Nato G

Let's everybody just calm down, shall we? A few points to clarify: Matoro Lives - I haven't gone to all of those sites you've mentioned, but I find it odd that you talk about hostile behavior on this forum. I've been here a while now, and I've never seen anything hostile. There are a lot of heated arguments sometimes, which is to be expected, (everyone has their own opinion, and their entitled to it) but I've never seen anything that I would describe as hostile. If anything like that did occur there would be some rather nasty consequences for the guilty party, delivered by the Iron Hand of the Admin. I might also add that I've been to several sites (Brickipedia, BS01 and some chats on LMB) that have nothing but glowing approval for BZPower. I've never before heard anything about any online community hating BZPower. Or indeed, about any Bionicle fan community having a larger number of users than us. I could be wrong about this, but I'm just going on what I've personally observed. Octodad - I mostly spend my time on the Bionicle Discussion part of this forum, so I don't know what else goes on elsewhere on this site, but BZP is a Bionicle fansite, and Bionicle has been discontinued for almost five years now. Exactly what sort of support have we been getting from Lego? I'm not trying to refute your point here; I agree with it, but I'm curious about what you mean about support.

I liked Bara Magna. It was a nice change of pace and setting, and it took us back to the true roots of the entire story. That desert waste was where it all began, the birthplace of the Matoran Universe. It left me with this respectful sense of awe for the location, but maybe that's just me.

Probably because it's a curse word, and is more often used as one. There are several other words you can use that aren't curse words. There's other uses for other curse words too, but they also will remained blocked and you will call your donkeys donkeys and your dogs dogs. Unfiltering that word is opening up a can of worms that the staff probably really doesn't want to deal with. You have a fair point. That probably is a can of worms that doesn't need opening. But see my above post regarding the word "bloody". Used in the context "covered in blood" it is perfectly reasonable, but it can also be used as a curse word. I don't know about you, but where I'm from, "bloody" is considered more of a curse than the other word (with the exception of the local Catholic primary school). It just strikes me as unusual that one would be filtered and he other would not. Doesn't the admin trust us to... choose our words wisely?

We had discussion topic about the leaks policy a while back, and despite some very convincing arguments, both for and against updating/changing the policy, nothing changed. The admin are adamant about keeping it, and nothing is likely to change their minds. There's isn't much we can do about it, so we'll just have to learn to live with it. When I made my earlier comment, I wasn't trying to start another argument against the policy, so I apologise if that is what I've started. I was expressing my frustration at not having any sort of concrete information from Lego despite there being so much leaked info splashed across the four corners of the interwebs.

Hang on, just checking something. Is the word "bloody", in the context of "covered in blood" filtered? EDIT: No it isn't. Cool, I can use that in my fanfic then. BTW, is there any way to tell which words/phrases/whatever are filtered without having to put them in a post and hope for the best? Are all of the filters listed somewhere or anything?

In other news, I think Greg has either overlooked or ignored my question on the Chat on LMB.

Chronicles of the Cold Hearted Part 10 – Prison Break “I don’t believe it,” Trina breathed, seeing for the first time the dozen armoured Toa and Glatorian marching towards the outskirts of the camp. She turned to Icthilos, who was busy sharpening his blades. “How did you convince them to help you?” “I didn’t. Graedak did, actually. He was kind enough to mention that Maliss was waiting just outside the camp. Naturally, the settlement’s protectors couldn’t just sit by and let that slide, so they’re gathering a team to drive him off.” “Right…” Trina smirked, “You really should’ve been our leader. You’re far better at manipulating people than Maliss was.” “I don’t think being manipulative makes for a good leader.” Icthilos collapsed his blades back into the gauntlet and turned to face her. “Besides, you need to be a good liar to manipulate someone, and Maliss is far better at that than me. I just let the Toa do their job. There’s nothing manipulative about that.” “Okay, manipulative may have been a poor choice of words. I’m not a good talker, you know that.” Trina brushed off his comments, “My point still stands. You would have made a better leader than Maliss. There are a lot of displaced Toa out here, who’ve lost their teams, and their friends. Maybe you should consider making your own team? It’ll give them, and us, something to belong to again.” “That can wait. I don’t expect anyone to follow me when all I want is Maliss’ head on a pike. That goes against everything these Toa stand for. Once Maliss is dealt with, I’ll think about the future.” “Forward planning is always a good idea,” Trina tried to push. “I’ve been winging it my entire life, and it’s worked just fine.” Icthilos replied adamantly. “I like your idea, but now is not the time. Okay? Just let it go, for now.” “Fine.” Trina conceded. “Fine. You’re probably right. I just think… you deserve it. You deserve to prove that you can be a better leader than Maliss. Not just that. You need to prove it. To yourself, more than anyone else.” With that, she started walking off after the column of defenders. Icthilos waited for a moment, thinking over what she’d said, before following. * * * “Something’s wrong.” Crahkna pointed out, jabbing a finger in the direction of the camp. “What gave it away?” Hakkzan hissed nervously/ “Be quiet,” Maliss snarled softly, “It seems Graedak failed in his rather simple task. Let’s see if he can get the second part of his mission right.” “What second part?” Crahkna asked, confused. He tore his eyes away from the group of Glatorian and Toa marching towards their position up on the dunes, and looked at Maliss. “Wait and see.” Maliss replied calmly, raising his hand to shade his eyes. He looked down at the camp, past the column of defenders to the cluster of buildings built from scrap parts from the robot, which served as prison cells for the enemies captured during the final battle and the days that followed. He watched, and he waited to see what would happen. * * * “Please don’t kill me!” Graedak stammered. He’d barely been in the shared cell for ten minutes, and already he’d managed to incur the wrath of one of its less friendly occupants, the tall, menacing Skakdi warlord Nektann, who seemed fully prepared to do all kinds of painful, unpleasant things to him just to make him shut up. “I won’t,” Nektann promised darkly, “that would be too easy.” He hit Graedak with a blow that flung him against the far wall, where he crumpled to the floor, groaning. Something fell to the floor, and he picked it up, recognising it as a tightly rolled scroll note from Maliss. It had been wrapped around one of his spines. Graedak realised that Maliss must have put it there when he grabbed him to throw him down the hill. He unrolled it and read it through, then looked up at Nektann. “Today’s your lucky day,” he said, “we’re getting out of here.” “What are you talking about?” one of the other Skakdi in the cell asked. “We can’t. These walls are too thick. Even combining our powers, we can’t make a dent.” “Think low-tech.” Graedak grinned, breaking the metal tube at the base of the scroll and picking up the small knife and lockpicks hidden inside. “You take this.” He tossed the knife to Nektann, hoping that the bigger Skakdi would accept the peace offering and not try to kill him “and I’ll take these.” “Perhaps I might not kill you after all.” Nektann mused, standing back with the other Skakdi while Graedak went to work on the heavily barred door. A few minutes later, the door popped open with a soft click. “Well done.” Graedak heard Nektann breathe right over his shoulder. He felt the knife slide smoothly into his lower back, but he didn’t feel pain from the strike, only numbness. Graedak’s lower body went entirely limp, his spine severed. “I thought you said you weren’t going to kill me…” he stammered weakly, as Nektann knelt over him. “I said I might not. I changed my mind.” With that, he drove the knife home. To be continued…

...that is literally the worst way to go about this. For starters, if Lego leaked secrets every time someone begged, they'd go out of business. You know this is a joke, right? Obviously it isn't going to work. I'm expressing my dislike for the fact that Lego hasn't said anything at all about these rumours. Besides, Lego wouldn't be leaking any secrets. Someone else already did that. I just want Lego to take responsibility for their security issue and tell us whether the already-leaked secrets are legit or not. Big difference.

Okay, I'm getting very bored of all of this information coming to light, then subsequently being revealed to be leaked, and thus not allowed to be discussed. We need to pool our resources and bribe/beg/bully Lego into making an official announcement (although personally, I think the fact that they haven't denied the rumours is the same as confirming them). I needs knowledge! I can't wait for 2015, I must know now!!!

I don't think many fans would have been happy with a dodgy downer ending like that. I suspect the fanbase would have been even angrier than they were when it just ended. At least Stars was an actual conclusion, with the final defeat of Teridax and all. Agreed. Besides, I know more than a few people were outraged that the Nuva screwed the universe over by simply fulfilling their destiny. An absolutely brilliant plot twist stunning in its audacity, but not a good place to end the entire story IMO. I agree. It was Bionicle's best plot twist, and a good place to end that part of the saga. But not the place to finish the entire storyline.

As far as everyone I know is concerned, Bionicle is dead and buried. My old friends have moved on with their lives, and my family thinks I'm crazy for still building MOC's and rereading the serials and joining this community. Then, lo and behold, Bionicle 2015 rumours, and suddenly my life seems to be improving.

I live in Australia and New Zealand prices are usually pretty close to ours, but even so, these prices do seem a bit much. Agori/Matoran sets were usually around $10-$12 (except the stars, which were overpriced between $15-$20). Toa/Glatorian ranged from $15-$25 over the years, as the sets grew bigger, and titans were usually somewhere between $30 to $45, depending on the size. Combiner sets were even more expensive, usually in the hundreds. Wait... is this list official, or is it a leak, which we are then not meant to be discussing? EDIT: Okay, it's gone, I guess it's leaked.

I don't think many fans would have been happy with a dodgy downer ending like that. I suspect the fanbase would have been even angrier than they were when it just ended. At least Stars was an actual conclusion, with the final defeat of Teridax and all.

We already know why Velika wanted Mata Nui to survive. It's obvious, really. If Mata Nui and Makuta didn't complete their dual destiny and repair the planet, then there wouldn't have been any Spherus Magna for Velika to rule in the first place.

Desperate times call for desperate measures? The Great Spirit was dying, after all. That said, I will agree that it did seem a little over the top.

If there was truly nothing great about the Toa Mata, I would think Bionicle would have come to a screeching halt by year one, don't you? Also, equating opinionated people to Nazis comes off as a little disrespectful to victims of the Holocaust. I would take the original Toa Mata over the jokes we got in 2008 that tried to bear their names any day; they had far more personality to them. Okay, using the word nazis might have been a little over the top, I'll admit, but I'm getting really tired of people hating on Bionicle's later years just because they apparently couldn't move on from the nostalgic early years. No offence, but it's been ten years since those years of nostalgia ended. Time to move on, methinks.

YES! I can finally use the word idiot! But here's what's annoying me: the word that means the opposite of heaven is still filtered. My reaction: "Why the is blocked by the filter?" Blocking it for using it in the way I just used it is understandable, but I only discovered this when I used it in a genuine situation, when comparing the way the island of Mata Nui was portrayed to be a paradise, but Voya Nui was depicted as a . Only then did I discover that my choice word was blocked. Can someone explain why this word is blocked when, like "jerk" it has a non-insulting, non-offensive meaning?

Has anyone thought to ask Greg who the agents are? If not, perhaps we should select the current top contenders and ask him if any of them are reporting to Velika. Since the present top three are Vastus, Atakus and Metus, we should start with them. I'll go do it now, actually.

I didn't much like them, to be honest. My first sets were Toa Nuva Lewa and Tahu, but I did get one of the Toa Mata sets (Lewa) later on, and I still liked the Nuva better. I I always felt the designs got better over the years, rather than worse, which is what a lot of people seem to think. I like my tall, broad, fully pose-able 2008 Toa Nuva far better than their tiny, puny original Nuva sets. Even the gears that made their arms move and stuff really annoyed me, and I always went out of my way to rebuild my sets without them. I preferred being able to pose my figures the way I wanted to, instead of the gears slipping back into their original positions. Later year's sets were better because they were far bigger and more pose-able. So in answer to the original question: what's so great about the Toa Mata, I say (and I know a lot of nostalgia nazis are probably going to want to kill me for saying this, but) nothing.

Getting "dark" isn't "growing up", especially not how Bionicle did it. Voya Nui was the darkest, grittiest location Bionicle ever had, and you know what? It felt like a farce. Locations and Rahi were described by how many people they'd killed, characters constantly made sure to trash the brighter mood of earlier years, everything was extreme and deadly, blah blah blah. It was terrible. That's not the Bionicle I want to come back, and that's probably not the Bionicle that's coming back. Do you know why? Sorry, I had to come back to this after rereading it. You're complaining that locations and rahi were described by how many people they've killed, but last time I checked (and I live in Australia, so I check often), that's the way we gauge how dangerous a thing or place is in real life as well. You can't fault Bionicle for being realistic and logical for once. Except it wasn't just to gauge how dangerous it was. It was describing ANYTHING on the island. Was Mata Nui described similarly? Was the Vuata Maca described as the darkest, most terrifying tree that a Matoran once exploded upon attempting to climb? Was the Mangai Volcano described as a death pit that could roast any Matoran that fell into it? Was the Hoi described as a terrible beast of torment that claimed the lives of thousands of Matoran each day? Because that's what I mean. Everything on Voya Nui was described like that. The entire island was like a bad parody of a dangerous location. But that's justified, since Mata Nui was meant to be an island paradise, whereas Voya Nui was a fiery ###### (EDIT: okay, seriously, why is the opposite of heaven filtered?) by comparison. Voya Nui was a dangerous location because it was the hiding place of the legendary Mask of Life. The volcano was violently active, the landscape had been decimated by a hurricane, and, to top it all off, the Piraka had gone through and conquered the place. I think the whole thing was meant to establish the idea that the stakes of the story had been raised, and that they were now fighting to save Mata Nui's life. Voya Nui wasn't a "bad parody" of a dangerous location, it was a dangerous location.

Getting "dark" isn't "growing up", especially not how Bionicle did it. Voya Nui was the darkest, grittiest location Bionicle ever had, and you know what? It felt like a farce. Locations and Rahi were described by how many people they'd killed, characters constantly made sure to trash the brighter mood of earlier years, everything was extreme and deadly, blah blah blah. It was terrible. That's not the Bionicle I want to come back, and that's probably not the Bionicle that's coming back. Do you know why? Sorry, I had to come back to this after rereading it. You're complaining that locations and rahi were described by how many people they've killed, but last time I checked (and I live in Australia, so I check often), that's the way we gauge how dangerous a thing or place is in real life as well. You can't fault Bionicle for being realistic and logical for once.

Yes, but those were actually collectible; by 2006, it had devolved to balls in metallic colors, and in 2007, it was squids that only came in 2 colors. Collectibility suffered greatly through the years. The problem wasn't the amount; without a large variety of things to collect, what's the point? If there were only three superhero action figures to collect, completing a collection would be appallingly simple. The point of collectibility is to collect them all. There was far more thrill in collecting the wide variety of masks in 2001-03 than in collecting two colors of useless squid in 2007. And yes, calling them useless is taking into account their "function" as "ammunition". I don't see how focusing on one important location for a few years made the early years the worst years? Mata Nui had a lot to explore in those three years. The set designs may not have had a lot of diversity, but what they did was set up a standard. Of course later designs were an improvement on the Mata; if they weren't, it would mean the set designers failed to innovate. And for many people, it wasn't the sets that made the early years (though the Bohrok are still some of the best canister sets ever made); it was the story, which I think was better then, especially because in 2006 the story tried turning "dark" and ended up hideous as a result. I never liked the collectibles at all, to be honest. I saw no point in collecting an excessive amount of ammunition, or masks, or Kraata. Most of them were of absolutely no use to me, since I already had enough to fit all of my sets, and I never seemed to lose the ammunition I already had, so why would I need more? I saw all of the collectibles as cheap gimmicks, and I think Lego recognised this as well, since there were a lot less of them in later years.

I think we need to stop thinking of these guys as spies and think of them more as... agents. Some of them must have been taking a more active role than simply keeping tabs on the villages. Also, I think it' fairly safe to assume that Velika has at least one of these agents in each village, plus a few other key locations. Going on the assumption that there was at least one agent in each village, each with a specific task, here are my candidates. Metus: I've given plenty of reasons for suspecting him in my previous posts in this topic, so I won't bother going through it all over again. From his actions in the 2009 story, I'm assuming his task was to raise an army in preparation for Velika's arrival. Raanu: I didn't suspect him at first, but there are some very convincing arguments. He has worked with he GB's in the past, so it would make sense. I imagine his task for Velika would have been to earn the villager's trust and work himself into a position of power and authority, so that Velika's transition to power of the Agori would run smoothly when the time came. Vastus: He's got a lot of guilt for his actions in the war, and Velika has likely promised him redemption. Makes sense to me. My guess is that his job was primarily to keep tabs on his home village, since it is mentioned on his BS01 page that he rarely leaves. This makes sense, since Tesara is one of the few fertile areas on all of Bara Magna, plus it has a steady water supply. Keeping one of his agents firmly in control of this region would be in Velika's best interests, I would think. Malum: I think Malum may have been working for Velika as well. I don't know what h might have been doing for Velika before he went rogue, but I can guess why he went to go live with the Vorox. Picture this: Velika is talking to Kabrua one day, and Kabrua casually asks how the Bara Magna Vorox are faring. So Velika sends one of his agents to go find out. That might explain how Malum learnt to communicate with the Vorox as well; Velika taught him. Surel: He chose to live in the mountains, unarmed, crippled and alone with only a pack of wolves for company. I suspect this is because Velika told him to. We weren't given enough information on Surel's character for me to guess what Velika might have promised him, but my guess is that Velika has him and his wolves watching over the Element Lords, the Valley of the Maze and other nearby locations, keeping him posted on any new developments. Atakus: For those of you who think he's just a glorified gate guard, you should really read his BS01 page. After the shattering, he led the Rock Agori for a time. Yes, he guarded the gates of Roxtus at one point as well, which means he got to see everyone who ever went in and out of the city. He also acted as a liaison between Tuma and the other villages, and he spent a lot of time with Stronius. He was very well connected, which makes him the perfect spy. He also worked closely with Metus when he started his bid for power. Building an army to conquer all of Bara Magna is a difficult job for just one person, so Velika had two of his agents working on it. At least, that's how it seems to me. The only point where I'm undecided is Tajun. Tarix is too noble and honourable to be a spy, I think. Him being a Velika agent goes against everything that was established about his character in the past, and we know Greg doesn't like doing that. Kiina's obsession with other worlds struck me as too genuine to be a cover, and I again doubt that Greg would make one of Mata Nui's closest friends on Bara Magna be working for a GB. Plus she's expressed a lot of hate for the Great Beings, which I doubt she would show if she worked for one. I even doubt that it's Berix, since he was also close to Mata Nui, and most of his character development was about proving he wasn't a thief. I don't think Greg would go through so much effort to establish Berix to be a decent guy only to reveal that he was actually a snitch the whole time. So it's either a more minor character, or perhaps there was no spy in Tajun? These are just my thoughts. There could well be more or less agents in different places than the ones I've mentioned. Has anyone asked Greg? Do you think he'll put all of our worries to rest and tell us who the agents were?

Okay, I'm going to be really bold here and admit that I actually liked the Av-Matoran builds. Now, before you all for exiling me to Karzahni for blasphemy, might I point out that this is an opinion poll. That means I'm allowed to give my opinion, which is what I have just done. Now here's why I liked them. They were simple compared to Matoran from previous years, and well-priced for their size. They were bigger as well, which I liked. Here's the big one for me: they had their own individual masks! Think about it. Did any matoran sets from prior years come with their own masks? Not that I know of. They reused old masks from previous years. What I liked about the Av-Matoran (and the later Agori sets that used the same build) was that they were small, cheap sets that had unique masks. Some of them had really useful parts as well, so they were excellent sources of parts for MOCing.

What do you mean when "Bionicle stopped feeling like Bionicle?" Every year Bionicle brought something different. A lot of people seem to hate anything that didn't resembled the nostalgia of Bionicle's early years on the island of Mata Nui, losing interest, like you say, 2004 onward. I honestly thought Bionicle's early years were its worst. They spent two or three years at a time reusing the same locations, and all of the heroes and villains were clones of the others in the same wave. 2005 was kinda meh. I didn't get into it too much. 2006 was better. New building system, new chapter in the story (that wasn't a prequel), new heroes and a new island. And then 2007 with the diverse designs of the Barraki and Mahri. That was when I became really interested. "Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either". Didn't Bionicle's early years have the most ridiculous amount of collectibles? Masks and Kraata and Krana and Kanoka disks? I don't remember seeing nearly as many collectibles in later years.