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Island of Lost Masks Teaser Added to Amazon


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The Amazon.com listing for the first LEGO Bionicle chapter book, Island of Lost Masks, has been updated with a preview featuring the first six pages of the story. Among other things, the preview introduces us to the six Protectors... by name. Needless to say, I think a lot of fans' hopes for a more in-depth account of the Bionicle storyline than what has been covered by the webisodes are going to be rewarded! Follow the link above and click the book cover to read the excerpt for yourself!

 

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I'm kinda upset that the Protectors don't have the same names as the Turaga, but at the same time, I was kinda expecting them to have different names as well.  So... eh? :shrugs:

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Glad they have names. They seem a bit random, like Narmoto has a Japanese feel to it while others just sound different to me. I read the teaser and its nothing mindblowing, but hoping that once they get past the obligatory equipment/weapon plugs the story picks up.

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The names I actually found pretty ok. A nice amount of 'k's. Though they are kinda odd, when you relate them to the names of the past, and they seem they they don't all have a common feeling. With the old Turaga and Matoran the names were different, but all sounded like they came from the same language (though perhaps that is my nostalgia talking). These names… not so much. Still they aren't too bad. The only one I don't like is Narmoto, it just doesn't seem to fit with its neighbours.

 

The writing style isn't bad, if a little bland. I mean it's not like we should be expecting Pratchett levels of prose or anything, but still. This isn't on par with Farshtey at all (though, again, that could be my nostalgia talking).

 

Also am I the only one who laughed out loud when they first read Bingzak's name? If he is eventually going to become the new seventh Toa I really hope he changes his name...

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I know everyone's talking about the fact that the Islanders have names now, but here's something else I noticed about that excerpt: Namely, that it mentions the flippin' Mask of Time!

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I know everyone's talking about the fact that the Islanders have names now, but here's something else I noticed about that excerpt: Namely, that it mentions the flippin' Mask of Time!

Yep, the mask's role and existence has been confirmed since October, at least? I've seen people posting elsewhere that everyone's been trying to deny the Mask of Time even exists, but promotional material has been quite clear that the Protectors used the mask to summon the Toa.

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According to Eurobricks, the excerpts were randomized and supposedly Korgot the Protector of Earth is female. Which is great news because a) thank god the protectors aren't all male like we feared, and b) they're done with the frankly idiotic decision of assigning genders to tribes from Generation 1.

 

In general, when first reading this it was like an oasis after years in a desert; finally, back to an actual storyline and named characters and a modicum of complexity and sophistication! Yes, the protectors are all named! I don't mind their names, I'm just really glad they have some! And we even have some additional characters that don't appear in sets, yay the story exists beyond just selling the existing sets! After this initial euphoria, I started thinking that the writing is really poor and wooden, like a robot wrote this prose and dialogue. In fairness, Greg's early books felt like that too in terms of the dialogue etc, it might get better as the story progresses. I do hope the endless and kind of extraneous detailing of their weapons is over with soon though, I'm getting Brain Attack flashbacks.

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Great, I have been waiting for these names. It is kind of hard to have more of a story when half the characters don't have proper names. I am also glad to hear that genders are no longer tribe based.

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I also noticed the random feeling the names had, but if I remember correctly Lego used an actual language the first time, which despite contributing to a more unified feel lead to some legal issues if I remember correctly. Still, interesting. I am curious as to how this will progress, hopefully it only goes uphill from here!

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This is a totally random blessing that I'm certain was 100% unintentional and I doubt the author paid much, or any, attention to the sets whatsoever when writing the story (he probably just got descriptions and whatnot) so I really shouldn't be crediting them for this, but making Korgot female incidentally adds a little more diversity of body types to the sparse canon of female Bionicle characters. They don't all have to be lithe or whatever. Now, usually when they design a figure to be "feminine" it means it's a little more unique and effort was put into the design, which is a plus, and some figures like Mistika Gali you can guess they just designed a random robot character and slapped a name on it, but the protectors have reasonably varied/unique designs so I think it works.

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Though I'm kind of upset the Protectors don't have the same names as the Turaga, I'm glad they at least have names. I do really like their names as well. I'm not sure if I like Korgot as a name, but I'll take it. Also, Bingzak is an hilarious name, one I can't take seriously. I wish they would of spelt it as Binzak or something. I'm very excited though! :)

 

EDIT: I enjoy that Korgot's (POE's) female. And by the looks of it, there are more female characters, which is great since Gen 1 didn't have a lot of females except for the Water element (excluding Berix, Terix, and other Agori) and some other elements. 

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Its about time we learned the actual names for the Protectors. :)

 

I like the names, though I'm going to have to get used to using them for the Protectors. I've grown used to just calling them Protectors over the last few months. :P

 

As for the preview of the book, I thought it was an enjoyable read. I do wish it had a little more detail in it. But honestly, I'm just glad we have names for the Protectors now.

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Just pleased that they have names. Seems like the novel will be pretty fleshed out, though the style of it seems to be catered towards a younger audience. Very excited. 

 

-NotS

The novel is making the same mistake gen 1 bionicle did with the 2006 story arc. Its trying to be dark and grim by starting out with a protector saying all his friends have died. I can imagine a lot of kids losing interest after something like that.

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The novel is making the same mistake gen 1 bionicle did with the 2006 story arc. Its trying to be dark and grim by starting out with a protector saying all his friends have died. I can imagine a lot of kids losing interest after something like that.

Right, because as we all know, there were absolutely no mentions of tragic backstories involving the deaths of many back in the light and cheery year of 2001.

 

I haven't had the chance to give this a proper read, though I did skim though it a little.  Perhaps that's for the best; the writing style does seem to be aimed at a slightly younger audience than Greg Farshtey's work (for better or for worse), and besides I don't think I can afford to become so heavily invested in the story of Gen 2 as I was fifteen years ago with Gen 1.

 

Regardless, it's good to see that these characters have names, even if they are not the names that I've personally been used to calling the Protectors for the past seven months (i.e. the names of the original Turaga).  I was disappointed that the Protector of Water was immediately identified as male... but, if the Protector of Earth is female, then that seems to be a huge step forward for BIONICLE.  Gender diversity, at last!

 

It seems LEGO's marketing strategy this year is to give the characters easily-remembered and pronounced English names in the sets consumers, while giving story buffs (such as the majority of BZPower) something a little tastier to chew upon in the books and other supplemental materials.  An interesting choice; let's see if it works out better for them this time.  I'm sure parents are relieved that they have to look for "Protector of Fire" and "Lord of Skull Spiders" rather than try to remember bizarre names like "Turaga Vakama" and "Visorak Oohnorak".

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When I first saw the topic title, I thought it was referring to the new animation trailer. I don't know why, but now I'm late to the party.

 

As I stated on a Facebook post, I'm happy with these new names. I didn't want the Protectors to have the names of the Turaga so they weren't seen as being based on the Turaga themselves, whose time in the story was good and doesn't need further expansion in my opinion. 

 

They all sound very tribal and I highly appreciate the selection of choice chosen in the published version of this book. I also appreciate the simple style. Sure, it's not interesting, but it shouldn't confuse the target demographic.  

 

I'm excited for this book's arrival next month.

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I'm sorry to say this but the writing made me cringe. The whole structure seemed like it was smashed together. Needless to say I will still be reading that and whatever other books come out no matter how hard they are to tolerate. Hopefully it will be better when we can read the whole book.

 

Hurrah for names. Although it feels like the names were chosen by the keyboard-smash technique, I still kinda like them. Still deciding my thoughts on the whole thing.

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I just noticed that you can see the Okoto writing on the pages, does that mean we're also gonna get a translation of the Okoto alphabet?

Oh man, it would be amazing if the books had an Artemis Fowl-style coded message throughout the book... but I doubt that's the case. More likely the borders just use a stock sequence of symbols like most other instances of the Okoto runes we've seen.

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Also am I the only one who laughed out loud when they first read Bingzak's name? If he is eventually going to become the new seventh Toa I really hope he changes his name...

 

But why?What's wrong with Bingzakanuva?  :P

 

Lol, please let it happen

 

Oh man, it would be amazing if the books had an Artemis Fowl-style coded message throughout the book... but I doubt that's the case. More likely the borders just use a stock sequence of symbols like most other instances of the Okoto runes we've seen.

 

Some of them look just like the Nuva symbols.

 

-NotS

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First of all: WOOOOOOT! [ :D]

Secondly: The names sound like the ones I gave to the villagers in Okoto Online Game! [:o] [:D]

Thidly: I'm so hoping they get it available on Kindle...

 

According to Eurobricks, the excerpts were randomized and supposedly Korgot the Protector of Earth is female. Which is great news because a) thank god the protectors aren't all male like we feared, and b) they're done with the frankly idiotic decision of assigning genders to tribes from Generation 1.


I don't think the tribe = gender thing from G1 was bad at all. It made sense, seeing as they were basically designed to be robots.

That being said, I think it's an okay decision to have both genders in the tribes, seeing how they're more human like this time.


Please let it be available on Kindle... [:P]

Edited by -Windrider-
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Also am I the only one who laughed out loud when they first read Bingzak's name? If he is eventually going to become the new seventh Toa I really hope he changes his name...

 

But why?What's wrong with Bingzakanuva?  :P

 

Lol, please let it happen

 

Oh man, it would be amazing if the books had an Artemis Fowl-style coded message throughout the book... but I doubt that's the case. More likely the borders just use a stock sequence of symbols like most other instances of the Okoto runes we've seen.

Some of them look just like the Nuva symbols.

 

-NotS

 

Yeah, a second look at the first few pages reveals that they are not, in fact, a repeating pattern, which would HIGHLY suggest that they actually say something. This is exciting!

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According to Eurobricks, the excerpts were randomized and supposedly Korgot the Protector of Earth is female. Which is great news because a) thank god the protectors aren't all male like we feared, and b) they're done with the frankly idiotic decision of assigning genders to tribes from Generation 1.

I don't think the tribe = gender thing from G1 was bad at all. It made sense, seeing as they were basically designed to be robots.

 

Even if it didn't present any problems in the official story, it was definitely still a problem. And the reason for that is fan works. LEGO is about creativity. And if you're a girl who likes Bionicle, you shouldn't have to worry about the official story telling you that your Toa or Matoran self-MOC or OC can only be one of three or four different elements, all but one of which has blue as a part of its color scheme.

 

Obviously, yes, fans were free to ignore the constraints of the official story, but even setting up constraints that put limits on creativity in the first place is generally something a creative toy shouldn't be doing.

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Even if it didn't present any problems in the official story, it was definitely still a problem. And the reason for that is fan works. LEGO is about creativity. And if you're a girl who likes Bionicle, you shouldn't have to worry about the official story telling you that your Toa or Matoran self-MOC or OC can only be one of three or four different elements, all but one of which has blue as a part of its color scheme.

Obviously, yes, fans were free to ignore the constraints of the official story, but even setting up constraints that put limits on creativity in the first place is generally something a creative toy shouldn't be doing.

An interesting point, but by your logic, Lego shouldn't have made it cannon that matoran, toa, and turaga need to wear kanohi to function properly, because that puts constraints on creativity [:P] Gender-specific elements were a part of the lore of G1, along with matoran sizes, elemental colors, and specific Kanoka types, which yes, inhibit creativity in a minute way, but also stimulate the imagination to create something out of the "established normal".

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Even if it didn't present any problems in the official story, it was definitely still a problem. And the reason for that is fan works. LEGO is about creativity. And if you're a girl who likes Bionicle, you shouldn't have to worry about the official story telling you that your Toa or Matoran self-MOC or OC can only be one of three or four different elements, all but one of which has blue as a part of its color scheme.

Obviously, yes, fans were free to ignore the constraints of the official story, but even setting up constraints that put limits on creativity in the first place is generally something a creative toy shouldn't be doing.

An interesting point, but by your logic, Lego shouldn't have made it cannon that matoran, toa, and turaga need to wear kanohi to function properly, because that puts constraints on creativity [ :P] Gender-specific elements were a part of the lore of G1, along with matoran sizes, elemental colors, and specific Kanoka types, which yes, inhibit creativity in a minute way, but also stimulate the imagination to create something out of the "established normal".

 

I'm sorry, but your feeble attempt to equate mono-gender tribes with Matoran needing Kanohi doesn't work at all. Matoran, Toa, and Turaga needing to wear Kanohi serves lots of actual useful purposes in the story — it explains why they wear Kanohi at all times (instead of just in battle), explains why Matoran wear Kanohi when they can't use Kanohi powers, and gives them a concrete weakness (useful for role-play, since you can signify a character's "defeat" by taking their mask or swapping it with an infected mask or Krana). Mono-gender tribes served an extremely minor purpose by giving people a way to identify characters' gender from pictures when there were no build differences (like among most types of Matoran), but otherwise it generally had far more creative drawbacks than creative advantages.

Also, mono-gender tribes would have been slightly more bearable if there were an equal number of tribes of each gender. But as it is, it ended up feeling a bit sexist: "boys can choose from these five elements, girls are stuck with water" (or later on, "boys can choose from thirteen elements, girls can choose from five").

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I like the names, especially Nilkuu.

 

 

I'm sad that Kivoda is a guy but that means that the elements are NOT gender specific.

 

 

Vizuna sound like a feminine name to me so that moght mean that PoJ may be female! (It's just a guess beacuse I haven't been able to read up to that because certain portions of the first book seem to be based on ones device, or atleast that is how it is for me)

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Yeah, a second look at the first few pages reveals that they are not, in fact, a repeating pattern, which would HIGHLY suggest that they actually say something. This is exciting!

 

 

So exciting!

 

EDIT:

 

Not to interrupt anything, but I think I may have discovered something cool about the symbols at the top of each page.  :)

I've detailed it in my S&T thread here: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/19354-okoto-alphabet-revealed/ so won't double post.

(Sorry, couldn't get the URL-look-nicer thing to work on mobile.)

 

:o 

 

Very impressed. 

 

-NotS

Edited by Nidhiki of the Shadows

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I'm sorry, but your feeble attempt to equate mono-gender tribes with Matoran needing Kanohi doesn't work at all. Matoran, Toa, and Turaga needing to wear Kanohi serves lots of actual useful purposes in the story — it explains why they wear Kanohi at all times (instead of just in battle), explains why Matoran wear Kanohi when they can't use Kanohi powers, and gives them a concrete weakness (useful for role-play, since you can signify a character's "defeat" by taking their mask or swapping it with an infected mask or Krana). Mono-gender tribes served an extremely minor purpose by giving people a way to identify characters' gender from pictures when there were no build differences (like among most types of Matoran), but otherwise it generally had far more creative drawbacks than creative advantages.

 

Also, mono-gender tribes would have been slightly more bearable if there were an equal number of tribes of each gender. But as it is, it ended up feeling a bit sexist: "boys can choose from these five elements, girls are stuck with water" (or later on, "boys can choose from thirteen elements, girls can choose from five").

*shrugs* Maybe so, maybe not. I personally think it served a useful story purpose by implying that some elements required more refined usage, adding to the overall sci-fantasy theme, and, as you mentioned, providing a way to distinguish between otherwise gender-less builds.

 

And yes, there were a minority of female elements, but in the end, the boys get to choose from a set of bog-standard ones and the girls got the choice of a select few epic level powers. Mind control beats flames any day, and Gali practically leveled a whole island.

 

*shrugs* I see your point, but I still think it was good for G1.

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Not sure if kids would be willing to memorize the Okoto alphabet though, the fact that it's not intuitive and easy to pick up would make decoding it seem like a chore.

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