Mukaukau Nuva

As I'm sure that many of you know, prior to 2003, Bionicle masks were made of solid, ABS plastic. Starting in 2003 (after a brief stint with bulky Nuva masks), masks began to be made out of a softer, flakier plastic that was used until the line ended (probably because 2001 masks were prone to shattering under pressure; this is also probably why the Nuva masks were so over-sized, to strengthen them). The new masks were made of the same plastic that many weapons were made out of (other parts like Metru shins and feet were also made of the material). I have a question for those more in the know: is this plastic a flavour of ABS (a diluted formula, etc.) or an entirely different type of plastic altogether? I'm mainly wondering about how they're expected to age; assuming they aren't damaged, are they expected to last as long as ABS parts under proper storage, or should extra precautions be taken? I haven't found much info looking around, but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place...

Your clones are very impressive, you must be very proud... All joking aside, I only have 1 Kraata to begin with, and it's not of the shadow variety, so your collection is at least seven orders of magnitude better than mine. My hobby horse has been collecting the Great Disks, but I've only the Ga-Metru Disk to show for my efforts ATM.

Chroming used to be a lot more common; lightsaber hilts used to be chromed, and a few pieces were chromed with gold. There's just an unpleasant greyish-green plastic underneath when the chrome flakes off (at least on the gold & silver chromed pieces I have). It was probably chosen either as a cost-saving measure (chrome pieces are purported by TLG to have been rather expensive) or because that dye colour bonded best with the chrome; probably a compromise of both those things.

Disney owns so much property that it might as well be a monopoly, given they'll never let the copyright of even their least profitable IPs fall into the public domain, so I'd rather they acquire as few IPs as possible in the future (and hopefully somebody will be able to break up their existing monopoly).

I have to be careful when I think about 2001; it wasn't something I experienced firsthand, since while I started getting Bionicle sets in and around 2002, I didn't get into the story until around 2006. What I knew about Bionicle prior to that time was filtered through the movies, the occasional older comics I obtained (mostly 2005 ones for whatever reason), and the 2007 Encyclopedia. I don't think I played MNOG until around 2015 or so. Prior to that, I don't think I had any impression of 2001, positive or negative. So, it's quite telling that once I did play MNOG, I started seeing 2001 as a halcyon age. That's a lot of baggage for one game to handle. 2001 has a lot going for it in terms of nostalgia; being positioned at the very beginning, when everything about the Bionicle story is simple and easy to understand, it's a very approachable time in the franchise's history (it may be the only approachable time in the franchise's history). And for the returning fan, it's so far removed from any element of the CANON that may be deemed (with the benefit of hindsight) to be disappointing. Bionicle (and some of its fans) can become extremely deferential to its own canon, but the MNOG absolutely refuses to defer to canon to its own benefit (though it's not like there was much canon to defer to in 2001). That 2001 can be summed up so simply in the MNOG is also part of its benefit. The forms in which "complete" accounts exist for the other years varies; each year has the books, of course, but the books are easily the least accessible (and least enjoyable) version of each story. '03, '04, '05, and '09 have movies, which like the MNOG tell a complete story, but IMO only Legends of Metru Nui reaches comparable levels of storytelling that MNOG does, and it doesn't really get all that close (and it could never be very immersive anyway given it's a movie). '06, '07, and '08 have web animations that do an impressive job of giving us an impression of the story (especially with such short running times) but they are hardly complete stories. MNOG remains the most satisfying "complete" account.

Stars Tahu (when it was new).

This has all become rather strange, hasn't it (though it did start off rather strange too). I support the move away from something toyetic, but that said, this basically just seems to be Faber tinkering away, and I don't think he's gotten very far. One of his strengths (and one that Bionicle shares in no small part due to his input) is suggesting something grandiose with only a minute gesture; I'm sure he's far less prepared (and things far less along) than he's letting on. I'm not sure what to make of talks with LEGO; for all I know they could only be humoring him (as much as I hope that's not what they're doing). If he's still pending approval, I'm sure the stickler is exactly what we've been wondering: what exactly is he selling here? A game, an art project, a movie? Not a toyline, evidently. Whatever it is, he's going to have to overcome the perception of Bionicle as a toyline if he wants to move forward.

'Tis only my opinion. I felt very "back in my day" as I was writing it, so I think the stance I took was rather harder than I actually feel.

TBH, the most resentment you'll find for licensed themes coming from my corner is the sheer amount of them put forward as LEGO Ideas projects. It just always rubbed me the wrong way that this super creative "get your own set published" platform was almost immediately used to jumpstart a host of licensed themes that otherwise couldn't justify a full wave (I remember one of the first sets pushed through was the Back to the Future DeLorean). Mainly, it bugs me because the licensed projects seem to take the wind out of the sails of the kinds of sets the platform was clearly designed for. Thankfully stuff like the pop-up-book a while back, or this year's Pirates of Barracuda Bay, are still able to reach the threshold regardless. And I can only imagine the amount of paperwork the one-off licensed projects create for LEGO (and no doubt line the pockets of the licensees, who probably don't need it). That said, I don't mean this as an attack against the licensed LEGO Ideas projects that do make it through; I have full confidence that the designers of those sets deserve the positive clout they receive. It's just a shame that those designs seem to take a backseat in favor of whatever new minifig's in the box.

Umbra is one of those sets that I always think is a combiner in the back of my mind. I guess because it looks so much like one...

I tend not to count the contest models (the ones with the most silvery bits on them) when I consider the context of things like this, given the begrudging nature with which they've been inserted into the canon. Spinax is all silver, so he gets a pass from me, and at least Fenrakk keeps most his silver confined to his head and... claws(? I don't know what to call them). Limbs longer than we might be used to are usual for some rahi, but I can't think of one with one arm longer than the other.

A bit of a lark, but this reminds me of some of the old Yu-Gi-Oh! DVDs billed as "Special Editions" containing "two 'Bonus' Episodes." To date, I've never encountered any version of those that excluded the so-called "bonus episodes" Cute to hear Bionicle actually put out an actually exclusive version of this.

Isn't there a scene in the MNOG set in Le Koro where the Matoran play simple flutes, drums, and wind instruments? The rest of the music in-game follows that pattern, IIRC. The Matoran don't seem to record music, so I assume most of it is implied to be improvised. I imagine in the early days of the canon anything the Maori might have used could be up for grabs. Once the series got more sci-fi such "trivial" aspects like art and culture gradually drift out of the series; the way Greg and other writers have described the Toa and Matoran it wouldn't be surprising if they are supposed to lack any appreciation of music and the like, considering how little self-expression the Matoran get up to under his watch.

As far as I'm concerned, a cracked piece has already lost most of its monetary or collector value anyway (I rue the day someone sold me a 2002 Emperor Palpatine minifig and hid the torso cracks behind the cape!). Even so, it's better to keep it in whatever condition it is already in; book collectors will tell you that rare, beat-up books are worth more before someone's taken tape to them as opposed to after.

I presume they scanned the sets in 3D, created CGI models for them (making whatever minor alterations necessary for it to function), and worked from there.

I'm going to stick to sets that I've actually had in-hand, to keep things fair. I'm not a big fan of Matoro Mahri. His chest has too many gaps, his mask is of a sufficiently different colour than his body to make it distracting (and the tube ensures MOC'ing with it will be conspicuous). His feet are too small; whatever one thinks of the Cordak Blasters, Matoro's is too heavy for him. His shoulder pads flop about whenever you move him, and his weapon is largely impracticable. Listing it out makes it sound like I dislike it more than I actually do; I wouldn't actually say he's my least favourite. I never found Toa Hordika Vakama (and by proxy the others, since the sets are clones) to be a strong set. I know others have emphasized the gapiness of the Hordika already, but they just feel... light and cheap to me. Their construction (especially in the feet and rib-cages) feel hollow compared to the solid and compact construction of their Metru counterparts. The sharp, consistent colour scheme of the Metru is also abandoned for a wash of silver on top of grey; never a good look. The ripcord jutting out the chest is the final nail in the coffin. I know they're supposed to look ugly, but that's because they're supposed to be animals, right? But the look doesn't match animals at all; I'm aware of no animals with silver armour and an elongated right limb!

White pieces are also more susceptible to smoke damage and/or natural yellowing due to sunlight exposure, so pristine non-yellowed white pieces are going to be less common.

Well, it's a question of tropes. Either the writer follows the trope (most likely because they haven't an awareness that it even exists) or they don't (either because they're deliberately trying to avoid the trope or happen to stumble outside of it). If someone on the team became aware there was a certain... gender... missing, then trying to make the story more inclusive (albeit in a small way) makes sense. Personally, I like to think they decided to make the blue toys female as an even greater subversion of the trope; by 2001 blue was the quintessential colour for boy's toys. Bionicle fumbles handling gender a lot, but I'll stand with it here.

Because male is seen as the default when it comes to robots (e.g. The (original) Terminator, R2-D2 & C3P0, etc) and this attitude hadn't changed writ large by the early 2000s.

Given that licensed games almost always turn out bad because the studio doesn't give the developers enough time to deliver a complete product, I assume this is the case. We're talking early 2000s LEGO here too, not exactly known for its excellent decision making *cough* Galidor *cough*.

Or "Frida Band," if you want to be stealthy and/or somewhat legit about it.

This post on the "Official Greg Dialogue" is the closest thing that I can find to back up that oft-heard sentence. It is odd. It seems everyone (including myself) heard this at some point and filed it away, but it has become so ingrained no one can remember where it came from. I was surprised that it wasn't in the 2007 Updated Encyclopedia. I could have sworn I read it in there.

I think the first 30 minutes of TLR are quite strong (given the standards of the medium). Really the main structural issue with the film is that the narrative problem it establishes (Mata Nui has been expelled from his "realm") is not the one that it solves at the end (the Agori tribes have banded together). Don't get me wrong; these plot points are interrelated. But the narrative satisfaction of TLR as a single film is going to be limited when it requires resolution from a different film (one that never got released) to fully tie up its inciting incident. None of this would be a problem if TLR was a pilot for a TV show (one that actually got made) or some other serial medium. Film works better in self-contained units (which is why LoMN is the most solid of the films). Strict trilogies (ones like Lord of the Rings where none of the films stand alone and require each other to achieve narrative satisfaction) can work, but are quite creatively ambitious endeavors that can be taxing for creators unprepared for them. The other issue is that the problem it solves (the Agori society being squalid and spartan) is a bit too complex for the film to "solve" without breaking the suspension of disbelief. Again, big societal problems aren't impossible to address in children's animation (see: Avatar: The Last Airbender) but providing satisfying answers to those questions is harder. I don't think TLR does a bad job at this, but I think the cloned designs of the Agori in this film desensitize the viewer to their plight, and make it harder for us to care about them.

I don't think HF was a bad business decision. Most LEGO themes do not run continuously for 9 years. Most run for 3 years. That HF ran for 4 years implies a lot about it; that it was a better-than-average but not exceptional theme. Which is pretty much what it was (once you disregard the stigma it gets for not being Bionicle). HF has more in common with your run-of-the-mill LEGO theme than it does with Bionicle when it comes to branding. This means that the story doesn't really matter. If anything, I'd say G2 was a worse business decision. It ran for only 2 years, which indicates to me that the company had little investment in it; that later came to show when poor advertising and weak branding led to substandard sales. Personally, I think constraction is on a downturn ATM because the development team had no plan for G2 failing, and thus had no ideas prepared to replace it when it ended prematurely. Developing LEGO themes can take a long time; I wouldn't be surprised if G2 was implicitly expected to last for 4-5 years. Thus, G2's replacement was planned to begin development now, with the expectation that G2 would currently be running at the time. However, G2 isn't running ATM, and the replacement theme hasn't caught up yet. That's just my opinion tho. It could be original constraction brands were put on hold after G2; in this case, G2 was a test to see if the market was still hungry for constraction; given that the test failed, we might not see any more of it.

It depends on the year. If the set was released prior to 2008 (and doesn't use lime-green joints), then you should definitely disassemble the joints. If the set was released from 2008-2010, then you should probably keep the ball joints in whatever state you currently have them in (attached or non-attached). The ball joints from these years are very fragile, and are more likely to crack from use (when you take them apart or put them back together) than they are just existing.