Arcee

Being "in the know" about up-and-coming Bionicle stuff is always a curse and a blessing. On one hand, yay, news! On the other hand, the winter sets are just starting to appear on shelves out here! I'm pretty excited to see the direction they go with Ekimu. Who knows what his role is gonna be in the future of Bionicle... maybe a figure like g1's Mata Nui, a being of vast power fighting alongside the main cast? Or a g1 Takanuva/HF Rocka maybe: the team's newest member? Or even just the wise old man who doesn't infrequently kick some butt? New Umarak sounds promising as well. The same character in two consecutive waves is fairly unheard of, but it's fantastic to see they're following through with the animal theme through the next wave. It may be too early to say but it reminds me of 2015: skull spiders acting as a small threat that foreshadowed the year's climax. This seems to be a peek at the structure we might be getting for later years of Bionicle.

Looks like someone skipped leg day I've gotta say, the head looks really nice. My biggest issue with these SW Ultrabuilds was the juxtaposition of the organic-looking face and the robotic body (which is why IMO the less-organic characters like Vader look alright), but I'm almost willing to forgive the clashing styles for that head piece.

Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post: How does everyone feel about gold masks on sets with primarily silver accents? Something that really stands out to me with Lewa and Gali is how out-of-place their gold masks seem. Even with gold masks established in both Bionicle's lore and rules of aesthetics, this year I almost wish they'd throw a bit of tradition out the window and try something more risky. I think a silver masked Gali and Lewa as their combiner forms would look really slick in a way gold just doesn't accomplish. Include Pohatu in there (someone whose colorscheme I feel is nearly beyond help) and you have a trio of silver-masked small Toa and a trio of gold-masked big Toa. Maybe I'm overthinking it and gold creatures would've done the job? There's something, though, about the mismatched gold/silver heads on top of a body with no gold armor that feels wrong.

I really like the comparisons to the 2004 Great Rau here. It prompted me to look closer at the mask and I think I might even see a bit of Hahli Inika in there--the famous "mustache," specifically. The Uniter masks actually stand out to me as really fantastic and inspired. They take a lot of influence from G1 designs but also look like a clear progression from the former incarnation (Masters). That's something that can't really be said about many G1 character evolutions.

I regret turning down the TNGM for winning an old BZP art contest in favor of an orange Vahi, but what can I say. I couldn't resist that cheddar. I don't think I'm in possession of anything rarer than the gold Vahi, orange Vahi, discs of time, a few Shadow Kraata... ah well. At least they all look cool.

Yeah I agree, that's what I thought at first glance as well. It could be a finalized graphic but...it's weird that it looks like that. I'm less interested in its origin than I am its powers. Is it as powerful as G1 MoT? I doubt it but who knows. And what does it do? Slow time like G1 MoT? Enable time travel?

I can't find anything on this right now but wasn't there some form of official media that mentioned masks of speed and strength? I think the context was mentioning that Ekimu could make them. Anyways I'm on pins and needles waiting for some more lore to come out. For instance: we know the Toa need masks to function in general, but would e.g. Onua with a Mask of Strength still function as a Toa of Earth with strength powers and weaker earth powers, or would he then become a Toa of Strength? I don't think there's really a proper answer for anything about masks yet. Funny, considering their significance in G2.

Fire can be blue. The blue, in fact, is one of the nicer touches on Tahu, IMO. Regardless of how they turned out, you can't blame Lego for not trying to do some cool stuff with secondary colors this year. Generation 1 was all about establishing these paradigms out of arbitrary stuff: fire is hot, so their colors can be red/orange/yellow; water is cool, so they get blue/light blue/green. In Gen 2, the elemental color motifs we're getting are far less abstract: Tahu has red as his primary, but blue flames exist so they accent the primary color. Which is fitting for his personality: one might look at the blue flames (hottest part of the flame) as a symbol of intensity OR as a cool color representing his good heartGali has blue as her primary, but the orange that accents it can stand for sea life like coral. Incidentally a great care for life is part of Gali's personality.Onua has black (color of dirt) as his primary color, accented heavily with trans purple. I really think that color brings to mind crystals.Pohatu had tan in Gen 1 as well but I think the tan and chartreuse-ish we get in 2015 really calls to mind the desert: sand and sun, respectively.Red/azure, blue/orange, black/purple, and brown/yellow-green are really brand new "universal" element schemes that are repeated between sets and I'm really liking the amount of variance in color, even if a lot of the sets don't quite hit the mark.

Honestly, DeeVee, your Lego photographing skills are pretty frightening here. I didn't notice the lack of red until you pointed it out...is it the blue background that makes everything look redder or was I just blinded by my expectations that Tahu should be red? I can't disagree with any of the negative points, but I'm gonna focus on the positives here and say this mask is one of my favorites in a long time. To quote the review itself the design really does "ooze Tahu". I'd really like to see it on a classic Nuva revamp, I'm talking red/orange/silver. Not to badmouth Tahu's gold look in gen 2 (because I actually really love it), I think that mask would look really fantastic on a moc with silver instead of gold.

Oh wow what a great use of minifig capes! Assuming that's what those are :\ He's got a whole lot of personality. I don't like the skull spider mask much but you really worked it into the design harmoniously. Is there any function here or are the gear/rubber band purely aesthetic? (they look aesthetic to me but just wondering..)

Heh, look at those feet additions! Neat! That's one of the biggest parts of Pohatu I miss in G2, aside from his kind eyes and gentle personality. Any plans to do other tiny versions of characters?

@Mohamed: I looked up shipping and unfortunately I can't afford anything outside North America @keith: For sure, as long as all the pieces and instructions are included in good condition. I am moving across the country in a couple of weeks though so the sooner the better. Were you interested in Matoro, Nuparu, or both? As for the Ultrabuilds sets, which are you willing to offer? The ones I'm particularly interested in are the 2014 ones.

They should just bring back shadow leeches and call it a day. Everyone with shadow leeches. In a bunch of different colors.

UPDATE! So I realized I also have an unopened Matoro. This one is up for trade as well. @Mohamed: I'll look into it! Not sure if I can ship to UK, I have very limited funds, but it sounds like a good trade if you can get your hands on a PoE... Jaller, Kongu, and Hahli are sold. I'll update the OP to reflect this.

Radical, how's Lewa/LOSS/Onua for Jaller/Kongu/Hahli? I'll PM you later, gotta get to work now!

Possibly. Since those are the lowest-value sets could you maybe switch one of them for Kopaka, Onua, or even LOSS? I also updated the post--interested in other constraction, especially Chima Ultrabuilds and Hero Factory if you'd be able to substitute one of those.

Let me just say that if it were another franchise I'd totally watch a psychic dinosaur movie. Specifically, like, a terrible b-movie. Heh. Jurassic Park though? Hm. Hmmmmmm. While we're talking hard/soft I think Jurassic Park likes to think of itself as fairly hard so it's kind of weird they'd put something like that into it. Seems like something from James Cameron's Avatar even (or I guess Interstellar?), not like a Star Wars type magical force but more like trying to explain magic through fakey sciencey words. Though I've never seen it so I dunno if that's how they handle psychic dinosaurs.

I've got unopened, good condition canister Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Matoro and Nuparu sets. The light-up weapons have working batteries in them still. Jaller, Hahli, and Kongu have been traded! Looking to sell them, ideally as a lot, but separately works as well. I'm down for selling them, I'm looking for ~$30 for any one of them, but that's negotiable. Stuff I'm looking for, tradeways (if we're trading something of a lower value than the sets i'll hack the value off the total price): translucent neon green mirumisprint yellow kaukaugold kraahkanANY event exclusive Gen 2 maskalso i'm just generally looking for gen 2 sets, all I have is Tahu. I'll MAYBE trade one unopened canister for one unopened canister, or one canister for two protectors. also interested in basically any Chima Ultrabuilds, and most Hero Factory stuff after Savage Planet. Comment here or PM me if you're interested.

I know it used to be kind of cool to hate the Mistika but I still don't like them at all. Krika and Tahu are good, Bitil is average, but I really really don't like Gali, Onua, or Gorast. Too lanky, ugly masks, the play function/weapons were terrible and bulky (though that's not unique to the Mistika I guess)

[skull grinder voice] everybody just Stick To The Plan

oh my goodness congratulations!!!!! thats so good to hear oh gosh i havent been able to take my dose in weeks....my muscle's just completely rejecting the needle. bummer

Oh definitely. I like to think the Vahki will be kept in as robot police squads, and they're slowly replacing the human ranks, so there's some conflict there. They're a major plot point I have in mind actually.

I've had an idea for a really long time but it might be too silly to make a semi-serious thing-- Humanized Nidhiki/Lhikan/Krekka and others in a buddy cop inspired epic on Metru Nui. The idea, I guess, could portray either Nidhiki as an amateur who gets paired with a veteran Lhikan, or maybe a jaded Nidhiki who gets paired with the newbie Krekka and Lhikan is a detective. Of course The Shadowed One would be the chief, and Dume would be the governor, but I don't think I want to go with the classic LOMN plot. Probably a new villain, not a new guy but a "good" or "neutral" Matoran playing the antagonistic role I dunno, I definitely would like to put all these characters on the same side. Lariska, Roodaka, lots of other Dark Hunters as well, and the Toa Metru of course. All on the police force of a sorta humanized Metru Nui? Though portraying the DH's as crooked cops and the good guys from Metru Nui as a gang opposing TSO's regime could be cool too. Idk I'm just FULL OF ideas on this.

Eh, I just suggested Kopaka/Onua because they were the first to spring to mind. Although I'll honestly stick by Onua as a female character if that means she'd be big and bulky. There aren't enough muscular female characters in kids' stuff, IMO! Gen 2 sorta changed personalities around a bit so Onua could stay wise and strong but maybe have some other traits that set her apart from Gali/docile traits.