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Xboxtravis

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Year 17

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About Xboxtravis

  • Birthday 02/18/1994

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    Current: Lego, Trains, Video Games, Science Fiction,Cartoons and Animation
    Interests when joined in 2006: "Bionicle,legos,star wars, science, and BZpower."

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Encountering Protodermis

Encountering Protodermis (126/293)

  1. Hafu had a black Ruru, so the mask did appear in a wide-release set in 2001. However it also seems that LEGO didn't always correspond the prototype masks to final set designs, like we saw in that Bionicle pitch video Faber posted recently that had every character wearing a Hau and sometimes of the wrong color to their respective elements.
  2. Oh my, I had forgotten that was a thing that totally happened in the story already. The books were wild. 😅
  3. It's a literary thing, people tend to like messianic figures to come back from the dead for literature reasons going back several thousand years. It's not like there aren't other heroic sacrifices in media recently that seem to be permanent and "not being reversed" like Tony Stark in the Avengers movies, but for the most part people tend to have big heroic figures who die like Matoro come back to life. Harry Potter does it at the end of the final book, Gandalf returns from falling down the Mines of Moria, Obi-Wan returns as a Force ghost after sacrificing himself in his duel against Vader, Spock is revived on the Genesis planet in a new body which eventually reunites with his original soul, Sherlock Holmes faked his death in his fight against Moriarty on Reichenbach Falls and eventually returned after some time assumed dead, etc. So Matoro is either the greatest subversion because it showcases the cost of heroic sacrifices in a realistic measure, or a constant frustrating plot choice that breaks a strong literature trope. I think the problem lies in the introduction of the Red Star, if all Bionicle characters were assumed dead then Matoro wouldn't feel to out of place. When we find out that Lhiikan, etc. have been chilling up on the Red Star very much alive since their "death" it makes Greg feel capricious and cruel towards Matoro, that in a massive sea of "alive again" characters that the one who by all literary expectations should be the one alive again is the one who is "very very very dead." The rules feel arbitrary and like Greg wanted to have his cake and eat it to by keeping Matoro dead while bringing everybody else back to life.
  4. Good camera filming lens and focus to see the detail of the machining lines left as mold marks on the prototype masks. I love how you can tell how rushed and unpolished those prototype molds were compared to the production versions by looking for those slight molding defects on the mask.
  5. I do not own it, but I will bring up I handled the Platinum Avohkii once. Cool, very heavy, very expensive and could never afford to own it but I will gladly say I have spent a few seconds with it. As for the rarest thing I actually own? Some of the European "Misprints" I guess. White and brown Matatus, and a blue Ruru (I also own a red Ruru but since that showed up in the clock it's not quite as rare as the other "misprints" are).
  6. I have seen this off switch. If you hit it hard enough the Turaga will move their right arm in response, and then it will snap back into place, as if pulled by a spring of some sort. 🤣
  7. Incorrect, Kopaka would just silently suffer with insomnia and never ask for help while silently judging Tahu. 🤣 Lewa would be begging for sleep help, Pohatu would appreciate it, Onua doesn't need it because he sleeps just fine, and Gali would say she prefers to read a book, watch ASMR videos and drink some herbal tea instead.
  8. I checked BioSector01, and sure enough there is a small footnote linking to a "Chat with Greg" saying Tahu did abandon the armor eventually which while I agree with you it was a major choice, it seems funny it's just another casual "Greg said on the forum chat" tidbit in the Bionicle lore.
  9. This summed up my thoughts as well. The active Bionicle fans are now leaning towards being in likely a median age of their late 20's and into early 30's. The "new fans" from G2 are probably now in their teens if not early 20's. It is the stage of life where people have real jobs and disposable income. Of course the Bionicle market I think is much wider than we often realize outside a few chase collectibles. It was at one point one of the largest toys in the world in terms of market share and models produced. However the condition of used toys and the large amount of toys that were either thrown out or held by their original owner who isn't selling them is what is also contributing to an over inflated sense of rarity. I do wish more collectors realized that though and refused to buy at some of the overinflated prices we are now seeing.
  10. Well, you got actual data from pulling Kraata packs which could maybe with enough samples suggest if they were actually statistically rarer for some reason. Even then we might never know the "why" of it at all. Think about the silver Nuva Masks also from 2003. Why were those so rare? Unlike the Gold masks the year prior there was no real advertisement of them, unlike the Vahi there was no push to "chase it" or any promotions like the copper masks or the Trans-neon green Miru had where they were handed out at specific locations. If anything the silver Nuva masks were overshadowed by all the metal Krana Kal promotions and chase sets! The silver Nuva masks are rare for reasons LEGO never really advertised, and were products I imagine many Bionicle fans (myself included) were not really aware existed until they began a serious deep dive into masks produced years after these masks were long off store shelves. 2003 is just a glut year in general for weird Bionicle collector's stuff (*cough* Platinum Avohkii *cough*) and the Kraata just sort of fit the trend that LEGO was tossing everything at the wall they could. As an aside the one time I got to see and handle the Platinum Avohkii in person, I later learned its owner had so little of the silver Nuva masks he couldn't sell any as spares... That is comical to imagine that plastic parts that were supposedly in mass produced sets have a rarity that somebody who paid five figures for a solid platinum mask regards the silver Nuva pieces with similar rarity; but something really was just messed up in how LEGO handled those that caused this artificial rarity we are now stuck with.
  11. It is in this Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17hRhzagTGwiSroqkkpgHo8u1oHHnEy4t/edit#gid=667561492
  12. Well... I'll gladly dispute it. 🤣The Toa Metru dragged an entire city's population of people from Metru-Nui to Mata-Nui (while the Turaga probably hoped to return to Metru-Nui they had no guarantee it would happen either though and there was a possibility their trip to Mata-Nui was a one-way trip). They sacrificed their powers to revive all those people. They lead those people to rebuild their civilization (apparently well enough that even some skilled technical people such as Nuparu were able to re-learn hard skills such as engineering). In the process they lead that civilization to last for a constant siege nearly a millennia long, against hordes of Rahi without any Toa to protect them until the Toa Mata finally showed up ashore 1000 years late. I think a lot has been said about the Turaga "lying" to the population of Mata-Nui, but I don't see it as that. I would say their only notable lie was when they sent the Toa Nuva to Voya-Nui because the Great Spirit was dying, however that was in a much different situation at that point than the Matoran were living under the "Great War" before the Toa Mata arrived. Keeping secrets is not exactly the same as lying outright, and although elements of Matoran history like Lhikan were twisted into Lhii the Surfer and other things were not reveled to the Matoran, can you blame the Turaga? They never knew for sure if they would return to Metru-Nui, and the longer they spent on Mata-Nui without the Toa arriving probably made them more and more desperate in believing the promised Toa who would save them would never arrive. Every day passed on Mata-Nui was another day where it was likely the legends had failed, another day where it seemed likely that the Matoran who lived on the island were the last of their kind; a dying civilization holding onto whatever threads they could as their Great Spirit slowly died. Now if you were in the same situation, would you have done any differently? Told the Matoran about Metru-Nui and the technological paradise you used to call home? Or would you focus on building out your new society, and doing your best to make Mata-Nui as much of a paradise as you could under constant Rahi siege while clinging to a hope that old legends of the Toa Mata would eventually prove themselves true? The Turaga get to much flak for not disclosing everything they knew, when its pretty obvious their leadership role held together society for 1000 years. Again I will argue the key difference later with the Great Spirit dying was at that point the Matoran had returned to Metru-Nui, the Turaga had disclosed all their previous secrets (in a long story form); and then chose to lie at that point to hide the even worse truth they just discovered (plus Jaller et. al. were fated to become Toa anyways, so its likely in whatever techno-fate-programming thing was going on Jaller's anger and subsequent organized strike were just the start of his destined path to becoming a Toa Inika soon after). But again I sort of understand the Turaga, they were probably as shocked and traumatized by the idea that the Great Spirit could die as anybody; and were probably lying as some sort of traumatic protection; to avoid the truth that their god-universe robot guy was on the verge of death. What were we talking about, Su-Matoran? 🤣 To briefly comment on OP's topic, I just always assumed Su-Matoran were rarer by design. Maybe there was some sort of "expense" that made them harder to "make" than the more common Ta-Matoran. If a Ta-Matoran can do 99% of the fire related jobs in the Great Spirit Robot, and only 1% of those jobs need a Su-Matoran; you make the population match the needs of the 99% of work and just have a small portion of Su-Matoran around for the really really really hot stuff.
  13. I handled some prototype masks once from the early stages of Bionicle (ones with codes on the face), and there is one thing on them that is hard to capture without seeing them in person; is how rough they actually are. It is pretty simple really, LEGO in prototype phases probably uses quickly made molds using CNC machines, the result being notable lines which show where the CNC drill bit cut out material, flash from loose tolerances, and other imperfections which denote how rushed the part was. As this photo I have stolen from the internet demonstrates, note the flash on the bottom of the Pakari, or the prominent sprue cut on the Miru's nose: However, this is a good thing for fans looking to avoid fakes. Injection molding at home to imitate official masks would produce masks that look like the prototypes! Most amateur hobbyists would lack access to the funds required to create a true high quality mold, and while its possible somebody with a CNC machine and injection molder could create low quality molds similar to the prototype masks, it would be hard to create a truly polished high tolerance mold to get a 100% real LEGO feel. Of course it does mean prototype "numbers forward" masks could be more easily faked, but it lends credence to the idea that all authentic masks would have that distinct LEGO quality of polish and sheen (those in the Twitter post look very promising because of that along with the color matching to official LEGO parts). Yes a hobbyist CAN really make a somewhat convincing mask if they machined the mold for it properly, but its a very demanding process. By the way, just check out how CNC machining molds work; very cool process and yes the tech exists to get some high quality stuff now; although still not quite as solid as LEGO's official (and very expensive) methods: Now as for resin masks. As mentioned already, printed masks will always have printer lines. But molded resin can have a smoother finish. My guess is for a non-destructive test to tell the difference between resin and authentic LEGO plastic is to use the scientific theories of density (ala Archimedes measuring the density of the king's crown in legend). We could weigh suspect masks vs. known LEGO pieces to determine their weight, resin often weighs slightly more than ABS and other comparable plastics. Then using water displacement we can determine the volume of the piece, then finally calculate the density to compare the values of density with known resin and plastics. If it matches the density of official LEGO parts such as other Bionicle masks, it is a strong candidate for authenticity! Edit: In the case of the Twitter thread it should also be pointed out there is a known production list of masks which includes many masks not represented in publicly released sets. The masks from the Twitter post do match the identities of known masks combinations from that production list.
  14. Yeah I built the Netflix model (sans the 3D printed mask) and while it was impressive to hold, it was a pain to disassemble so many G2 sets just to get that one character. I would need to buy a ton of parts to have on hand to be able to make it without breaking down other sets, and it really diminishes the appeal of having Makuta built all the time.
  15. I do think there are a few missed opportunities, a few I disagree with though in OP's list. One I do agree with certainly, is the lack of any proper G2 Makuta set. The combiner model we got while cool, is expensive and flimsy. Even a plain "Mask Maker" version with the Mask of Ultimate Power would have been nice, even if the bigger titan was still a combiner model only; since at least it would be an easy way to have gotten Makuta in "plastic" in G2. I would have loved to have seen what was planned for Bionicle 2017, period. One I disagree with is the Sand Tarakava. Most evidence backs up now that it was not a unique "Sand Tarakava" retail set prototype, but just a prototype of the final Tarakava before the colors were finalized; so in all ways we DID get the Tarakava as a set. I like that the yellow sand version was made canon via Greg, and that we can Bricklink most of the yellow parts as fans; but the model had its roots in the Tarakava set we did get. Another set I wish we got, more mask packs! Collectibles really fell in quality in Bionicle and its a shame we never got a 2004 mask pack with either the Metru masks or the 2001 Noble Masks in Metru color blends; or even G2 Mask Packs in 2015 (if a full set of masks in all six colors was to much in 2015; even just some alternative colors like silver or gunmetal masks to chase would have been a nice variety from the gold masks). Bionicle collectibles are a sad story of genius start (Kanohi), rapid inflation and consumer overwhelming through overly broad lines (Krana and Kraata), fun but simple (Kanoka) and then finally increasingly absurd descents into being glorified ammo boxes (squid ammo box); and is something Bionicle really fumbled during its run.
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