Ford

I mean, it makes sense for a lot of the landmarks to be in/near a jungle; last time I checked, open fields weren't the most artistic things

I quite like the new story and its simplicity. It came at a time where I was growing bored of the "morally gray characters" trope of several TV shows and wanted nothing more than a classic good versus evil plot line, and G2 delivers! The story, however, only really grows in text formats, being the graphic novels and chapter books. The way I think of it is that the visual media is there as an introduction and the literature is there for the fans who want to delve further into the world. To anyone who isn't really a fan of G2 who hasn't read the books or graphic novels yet, I highly suggest you to do so. They expand and develop the world in ways that the visual mediums do not such as giving the Protectors their time to shine, in-universe legends, character motivations, etc.

It's generally easier to talk about things that you like and harder to talk about things that you don't like. Ford learns this lesson in his review of Allegra Zane... ...and "Keewop", apparently... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOZuIlHokhY

Perhaps the monkey wished for this to happen...?

I just use a few large envelopes to pull it off. Some colors don't come out all that well with that color background, but some do; and in the case of these Protectors, the colors and the background seem to have a mutual relationship. That'll be easy enough for the smaller ones. Epolim... might take some time. Lots of bits with her final build. The descriptions were all done by me... er... I mean... they were done by Ekimu... (But really they were done by me)

Ever since I read Bionicle: Revenge of the Skull Spiders, I've wanted to see someone make the ancient Protectors that Ekimu mentioned at the end of the book (oops... spoilers?). When no representation came, I decided to make my own interpretations of these characters paired with a tale told by Ekimu himself! Today, I woke up after a 1,000 year long slumber to see the six heroes from my vision: the Toa. While they still have much to learn about who they are and what they must do, I am confident that they will be ready for what is to come. Shortly after reclaiming the City of the Mask Makers, I met the island’s current Protectors. At first I mistook them for the Protectors that came before them; I must admit, I am surprised that they still pass down the same mask with each generation. I assume that in mine and Makuta’s absence there have not been many attempts to forge new masks for the villagers, or the Protectors for that matter. The Protectors of my time wore the same masks as the Protectors do now, but I can still remember what they were like. After the festivities, I took the time to tell them of the six heroic forces I once knew. I called the story: The Protectors of Old I began with their leader: Udapo, the Protector of Ice. He was a true warrior, and held honor in a very high regard, but never higher than his teammates. His tools of choice were a shield and a greatsword. Some told stories of the sword having magical powers, or that he used the sword to cast magic, for he always won a battle while using the blade. He was a close friend of mine, and we often consulted on the future. MOC notes: Udapo is cool. I love the way his "covered in fur" look came out, and I really liked using that giant paw w/claws for his right arm. Next, I focused on Owa, the Protector of Water. A champion of the game Hammer Flush, Owa retired to take on the title of Protector. He was revered by many as one the greatest Hammer Flush players who ever lived, as he conquered many feats to even be alive in those days. He was a good sportsman, but had the heart of a warrior. He used his Champion’s Hammer adorned with his tribal carvings and stylizations, as well as fins to increase his speed in the water. MOC notes: Owa was a tricky experiment, as I had to rework the gearbox to allow not only the main function, but also the fins and storage for the hammer. The orange really works with the different blues (thanks Gali!) and the fins on the feet can be taken off and attached to the hammer's open blue pegs. I then told of Epolim, the Protector of Earth, who is to this day the biggest Okotan villager I have ever seen. She was a miner who took on the title of Protector when a cave in killed the Protector who came before her. She was in the same cave in and tried to help the Protector, but failed to do so in time. When he died, Epolim made a mission of her life to become stronger. This included a lot of bulking up, and Makuta and I would constantly have to make new and larger armor for her whenever she got bigger. She used the same drill she used in her mining days, as well as two shoulder-mounted rapid shooters given to her by one of her teammates, but I will cover more on that later. MOC notes: Epolim is HUGE! She is by far the most complex MOC I have ever built, working in many small Technic connections to make the shaping work and to provide stability. This project was a learning experience, and Epolim is where I learned the most. I employed connections that I had never even thought of before using parts that I had never used in the ways I used them here. Epolim is probably my favorite of these Protectors; she was such a joy to construct. I also included her previous forms and a comparison between them.I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of the back. The back is covered by the Technic plates from Onua 2016's new drill hammer, leaving only the knob for the gear function in her left arm exposed. Then there was Kerato, the Protector of Stone. He, too, was a champion of Hammer Flush, and chose to retire for a life as a carver. With his tribal Champion’s Hammer and saw shield, I saw him create works of art and ward of the greatest of foes. He was a skilled warrior, as well, and I do wonder what became of him when the shockwave my brother created shook the island so many years ago…MOC notes: Kerato is yet another retired Hammer Flush champion. I really like how his left arm came out with the Skrall armor leading into the rock detailing. Agarak, the Protector of Jungle, was always a bit of a wild card. His intentions for being a Protector were never entirely clear. While he did have a desire to protect his people, he always wanted to be rewarded and praised for his deeds. He and Udapo were always at each others’ throats over his need for praise, especially for the fact that he was a younger retiree of Hammer Flush than Owa and Kerato. As such, he wielded a tribal Champion’s Hammer and an arm-mounted crossbow with extra bolts on a belt around his torso. I remember seeing him in the arena, using the crossbow to stun his opponents and using the time to sprint to the goal. Whether it was allowed or truly foul play, in the end he used his skills acquired from the arena to be a great Protector.MOC notes: Agarak was another challenge like Owa: messing with the gearbox. I wanted to add the tail from day one, and I managed to do so while also keeping the gear function intact. I also really like the arm-mounted stud-shooting crossbow, as well as the chain used as an ammo belt. Last but certainly not least, I told of Mamuk, the Protector of Fire. Forgive me if I have too much to say about her, but I must confess that I saw much of myself in her. She was a young inventor, even creating the prototypes of the modern day elemental shooter. This is where Epolim got her twin rapid shooters. She was only a youth when her father, the former Protector of Fire, passed away, passing his mask on to his daughter. Udapo, Epolim, and I took it upon ourselves to train her to become a fierce warrior, and she indeed became a fierce warrior. I watched Mamuk mature to become a powerful woman, both as a warrior and an inventor. She never stopped trying new things, not even after she put one of those elemental shooters on her chest. She was also a great leader, a trait that I am sure helped her and the people of Okoto in the days following the shockwave. After telling the story of her to the current group of Protectors, Narmoto told me that Udapo had given Mamuk his greatsword when he was killed in a battle with the Skull Spiders, and that the sword has been passed down through the generations. Ever since I had met her, I knew she would make a great leader, as I stated before. Of the six I listed here, I believe I will miss her the most. She would have made a great Mask Maker. MOC notes: Mamuk is probably my second favorite of these Protectors. The two body types she has (younger and older) are very expressive. I learned a lot about body types with this character and how they can be used to show emotion, especially with how Wonder Woman-esque the final form is. I loved working on these. They were a lot of fun to create, allowed me to learn more about MOC potential with parts I never even thought of using in a Binnacle character, and made me appreciate the CCBS more than I ever did before. Which one is your favorite? Criticism is appreciated. Thanks for viewing!

I, too, am seeing a lot of paranoia and I am scratching my head at what some people are saying as far as the future of Bionicle and the constructible action figure category on the whole. Maybe Bionicle isn't doing well? If this is the case, they'll still be able to give it some form of an ending in 2017. However, as many have said already, we don't have exact sales figures for the line in 2015. If it's doing well in the market, that's great! Perhaps we will see more after the initial 2017 "end date". I've seen a few posts on multiple different sites that suggest that if Bionicle ends, the only Constraction line will be Star Wars, and then eventually that may end leaving no more Constraction for the future. This, to me, does not make any sense, especially for the fact that fans of Constraction are the ones claiming such things. Allow me to provide an example of which I can relate this situation to. A few years ago, the game developer BioWare released statistics for Mass Effect 3, specifically for the six classes that the player could choose from to play the game. One of the classes, the Engineer, had 5.1% of all players who played the game. This was revealed during a press conference with the developers where they stated some thing to the effect (no pun intended) of: "We know that very few people play as the Engineer, and fans always ask us why we keep that class. Our answer is that we keep the Engineer class because there are people out there who like playing as the Engineer. If no one played as the Engineer then maybe we would get rid of it, but seeing as people do, we still see it as an integral part of the game experience." TLG knows that there are still fans of Constraction themes out there, so it wouldn't make sense to suddenly stop producing sets for that part of their consumer base. If this is the case, there will most likely be another line of Constraction-based sets after Bionicle ends. I'm sure that more than 10% of Lego buyers have a Constraction-based set, so I really don't see Constraction going away any time soon.

For those who still need to finish their collection of Toa and their respective creature, Lego S@H has Pohatu and Ketar on sale until April 10. This appears to be a U.S. only sale, but if anyone wants to check in any other regions, feel free to let everyone know!

The first episode of our new series, Cliche Let's Play, is finally here! To start the series, we'll be playing Mata Nui Online Game Gone Crazy made by BZPower member Toatapio Nuva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBsbAdIQOEo Stay tuned for more of our play-through of this game in the future, and thanks to Toatapio Nuva for making this comedic masterpiece! Also, you can find the download links to play the game by going to its topic on BZP. ...and remember, Hail Lhi!

I'm a huge fan of Spinnin' Out in Color and the original Weekend Whip, but I also like the Rebooted Tech Whip and After the Blackout.

Hello again! A lot of things have happened since we last updated this topic, the most important thing being that we have reached 500 subscribers! We did hold a livestream a few weeks ago (and I blame myself for not updating this topic sooner to tell everyone about it ), but you can watch the entire thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwAMxKQ4SCI We also conversed about Journey to One a few weeks back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICndQWdmgcE If you are one of our 500+ subscribers on Youtube, we thank you for your support and will continue to entertain you!

Did you or anyone on the team working on Journey to One have any knowledge of or interest in the Bionicle line before starting work on the series? How long has this series been in the production pipeline? When did Lego enlist your company/team to start this project? Also, while not a question for the interview, I must ask: When is the interview so people know how long they have to submit questions for it?

Okay, look, I'm really not trying to force anything onto anyone. But I do have a question: For those who did not like it, do you feel that an hour of your most precious time on the planet Earth was wasted on a stupid show for kids that is only there to shut up the most annoying of brats and should be considered a sin against humanity? Or did you find at the very least something enjoyable about it? I also want to reiterate how seriously you can take the concept of Bionicle, which is: Robots mixed with mushy organic stuffs who have elemental powers that live on a tropical island and fight evil... This, at least to me, is a really "out there" concept, and I think a writer wouldn't take it all that seriously given its complementary source material, which also included giant robots, alternate universes, and a planet broken into three chunks. I explained all of this to a friend the other day. He said, "You had me at 'robots mixed with mushy organic stuffs'." Now how exactly is kid-friendly quality hurting a kid's show? I think JtO is pretty on par with Nexo Knights, and that, to me, looks like a show kids would have fun with. For a similar reason comes a goal of mine: when I get big, and I have a home a family of my own, I want all of my children to watch Ninjago; not for it's pure Lego-ness, but because it's a great show for all ages. And yes, JtO isn't for all ages maybe, but I'd show them that, too, as it does share that same slot in history as Ninjago. Again, this is all a matter of opinion, and being honest, I'm really surprised no one was insulted by my previous comments (which is a good thing). And if you really can't get past the fact that all Bionicle media (G1 and G2) is a toy commercial, then I don't know how I can help you with that. Also, I never specifically stated that the story being a toy commercial is an excuse to justify its quality. I think it's a decent story with a lot of care put into it by its creators as a standout from G1. If you don't see it that way, that's fine, but that's how I've always seen Lego's stories on the whole. If there is a setback, such as timing or poor quality overall, I still admire the content creators for what they have produced instead of bashing them and telling them that they tainted my very existence. I mean really, I think some people (not just here, but elsewhere too) are taking their disliking to G2 way too far.

I feel that the negativity this show is getting in this thread is unfounded, or at least that's how I look at it. Sure, JtO's not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it's certainly not the worst, and I have seen much worse than this. It does have pacing issues, but does that bring down the show on the whole? No. I couldn't care less what the characters act and sound like. They're new, meaning that I did not grow up with them. I guess that's why I'm not emotionally scarred like many others. It's not even that bad. It's not as in your face as, say, any of Sonic Boom. And why is everyone complaining about the story and writing? It's a TV show made specifically to sell toys! The amount of hatred this is getting is almost as much here as compared to any new show from, say, Transformers, as most people in that community complain about any cartoon that's not from G1 (and the G1 cartoon wasn't even that good to begin with). In fact, I thought the writing for Bionicle G1 was a little lackluster compared to other works because the story was designed for the same thing that G2's story is designed to do: Sell. Toys. It might be me, but I am able to channel my inner-10-year-old and actually enjoy this piece of media as 20-year-old. I don't care if the characters have the "wrong" personalities (in fact, who are you to judge what personality traits that a character not created by you can or can't have?). I don't care if the story isn't all that complex or "supa edgy bro" (because I hate that kind of pretentious stuff). It's a show for kids to get them to buy things. That's all it is. That's all it's ever been, G1 included. And please, save the arguments that "G1 had a rich story; G2 isn't following that trend and that's why it sucks". Please just don't hit me with that excuse, because I'm tired of hearing it pretty much everywhere. What I like about G2 is the fact that it is simple. It's just a story about good vs. evil, plain and simple. Since its debut, I longed for a simple story of that nature, as I was growing tired of the blurred lines, antiheroes, and whatever else they've done with superhero and toy-based movies nowadays. It's simple, fun, and gets the job done for kids, and that's why I love it. Same goes for JtO. So, sorry it doesn't live up to the hype of jaded 13+ year olds who expect way too much from toy commercials.

I quite liked it. You can hear more about it from myself and some of my friends in our latest podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICndQWdmgcE

Kopaka and Gali (G2, 2015 forms) with Siris and Isa from Infinity Blade.

Strong no. What purpose would a connection really serve to the story we have now? I would much rather know more about Okoto than about how characters from G1 could be brought in.

Bear with me for a moment: You want a story based on a toyline without the toys? That makes no sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for the sets there wouldn't be that much of a story at all. I'd think that a lot of people got into the story of Bionicle after getting a set from the same line, so eliminating sets would only hurt the story. We also need to keep in mind how weird Bionicle as a concept actually is: robots who live on somewhat tropical islands that have elemental powers to help them fight evil. Only a toy company desperate to avoid bankruptcy would come up with a concept as strange as Bionicle sounds. I don't mean to sound cynical if I do, but that's the way I see it. Don't get me wrong: I still like Bionicle for its sets and story, but the concept wouldn't survive as a series of novels without a toyline to help it.

All if not most of your past creations (I'm bound to have not seen a few) are fantastic, and this continues that trend. The overall form is superb, and I don't even mind the fact that there a ton of different shades of green. They all seem to flow together and work with each other to make a cohesive whole. Well done, and keep it up!

Ford reveals his face in the premiere of the long awaited Galidor Review Central, in which Ford reviews every Galidor figure ever released at normal retail! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyaGXxiHFTg

So... it's Infinity Blade with a Bionicle reskin w/o half of the main characters being released at launch... PASS

I may not have heard correctly, but in the first video (sans kid) the designer states that all of the added detail was something they really wanted to introduce into the line from the very beginning. If what I heard is true, then why didn't they do this with last year's sets? This is coming off of many discussions with a few of my friends in regards to the sets this year; I think they took feedback from consumers and were told in some places to add more details. But if the designer in this video stated that they wanted this level of detail since work began on the line, then why didn't it happen that way? Whether it was a design choice that was poorly received by a loud minority or it had to be that design choice for some reason that only the designers know, I am still curious to see the internal workings as to how this conclusion was reached.

I thought the winter wave was bad, being marred with poor design choices and myriad quality issues, and I never thought things could get any worse. Somehow, and I don't know how, but things got worse.

I'm curious if you got a picture of the new Cole minifig (either in the Rock Roader or Ultra Stealth Raider) without any headgear on, as I'm curious to see the print on the head. It looks different than previous versions of the character, as if half is alive and half is ghostly, or maybe a "ghost scar". Also, was the Titanium Ninja Tumbler not shown at all? I can't find any other pictures of the set from NYTF, only from Nuremberg.

We haven't been able to make a lot of comedy videos recently, but we have been keeping up with the podcasts. That said, why not take a listen to our most recent podcast? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlF_YDG97PA Also, if you have a question for us, you can have it answered on the podcast if you send us an email! Email us at bioniclecomedycentral@gmail.com with 1-3 questions. Don't forget to include an interesting title, as the most interesting titles are more likely to be picked!