Distorted

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.

It annoys me too! I tried a few different ways to make six lines, but this was the best solution I could find. Might keep trying, though. Thanks for the review!

Built using digital bricks in Bricklink Studio. No parts were harmed clipped in the making of this build. Glossy render kindly supplied by Marko (aka Cezium) via Blender 3D: www.flickr.com/photos/cezium/ A System build of a Bionicle symbol (so I'm now like 60% sure I posted this in the wrong forum...) - EDIT: Instructions for a new version of this MOC are now available from my Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/s/2ba937f4e5

@Xboxtravis Pretty entertaining that the '03 Matoran's eye glow didn't line up with their actual eyes - I'd never noticed that! I think this being an accidental rendering error seems less likely, because both his feet appear as the standard Piraka foot - surely a rendering problem would affect all three parts? This is the case for both his glossy box/instructions art and his alternative render. Plus, I can't help feeling the new smooth, rounded shape gives off the same 'high tech submarine' vibe that some of the Mahri's parts also had (particularly Jaller's mask and chest armour, Nuparu's shield, Matoro's shoulders etc) which suggests the design is intentional? As a side note, I'd also argue the examples in your first post don't seem to be accidental rendering errors, but deliberate marketing artistic licence to make the sets look more appealing. Of course, it's also possible that this part is artistic licence too and was never really intended for production - but if this was the case, you'd assume similar 'fake' parts would be showing up on set box art more often? It's fascinating to see the slightly different launcher mold on Nidhiki's box art - another thing I've never noticed. It does seem more likely that Hydraxon's renders are based on his set's prototype (which I don't think has ever been leaked, right?). (Turns out there are Hydraxon prototype photos out there, but the only ones I could find use the standard Piraka foot. Hmm...) But still, it's not totally unexpected for a slightly different prototype of a brand new part to make its way into set art/photos, especially one that serves a launcher function like this - the designers had to work out the kinks. It's a little more unexpected to see a slightly different prototype of an existing part, no? And it seems even more unusual for that set to feature both the existing part and the new alternate version? My hunch: they wanted to include the new alternate version of the part in the set, but creating a new mold for a part that basically already existed wasn't feasible for Lego's budget. Perhaps they decided they could only afford to produce one modified mold for the new Hordika foot rather than two. We do know that bonkle in 2007 got some cuts to story and sets (hence why we only got 4 small box sets that year) so maybe this mysterious prototype was another casuality of that whole sitch. I'd love to know the actual reason, though! A few lil observations: The alternative part also shows up in the Mahri CGI movie, although it's hard to tell if his feet are still the standard Piraka foot too The comics drawn by Stuart Sayger seem to show the standard part as the chest armour (hard to tell with Sayger's art style) but the Hydraxon's Tale bonus comic drawn by Christian Zanier shows the alternative part. Which begs the question; was each artist using the actual set, the renders or possibly the prototype set as a reference? I forgot Kalmah used the part first; but I believe each year's sets are all designed around the same time, right? So, it could be they designed the part for Kalmah and then reused it for Maxilos; or they designed it for Maxilos and reused it for Kalmah. (Interestingly, two different Kalmah prototypes (including one with dope Pakari shoulders) use standard Hordika feet.)

In official media (including the Toa Mahri CGI movie and the actual box/instructions art) Hydraxon's silver chest armour piece is depicted as a slightly different mold to the existing Piraka foot part which is used for his feet. It's a little more curved and smooth at the edge. Of course, inside the set itself is just a regular silver Piraka foot. I'm curious as to whether this new mold was ever planned for actual production, or if it was just an odd quirk of Hydraxon's set prototype that somehow made it into official media. (It's interesting that the Hordika foot got a slightly new mold that year too, for Maxilos' chest piece...) Does anyone know the story behind this weird 'lil situation?

Needing four arms to juggle all the things in your life while your feet feel like they're encased in concrete? Yup, sounds about right.

I would never have realised the foreshadowing without your comment, but actually, Makuta does talk to himself a lot during the Mangaia scenes in Mask of Light. Granted, they're straight-up monologues rather than him talking to a reflection of himself, but it's interesting that the parallel was there all along!

- Gallery -

I really like your idea of sharing all the Ideas projects in one place and I commend you for doing it. Also, I think BZPower could do a better job of reporting new Bionicle Ideas projects (especially since the bonkle news has long since dried up). I also really disagree with your reasoning behind the idea. Nothing is wrong with us. Some fans just aren't interested those projects. Heck, I'm a Bionicle fan and only three of those projects interest me; and of those three, I'd probably only buy one of them. I probably wouldn't have even bought Sodoka's set. Sodoka's project was somewhat unique in that it combined: a great display piece a likely interesting building experience play value (including minifigs) multiple story years (so whether you got into Bionicle at the beginning, nearer the middle or at the end, you had at least one scene you'd feel nostalgia for) and just generally very good project presentation - in an ideal world, the presentation wouldn't matter, but sadly it does With all this, it's not hard to see why the community chose to support this project over others. No. The Lego Group is fully aware of Bionicle's continued fanbase and their loyalty. That doesn't mean they're going to give us an Ideas set just because we keep asking for them. G2 was not a sales success for Lego. When weighing up Ideas projects, they ultimately have to choose the projects which have the best chances of profit vs the costs and risks of working on them; which means Bionicle is already at a major disadvantage . Keep in mind that there have been at least four different 10,000-vote Zelda projects which have failed at the final review phase. One of those projects was based on BotW; aka the highest selling and most critically acclaimed Zelda game in recent memory, and that got turned down even after Lego had released Mario sets with Nintendo's blessing. (Not to mention the countless other projects that didn't even reach the 10,000 votes stage.) Now remember that the Bionicle fan community is dwarfed by the Zelda fan community alone; not to mention the wider Nintendo fan community. I know Zelda is not the best franchise to compare to Bionicle, but if a set based on a world-famous, critically acclaimed, millions-selling franchise is still considered a bad investment by Lego even after at least 4 bites of the cherry and a partnership with the company that owns said franchise.... what makes you think repeated 10,000-vote projects will change their mind about Bionicle? Again, Lego aren't going to forget the franchise which arguably saved them from bankruptcy in the 2000s. Keep in mind that Bionicle made a small cameo in The Lego Movie, and a Bionicle set even appeared in concept art for TLM2. I have no doubt that Lego will continue to reference Bionicle in future media. But I think the second part of your comment kind of proves my point above. It does take less than a minute to support an Ideas project. But it takes a far more significant financial commitment to actually buy the set when it comes out - or to even remember that the set is coming out at all. You're right; you're not promising to buy the set when you vote for an Ideas project. If Lego had 10,000 pre-orders for a new Bionicle set, they'd probably be a lot more inclined to release it. But votes aren't pre-orders; and 10,000 votes doesn't necessarily mean 10,000 sales when the set comes out. There was plenty of excitement in the community when we all caught wind of G2 happening. Sadly, for whatever reason, that excitement didn't lead to good sales numbers. Again, Lego has to pick the projects which offer the best chances of profit. - Finally, I want to pose a question to you. Does it really matter if we never get another official Bionicle set from Lego? We still have more than 10 years of sets, lore, games, promotional material and fan media. We still have parts to create our own MOCs, and the characters/settings to inspire our own art, stories and other creative media. We still have an engaged and loyal fan community; granted, it's a fair bit smaller than it was, but it's still fairly active. We even have some of the people from behind the scenes giving us new/unseen material from our favourite franchise; there's a whole series of canon contests happening right now on TTV, and Faber is even planning some sort of mysterious spiritual successor. And we have the memories of experiencing Bionicle and the Bionicle fan community in its heyday. Do we really need another set to validate all that?

Awesome! What's the plan for this when it's done? lifesize gali plz

It was apparently November 3rd 2008. http://www.bzpower.info/story.php?ID=3935

Cuz of the coronavirus, presumably! Lots of studios and publishers have been giving away games for free since the pandemic started.

So, in all the pictures I can find of Metru Nui's skyline, the coliseum is depicted as three segments next to each other. But in all the close-up pictures I can find of the Coliseum, it's always depicted as a single conical tower (although sometimes with small fins at the top). Has this ever been addressed? Obviously, Bionicle has a habit of depicting the same objects/locations differently in different media; especially when it comes to central locations like Kini-Nui and the Coliseum. But it seems weird that all the skyline versions of the Coliseum are pretty much the same, and all the close-up versions of the Coliseum are pretty much the same... but the skyline and close-up versions don't really match at all. Also, what is the skyline version of the Coliseum actually showing us? Are we seeing a central tower with two triangular pillars either side? Or are we seeing three triangular pillars and the one in the middle looks rectangular because we're seeing it from the front instead of the side? (And if that's the case, are there only three pillars or is there a fourth one hidden behind the central one?) EDIT: The closest answer I can find to the latter question is that there are four pillars, based on the images from this post by Faber.

I seem to remember thinking - based on a scene in the first comic - that the Toa put newly-found masks on top of their existing mask, even though I knew this wasn't possible with the actual sets. Still not sure if that's what the comic artist was going for or not? Is that canon? :S Not a misconception as such, but I remember seeing the Bohrok for the first time and being very confused that they didn't have masks. I thought the Krana were called 'Kranka' for at least a year or two. After seeing the whole population of Le-Koro getting krana'ed in the comics, I briefly thought they'd all turned evil and started wearing Krana intentionally. After seeing the Nuva for the first time (I think just Tahu and Onua), I initially thought they were sidekicks to the Toa and the pictures I saw made them look like they'd be smaller than the original Toa. I was quite disappointed when I realised they'd transformed the iconic Toa Mata. I didn't really understand the epilogue of Mask of Light at all. I thought they'd somehow awakened Mata Nui, and I had no idea we were getting a glimpse of Metru Nui at the end. (I don't think I was the only one!) I don't think I realised til about 2003 that Kini-Nui and Amaja-Nui were in the same place. I saw the 2006 set leaks back in the day and somehow got it into my head that Brutaka was wearing an actual Kakama, or a updated version of a Kakama (still can't remember which one of these I thought at the time!). I've gone back and looked at that prototype pic several times, and it doesn't match with my childhood memory of it at all. I also thought Axxon was a Toa for a while; again based on those protype pics. For a while I thought the Piraka microsite and marketing was all canon, and I was super upset about it. 2006 was a weird year for Bionicle's marketing, y'all.

this is peak early 2000s aesthetic Loads of great responses here, but my vote goes for the whole Piraka marketing campaign; especially the website. It was so odd that Lego spent five years maintaining absolutely flawless worldbuilding, only to throw it all in the bin with all sorts of incongruous real-world details. A police lineup? Cringy rap music? A bucking bronco? A couch? Less bizarre but still worth mentioning are the intro video from Bionicle Heroes where Balta addresses the player (all the camera movements and character animations are really uncomfortably weird), and the various test animations which were supposedly pitches by various animation studios for the Mask of Light movie (all pretty awesome, but I find it weird how little we know about them!). - -

I'd say the only thing that really gave me the creeps in Bionicle was the music that plays when inspecting the telescope in MNOG. It's surprisingly forebording and anxiety-inducing even listening to it today; like you shouldn't even be messing with the prophecies this thing can show you in the constellations. Plus the telescope interface itself feels very alien; too futuristic-looking to feel like it belongs on a primitive tropical island... There's also the Draw a Piraka and Barraki introduction thing on Bionicle.com, but they were more jump-scary than genuinely creepy.

Lego decided not to go ahead with the theme. https://brickshow.com/2019/12/lego-forma-81000-will-no-longer-be-launched-further

Umbra. Just weird, man.

From my vague memories of regularly visiting Ghost's website back in the day, I believe they made the animations in Maya.

Untitled spider tank Untitled rover for Febrovery Matilda (of Robot Wars fame) Gallery VIC-R 'The Officiator' (part of a collab with some other hot boys & gamer girls here's the gallery) (yo is there a way to centre-align images in blogs)