Distorted

Nice part usage with the Piraka feet. I wonder if adding Toa Metru thigh armour to the liftarms might make them look a little better?

This rule made sense in BZP's heyday, but now that the forum is generally much quieter, I'd have thought that any activity would be welcomed regardless of topic revivals.

At the very least, why not increase the day limits so topics can have more time before they're declared dead?

It's under 'Pneumatic'.

I think it's also worth noting that Bionicle's early marketing was really a product of its time.

Back in 2001, going to a website to learn more about the lore was a relatively novel experience. Streaming 3D computer-generated animations of the toys on the internet - in glorious 144p - was a relatively novel experience. Playing a whole interactive and episodic point-and-click adventure in your browser was a relatively novel experience.

(Not to mention, the idea of a big-budget Lego theme and even the actual toy concept of a Lego action figure you can build was fairly new itself...)

In the era of Youtube, social media, fan wikis, affordable CG animation, an oversaturated digital marketing landscape, and a Lego brand that's releasing all kinds of posable action figure sets, managing multiple big-budget themes and even doing whole animated TV series and movies now; none of these things are special any more.

It's easy to say Lego didn't do enough marketing in 2015 - and they probably didn't - but Bionicle 2015's marketing team had a much bigger uphill battle. They couldn't just repeat the same tricks and expect to recapture the same lightning in a bottle.

Junkbot, baybee!

Honestly, there were a *ton* of good Flash and Shockwave games on the Lego website:

• MNOG (which sadly never worked very well on my dial-up connection; I had to wait until the 2006 re-release to make any real progress in it)
• Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident
• Mindstorms Robohunter 2: Spy City (don't think I ever made it past the first level cuz I was bad at stealth, and again my internet speed was garbage)
• Those isometric-ish Drome Duel racing games
• Supersonic RC (the looping music is baked into my skull)
• Lego Studios Backlot

I also really liked the instructions pages that were exclusive to Lego.com. Nowadays I can see them for the cheap-and-easy content that they were, but back then it really did feel like being part of this little secret club.

If they weren't interested in 2015, I doubt they'd be interested now...

Probably the biggest news is that the long-lost PC game Legend of Mata Nui is now available to play.

These are super cute. I'm intrigued to see more MNOG-accurate versions, but these are still great; the belly buttons are a nice touch!

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Built for New Elementary's Bionicle 20th Anniversary Festival (part 2 of 4): https://www.newelementary.com/2021/11/47299-lego-50914-bionicle-57557-part-61807-.html

Thanks to Huw for the pics!

(Not an Iron Man thing, despite appearances...)

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Built for New Elementary's Bionicle 20th Anniversary Festival.

Thanks to Huw from Brickset for the pics!

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I'll be honest. I read the title and thought 'oh, here we go again; another Bionicle fan overanalysing their favourite franchise'.

I wasn't expecting a post with actual effort put into the calculations and a really funny conclusion. Nice work!

If you think any part of Umbra is going to make sense, you're gonna have a bad time.

He's an ancient guardian with roller skates.

Thanks for sharing these. I love seeing set prototypes; they're like a glimpse into an alternate universe sometimes!

On 8/10/2021 at 2:43 PM, Baraklava said:

I'm a Lego prototype collector and found this when going through a cache of prototypes I hunted down.

I imagine you'd rather keep your sources secret, but I have to ask; how did you get hold of these? How does one go about hunting down Lego prototypes? 

If you need any similar art, I'd recommend seeking out the various style guide files on Biomedia Project. They have a bunch of cool PSD files where you can see the various layers of promo art and disable any layers you don't need (such as logos).

Pretty sure it isn't gunmetal. To me it looks like a regular silver Inika leg that's become miscoloured in the sun.

17 hours ago, TERIDAX941 said:

Out of curiosity, what exactly is a Chronicler's Staff? (outside of story that is)

This part: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=48253&name=Bionicle Weapon Chronicler's Staff&category=[Bionicle]#T=C

Before its inclusion in later sets after 2003, it used to be a rare promotional part and was offered as a prize in classic BBC contests back in the day. 

Teridax is an awful name. It literally sounds like 'terribad' with a bonko suffix tacked on.

I'll never know why Greg didn't just come up with a different name for the Makuta species. Surely that would have made more sense than effectively renaming a character we've known as 'Makuta' for several years?

Tried my hand at a little digital art inspired by the style guide PSDs up on the BioMedia Project.

I combined free texture photos, Lego parts rendered in Bricklink Studio and some other elements I painted in. Nothing was taken from the style guide files themselves.

Hopefully this will be first in a little series!

I prefer Tohunga, but I prefer Lego respecting cultural boundaries more; so Matoran is fine!

Kongu Mahri and Pohatu Phantoka are both good sets and aren't too wide/short at all.

Matoro wasn't a particularly interesting character and his sacrifice didn't really have any sort of emotional impact on me. (Admittedly, I didn't really follow the books/comics/serials in 2006 and 2007; perhaps I'd have been a bit more invested in the character if I had.)

I don't really have a big pitch for a new theme, but if CCBS returns, I would love to include shells with more detail and with standard Technic pin-hole/axle-hole connection points; hopefully bringing the design philosophies of G1 and G2 closer together. (I'm not against regular CCBS by any means; I just personally find it more difficult to build MOCs with!)

On another note; there's been a lot of talk of a System-based G3 over the years with Toa minifigs, which would be neat; but I've never seen anyone talking about brick-built Toa using the new towball-socket system. I think that could be pretty cool - and if nothing else, it would hopefully get us some towball/socket tiles in more colours than just grey!

Apparently the RRP back in 2009 was $90 too. Sounds like you've gotten very lucky - the lowest price on Bricklink right now is $180!

I like Oddor. I bet he smells great.

Curious to see where this goes. Are there any plans to tone down the bloom lighting? That's the main thing that I found unbearable in BH.

Interesting stuff. If you haven't already, go check out the various style guide PSDs at the BioMedia Project; you get to see the various layers that make up box/canister art and it's pretty fascinating.