evil_jaga_genius

Nah, there's nothing to buy underwater. Decline. Million dollars but now you have Yoda following you around.

Gracias! I wanted to put pictures in the post but they were too big. I'm glad the shoulders turned out okay. I kinda wish I had more colorful CCBS bones for these kind of builds. Right now Onua's the only one they work on, being black and grey. Well, they already come past his knees, and that's without the claws...

Minor wish, but a can of just Technic axles, pins, and the like in black/grey/neutral colors.

It's funny, my new iPod doesn't work that well for playing music but it's the best camera I have. Anyhow. Toa always come from Matoran, and yet we've never seen the Toa Mata in their Matoran forms. I have decided to remedy that, building the original six with Matoran-esque stature. Compared to an Inika clone, at least, they're only a little shorter than their 2001 incarnations. They are, however, much more flexible. Tahu: Front Back I've used this design for Tahu's legs before, after I accidentally broke one of his limbs. I call it Tahu Jensen, after the Deus Ex protagonist. Pohatu: Front Back I'm not as impressed with Pohatu, he shares a lot of his design with Lewa. Onua: Front Back I purposely gave Onua really skinny legs and gigantic feet, yet it seems to fit a 'tunnel rat' kind of build. Kopaka: Front Back Ehh... those shoulders. They look perfect from some angles and so awkward from others. I'm proud of his snowshoes though. Lewa: Front Back Pohatu copies Lewa's build, not the other way around, I built Lewa earlier. Though he actually copies another Matoran's build from a long while ago, too. I think my favorite part is his green 'leather jacket'. Gali: Front Back Gali's actually the first one I built! The goal was to make a Ga-Matoran with a barefoot look. After a while, I switched out the Pakari for Gali's mask and realized the trans-blue didn't look bad with the dark blue. So that's why Gali has a different color scheme, though the rest keep their 2001 colors. Anyhow, hope you like it, comments are welcome! -Jaga

Hey, it looks like it could fit his Toa form too... no, seriously, it even has armor for a Kadin mohawk =P Pretty cool - I wonder how he controls four arms with two hands, possibly with an onboard AI? I mean, he did build the Vahki and Krahli... also, it'd be a pain if something slammed him in the chest and he has his hands exposed. From a tactical standpoint, though I guess Boxor 1.0 skimped on the armor too. Other than that, me gusta!

1. Pohatu gets his boomerangs and shoes back 2. Lego makes a Bionicle video game about the Toa, like Warframe

I must respectfully disagree with the others. Mata Nui's low-tech feel was cool. But the next island, when they took the turn into pure sci-fi, Metru Nui, that was my favorite year. I don't know, I guess I just like sci-fi better than fantasy. That said - I'd love a Metru-style arc in Gen2, with a new Toa team in a high-tech metropolis. Lots of dark and trans colors, Kanoka/data discs, maybe use the Bohrok-Kal elements (Lightning, Gravity, Plasma, Magnetism, Sound, Air), robot drones... DANGIT SUMMER HURRY UP SO I CAN BRAINSTORM SCHTUFF

Except it's magic mixed with sci-fi, in which case yes, there's every opportunity to overthink it. You know, it's funny how the three virtues were unity, duty and destiny. Destiny isn't really something you can know, much less strive for like a virtue until you actually come across yours. But if there's a tiny piece in the subconscious of every Matoran/Toa/Turaga what their destiny is, it could keep prodding them towards their destiny. So, unknowingly, they are moving closer and striving for their destiny, in which case it DOES make sense that it's a virtue. Did that make any sense or do I just need to go to sleep now..? Probably just need to sleep...

Well, I know MNOG is based off of Myst, and I've heard Myst has the gameplay level of a PowerPoint slideshow, so I guess it fits...

I say Onua should get Earth, just because Stone Toa's powers really haven't been defined that well. Pohatu Mata's power seemed to be kicking rocks really hard. Onewa's was making structures out of stone, which is pretty close to making a structure out of earth. I'm not sure what Hewkii did, aside from summoning a rock fist a couple of times. On the other hand we've seen Onua and Whenua do crazy things with earth and the ground. In Pokemon terms, Earth Toa seem to get more Rock and Ground type moves, while Stone Toa get more Fighting type moves. Pohatu then can pick up another cool element to bring into the core six. Air would seem to fit, seeing as though his Master form was all about sandstorms and dust tornadoes, but Lewa hasn't completely let that go yet. I think Lightning would be great too. Take his Phantoka colors, but crank them up a notch - orange or burnt orange, mixed with electric blue. He'd be fast as lightning, the speed demon we all know and love, and he could take up some awesome electric-based weapons. The sword off of Sky Guardian or Surge's lightning blades, for example. I'd miss the boomerangs though.

"What about you, Jonas? Any dreams last night?" (cookie if you get the reference) You know, it's weird, I don't dream that often, so I find myself wishing for at least a nightmare instead of just nothing. Though when I do they usually turn out becoming story ideas. There's one I had lately... a guy walking through a city built across pools of water, covered in amber fog. I'm not him, but I'm seeing through his eyes, he's wearing a trenchcoat and glasses. To me it was like a cross between Ga-Metru and Deus Ex. The buildings are like power plant smokestacks, he goes into one, and inside there's a guy who tells him to find... someone, in a shelter on the other side of the city. My cameraman seems to know more about it than I do, he goes running into the now very heavy fog and falls off one of the bridges. Something grabs him before he hits the water, it's a 4-foot robot. It shakes a long, spindly arm before wheeling away into the fog again. He sticks to a walking pace from then on, goes to another smokestack-building, except the entrance here is a few stories up. A woman rushes past him, saying there's no room. He walks past her, into another door, another room. There's a little girl, maybe seven or eight? Sitting on the floor, against the wall, reading, I think. I think there's a bit of a conversation, I can't really remember, but finally trenchcoat-man asks her this. "Do you know where I can find a good Kanohi shop? My implants were damaged, and I didn't bother to get them repaired before I came." She gets up, and then the camera cuts out. Which sucks, because I really wanted to find out what the heck Kanohi and implants had to do with anything.

I wonder, if they are going to use the Vahi's half-covered style from Gen1, how they're going to get it to attach to the wearer's face. The shape doesn't lend itself well to the headphones-style connector on the new heads. I can see it with this half of the mask but not with the old version.

Wasn't there another page from one of the graphic novels where the Mask of Time was shown too? I think it was the part where the Protectors were summoning the Toa. Anyhow that mask looked a lot like the Gen1 Vahi, but I seem to recall people saying that was just a placeholder image. Did anyone ever find out if that was true or not? Because, if not, it seems sensible that that mask was the other half. Though then I wonder how it got lost. Also, the Looking Glass Wars. Thank you, good sir, I now know what to raid the library for next =P

Well, all the Toa have armor shells in pretty much the same places, right? Lower and upper arm, lower and upper leg, shell covering the torso, pin holes on the back. They're really easy to pop off, so - to put the Exo-Toa armor on, just pop off the lower arm shells. The suit's 'arms' would have sockets on the ends, so attach those to the exposed connectors, and hook the suit's 'shoulders' onto a spot on the wearer's back. Same idea with the legs. Technic beams in a scissor-type pattern could stretch and make up for differences in height, arm length, breadth of the shoulders, etc. Though, like I said, I've still to test it out.

Packs of armor shards? Maybe not a good idea. But I'd love an "Exo-Toa of Fire" set. This is actually one place where the generic-ness of CCBS would be a bonus, since all the figures have basically the same bone structure, it'd be easy to make a mechsuit that fits multiple Toa. So maybe not packs of individual armor pieces, but a suit of Exo-Toa armor. They could use the same plug-in piece the creatures use now. Pardon me whilst I experiment upon Kopaka to test the viability of this concept.

Oh, could I do a little cartoon for this, or does it have to stay in text form? EDIT: I did it anyway. So, have you ever wondered what happens to the other three Matoran who didn't win Haui Snowball Sling..? https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7863sQWxf-xd3VlTF9Ya3RVUVk

(...and so the Second Great Pun War of BZPower begins...) I hear Ga-Metru police have the most tedious jobs, so they started calling themselves Boredakh. No, seriously, I think a lot of their jobs are just getting rid of creepy-Kralhis.

"...and I'm just not sure how well this set design was thought through..." =P

I catch it, take it to a fancy restaurant on Wall Street, and use it to pay for an all-you-can-eat buffet of filet mignon. I then throw some into a pie with some potatoes, mixed vegetables and a whole lot of garlic. I put it on the table, waiting to see just who smells it first.

I hate this sentiment, that a story for kids has to be simple. It's a bald-faced lie that people accept so willingly. Pardon me, moderators, if I stray waaaaaay off topic but this has been on my mind, and this topic has created the proper place for me to vent. I won't offend anyone deliberately, but if I do, well, suck it up 'cuz I'm not taking this back. I'm on my second run-through of the One Year Adventure Novel program, it's a great course by Daniel Schwabauer (but lots of people call him Mr. S). He's got lots to say on writing, I've been watching the videos on complex characters and irony. People get attached to complex, human characters. (Human as in with human qualities and flaws, not as a race.) When tragedy happens to those characters, the readers feel emotion. Use irony to set up said tragedy, and the effect is multiplied. So, where's the disasters and dilemmas happening to the Gen2 Toa? I don't see anything. Sure, Lewa gets de-masked, but it's nothing that isn't fixed in another 90-second short. The skeleton archers have them pinned, but no one gets hurt. It's just them winning, all the time. That doesn't create sympathy, that creates contempt. This is the precise reason I hate the Jedi in Star Wars. They don't lose. You've got Darth Maul, Jango Fett, the whole freakin' droid army against them and they still don't die. This may be more a complaint against the prequel movies than the Jedi as a whole, but nobody gets hurt. You're not even afraid for the characters, and the whole creating-emotion plan backfires spectacularly. You create contempt. Similar problem in Gen2, you've got archers, Scorpios, spiders and bashers, and nobody gets hurt. And as a result, the Toa don't feel human, they feel like overpowered superheroes. And Lewa's de-masking just turns into a quick gag for the Gen1 people, because you know it's not serious. It's never a good sign when people laugh when your heroes get hurt, and that's exactly what happened when the short came out. Lego is simplifying the story 'for the kids', but the problem is that never works. My point. The Chronicles of Narnia, are, at their core, fairy tales for kids. But they are amazingly complex, people keep reading them over and over again and keep picking up new bits of symbolism. The stone table. The ruined world of Charn, the Deplorable Word. I digress. The books are timeless. A Wrinkle in Time. Complex as heck, playing with space-time, but so, so beautiful. The Hobbit, need I say more? Heck, even Pokemon Mystery Dungeon has a cult fanbase, and every fan will tell you: the story's so much more complex than the core series. The idea that kid's stories have to be simple is a lie. So here I am, writing, and actually I'm writing a story for Malkhar, not OYAN. I have a character, a necromancer, who starts off as a villain but becomes... well, I won't say heroic, but he turns to good. And as I'm writing in my notebook, coming up with different races (because I hate sticking to the humans-elves-dwarves trope), a thought crosses my mind, about a curriculum I did a while back called Omnibus. Basically, it's having you read a bunch of classic lit, write a bunch of essays... it wasn't my cup of tea. I'm not sure if I'm glad I did it or not, because of this thought that ticked me off so badly. I like the emotional high now, ironically it was while it had me read the Narnia books. They were saying that modern stories were worse than classics like Narnia. Because, in Narnia, there was a clear compass of right and wrong. Witches and dragons were bad, you could always tell who the heroes were. This is pretty messed up in and of itself, but. They denounced modern fantasies because now the witches and dragons were the heroes, and the authorities were wrong. No names were named, but it wasn't that much of a stretch to read the unspoken titles as 'Eragon' and 'Harry Potter'. This, apparently, was bad because they were confusing the readers. The poor children couldn't handle a complex story. The whole point of a story is to confuse the reader. To make him think, to reason things out. Let her find out who's the villain for herself, let him question the motivations of the hero. Because: if you cannot rasp their intellect, how are you going to move their soul? And if you cannot move their soul, what exactly is the point? I'm not even going to throw in my Gen1 nostalgia, because other than MNOG, there just wasn't too much there. It's funny how some of the deepest parts of the story aren't actually canon, like the Shadow Toa and Makuta's monologue. Lego hired Greg Farshtey so they could sell more toys, I get it. But that ugly excuse ticks me off so badly, from Lego, from college professors, from anyone. Not to excuse bad writing, but to excuse even trying to write. Complexity gives a story a heart, a message, and a lifetime. When you don't let yourself imagine in intricate patterns, you turn your back on all of that. The story goes from the eyes straight to the mental trash bin, forgotten like it deserves to be. Sorry about the rant. I'm logging off now, good night, everyone. -Jaga

Cool, how'd you make the glowing red wires, the ones attached to the headset?

But... but... can it run Doom? Seriously, though, I was looking on this blog, if you scroll down a little there's an NES-style case that's almost exactly like that. Also, you have a very agile, paranoid computer.

Spot 5, por favor.

Ah, good times... figuring out which three lines of code are making the game run at 12 FPS... gaaaaaah. Hope it goes as painlessly as possible. I'm interested to see how the combat turns out though.

An idea that's been poking around my head for a while. On the island of Mata Nui, the six original Toa Mata/Nuva arrived. Yet even before they arrived, the villages and regions of the island were named after them. Tahu of Ta-Koro in Ta-Wahi, for example. Now let's go back to Metru Nui. The same naming conventions persist, even though the Toa Nuva haven't appeared. Neither are they mentioned in LoMN, the books, or the comics. Still, the Ta-Matoran live in Ta-Metru, presumably named after Tahu, so on and so forth. Not only that, but every Matoran shares this common naming convention. They're never referred to as fire Matoran, but always as Ta-Matoran, even by non-Matoran like Vortixx and Skakdi. They're all named after Tahu, even in places where Tahu and the Toa Nuva have never been. Here's my theory: The Toa Nuva were kindof like gods in the Matoran Universe. They had supernatural powers, were pretty much immortal (even though everything else in the MU is too), and they are referred to in 'the legends'. I think these legends are like books of Greek and Roman mythology you can get out of the library today - tales the ancients created about the gods, the deeds and adventures surrounding them. The legends are stories about the Toa and their might, passed on by Turaga for generations, recorded by Ko-Metru scholars. And everyone in the MU has heard of these tales - at least some of them, enough to know who Tahu, Pohatu, Gali and the rest are. And because everyone hears the legends, everyone associates fire with Tahu, and gives fire stuff the Ta- prefix. So, essentially, the MU has its own ancient mythology, and this mythology is about the Toa Nuva. What do you think?