Nato G

Greg isn't the only person in the world who is a capable writer for Bionicle. I like his work but I think the series could seriously use a little fresh air. The community will need some time to get used to the new person. Even if they're better than Uncle G, they'll probably have a different style. Of course, but instead of holding onto the past for nostalgias sake, I think people should be more embracing to change and give it a chance instead of rejecting it simply because it's not what they're used to. Okay, yeah, good point. I've just realised how hypocritical I sound, when I've been advocating acceptance of change in a few other topics yet fearing the worst on the off chance that Greg isn't involved with the new story. I'm sure you're right. Just because something is different doesn't mean it's bad. I've decided to stop worrying too much about what Bionicle 2015 will be like, and just delight in the fact that it's coming back in the first place.

You know, I only shared my fears about Greg not being on the story team so you lot could tell me that I was wrong, and chastise me for being such an idiot. You have failed to do that, and now I'm really worried about what 2015 is going to be like...

They'll probably retcon the unfinished serials, that way they avoid having to explain how the Toa Mata got back together when one had been kidnapped by jungle Agori, and two of the others were trapped on the Red Star with Mavrah, of all people, and a bunch of insane undead guys. Hopefully Greg wraps that up for us with some kind of explanation as to what happened in between. _____________________________ I had a terrible thought earlier today, and I fell the need to share it, so you can all assure me that I'm wrong about this. Greg keeps insisting that any decisions regarding Bionicle's future would be up to "a future story team", and that there is nothing he can say regarding this topic. What if the reason he claims he doesn't know anything is because he legitimately doesn't know anything? What if Lego, in their infinite (lack of) wisdom, has assembled a new story team WITHOUT GREG?

Okay, well here's a very stupid mistake on Makuta's behalf: underestimating Mata Nui. Makuta thought it would be a great idea to jettison his worst enemy out into space and go off to crush him later on. It's almost as if he wanted to let Mata Nui have a chance to organise a resistance. I understand that the MU robot was damaged, and Makuta needed time to get it fully operational again, but I don't get why he waited months to go after Mata Nui. Why did he shoot him into space in the first place? Why didn't he just hold onto the mask until his death lasers came online, then destroy it then and there? It would have saved his life.

Okay. That makes sense to me. Thanks for clarifying. ______________________ I think we should all stop jumping at shadows, and wait until we get some kind of official confirmation from Lego. I just hope that happens soon.

This is entirely a question of personal opinion. It's hard to say that there was a single pivotal point where Bionicle "went wrong". A lot of people say 2006, but to me, that's where it started getting better. I liked the new set designs, and I loved the way they were reused so creatively in completely different ways in later years. 2006-2009 was where Bionicle "went right" for me, not "went wrong". I passionately hated the 2010 sets, but loved the story. That wasn't Bionicle "going wrong". That was Lego being cheap. Even the alternate universes. I didn't think they were entirely necessary to the progression of the story, but it still didn't represent any kind of "going wrong" for Bionicle. What I loved about the sets, and the story was that they were continually changing. The story went to amazing new places, and the builds reflected that. I loved the fact that each year was completely different, and that nothing ever did stay the same. Bionicle's evolution was where it went right. So where did Bionicle go wrong? If you ask me, it didn't.

I felt obliged to vote for Roodaka. She was about the only thing I really liked about the 2005 storyline. She was the first strong female villain to appear in the story, and is still one of my favourites.

I think we had good vehicles of every kind. I mean, we had four or five different motorbikes, several jet planes and rockets, rahi-drawn chariots, spiky dune buggies of death, giant scorpion robots... We even had mech suits in the form of the exo-Toa. I think they did an excellent job of covering all of the bases.

I do believe I've mentioned that I wanted Teridax to stay dead. And Greg can confirm whatever he wants, but as he's said before, he can't control what a future story team says or does. That said, I hope he's right about this. Teridax had his time, and it was certainly a good time, but it's done now. The Makuta of Metru Nui died with his city. End. Of. Story.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/NullPointerException.html So basically what it means is that some "object" in Java (a program, piece of code) is pointing to a program or piece of code that doesn't exist, or to something that evaluates to something that doesn't exist (i.e. null). My guess is that they pulled down a piece of their server-side Java code in order to work on it, and that's what caused the errors. Or they could have decided to update the version of Java that their web server was running on - but I suspect the former, largely because of the relatively small amount of references (that's the long list) and the other crashes/problems going on. This, however, does not indicate that new content is being added for a Bionicle return. Looking at the source of the error, www.shop.lego.com/en-US/#shopxlink, reveals multiple .jsp files. That's what contains Java. However, their purpose appears to be merely functional, not content related. <a id="quick-view-product-851318" class="btn-quick-view btn-small white test-quick-view-product-851318" href="/en-US/catalog/quickView/quickViewProduct.jsp?productCode=851318">This .jsp file opens a quick view for a product. Another indicates order status. To add content, you would expect to see alterations to CSS or HTML files, and possibly JavaScript, but not in .jsp files designed to perform a certain functional attribute. Server-side programming languages (such as Java, here) generally add content to a web server that is generated by users, not content for us to see. It's the stuff that adds your purchase to the web server so people on the other end can see it and send your order, that kind of thing. So the error is real, but it doesn't indicate a Bionicle return any more than my ability to use a wrench indicates my ability to paint. * * * While I'm talking web design stuff, I should point out that web sites are, for the most part, transparent. That means that everything on Lego's web server currently is accessible to us as long as we know the file pathway to get to it. Also, there is no way that having Bionicle pages in the recesses would cause errors unless current files that we can see (like that error with the "Coming Soon! page) point to them. (Such errors would take the form of broken HTML links that would point to Bionicle content, not server fails.) Given Lego's penchant for security, however, I think any Bionicle webpages are not on their web server currently. At least, not where anyone can easily find them. So people can stop interpreting every little error as evidence of a Bionicle return. I didn't understand most of what you just said, but you seem to know what you're talking about, so I'm going to just take your word for it.

I almost forgot that bit about Takanuva's destiny. If it is a continuation, then I hope we finally get to find out what that destiny is. If it isn't, then Greg had better tell us what Takanuva's destiny was going to be, just for closure's sake. I have a feeling that if it's a reboot or retelling or something, they're going to cut an awful lot of characters, to avoid complicating things.

Brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. Well done. Farewell Matoro, may you rest in peace.

why don't you edit it so "rf p0fvg-bpoooooooo" is no longer in the comment? Because the cat's input on this discussion is clearly important as well. Probably. Maybe...

Makuta's only mistake was not planning ahead. Which is kind of ironic, in actuality, considering that he's famous for his great big brilliant plan. Think about it, he planned and adapted all these different strategies to ensure that he could conquer the universe. First he shut down Mata Nui so that the Makuta Brotherhood could step up and take his place. When the Toa derailed that operation, he came up with a new strategy that involved letting the Toa win, which in turn would help him win. But that's where the planning stopped. He never considered the possibility that sometime after taking over this giant, all-powerful giant robot body someone, on the inside or the outside, might find a way to defeat him. He was arrogant. He didn't think he needed backup plans anymore. If he'd had contingency plans to consider the possibility of being defeated or irreparably damaged, he might have still been able to survive the destruction of the Matoran Universe. and live to fight another day. So Makuta's biggest mistake, at least in my eyes, was his single-minded arrogance.

That's exactly why I feel sorry for Tuma. Yes, he was evil, yes he wanted to conquer Bara Magna, and yes, he was willing to kill and destroy in order to do that, but, unlike some of the other villains we've seen in Bionicle over the years, he had a justified, sympathetic reason for doing it. He really was doing what he felt was best for his people. I can't fault him for that. As Bionicle villains go, he was surprisingly selfless. A lot of his decisions weren't made for personal gain, but for the good of all of the Skrall. Stronius and Branar are still out there, at least. I kind of hope one of them manages to carry out Tuma's last order of offing Metus. The little snake (I meant that figuratively, not literally, since he isn't a snake anymore) deserves it after everything he's done.

I'm fairly confident that Teridax is indeed dead, but I've been thinking of a possible scenario that may have facilitated his survival... We know from Journey's End that Makuta got all of the MU robot's sensors back online, right? Obviously those sensors would have detected the piece of planet flying towards his head, but Journey's End also tells us that he was too distracted by the death of all of his Rahkshi to actually pay any attention. What if the robot had a backup system that preserved the consciousness of the great spirit piloting it, so even if the head was destroyed, the spirit survived, and could take control once more once the robot was repaired? Even if Makuta didn't see the moon fragment coming, the robot's system (if such a system did indeed exist, I'm being completely hypothetical here) would have, and it may have taken over, saving him from imminent death. While I think this scenario is entirely plausible, I like to believe that Makuta is well and truly dead, once and for all. He had his time, and that time is over. May he rest in peace, or in pieces, whichever makes you sleep better at night... EDIT: Had another thought. I'd love to see an alternate universe where everything went pretty much exactly the same, except Teridax actually dodged the planet, and won the battle. Perhaps this Teridax then harnesses the power of an Olmak and sets off throughout the multiverse conquering all of the Bionicle AU's? That'd be a fun story. Plus, it would give us an excuse to stage yet another giant robot war.

That would be amazing. Although, Greg has always maintained that he doesn't actually know what Omega Tahu is... I guess we'll have to show him. Like I said, I just did it in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. It wasn't meant to be perfect, (and it was surprisingly difficult to find red armour pieces). New swords would be great. If it actually does turn out to be the return of the Toa Mata, I'd like to see remakes of their original weapons, scaled up to suit the size of their sets. And you're right, the current weapons do look kind of lame on their own as they are now. MOCing versions of the new sets? I'll add that to my to-do list.

Now, a topic I've noticed resurface several times over the course of this discussion is that the CCBS won't do Bionicle justice. I thought similar, at least at first, and while I still strongly advocate that aspects of the CCBS should be redesigned to be more reminiscent of Bionicle, below is a little something I threw together to show that it is entirely possible to make a decent Bionicle set using CCBS parts. And another thing... I hadn't even heard of Omega Tahu before I started discussing in this topic, and the idea has absolutely fascinated me ever since. So, here is my tribute to the legend of Omega Tahu, made entirely using CCBS parts. Now, if I could hammer that out on my laptop in just a couple of hours, I think it's safe to assume that Lego has been fully able to design good Bionicle sets in the months that it's had to work on this. Rest easy, my friends, Bionicle 2015 shall be brilliant.

Chronicles of the Cold Hearted Part 7 – Out of the Cold “Where are you running to?” a female voice caught Icthilos off guard. Thunder rumbled loudly in the distance, originating from a bank of storm clouds somewhere back the way he’d come, hovering ominously on the horizon. It had been two days since his encounter with Maliss and the Dark Hunters, and he hadn’t yet managed to find a way out of the desert. He still had the Golden Being’s map, but he’d wound up in the middle of the vast empty expanse of desert in the middle of the map, with no discernible landmarks to lead him anywhere. Icthilos stopped and slowly turned around. His elemental powers had recharged somewhat over the past few days, and he was ready to use them to defend himself if necessary. He hadn’t expected to find anyone out here among the dunes. He certainly hadn’t seen anyone. To his relative relief, it looked to be one of this world’s inhabitants, not someone who had an immediate reason to want him dead, or so he hoped. “Who are you?” he asked warily. “You don’t recognise me?” she replied, approaching him. Her armour was blue and grey, with what looked to be white spikes of bone embedded in the plates for dramatic effect. “I guess this thing works better than I thought.” The blue helmet of interlocking plates that covered her head suddenly began to glow, and her entire body morphed, resolving itself into a blue and white Toa of lightning who he’d never thought he would see again. “Surprise!” said Trina, Toa of Lightning. “Long time no see.” Her armour was different, and her face was now covered by her old mask. Her voice had changed as well; he recognised it now. It was definitely her. Icthilos immediately activated his weapons. “Whoa, calm down!” she drew her double-edged sword off of her back and lay it down on the ground in front of him. “Calm down…” “Two days ago, I thought my entire team was dead. Then Maliss shows up, and it turns out he was working with the Dark Hunters all along. Then you show up, and just expect me to calm down? Yeah, I don’t think so.” “Okay, yeah, I see your point. I guess I have a bit of explaining to do. But now really isn’t the time. Maliss and the Hunters are coming after you. I’ve been tracking them as well. They’d be here already, but they got caught up in a spontaneous thunderstorm.” Icthilos looked past her towards the storm clouds, making the obvious connection. “How am I supposed to believe anything you say?” Icthilos challenged. “You really want to wait around and take the chance, or are you just going to trust me?” “Fine,” Icthilos lowered his weapons, “where do you suggest we go?” “The inhabitants of this world and ours are setting up a temporary camp in the desert. It’s defended by our Toa and their Glatorian. The Dark Hunters won’t attack us there. It’s as safe a place as anywhere. You’ll be safe there. I’ll explain everything along the way.” “You’d better. How far away is this camp?” “A few hours. We can get there before sundown, if you stop wasting our time and just trust me. Please?” she seemed earnest, and Icthilos finally gave in. He was angry, and tired, but he realised she was right. He had to trust her, for now. Besides, if she’d been working with Maliss he’d be dead already. “Let’s go, then. But you walk in front and lead the way. I’m not turning my back to you until I’m sure I can trust you. Is that going to be a problem?” “No,” she sighed, “I wish I’d caught up with you sooner, though. You’re so… cold.” “I’m a Toa of ice. What did you expect?” * * * Trina told her story as they made their way across the windswept sands, the echoing thunder from Trina’s storm still audible in the distance behind them. “I remember you always used to ask what my mask did, and I told you it wasn’t important because I never had to use it for anything.” Trina mused. “I remember,” Icthilos said grimly, “so what does it do? Shape shifting?” “Not quite. It’s the Mask of Adaptive Disguise. You know how our armour is adaptive, and changes its shape to suit the situation? My mask is kind of the same, except it changes my entire body to fit the situation. It completely alters my physical being. Once I found myself on this planet, I decided to turn myself into one of the inhabitants to avoid being recognised. Everyone thinks I’m dead, and I’m happy to let that stand, for now.” “I thought you were dead. Maliss didn’t mention that you survived.” “He doesn’t know. I nearly did die. I got lucky. Managed to patch myself up after that Vortixx shot me. I let myself fall into the water, then just swam away. It hurt, so much. Not just the physical pain of the wound, but the knowledge that I was leaving you all behind to fend for yourselves. But there was no way I could fight in my condition. It was all I could do to stay alive.” Icthilos was torn for a moment. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to blame her for everything that had happened, just like he had once blamed himself. But he knew that was wrong. It was Maliss who was to blame. Because of him, they’d never had a chance. “I don’t blame you.” He finally said, then forced himself to admit “I probably would have done the same thing under the circumstances.” “I returned to the village after a few days recovering, only to find that the Dark Hunters had already razed it. And when I saw Maliss with them, I knew who was to blame. I decided to join up with the Brotherhood of Mata Nui for a while, but when Teridax…” “No one could have seen that coming.” Icthilos assured her. “The Order did all it could.” “How would you know?” Trina challenged. “I had a lot of friends these past few centuries. Including a few with contacts inside the Order. Besides, the Makuta are all dead now. That chapter is closed. How did you know that I was still alive?” “Rumours. Bad ones, I’ll add. Lots of talk about a rogue Toa of Ice who went about hunting down the Dark Hunters. The problem was, no one could verify it. The rogue left no survivors, no witnesses. The only proof he even existed was a trail of dead DH agents with ice spears sticking out of their bodies. Was that really you?” “I did what I had to.” Icthilos spat. “Maliss, the Dark Hunters… they have nothing but contempt for the Toa code. The only way to deal with them was for me to sink to their own level, for better or worse. I don’t regret it.” “Cold,” Trina repeated, “but I agree. So did the Order. Helryx was sympathetic to my plight, and freed me from the constraints of the Toa code. Then she did the same for you, making you a member of the Order, and told me to find you.” “What gives her the right to do that?” Icthilos scoffed. “She’s the leader of the Order, she can do what she wants. She didn’t want Toa joining the cause because they were bound by the code, so we are no longer Toa. It’s already done. You can say thanks anytime, you know.” “What am I thinking you for?” Icthilos didn’t get it. “I convinced her to make you part of the Order, and to remove your Toa title. Thanks to me, you don’t have a price on your head. Every Toa team from Metru Nui to Karzahni would have been out to get you otherwise. A little gratitude would be appreciated.” “I feel obliged to point out that Metru Nui and Karzahni are right next to each other, and last time I checked, Karzahni didn't actually have its own Toa team, and the Toa of Metru Nui would have been a little busy defending their own city. So…” “Okay, bad example, I get it. Do you still see my point?” “I guess,” Icthilos shrugged, “you did what you’ve always done. Whatever you felt was best for yourself and those close to you. I can appreciate that. Thanks. I guess I still have some friends left after all.” “You still proved an absolute pain to track down. In the end, after our universe blew up or whatever, I gave up and went after Maliss. I tracked he Dark Hunters to their camp in the desert, and just waited. Then I saw Maliss and his team heading out into the desert, so I decided to go after them, to see where they were headed. They led me to you.” She stopped, pointing at glowing lights in the distance. “We’re here.” To be continued…

Hang on, if the Hero's quaza core thingies are a type of crystal (as in, a type of rock), shouldn't a Toa of Stone be able to control that with his elemental power? They could just use their power to shatter the crystals or rip them out of the hero's chests. Another win for Bionicle, it seems.

Vezon's cape was his way of compensating for the lack of Skakdi spines. (I have no idea if that's actually true, but it seems that way to me). Since he had no scary awesome spikes all over his arms and back, he needed to find another way to look disturbingly terrifying, hence why he got himself an epic cape of evilness.

I've see a few arguments against this, but think we still need to update the front page, though. Back in BZ's hayday, it was great, and it's nostalgic now, but it isn't going to bring in many new fans. I think when the new Bionicle comes out, we need to update it with images of the new Bionicle, so that new fans will actually recognise it for what it is. I daresay that new fans who don't even know Bionicle lasted a decade before HF will look at our frontpage and be confused by all of the unfamiliar imagery with the name Bionicle on top. Plus, I'm pretty sure someone said that the front page is horribly out of date and a weak spot if someone tried to hack us. If that is the case, and Bionicle makes this site a big focal point for discussion again, then there's a higher incentive for trolls to try and hack us. Let's avoid that problem, shall we? I still argue against a reboot. It has to be either a stylised continuation (time-skip?) or a retelling of some kind (probably unofficially set in an alternate universe).

In terms of vehicles, I don't think Hero Factory has anything that could take on the Skopio or Thornatus on the ground, or the Axalara or Jetrax in the air. I think, no matter how you look at it, Bionicle has the advantage in every possible way. I think it's time the factory Heroes looked at retiring, cuz the new/old heroes are back.

Canon or not, Vezon's cape was cool. If he gets brought back he needs a new cape. Personally, I'm wondering if Karzahni's cape was canon. It didn't strike me as being very practical, considering he was underwater. And yes, the CCBS needs to be tweaked to be more Bionicley. I think they need to bring back some of the technic-style armour plates, some of which are campatible with the CCBS already. Kalmah's armour plates, for example, can still be attached to the CCBS sets, and some of the others too. And this is more of a personal thing, but I want the masks to still be able to attack to the front of the face... like masks should. And the heads need to have actual faces, too. Lego's been getting kind of lazy with head design of late, just look at the Brain Attack heads (no faces underneath), so I think the best we're going to get is something more akin to the Av-Matoran heads, which is better than nothing, I guess...

The hype powder-keg will explode into a supernova of hype. A HYPERNOVA!!! I read an interesting comment on LMB that I thought was worth sharing, since I entirely agree with it. They said if Bionicle came back next year, they didn't want the Toa Mata to be the heroes every year, like in HF, because that would get very boring very quickly. I completely agree with this. Part of the reason I went of HF was because I was tired of buying slightly modified versions of the same heroes all the time (albeit that was a very small part of the reason; I'm not a massive HF fan). I think part of the reason Bionicle was so successful was because the heroes did change so often. Even if we did have the same heroes two years in a row, they still wound up being very different to what they were like the year before. Case in point: the Toa Nuva had a lot more armour, different weapons and very differently shaped masks to the Toa Mata. The Toa Hordika looked entirely unlike their Toa Metru forms (and their Turaga forms, if you want to take those into account). Same with the Inika and Mahri. When the Bionicle characters changed shapes and looks, they really changed. The constant evolution of the sets and continual development of the characters to adapt to different situations was a big reason why I remained interested in Bionicle throughout its duration. If offered something new and unique each year, rather than recycling the same stale old builds and characters all of the time. I know some people will disagree with me, but... meh. It's just my opinion. You don't have to agree with it if you don't want to.