hiddenderek

Eh takanuva was important but he wasn't the 'main' bionicle so I wouldn't be surprised if he's completely ignored. Tahu has always been the mascot of bionicle.

Is there any way to directly call the toy department at target and ask? I'm afraid ill call the customer service desk and they wont know what I'm talking about

I mean, I have my nostalgia for the bionicle films, but I think we can all agree they aren't the best film making. I mean, they were good for what they were, but not great. Or have you only watched the beginning of Steven Universe? I could see where you'd be coming from then, it starts off not all that great but then becomes really good by the end of season 1. But that's intentional, its all through the eyes of Steven and the show matures as he does. Probably some of the most complex and interesting characters I've seen in a western cartoon in a while.

Went on an expedition searching for the new sets this morning. Went to three different targets (using the brickseek inventory tracker) and also a toys r us. None of the stores had the new sets besides one target, and they just had a bunch of Skull scorpios. I'm just gonna wait a week until they're out everywhere, had enough driving for now.

Is there any way to check toys r us inventory online, like with target? I dont want to drive out to toys r us for nothing lol

2015 > Mata > Nuva > Adaptive Armor Mata was great, but lacked posability. Nuva were pretty much the same but with uglier masks (probably some of the worst bionicle masks) and silver armor thrown on. Kopaka and Gali were the only one with decent masks. Adaptive Armor was terrible. 2015 was fantastic, great masks (lewa and gali being the only iffy ones), great designs and colors, cool weapons (besides kopaka re using tahu's), only problem with the color scheme is that i think there was a little too much transparent colors used at times. Anyone else notice that, throughout all the versions, Kopaka's masks always look the most similar? Even with 2015. I wonder why.

I've heard the "not enough new parts" argument before. However, yesterday I did some tallying up. Not counting the Manas RC elements or basic Technic elements, the 2001 sets had about 36 new molds across 24 sets. The 2015 sets have about 27 new molds across 18 sets. So both years have an average of about 1.5 new parts per set. This is about the same as the average number of new parts per set in 2002 or 2003 (I haven't taken the time to tally things up for other years). It only seems like the 2015 sets have fewer new parts because the Toa and Protectors have a greater number of parts overall than the 2001 Toa and Turaga, and because none of their parts are as huge in proportion to their bodies as Toa Mata leg beams, arm beams, and torsos. Even just looking at masks, it might seem like there aren't a lot of masks this year. But add up the three from the summer and the eight from the winter, and you get eleven different mask molds. 2001 had just twelve mask molds (thirteen if you count the Vahi that didn't actually get released until 2002) so there's really not a huge difference! And if you count separate colors individually instead of just molds, we already know of 36 G2 masks. That's the most masks BIONICLE has ever had in one year since mask packs went away in 2003! In fact, that's more than twice as many masks as there were in 2004 (just fourteen)! Reusing masks is really nothing new to BIONICLE, and I know some people who feel like the later years of G1 actually didn't do enough of that. Post-2005 masks were rarely available in more than one color, whereas ALL 2015 BIONICLE masks come in at least two colors. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Most the new parts are the weapons, the piston shells, the head, and the gear box. Only problem is that outside of those, the designs are extremely similar to other CCBS sets. The torso, the arms, the legs, they all look exactly the same to other CCBS sets. Its not just similar, many other CCBS sets have the exact same positioning of pieces outside of a few orientation changes if you take off the piston shells. So its not just them looking similar, in many cases they are literally identical to other CCBS sets outside of colors. You're right, the main problem is that there are way more parts this time around and as a result its less noticeable. Maybe they can build on themselves over the years and get to the point where there's enough to make the bionicle line distinguishable from others. Like, next year they wont need to reuse the gear box or the head, so the money spent for creating those molds can be used on some more armor. I'm just curious though, what are the new parts counts compared to later bionicle years? I'd imagine the gap would be greater as the sets got more specialized despite the piece count increasing.

Totally agree. They're fun builds and they look great - how can it get any better from here? Excited to see how 2016 tries to top it. -NotS I think they can top it with more unique parts. The only main aesthetic part that was different was that piston shell. Even the new weapons were reused. I wish Kopaka had his own unique shield design and not Tahu's swords. 2015 was great, but 2016 can be even better if they make the sets look a little more unique than other CCBS sets.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of CCBS but I do recognize that it brings a lot of good qualities to the table and has huge benefits for MOCing. One of the main things I love about CCBS is this piece Its FAR more easy and natural to use in MOCing than the equivalent Bionicle used. With G1 bionicle you used to have a specialized lower leg piece that would attach to this piece and then to the feet, usually with a ball joint on each end. Changing it so that there's a ball joint AND socket both on the same non-specialized piece was a very smart move in my opinion, and creates a lot more possibilities. That's not saying the old bionicle bone piece wasn't handy when used creatively in MOCing, either. Just not anywhere near as effective for joints. Also, the ambiguity of the parts. Bionicle was known for cramming as much pistons and gears into their parts as possible. As a result most of its armor was highly specialized, noisy, and could only really be used for robotic or mechanical things (Some aren't I admit, the Nuva shoulder armor is fantastic for Mocing and is widely used even with system Mocs) With CCBS you can use almost all of its armor to represent anything, and is more in the spirit of Lego, similar to lego bricks themselves, in my opinion. Just look at this awesome goofy MOC I found on the internet today. (Link to creator's Deviant art) So what are the things you like about CCBS? Edit: One more thing I like about CCBS is its wide variety in part colors, the later years of bionicle got really bland with its overuse of dark red, dark green, etc.

Not enough armor. The new shells and Onua's stuff are cool, but there's simply not enough unique aesthetic pieces in the new bionicle run. Too many re used parts. Even the weapons are reused, I wish Kopaka had his own shield piece. Also the summer run is reusing a lot of masks as well. Only three new ones counting the mask of creation IIRC. I hope this is fixed next year. Also there is virtually no story, the ~minute long webisdoes are cheap with only one voice actor doing all the characters. If they just used him as a narrator it would be acceptable but him actually reading lines for Gali is cringe worthy. Not anywhere near comparable to the old story, its about as simple as it gets this time around. Some cereal commercial campaigns have been more in depth. I don't expect much from the books either. It'll probably be on par with the hero factory and ninjago ones.

August will be here in no time. I remember hearing about the summer sets in February, hearing august, and thinking its so far away. But now its almost May lol.

Thanks! Thanks so much! Here: http://i.imgur.com/2bw2BoL.jpg

Sets look too similar due to them all using the same types of armor and they are far too easy and repetitive to build. Pop on, pop on, pop on, you're done. I could probably build one with my eyes closed. The bionicle 2015 sets were slightly more interesting with the gear box, especially Onua. Lord of Skull Spiders was a great build. I'm still worried about the builds being extremely repetitive later on though.

Is there any website or service that tracks toy sales?

Cryoshell's members first assembled in 2007 to do the song for the Barraki commercial (Creeping in my Soul). The three members (at the time) were employees of Advance, so doing a song for one of the brands Advance worked on was a natural fit. Two of the members also released the subsequent promo songs "Face Me" and "Gravity Hurts, and the band formally made their debut as "Cryoshell" in Summer 2008 with the song "Closer to the Truth". They followed that up with "Bye Bye Babylon" the next year. When Bionicle ended, Cryoshell didn't—they released their first, self-titled album, and while their membership changed up a bit (Christine Lorentzen left the band on maternity leave for a few years), the band persisted with a replacement lead singer, occasionally releasing new music (including a new version of Gravity Hurts and a promotional song for Hero Factory, "Break Out"). More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoshell_%28band%29 Ah, that makes sense. I stopped paying attention to Bionicle around 2008 so that explains why I've never heard of them.

Its weird, because I've been a fan of bionicle since 2001, read all the books, watched all the movies, played all the games, got the toys of course, but I never have heard of Cryoshell or any of their songs before coming to this forum recently. What were they featured in? Commercials? Most commercials I remember had songs like 'Move along' and such.

I think I worded it wrong, its connected fine, just not 'normally' connected. Basically the bottom part of the torso (which is most of it) just rests on the technic holes of the waist but the top half is connected to the waist and keeps it in place. I can turn him upside down and shake him and nothing happens. Edited the OP to be a little more clear.

Thanks! Yeah it is mine. Thats fine. I didn't because it gets in the way of the shin armor and I really liked how the shin armor kind of overlapped his feet, similar to how it happens on kopaka 2015. Thanks a lot! I used it because it worked, basically haha. Its pretty sturdy and fits together nicely. I'm also a fan of non traditional connections, as long as plastic isn't stressed

Made my own version of Pohatu, Master of Stone. (Gallery) Part of the same series as my Lewa, Master of Jungle. (Link to lewa). I've been working on this on and off for the past few days. Fun fact: There are 16 ball-and-axel hole pieces used in this figure. A look at the Torso without any armor: http://i.imgur.com/VqZEBFF.jpg Its actually funny, because most of the torso just rests on the technic holes of the waist. You'd think it wouldn't be connected, but the section of the torso with the bohrok eye pieces is connected to the waist and holds the rest of the torso down and keep it all together and sturdy.

Probably just skull basher and skull grinder. The rest are pretty meh.

I wish there was an option for the 2015 sets. The Protectors/Toa of this year are my current favorites. I think the Bohrok will stay my all time favorite villains for now though. They have such a great blend between form and function that Bionicle has been hard pressed to capture since. That's why I don't like years like the Barraki, simply because there was zero funciton outside of a silly blaster.

So if I'm reading the rules correctly, since I just tweaked something on my MOC today after making a thread about it yesterday before entering the contest, I can no longer submit it to the contest?

Yeah, I really don't like the legs either but I literally was running out of pieces and scraping the bottom of the barrel. The only pieces I have left now are a bunch of metru green pieces. Yeah the reason I put the gray there was because I thought it would be better to randomly add gray armor ontop of the legs instead of there being this giant splotch of metru green. I'll try to think of something else. Okay, here's a new version of my Lewa MOC. I took some of y'alls criticisms into account. I decided to remove the yellow and replace it with trans green to make the color scheme more consistent, added a few things to the torso, and completley changed the legs. I actually made the old legs for a different MOC that I scrapped, so I feel like they didn't work because they didn't have the same design philosophy as the body. These new legs seem to work much, much better IMO. What do y'all think? Anything else I should fix? Larger image: http://i.imgur.com/C6osiIb.jpg

Thanks for the replies guys! What are some criticisms on the overall design? How could it be more coherent? I feel like I could do better but I'm not sure where to start. Thanks! I just added a weapon and I dont think it looks very awkward. http://i.imgur.com/2YMFT6y.jpg

Thanks! Yeah I was just kinda getting all sadistic and ripping my lego minifigures apart when I thought 'hey these would work well as hands' I kind of messed up on the title, its not supposed to be a revamp of Lewa 2015, its just supposed to be a revamp of all things Lewa in general but I didn't want to put "Toa of Air" since its more in the 2015 style with all the CCBS bricks. Hmm. Maybe I should have put that instead since he has the mata mask haha. Yeah my cameras battery died so I'll take more pics later.