IXRollOutIX

I think my top 3 would be: 1. '01 Hau: A pure classic. There's a reason they made it the mascot of the line for years. It's just such a brilliantly striking and simple design. 2. The Mask of Creation: B'yootiful. It looks so elegant, regal, and has just enough complexity without looking too cluttered. In person, the detail on the glyphs and etchings is incredible. 3. '03 Kraahkan: Mostly ignoring the open mouthed mask on top. I think the swooping face guards and angular eye shape give it such a unique, sinister look.

My jelly levels are through the roof.

1. '08 Takanuva 2. Cahdok & Gahdok 3. Maxilos & Spinax 4. Brutaka 5. Vezon & Fenrakk

Honestly, I don't see why the Toa getting constantly trounced at this point in the game is a bad thing. All of them have lost their memories and experience in battle and they're still learning to work as a team. Toa teams have always been a bit dysfunctional, and this just seems to me like par for the course. The Toa losing to an experienced, powerful adversary is not meant to shame them. It's meant to prove that the Toa still have much to learn and how impressive Ekimu really is. I've always loved underdog stories though. I'm all for ridiculously powerful villains with the odds tilted far in their favor going up against unexpected heroes, but that's just me.

Not a bad idea.

I think in the book the coliseum involves shifting tiles, beams, and rising pillars that elevate up to a lever which drops out sections of the floor. I'm guessing the objective of Hammer Flush is to use your skills to both reach and prevent your opponents from reaching the lever in an attempt to drop opposing players into the pits they open up. A little something like a complicated version of the Minecraft game "Spleef" if you've heard of it. That's my best guess. They talk something about Lewa having read "the rules" while they're inside the arena in an excerpt of the book, so I think there might be a chance we'll actually learn exactly how this game is played.

I for one am absolutely loving the re-imagined plot points and references to Gen 1 so far. Things like that rekindle my excitement about this reboot.

Now again, I prefaced my statements by saying: Regardless... Did the website ever explicitly state that the masks provide them elemental abilities? Because as far as I remember it just referred to them by name: "The Mask of >INSERT ELEMENT HERE<" which doesn't strictly mean it allows them any kind of power. It could just be pertaining to the elemental nature of the Toa who wears it. Although if I'm mistaken however, I apologize. Still though, I said, "It would seem" that they're useless, not that they factually are. While a line of text might have told us one thing, that's pointless information if it never amounts to anything within the story. Not to mention the website has been wrong many times before. Turaga Vakama didn't use his mask power in the first year, no. But he also didn't replace that mask with a brand spanking new one that does a whole lot more than his first one in the very same year. And he did eventually preform as a Turaga that his mask was far from useless in 2003. Will the Toa go back to their old colored masks two years from now and prove to us that they aren't worthless? I doubt it. And until then, your example doesn't really apply. Ech. All that aside... My main point is this: They replaced the normal masks with golden ones so quickly that there wasn't even a chance to prove if they were powerless or not. As far as we know now, the Toa never used their elemental abilities whilst wearing the colored masks. Does that mean they don't have power? I suppose not. But does the fact that they MIGHT have had power matter whatsoever if they were rendered obsolete so quickly? Not at all. If you (or anyone) believe that their original masks provide them elemental powers to some degree, I don't blame you and you're technically not wrong until we know more. It's also possible that they purposely left it open ended enough to allow room for kids to fill in the blanks with their own imagination, and I get that. But in the end, I suppose there just isn't enough evidence to assume anything, one way or another, at this time.

I guess these questions aren't meant to be answered just yet to preserve some kind of mystery, but if Kulta created his skeletman army, what created him? Where did he come from? If he's undead himself, how was he resurrected? Was Makuta involved? If so, I guess that means he also possesses the power to raise the dead too? Much question. Such mysterious. Wow. I wonder how long it's going to take to learn this information. I just hope questions like this don't go entirely unanswered.

Maybe the book will give us more information, but here's what it seems like we're led to believe from the animations alone: -The Protector Masks do allow limited control over their elements, as seen when Narmoto conjures up a fireball. -It would seem that the normal colored masks are just for decoration and essentially useless. (I believe in the book Pohatu is still able to "fly" with his sandstorm powers before he gains his Golden Mask. I'm guessing that's just produced by his Jeterangs, though.) -The Golden Masks both unlock their elemental powers AND allow Ekimu to mentally relay visions and messages to the user. So far I think the name drop of the masks of Speed and Strength are just Easter eggs or a passing reference. If it is telling and the Toa have their masks upgraded to allow them something similar to Kanohi powers, I think a couple of them would have to be changed at the very least. Tahu's mask would seem less special because it looks like Kopaka can generate similar force fields with his shield alone, and Gali's mask power would be obsolete since we've seen that she can breath underwater just fine without it. I guess we'll see.

But it seems like he puts on the mask right before confronting the Toa and by the time they reach him I can imagine the Scorpios are long defeated. I was under the impression that (with the exception of maybe Slicer?) Kulta had somehow created all of the other Skull Bros using his own dark powers. Although maybe he used the Mask of Creation to accomplish that, too? Perhaps the commercial has more credibility than we thought.

I think instead of giving the Toa full upgrades next year, the villains and/or smaller sets in 2016 could come with upgraded masks to add to your 2015 Toa. I really like that idea, honestly. I'd rather have that than two or three entirely new figures for the same cast of characters.

The Skull Grinder combi-model is one of the coolest combos in years. I honestly really hope it has some story relevance. Although I can imagine it won't just because it requires some of Ekimu's parts to build it. From what I can tell from my excerpts of the Amazon preview, Ekimu sticks around for the majority of the final battle.

Kulta just REKT all six Toa in one shot. OP pls nerf.

I never even considered that...

For at least the Toa, I'd like them to stick with more primitive weapons. Swords, spears, axes, etc. As others have mentioned, an actual, functional crossbow or bow and arrow would be cool. I just don't want any singular choice of weaponry or blaster becoming too much of a trend like did in the later years of both Bionicle and Hero Factory. It's easier to maintain diversity by keeping them all melee fighters. They've got their elements for ranged combat anyway.

Yeah, still contemplating on whether I want a couple more Warriors or not. I suppose I should decide after I've gotten at least one.

I have a fairly big budget for regular toy collecting beyond just Bionicle. On top of that, I've got other reasons for wanting them as soon as possible besides impatience. In my own particular case, I'd say it's 5 dollars worth investing.

Eh. I just payed like 5 bucks for the expedited shipping. I'm impatient, so that's a price I think is worth paying just to have them a little bit earlier.

By jove, you're right!

I personally think that the supposed 'D' symbol looks an awful lot more like a capital D than the supposed 'C' symbol. Again though, one of the biggest reasons I don't think there's any switcheroo there is because you'd have to completely mirror the D character for it to look right at all. Something that I highly doubt would be the case.

Whoa, what? Why'd you switch C and D? I don't think that's right at ALL. Especially seeing as you had to invert D to make it look like a C in the first place.

Not since like elementary school, probably.

I'm surprised they aren't up for preorder on Amazon like the Winter wave was.

Somewhere in the middle. I don't like them just standing there all stocky and boring, but on the other hand I don't have room for anything dramatic. Here's my current 2015 shelf set-up: