Matoro Lives

ARE YOU READY FOR A MIRACLE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

He's a decent writer, not a great one, but a decent one. He had good work (Time Trap, Matoro's sacrifice) and he had bad work (the unfinished serials, alternate universes). I don't count Bara Magna as one of his failures, because even though it was poorly written, it wasn't Greg's fault. The Bara Magna arc was originally supposed to go 3 years, but Lego decided to cancel Bionicle. So Greg was forced to cram 3 years of story into one year. His work on Ninjago was mediocre at best. I read a few of the books and they are quite childish, but I still think he did an overall good job on Bionicle.

I chose other response because to me, Hero Factory represents every possible way Lego could screw up a theme. The concept was great and it had the potential for a great story, but the characters were sooooo poorly written and easy to hate. The little story that was decent left unanswered cliffhangers. The sets (with the exception of wave 1, witch docter, and the XLs) mainly consisted of the annoying snap-on armor building system, a nuisance to creative MOCists everywhere. Many of these issues caused a divide in the constraction community itself, causing much hatred between the numerous sites with a constraction fanbase. Essentially, Lego screwed up BIG TIME! They took what could have been a great successor theme and ruined all potential for success.

If you want to risk all of the support Lego gives us over a few leaks? Sure, you could make a case for an exception. Leaks always spread and BZPower has always stood tight on ignoring them, because that's a necessary policy to keep Lego from hating us. Also, according to Black Six, activity on this site is actually at its highest in years, despite being unable to discuss leaks. I don't think it's as big of a deterrent as you think it is. The activity has been up because fans have been coming here for news on the leaks, only to be disappointed. Sure, the activity is up, but people leave almost as soon a the come because of this stupid leak policy. BZP doesn't even represent the majority of the constraction community anymore, I'm surprised lego still supports this site. Websites like tumblr, 4chan, and eurobricks are where the majority of the fans hangout now. It's mostly just the Hero Factory fanboys, the BZP loyalists, and some bionicle fans that use BZP now. Our numbers are shrinking whether you want to believe it or not. If BZP keeps up this negative attitude we will just keep losing members. This sounds a lot like you're speaking from how things "feel" rather than having actual numbers to support it. Where's your evidence that people are immediately leaving? Evidence is everything in a court of law, and also here. What I have is testimony from Black Six that BZPower is experiencing the most activity it's had since Bionicle ended, and also the fact that if the staff allowed discussion of leaked images, Lego would likely revoke all support they give this site, which would hurt far more than waiting to find out this information legally. I don't see why BZPower should ever aspire to be like 4chan or Eurobricks. They're both terrible communities. "When evidence is unattainable let observation and deductive inference lead the way". I cannot give you evidence, but I do have testimonies from close to 50 members of these various sites. The majority of them warned me to stay away from BZP because it is such a hostile environment for Bionicle fans (like your last post just proved), and to just give up on BZP. A simple search for Bionicle on tumblr will lead to a Bionicle community easily 10 times larger than BZP. I don't know what your problem is with eurobricks, considering their community is much friendly than the one here, but they too have a much larger fanbase than BZP. True, 4chan is not the best of sites, but they too possess a Bionicle fanbase that rivals ours. Almost all of the 4chan members and many of the tumblr users hate BZP, dubbing us Hero***s and many other unpleasant names. Over the past few months all of these communities have had an increased flow of new members and almost all of them claimed to be from BZP and they all blamed it on either a hostile environment, or ridiculous leak censorship. I cannot present any numbers, because I have no control over any of these sites, but trust me I have observed these communities for a few years, and this is one of the biggest BZP exoduses I have seen since Bionicle ended. Frankly, although I cannot give exact numbers I can confidently estimate from observing these communities that BZP probably only represents (at the most) 10% of the constraction community (and that is a generous estimation, it's most likely less).

If you want to risk all of the support Lego gives us over a few leaks? Sure, you could make a case for an exception. Leaks always spread and BZPower has always stood tight on ignoring them, because that's a necessary policy to keep Lego from hating us. Also, according to Black Six, activity on this site is actually at its highest in years, despite being unable to discuss leaks. I don't think it's as big of a deterrent as you think it is. The activity has been up because fans have been coming here for news on the leaks, only to be disappointed. Sure, the activity is up, but people leave almost as soon a the come because of this stupid leak policy. BZP doesn't even represent the majority of the constraction community anymore, I'm surprised lego still supports this site. Websites like tumblr, 4chan, and eurobricks are where the majority of the fans hangout now. It's mostly just the Hero Factory fanboys, the BZP loyalists, and some bionicle fans that use BZP now. Our numbers are shrinking whether you want to believe it or not. If BZP keeps up this negative attitude we will just keep losing members.

Do you think we could make an exception to the no leaks rule and actually discuss the Bionicle leaks since they are pretty much plastered over every other Lego fan site? I'm finding this new BZP extreme censorship a little disconcerting. We are losing members over this whole no leaks policy.

But you forget that the character designs for the movies were terribly done, and that you cannot really rely on the movie designs to determine what is a canon design and what is not. Many of the movie designs were barely recognizeable in comparison to their action figure designs. Never rely on the movies for character design info, always refer to the sets/combo models/contest MOCs. Whenever I build takutanuva, I always use the combo side of the mask because it represents the character so well. The movie doesn't really do the actual model justice.

Tuma was a character from the Bara Magna story arc. Greg was rushed through that particular arc and forced to wrap things up earlier than he planned due to Lego ending Bionicle. Apparently, Greg had originally intended for the Bara Magna arc to last 3 years, but that didn't work out as we all know. When you compress a story like that, you have to cut corners somewhere. Tuma was most likely an example of this. I would imagine that, had Greg been given more time to write, Tuma would be a very different character in TLR.

Do you guys think the Toa Nuva could still become Kaita after receiving their adaptive armor? Could other teams of Toa become Kaita as well? Matoran, Bohrok-kal, and Rahkshi can all form Kaitas, why not other toa like the Inika/Mahri, or the Metru/Hordika?

Mimic or Gladiator

I would imagine Artahka, Karzanhi, Tren Krom, and possibly even Helryx, Teridax, and Mizerex, knew or had some knowledge on how to create Makuta with antidermis.

My theory always was: Mata Nui's navigation and piloting systems were not fully functional (i.e. Mata Nui was still "booting up") at the time of Spherus Magna's destruction, so the Great Beings used manual pilots to get the robot into space before it was destroyed in Spherus Magna's explosion. The Great Beings later had the glatorian killed to keep the secrets of the robot safe.

Suicide missions seem like the easiest answer, since Teridax used the same method for getting rid ot the Toa Mangai. I have a headcanon that Teridax would slowly capture the antidermis of his makuta and return it to the antidermis pool on one of the southern islands. The merging of the antidermis would cause the makuta's mind to be wiped and Teridax could always return to the pool if he needed to create a new brainwashed makuta for himself.

I have a golden kraahkan from the tower of toa, but I'm not sure if it's gold or pearl gold, and I'm not interested in selling. EDIT: I did some research and I believe my Kraahkan is gold not pearl gold.

I would love to see a Lego Island reboot, as well as a Bionicle MMORPG. I think a bionicle MMORPG would have a lot of interesting potential. It certainly seems a lot more appealling than Lego's other MMORPGs. Bionicle already has an incredibly in-depth story (arguably the best storyline ever written for a Lego theme) to coincide with the game. It's always easier to build an MMORPG on a solid storyline rather than start from scratch because RPG games are essentially a storyline that you put your own spin on depending on the decisions you make. In the game, you would start out as a matoran and quest your way around Mata Nui looking for Toa stones. After you find the stones you choose your element by visiting the Turaga of the same element, and become a toa. Additional Turaga of different elements could be added to various areas of Mata Nui so that you can choose from more than just the basic 6 elements. You continue through the game travel to other islands where you can collect items to become a Toa Inika or a Toa Nuva. The Toa Nuva would have additional techniques and skills you can learn, whereas the Inika would have increased power because of the lightning running through them. You would eventually aquire adaptive armor which allows you to transform into Toa Mahri/Phantoka/Mistika whenever you want. All this time you would aid the main Toa teams (Nuva, Inika, and Hagah) in their quest to stop the Makuta and Dark Hunters

We shouldn't get too excited about these leaks. As real as they seem, it's not the first time a realistic scam has come out. Remember the so-called limited edition mutated Brutaka from 2007? Or the Lego James Bond theme that was supposed to come out this year? Don't buy into these leaks completely... As far as I'm concerned we won't have undeniable evidence until Lego officially announces a Bionicle return

We never get any actual sales figures, which is frustrating. We can only go on Lego's occasional statements, which often lack important details. For instance, the '05 report says Bionicle's "sales did not live up to expectations". What were those expectations? By how far did the line fail to reach them? Yeah, I read all annual reports from 2001-present, here's what they mention 2001: A sharp increase in sales was partially the work of BIONICLE 2002: BIONICLE sales remained high, it was the best-selling theme of the year. 2003: BIONICLE sales fell about 20%, but it was still LEGO's best-selling theme. 2004: BIONICLE was the best-selling product again, no info about sales. 2005: like you said, sales did not live up to expectations, however it was still the best-selling theme. 2006: BIONICLE isn't mentioned. 2007:BIONICLE was one of LEGO's best sellers, however it did not show any growth. 2008/2009/2010: BIONICLE isn't mentioned again. As for Hero Factory... 2010: A growth in sales was partially due to Hero Factory. 2011/2012/2013: no mention very vague information... ...so in other words, Matoro Lives's claims were as baseless as they seemed. That was all I wanted to know. I got my info from a site called brickpicker.com. Unfortunately, the post with all the sales info on the 2 themes was shut down because they didn't want any legal trouble with lego. I did make notes of some of the more important sales details, but I won't post any official numbers because I don't know if its allowed. I always fact check before making a post, and I never make up random statements out of thin air I'm not sure where you got those statements on bionicle sales, but I know for a fact most of them are incorrect. Bionicle sales actually peaked in 2003. The only reason lego didn't cancel Bionicle back then (there was talk of cancellation at the time) was because the sales were at such a record-breaking high. Lego originally planned for bionicle to be a short-lived technic based theme like slizers, robo riders, throwbots, etc. They had reached a good ending point in the story... as far as anyone knew Makuta was dead, and the toa had won. The outrageously large sales were what caused lego to reconsider cancelling Bionicle. After 2003 sales dropped by about 5,000 to 10,000 sets each year until 2009 when the sales dropped by almost 50,000 sets that year. You guys are all forgetting that there is a difference between kid friendly and childish. Lego can easily make it so that bionicle appeals to all ages. There are lots of children's shows out there that have adult fans as well i.e. Star wars: The Clone Wars, Young Justice, DCAU shows, Avatar: TLA/LOK, etc. Lego just needs to get their heads out of their butts and write/design something more along those lines. Why have something for one or the other, when you can have something for both. Everybody wins if lego did this.

Agreed, if bionicle were to return Lego would have difficulty selling it with the current constraction skeletons. Although there are some *cough cough* the chir brothers *cough cough* who like the current building system, it seems that the majority of the lego constraction community (myself included) find the current system repetetive, uncreative, and overall frustrating to work with. In the event of a bionicle reboot, lego will need to change the current system if they want to attract any decent sales. Considering HF has managed decent sales, and the set designers are adamant about sticking with the new system, I doubt it's going anywhere. I personally don't mind it, and in fact, most of the constraction community I've seen has embraced it, especially the big MOCists. Now, what I would like to see is more connection points; the current system is almost always "snap at ball joints and add shells" and I want them to start mixing it up more. As I stated in a previous post, HF has managed average to slightly below average sales. Themes that have these kind of sales don't last very long, which was why I was surprised Lego kept HF around as long as they did. Obviously, if lego has decided to replace HF they probably want to try and fix whatever problems that caused the massive sales drop after Bionicle ended and HF started. This means that Lego is probably (if they're smart) going to take a look at everything they tried differently with HF and try and figure out what the most hated change was. So far the 2 biggest complaints I've seem in the constraction community about HF are the story (or lack thereof) and the building system. Lego will need to change this if they want to improve the status quo. Bringing back Bionicle but keeping the aspects of HF that people hate will only cause a brief sales boost from nostalgic fans, before the sales revert back to normal. If Lego wants the fans to keep buying, they need to make something that appeals to the majority of them.

Agreed, if bionicle were to return Lego would have difficulty selling it with the current constraction skeletons. Although there are some *cough cough* the chir brothers *cough cough* who like the current building system, it seems that the majority of the lego constraction community (myself included) find the current system repetetive, uncreative, and overall frustrating to work with. In the event of a bionicle reboot, lego will need to change the current system if they want to attract any decent sales.

Do you actually have any sales figures to back this up? While it's true Hero Factory never stood out as far as sales were concerned, it's also true Hero Factory was introduced during LEGO's strong years and BIONICLE was introduced at a time where LEGO was performing very poorly.By the way, your avatar is giving me a nostalgia rush. -Gata I'd also like to see evidence for this. The fact that Hero Factory has run steadily for nearly five years indicates its sales are at least decent. And remember that Bionicle's sales weren't always amazing. The line was nearly cancelled in '03, and appears to have lost all growth from '06 onwards. I found my info on the 2 themes sales on a site that compares and analyzes lego themes. If I can find the page again I will link it to you, but there is no guarantee I will find it again. The site showed that HF has enjoyed average to sometimes slightly below average sales. Most themes that experience those kind of sales generally last 2-3 years. Why Lego decided to let HF enjoy a longer than average run is beyond me, but my best guess is they were expecting another runaway success like Bionicle. Bionicle on the other hand was a smash hit with sales rising rapidly and peaking in 2003, the sales would then drop by about 5,000 to 10,000 sets each year. With the Bionicle fanbase being as huge as it was though, this was a small, slow decline. The problem was lego experienced a somewhat disturbingly large sales drop in 2009, and that combined with the increasing price of designing and manufacturing new constraction parts, led Lego to question the longevity of the theme and ultimately cancel Bionicle. It is also interesting to note that bionicle sold the best in the 3 years that lego promoted it the most. HF never had the promotion bionicle had when they started, and this might also be a factor in it's lower sales.

If lego is reading the signs correctly, they actually would have never cancelled bionicle in the first place. Hero factory is not doing anywhere near as well as bionicle did. HF's best year still sold worse than bionicle's worst year. Bionicle was also lego's most popular original theme, and their 2nd most popular theme overall. It was a bad idea to cancel Bionicle as soon as they did (even though the sales were slowly dropping). Bionicle still dominated a huge portion of Lego's annual profits. Hero factory is only drawing in a fraction of the profit that Bionicle did. I think the reason it took lego so long to realize how bad HF was doing was because they were too busy enjoying the runaway success with Ninjago and Chima. I think lego is finally taking a good look at Hero Factory and realizing they screwed up. Maybe a Bionicle reboot is Lego's way of trying to fix their mistake?

So, in light of the news of a new constraction theme in 2015, and with the recent evidence pointing to a possible Bionicle reboot, we must now ask ourselves: What does all this mean for Hero Factory? Hero Factory sales have always been fairly average (sometimes even below average), and it has not been able to gain the huge fanbase that bionicle possessed. However, this years HF sales have done fairly well and proven that HF still has the potential to succeed. Personally, I think lego should keep HF, but also fully shift it over to a system theme (with the occasional constraction mech). This years HF minifigs were incredibly well designed, and were a major factor in this years sales boost for the theme. Lego ought to build on that success with HF system line-up. What do you guys think lego should do with Hero Factory?

MURICA

I think what you have seen of the show (or wherever your impression of Furno came from) is from the first year. He's still hotheaded, but he's matured a lot since then, to the point where he mentors later rookies like Evo.In any case, I don't think he even started out as quite as hotheaded as Tahu was at the beginning of Bionicle. Rocka fits the bill more, since in Savage Planet he rebuffs Furno's experience and thinks that his natural talent will make him the best at any mission (he, too, matures in later years, although he retains more of that hotheaded streak than Furno).But you forget that Furno's "mentoring" was just another form of his hotheadedness. Furno considers himself experienced enough to mentor Evo, even though in the end he was clueless and Evo had to figure it out for himself. To me it seems like Furno was just feeding his already huge ego, by telling himself he was good enough to mentor. He jumps into the role as "mentor" without thinking and ultimately ends up looking somewhat humbled (as humbled as a guy with his ego can be, anyway) by his "mentoring" attempt.Furno was not, in fact, clueless, nor was he "feeding his already huge ego". What Evo really needed to learn was knowing when to think things through before acting and when to trust his instincts. Furno's advice helped him learn that skill. Being a mentor doesn't mean always having all the answers — a good example is the ineffectiveness of the advice Aang got from his past lives in the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sometimes, even with a mentor, you have to be able to find the answers for yourself.And furthermore, his attitude was anything but hotheaded. He wasn't giving Evo advice because he thought he would be better at it than the other heroes — he was giving advice because Evo knew he had been a rookie recently and had specifically turned to him.Was he humbled somewhat by the attempt? Of course, the same way any first-time teacher will likely be humbled by their experience. But that doesn't mean that he wasn't ready or that he should have pushed Evo to seek advice from a veteran hero like Stormer. Evo had turned to Furno rather than Stormer for a reason, and it would have been irresponsible for Furno to just shrug him off even if there were plenty of times that would have been the easy thing to do.Furno didn't tell Evo what to do because Furno himself had no idea what to do. Furno was not deliberately withholding information from Evo to help him learn, he was withholding information because 1: he was clueless, and 2: he was busy fighting Jawblade. Watch the episode again if you don't believe me. Furno told Evo to figure it out because he had no idea, and didn't want to admit it. You can clearly see it in his body language. As I recall Furno came to Evo at the beginning of the episode and told him he would be willing to help mentor him. Evo later called for help and the brilliant mentor Furno told him to figure it out. There was no real point in Evo even calling Furno if that was the only answer he was gonna get "figure it out". Yes, part of mentoring is letting the student figure things out on their own, but usually the mentor actually has to TEACH the student a little bit before doing that. Its like telling someone you just started teaching to swim to jump in the deep end and leave him there. Furno was neither good at nor qualified to mentor Evo, leading to the conclusion that Furno's mentoring was really just another form of his hotheadedness/enormous ego getting in the way of what could have been some good character development for Evo. I will give props to lego for turning down the level of Furno's ego in Brain Attack and IFB. They still have a long way to go before his character reverts to a more acceptable state (like in Rise of the Rookies). Back when the show started his character was very reminiscent of Tahu, but his ego just continued to grow until it peaked in Savage Planet and Breakout. I don't mind a hotheaded character, but lego took it too far with Furno, and his "mentoring" is just another example of that. Evo would have been wiser to turn to Stormer for advice. Stormer would have been harsher, but he would have been less hotheaded and he would have given good advice. Leaving someone as inexperienced as Evo by himself on a mission was a very foolish move. When Furno was a rookie he always had someone talking him through the missions, whether it was one of the veteran heroes, or the workers back at Hero Factory, Furno was never left to fend for himself.