Toa Zaz

Maybe make Tarix purple instead of blue, like his prototype helmet.

As far as I recall the negative reaction to the Orde thing was (considering the sets were gone and there were far less members than in 2004 or whenever) huge. The BZPowercast even had a discussion on it in which they agreed it was offensive. Now, I don't think Greg was deliberately making a sexist statement; some of the stronger female characters are some of his favorites. I think he just made a mistake on Orde's gender and he wanted to cover it up instead of admitting it, and he did a very poor job of it.

Well, the real reasoning behind it is that Lego decided that they ought not to completely isolate women in all their lines, but didn't try very hard at equal gender distribution or anything like that. So they added one token woman to appease the feminists. Obviously there's no logical explanation for why robot without [bones: please remember to keep this child-friendly... let's say without gender-specific organs ] would ever require some kind of gender assignment, (any explanation based on personalities or whatever would be sexist and offensive), and this is probably one of the few plot holes that Greg should have left unexplained. Unfortunately, he did not, and that's how we ended up with this huge controversy over Orde's backstory from The Yesterday Quest.

Well, I like that most of the sets have something going on with them, some kind of function or something. Some are better implemented than others, but having sets that do something besides just sit around is an improvement in itself; it harkens to the early days of Bionicle, where all the sets, even the McDonald's Tohunga, had some kind of action feature. I really like the visors, although I dislike the sometimes ugly faces underneath. The hero core clamps are conceptually cool, and they look decent sticking out like in the show, but the execution was disappointing. The brain slugs themselves look sort of cool, and giving every villain a unique one was an okay gimmick. The problem with the sets is that the brain slugs lead to overemphasized heads and puny-looking limbs; all the villains look goofy and unintimidating. The sets generally have formulaic and simplistic builds (the 2.0 system was novel at first, but now it's starting to get as repetitive as the Inika build), and like the Phantoka and Mistika, the overuse of silver and gunmetal is ugly and boring. I will say the premise of alien swarms that infect people is vaguely interesting, and the whole extraterrestrial thing could be unique and interesting in Hero Factory. Unfortunately, from what little I have seen, there is almost no real story or plot and the whole thing goes nowhere interesting. Unlike Breakout, nothing of any consequence occurs. Now, keep in mind, I haven't read the books or subscribe to the magazine (it doesn't seem like there's much Hero Factory content in there anyway) or played the game, I just saw the episode, so maybe I'm missing something big. On Eurobricks everyone was talking about Mirror World, so maybe there's a greater narrative that's lost to me. But the episode was very uninteresting and unentertaining. To me, this whole wave feels like filler. One-off "story" that affects nothing, only one theme and one half-hour show for the whole year, no comics, less sets than before, still the same group of characters with a lot of Rocka, etc. Maybe money was tight this year from investing so much in Chima so Lego kept it tight with Hero Factory. Maybe Lego's getting ready to pull the plug on this line, so they're investing minimal energy into it. Possibly, due to the half-hour ghost animation special coming next year, the whole "future of Hero Factory" thing that was on the Faber Files or something, and the movie that's in talks, Lego has something really big planning for Hero Factory and this is just to hold us over until they unveil it next year. We'll see, I guess.

Well, there's the six-holed black one that came with Makuta. Then there was the gold one that came in the Tower of Toa set, that I think came in either the Takanuva gold or the Brutaka gold, and that I believe had four holes. And there was the four-holed black one from the Icarax set. I don't know about prototypes, but this photo here of what I think is an early prototype Kongu Inika seems to show a silver version. Then there were the other two versions of the Kraahkan. There was the "movie edition" mask that came in the Takutanuva set, and the mask that came in the Ultimate Dume set. I believe that's all of them.

support? do you mean "endless whining about how he's not giving us what we deserve"? because that's really all i'm seeing. Really? All I see is people saying "Greg you're the best writer ever" and "Greg you're such a boss" and "Greg where does your epicness end?" and Greg giving a snappy answer to their questions without a thank-you or anything. anywhere else but the Lego Message Boards, there's still endless complaining about the end of the story. i won't name any websites in particular, but... Which, seeing as he left us hanging with no resolution, is justified. You talk about how it's wrong to worship him; which is true, but aren't you in the same boat if you despise him as much as other people worship him? It's OK to respect or admire him not worship and it's OK to disagree or dislike him not despise or hate him. Some treat him like a god, others such as you; like dirt. Treating any human being as being a god or dirt is irrational and illogical. I respect him as well-mannered human being (or at least; I think so. Of course, again, it's OK to dislike him.) not god. Now, about him being snappy (or at least, in your opinion) every human being has their limits in tolerance (and I personally believe he has A LOT of tolerance) and to make sure you completely comprehend what I'm saying; I'll even politely use you as an example. You dislike and can not tolerate the way the staff run things around here (which again, I disagree with this, but I respect your opinions and ideas). Now, getting to the point (which I've repetitively stated, but it may have been vague so I'll state it again) he's human. So, again, I respect your opinion, but when you cross the line between respect and disliking to worship and despising that's when I feel I should speak up and say something. Also, don't feel that I'm directing this block of text towards just you, but anyone in general. I hope that none of this was harsh and if so then you have my most sincerest of apologies. Thanks for trying to be polite. Well, the difference is I think my treatment of Greg is well-deserved. Obviously people who are devoted to him disagree, so that's their opinion, I suppose. The difference with the whole "tolerance" thing or however you put it is, I'm showing a negative attitude towards a position of authority that I personally feel is affecting myself and the community in a negative way. Greg is a relative position of authority showing a negative attitude to a bunch of kids who adore him. There's a total difference.

support? do you mean "endless whining about how he's not giving us what we deserve"? because that's really all i'm seeing. Really? All I see is people saying "Greg you're the best writer ever" and "Greg you're such a boss" and "Greg where does your epicness end?" and Greg giving a snappy answer to their questions without a thank-you or anything. I could swear I've seen you post this in like every thread on the site. Why are you still here if this is such a fascist dictatorship? Because maybe if I pester them enough the staff will actually follow through with some of the changes that they've been promising for forever.

1. Stop hating on the Lego Message Boards. It's unstructured and full of a bunch of annoying kids who don't really know what they're talking about, and the commenting system is a huge pain, but it's lot more fun and open than here. On those boards they're all "have fun," whereas here more often than not the primary focus of anything appears to be the deity-like staff punishing members for often ridiculous trasgressions. Nobody says it's dumb to want Bionicle to come back; everybody is a Bionicle fan there. I personally haven't gone in forever just because of the lack of interesting discussion, but in many ways it's much better than BZPower. 2. Greg Farshtey deliberately quit writing the story serials and communicating with fans on here in any way, even though he was given ample time and opportunity (don't deny it, freakin' Hillary Clinton could have finished a new chapter in this time) to do so, because he didn't want to anymore. Despite the fan's devotion and oftentimes bordering worship of him, he quit because he didn't feel like talking to you and writing stories anymore. I mean, if he wants to retire, what can you do? (although a better writer would have finished his material first). However, if he was to retire he should have made some kind of formal announcement instead of just leaving us hanging. This can possibly be attributed to Greg's arrogant presumption that he is a great writer (he is not) and, at least in the eyes of his fans, he can do no wrong. This is demonstrated in his reaction to the whole Toa of Psionics gender mix-up, where instead of just admitting that he screwed up his own material and fixing it, he had to come up with some terrible and unintentionally offensive explanation. The point is, Greg doesn't care about us fans enough to continue his work to its conclusion, so stop drooling all over him. 3. As there's been no indication that Greg will continue the story serials, I have no idea why he's resuming communication with fans. This is also why I have little interest in this news. It'll probably all go something like this: HEY GREGGGGGG!!!!!! YOU ARE THE BEST WRITER EVERRRRR!!!!!! GREG FOREVS!!!!!!!!!!! ILY LOL HOW MANY GLATORIAN ARE THERE?!?!?!?!!???? Don't care. Over-enthusiastic fans asking stupid, pointless questions and being given curt, rude, and unsatisfying answers from Greg, who throughout will demonstrate his lack of gratitude to the support he's received from the fan community.

Well, technically he can still vicariously interact with fans on here by PMing certain members, but he chooses not too.

The semi-transparent one they put over a light-up brick to be the palantir in the Tower of Orthanc set.

I actually really liked the teeth. They added a lot of detail, expression, and realism to them. I also liked that they looked like metal, because it demonstrated the biomechanical nature of these beings more than their toyetic appearances did. I didn't like that there were something like two layers of teeth, though, and the front layer was the same color as their heads...

its fine to do stuff like this on a holiday mi preety sure But if I showed patriotism towards The People's Democratic Republic of Korea, which has also promised freedom but (I don't think anyone here will deny this) failed to deliver, that would be unacceptable, right?

I think story-wise the second half of 2007 was Bionicle at its prime.

So, how come in Web of the Visorak, when the Toa all combine their powers to heal Graalok, they didn't form a Toa Seal?

Due to an arguable failure to live up to its ideals, both historically and today, American patriotism is a political stance and thus violates BZPower's policy. Somebody ought to shut this topic down.

Well, as far as the construction aspect goes, they're horrendous. They're practically standard one-piece action figures. So, in that regard, I guess they're okay to play with. Not sure why anyone would want to play with toys based on that awful tv show, though...

Due to the decision to differentiate similar elements, instead of just having them under the umbrella of one, elemental powers in Bionicle aren't very versatile. For example, Toa of Ice can only control solid water, whereas Toa of Water can't. Also, Fire, Lighting, and Plasma are all different elements, Stone and Earth are different, Iron and Magnetism are different even though they're similar, etc. The reason this happened is probably because at the beginning Toa had more environmental themes than characterization based on their powers (Lewa, Toa of Air is green, etc). I probably sound like Aanchir here, but I think it would be better if Bionicle powers were more like bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where characters can be afforded greater and more interesting elemental control.

Aanchir, the Bionicle movies were aimed at the dumb masses because they were lazily made to pander towards studios' false perceptions of little kids, thus isolating other audiences. The stuff that doesn't make sense was simply the product of poor writing.

Huh. I've never heard from anybody, fan or casual viewer, that Bionicle is too serious or edgy. From what I can tell, the general consensus is either that Bionicle is fine the way it is, or that it needs to be way, way darker and grittier. But I digress... I think maybe Lego is jumping the gun a little here. The Lego movie seems to really be pandering towards a very niche audience, hence all the references (space guy figure, etc.) that it seems to depend on heavily. Which is totally fine (although a little more substance to it besides the references would be an improvement). God forbid the Lego movie becomes a debacle that focuses too much on appealing to the dumb masses, like the Bionicle movies did. Point being, this might not end up bringing in the money they hoped for, despite the early positive reaction, so investing in a whole 'nother film seems like they're running before they can walk. And besides, Ninjago has a fairly complex but still loose and uncoordinated mythology that requires a strong sense of comic relief and audience suspension of disbelief to be enjoyable, which for the most part it has (the time travel episode and the "I feel a disturbance in the force" took it too far for me, though). The problems with making a movie of it are: a) the audience has to understand everything that's going on. Nobody likes bouts of exposition, but throwing the audience in like they did with the Bionicle movies (those movies did also contain a fair amount of often ineffective bouts of exposition) would isolate half the crowd. b) Ninjago's silly, humorous story that doesn't have a whole ton of logic going for it but is amusing enough to be enjoyable may not carry well with audiences. Everyone seems to want dark, Christopher Nolan-esque plots; which is fine, for a tighter, more realistic story, but for Ninjago, no. Maybe audiences will think it's just some stupid kid's film. And c) From what I've gathered, people like this new Lego movie so much because it makes them nostalgic for their childhoods and playing with Legos and all that. Ninjago doesn't have that. In fact, if they decided to make a live-action Ninjago with real people and no correlation with Lego bricks at all, it would have no impact on the story. Now, that would be a terrible idea, because it would be silly and require too much suspension of disbelief, but even in the cartoon, nothing is actually made of Legos like in Clutch Powers or whatever. Personally, I'm glad Ninjago's story isn't bogged down by being a toy line, but for audiences it may lose some of the charm. And for the record, a Bionicle movie, now or sometime soon, would probably be a great idea. Bionicle is at the point where there are still people around who are fans, but it's old enough that a comeback would make people nostalgic.

Honestly, more affordable sets. Legos have always been pretty expensive, but these days a lot of the sets are something like $250. Even if the value for it is good, the sets are so expensive that kids can't possibly afford them, despite some play features on them seemingly designed for kids to play with. We need more reasonably priced sets that have a lot going on and are fun for kids to play with, like that Dark Knight Rises set. For $50 you get two vehicles and three figures. Even though the construction is a little simpler, it's relatively inexpensive and it's got a lot for kids to play with.

Is this the attitude you take towards real people with that kind of voice and personality? Because if so... well, I feel quite sorry for the people in your life. Not just the people with that kind of voice and personality, but anyone who has to suffer that kind of disagreeable attitude. Just try to avoid roller coasters and extreme sports please.What I find "@#$%&*#@#$!#$ annoying" is melodramatic whining on internet forums from people who completely lose any sense of (figurative) volume control when typing. Thankfully, I'm usually lucky enough not to encounter such people. And again, I certainly hope you're not like that in real life as well.Seriously, that kind of complaint about Kiina makes about as much sense who say they hate Applejack from My Little Pony because they hate southern accents. Or the people who complain about Mark Surge's high-pitched voice in the Hero Factory TV show. It's just an arbitrary bias (almost bordering on bigotry) that you'd hope people would be enlightened enough to get over instead of having to complain about it to the rest of the world.Would I want to watch a whole movie of Kiina wailing at me? Of course not. I wouldn't want to watch a whole movie of ANYONE wailing at me. But if the occasional situation calls for her to shout "Woo-Hoo" or scream or whatever it is that bothers people so much, then expecting her not to do that would be going against her character. If you don't like her character? Well, she's just one character. But just consider that if a few lines from a single character in a single movie gets you that hot and bothered that you have to shout at people through a computer screen, maybe it's less the movie's problem and more your own. ...? ...Sorry. Fine. The all-caps thing was kind of a joke, based on some collective opinions on Kiina. I kind of just though, "hey, I'll just make this in all caps, because so many people dislike Kiina it would be kind of amusing to have it be emphasized so much. Might as well." even though I agree with them. I seriously didn't mean to offend you or anything. Maybe I should have just said "because it was annoying," and have gotten the same point across in a less hyperbolic manner. My apologies. In all seriousness, though, comparing an annoyingly overeager character that conflicts with established personality traits to somebody with a Southern accent, a perfectly normal person, is kind of offensive. I don't think it's the voice, I think it's the obnoxious and grating personality. I don't like Surge, either, because he says annoying stuff all the time (whoooooooooooaaaaaaaaaa, etc). And you say it's just one character, but there's also Berix and Gresh and Tuma. Eventually the poor characterization starts to add up. ...Also, you know I'm not like that it real life, because we met at Brickfair last year.

It was really dull, frankly.The concept of Glatorian is uninteresting because they are fighting for no adequately explained reason, and the outcome of the match is pretty much nothing. Story plot points, like the whole Spherus Magna thing and the Baterra were randomly revealed. There were way too many characters that weren't featured in the story at all or who had no defining personalities. Aanchir, the problem with the Kiina scream wasn't because it was obviously designed to appeal to kids. It's because it was @#$%&*#@#$!#$ ANNOYING. If it was in any way amusing, then people wouldn't hate it. Same goes for the Last Airbender movie. It was thoroughly unenjoyable for a number of reasons, namely terrible rendition of story, poor pacing, horrendous acting, unabashedly racist casting decisions, bad CGI, etc. Being dark didn't have anything to do with it.

It's because of the cruel, unwavering first of discipline enforced by the moderators that has forced all members into fearful submission. And also because hardly anyone goes on here anymore. Partially because of the first reason.

The climax to the movie had so many things that made no sense that it bordered incomprehensibility. How and why Takanuva built the Ussanui.Why Takanuva went to face Makuta by himself, especially when everybody* went after him later.The vertical entrance to Mangaia, as Hahli wouldn't have been able to climb back up.Hahli miraculously surviving the Ussanui crash. Lucky her. She could have died or something. Pretty convenient that she could fit in the compartment designed for housing Kraata, too.For some reason there's a giant gate in Makuta's lair. It somehow has to do with reawakening the Great Spirit. I don't know.Makuta challenges Takanuva to a Kolhii match. He should've just smited the inexperienced novice Toa right then and there.Makuta and Takanuva play Kolhii with balls of energized Protodermis that they can magically summon and hurl into the air. Despite making contact with the Protodermis they are not transformed or destroyed. Now, I looked it up on BS01 and it said that the staffs of light and darkness can somehow turn energized protodermis into balls of light and shadow. This makes absolutely no sense because 1. the balls of light and shadow still resemble energized Protodermis. 2. Why energized Protodermis, of all materials? And if the staffs can turn ANYTHING into light or shadow, then why doesn't Makuta just turn Takanuva into shadow and absorb him or something? 3. Both Takanuva and Makuta are capable of creating light and shadow from nothing, so why do they bother to use the dangerous energized Protodermis?Takanuva leaps and bounds off of pillars dozens of feet in the air impossibly, especially for a inexperienced Toa.Hahli gives some speech about how she and Jaller love(d) the island, that's irrelevant to saving Takanuva.Everybody goes to save Takanuva after they didn't before for no adequately explained reason.*"Everyone" is supposed to include many Matoran, if not every Matoran on Mata Nui. Yet, aside from Hahli, absolutely none of them are there.Everyone walks in casually chatting or something, when they should have been on their guard.Makuta says something about how he's helping Mata Nui and how sleep spares him pain or something. This makes absolutely no sense and is never explained or alluded to again.Takanuva jumps at Makuta while screaming.Takanuva takes Makuta's mask off for no particular reason.When Takutanuva opens the gate, none of the other Toa help him. Heck, Onua or Pohatu probably could've easily destroyed it.Takutanuva somehow uses his own life force to bring Jaller back to life.The gate collapses, seemingly trapping the Toa and Turaga and Matoran on the other side.When the gate collapses on him, Takutanuva disappears completely and the Avohkii slides out from under it.There is a UDD symbol on the floor for no particular reason.Turaga Vakama does this bizarre ritual thing where Jaller, Hahli, and the Avohkii are all strategically positioned on the UDD symbol to bring Takanuva back somehow. This makes absolutely no sense. Throughout the bizarre ritual thing, the Toa Nuva hold hands for no particular reason.It cuts to a narration that shows Jaller and Hahli with golden Kanohi.They say something about a glorious city or something that is random and bizarre and has nothing to do with anything else in the movie. The end.

So, the whole thing with the Makuta is that they were jealous that the Matoran held greater respect for Mata Nui than for them, even though they made all these Rahi that were supposedly beneficial to their lives. What beneficial Rahi? I mean, I guess Ussal crabs are useful for pulling carts or riding or whatever... even though Matoran are technologically advanced enough to build robots and airships, so vehicles without the need of Rahi to pull them don't seem like a far-off concept. And on Mata Nui, some of the Matoran rode Rahi as part of their militias, but the Matoran weren't even supposed to leave the technologically advanced Metru Nui, anyway. Most of the other Rahi are all some kind of dangerous monsters. Even on Metru Nui, whenever there's a Rahi chances are it's something dangerous, so it gets taken by the Vahki and frozen in the archives. So then what purpose do Rahi serve, anyway? And why were the Makuta assigned the task of creating them? It seems like a poorly thought-out plot point to me.