Disciple

Pohatu. I liked his story in Graphic Novel #1, where he finds the lost wolf cub whose mom got Skull Spider'd. First time we got to see what's behind his "tough guy" exterior. (And in my opinion, the only time any G2 Toa has felt like a fully realized, three-dimensional character.) After Umarak called him the "weakest link" of the Toa (that's right, pick on the brown sets...), his character started making a lot more sense to me, as someone who's a bit insecure and tries to overcompensate by acting gruff and serious. Plus, he's Batman.

Love it. Ketar is my favorite-- I really like the ridged pattern on his back that you created out of the Exo-Force robot arms. The use of a CCBS shell and the Mantax pincer as his tail barb is genius-- it really captures the shape of an actual scorpion tail. The System pieces you used for his feet create an unusual design that works really well-- in fact, I can't really imagine how anything else could work as well as the hinged elements you chose. They are the perfect size relative to the rest of his body-- you really nailed the proportions on this guy. I'm tempted to suggest adding some glowing eyes to Ketar, but then again, I can't seem to locate the eyes on an actual scorpion either. I really dig the overall look of him. Uxar strikes me as a little less refined than Ketar, but I can see the difficulties one might encounter in designing a CCBS dragonfly (the official Uxar set sure doesn't look like one). I think rather than using the big System wings, I would have gone with an extra pair of the HF half-shield pieces (the thingies Furno XL had). From what I can tell, it looks like the black cheese slopes near the front of his head are supposed to be his eyes-- good job on those. It seems like you were trying to capture the hairiness of a dragonfly by using the CCBS fur elements on his torso, but I think they ended up being a bit much. Not sure how I would fix it though-- maybe just try adding more of the Viking horn/large barb elements to the rest of him? Probably my biggest beef with him is the wings jutting out of his head. I looked at some dragonfly pictures to try and see what you were going for, but I can't quite figure it out. That said, I like his simplified color scheme, though I would have added more translucent parts in keeping with the common appearance of real-life dragonflies. Overall, I like what you did here. It would be cool to see your take on the other four creatures.

You're so lucky. My best find was a Gelu a couple years ago in Goodwill. He wasn't in one piece though, so I had fun hunting down his scattered parts all over the toy aisle. Paid a dollar for him.

Awesome news. I like the Hulk recolor and She-Hulks' green hairpiece. The Red She-Hulk's vehicle is actually pretty cool, and Red Hulk looks generic enough to serve as some kind of Nexo demon. Also glad they didn't make either She-Hulk a bigfig. Seen some bootlegs on eBay and they ain't pretty. Good job on the title for this news story. Gave me a chuckle.

Very cool. I could easily see these canisters lining the toy aisle shelves in lieu of the official packing those sets received. I like that they are a blend of old and new-- the familiar tube shape is there, but this time it's made of eco-friendly packaging. Wonder if I could have ever brought myself to throw these canisters away...

G'day, BZPers. Today I pose the following question: What set or group of sets did you experience the biggest change of opinion towards? For example: I thought the Toa Inika were terrible when I saw the first images back in 2006. In the early leaked photos, they had ugly masks that looked blobby and weird. And when we got the official sets in stores, it turns out they DID have those ugly masks from the early pictures. But eventually I warmed up to the sets and they are now my favorite group of G1 Toa. They are easy to pose, have decent color schemes, and carry some really cool weapons. What sets did you love/hate at first, but eventually change your opinion towards?

Very cool. I entered all three raffles. Happy 15th Anniversary, BZP.

Not bad. it's cool to see events from Kulta's perspective-- this guy won me over the second he took out all six Toa with one blow, so it's nice to see him given a bit more depth. I also really like that Skull Basher was referred to as Kulta's "lieutenant." The idea that he could be a sort of Starscream to Kulta's Megatron makes me like him a lot more. Seems it's also been implied now that there are only two Skull Scorpios? This is corroborated by the animations and by the 70794 box art, but up until now it hadn't been made very clear. Anyway, this is neat info. Thanks for sharing!

Fair point. I just requested that my library order copies of the new books, so I'm hoping to dive into those pretty soon.

I'm 23. I was 8 years old when I first heard of BIONICLE.

Haha, that's a great idea. I'm not sure exactly how he got this way... Visorak venom? Energized Protodermis? Mask of Control gone "out of control"? Whatever it was, he sure ain't telling. Anyway, here's the slightly revamped version.

Fair point. Good to get a second opinion on that-- it should be an easy fix. There are a few more changes I'll be making as well, such as the way his claws attach to the HF feet. Thanks for the comments, everybody.

I went with option 5. "I like the sets, but not so much the story." Let me start by saying that the set designers knocked it out of the park with the Masters. It's hard to overstate how much I like those sets-- they're everything I ever wanted from G1. Bright colors, near-perfect articulation, recognizable masks... The Masters KILLED IT. The rest of the 2015 sets were pretty good, too-- the Protectors were great, the Skull baddies were odd but had their charms, and MMvSG was the cherry on top of a fantastic year of sets. The 2016 sets have been less to my liking (they went overboard with the "technic" this year), but overall they get the job done. As for the G2 story, I get that they're taking a much more hands-off approach as compared to G1, but I still feel that it could be better. The animations (both web and Netflix) were great in terms of visuals, but the voice acting and simplicity leave room for improvement. There are a lot of points I'm still not clear on-- what makes a golden mask so much better than a regular mask? What does the Toa-Creature unity link actually do? Did Umarak put the Mask of Control on by his own accord, or did Makuta force him to? Add to that a good share of cliches and stale humor, and despite my enthusiasm, I couldn't help but feel that the animations as a whole fell short of the mark. That said, maybe there's some truth to the argument that it isn't fair to compare 1-2 years of G2 story to the entirety of G1. I started out very optimistic and patient in regards to the G2 story, hoping that we would soon get some real meat to sink our teeth into, but I guess I'm just wondering how much longer I'm going to have to wait. I'm not trying to bash G2-- I just want it to be the best it can be.

"I... hate... being a Scorpio..." Poor Pohatu thought he had it bad before... Wearing Ketar as a backpack was a walk in the park compared to getting turned into this... thing. "Beware my stinger tail!" Front view. Side view. Back view. Top view. Fighting Gali. We have a winner! Close-up of the torso supports. I was re-watching the 2015 web animations and thought it would be pretty funny to combine Pohatu with the thing he hates most: scorpions. This combiner MOC was made using parts only from Pohatu, Master of Stone and Skull Scorpio. Comments appreciated.

That is pretty weird, considering he would be mostly black/gray. Maybe you MOC'd it in response to the Toa Nuva Blog revelation that the Red Star appeared to be "alive?" That happened in 2007 around the time the Mahri were released. I'm intrigued by the Toa Mahri/Barraki combiners also. If by some chance you have any pictures or could MOC them again, I'd love to see 'em. You reminded me of yet another combiner project I undertook back in 2006 (ten years ago, sheesh!). I had an idea that the Matoran from the Voya Nui Resistance Team would have become Toa via a lava eruption from Mount Valmai. Seemingly dead, they would instead emerge from the lava as Toa and it would be revealed that the lava was really white-hot Energized Protodermis. But rather than turning them into Toa Nuva, it instead would have given them fire-based powers (kinda like the Inika had lightning) and glowing red eyes. The result would have been the "Toa Valmai." Each would have been MOC'd from the corresponding color of Toa/Piraka/Matoran sets (for example, Balta + Hakann + Toa Jaller = Toa Balta). Never got around to this because I didn't want to take all my 2006 sets apart (and risk cracking all the joints), plus there was the roadblock of the Kazi set lacking a typical Toa Metru head to hold the glowing Piraka eyes. But maybe I'll take a stab at this idea some time, provided I can dig up all my old BIONICLE stuff.

Man, how could I overlook Kardas? And yeah, MMvSG is a great-looking set. I think Umarak the Hunter just barely edges it out for coolest G2 set in my book.

Just thought of a good one. Pohatu, Master of Stone + Skull Scorpio = Pohatu, Master of Scorpions. "I... hate... being a Scorpio...." Gonna MOC it as soon as I get my hands on Skull Scorpio.

As Aanchir pointed out, I think it's a little late in the game to be shrinking the Toa. However, I'd be happy to see more Protector-sized sets-- especially as bad guys. I like the idea of having an army of midget-sized horde villains for the Toa to fight, maybe something like this MOC designed by Pohaturon.

Awesome! I like G2 Kopaka's pose a lot. Looks a bit cocky to me, like the shiny armor might be fueling his ego a bit. You may have picked a simple standing pose for each of them, but both come across as really dynamic and "flowy." Neither one looks like they're just standing there awkwardly. They look ready for action. If I were to suggest anything, it would just be to add some detail to G1 Kopaka's shield, or maybe clean up the lines a bit. But I'm sure if you intended either, you'd have done it already. Nice work.

"Nonononono!!" *BOOM* Have you checked Bricklink?

Hey everyone, For a writing challenge, I was thinking of trying my hand at writing a small G1-continuation story. As we all know, there are quite a few plot threads still hanging loose from 2010-ish. What unresolved things still bother you and how would you address them if you were in charge of the story?

I must agree. Although the concept of exploding boomerangs always seemed a bit... odd... to me.

Maybe it's broken.

As long as the Collectible Minifigures line doesn't go anywhere, this is no great loss in my eyes.

Good pick. Or how about when Turaga Dume first revealed that Mata Nui was dying? That was a HUGE shocker back in 2006. I still remember how we all went nuts after Greg shared that little sneak peek on BZPower. I love that part. It was perfect as Mata Nui's first line of dialogue-- so simple yet powerful.