Aiden

On 4/9/2024 at 10:22 PM, confused piraka said:

well this might be just painted but.... (59 second mark, look at the middle makuta)

 

 

Huh, I never noticed that while watching the video. To my knowledge nobody has really ever seen the masks shown in this video in person, so we don’t know if the hau would be painted or not. I was going to say we don’t know if the masks of ultimate power are painted either, but it doesn’t really matter as much since they’re unique molds.

2 hours ago, confused piraka said:

remember that topic I made about the makuta contest?

I don’t, you’d have to jog my memory. I tried to find said topic as well and wasn’t able to find anything.

5 hours ago, confused piraka said:

that exists you know

I know there’s a prototype one in brown, haven’t seen a black one before though. 

11 hours ago, Master Inika said:

Not that the Skopio is a bad set, but it's a repetitive and somewhat frustrating build, and it's not as poseable as it could be. (Having legs in addition to wheels implied a certain degree of posability versus just wheels.) 

Skopio is easily my favorite, it’s just huge and imposing, and looks great especially with that red color scheme. That being said I didn’t build the one I had, I bought it used and refurbished it- I would hated having to build it. I actually really hate the building process for the battle vehicles so much, just because they’re a pain (for me)- my fingers were mangled corpses by the time I finished building the Rockoh T3. So something like Vultraz’s ship or Toa Ignika’s board would suit me really well, being smaller builds- if you’d consider those “battle vehicles”. 

I had a dream where I found select masks in the Lego Store, packaged like the SDCC g2 masks and hung on racks like old minifigure battle packs. The only ones I remember is a trans neon green mask of life (the more detailed one) and a black g2 hau. There was also a trans blue shadow leech with pearl gold fins, and a solid navy leech in a little bin of parts.

7 hours ago, Mushy the Mushroom said:

Being a big fan of baby ducks, I waddled over hoping to learn of who Duckbricks was in <5 minutes with no brain expenditure, sad to see this feathered friend is not on BZP-but happy that this isn’t some part of BZP lore I’d lolloped over obliviously as usual, before. 🦆

Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on much. He seems like a nice guy, but his content is pretty lazy, (imo) quite often being hours long of him just talking with little to no editing or cuts when needed. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched him, so I’m sure he’s improved since then, but it’s just not for me either way. He’s got a pretty cool collection, at the very least!

On 3/18/2024 at 8:18 PM, confused piraka said:

 

I'm thinking about using an injection molding service to make existing masks in new colors. I would outsource it via a prototyping company

 

In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense to do this. You’d essentially just be commissioning somebody else to do the work, then reselling the product. There are already people who cast their own masks in the community, like Nate and Socket. This feels like unnecessarily adding a middle man, it’d make more sense if you were making them yourself. I think this is something you’d do if you wanted specific masks that weren’t made for your personal collection- but at that point, you may as well just go to somebody who specializes in it in the community.
 

I’m not trying to necessarily discourage you, more so encourage you to put more work and effort into it if it’s something you really want to do- it would be really cool running your own mask making operation. It’s also much more rewarding when you can say “I made that”, rather than just “I sold that”, if that makes any sense.

On 3/18/2024 at 5:10 PM, doodleloot said:

I've sometimes seen people dismiss genuine (that we know to be legit) prototypes as "fake" because of them featuring printed parts and some people immediately take that as an indication of them being fan made or fraudulent. But you're right, these look like they could also be from Shapeways and admittedly, the print lines on these look less noticeable than for example the Lewa Axalara prototype parts from Toy Fair.

The big reason for that being that it’s just that much easier to have a fake just be a low-ish effort 3D print. Particularly with shadow leeches, since the actually pieces are rubber- it’s so much easier to just 3D print. I’ve only seen one person making custom shadow leeches. I think the big thing with 3D printed prototypes is that they NEED to have a story- they need to have something that checks out and leaves you with no doubts. I think that applies to all prototypes, but especially with the 3D printed ones. I would also like to note that all (as far as I’m aware) of Lego’s printed protos that have been found and verified (to the best of our ability) have had some sort of a spray paint on them, and not left blank (The Axalara’s 3D prints, my print leeches and tridax pod, for example).

On 3/18/2024 at 5:10 PM, doodleloot said:

That being said, the Tridax pod is still really weird as it seems to be a completely unique mesh, and doesn't match up with the Stud.io one at all. Both the outside decoration as well as the inside structure are completely different (plus the same issue with lowpoly geometry as the stud.io shadow leech). The pod is honestly the most notable part about this whole thing to me that makes me think there could be something to this. I also wasn't able to find a Tridax pod model that looks like this online anywhere 🤷‍♂️

The tridax pod is definitely weird. I think the possibility that it’s a knockoff should also be considered- as knockoff sets often false advertised what was included and had very, very low quality parts. I think the main thing that makes me lean towards it being fake (besides its quality) is that it’s never been seen or mentioned anywhere prior. That’s where most of the validity of prototypes come from, knowing the source and the story behind them.

22 hours ago, Bambi said:

 

At this point, I'm not even sure if I'm going to buy it after it's fixed. Aspyr got caught allegedly using someone's mods in the game, though it seems they removed it.

I saw that as well sometime after my original message, don’t plan on buying it at all after hearing that. I heard that they’re somehow legally fine using people’s mods, which is insane to me.

55 minutes ago, TERIDAX941 said:

I was really tempted to grab it as I never got a chance to play it when it originally came out, but with all the reviews about it, I'm going to wait until they fix the multiplayer and possibly go on sale

The reviews are overwhelmingly negative, which is hilarious. I might grab it in the future when issues are fixed and there’s a price drop, as well.

As for the last game I played, Slay the Spire. Wonderful game that I swear is impossible to beat. Not even with the best luck and most stacked layout can I beat the final final room.

On 3/14/2024 at 1:28 PM, Max_Nui said:

Can we get a conclusion on whether these are fake or not replied for historical purposes?

They are more than likely fake, I recommend checking out my post on potential shadow leech fakes here: 

There just really isn’t any evidence pointing towards them being real. Nothing substantial, anyways. Lots of suspicious coincidences surrounding them. (And since there has been some misunderstandings, anybody mentioned in my post is not being accused of anything, they are simply being used for example).

TLDR I wouldn’t recommend going after these. Stick to what you see in the Official Collectibles Topic, if you have little experience with these things.

4 minutes ago, Vahkiti Master of Time said:

I've attached a zip file containing every message, post, email, or indirect attention-seeking garbage that he's ever posted since this whole thing began. I have scrubbed the emails section of his exact address since even now I'm not about to dox the guy. Everything else however is public record. Have fun!

Evidence (Clean).7zUnavailable

Zip file isn’t working, just a heads up.

2 hours ago, PortalPuppy31 said:

My music listening tastes are getting deeper towards Essenger, Cryoshell, The All-American Rejects, and Daughtry. I also enjoy the Bionicle movie trilogy, which a lot of people know about, and also Zoids, which you might not have heard of.

I listen to 80s/90s rock/pop for the most part. Love some more classic tunes like Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass as well, though. The Bionicle movies are alright, I enjoyed watching them but there are plenty of other things I’d rather watch.

2 hours ago, Bambi said:

Lately (as in since December lol) I've been getting back into reading, though I've only been reading Star Wars novels. I'm slowly making my way through the post-ROTJ EW books. So far, I'd have to say my favorites have been the Thrawn trilogy and The Truce at Bakura.

Some other things I'm into are obviously Star Wars, anime (although I haven't been watching it much lately), hockey, some light gaming, and music. Pretty much all I listen to is metal. I also play bass and a little guitar, however I'm not too good at either lol. I'd like to start posting covers online someday, once I work up enough courage and skill.

I used to really enjoy the Star Wars books, I remember in particular enjoying The Force Unleashed. I’m not really into Star Wars anymore, though. I’m not super into sports either, but I’ve got a buddy who I enjoy watching hockey and soccer with every once in awhile. I’ve had a guitar for years, but never learned to play. It’s something I’ve been meaning to make time for.

11 hours ago, Master Inika said:

I have always wanted to make video essays but I just do not have the discipline. I settle for making poorly-edited TikToks.

I enjoy nostalgic cartoons. The one I have most recently gotten back into is Code Lyoko.

I highly recommend at least trying it out, it can be somewhat therapeutic. It doesn’t require much discipline either from my experience, the most I ever have to do is get myself to actually do them since I’m sticking to a schedule. Cartoons are a blast, I’ve been binging shows I wasn’t able to watch when I was younger, like Adventure Time or Over the Garden Wall. Right now I’m watching Regular Show. 
 

3 hours ago, Aderia said:

• Trying out new recipes (I've found Binging with Babish on YT to be great fun)
• I do enjoy reading, and after I finish the Ender's Game saga, I really want to tackle more of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe.  

 

I watched Binging with Babish for a little while, very fun! I never have the energy to cook, so can’t say I’ve tried any of their recipes. Whenever I’m looking to watch something food related nowadays, my go to-s are Ericsurf6 and Food Theory. I’ve kind of wanted to get back into reading, but it feels like a chore when I do. If I ever end up reading anything I’m doing a deep dive into some random show’s lore on wiki 😂 honestly ridiculously solid hobbies/pastimes you got there. I’ve really been needing to diversify what I do each day.

We all have one thing in common, being our enjoyment of Bionicle. I’d love to get to know some of you better, and hear your other interests. My main hobby is making video essays- which can be a blast, but equally tiring at times. My favorite part of that is making the thumbnails, because I draw them in MS Paint. It gives me a reason and motivation to actually express my artistic side more. I also quite enjoy playing video games, as I’m sure most people do, and I’ve recently gotten into playing my 3DS more. What do you all enjoy doing outside of the Lego space? 

On 3/3/2024 at 10:29 AM, Valendale said:

To actually answer your question, I think the seasons of the show starting with 2023 have been some of the best. Much better than the slump post-movie.

Got it. Might have to check it out again. It’ll be hard to top Possession for me, though. That was peak Ninjago

Happy late birthday! I hope you had a great one

5 hours ago, PortalPuppy31 said:

The rules are going to be a bit more relaxed so that people have more time to understand when they are doing things that they don't realize they aren't supposed to do while still enforcing and upholding the rules.

The issue with that though, is that you are protecting the person breaking the rule rather than the person (or persons) the rule breaker is affecting. Essentially, you are giving the rule breaker more time to do harm to others. That’s why rules are upheld strictly, because if you give a lot of leeway it does more harm. This is very anti-victim, in my opinion, and I don’t think it will work very well. Typically the most leeway you get is a warning, because more than that and you’re really just letting them get away with it, even if they don’t get what they’re doing. Hope that makes sense 

A quaint little plush maiden having a spot of tea

29 minutes ago, confused piraka said:

so do you consider the new marvel stuff constraction?

I’d say they’re like, spiritual successors to constraction, if not straight up constraction. Iirc, constraction isn’t specifically CBT (Classic Bionicle Technic) or CCBS, it’s just larger action figure-esque models. So I don’t think it needs to be CBT or CCBS to be considered constraction, it just needs to fit that larger action figure niche.

I started watching Ninjago since the pilot episode back in 2011, and I loved the show and sets. I watched up until the season where they brought back Clutch Powers. After the episode where the ninja meet Clutch, I stopped watching the show. There were quite a few factors, namely being:

-At the time, I didn't enjoy The Lego Ninjago Movie.

-I didn't like that half the characters in the show were redesigned to fit the Ninjago Movie styles, which looked really weird next to characters with the original style

-The show felt a lot more goofy after the movie (in a much more juvenile way) but also, far more serious at times. It was a very weird mix.

In retrospect, The Lego Ninjago Movie was really good, as a standalone. It doesn't really fit in the already established Ninjago universe, and at the time, we were hot off the heels of both The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie, so there was some burnout there as well. I also felt they really messed up Clutch's character when he was introduced, retconning him to be an actor and his entire character arc of Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers being ignored. It was also a very odd decision to retcon him as an actor, as they introduced a villain named Omega around this time, which was one of the three villains he would've been after in a sequel to his movie.

All of this is to say, I'm somewhat interested in returning to the series. I've been playing a lot of Lego Universe recently, and there's a Ninjago world in the game that I've spent a lot of time in, and has sparked my interest in the series anew. I'm curious if it's worth checking out the newer seasons of the show, and what everyone's opinions on it is.

Seems as you've forgotten about the Ben 10 constraction sets haha. Easily the most forgettable of them all, but they were a neat oddity. There were also two Toy Story sets- Buzz Lightyear and Zurg, which were borderline constraction, depending on how you look at it.

4 hours ago, Gallaver said:

 Why are Why are you making me out to be a liar because I never said I was selling those 3D printed pieces at all.  I even said that I had all those 3D printed looked and was  told they were not real but no apparently I am some kind of weird scheming person......

I’m not. Specifically said I’m not pointing fingers, your post just so happened to be one of these instances a fake shadow leech prototype popped up, and I was going through them all. You never said you had them looked at, and were told that they were fake (unless you did AFTER the post I made). You did however say you bought this lot of items to resell, which is what I said. All I was saying is that it’s just very weird and suspicious that all of these have popped up so close together, and there are other things that just don’t line up. It’s perfectly possible that you bought those items without knowing their authenticity, which is why I didn’t outright say you were scamming or anything. I’m sure you’re not, but I also wanted to talk about the possibility either way for general awareness. Apologies if it came off otherwise.

PSA on shadow leech prototypes:

I've been collecting Bionicle prototypes for a few years now, and it all started with the shadow leeches. I've done a lot of research on them, most likely more than anyone else, so I'd like to consider myself a pretty reputable source when it comes to this particular niche. I've recently seen some questionable "prototypes" pop up, and I wanted to address them along with showing ones that are legitimate, to hopefully inform people who may be less knowledgeable on the topic before making any purchases.

Firstly, I want to talk about and show off the real deals (See image 1). First, the Binkmeister prototypes (Image 1, row 2). These are already outlined in this topic, but I'll give a quick rundown. Bags of prototypes were given to community members (for example Black 6) from Binkmeister, a Lego employee at the time (I'm unsure of their current employment status). Among these were prototype shadow leeches, in an array of different colors (all possible colors are shown here, though it's important to note the shades and red speckling vary, just like the normal shadow leeches). I received two yellow leeches from Dviddy, and I traded for the rest of the Binkmeister leeches I needed from a reputable source (who will be kept private). 

While searching for the leeches, I came across a post in BZP from a former Lego employee, Torsti, made in 2014.

It's explained that while they were interning, they found a drawer full of shadow leeches, and was allowed to keep them. This lot consisted of 53 seemingly normal leeches, four 3D printed prototypes of an early design for the leech, three test mold leeches in opaque orange, a 3D printed tridax pod prototype, and another tridax pod prototype in a slightly darker trans orange, with a slightly different mold.  I reached out to them and we were able to work out a deal, and on arrival I discovered that the 53 "normal" shadow leeches were also prototypes. They each had varying amounts of sparkle to them, different consistencies of rubber (some being particularly flimsy), some being in much more vibrant shades of blue/green than what was released, and one even having red speckling mixed into it (See image 1, row 1, and row 4/5 for the tridax pods). There have been no images of these prototypes from Torsti other than what he and I have shared, so it is likely these are the only ones of these in existence.

(Image 1)

This leads me to the recent "prototypes" that have popped up recently. I won't be naming names, of course (as it is always possible to be wrong, and I don't want to put anyone on blast, just raise awareness), but it has all been rather suspicious. Last year, four light gray leeches (FDM printed) popped up, claiming to be from a trade show. I reached out to Skybird, who has done a lot of reasearch on trade shows and prototypes since he won the bid for the prototype Axalara, who gave me his opinion on them. "Axalara comes up for sale in late June (sold early July), I make the story public about two weeks into July.

•I mention trade show (by name)
•They mention trade show (vague)
I mention location, NY
They mention location, TX
•I source pictures from a private event (because lego invites press)
•They explain a lack of pictures with photos being unallowed (fair enough
•I mention parts are printed, and mention the method but not the specific acronym (SLS)
•They show printed parts (appear FDM, something I have not seen Lego use, but either way, they definitely aren't SLS)

All of the info they share is public info, but the only info that could prove the parts are real, sources, material, documentation. Those are left out", and also mentions they couldn't find any trace of a trade show happening at that location, in the rough time frames a shadow leech would be relevant. Here is the post of Tourmalinex's haul, where he was given the leeches for free, alongside some rarer items he purchased: 

Something I've noticed is that questionable items will often be shown with rare, legitimate items, potentially to try and boost its credibility. The story behind these is (in my opinion) just doesn't hold up, and they have never been seen prior or have any sort of evidence that can prove that they're real. They also claimed to have one of the 3D printed leeches I received from Torsti, but when asked for pictures, none were provided.

Just one month later, new "prototype" leeches popped up on Reddit linked here: 

The leeches are all white, SLS printed, and notably on a sprue. It's been pointed out to me that with SLS printing, there is no reason for them to have been on a sprue, but I am not an expert on 3D printing myself, so I can't confirm that. They also had a note stating what it was, and they showed me a very low quality digital image of it when I requested to see it in personal messages. Even if the note was higher quality, I can't say a note is enough to verify their legitimacy. I unfortunately don't have an image of the note at this point as it's been awhile. They told me they sold them to a reseller who was planning on splitting them up, but I've yet to see any pop up until very recently. The first user who responded to this post is now deleted, and the other comment afterwards was straight up deleted, which is a bit suspicious on its own. The user who made the post was also on a brand new account at the time. Like the previous gray leeches, these had never been seen before nor had any sort of real evidence, but something notable is that the big critique with the gray leeches is that they were FDM printed, and these white ones fix that issue with being SLS, and the seller made a point to make sure people knew these were SLS.

Just last Thursday, this post was made in BST from a new account: 

Where they post an image of items they allegedly received from somebody who worked for a "promotional events company". It's worth noting they have the NYCC Clear Hau, which may be there to boost credibility, somewhat similar to the VMKK with the gray leeches earlier. Of course, that's being pessimistic, but it's important to look at all the possibilities. Among this assortment of items, there is a white leech and a blue/black tridax pod half. The white leech looks to be identical to the ones on the sprue, notably with no sprue of course. This is in fact not from the sprue, however, as they claim this lot of items was bought in 2018. The tridax pod doesn't make much sense, as if you take a look at it, it's a completely unique mold. It was suggested that it may be a test mold for Von Nebula's tridax pod, however he used the same exact mold of the original tridax pod, just in blue and black. It's possible that they may have tried to use a different design, but this has never been seen prior. When asked, I was also not provided with additional pictures, as they were conveniently (in my opinion) given away (for free) despite them claiming they bought this lot to resell. Without additional pictures, it's impossible to really look into the pod further. Additionally, on the topic of the leech, somebody reached out to me and claimed they heard from a designer, and that there is a file for the white leech that was "not meant to be distributed", and that they have the file, and they can be printed at home. The file was not provided, but this is suspicious on both ends- either this claim is true, and that means that people could just print their own fakes, or it's fake, and people have just been printing fakes. I'm going to completely ignore this claim, as it contradicts it's purpose of trying to prove legitimacy, while also being nothing more than a claim.

These three instances all have too many suspicious aspects too them, and in my opinion, are not legitimate. It's perfectly possible that I'm wrong, but I'd like to encourage you all to look into this kind of stuff further than what is presented at face value. A story isn't always true, and it's important to cross reference, compare, and talk to knowledgeable people on the topic. Sorry for the long read folks, I felt it was important to put this out there as I've felt these recent pop ups have been rather suspicious, and I've seen a lot of people kind of just accept them as real with pretty minimal research.

The white leech and blue pod half might be good finds, assuming they’re authentic (which I wouldn’t). I’d love to take a look at them if you could send more detailed images, and what material they seem to be made of. Nothing personal, but I find it suspicious since you’re a new user- and new users have been popping up with “prototype shadow leeches” similar to yours (one notably on Reddit, who had six white ones still attached to a sprue). Also, by “tossed”, I’m assuming you mean that you threw the other leeches away? Why’d you do that? Also, is there anything in the velvet bag?