Umm Durmán

Hmph, is this really Makuta? The moment I saw this scene in Umarak's vid I immediately thought about the Mask of Ultimate Power. This dark essence, if I can call it that way, has a lot of similarities with the aesthetic of the Mask of Ultimate Power from the very first 2015 animation. That coupled with the fact that I am still quite convinced that Makuta is a mere puppet of the Mask of Ultimate Power, makes me think that this year we might get our first glimpse of the elusive mask itself, the mask which I believe to be the ultimate villain of Generation 2. I could be wrong of course, but this is how it seems to me

Hey there, first of all let me tell you that I had this same problem. I discovered cracks on my bellowed Bionicle sets sometimes in winter of 2014 (Northern hemisphere winter I mean ). I have a solution for you, although the solution doesn’t involve repairing, it involves rebuilding. When I saw those cracks on my Bionicles I pretty much just told them my farewell and put them into a paper box, which I put into storage in one of my old stuff storage cabinets (kinda the equivalent of a burial). This day was the end of my original Bionicles. But it was not the end of Bionicle for me, just as 9/11 was not the end for the World Trade Center. Just as the Freedom Tower was rising in New York City to replace the fallen twins, so was I brewing plans on how to rebuild my collection. Buying new parts was out of the question since all parts I could order would be of nearly identical age and so probably wouldn’t last much longer. Home iron casting was too technically and economically difficult and therefore unfeasible, resin casting, while feasible, required still a of an effort just to get Bionicles of equal strength (resin casting can be done easier but then you have to sacrifice strength and to me rebuilding my Bionicles weaker than they were before was out of the question – utterly unacceptable), concrete casting is easy, but the parts would have been very weak, 3D printing is hideously expensive and the printed material will be most probably inferior to the ABS plastic of the originals. So all of these proposals were discarded by me. However then I came upon the idea of building a new generation of sets out of various steel parts you can get in your local iron store. This was the single greatest Bionicle related idea of my life (I said Bionicle related, so don’t tell me that I have no life, ROFL ). So I went to our largest iron store and bought all the pieces I needed. Out of them I was able to faithfully recreate the Bionicles I loved so much, stronger and better than ever before. Here I will present to you what I built. But first I will talk about the pros and cons of sets made this way: Pros: 1, Heavy duty structural steel is far, far stronger than ABS plastic so my rebuilt sets can endure forces and stresses far above and beyond what original Bionicles could ever hope to endure. 2, This steel is also far more durable, than the quickly decaying ABS. If you keep these sets out of rain they can stand tall for a millennium, just like medieval swords you see in your local museum. Your grand children will be playing with these sets …….. and the grand children of your grand children …….. 3, My custom sets solve the eternal battle between posability and playability. In Bionicle there was always this schism between those who wanted the limbs of the sets to be hard, so that they can play with them and those, who wanted these limbs to be movable, so that they can put their sets into various different poses. My steel Bionicles can do both. If you leave the nut of the screws un-fastened, the limb can move without any resistance, if you fasten the nut a bit, the limb moves at some resistance, but is still movable, if you fasten it hard, the limb will be immovable even during the most heavy duty playing. 4, The customizability is also a great plus. With the parts I bought at my local iron store I can build far more customized sets, since they are smaller, but far more modular with far more connectivity options. There is a myriad of ways in which you can build even a basic Toa and it is up to you to decide which of these potential builds you like the most. Creativity is the key to getting optimal results, just as in original Bionicles, however with these sets I have far more options than I did with the original sets. 5, Cost is another positive aspect of this way of rebuilding. Fact is, building one of these Bionicles is actually far cheaper than buying an original Bionicle. I don’t know the exact figures, but I estimate that one of the smaller, Toa sized Bionicles I made costs about 8 euros, which is far less than the cost you would pay if you would order the original from ebay. Cons: 1, Steel is much heavier than ABS, so if you drop one of these sets on your foot, you’ll gonna feel it . 2, While you don’t really need anything except for your bare hands to assemble these sets, it is nevertheless recommended to have a wrench – both for greater comfort and for being able to fasten the nuts more than you could just with your fleshy fingers . 3, If you want, you can make your Bionicles look very much like the originals, however they will never truly be the originals. They will be Bionicles, no doubt about that, just as the Toa in Bionicle the Game, however they won’t be LEGO. To me this doesn’t matter, but to some it might, so I am listing it here just so you are informed . And after this whole essay, there is finally time for showing you what I built. Here is the gallery I present: These are all I need to build any Bionicle save for the mask. Don't believe me? Let me prove it to you below I bet that each iron store around the world might have different versions of these parts in different sizes. That doesn't matter, as long as the parts are compatible to each other (and with the right screws they will be) everything is OK. Ladies and gentlemen, here you can see the mighty Axonn himself. He stands 32,5 centimeters tall (to the tip of his mask horn-thingy ). He is one of the large steel Bionicles in my collection This is the default color of the steel parts, I could color him any way I would like, but I kinda like the quicksilver look he has to him, so I decided to not color him. But if any of you would like to color such a Bionicle, I'm sure you could find the right colors in your local model store or paint store (although I would recommend a model store since in paint stores they usually have only large packages of color, which are a waste if you want to paint only a few small parts). Please note that all four limbs (the arms/hands and legs/feet) are completely identical, so there is no differenece between their build. Here is a side view of Axonn. Sorry for the blurriness folks, I'm pathetic at using my own camera Here you can see a closeup of the arm. The build allows for 360 degree forward/backward movement of the arm, an approximately 225 degree sideways movement of the arm, 360 degree rotating of the arm and an approximately 270 degree flexing in and flexing out of the elbow. Here you can see Axonn's hand. It can rotate 360 degrees and each of the four fingers can be moved independently by about 225 degrees. In this pic and the next three pics you will see the torso and head. Not much to say about it, the head can be moved in a 360 degree motion to the left or to the right. This is Tahu Mata. He is 21,5centimeters tall and he is one of the smaller Bionicles in my collection. The build is very similar to the build of the larger Axonn, all four limbs are again identical, save for an additional two screws on each foot, cause without them he would have very poor stability. Side view of Tahu. The mobility of the arms and legs is the same as that of Axonn, with the only difference being that while the hand and foot can be opened and closed, there are no individual fingers. Please note the two additional stability screws on the foot. The mobility of the head is the same as that of Axonn. I definitely would recommend to get one of these. Life is so much more beautiful if you don't need to rely solely on your soft fingers. I myself have three of these (all three of the same size of course ), just to be sure OK, so we finally made it to the end of this whole huge presentation. I apologize if I have cut off a sizable chunk of BZP forumers' time, however I wanted to share my experiences and the solution to which I came. At the end everybody must decide what to do about those nasty cracks on our bellowed sets but this is one of the possible solutions. If anybody would have any questions about my rebuilding effort or anything else, please contact me via PM or post a reply in this thread

This thread is the place to discuss Makuta from Generation 2. Who is Makuta from Generation 2? ........ Or more importantly, who is he not? He has a truly iconic name that every Bionicle fan knows all too well, but what do we really know about him? We know of the horrors all the Makuta caused in Ganeration 1, but everything we know about the mask maker Makuta from Generation 2 comes from the very first backstory animation released in fall 2014 ........ which is preciously little. Many people depict Generation 2 Makuta as the main villain, but from what I know there is nothing that would indicate him being the main villain. In fact, there is nothing that would even indicate that he is a villain at all. From what I've seen, Makuta might very well be neutral, or even good. But let us recap the history of this character with an iconic name, but a very mysterious history: During the peaceful times of Okoto Makuta and Ekimu forged masks and from what we knew, the Okoto society worked very well at that time, so no traces of either villainy or heroism. The peaceful times ended with Makuta creating the Mask of Ultimate Power. This ended up in a catastrophe, but there is no indication that Makuta would know about the consequences that his jealousy would bring. From all we know he made the first Mask of Ultimate Power in the history of the island, so it seems he couldn't have known of the extent of the powers and the corruption this mask would possess (honestly, why would he intentionally forge and put on a mask that would take control over his body). He might have very well been simply jealous and tried to best his brother in mask forging. In other words, he might have been more I. R. Baboon than Makuta Teridax from Generation 1. Even good people sometimes do a bit of nonsense when they get jealous, but that doesn't necessarily make them evil. This is the place where information on Makuta as a character ends, because after he put on the Mask of Ultimate Power, he lost all control over his actions. As said in the animations, the Mask of Ultimate took control over him, so none of his actions between when he put his mask on and when he was knocked unconscious can be attributed to him. In Genaration 1 Lewa was not evil when he attacked Onua in the Nui Rama nest, he was merely under the control of an infected Kanohi. To me, this seems to be the same situation. All the destrustion to the island that was done was done by the Mask of Ultimate Power, so I would say that if anything, the Mask of Ultimate Power is the main villain of Generation 2. As to events in the 2015 storyline, there is nothing that would suggest that Makuta has been awakened. For all we know, he might very well still be in the slumber he fell into after the Mask of Ultimate Power was knocked down from his face. This is where the history of Generation 2 Makuta ends, so far. In my opinion there is nothing that would suggest that he is good or neutral, but there is also nothing that would suggest that he is evil and there is nothing that would suggest that he is awake as of the events of the golden mask hunt and skeleton war. I would like to hear what other people think about this synopsis that I have written, so I welcome everybody to post his/her opinions on this little text of mine Cheers Umm Durmán

Lewa might be in the end the only Toa with a drained mask in the storyline, since we know from the trailer that Slicer has captured his mask. About Onua, Pohatu and Kopaka we don't know yet since there was so far no reliably cannon source that would indicate their masks being stolen. The drained masks in the sets and the set comics might very well be non cannon, intended merely to give people an inspiration of how to play with the sets. But the absence of proof is in no way proof of absence, so their masks might very well be captured - they might and they might not, I think we just don't know yet enough to come to any conclusions as to what will happen, otheer than what was shown in the trailer. The only thing I know is that the late 2015 storyline will be epic Chill. It's a thirty-second trailer for a bunch of minute-and-a-half animations. It was hardly going to show every captured mask. I think it's a safe assumption that all the drained masks will be stolen, if for no other reason than that the story exists to promote the sets, so it makes more sense to promote all the drained masks than just one. Besides, it would be utterly boring to only weaken one Toa as compared to weakening two thirds of the team. If they want to hype up the tension, that's probably going to be the direction they take it. I didn't mean to be disrespectful in any way so I apologize if my post gave a bad impression. I deeply respect your opinion and was only trying to bring in my 2 cents on what the story might be It is just my opinion that we don't know enough as of this moment to come to any conclusions outside of what we saw in the trailer, but again, that's just my opinion that might be right, but might also be wrong. I can't wait until we see the first episode released, the hype is on

Lewa might be in the end the only Toa with a drained mask in the storyline, since we know from the trailer that Slicer has captured his mask. About Onua, Pohatu and Kopaka we don't know yet since there was so far no reliably cannon source that would indicate their masks being stolen. The drained masks in the sets and the set comics might very well be non cannon, intended merely to give people an inspiration of how to play with the sets. But the absence of proof is in no way proof of absence, so their masks might very well be captured - they might and they might not, I think we just don't know yet enough to come to any conclusions as to what will happen, otheer than what was shown in the trailer. The only thing I know is that the late 2015 storyline will be epic

Thanks for posting folks, looks like there is a tremendous battle ahead of us ........ no breaks on the hype train

Nice find, but could some of you plz post this on Youtube? I tried to watch it but after like 2 seconds the video always skipped to the main site where it wanted me to register. I had to keep going back to the video and manualy set it on the time where it stopped just to watch another 2 seconds after which I have to repeat the whole proces again, ROFL

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit dissapointed that we have to wait 'til 24.11. - I'm getting quite impatient, LOL, cause I would love G2 finally get more story background. I am buying Bionicle novels 'til this day so once the G2 novels come out I'm gonna definitely buy them, even though they will probably never be sold in my country

Toa Mata Nui and 2008 Ubertakanuva were the best in my opinion. Great design and sturdy build

The golden Onua mask looks incredible. I know i'm a bit late, but thanks for posting

Scorpio looks far better with the trans green mask. Too bad that these masks are so rare Btw, thanks for posting

I think she wanted them to become her servants, an elite taskforce if you will. In Web of Shadows Norik said that normally Vakama would never turn on his friends, but the venom changed him. In my opinion it were these psychological changes that Roodaka wanted to achieve when she mutated the Toa

G2 in max 140 characters: Shh! Quiet! Dabbabbayadha weird voice in my head again!

I don't see Skull Slicer there. Did you mistake one of the Skull Warrior's bows for Slicer's extra arms? In any case, while the other Skull Warriors have been visible in that boxart for a while, I think Skull Slicer is likely to be a unique foe based on his description from Bestbuy.ca: Mind you, it's unclear whether these descriptions are 100% finalized (as they refer to the single-headed combi model for Slicer, Basher, and Warrior as a multi-headed warrior), but if the information about Slicer is canon then it makes it sound like he, at the very least, is a unique foe generated from the remains of a unique character. Perhaps Warriors are an army, Basher and Slicer are field commanders and Grinder is a supreme commander. Scorpions might be some special arena best, but again, this is only if the box art is cannon

I can't wait to see new story serials released for the Skull villains. Right now we know nothing of what will happen. I think the mini commics on the sets are most probably non cannon promotional material, so what will happen is an empty book. Oh my, how I missed waiting for new stories to be released during the terribly long years of 2010-2014

Well, I personally would love to be the Element Lord of Fire. He combines the two things I like most - shapeshifting and the element of fire

First of all, I would like to thank you for all the hard work you put into this project. It is an amazing game and it is very true to the feeling of the original MNOLG, which was in my opinion the best official Bionicle game ever made. I would like to ask you a question. I would love to one day be able to create games like this so I'd like to ask you for some advice on where I could learn to code Flash. I have no experience whatsoever with coding so I'm not saying that I will be able to do some work in the forseeable future, but I'd like to know what the possibilities are. Any tips will be greatly appreciated