The 1st Shadow

I'd leave out licensed themes, as those like Marvel and DC tend to have their own multiverses, and adding them to the list of Realms would be far too confusing. City could be another realm, but I tend to think that it exists in the same world, on the same planet, since Cole once referenced Clutch Powers, and he's from LEGO City (World City). If it is the same planet, and they fall into the same canon, then that means that all the Space themes are present, all the Knights/Castle themes exist on the planet Ashlar, and so on and so forth. Nexo Knights is an odd theme, and belongs to Castle, City, and Space, and so it would need its own category. NK is a good candidate for its own Realm. The Elves theme has a character that travels from the normal world to the magical realm of the Elves, so I'd say that Elves is another good candidate. The character, Emily, could travel there from the Friends universe, and since the characters from Friends don't look like normal Minifigs, I'd bet they hail from a separate Realm, as well. So, that's three right there. Nexo Knights, Friends, and Elves. Mixels could be another Realm. Atlantis, only because the heroes had to transport themselves there using a portal. The story of the first wave would have existed in the Prime dimension, though, since the characters seem to hail from LEGO City. Pirates could be one, since Nadakhan seemed to travel across dimensions to gather his crew, and where better to collect a rag-tag band of scallywags than a Pirate world? The only other ones I can think of that might qualify are Exo Force and Hero Factory. That's: Nexo Knights Friends Elves Pirates Mixels Atlantis Exo Force Hero FactorySounds like a good bunch to me. Unless Clutch Powers was able to traverse Realms to get to Ninjago. IF that's the case, then City can replace one of those last three.

The Elemental Blades disappeared because LEGO needed a new set of collectibles to tie in to the story. They were lost to the dark powers of Plot Convenience. Honestly, there was never an in-story explanation for their disappearance. It's speculated that Wu hid them for safekeeping, possibly returning them to the Temple of Light. Or they might have been destroyed to keep them from falling into the wrong hands, since the ninja were trying to live ordinary civilian lives at that point.

This looks interesting. Not much to go off of in this first bit, so I'll save my finer commentary for the next installation.

I can help, if you still need it.

This was pretty helpful. Thanks dude. Happy to be of service.

There's that, but another thing I noticed after my original post. In FoF, the events are being relayed as they are happening through Brutaka's eyes. In Mutran Chronicles, Mutran states that he's recording his life's story while he's in Karda Nui, so he's recalling events from thousands of years before, as opposed to the mere seconds Brutaka is noting. That said, again, it's probably just different people remembering different details due to difference of vantage point and time period.

Bad advice: Watch the two Ghost Rider movies and get an idea from the Rider's flaming skull. Good advice: It depends on what exactly you're going for. If you're going for a being made of flame, then no inner detail should be necessary. If you're looking for a solid being with flames coming off their skin/armor, then my best advice (if you have somewhere to do it) would be to make a small campfire, then find a rock or something else that will last the flames, and place it in the middle of a particularly hot spot. Draw what you see, and then transfer it over to your EL drawing. That's how I taught myself to do it. But long story short, yeah, some detail should be visible, but really hazy, because intense heat can obscure many finer details.

Not a discrepancy at all. It's just the way Mutran described him. See this part: He doesn't describe the eyes very much. Just says he remembered holes. It could very well be that Tren Krom has sunken eyes, and so to Mutran's twisted mind, the holes in which his eyes are situated would have stood out in his memory. Also, Mutran doesn't tell us what happened. Brutaka does. Tren Krom actually picks up Brutaka and brings him in close, so Brutaka likely got a better look at what TK actually looks like, and was able to see his eyes where Mutran could not. Not a discrepancy, just different people seeing and remembering different details.

Small, functional, and looks pretty darn good. I can see this thing being an actual set! Nice work, as usual.

Very nice work! I love your style--dark, gritty, yet fluid and alive. I can really see the character coming out of their faces. Although, on that note, I'm having difficulty with something. In the first BoM pic, there's a red Makuta with a staff. He's wearing the pilot-mode Jutlin, making my think Antroz. But the general features plus his posture suggest Miserix. Correct?

Looks like my kindergarten art project.

Yeah, I'm good with a Le-Matoran.

Hm... I usually like to know a bit about the personality in order to give them a fitting mask. Like how Tahu was defensive and felt invincible, he was endowed with a Mask of Shielding. Matau was a jokester and a show-off, hence the Mask of Illusion. But, if you're letting us decide on what kind of character we want to see, I guess we can just decide on a mask and develop a matching personality as we go. I say we go for a Mask of Charisma or a Sanok.

Well, at the end of his post, he did ask about it, so I answered.

Pretty neat and cohesive summary of Toa anatomy. The only discrepancies I noticed were few and minor. First one is the digestive system. In a few of the books (mainly around 2004), is was implied that Rahi can excrete their food in the more commonly known way that we're all familiar with. If that is the case, I don't see why it couldn't apply to sapient beings in the MU. However, those references were very vague. Considering that the GBs modeled their creations after the Glatorian and Agori, whose anatomy is very similar to ours, it would make sense for them to employ similar waste-removal systems, if they were, in fact, necessary. Secondly, the brain thing. I assume you're getting the "crystalline structure" idea from the appearance of the parts used in the sets. That is mostly to allow for the function of letting light through and making the eyes appear to glow. We've never been explicitly told what a Toa/Matoran's brain is like, whether it be organic, completely technological, or a cyborg component. I personally lean more toward an organic/computer hybrid, as it would fit with the general nature of the characters to begin with. Third, masks don't get their powers from runes. In fact, only two masks in canon are known to have runes carved into them: The Avohkii, and the Mask of Creation. All other masks get their power from the purity level of the protodermis used to craft them. Fourth, the number of Matoran fingers. "Usually have three or two fingers?" Uh, no. The movies and some passages in the books would dictate otherwise. They should all have 5 digits on each hand, barring accidents or mutations. Lastly, the spine thing. The Skakdi were of a different design, and so the Pit Mutagen affected them differently. Their spines feature large spikes that protrude from their backs, something not seen in Toa or Matoran. That design doesn't necessarily need to be consistent throughout all species in the MU. Other than that, you're good. Excellent work!

Look over it closely. If it says "LEGO" anywhere on it, it may be a prototype. If it doesn't have the usual copyright markings anywhere, then it's a fake.

Oh, and to answer the original question, no. Pohatu will always be the Toa of Stone. We love him too much to allow that. Unless the Environments route is taken, then everyone changes, and I see no harm in that. Firstly, "environments" restrict the addition of more characters if Lego would decide to go that route at any point. There's only 6, maybe seven environments to go with. Second, just changing the elemental roster solves this problem with far less complication; if their powers are designed to all be different, there's nothing to question. Third, making Pohatu a Toa of Iron wouldn't do anything harmful to him, no more than making Lewa a Toa of "Jungle" harms him. Thought: There could be a lot of environments. Tunnels (the Maze, the Underworld), Sky, Jungle, Volcano, Desert, Undersea (the Depths), Glacier, City, Storm. These could tie to Earth, Air, the Green, Fire, Stone, Water, Ice, Iron, and Lightning, respectively. The idea that each Toa has the power of a certain environment is only as limited as one's imagination when coming up with said environments. Going this way of thinking, I would like to think Light and Shadow would be two different sides of a Star environment - the radiant Light of a supernova and the Shadows of a black hole. Maybe... but metal cities or an environment surrounded by constant storms (let alone space-based environments) would generally feel less grounded in the context of a primitive island culture than biomes like volcanoes, deserts, caves, or snow-covered mountains. So while those sorts of environments work in a more overt sci-fi theme like Throwbots/Slizers, they'd be harder to reconcile with the general tone that both Bionicle G1 and G2 have started with. The point is that there are options for having powers based on environments rather than specific elements. They wouldn't have to use more than the usual six unless they felt a serious need to. Tahu = volcanoPohatu = desertOnua = undergroundLewa = jungleGali = oceanKopaka = tundra and ice-covered mountainThe other suggestions were meant to include powers like Gravity (space) and Iron (city), but again, there's no need to actually use them unless it was absolutely necessary.The standard six work perfectly.

I would imagine that something like this should go on your personal page or in your signature. But I guess that depends on what exactly you're asking. Are you wanting to pay someone to build a MOC of Alteridaxand send it to you? If so, then yes, here is probably acceptable. If you're just asking someone to build one and show it off on here, then the signature thing is your best bet.

Wrong. Faber and Farshety confirmed that the giant robot thing was planned from the very beginning. The writers knew that. A background character even says the line "he's a giant robot" after Hahli makes her speech towards the end. Neither of them were writers for the film. They may have made general contributions to the narrative but the nitty-gritty dialogue was not their own. Unless Greg or Bob Thompson or someone on the actual story team made the "Mata Nui is a giant robot!" thing clear to whoever wrote the screenplay, there's no reason to assume the twist had any real bearing on the film's plot. Greg was a consultant for the script. He reviewed the whole thing. But not just him. There were other members of the story team that were heavily involved in every aspect of the movies. Didn't you watch the extras on the DVDs? Robot was planned from the beginning, but they couldn't explicitly say so back then because it would have spoiled it. I named Greg and Faber because they confirmed that the robot was planned from the beginning, 2 years before the movie began production. Timeline time! 1. Bionicle concept is developed, including the "MN is a giant robot" part 2. sets are developed and story is fleshed out 3. 2001 4. 2002/production of movie begins 5. 2003/movie is released 6. prequel arc 7. Ignition arc 8. Robot is revealed to the rest of the world Clear?

Wrong. Faber and Farshety confirmed that the giant robot thing was planned from the very beginning. The writers knew that. A background character even says the line "he's a giant robot" after Hahli makes her speech towards the end. Had 2003 ended the way they would have originally planned, we would have seen the GSR rising up at the end of Mask of Light. On the "duty is to the mask of shadows" bit, since I didn't address it before, it could mean any number of things. As was already suggested, the Kraahkan is the symbol of the Makuta, and so he could have meant that he was doing the task his race was assigned to. However, a wildly different perspective comes into play when you read the novelization. In the book, Teridax says "my duty is to the shadows." No hint of a mask. In this context, he's specifically referring to himself and the other Makuta, since they are the most common bearers of the element of Shadow.

Most of that dialogue was written before the rest of the story was fleshed out, for one thing. Originally, LEGO had planned Bionicle just like any other theme, with a projected lifespan of three years. In the original concept, defeating Makuta would awaken Mata Nui. So, in the context of that original plan, when the screenplay was written, it would have made more sense. After they decided to keep it going for a lot longer, we saw things from a whole new perspective, and that bit of dialogue doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That said, Teridax was mainly mocking Takanuva, trying to make him question things and hesitate. Teridax perceived Mata Nui's ignorance of his people to be worthy of punishment, in a really messed up sense. Also, Teridax needed Mata Nui to die, at least long enough for his spirit to leave his body so that Teridax could take over. For that to happen, MN's health had to deteriorate, and Teridax had been monitoring that to the best of his abilities. So, he was protecting the part of his Plan that involved Mata Nui. If the Toa woke him up too soon, his Plan would fail. In that context, the line makes more sense. The "suffering" part was just him being deceptive and dramatic.

I have to agree with most of the points brought up by the 'Chirs. After the flop of G2, I don't see LEGO putting any money on a Bionicle movie. As much as I would love to see the line given the screen time that it deserves (such as the Ignition arc), it's not likely to happen unless a future reboot does an outstanding job in terms of story, sets, and sales. Alternatively, we could just wait until 2021or sometime thereafter, as I know one Hollywood director that seems to have a thing for taking awesome childhood franchises and turning them into decent/tolerable films that make a ton of money regardless of how overused his explosions are. Of course, if Bay were to do to Bionicle what he already did to Transformers and TMNT, I think maybe we can look to him as a desperate last resort.

And I'm so very glad of it. Way to make your presence known with a BANG! The flow of color on this thing is beautiful. The shaping is great, and for all the detail, doesn't look cluttered. Excellent job! I hope to see more from you in the future.

Complete and in top condition, I'd say the Toa Mata (original Toa) are more valuable. The Nuva, for reasons I don't know, get overlooked from time to time.

Happy birthday, Mr Nuva!