~Shockwave~

I want to echo the people wanting Korra sets. 

I've also seen Cuussoo sets for Smash Bros (I think) That would be fantastic.

@~Shockwave~

 

As the theme it was, no, it honestly wasn't very fleshed out, but if the sets were updated (after all, you couldn't expect it to have the same style of sets) and the story line had an overhaul, it could be really cool.

I think seeing mocists with no piece count do updated versions would be much better. I don't think it would fit with the new building system.

The theme itself wasn't so great but the concept it had and the possibilities for story from that core is huge, and possibly very interesting.

The same thing can be said about nearly any lego theme ever. Possibility for a story doesn't make a good story. A good story does.

Transformers is also not the same as Throwbots. Their concepts are completely different, and I don't imagine we'll be getting any million-dollar films about it (at least at first).

 

A rebooted Throwbots would honestly (theoretically) be far more tasteful to the current Bionicle fan base than HF. It has opportunity for an intense, intricate, and powerful story. And LEGO's target audience never heard of HF before it came out, and it still sold for a while. It didn't pick up a fan base though, because it wasn't interesting. If you make a fleshed-out theme out of Throwbots with memorable characters, a new group of fans is likely. Plus Ninjago was something completely new that developed its own fanbase out of nothing. And it was about spinning ninjas. Yep.

Tasteful? That's a peculiar time to use that word. And just because it's better than (for all intensive purposes) an unrelated third theme doesn't mean it's good to bring back. Besides, I think HF fits Lego's core ideals better, at least in concept.

The setting of Throwbots is a planet fiercely split into separate territories for each tribe. The arenas idea is that each faction could have its own where other fighters (or prisoners) come (or are forced) to compete.

Arena battles aren't necessary, but the idea of having constantly warring factions where their fighters compete (regardless of whether they are in an arena or not) is a very good one which could potentially be very successful.

Potential success is't really quantifiable. Basing weather or not a theme should be brought back because the theme has more "potential success" Isn't really going to get you anywhere.

I mean, Portal is about a gun that shoots holes. Minecraft is about a really low def world where you place blocks. Look at how well known those are.

And that idea has been successful. To name a few we have Transformers, Team Fortress 2, Halo Multiplayer, Star Wars, Chima, etc. That Idea isn't new, but it can be successful.

It can't be applied to Bionicle because Bionicle has already been lived out. Tons of story has been beat out from it and it has had a good run. It already had a full life and concept. Throwbots didn't, and it was because it wasn't lived to the fullest. If you take the core of that theme, add in more elements for a good plot, it could be big, and it would be a title that is less familiar, and more open to be what it wants to be rather than have to try to be what is was (or wasn't) before.

Who are you to say a story has no potential? You just said a line about robots that chuck circles has a lot of that. Besides, in general, more familiar sells better. That's why we still have CoD: Whatever. While games like FTL, Half Life and Portal Have a fraction of the sales of said game.

More elements won't automatically make a good plot. Remember, ATLA has a grand total of four.

@Chro

 

I take back what I said about it being familiar, but I wasn't talking about the raw theme itself for what it was. I'm talking about a reboot where it takes the concept, the core, and adds onto it with thoughtful and interesting elements and is treated with care. I believe something like this can be an interesting story that many can learn to enjoy and find interest in.

That can be said about almost any theme.

In general, it's less about what the story is about and more about how the story handles issues. Having a deep plot won't automatically make it more successful. 

The main idea behind some of my favorite shows, movies and video games are really strange and not immediately grabbing. It's the characters and how the story is handled that makes it great.

As my favorite author says, a good story needs to revolve around good and relatable characters. What you proposed completely misses that in favor of interesting philosophy that could be applied. If you had proposed that story to him he would have said, and I'm paraphrasing here: "That's great but what about the characters?"

Uh... Eh? I don't know. It wasn't a terribly well fleshed out theme to begin with, and I can't see it lasting for much longer then a year. Plus the building style used for them is pretty much relegated to a select group of sets now, meaning it's not likely.

And pretty much all the things you mentioned can be loosely applied to Transformers and look what we have for that on the mainstream. (I'll still argue that it could be worse but it could definitely be better.)

And it would pretty much have to carve out a new group of fans from the getgo. Lego's target audience would have never heard of it. And I only rarely see it mentioned here.

Edit: I've seen more praise for the more simplistic setting then the arena battles.

Plus arena battles get old fast, as they tend to be too structured and I don't find them fun to write outside of a few instances.

I don't see it happening, and there's more interesting things to try anyway.

 Basically anything you mentioned can be applied to Bionicle. So why throwbots?

I'm not entirely sure on that. If that where the case the Kal could have eviscerated the Toa Nuva with little more than a thought. And that wasn't what happened.

Besides, pretty much all of the elements are "OP". Which just means really none of them are. (I'm not entirely sure the term "OP" Can be justifiably used here. It's generally for multiplayer games like mobas when a character is too strong and screws up game balance.)

OKAY SO

 

I SAT DOWN AND MADE THIS VIDEO IN COMMEMORATION OF THIS DISCOVERY

 

That was something. I'm not exactly sure what kind of something but it was definitely a type of something.

 

This seems like a rather thin lead to grab on to...

 

BUT THAT'S NEVER STOPPED ME BEFORE.

 

CHOO CHOOOOOOOOOOO

This is possibly my new favorite gif.

 

Okay. How many coincidences can we have, really?

**increases internal likelihood of Bionicle returning to 70%**

 

*Facepalm* That's not how it works!

"It hasn't been proven impossible" Seems to parallel most of what I'm seeing here.

If the website thing happened at any other time, it wouldn't mean much of anything. 

I'm still skeptical.

 

Yes, but my point is that there's never been any risk of that. And given the success of lines like BIONICLE, LEGO City, LEGO Ninjago, there probably never will be any risk of that. Ever since the LEGO Group first had success with a licensed theme (LEGO Star Wars) they've been committed to creating story-driven themes like BIONICLE that they have full creative control over and don't have to pay royalties for.

 

I don't know where the idea of LEGO becoming completely license-dependent ever came from. The other big toy companies like Hasbro and Mattel have been making licensed toys for decades and it's never stopped them from making toys and telling stories based on their own original properties. Hasbro's Star Wars toys have never gotten in the way of them making new Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, or Strawberry Shortcake toys and stories.

 

And I definitely don't see how that kind of thing belongs in this topic. Why would any of the licensed themes people are suggesting here get in the way of the LEGO Group's own in-house IPs? Who's to say they wouldn't just take the place of existing licensed themes?

 

Finally, I'm sure a lot of the AFOLs and designers who build things based on existing franchises would be insulted by the notion that making things based on an existing property "lacks creativity". Do LEGO City models "lack creativity" if they're based on real-life fire engines and police cars? If not, why would basing something on a fictional franchise "lack creativity"?

 

I never specified Lego city at all. In fact, I quite agree with you about that. My point is, have Lego come up with their own ideas for storylines and sets, such as Bionicle, Hero Factory, Chima, etc., rather grab more ideas from franchises. Basing sets off culture does lack some creativity, I would agree, but if you ask me, not as much as basing their ideas off of other entertainment ideas.

 

That would imply that lego needs to create something that has no reference to anything that currently exists. Which is pretty much impossible. If you don't believe me take a look at TVtropes one time. there's lots of things that link stories to each other through common patterns. It's not bad, it's just how it works.

And basing sets on something pre-existing probably takes more creativity. Rather than lego designing the sets to be however they want they have to design it to look like something that already exists. That takes a lot of creativity. Not that the other doesn't. They may not have to create the original design, but they have to create from a pre-existing one that wasn't designed to be turned into a lego set. Not an easy thing to do. 

Staying out of arguments is significantly easier here. Not that that's stopped me until recently.

Anyways... I think that everything that's been said has already said.

The department of redundancy department sends their regards, apparently.

That is quite a lot of posts to sort through, and I probably don't have much to add. I probably could but I need to read everything before I do. So, maybe I'll have a response later or something, but this at least feels like it's worth participating in, which some just seem better to not, which is good.

That is darn impressive. It makes me think of an alien, with the four eyes and exposed "brain". And it's flame claws look like some sort of plasma cannons, which is awesome. Honestly I have no complaints, it looks really nice.

 

Can I just say that there have been so wonderfully written arguments and rebuttals in this topic that it leaves me slightly disheartened knowing that nobody's opinion has ever been changed by an internet debate.

In the end, no one will probably change their opinion, but it's never a bad thing to discuss serious subjects. Not only does it get different view points out there (this gives any viewers a broad spectrum of ideas surrounding the subject), but it also helps members learn to discuss their own views in a debate setting.

 

That said, I'd like to raise a point that Greg used to always throw back at me whenever I brought this stuff up: The idea that young boys would not like a series (or more importantly, would not buy the toys from a series) that had a large number of female characters, and that trying to market something like Bionicle to both genders would fail. How much truth is in that, do you think?

 

Honestly, I doubt that the 8-9 year old male target audience would even care or notice any difference if there were more female characters in the story line. Previously in this topic, someone mentioned that a majority of Bionicle fans probably never even attributed a gender to any of the characters anyway. I find it hard to believe that a "few" more female characters would hurt LEGO's sales, especially since there are plenty of female fans out there.

 

-Rez

 

I know I was pretty well under the target age upon getting into Bionicle, at the time none of that really bugged me. Honestly the Blue characters fascinated me just for being different than the others. But now I don't get why they even dug themselves in that hole to begin with, they could have made the villages have both genders in all of them and change almost nothing. That still wouldn't fix the main issue but it's heading in the right direction.

So while I didn't care at the time, I did notice it. So at least in my experience that's not true.

Awesome! This is very good to hear. 

I haven't tried the quiz thing. Maybe I'll do that, and I've never used the file attatchemnts, but the search flood change will be nice.

Okay, So I'm going to make a group for BZPower on Bungie, and hopefully people will start joining it. 

I don't have high hopes currently as I've heard barely a mention of it outside of my blog post and this topic.

And here we go. 

Currently it's hidden. I mght change that. dunno right now.

It looks really nice.  I like the colors and you did some nice detailing.

But those feet. If they where just bigger I would have only a few very minor complaints (Blue connectors).

Awesome! I can make a blog now!

Wait... Nevermind... 

You know, it's just not as exciting now.

Alright, I'll pm it to you when I get the E-mail. (Because lets shorten the 4 day beta by giving you the codes when it releases.)

Jawblade was what I guess one could call an impulse buy for me. I can't even say what attracted me, besides the fact that sharks are generally adorable.

I should have bought a hero to go along with the set, but I make up for it by pitting Jawblade against my Lt. Hawkeye figurine from time to time.

Adorable isn't the first word that I would use to describe a shark. Or the second. Or third.

Surge 1.0. As much as the 2.0 sets improved everything, I think that the 1.0 heroes have their own special kind of charm. Plus he had dual lightning guns and how can you say no to that. I have all but the minifig surge now.

The fact that it isn't surge is severely disappointing. That being said, It looks nice and I like it. 

But make no mistake. I'm disappointed.  (I'm mostly kidding.)

There should be a new Bionicle game for the ocular rift

Ah yes, the new toy that every kid has. Oh. Wait.... That's not right.

That would be an awful move on lego's part. A general release video game would be much better, or something like MNOG.

If HF's patterns indicate anything, any future lines would be focused on online games and mobile games. Since outside of the Lego "insert theme here" games, I can't say there's been much. Though Chima had one, as well as Ninjago But the last console game bionicle got was in 2006 I believe.

Wow, you guys are posting like crazy. I made this post and now there are like four more.

For those who aren't in the know, Destiny is a new game developed by Bungie and Activision.

While we're on the subject I still have an unclaimed beta code for the 360. So if you want to claim it go ahead.

And there is a way to make a clan on Bungie.com, if enough people are interested I'll set up a BZP one.

Wouldn't Brown and green be better for plant life? While Lewa does (or did) live in a forest, he isn't a toa of the green...

Id say about 70% likely its going to come back

On a related note, did you know that 69% statistics are made up on the spot?

Honestly, at this point, it's either going to come back in 2015 or it's not. There's not some guy sitting in his office flipping a coin to see if he should bring it back. That decision has already been made, we just don't know what that decision is yet. Or at least not solidly enough to be able to discuss it yet.

screen name is ~Shockwave~

Edited after seeing following post.

I'm not entirely sure, but I can't see there being a problem if you sent it to the news team to see what they wanted to do with it. Worst case scenario it doesn't get posted.

That game is flipping awesome. I don't think the ending was rushed at all, The Hades fight encompassed two complete levels. I also like how it loves to make fun of itself, and use fourth wall breaks to nice affect.

I still need some better weapons, I've been trying to obtain the Palutena blade and bow, but I can't seem to fulfill the requirements, no matter how fast I push through the levels.