Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Maybe it's because I'm looking at this from an elding fan's perspective, but I sort of feel like there was a huge opportunity wasted when we never got any sets, (Toa, Matoran, Turaga or whatever other species adhere to the elements) of any other elements aside from the "big 8".

 

The "big 8", are obviously supposed to mean the six main Toa elements, as well as Light and Shadow.

 

OK, this isn't entirely true, in the Bara Magna story years we got Gresh, Vastus, Sahmad and Telluris. However, that seems like too little, too late, and Gresh and Vastus still got air powers anyway.

 

How cool wouldn't it have been to have an actual main storyline Toa team in which all of them are of other elements?

 

Looking back, I think the best opportunity for this would've been the Voya Nui/Mahri Nui storyline. To use some recognition, they could've used Krakua, and have had the OoMN gather other Toa from across the universe to set out and stop the Piraka (which also didn't have to be the six main elements)

 

Heck, why not make the Voyatoran (Garan, Piruk, etc.) into other elements?

 

What do you think?

BZPRPG Profiles

Nuparu-Ferron-Mar-Zelvin-Wiremu-Farzan-Mako-Krex-Tamachan-???

Akiri Nuparu Posts:

1. 2. ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe it's because I'm looking at this from an elding fan's perspective, but I sort of feel like there was a huge opportunity wasted when we never got any sets, (Toa, Matoran, Turaga or whatever other species adhere to the elements) of any other elements aside from the "big 8".

 

The "big 8", are obviously supposed to mean the six main Toa elements, as well as Light and Shadow.

 

OK, this isn't entirely true, in the Bara Magna story years we got Gresh, Vastus, Sahmad and Telluris. However, that seems like too little, too late, and Gresh and Vastus still got air powers anyway.

 

How cool wouldn't it have been to have an actual main storyline Toa team in which all of them are of other elements?

 

Looking back, I think the best opportunity for this would've been the Voya Nui/Mahri Nui storyline. To use some recognition, they could've used Krakua, and have had the OoMN gather other Toa from across the universe to set out and stop the Piraka (which also didn't have to be the six main elements)

 

Heck, why not make the Voyatoran (Garan, Piruk, etc.) into other elements?

 

What do you think?

This idea has been circulating in my head for a while. Maybe I would write an epic about it if only I can stop procrastinating.

8% of the people epically wins with comic making. If you are the 92% that fails at it, copy and paste this into your sig

100% of people here are humans. If you are somehow a matoran, pate this in your sig.

http://www.bzpower.com/board/index.php?showtopic=9187

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought that the elements outside the big 8 weren't planned by the story team to begin with and just were a fan thing. I didn't even know that those elements existed until I joined BZPower, even though I had been a Bionicle fan for five years before that and read all the official story I was aware of.

 

So perhaps why the elements were really featured in story was that most mainstream fans didn't know about them, and Lego would have been accused of pandering to BZP at the expense of the broader fanbase, which were only familiar with the standard eight. Or the set designers at Lego weren't even aware that this option was available to them - I doubt they were tracking this place for set-making ideas.

 

There's also storyline constraints to consider, mostly the matter of character recognition. We knew Matoran of characters of the standard 8 elements, and we wanted character development (at least I did). So it makes sense to bring characters we knew into a new situation, rather than completely detaching us from we knew (2009 Bara Magna tried that - no dice). Which means we got a new of six-standard element characters, because that's what we knew.

 

Also, not all of those elements were canonized by 2006. Can't use in story what you don't know about.

 

With all that said, I think those unusual elements should be used in a Bionicle return, if it happens. It's a good potential reserve that hasn't been tapped, even though Lego has had good reasons for not tapping it yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the very least I would definitely like to see more air time for the newer elements, especially The Green. That's why I enjoy The Yesterday Quest.

If you use correct grammar in your posts (or try hard to), place this in your signature. Join Myst's campaign for correct grammar usage on BZPower!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it was mainly a matter of a strong tradition set in the minds of the average target-age kid, who only knows the bios from the catalogs and maybe a bit else, and thinks of Bionicle as literally equalling "stories about heroes with these six elemental powers". At the time, there simply was no big push for other elements. This really wasn't thought of until around the time when they actually did so with the Glatorian.

 

However, they did have the Toa of Light, so to argue that it's really a "big eight" (nevermind for now the nitpick that Shadow wasn't even a Toa element under normal circumstances) kind of misses the point. By that reasoning, if they had done a team like the Yesterday Questers in main storyline, we could just add those to the "big" count and still complain that the other established elements weren't used. You have to keep yourself in the shoes of the fans at the time, and much ado had just been made in the storyline about "the seventh Toa!" so frankly to do another unusual element that soon would have made that feel overused.

 

By the time it didn't feel so old, and with a way to put a new twist on it, they did branch out, as you say. This isn't really "too little too late" but "right on time." :)

 

All that said, I do wish we'd get to see TYQ finished so we could see more time spent on them, at least. Because in that case it is clearly no longer on time, unfortunately -- but better late than never. We can hope, at least.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Krakua existed since 2005 in Time Trap, and later a MOC contest was held to determine his features, so technically he is a set, just not one that was released. Jovan, a Toa of Magnetism, was released as a combo of Hewkii, Hahli, and Nuparu. If you look at the storyline, no character ever had the element of Gravity, Plasma, or (except on Spherus Magna), The Green, these elements were just mentioned i.e. Alteridax and Mazaeka looking over a village of dead Ba-Matoran.

CHECK OUT MY BIONICLE-THEMED BAD LUCK BALTA ON TWITTER

 

https://twitter.com/BadLuckBalta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree completely, Geardirector.Another mention of a different element, by the way, was the Toa of Plasma that Zaktan murdered. I remember being six or seven years old and trying to figure out what powers he'd have. :lol:

Krakua existed since 2005 in Time Trap, and later a MOC contest was held to determine his features, so technically he is a set, just not one that was released.

You're right. Just saying, though, canonized representation =/= set. :P

save not only their lives


d665fa5c17bc200a946e0a69eaf11f929dc080cb


but their spirits

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(nevermind for now the nitpick that Shadow wasn't even a Toa element under normal circumstances)

 

I never said it was, but I included it because we did get a sizable number of makuta eventually.

Edited by Geardirector

BZPRPG Profiles

Nuparu-Ferron-Mar-Zelvin-Wiremu-Farzan-Mako-Krex-Tamachan-???

Akiri Nuparu Posts:

1. 2. ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that typically Bionicle would always have 6 main colors as the sets usually (Red, Blue, Green, Brown, White, and Black) Even though in 2009 they did stray away from the typicall elements, I'd love to see some toa of iron, gravity, and the green pop in as sets. :)

They started mixing colors in different ways later on in the line, so it don't see it as far-fetched that we could have eventually gotten a Toa of Lightning (blue and white), Toa of Plasma (orange and white), Toa of Iron (any metal color plus yellow, orange, etc), Toa of Plant Life (green and blue, or similar), Toa of Sonics and Magnetism (silver/grey and black)... and so on.Gravity might have been a problem with the lack of purple in any set whatsoever, but most of the other colors should be ready to roll out while still fitting the red/blue/green/white/black/stone color lineup.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Voya Nui would have been a good time to introduce Matoran of the other elements, but as far as I can recall, we didn't have six or more "alternative" elements back then, and there wasn't a good reason to break from the formula. Another thing is that Matoran don't have elemental powers, so we wouldn't get to see those elements in action for another few years, assuming we still had Jaller and Co becoming Toa in 2006.

 

I don't think the target audience would be all that annoyed if the elements were shaken up a bit- probably the exact opposite, in fact. The colours of the elements would probably need to be mixed up a bit, just so we got enough variation in the set design.

 

Something like:

Iron- Grey and red.

Plant life- Green and blue

Psionics- Blue and gold

Lightning- White and blue

Gravity- Black and purple

Sonics- Yellow and black (?)

 

Most of those are canon, I just altered a couple of them to make them a bit more colourful and "toyetic".

 

Of course, that particular combination of elements presents a much greater threat to the delicate balance of the Bionicle universe... there are two female elements in there! The horror!

3DS Friend Code: 0018-0767-4231

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought it would be cool if the Voya maroran beacame toa. I even made MOCs of them but that was before the Velika thing. :(

Velika still became a Toa in an alternate universe.Anyway, that's really off-topic...

Until it was confirmed otherwise, I always thought there were Matoran of other elements in, say, Metru Nui, just not seen in-story. Oh well. :lol:

save not only their lives


d665fa5c17bc200a946e0a69eaf11f929dc080cb


but their spirits

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another theory about why Lego didn't branch off into other elements as much is that those elements have already been used in other works of fiction recently, whereas those "traditional elements" weren't touched on as much. It's sort of one of those things that made Bionicle unique.

 

For example, Psionics - the whole mind-control and telekinesis thing has had a lot of representations, even in Bionicle. Also, electricity and lightning - the example that comes to mind is Thor...etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, there were at least five canon non-main eight elements in 2005, Gravity, Plasma, Magnetism, Sonics and Electricity. The Bohrok-Kal had those elements, so LEGO could just say that Toa could have them too, (which they eventually did.) The Green was also first mentioned around this time, so here is what a chart of colors could be.

 

Black: Gravity

Red: Plasma

Brown/Yellow: Magnetism

White: Sonics

Blue: Electricity

Green: The Green

 

I put Magnetism to fill the spot of Brown/Yellow because all the other spots were filled. I think it would have been nice if the Inika had their elements changed, and had to adapt to them along with their new masks and Toa bodies.

I used to have a banner here.



But that RPG is dead.



What now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take Lesovikk, for example, why did he have to be a Toa of Air?

As unfortunate as that is, it does make statistical sense within the story as established, since it was stated that the six main elements (in both Matoran and Toa) are far more numerous than the others. We had Jovan (though as a combiner) the year before, so it might seem odd and "forcing things" to have another lesser element that much in the spotlight just one year later.

Still, I agree we as fans would have "forgiven" the statistical unlikelihood (after all, that happens sometimes :P) and would have liked it better, so it is still probably a wasted opportunity.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...