Toa Zaz

Thank you all for your replies! I edited the first post to include a working link to a readable version of the script, instead of a downloadable file. Here's the new link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zbQpbwzuNKUJY0A36CWi1PqEhv3yDGGw/view?usp=sharing Thanks so much for suggesting that! I don't think that would necessarily be the best approach since stop-motion animation is very different than the Miramax animation style. But thanks for your interest! Thanks so much! Thanks so much! It was a fun challenge but not as difficult as it might have been, because I had envisioned ahead of time that certain aspects of the story (Chamber of Nightmares, Umbra, almost all of Karzahni, etc) would have to inevitably be skipped over. I started by making a list of absolutely essential scenes; then after writing those, I decided what to add with the remaining room. The hardest part was finding a way to keep necessary exposition or character moments that was from a scene I cut out, and doing it without straying very far from what Greg wrote. Also, here are a few rough sketches related to the project: Rough unfinished sketches of Matoro as a Matoran, Balta, and Avak. Attempt to draw Matoro and Hakann in the Miramax style- the torsos are what got redesigned the most. I realized afterwards that I forgot to draw Hakann's tail. All of this stuff is basically a suggestion of ideas that can be changed; I tried giving Matoro simplified thigh armor to look like the Toa Metru in the movies and "bellbottom ankles" to look like both the Metru from the movies and the Inika from Bionicle Heroes, but now I think it would be better to have both of those parts stick closer to the appearance in the set. Figuring out the Piraka torso. The set piece is very gappy, so wanted to close the gaps and include visible muscle tissue while preserving the overall shape. Figuring out the two Inika torsos. The torso for Matoro, Hewkii, and Nuparu I thought could be redesigned to have a similar shape and mobility to the Toa's torsos in the Miramax movies, but the torso armor for Jaller Kongu and Hahli had to be pretty different than the Miramax torsos, or else they wouldn't adequately resemble the set designs. So I was trying to figure out how to preserve the set design while capturing the "physics" of the Miramax bodies. In the Miramax movies, what moves are the joints and pistons, the armor shells move minimally and should also allow space for the characters to bend down etc; compared to the Legend Reborn style, in which the actual set piece bends and stretches. A rough sketch for the flipping function of the Piraka's weapons.

Hey thanks for your reply! Sorry it's a long post! Don't need help but wanted to ask in case anyone might want to collaborate in any way on making more stuff based around the idea of "what if there was a fourth Miramax movie, for the 2006 storyline?" And if not no problem of course, I also wanted to just share what I've been working on!

Hello! My name is Jackson. I go by Toa Zaz here and on TTV Message Boards. I've been a Bionicle fan since I was 6 years old- still love it- and I'm always in awe at the breathtaking creativity and undying passion that the Bionicle fan community continues to show. This topic is to share some stuff I've been working on, and also a pitch to see if anyone might be interested in collaborating to take this further. So many of us over the years have imagined what it would have been like if Lego had created a Bionicle movie for the 2006 storyline. A HUGE inspiration for me was Tohkann, Toa of Arts' incredible work; I remember his awesome Rebirth Chronicles videos, and since then he's done stunning animations and 3d modeling of 2006 and 2007 in the Miramax style (YouTube) (DeviantArt) As a fun writing challenge, I tried to create a script for this, taking four 100+ page Bionicle Legends books written by Greg Farshtey (who of course is just brilliant and a truly fantastic writer) and compressing them to 76 pages in screenplay format (according to the rule of thumb that 1 age = 1 minute of screentime, Web of Shadows is 76 minutes). Link to the script: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zbQpbwzuNKUJY0A36CWi1PqEhv3yDGGw/view?usp=sharing I used WriterDuet, a free screenwriting software, to get the proper formatting. I've gone through several drafts, added stuff in and taken stuff out, trying to keep the essentials and have the whole plot make sense, and tried to avoid having any more deviation from the books than the difference between the 4 official movies and the corresponding books/comics. I then took one of the scenes from the script and storyboarded it- 100 panels, starts on page 64 of the script. I've become fascinated with the storyboards for the Miramax movies (thanks, BioMedia project!), with their strange human-like faces; it feels like rewatching the same story through a very different lens. And there are great YouTube videos where people put the storyboards and a finished scene side-by-side: Legends of Metru Nui - credit to Emily on YouTube. Web of Shadows - credit to La Voix d'Ekimu on YouTube. So I thought it'd be cool to take the storyboards I made and edit them into a video and add audio: Bionicle 4 pitch video with storyboards All music is taken from Nathan Furst's magnificent score for the trilogy. Voices are self-performed. Sound effects are either taken from the trilogy, self-created, or Creative Commons 0 (meaning they can be used without permission of their creator). Last, I made a mock DVD cover using Krita, at the top of this post. Reference drawing: There were some specific choices for adapting the character designs to the Miramax style: Jaller's arm was based on the arms in CrazyTAC's incredible entry for the Toa Hagah canon contest. . The Piraka's flipping weapons are a main feature in the set (and also described in Legends #3 when Hakann's launcher flips backwards and fires). I was looking for a way to represent that while giving them clawed hands. I thought of the Inquisitor lightsabers from Star Wars. For the Piraka, I imagined there's a little thumb switch (out of view in the DVD cover) that the Piraka can hit and the whole weapon flips up or down; I've done some rough sketches of the various buttons/triggers for each Piraka's weapon. For this to work and to eliminate the hole/gap in the Piraka's left arms, some of the weapons had to be redesigned slightly; for example, the protrusion at the top of Thok's ice gun now retracts inwards when it flips up. EDIT: Forgot to mention, the rubberized grips on the weapons were inspired by the brilliant Miramax-style Toa Mahri Matoro created by the incredibly talented Tohkann. I adapted the cross axle in the Piraka's heads to be Frankenstein-like bolts with creepy veins sticking outwards. This was to fit the less set-like Miramax style, and also because as Skakdi, the Piraka are canonically unstable dangerous science experiments of Makuta Spiriah. . I based Avak off the prototype, as an homage to how many character designs in the Miramax movies were based on different-looking prototypes, and because a lot of fans really like the prototype Avak design. For the Zamor launchers, I tried to stylize it to not look exactly like the set, like the Miramax films did for the Kanoka and Rhotuka. I had the idea of the Zamor spheres, which in the canon are crystal, looking like a crystal ball instead of a true sphere. I made the flex-axle straight to appear "taught"; I thought it could have an appearance like a real-world crossbow, although the functionality would be more like a slingshot. I gave Avak's launcher a stock- I thought it looked kind of cool, would be easy to MOC, and would be practical for aiming a powerful single-hand weapon- but then I realized it wouldn't work against the Inika's thicker wrists, so maybe we shouldn't include it (everything here is just a suggestion). For the Inika launchers, I thought since the Matoran Resistance built them, they have limited resources and would care much more about getting the launchers operational ASAP than their appearance (unlike Avak who has more of an artist's ego), the colors of the components would be a little random and jumbled. And I made the colors of the Inika's Zamors the same as the Energized Protodermis as depicted in Mask of Light. I definitely don't want to stop here- I plan to do more art and stuff related to this project. I welcome all feedback and critiques- my hope here is to make something for the community and as a tribute/thank you to Greg Farshtey and the rest of the creatives who brought us so much happiness. And I'm now looking to see if anyone would be interested in collaborating. This could be something like making more 2006 art in Miramax-style, or more storyboard stuff; or it could be something like 3d modeling or animation, which I have no ability to do but there are incredibly talented people in the Bionicle fan community who have done amazing stuff like that. If no one's interested, then of course that's totally fine. And if people are interested but cannot contribute due to limited time/availability, or due to commitment to the Renaissance of amazing Bionicle fan projects in development right now, completely understand. And in that case, what I would do then is just work on storyboarding the entire film myself. But if anyone is interested in collaborating, I would absolutely love to do so. Let me know! Anyway, thank you so much for reading this super-long post! Have a great day! Script attached below: BIONICLE 4 Island of Doom draft 6 2-3-24.pdf

Gorgeous! Reminds me of the poisoned Hau Nuva of course, but also of the description of Matoro becoming "little sparkles of light" in Downfall.

image3024×4032 2.54 MB Fun little project made using 3.5" square Melissa & Doug scratch cards. image3024×4032 2.95 MB These cards were great, except for the annoying dark purple color stripe, which defeated the purpose since it didn’t contrast with the black surface; I had to orient each card to predict and minimize the dark stripe’s impact on each mask drawing. But aside from that issue, the cards were quite nice. For the G1 Mask of Creation (phenomenally designed by @Perp3tual ), the wooden stylus was not fine enough to capture the subtle detail, so I used a toothpick: image3024×4032 3.32 MB I also used as reference the gorgeous photos by @Bukkey of a polished version of @Galva_Nize’s fantastic 3d print of Perp3tual’s design. The table includes almost every canon G1 Kanohi. There were a couple of conscious exclusions: Takutanuva’s Mask of Light and Shadows- only ever shown in the movie form, which is inconsistent with the set forms of the Avohkii and Kraakhan. Movie edition Kraakhan - non-canon, I believe. The Ignika on the back of Vezon’s head- it wasn’t fully clear to me where the mask starts and Vezon’s head ends, and depicting Vezon’s entire head attached to it would be overly distracting and out-of-place in my opinion. Bionicle Heroes/Voya Nui Online Game Ignika - on the wiki, the source that it’s a canon form is missing a citation. Bionicle Stars Hau - I drew the Hau from the front since that’s the iconic depiction, and from the front it’s the same shape as the 2001 mask. Miserix’s Mask of Mutation- the wiki considers his shapeshifted dragon form to be a canon form of the mask, but the size/scale of the dragon’s head, as well as not being clear what is the mask versus what is the head (if any of it constitutes a mask- a Makuta could shapeshift into a maskless creature), made me decide not to do it. The various “unknown Kanohi”. The Mahri Nui Matoran in the Cord were drawn so small that I would not be able to do those mask designs justice, so I decided a good cut-off was to only do the masks with assigned powers. Anyway, thanks for checking it out. It was fun to make.

Thank you so much, everyone! So I drew up a sketch of hypothetical costume pieces on top of my body proportions, and I decided that a full-body Brutaka costume would look good/cool. So I'm going to go forward with it. Hoping to get started soon, in order to have enough time to get it really accurate; goal is to have it finished by next July or so. Afterwards, I am hoping to do Hydraxon. Who, aside from his feet (which I'd probably have to cheat on a bit) is also very humanoid- even more so than Brutaka. If my Brutaka sketch didn't look good, I'd have done Hydraxon instead. When I get around to doing him, my goal is to have it super smooth and refined, compared to the slightly rougher quality of the Brutaka mask (I'm still learning how to best cut and glue foam etc). Beyond that, it'd be awesome to do at least the mask of the Olisi; I think it would have more of a traditional Halloween mask look. My craftsmanship definitely isn't good enough yet to pull it off well, but in the future I'll get better. A movie-style Metru Vakama or Lhikan would be extremely ambitious (the characters are so smooth and metallic looking, have to get the details spot-on for it to be recognizable). But it's doable, TheMrOrangeContinuum on Deviantart made an amazing movie-style Vakama costume: https://www.deviantart.com/themrorangecontinuum/art/Bionicle-Vakama-Cosplay-767338122

Thank you so much!

Hi! So I'm posting several large, wearable Kanohi masks that I've made over the years, as well as a full-body Vezon cosplay. I should have posted these (all but the latest one) years ago; the reasons I didn't were a mix of not feeling 100% happy with how they turned out, lacking internet access for a stretch of time in 2016, and also just foolishly not prioritizing doing so. But better late than never. Anyway: 1. Kanohi Olmak This is my latest, which I just completed earlier this month. It is made of foam. Glued together with a mix of industrial-strength glue (for the main shape), and hot glue for the smaller details. I covered it with white plasti-dip spray, then spray-painted it with a really great metallic gold. It's not perfect but I am still really, really happy with how it turned out. The metallic gold paint in particular really looks awesome. At first I didn't know where to start, because the curved shapes did not make it obvious to me about how to reproduce the shape with foam pieces. The "eureka" moment was to take two sillhouettes of the mask (from the front and from the side) and slide them together; from there I was able to figure out the rest. I was able to attend San Diego Comic Con this year. I stopped by Stuart Sayger's table to show him this mask. He is just the nicest guy ever, so friendly, and you can truly feel his love for Bionicle. He actually signed the inside of my mask! Unlike the others I made, I think I actually made it the right size to cover my whole head while still being the correct shape (e.g. not "stretched" to be tall). My original intent was to make a full Brutaka costume; unlike many other characters, I think Brutaka lends himself really well because his proportions are fairly humanoid. But when I finished the mask, I became worried that it was too big compared to my body; I didn't want the Brutaka costume to look bobble-headed. But after looking at myself wearing it, I decided that the size is good enough. So now my plan is to go ahead with the full costume; my goal is to have it completed by July 2023. 2. Vezon costume ^At Brickfair, 2019 I think. This one was very ambitious, but I thought Vezon lends himself well to a costume; I could make the main body just black and still look good, and the cape would look cool. The problem was that I made the mistake of scaling the entire head around my glasses, when I should have scaled it around my own head, so while the head looked very good on its own, it ended up way too big. Oh well. Overall I'm really happy with it. I also made the eyes light up- I'm proud of being able to pull this off, and I think it looks great. The teeth are also painted to glow-in-the-dark; you can't see it with this picture, but they glow really well. San Diego Comic Con 2019 was when I first met Stuart Sayger (who, again, could not be a nicer guy). He signed the inside of the head! 3. Kanohi Kraahkan ^(The poster on the wall is an awesome fan-designed Bionicle poster from Redbubble. I would credit the artist, but I don't actually know who made it, the poster was a gift). Made in 2016. This one I did not make on my own, I made it in collaboration with a wonderful friend and mentor. He is a cosplay expert, so it was much more refined than the others I made, with beautifully smooth edges using a dremel he has. It was made of thicker foam sheets, and painted with black plasti-dip. I think it was the exact right size needed to cover my entire head; but given the unusual and inhuman shape of the Kraahkan, it had to be pretty large. It has two inner straps, so it can be worn as both sides/configurations of the mask. It was originally much more curved, but over the years, gravity has made the sides become overly straightened compared to the Lego piece. This is something I could probably fix with a heat gun. I also did a giant Great Kanohi Ruru in 2013. Unlike the others, it was made of cardboard and black duct tape, with transparent green cellophane in the eye holes. I wore it to San Diego comic-con, and also Brickfair Virginia, in 2013. Unfortunately, I cannot find any photos of it, and it is currently not intact (cut off the sides to mail it home, and I don't have black duct tape to repair it). It was way way too big, but other than that I was very happy with how it turned out. Anyway, every time I make one of these I learn a lot more and improve in certain ways. I am really excited to do more in the future, specifically the full Brutaka costume!

Crowdfunding for the Bricklink Designer entry opened this morning. And, unfortunately, Bionicle is right now in 6th place out of 7- only the first 5 to reach 3,000 will get produced. But there is still time left to achieve 5th place! Spread the word among other Bionicle fans and communities!

Bionicle fans! Right now Bionicle is in 6th place, and if #5 gets funded first, it's over, they won't produce the set. But #5 is still less than 1/3 of the way funded, so there is still a big opportunity for Bionicle to outpace it! Spread the word to fellow Bionicle fans and communities!

Bionicle fans! Right now Bionicle is in 6th place, and if #5 gets funded first, it's over, they won't produce the set. But #5 is still less than 1/3 of the way funded, so there is still a big opportunity for Bionicle to outpace it! Spread the word to fellow Bionicle fans and communities!

Bionicle fans! Right now Bionicle is in 6th place, and if #5 gets funded first, it's over, they won't produce the set. But #5 is still less than 1/3 of the way funded, so there is still a big opportunity for Bionicle to outpace it! Spread the word to fellow Bionicle fans and communities!

Bionicle fans! Right now Bionicle is in 6th place, and if #5 gets funded first, it's over, they won't produce the set. But #5 is still less than 1/3 of the way funded, so there is still a big opportunity for Bionicle to outpace it! Spread the word to fellow Bionicle fans and communities!

So, right now Bionicle is in 6th place, and if #5 gets funded first, it's over, they won't produce the set. But #5 is still less than 1/3 of the way funded, so there is still a big opportunity for Bionicle to outpace it! Spread the word to fellow Bionicle fans!

From Chimp on Eurobricks commenting about the City set:

A Lego baby (besides Maggie)?!?!?! And a minifigure in a wheelchair?!?!?! Those are both extremely welcome additions to add variety to the minifigure canon, thanks Lego. Now we need actual non-white non-licensed characters... Architecture capitol building looks nice but will undoubtedly be ridiculously overpriced... The Spider-Man bridge set looks nice but also very expensive. I'm not even a Technic fan but that Porsche looks gorgeous. Will reserve judgement on the Bionicle sets until we get better pics (annoying that it gets lets coverage than the other themes). Glad that the Mask of Creation is recolored fully trans-blue instead of blended with gold, though, actually I'm really glad about the set designers being a little bold and making Ekimu's trans blue so dominant in his color scheme, Tahu has made me tired of gold. I hope at one of these Toy Fairs we get pictures of any new Star Wars constraction figures (since I heard there might be more coming out later this year).

I haven't trusted Lego since they cancelled Bionicle in 2010. If they hadn't cancelled Bionicle back then, then I strongly doubt it'd still be around today, or have any likelihood of coming back. Nothing good would have come of running it into the ground. That makes no sense. Constraction hasn't been cancelled,I really doubt casual consumers see a massive difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory. There's no reason Bionicle couldn't have been retooled enough to remain fresh and sustainable up to this point without the official formality of a cancellation. If you meant Bionicle exactly in the state it was when it had been cancelled, with the convoluted Bara Magna whatever story and such, then I agree that that would have been unsustainable. But keeping the brand around alone wouldn't have prevented them from making basically the same changes they did anyway to keep constraction going (they could have basically tweaked Hero Factory to be a soft reboot of Bionicle, etc). (FYI I don't oppose the cancellation really, something needed to change, I just think it didn't NEED to include changing the brand).

DANG. It looks awesome, but it looks like about 4 sets in one. I wish they'd just done a whole wave of retro-Batman sets so people could still get these iconic characters without having to pay the whole staggering price (it might sell better that way, too). What's there looks phenomenal, though.

Brilliant parts usage with the Savage Planet attachment for the head, the Exo-Force parts for the hands, and the Hordika heads for the shoulders. Krekka is one of those sets with a lot of unique personality and who's very well-executed so I imagine he's hard to revamp and bring anything interesting to him, but you did fantastically. Phenomenal recreation of his movie form.

Sets look good, detailed fun designs etc. They don't seem as collapsible as the structures in the game, which is kind of the point (you think the idea would be that people could play the game Angry Birds with the sets)... but they have a bunch of play features so it's probably fine. Prices will probably be horrible because they're licensed and they have a lot of new molds. It's be better if the minifigures were based off the game than the stupid movie. Angry Birds sets might have been a good idea in, like, 2012, when the game was actually popular and relevant (this is my observation, maybe it's not statistically true). If the idea is to tie it into the movie, then yeah the movie should have come out sooner, I wonder why it took them so long.

Given the age of Ghostbusters, the biggest fans of the franchise are likely to have much more disposable income for purchasing the set than the average Lego fan. It makes a fair bit of sense to me. ~B~ Yeah, but fans of Ghostbusters, who also have a lot of disposable income to spend on merchandise, and who are also into Legos, aren't very many people.

This set still absolutely confounds me. People who can afford a $350 Lego set are a small number already. Lego fans who are into Ghostbusters, a movie that came out more than thirty years ago and hasn't had the staying power with modern audiences that Star Wars or something has, are few as well. If they're going to make a Ghostbusters set, you think it'd be one actually even close to affordable to ensure that that small Ghostbusters fanbase will actually buy this. I know they probably manufacture these things with the intent not to sell as many as their other products, but they'll probably sell about two of this one on the entire planet. Bizarre investment by Lego if you ask me.

Glad to see that Kopaka and Melum are cheaper than what was rumored. Disappointed that the Star Wars figures (which look awesome by the way) are more expensive (although I can't complain much considering all the unbelievable price per piece ratios on some of the new Bionicles). Constraction sets looking great all around IMO.

I'm blown away by the 2016 Bionicle sets. The fact that they're doing gear functions in these smaller figures now is astounding. I think they hit in out of the ballpark, great follow-up to a very good debut in 2015.

Enforcement of the no-incorporating leaks policy is kind of inherently hypocritical because it necessitates a degree of familiarity and acknowledgement of the leaks by the mods, to an extent that regular members probably wouldn't be allowed to acknowledge. Not to mention there's potential for a lot of gray area ie original stuff with "aspects" of 2016 parts but not identical to the parts themselves, potential for innocent coincidence, etc. I guess I see why you want to do and it probably won't be an issue, though. Great contest idea, can't wait to see people's entries.