Umm Durmán

"I don't like thing therefore thing is objectively bad and obviously thing will never return" Didn't you try to call me out on disregarding opposing opinions (and failing) in another thread? Alright - first of all: calm yourself. Your toy is gone, and it's not coming back anytime soon Second of all - Bionicle G2 was a disaster. That is why it is being cancelled after only2 years Third - How did I try calling you out? By laughing at the fact that you used the word "disgusting"? That is exactly the problem with your post - by laughing - you constantly laugh into the face of anybody who has an opinion that differs from yours. That is very insensitive, offensive and one might say even bullyish.

HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaPeople who disagree with your opinion are disgusting? How would you feel if something you love was cancelled, and other people acted as if the cancellation was a great thing and the thing you loved never should have existed in the first place? I honestly wouldn't care in the slightest, it happens litterally all the time But there are people here who have feelings towards Bionicle, feelings you love to spit at.

I'm getting quite annoyed by your constant "laugh into their face" mocking questions you give to anybody who likes or supports Generation 2. I don't mind the most hating hater on the planet but I really don't like bullies. But to answer your "question" - Yes, yes I am surprised and shocked by this. Why? Because to this day I stand by my earlier comments that there were no conclusive indications that Generation 2 were to end this soon. Everything the doomsayers claimed to hint at such an instant death of Generation 2 was inconclusive and it could have been interpreted in many different ways other than an imminent doom. Now obviously, the doomsayers were right and doomsday happened. But I nevertheless write this post with my head up and without shame because even now I am convinced that saying that the doomsayers didn't have conclusive indications to back up their claims - in other words having a higher quality standard for assessing the conclusiveness of reports and testimony - was the right thing to do and it was a higher quality approach. But doomsday did happen, does that not say everything for itself? No, it doesn't - a better methodology doesn't guarantee a successful prediction, it only increases its chance. And mathematically speaking, everything that isn't guaranteed can fail. And it failed. But that doesn't mean that I will lower my standard for accepting something as conclusive. Let me give an example - weather forecasts fail sometimes. So if a weather forecast would fail to predict the weather next week, but a common man, who had a quarter liter of gin on a Friday evening made a guess about the weather, which turned out to be correct. Does that mean that computer climate models and satellite imagery are useless and we all should just drink gin in order to predict weather? Of course not. One lucky uneducated guess and one unlucky educated guess is not enough to claim a precedent. Now I realize that this post of mine is a little defensive but I felt that I had to express that I am not hiding in a corner, full of shame that the doomsayers, which I criticized were right. In this thread I have witnessed a disturbing trend that some former doomsayers now start lusting for revenge on those, who criticized them earlier. I just wanted to show to people that the optimists shouldn't and aren't drowning in shame, for we did nothing wrong. There really was nothing conclusive that would point to this cataclysm. But the cataclysm happened and I guess it is now time for me to give my thoughts about it. Some said that they don't consider the cancellation of Generation 2 such a cataclysm, that they really don't mind it. Well I do mind it. Bionicle is the only LEGO theme I am interested in now, when I'm an adult. And I bet it will forever remain the only one of these, because when it comes to LEGO Bionice, it is the "Bionicle" that draws my attention, not the "LEGO". Now this is not some sort of life shattering catastrophe to me, but nevertheless I am very sad. Bionicle is my favorite franchise of all and the worst thing about this is that now it is truly dead In 2010 Bionicle entered a stasis, a stasis that was broken 5 years later, however I am quite convinced that there will never be any Generation 3, that official Bionicle has now truly died. Why? Because if they cancelled it this quickly, even before its planned three year run, even without a goodbye wave, it means that it was extremely unsuccessful. The phenomenal success of Generation 1 was the only reason we got Generation 2. The problem is, that if they ever considered a new generation of Bionicle again, they wouldn't look at Generation 1 anymore, they would look at the most recent data - Generation 2. And if Generation 2 was this unsuccessful I really don't see how there could ever be a Generation 3. Official Bionicle has truly died yesterday But this is not the end of Bionicle, for there is still unofficial Bionicle - fan created Bionicle. We have fan literature that rivals official literature, we have mocs that rival official sets, we have fan animations, that rival official animations, we have fan games that rival official games. In 10 - 20 years we will have affordable home 3D printers, which print high quality materials, then we can also print any piece we design - a piece of superior quality to the originals - and that will eliminate piece shortage once and for all. I am quite confident that the future of unofficial, fan Bionicle looks bright and Bionicle will live as long as there are fans who remember it and who won't cease to love it. What is there to say more? I think I said all that came to my mind right now, I'm sure that I'll have more thoughts about this later on but for now, with no hopes for official Bionicle and high hopes for unofficial Bionicle I will simply end this post with a phrase that describes this weekend in my opinion the best: BIONICLE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE BIONICLE!

On Thursday I went to one of our local malls to watch the Warcraft movie. The movie was excellent, I would recommend it to everybody - in my opinion it was even better than The Force Unleashed. But while I was at that mall I also made another Bionicle availability survey. This mall had just one toy store, but this store was full of Bionicles - in this toy store I found all the second half of 2016 sets and many sets from the first half of 2016, the second half of 2015 and even the first half of 2015. Once again LEGO dominated the store and Bionicle had an equal ammount of stocked space compared to other LEGO themes. So to put the long story short, this mall was dominated by Bionicle

I voted for option number 1 - that I love Bionicle Generation 2 as a whole This means that I love both the sets and the story. The sets are in my opinion as good as the better sets of Generation 1 and even better than the worse sets of Generation 1. So if I were to make it an average Generation 2 would even be slightly superior to Generation 1, but I don't think that averaging in this case would do the sets justice, because it aren't the worse sets that stay in your memory, the thing that stays with you for the rest of your life are the best sets, those, to which you have formed a truly personal and emotional attachment. And as I said before the Generation 2 sets and the better Generation 1 sets are equals so in my opinion set wise Generation 1 and Generation 2 are equals - both are masterpieces and far better than anything any other LEGO theme ever produced As to the story, I think that the Mata Nui saga of Generation 1 (2001, 2002, 2003) was better than Generation 2, but I also think that Generation 2 is better than the Metru Nui saga (2004, 2005), the Ignition saga (2006, 2007, 2008) and the Bara Magna saga (2009, 2010). This time if we average it out, the story of Generation 1 and the story of Generation 2 are equals. The idea behind the Mata Nui saga, namely to combine high tech robots with a tropical island and Polynesian folklore style tribe culture, was in my opinion the single most brilliant idea in the history of fiction on this planet. None of the greats of literature, about whom we learned at school, came even close to create such a brilliant concept. Generation 2 took most of this and expanded on it, which is why I rate it so high. The only two drawbacks were that there wasn't the world building of secondary elements (villagers, villages, flora, fauna, locations of the island) that made the Mata Nui saga such a rich place to explore and that they seemed to minimize the influenced of Polynesian folklore (indeed to me it looks like much of the polynesian folklore was replaced by Mayan folklore - for example the settlements are far larger and well developed, showing signs of Mesoamerican architectural styles as opposed to the few simple huts of the Mata Nui saga, reminiscent of a remote Polynesian island). But on the other hand the story is still simpler and the locations and characters are more iconic than those in the other three sagas of Generation 1, which is why I rate the story of Generation 2 higher than anything of Generation 1 that came after 2003. Now I would like to note that I love all the sagas of Ganeration 1 - even the Metru Nui saga, which I liked the least of all of Bionicle, was still awesome, it's just that it had the least iconic features. On the other hand the iconic nature of Generation 2 is surpassed only by the iconic value of the Mata Nui saga (again in my opinion). Some people don't like that Generation 2 is relatively simple, but to me that is an asset, since elaborate simplicity has, in my opinion, a higher artistic value than even the most complicated of complexity. Some people think it isn't dark enough, but I think the leveled village in the trailer of the newest episodes of Journey to One is quite dark and besides, this is a LEGO kid's theme, it can be a bit dark, but not too much. Even though I will celebrate my 27. birthday this year, I wouldn't like a Bionicle where Kulta leads the Skull State and where Skull Warriors chop off the heads of Okoto villagers and scream Makuta Akbar! The thing I, and many other forumers, like about Bionicle is that it lets us explore our "inner child". AFOLs mostly don't want an "adult LEGO", they want a kid's LEGO because it allows them to relive beautiful memories they had with it as kids. And I am one of them So to put the long story short, I think that Generation 1 and Generation 2 are equals both set wise and story wise and I love them both. Even though Bionicle is the only LEGO theme I truly like, I like it more than any other franchise on this planet. It will forever have a special place in my heart - both of the generations. I am looking forward what sets and story the upcoming years will bring. Now I know what jokes circulate about hardcore fans but I never really cared so I have no problems to admit that Bionicle is a large part of my identity and lifestyle - it was in Generation 1 and it is in Generation 2

I voted that it will continue. Now I would like to clarify that I am just guessing and that it is an uneducated guess because none of us here knows the numbers and plans behind the existing supply vs demand balance of Generation 2 Bionicle and of other LEGO themes. However I don't think that a line with such a legacy and staying power would be cancelled only after 3 years. I think (uneducatedly guess to be precise) that there is a second trilogy ahead of us. I don't think Generation 2 will reach the 9 years of Generation 1, but 3 years seem too short, therefore my guess is that it might be around for 6 years - in other words, I think that its last year won't be 2017 but 2020. It looks like Bionicle isn't as hot as Star wars or Ninjago these days (but I would like to note that not being as hot as Star Wars or Ninjago definitely doesn't mean it isn't doing well), but it has a major legacy, which brings a lot of staying power with it. Star Trek is a good example. The last two seasons of Voyager and all of Enterprise weren't the hottest things on television. Nemesis wasn't the hottest thing on the big screen, yet Star Trek didn't die. I think this is because of the gargantuan legacy it has, that it is a true legend - which gives it a lot of staying power. I think that Bionicle, while nowhere near the legendary status of Star Trek, is still a legend of LEGO, and I think (uneducatedly guess) that it will stay longer with us than some doomsayers might think

Narmoto and Izotor have no elbows and protectors are supposed to be bigger than standard villagers so if even two of the protectors don't have elbows I can't see how mere villagers could have them. But I agree with you that not giving Narmoto and Izotor elbows was a bad decision - they should have made their arms like those of the other four protectors, who have elbows That's one of the reasons why I think we won't see sets of standard villagers, at least not commercial sets. Though I think there is the possibility that such sets could be promotional giveaways like the six McDonald Matoran in 2001

The mouth piece is a little different, but it's overall shape and size reminds me of the Hau. Also the cheekbands remind me of the cheeks of the Hau. The positioning of the eyes compared to the mouthpiece also closely resembles a Hau in my eyes and their heads have nearly identical shape and feature proportions

Possibly, though I hope not. Maybe it's the tackiness or the insane popularity, but I have an innate irrational repulsion towards Ninjago. Eugh. I really hope that once G2 is over, Lego will roll out an entirely new and original CCBS theme that isn't licensed or based on another line. I also hope it is blatantly sci-fi. Like, space opera, power armor and aliens sci-fi. I also hope it isn't HF G2. I also hope it will have heavy technic integration. I have many unlikely hopes. You're not the only one. I too have a repulsion towards Ninjago. Whenever I'm at a toy store I try not to look at Ninjago sets because there is something that I don't like about them, something that causes me an annoyance - merely by looking at those things. It is similar to how I try to not look at turds on a sidewalk - simply ewwww

A new one: Bane Tahu When I first saw a poster for the Dark Knight Rises on a bus stop I was like "LOL wut? Batman is gonna fight Tahu this time?"

Now I don't mean this in an offensive manner so I in no way am aiming to attack you with this post but this has to be the most ridiculous statements in the history of BZP. 2016 is, for the oil industry, by far the worst year in more than a decade. On pretty much all of the major and reputable economic news portals you could find countless pages on the current status of the petroleum market, but to read it in its entirety could take hours and I don't think that a Bionicle discussion should turn too much into an oil discussion so I will instead post a very good article from the New York Times which pretty much sums up the most important things to know about where the petroleum industry is this year - everything in a rather brief article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/business/energy-environment/oil-prices.html?_r=0 For many years the price of a barrel of oil hovered around 100 dollars. This year's February it reached only something above 26 dollars and even this day it still is on a level of only 46 dollars per barrel. That is about half the relatively stable value it had in the beginning years of this decade and - 50 % isn't exactly my idea of "rising in value". In the Bloomberg link below you can find an ever updating sheet of current prices of crude oil: http://www.bloomberg.com/energy Now I believe it was in another thread that a forumer objected about the comparison between oil and Bionicle saying that one is a product while the other is a commodity and that one is a multitrillion industry while the second is only a multimillion industry, however these are a mere plaster on the bricks and mortar of the core concepts of economy, and when I compared those two I didn't have these details in my mind. What I had in mind were the universal fundamentals of economy and trade, which have defined economy since the first trading of goods so many thousands of years ago and will define it until the very last traders - namely the balance between supply and demand. Even the New York Times article I posted said in its first sentence that the current status of the oil industry comes down to these very fundamentals: It doesn't matter whether you call something a product or a commodity. It doesn't matter whether its financial flow is in the millions or in the trillions. It is still a question of supply and demand and if demand decreases, and you think that it will continue to be lower than the planned supply, then it is necessary to curb supply, whether it is oil or Bionicle sets. That is what I meant by my original post. As to the apparent status of Bionicle Generation 2, I stand by my original post. To the day I am typing this post there is nothing that would suggest that Bionicle is dying and not merely shrinking to bring supply to the level of demand, however there are countless reports and indications that clearly suggest that Bionicle might be shrinking its supply but it is healthy and is definitely not dying. Smaller demand isn't the same as no demand at all and demand has to be covered by supply, whether it is as large as projected, or smaller.

The thread isn't just about this one lookalike, it's about all kinds of lookalikes we can find Btw, I have a new one

Hey there folks, I would like to introduce a new game to the forum. If I remember correctly, there was an official contest a year ago about taking pictures that resemble Bionicle masks. Now I would like to expand on this concept and create a Bionicle lookalike game The rules are simple. Just find somebody or something that resembles a Bionicle character or set and post both the picture of the Bionicle set/character and the picture of its lookalike. There are no limits to this, the lookalikes can be people, animals, objects, cloud formations, whatever, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is having fun So I will start this thread with a picture of two Pohatus: Dogue de Bordeaux Pohatu Nuva I am a huge fan of dogs (I have two dogs at home, a 16 year old Dachshund and a 11 year old Golden Retriever) and if I were to ever have a Dogue de Bordeaux and it would be a male, I would surely give him the name Pohatu

Awesome find, thanks for posting. Should be in the news on the main page

It wasn't confirmed, it was only hypothetized that such a thing might be happening because of dozens of reports of the sets not being available in most Walmarts, not being available in some LEGO stores, but being available in nearly all Toys'R'Us stores in large numbers. Though I'd like to note that this trend has been reported only in North America

Translation: BIONICLE IS ENDING BECAUSE I HATE IT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS UNIVERSE AND MY SHEER HATRED ALONE IS ENOUGH TO CANCEL IT !!!!!!!!

I don't mean to accuse you of being toxic, or to be offensive in any way against you, however I do hold the opinion that your post represents John Lear style research - one low ranking employee in one single store told you they won't be getting Bionicle sets and suddenly you "know" that Bionicle is doing badly on the entire planet and that soon the LEGO Company will cancel it? I'm very sorry and once again I would like to note that I don't mean this in an offensive way, but your "statistical research approach" reminds me of when John Lear got a few drawings from a random fan and suddenly he started to claim that there is an underground alien base inside Archuleta Mesa near Dulce, New Mexico where aliens and military scientists perform grotesque experiments on humans and animals. All because he got the "Dulce papers". It is simply impossible to reach a statistically valid conclusion with a sample of one low ranking employee and one store, especially when there are many other stores which are full of the newest Bionicles. I visited two toy stores in a single mall and they were full of both the newest and older Bionicles. The doomsaying, so often published by some forumers has two main problems: 1, These doomsday scenarios are based on extremely few statistical samples - samples of which none is a high ranking official that would actually know what is going on. 2, For every doomsday report there are two reports of sets being sighted in stores, which means that the already small scale of doomsday evidence is further degraded by an even greater quantity of evidence saying everything is OK.

I don't remember the exact wording they used, but I think it essentially means they'll be harder to find on store shelves (so pretty much exactly what you said). If the wording indeed doesn't mean that the sets will be cancelled altogether in Britain and merely means that they will become exclusive to some stores, this makes far more sense because there have been numerous reports of something similar occuring in the US with Bionicle becoming more or less a Toys'R'Us exclusive. And that is a valid strategy if they want to make Bionicle smaller to shift more production capacity to other themes. The thing was that if they altogether stopped shipping Bionicle to the whole of the UK, it would be very anomalous, regardless of how Bionicle was doing. Even if Bionicle was dying, shipping it to the rest of the world in large quantities and not a single set to Britain would still be extremely anomalous. That made me think that another variable must be involved in order to explain such an anomaly. But if it is like Aanchir said, then that does bring things into context

This might very well be true. As I said in my previous post, I was merely speculating. I am not from the UK, so I don't know when that magazine was released. However I find it suspicious that the sets would be cancelled only in Britain with the rest of the world seeing full shelves of them. It just seems odd and in my opinion when I put the 3 words "2016, Britain and odd" together, then the word Brexit comes immediately to my mind. Who knows, maybe if the Brexit didn't happen they would have retracted that cencellation in the next issue of the magazine. Maybe they just wanted to somehow gain more time and explain away the fact that they wanted to ship the sets to Britain only after the referendum and only if a Brexit is avoided. But as I said before, these are just my speculations. You could be right, I could be right, none of us could be right. One short announcement is not enough to draw a full picture on the production trends of the LEGO Company for an entire nation Dude the UK leaving the Eu is not going to take full effect for two years. This is more likely Lego winding cutting down on Bionicle. If the Brexit isn't taking effect until 2 years later, then why were stock markets and currencies falling like if there was no tomorrow mere minutes after the results of the referendum were announced? The UK might remain in the EU for another 2 years, however the effect of this cataclysm has been felt the moment it was clear it would leave the EU .... However, as I said earlier in this post, you might be very well right that the shrinking of Bionicle alone is responsible for this. I don't think any forumer currently knows exactly what is going on in the headquarters of the LEGO Company

Hmph, if this gets indeed confirmed the first word that comes to my mind is – Brexit! The LEGO Company wouldn’t be the first, nor the last company to be the victim of the Brexit. We have to keep in mind that the Brexit was a catastrophe similar to the Great Cataclysm or the duel between the Mask Makers. The British Pound has all but collapsed and the stocks of both British companies and companies doing business in Britain got hit very, very badly. I can indeed imagine that LEGO, just as other large companies might want to downsize their presence in Britain, which has become a failed state overnight. I don’t want to delve too much into politics here, but I can imagine LEGO having a contingency plan for the case of a possible Brexit for several months before the referendum – which would be the reason why they haven’t stocked the late 2016 sets during June. I think all major companies with a presence in Britain had a contingency plan long before the referendum and seeing the devastating fallout it produced, contingency plans happened to be very dearly needed. If this is to be indeed the case, they might have wanted to wait until the referendum to see how it turns out. And it turned out badly so once the results were known, they might have issued the final order to decrease their presence in Britain. There’s an endless army of question marks looming over the skies of Britain and I can imagine that the safest way for a company to withstand the fallout that this political catastrophe produced is to simply wait and see where things will head in the coming months and years. Now this is obviously just pure speculation, but seeing as to how the stock markets and currencies got wrecked within mere minutes of the publishing of the final referendum results I think it is indeed possible that Bionicle, along with other LEGO themes might be just another victim of the Brexit

"Shh! Quiet! Dabbabbayadha weird voice in my head again!" Tahu - Episode 9 of the 2015 online animations.

That's awesome. Is the book set in the 1st half of 2016 storyline, the 2nd half of 2016 storyline, or both? Also, do you know whether the book will be available via Kindle in Europe? I can't wait until I get to read it. I'm just reading Revenge of the Skull Spiders, which I bought via Kindle 3 weeks ago and it's awesome

The clash at the Mask Maker’s furnace has begun, Ekimu is busy rebuilding his hammer and the Toa charge as one at Kulta. Tahu: Shhhh! Quiet! Dabbabbayadha weird voice in my head again! They are confident that nobody can stand in the way of a united Toa team. But Kulta wears the Mask of Creation, giving him unimaginable power and with one swift blow he beats the Toa down, destroying their masks and leaving them laying powerless on the floor. Kulta: Oh, I’m sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn’t mean to. Please, continue. You were saying something about Makuta still being buried out there somewhere? .... Oh, you were finished! Well, then allow me to retort – What does Makuta look like? Tahu: Dabbabbayadha! Kulta: *Raises his staff again* – What Island are you from? Tahu: Dabbabbayadha? Kulta: Dabbabbayadha ain’t no island I ever heard of! Do they speak Okoto on Dabbabbayadha?! Tahu: Dabbabbayadha? Kluta: Okoto Do NOT bypass the filter. -B6, do you speak it?! Tahu: Yes? Kulta: Then you understand what I am saying, right?! Tahu: Yes. Kulta: Describe what Makuta looks like! Tahu: Dabbabbayadha? Kluta: *Further raises his staff high above his head* – Say Dabbabbayadha again! Say Dabbabbayadha again, I dare you, I double dare you Do NOT bypass the filter. -B6, say Dabbabbayadha one more Do NOT bypass the filter. -B6 time! Describe what Makuta looks like! Tahu: He’s, he‘s black. Kulta: Go on! Tahu: He’s, he’s red! Kluta: Does he looks like a Vortixx? Tahu: Dabbabbayadha? Kluta: *Strikes with his staff, disarming Tahu and forcing him to his knees.* – DOES HE LOOK LIKE A VORTIXX? Tahu: No! Kulta: Then why are you trying to Do NOT bypass the filter. -B6 him like a Vortixx, Tahu? Tahu: I didn’t! Kulta: YES YOU DID! YES YOU DID, TAHU! .... And Makuta doesn’t like to be Do NOT bypass the filter. -B6 by anybody except for Korgot.

I just visited a mall here in Bratislava which had two toy stores in it. One toy store had all the summer 2016 sets, most winter 2016 sets and some summer 2015 sets. The second toy store was even better, it had all the summer 2016 sets except for Quake beast and had also most of the winter 2016 sets, many summer 2015 sets and many winter 2015 sets. In both of these toy stores Bionicle got equal treatment compared to the Star Wars constraction sets and LEGO as a whole was dominating these two stores So to put the long store short, in both of the toy stores Bionicle was among the hottest themes they sold. Not a slightest sign of inferiority compared to Star Wars or other LEGO themes. Now one mall, even a mall with two toy stores isn't a sufficient sample to draw any conclusions about Bratislava, let alone the rest of Slovakia or the rest of the world, however that doesn't change the fact that Bionicle was dominating this mall