Latrodectus

Love all those technic pinholes in the new gearbox; good MOC bait.

1. Gali (Elegant weapon and a gorgeous color scheme; the varying shades of blue and silver complement each other) 2. Tahu (Really striking design with a great color scheme and cool weapons, though the silver hands and feet don't look good) 3. Onua (Love his stockiness and his warhammer) 4.. Lewa (I've grown on the yellow, and it kinda has a wild look) 5. Kopaka (silver torso argh) 6. Pohatu (I love Pohatu, but the transparent yellow and imbalanced colors really look weird to me)

I do think the mix from silver and gold is annoying, but black and purple look great and I love his bulkier shape. The warhammer and claws are great weapons that perfectly suit the character. One thing I've concerned about with the bigger sets is that they don't seem much larger and more complex than the medium-sized sets... At least, I don't see a five dollars difference.

Gears are one of the three things that made me most excited for the Bionicle relaunch (the two other things are the skull masks and the old Toa returning in spirit). They're an example of fun engineering and the fact that Lego managed to fix their worst issue (Interfering too much with articulation) means they only add to the sets. One other thing I noticed: The return of gears means the Toa sets actually have some depth in their bodies. No more flat Inika torsos!

I'm good with a reboot. Think of it less as a restart and more as a new take. The original toyline and story are still there, they're just starting a new one. To use a comparison, think of Transformers; each new Transformers TV show will reuse certain names and character concepts while giving us new stories and characterization. They're basically new universes. One of the issues I had with Bionicle in the later years was how confusing the storyline became as more and more piled up and the serials focused on more and more characters. It was interesting, but it lacked the focus of early years. Since resolving the plot threads left hanging isn't going to happen outside of our fan-fiction (and maybe some new comics or serials if Bionicle becomes really popular), the best we can hope for is to start a new story.

The first set I'm interested in is the Lord of Skull Spiders, because it looks like a fun, complex build and I love spiders. After the Lord, probably Gali; she was my first Toa from way back in 2000 and her new toy looks amazing.