Toa Zaz

Are you saying that the films in G1 where bad? Because they weren't (excluding TLR, which was frankly the worst) but hoping that they are better than the first three films is pushing it, very much so. Though it would be great to see that, I doubt it, if this is going to be a ling running series than it can greatly improve over time, I mean just look at ninjago! When it started it was a bit mediocre, but now it's a fantastic show! Even chima, which had an extremely rocky start ended up becoming pretty good at the end of it's run! So if that can happen to two rather infamous lego themes, why not a theme known throughout our modern day culture? Better characters and a more comprehensible story than the first 3 films isn't too much to hope for, even if those really were pretty decent for what they were. I do doubt the new series will have as good production values as the original films, which I guess is testament to the quality of the cgi, for the time.

There were 9 episodes for the Winter Wave plus that "The Legend" video which they didn't count for some reason, and then 9 more episodes in the summer. So eighteen "episodes" total, I believe.

Good review, cool to see your obvious passion and giddiness for Star Wars. Too bad based on the long-confirmed leaked plot Force Awakens is going to be absolutely terrible, but that's for another topic I suppose.

Jesus, if there wasn't enough pathetically cheap and minimalist "animation," re-used footage, and an extreme lack of content making anything like this inexcusable, they do a @#$%&@# clip show episode. How cheap and lazy can you get, LEGO? Besides that, it was ok I guess. I like the G1 reference. I think these summer episodes are better that the winter ones with their focus on all six Toa and more overall incident and references, and I like these Bionicle animations a lot more than the Hero Factory episodes from the last few years (don't feel as pandering to babies, a little cleverer, more dynamic/theatrical visually, etc).

Actual names!!! Sure as @#$% beats the generic placeholder-sounding names from before. My concern is that if they're going to redo the Toa, they can't really do new and interesting designs without a LOT of new and specialized pieces, which Lego seems very unwilling and cheap to do as of late. They've already made very "definitive" forms of the Toa in the first wave what with making them look very large and powerful and combining elements from their Mata and Nuva incarnations, so an upgrade would be hard though not impossible. CCBS is already generic enough as it is to some degree, almost like clone builds but on a far larger scale, and I'm worried we're going to be getting 5 Tahus that are virtually identical, which would be kind of lame. Now, sticking with the same team at least story-wise (back when Bionicle had a substantial story ) made sense and was successful back in gen. 1. But I don't want Hero Factory syndrome where we're stuck with the same cast and it gets really stale. I think I would have preferred new Toa or else a villain wave like the Bohrok with the 2015 Masters still involved in the plot. But these Toa could look really cool, we'll see. My other concern is that, due to this wave being identical in layout to winter 2015 and that we've still got two more powerful masks to collect so the next two years will presumably revolve around a mask hunt just like 2015, that we're going to get 3 complete cookie-cutter waves and premises with some generic mindless villains or something again, rather than anything even remotely creative like new stakes or drama. Old Bionicle changed things up significantly every year, be it the location or the adversary or both, and was more interesting for it.

This is a totally random blessing that I'm certain was 100% unintentional and I doubt the author paid much, or any, attention to the sets whatsoever when writing the story (he probably just got descriptions and whatnot) so I really shouldn't be crediting them for this, but making Korgot female incidentally adds a little more diversity of body types to the sparse canon of female Bionicle characters. They don't all have to be lithe or whatever. Now, usually when they design a figure to be "feminine" it means it's a little more unique and effort was put into the design, which is a plus, and some figures like Mistika Gali you can guess they just designed a random robot character and slapped a name on it, but the protectors have reasonably varied/unique designs so I think it works.

According to Eurobricks, the excerpts were randomized and supposedly Korgot the Protector of Earth is female. Which is great news because a) thank god the protectors aren't all male like we feared, and b) they're done with the frankly idiotic decision of assigning genders to tribes from Generation 1. In general, when first reading this it was like an oasis after years in a desert; finally, back to an actual storyline and named characters and a modicum of complexity and sophistication! Yes, the protectors are all named! I don't mind their names, I'm just really glad they have some! And we even have some additional characters that don't appear in sets, yay the story exists beyond just selling the existing sets! After this initial euphoria, I started thinking that the writing is really poor and wooden, like a robot wrote this prose and dialogue. In fairness, Greg's early books felt like that too in terms of the dialogue etc, it might get better as the story progresses. I do hope the endless and kind of extraneous detailing of their weapons is over with soon though, I'm getting Brain Attack flashbacks.

In Web of the Visorak they act like mutating Toa with Visorak venom has never been done before. Why would Roodaka make random, unknown experiments to the Toa? How does that aid her plan to drain them of their elemental powers, since they were going to end up dead anyway? In fact, wouldn't doing so be detrimental since it might endanger her plan? This is kind of nitpicky and I get that they were probably just trying to find some way to sell the toys, I was just wondering.

Ninjago has been almost untoppably amazing this year; awesome, numerous, and pretty well-priced sets. Despite the $200 price tag this set looks insanely gorgeous and has tons of great minifigures. Props to Lego, IMHO they absolutely nailed the Ninjago stuff this year.

That's pretty @#$% amazing, even compared to their other really awesome statues. I guess it speaks to the versatility of the medium, as well as of course the amazing skill of the designers.

Yeah. Generally I don't like getting novelizations. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they might have tidbits that were absent from the movies or shows they're adapting, like the Lohrak scene from BIONICLE Adventures #4. But while that and a few glossy screenshots in the center might have been enough for me to invest in such books as a kid, now that I'm an adult I don't buy novelizations on the off chance they include material like that. I haven't bought any of the Ninjago chapter books except the ones that tell original stories (the original four and "A Team Divided"). The rest, as far as I can tell, are just novelizations. I might someday buy them to complete the series but it's far from being a priority when there are so many other books out there which tell stories I can't find elsewhere. Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that the Elves chapter book's description is a placeholder. Plus, the Elves TV special and the BIONICLE webisodes are all short enough that adaptations might make them more thorough just by adding more narration and internal monologue. But either way I'm going to want to see them for myself before deciding whether or not to buy them. I pretty much agree, although I did think the Legend Reborn novelization did a good job adding stuff that really should have been in the film: explaining character motivations for their weird dialogue, justifying/explaining why the Skrall are doing what they're doing, explaining strategy stuff, actually saying "kill" or "die," etc. Another pretty good non-Lego example is the Revenge of the Sith novelization, which adds a lot of character motivation and detail to a bad, poorly-written movie. Non-lego novelizations tend to stick pretty close to the film though, and are largely cheaply produced throwaways just to promote the movie, so yeah it's usually a pass.

They actually introduced one just this year (though it's only used in Super Heroes sets — LEGO Movie and LEGO Dimensions sets continue to use the old one). Oh, neat I didn't know that. That looks like the one they use in the poster etc, cool.

Hopefully they'll make a new cowl with shorter ears.

This one needs to become a meme.

I don't really mind that it's an existing mask per say (a new one would be nice but Lego's put existing masks in these books often before. They just might lose some customers like me). But what grinds my gears is that I was hoping that they'd make that trans-blue Mask of Water widely available through this. I really hope they make it available through a promotion or something like the trans-orange Mask of Fire (honestly maybe they should have released the Mask of Water in that deal, maximize nostalgia by tying it in with the Generation 1-themed wave), or otherwise I really do think that making it and inexplicably not giving it to anybody is a slap in the face to the fans. Speaking of exclusive masks, hey BZPower staff, any plans to distribute that giant bag of trans-clear masks of fire that you have (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahava516/15314313268/in/photostream/)? Were those going to be distributed through contests and such?

Unless this costs more than $20 (which I doubt because of the obvious shortcuts in the feet that weren't filled in like Luke's and Vader's- an easy fix with existing parts) this will be the first Star Wars constraction figure I buy. The others I thought were either sort of lackluster or way too overpriced to justify purchasing. The sleek white of this one means that it doesn't suffer from the color distribution issues like Cody and Jango, the head looks really good (Lego's head molds are getting fantastic, especially compared to the early Super Heroes and Ben 10 ones), the blaster looks great (I could see them incorporating this into new Bionicle sets, the blaster element looks like it might have been designed for that use), the sidearm is a cool touch and again shows how well Lego is able to create these Star Wars blasters with technic elements, and it's overall a great looking figure. However, while this doesn't bother me personally at all, some people might dislike this set just because there are very few new elements or recolors, as well as that the build is nearly identical to Jango and Cody. While it's fine for the individual sets, the fact that all these clone characters are literally clones of each other, and the fact that Luke and Obi-Wan use similar builds as well, shows the severe limits of the already-generic ccbs and could really hurt these sets in the long run (while these Star Wars figures look great, they sort of show the problem of making humans and other characters with a system that wasn't really designed for them, and show how the more creative designs like 2015 Bionicles are better suited to ccbs). For instance, I wondered if at some point they would make a c-3po figure (I doubt it given Lego's obsession with having to give each figure huge weapons, to the point of giving Iron Man a War Machine cannon), but I think the problem with that would be that aside from a new head, they'd probably just recolor a standard ccbs figure for him. Whatever, in Vader and Grievous they've shown creative designs that really help bring out the characters (for instance, the great torso shaping on Vader), so presumably these Star Wars figures have legs. I really wish they'd throttle back on the ridiculous prices, but unfortunately that's not going to happen. Of course this means that if they are focusing the constraction budget on these Star Wars figures, Bionicle will once again get short shrift like I think it has in the summer 2015 wave. I think if you're going to make Star Wars figures better to do them well and also better to have them come out near the film's release, so I don't mind so much, but hopefully the 2016 Bionicles are decent as well (and if they're good designs I won't mind not so many figures or new parts). Hopefully the summer 2016 Bionicle wave really rocks though, once Star Wars is out of the way. Also FYI it's the First Order, not the New Order, easy mistake.

At least 10,000 people think otherwise. LEGO Ideas is for discovering potential sets from the LEGO fan community, no matter what those potential sets might be. And if people like sitcoms, it goes without saying that sets based on sitcoms will be among those vying for a LEGO Ideas slot. Besides that, I challenge you to show me a $30 set with seven unique minifigures and 450 additional pieces. Good luck with that... Generally, I'm impressed with this set and glad they didn't cut out the more recent main characters like Amy and Bernadette. A 4:3 gender ratio in a licensed set is nothing to sneeze at. The space is cozy and features lots of cute accessories. The figures are distinctive, but their parts are still quite versatile. Don't know if I'll get this set but I'm sure it'll be fairly popular. 7 minifigures is a lot, but standard/fine price-per-piece for system-based sets is considered 10 cents per piece. Anything else is typically considered expensive. Obviously it's not going to be $30, but this set probably ought to be in the 40-50 dollar range. Now, usually licensed sets cost somewhat more, but still $60 is a bit much for this small set (although in your defense it's not out-of-nowhere bizarre like that Smaug set, seems like more of a dubiosly reasonable stretch). I'm honestly glad Lego didn't find some excuse to make it at an even higher price point like the Simpsons sets, to the point that nobody is going to be willing to pay for it (they've gone crazy about making about that in recent years, nobody is going to pay $130 for a Jurassic World set etc) just out of greed or whatever, but for what this set is the price is still high. Pretty good set though, nice that they included so many characters from the show and all those nice details in the room like the Green Lantern lantern, etc. Good for fans of the show.

Not only is this a fairly ridiculous conclusion to draw, it also ignores that the Elves special's original airing was REALLY poorly advertised, and if I hadn't seen it mentioned on Eurobricks I wouldn't have been able to report it here. Also, I wouldn't call this a minor theme — it's actually this year's "Big Bang" theme (that is to say, a theme LEGO devotes a lot of attention and money to marketing its launch, like Atlantis, Ninjago, Friends, or Legends of Chima). Between that and this being the first in-house theme for girls since the launch of LEGO Friends, it's almost surprising how little promotion we've seen for this theme so far. Not to mention, the amount LEGO has invested in promoting the BIONICLE reboot is hardly insignificant. We're just seeing it used differently. Elves had its first year's story told in one 22-minute episode, with character videos cut entirely from that footage. It's now gotten the first of who knows how many short "filler" webisodes. BIONICLE had its backstory told in a 105-second episode, then six 30-second character videos and nine 90-second story videos... just for the first half of the year. And there's no telling how many videos we could expect for the second half of the year. If we get as many story videos for the second half of the year as for the first, that would mean 31.75 minutes of animated media altogether, and that's assuming no new character videos or other videos. Difficult, then, to say LEGO Elves will have considerably more media than LEGO BIONICLE by year's end. Before I go on my rant, let me say that what little media Bionicle 2015 has released I have liked a lot, honestly more than the Hero Factory episodes and possibly TLR. I like all the generation 1 references and other clever things like the Temple of Time which I found lacking in the often less sophisticated Hero Factory writing, and in terms of the animation itself I really like the increased freedom of creative/varied locations, dramatic camera angles, and dynamic figures and movements that the cartoonish 2d animation allows, honestly in my opinion it's a better storytelling medium than the more limiting TV-budget cgi. And its better than nothing of course, and I guess I like the 90-second scenes better than one 30-minute Hero Factory episode as it for the whole year (although it's similar, we're still left waiting most of the time especially compared to Generation 1 of Bionicle that had stuff to actually talk about the whole year through be it web serials or comics etc). But obviously even if something has some good qualities doesn't make it exempt from criticism, and I think mine is absolutely correct and valid in this case. Come on Aanchir, really? Even for you, this is a stretch. Those episodes could have been produced by an amateur on basic animation software for hardly anything. Numerous fan-created Bionicle projects, for instance the Tohkann animations, are far more impressive. This looks like a series of MS paint stills with occasional basic movement (like a character's head tilting or whatever, we're not seeing anything complex like illusion of form, moving camera etc). I like the cartoonish Tartakovsky-esque art style, but seriously this looks like an amateur production created by one of the wealthiest and largest companies in the world. I can't believe you're equating seconds (really?) of screentime to a substantial output. Besides the really short length (which would be perhaps justified if the production values were better, ie like the old Ghost animations), there's hardly any movement at all (lots of still images, super cheap), indication that the actual animation production (rendering the characters' movement etc) was minimal at best. Besides, not that I'm asking for this much, but toy companies have been using feature-length animations and even television cartoons to promote toy lines since like the '80s, and even back then those had much better animation that this. Especially with Lego being an enormously successful and wealthy company in comparison to other toy companies, that they somehow can't or unwilling to afford to expend more for the storyline is ridiculously stingy. I mean since the dawn of animation, whether it's the old Looney Tunes or Disney cartoons, to the Hanna Barbara animations, to Care Bears and GI Joe in the '80s, to the computer-based animated television series of the 2000s, has consistently been longer and of greater quality than this. And this isn't even taking into account how creating good animation has become massively cheaper and more common over the past few years. FYI I would be fine with either primitive animation and a greater quantity of content (justifies lower production values, would actually be a great way to tell the story but potentially risky) or little content like we have now but better production values (akin to what we got with the original Bionicle). This is the worst of both worlds and it really sucks no matter how much you deny it. I like it but I wish there was more, there's not enough to tell the story nor to maintain interest.

This is alright, but to be honest I'm still kind of mad that relatively minor themes like this and Mixels get a more substantial media output than Bionicle, which used to be Lego's top theme and played a part in saving the company. Between this and their failing to even announce that the Ordeal of Fire tv special was even happening, let alone when (I only caught it thanks to this site), I'm convinced that someone high up in TLG hates constraction and wants it to fail. Of course sales are a factor or whatever, but it's a two-way street: Lego has to actually promote (adequately) their lines to even get people's attention and make money off of them. That may be part of why Ninjago was a success: it started with a well-produced TV (may be a good way to maximize viewership) special that turned into an equally well-produced show, whereas Bionicle gets some online episodes that will only be sought out by fans already following the line and aware of them.

I sure hope he's right about how this was testing the waters and the success should lead to bigger things next year. Anyhow, at least he sort of acknowledged how insanely low-budget and scant the media output this year has been. Good interview, Disney stuff was definitely interesting, too bad you didn't talk about Bionicle more but it was ok.

So now you're arguing that LEGO shouldn't even hold the LEGO Inside Tour at all unless they can make them affordable for everybody? I don't know whether to laugh or cry... The LEGO Inside Tour is as expensive as it is for a number of reasons. First, because demand is unbelievably high. Not only can LEGO afford to charge a high price, but they actually have quite an incentive to do so as a way to cut down on the number of applicants. Second, because the LEGO Inside Tour is a really in-depth experience, not just some tour guide showing you around. A lot of preparation has to go into it each year. The cost of the tour includes lodging at the LEGOLAND Hotel as well as meals. It also includes opportunities to meet the CEO and basically all the designers (note that these are people who still have to be paid for the time they spend with you on the tour — they're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts). It is, to put it simply, designed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I have heard nothing but good things about the experience from those who have attended in the past. There is nothing remotely unfair about offering this kind of experience to those who can afford it. Again, nobody would be better off if the LEGO Group did not offer the LEGO Inside Tour. People who couldn't get a tour before because of the prices still couldn't get a tour if the opportunity didn't exist at all. The only reason to think the tour shouldn't be offered at all is if you are so unbelievably self-centered that you can't stand the possibility of other people getting something that you aren't. It's like saying luxury cars shouldn't exist because not everybody can afford one, or that five-star hotels shouldn't exist because not everybody can afford to stay there, or that the new Ferris Wheel set shouldn't exist because not everybody can afford to spend $200 on one LEGO set. It's one thing to wish that the LEGO Inside Tour were cheaper (I guarantee you even the people who CAN afford it all wish it were cheaper), but it's another thing entirely to whine that it's "unfair to fans" as if LEGO owes you every possible experience they have to offer just for being a fan. Sorry, my bad, I accidentally deleted some of my text. I meant to say that it was unfair to have this exclusive mask in the inside tour because from a promoting Bionicle standpoint it defeats the purpose. I definitely don't think they shouldn't do the tour. I do think it should be cheaper, because it sucks that it's so expensive, but of course it's better to do it like this then not at all. But Jesus, I'm sick of your condescending rude attitude. I don't know whether to laugh or cry to someone who takes pleasure from talking down to people on the internet over something as trivial as a toy line. Why don't you keep your hostile attitude to yourself and make this board a more positive place like all you Lego apologetics always claim? And just to be on topic so my post doesn't get deleted, I thought about whether it would be better if the set released had the transparent mask or not. I decided it made for a better set to have the opaque one since it serves the color scheme better and Dark Azure is a cool new color to begin with, but I'm certainly glad that the trans mask is being made in some capacity since it's such a cool reference to Generation 1.

What exactly did you expect them to learn? Honest question. LEGO has been releasing event-exclusive items for years and it doesn't seem to have done them any harm. Inside Tour exclusives in particular are something they've been doing for at least ten years. It's not as if the transparent Mask of Fire was taken out of a set just so it could be used as an NYCC exclusive. If it weren't released as an event exclusive, then it probably wouldn't exist at all. And nobody would be better off if it didn't exist. Except, perhaps, for LEGO's competitors at NYCC, who would not have to worry about the LEGO booth attracting so much attention. What kind of warped all-or-nothing logic is that? Obviously, they could have just released the NYCC mask as an exclusive but much more widely available so that more fans could actually get it. Besides, while this differs from the exclusives at SDCC which I know pack huge lines since Lego and their licensed themes are hugely recognized, etc, in the case of NYCC I don't believe an exclusive mask was even announced until the event had already started, and since interest in the mask basically necessitates interest in this old theme coming back, probably anyone going to the Bionicle booth was going for that. I don't think a single person came only for the mask or would have turned away if an exclusive hadn't been offered. The mask looks great and is an awesome callback to Generation 1. Isn't that Inside Lego Tour that really exclusive thing that cost thousands of dollars or something insane to get access to though, something so exclusive and unfair to fans who can't get access that it defeats the purpose of even doing it? I really hope this mask gets a wider release, either with the Activity Book or through another promotion like the Trans-Orange Hau.

Thank God, I was worried that set would be $34.99. At least there's some sanity left in the world... Exciting stuff nonetheless, particularly the Star Wars constraction figures (although I'm very concerned about their high prices...). Can't wait for images of the sets!

Wow, super excited. This was actually an idea proposed on Cuusoo a long time ago, but I think the reason that it didn't happen was that at that time only Hasbro could make Star Wars figures (that's why they stopped doing the magnets, figures had to come with a vehicle etc). This has the potential to be really amazing and cool, and I'm glad that they are making them now rather than earlier when the CCBS system had fewer parts and was less creative build-wise. Perhaps next year they'll make figures based off Star wars: The Force Awakens or the spin-off (apparently there were Episode VII lego sets at Toy Fair but were only shown to industry representatives behind closed doors). Concerns: This has such potential, Lego better not screw it up. It also stands that if they do mess up, we might not get another attempt.Price concerns. The Ultrabuild sets (and recent constraction figures in general, and for that matter Lego sets as a whole) have been really and overly expensive. The first wave of Superheroes sets was licensed at least, so that provides a little justification, and at least the Superhero and 2013 Chima sets were filled-out enough to somewhat justify the steep prices. But many of the 2014 Chima sets were disappointingly spare for their high prices (Vardy and Fluminox especially), and those sets aren't even licensed. Especially considering the general unreasonable price-hikes of a lot of the recent Star Wars sets like the Wookiee Gunship, I can't imagine how insanely high-priced the already-expensive ultrabuild line will be when they adopt the really-overpriced Star Wars theme. They won't possibly do more than $20 per standard-sized figure, right? I wouldn't buy them for any more than that.The Superhero theme had a ton of potential and was kind of squandered- they only did a few sets that weren't great, mostly standard Hero Factory-esque builds with weird heads (I agree, the faces ought to be better for the non-helmeted new sets. I didn't hate it for that first Superhero line, but for Star Wars or any future sets it really needs to improve. The improved sculpts for the Chima heads, and eve better for the two-piece Fangar and Panthar. are promising signs). Don't get me wrong, they were cool, but not great, so kind of a wasted opportunity. Part of it was likely that they relied on existing pieces with mechanical textures, etc that didn't necessarily suit these characters, but some of it was the designs; Batman could have been so much better. The Chima sets were significantly better (Sir Fangar is really cool, thanks BZPower), but still suffered form a lot of the same problems; the Hero Factory-esque parts didn't always suit them (not that I want these to have a lot of overly-specialized pieces. CCBS is good for being so versatile, but the same shells over and over can get a little tiresome). Hopefully through creative builds, etc, Lego will go all-out for their most popular theme and make them really amazing. This theme will be so lucrative that it would make sense for Lego to invest a great deal in in. If that's the case, and that may explain what I think is a truly abysmal summer wave for Bionicle.

According to a member on Eurobricks, Lego actually cancelled two skull villain sets in order to keep Bionicle's budget low (that's why there are so few of them compared to the winter wave)\, and those sets would have come with Tahu's and Gali's masks.