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Hello, I have recently completed the third and fourth books in the Hero Factory Secret Mission series, Collision Course and Robot Rampage. Being Greg Farshtey's most notable contribution to Hero Factory, they bring to Hero Factory much of what made his BIONICLE writing so good. The characters feel more real and fleshed-out than they ever do in the TV show or comics, and the concepts and locations the books deal with just feel more mature. At the same time, it feels like Greg had little oversight in writing them. The books only tangentially tie into the main story, and there was only one part (when Furno's sword and shield were mentioned) that I was actually reminded of their toy forms. Aside from basic things like color, Greg doesn't describe the actual characters who exist as sets very deeply. He is more interested in describing the non-set characters or environments, which are described very well. Really, if I were reading them without knowing what the toys looked like, I would image much more human-looking or cyborg entities. It is strange to think that these books took much of the energy from Greg that would have gone to BIONICLE had that series continued. It feels like a last hurray of sorts for Greg's gift for action-adventure. The characters brood much like Vakama Hordika or Sahmad. Greg's writing almost chafes against the more kid-friendly direction HF as a whole went in, and I can find most of the books online for cheap, so it seems like the target demographic did not gobble these up the way that we consumed BIONICLE. It is unfortunate, because they really are interesting and well-written books. I am awaiting the arrival of #5, even though I already know it ends on a cliffhanger and the Galactic Conspiracy storyline goes unresolved. Based on 3 and 4, I would recommend buying these books. Especially now that Greg is no longer with LEGO, they offer a historic glimpse into a time period I would say began in earnest in 2004, when lines like Alpha Team Mission: Deep Freeze and Knights' Kingdom II were introduced alongside BIONICLE as LEGO's color-coded heroes fighting ultimate evil. If you grew up around that time, you will find the Secret Mission stories rewarding to read and nostalgia-inducing for the end of an age.

I just got accepted into graduate school. My dream program. I feel excited, and I also feel guilty for feeling excited because I'm also still mourning. None of this makes sense.

Alright, small update time! It's been a while! I haven't done many of these since my previous post. I usually take a small hiatus around October, drop everything else I'm doing to do some Halloween stuff. That didn't really happen because then I had a massive irl commission to take care of for a family friend, so this in conjunction with college and retail work left me with minimal time to work on my art (and I fear it shows in some of these lol). What was supposed to be the annual October hiatus ended up lasting until the week after Christmas. Finally getting back on the horse though! Got 10 left before the big 100! Gonna do a lot of highly requested characters, characters I should've maybe done sooner, etc. We have: Clouse and Yang, probably some of the most requested Ninjago characters so far. Sweet Mayhem from TLM2. Ava, Robin, and Merlok from Nexo Knights. Aaand I've almost finished up the main Dreamzzz roster with Night Hunter and Zoey, just need to do Mr. Oz soon!

*a virtual happyhug to the site, so hope to return here from absolutely overwhelming medical emergency recluse soon, terribly grateful for this place, being alive and the splendid strangeness of complex medical care access at last*💙🫂

COMCI 020 cridit to band member Onaku for cool tahu msask sprit)

Nacho 09/11/2005 - 01/17/2024 The best dog in the world

You had me at Ninjago, sold me at Galidor. Surprised no one's done that yet, even as a joke. (Or maybe someone has idk lol.) I don't have the parts to do any MOCs of the sort, but here's to hoping you gave someone an idea.

IC Kanohi - Po-Wahi - Forsi Kanohi hesitated at Nichou’s recounting of Stannis’s Companions, before aggressively clicking his telegraph. Nichou’s had kept a sensor listening for news of Dece? He had heard nothing, which might have been for the best, but the fact that he had kept tracks of news of that unimportant cross-wired freak of a Fe- Matoran? It made Kanohi a bit less stable. Was it too late to tell Knichou, sorry, Nichou, who Kanohi had been? Should he tell them all? Or had the opportunity passed after Aurax was exposed. Kanohi fidgeted with a mix of guilt and unease, the social situation was difficult to parse and fear overwhelmed him. Then Kanohi caught sight of something. Lapu was offering Kanohi small plants. The vigilante dipped his head in thanks, thoughtful Kapu, he had needed a distraction. He turned them over in his hands, scratching at the plants with his metal fingers, letting the juice trickle down his hands. Matoran had a lot of diversity in their anatomy, some were mostly mechanical, others leaned towards biological. Kanohi was more mechanized that most, and his mouth was … underdeveloped. He could only digest by leaching energy from food, and chewing was beyond him. As he fidgeted by scratching the fruit it released the aroma of enzymes in the air, but Kanohi found himself distracted. Aurax, Nichou, and Timak were discussing the Suva? It had been a long time since they were relevant, maybe since the Toa Mata fell. The Toa Maru had not used them as far as Kanohi knew. Though, his anxiety suddenly wondered if the Makuta’s conflict with the Maru would have been different if they had harnessed the Suva. Would they have fallen too. Or might Makuta have been defeated back then? OOC: @ARROW404 @Snelly @Rahisaurus @~Xemnas~@Lady Takanuva @Tarn @BULiK @Umbraline Yumiwa @Mel … IC Kardaka - Po-Wahi - Ostia Kardaka staggered, she only kept upright thanks to her staff. She almost slid down it, staring at the ground as her vents wheezed. Akiri Hewkii was deposed? Or had he just stepped down? And what of his replacement? Had he picked her, or was she elected? Would she be any better? How could Verak not know? She dragged herself upright and weakly asked, “I must admit this is a shock. Um, may I ask how the Koro has changed? It’s not … worse is it?” What if this Renaka had declared war on another Koro? Or had enslaved Matoran? Maybe things had gotten better? But Kardaka did not find that thought comforting. If she still did not understand how Po- Koro had become corrupted, she knew no way to prevent it from happening again. She needed to understand what happened to Hewkii and her fellows, to have ruined the Unity of the Matoran. OOC: @Visaru

My two cents as an older gen z kid: I'm a bit out of touch since I am like, a whole adult, but I do live with and take care of two younger siblings. One of the biggest IPs among kids these days is Five Nights At Freddy's. Do you all know how wild the lore of that stuff is? How obsessed kids are over the lore of these games? I think with the right marketing, Bionicle could be pulled off again, maybe even with something similar to g1, since now with the internet, it should be easier for kids to access the full lore. Again, I point to FNAF. Neither of my youngins have even played the games yet they're all over the lore. I was born a year after g1 started. I was a judgemental little kid who just saw Bionicle as the "weird" part of lego, and I don't think it helped that the lore wouldn't have been fully available to me. I was like, 8 when g1 ended. At this time, the concept of shoving an iPad with unrestricted internet access in your kid's face wasn't a thing yet, so computer time was still a special thing, so surely even if I was interested in Bionicle then, I couldn't just go online and read the serials, etc etc. So maybe it'd work out for this gen if say, instead of comics and serials, it got webisodes like a lot of toylines these days. And I don't just mean some little online animations like previous gens, I mean tell most of the story through one source, one series of webisodes, where it's all easy to access in one place. That or a full length, proper series, but again, keep it all in one place. Maybe some new little mobile games too, just like MNOG. Get those kids looking for every little easter egg in the game, use it for foreshadowing, but don't make it vital to understanding what's going on, just have it there so kids can make theories. Also like, clean up the lore a bit and don't do what g2 did lol. And trust me, even if a kid buys a toy and drops it after five minutes, if it's attached to a piece of media, they'll still be interested and will probably want more toys, and a sale is always a sale. (I mean, there are still new toylines popping up and sticking around. As a general toy collector, I've seen plenty of new franchises and reboots pop up in this decade alone that are still going and honestly, a three year run isn't too bad the more I learn about a million toylines that flopped even before the digital age.) I think there are very few things that just can't work today. Bionicle could work, but I do think Lego is to blame to an extent. Ninjago and Monkie Kid do well, they're clearly evergreen until they eventually go the way of Bionicle too. Otherwise, there's one original story/big bang theme that'll run alongside those (Chima, Nexo Knights, Hidden Side, now Dreamzz), then the sorta generic things like City and Friends. There are outliers, but I think this is a solid description of everything non-licensed. I don't know what it would take for Lego to want to revive Bionicle. I'd say the implosion of one of their other originals, but no, because those all seem to fill some sort of vital role. We have the slice of life stuff (City, Friends), the big cool action theme that can adapt to other aesthetics (Ninjago), and the new theme at the moment that's there for the kids that don't like City or Ninjago (Dreamzzz). I think Bionicle will only return if Lego feels they need that hole filled once again, but I guess currently it's occupied by those buildable Marvel figures and what have you. That said, I don't think it's completely impossible. Also, veering away from the topic of what would interest kids, I could also see Lego dropping a small Bionicle line aimed at older fans. Maybe a single set to test the waters (maybe that's what the GWP was, who knows!), but I don't think it's entirely dead nor impossible to bring back. Idk maybe I'm just talking out of my rear with a heavy dose of hopeful thinking though lol.