Toa Philo

But did Fëanor do nothing wrong?

If you do, you should hang out in the VRChat Bionicle community, there are some really creative people there. One guy has a world were you can build Bionicle mocs, and has been recreating all the Bionicle sets in the style of the Bionicle Heros game. Another guy made a world where you can "play" with all the sets and place them in a diorama. Though you can't pose them unfortunately. There are also several avatar creators that made Bionicle avatars. One newer thing has been PVP Avatars, which are functional. So basically, in PVP worlds you can have actual fighting Bionicle (with ability's). And its a system compatible with other pvp groups, so we can fight Warhammer groups, Star Wars groups, Daleks, Helldivers, etc. Though there aren't many Bionicle PVP avatars yet, only and handful. I don't know if its worth getting VR for, but if you do, defiantly check the community out.

Are you saying Mistika > Phantoka?

It isn't. Its based off real Lego stores, specifically the ones you see at malls. Though, I guess it does feel more like a real store when you are in there with a group of people. I found that people like going around and looking at the boxes/canisters. It is a little surreal sitting in front of a bunch of Bionicle boxes/canisters on a shelf.

Well here is the third canister I scanned, and by far the most difficult to model. One thing I have learned from all this is that the Mistika canister was possible the best canister to photo scan. The next one, gave me the biggest headache of the 3 canisters, the Phantoka canister. I spent more time working on this one than the other two combined. To start off, here is the photo scan of Toa Pohatu (the best Toa) Phantoka: The Raw result with the Phantoka turned out pretty nice in my opinion. One fun detail that got added from the scan was the instruction manual being visible through the clear plastic. Though, even though it look pretty good, the scan still had some problems, specifically with the gap between the canister and the orange decorative plastic piece. For the photo scanning process would fill in that gap in some (most) areas. As shown here: Now later I'll be addressing this issue, but before then I show how I baked this to a lower poly model, one being the lowest possible, and one that has a low poly amount, but has some added details to make it significantly better. First the super low poly count, almost as low as just a simple box: Here is the one with a little more geometry while still being very low poly: While this does look better it is still lacking compared to the photo scan. Here is the comparison of the three versions: While I could've called it a day there, I took it a few steps more. Since the canister is multiple pieces, I am able to scan the two pieces separately. This also addresses the problem motioned earlier. Here is the plastic orange decretive piece: While this looks pretty cool, its probably obvious, the model didn't scan correctly. It's more noticeable newt to the photo scan with it on. Next I scanned the canister, this turned out much better than the external piece. Now with both pieces together: Comparing the two: Now to model the Canister using these two photo scanned parts. First the canister: Here is comparing the low poly to the photo scan: Newt part took me several hours to model, it was more tricky than expected but I got it done while still being low poly. Now we have both parts modeled and textured Now we can combine them Now we can compare the low poly version as one object to the one with two pieces and the photo scan: Overall, I'm please with the end result, it was a good amount of work, but a satisfying payoff.

Agreed, Takanuva would be nice change. Or even Makuta, really anyone at this point. But this really shows how they only "acknowledge" Bionicle without actually caring about it.

With how Tahu is the only thing Lego is ever acknowledging of Bionicle at all, I'm convinced that he is the true Great Being and not Mata Nui. Tahu has survived his hole universe ending XD

I did it again, this time with Onewa. I wanted to this one specifically because its a cylinder. Here is the result: Just like the Bitil canister, I went and made a low poly version, but this time I made 2. One lower poly and more simple, with the minimum polygons need for a general shape. Ver quick and easy, took me just a couple minutes to model/bake the textures from the high poly photo scan. While this was a quick and easy model and useable, I wasn't to pleased with the lid. It could use just a little more geometry, so I spent a few minutes modeling a new canister, added the extra details to get the shape to be more accurate, and got this: Here is an comparison of the 3 Canisters next to each other:

I've been working on a VRChat world that has a lego store filled with Bionicle sets. Its surprisingly tricky to make. The models themselves aren't to difficult, but getting the texturing right is. Recreating a box (like a titan set) is simple due to each side being flat. You can also find clean images of the box side to which you can make clean textures from, with very simple UV unwrapping. Bionicle Canisters are difficult mainly due to their curves. While some are easier than others, such as the Ignika due to the art being a relatively flat sticker on each side, Others like the Toa Mata, or Metru, or any that have artwork that is being curved around a more cylindrical canister, its hard to get a texture of the artwork that would unwrap cleanly, without someone taking time destroying their canister to scan the artwork as its own file. I neither own most canisters, nor would I want to destroy what ones I have. Photo scanning allows me to get the artwork that wraps perfectly around the model, while also getting more interesting and complicated aspects of the canister, example being the lid of the Mistika canister. This also gives me overall the best result possible for such a project.

I decided to try photo scanning a Bionicle canister, specifically one that would be harder to 3d model from scratch. This is the result: Total of 176,494 polygons. Next I decided to try optimizing the model as much has possible to the lowest possible polygon amount by modeling a rough low poly canister (only 108 polygons) in the shape of the photo scanned version. Then I baked the Texture and Normals of the high poly photo scanned onto my low poly canister. Here is the result: Comparing the two models side by side: In the future I'll probably make another optimized version with some more polygons that would give a little more geometry while still having a low polygon amount. Overall, this little experiment (from start to finish) took less than an hour, so I am pleased with the results.

The sad reality about Bionicle projects of any kind is that LEGO can shut them down. You can make an "official fan project" with LEGO's approval, but this changes nothing. LEGO could always say that they no long wish for the project to be around, even if it had approval before. Unless a contract was signed giving the fan project legal rights to the IP, LEGO can shut down any fan project. If what I've heard is correct, B:MoP did get an okay from LEGO to publish on steam. If anything, getting LEGO involved is more likely to get it shut down, this is what I believed happened to B:MoP as they got too "official" with them posting to steam, and LEGO can't allow that if they want to keep legal president over ownership of their IP's. A reason I think B:MoP being on steam was a leading factor for it being shut down is that B:MoP Legacy was not shut down, only B:MoP 2.0 was. Thankfully, LEGO is pretty relaxed with copyright, relatively speaking. You can make a fan project, and as long as you respect their copyright, and don't make any monetary gain, make sure you make it clear that it is a fan game, then you should be safe. Pretty much every time LEGO used copyright to shut something down, it has been not fallowing this general guideline. And frankly, B:MoP got to overconfident with not being shut down over the years that they flew too close to the sun. (Putting it on steam + Allowing monetary donations) To many people in the Bionicle community over the past decade have gotten a warped view of Bionicle as an IP and started using it as if it's something they own. But the reality is its owned by LEGO, your fan project is a fan project and not your "Official Bionicle Project".

Absolutely. One major issue I personally find with modern LEGO and why I find it too expensive is because they try to make them look as perfect as possible, due to everything being a license theme you have to make everything look like the original the set is based on. They used to be toys, something to play with, now they have become just brick build displays for AFOL. There is a huge difference in design choices between an Original Space LEGO Theme's set and a modern Star Wars Set.

The sad truth is that Lego rarely ever brings back an original theme. Especially after Bionicle's G2 failure, they have been less interested in Original themes overall. Toys aren't as popular as they where pre-internet. Now kids are playing video games on a level higher than when we where kids in the 2000's. With games like Roblox, these kids have everything they would want, social interaction, collectables, fun unique games, etc. all in one place that works together (share their colectables with their online friends as an example). I'm not a Rolblox player so I'm probably using incorrect terminology, but they point is still the same, Kids don't care for toy's. Its why Lego is focusing on license themes so that people buy them because they are "Star Wars" with more investment into making sets for AFOL. And unfortunately most AFOL don't care for Bionicle, or outright disregard it as non-Lego. Its sad, but Lego isn't the same Lego that we grew up with.

I'm surprised I never heard of this game. A Bionicle RTS would be sick.

I enjoyed it, it had decent animation, the lack of mouths helps a lot. I enjoy the story aspect of it as well. I especially liked how the Makuta was displayed, not just some dark lord esque character, but as like an eldritch monster. I look forward to the next episode, IMO this is the best fan project we got since Takua64

Vaguely, I don't remember if I ever played it or not.

Most likely, why else would they not shut down B:MoP until now?

Agreed, If Lego really wanted to do Bionicle Right with a G3 I think what they would need to do is continue the story with the Shadowed one being the main antagonist and to make the story something to unravel, rather than just Bad guy bad. make people question who is a bad guy, who is a hero. Also, the idea of collectables like Old Bionicle had (2001 era) would do wonders with the modern internet. But alas, Lego will never bring back Bionicle, at least not to a level that it was during G1.

Amazing Job!

No, it belongs in MY basement.

Oh man... That Bionicle one... That one feels real.

Such a unique look, It's awesome seeing new concepts that I never seen before. Good job!

Nice, I look forward to it! Its cool that people still are working on their own Bionicle movies/shows.

The way have multiple eyes on the visorak is Awesome. I'm a fan of the visorak, Its nice to see people make art of them. Really well done!

I love how you did the snake, it works so well when it combines with Gali.