JRRT

I use AVG, and it's been able to take care of every virus I've come across thus far, so, for freeware, I'd say it's probably your best bet. JRRT

... I'm everywhere. [edit: as in 6,640,000 hits ] And I'm dead. JRRT

This week, being BZP's sixth Anniv., everyone gets a blog. This can be viewed as both a good and bad thing, since although it gives every member the ability to express their personal thoughts on things, it also multiplies the number blogs into the thousands. So for my blog, if anyone is fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it in the rushing torrent, I thought I'd go back and take a look at how my spriting has developed over the approx. 3.5 years I've been a part of BZP. Here are the results: Tolkien's History of Spriting ------------------------------- Alright, here we have basically my first ever kit attempt. Quite bad really, but I was only just starting back then, so maybe I can be forgiven. There's obviously some RZ influence in there, particularly in the eyes and masks. But truth to be told, this is not actually my first Bionicle kit. The real first one is unfortunately locked away on the hardrive of an ancient Windows 95 computer. I'll recover it someday hopefully. It was truly massive. Next up, the second incursion into the spriting world. Pretty simple, though much better than the last, I think. I quite like this one actually , not too complicated. Yep, nothing much more to say. Ah, my favorite old kit. In my opinion, this is the first real kit I completed. It's got masks and some weapons, plus materials for building poses, and some pretty bad looking elemental effects too. Also, my shading skillz were a bit more improved, it would seem. Perhaps someday I'll revamp this one. I just wanted to throw this one in here. It's been sitting on my Brickshelf since I made the account, and I don't know why. The first kit I tried posting on BZP. It's kind of bland, there's not all that much resemblance to the Rahaga anyway. But, this was also my first try at making animations with sprites. Needless to say, the topic didn't last too long. An in-between kit. The first appearance of the Toa Metru in sprite form (check out their massive weaponry!). These were expressly made to be gamesprites (since I was making attempts at game programming), but they fell far short of what I was wanting. Don't animate the running sequence, it's horrid. Aha! Here we go, the first whispers of TGS. Left to right, this goes from the earliest form of the Vakama gamesprites to the finished form, and...beyond? The sprites for Piraka: Infight. Yes, the full sheets will be released very soon. Stop PMing me about it, I beg you. And that's all for the most BZP related kits, but what about the others? What about the kits that were never posted or completed? Well, here's a tribute to some of those lost kits. ------------------------ Hope you enjoyed this entry, only made possible by BZP's VI Anniversary. JRRT

I agree almost completely with you, except on the subject of the "positives" you mentioned--I personally can see none in these sorry apparitions of Bionicle sets. Hahli may have lime green, and that's great for piece color enthusiasts, but its very presence sacrifices whatever remaining visual appeal the set has. And besides, the Hahli set is not Hahli Mahri at all: it's simply Hahli Inika with a paint job and some wings/fins tacked onto the back--almost no differing features exist in the structure. There was no ingenuity or thought put into any of these sets, the designs of most are so utterly simple that they very nearly insult my intelligence. On further thought, I may be able to live with some of the masks (discluding Hewkii's axe-blade headdress and lolipop), the blue visor insert is something new after all, and the attachments for hoses are interesting to say the least. But beyond that, my optimism vanishes... JRRT

I haven't seen snow for at least four years. Count yourself lucky. JRRT

Wha? The Pit hasn't ever moved, it was always above the subterranean domes--like a "pocket dome", still connected to the surface sea floor/upper dome structures. Yeah, Voya-Nui was the only thing that moved during the GC. JRRT