeal. LEGO was not doing so well at the end of the 1990s and they needed something big to get ahead, so they took a gamble on this. The promotional effort was probably pretty expensive, considering the fact that they partnered with Universal Music, ordered two video games (one of which fell through) on brand new consoles (Game Boy Advance and GameCube also launched in 2001), and had a then-fancy Flash site with an elaborate online game that expanded over time (most browser-based games at that time weren’t elaborate at all, they were mostly puzzles and stuff). Speaking of which, the 2001 storyline alone was was told through various media. Unlike later years, you couldn’t just focus on one medium and get a fairly complete summary of 2001’s story. So basically, you can’t have the story without the toys. And in BIONICLE’s case, at least, I think that the story really fueled toy sales, so I highly doubt it would have lasted more than a few years without the elaborate story.

At first I preferred Tohunga, but it’s been Matoran for so long now that it comes naturally to me. I still think the Maori controversy was overblown (I don’t buy into the “cultural appropriation” thing, and I think that assuming all Maori people have the same opinion on any issue is actually kind of patronizing), so that’s not why. While 2001 is a very special year, “Tohunga” was only used for one year, while “Matoran” was used for ten, and continues to be used beyond. I still occasionally use “Tohunga” when specifically referring to the six initial sets, though.

Eliminator killed the Toa Mangai using his energy blasts, which fry the brain of the target, making revival on the Red Star impossible. Are the bodies still teleported to the Red Star automatically, or do the Kestora do that manually after the mind is wirelessly transferred? I don’t think the Toa could have come from Karzahni, either. Didn’t that archway prevent Toa from passing through that particular route? Or was it elemental Light beings? I forget.

Didn’t The LEGO Movie state that each Theme is connected to the others in a vast LEGO multiverse? I think that’s the best connection you could ever make, and, by its nature, could be said of any Theme, not just these two. And even then, it doesn’t really mean a thing for either of these themes, because neither had characters venture out (unless you count Takua being in that Backlot Shockwave game, but in that case, he was really an actor named Bob who was playing Takua). The Toa Mata were shown in the movie during the explanation as an example, but they never actually left their universe.

I’m supporting the Toa Head Sculpture. It’s amazing how accurately they were able to reproduce the piece. The Takua’s Journey and Storytelling ones are kinda cool, but probably overly ambitious.

I support this theory. Take a look at that display: all the Kaukau are the correct color for their respective Toa except Pohatu and Kopaka. Their Kaukau were trans-orange and just plain transparent, respectively; the display instead shows the trans-light blue and trans-yellow misprints. My idea is that somebody suggested switching to orange and clear, and one of the higher-ups simply liked them more and requested the change, but not before a bunch of the old ones were produced. Rather than let the old pieces go to waste, they just threw them into polybag mask packs. By the way, on a semi-related note, Pohatu’s Kaukau always bugged me. Orange, really? Isn’t it possible to make trans-brown? Coca-Cola is see-through to a certain depth, kind of like a dark amber.

I never noticed either. I’ll have to find one to check it out, I think I have Onepu laying around somewhere nearby...

I actually remember reading this at the time it was posted.